Making our staircase grand

Since our house was new construction, pretty much everything is white, tan, and cream until we decide to paint ourselves. So far, the only room we've painted is the kitchen and that was such a disaster that we ended up having to hire someone to come over and fix it. Needless to say we have been afraid to get back on the proverbial horse.

I have so many plans for different rooms, but the stairwell is too tall/high for us to ever consider painting so I knew if we were going to take it out of bland vanilla-ville then we'd have to paint the banisters. So, we were off to Lowes and looked at a bunch of swatches and ended up going with Dark Granite by Olympic.

Then we came home and got to work and were pleasantly surprised that it was coming out MUCH better than the kitchen disaster of 2012. 

Halfway through:

As we slaved away, someone snoozed in the corner:

*Rough life*

Before pic:

After pic:

I love how it came out and am so proud of us for not needing to hire someone to come over and fix it! Score one for us!

House

Continue Reading →

Shenanigans Catch Up

Life has been crazy lately to say the least... I'm doing better than I was a week ago, but I definitely still have my weepy moments. Plus I came down with a nasty head and chest cold a few days ago which isn't making positive thoughts any easier :-P

I'm trying to get back to a normal "routine" but I feel weird trying to move on and keep going. H told me I need to just let myself continue to grieve instead of trying to keep myself busy all the time to keep my mind off things. So, I've been trying to relax some more especially with being sick this past weekend blahhh.. I missed out on our friend's cousin performing at City Walk last week and this weekend missed a b-day celebration at the beach. I need time to get over this nasty cold and I'm still struggling with trying to move on.

Now it's time to play catch up of the last 2 weeks :)

~ H won several rounds of corn hole at our neighbor's BBQ last week

~ Bottomless mimosas at brunch

~ Food and mimosa overload.. but we enjoyed every bite and sip :)

~ Neighborhood fellas

~ Me and H looking summery

~ Real Housewives of Orange County 100th episode special on the plane... LOVE Jet Blue!

~ Champagne and chocolate goodness while we watched our wedding video on our anniversary

~ DELISH pulled chicken salad at Smokey Bones for lunch on Saturday before running errands. We had a $20 credit on our Smokey Bones points card, plus H had a coupon for 1/2 off any burger. With drinks and food our bill was only $7 yes please!

~ Pretty flowers to cheer me up and menthol throat spray that hasn't left my side for days.

I took advantage of the $8 sundress sale at ON last weekend, and picked up some cute sundresses that are super comfy. 

Jersey Tank Dress

Knotted Back Tank Dress

I also picked up these sandals at Target *my happy place* which are on sale for only $20.98

Sunday, we worked on the house a little bit and finally put the window film in the panels on the sides of our front door. We didn't like how you can see right in with zero privacy and seriously considered replacing the glass until several of our neighbors showed us that they just applied window film that looks like glass on theirs which is MUCH cheaper. 

Before:

After:

Next up on the list is more painting :)

Linkin' up with Sami for Weekend Shenanigans, hop on over and share your weekend with us :)

House Old Navy

Continue Reading →

Disney Weekend Shenanigans

Before this weekend, I thought I already loved Disney... but I had never been to Animal Kingdom so my love for Disney now has far surpassed my previous feelings :)

We went on the Kilimanjaro Safari (my fav!), walked the trails around the base of the Tree of Life, conquered Expedition Everest *awesome coaster*, and rode Kali River Rapids and of course got soaked! Such an amazing day and I can't wait to go back!

I was armed in a comfy outfit and my sparkly mouse ears ready to see the Mickey approved animals

After our trip to Animal Kingdom, H reminded me that I still had our Dave & Busters gift card from Christmas so we decided to take advantage of it. We stopped for some food and beers and of course played some games and got super competitive.


In other news.. construction finally began on our pool! We got home from work on Friday, and saw that they had removed the grass in our backyard. This made a certain furry friend happy... Roxy went nuts and was romping around in the dirt without a care in the world. So, she went from being a happy care-free filthy doggy to an upset because I'm getting a bath doggy.

~ No more grass!

~ Doggy getting a much-needed bath after a romp in the dirt

~ Thinking she had an escape route from said bath

~ Trying to hold on against the air hockey champ

~ 2 to 7! Wow how can I put "I told ya so!"

~ Much needed refresher after a long exhausting day

~ Frame work for our pool

~ Soothing bubble bath after a long day of walking

~ Practice what you preach! I preach practicing safe sun, but I hate to admit that I did not at Animal Kingdom and ended up pretty pink that night :(

~ NOTW are Essie's Fiji

~ I got a much needed pedicure on Friday after work and of course I went sparkly :)

Linkin' up with Sami for Weekend Shenangians, hop on over and join us! :)

Disney World Essie House

Continue Reading →

Weekend Shopping Shennanigans

Sunday nights are the absolute worst! Can I get an a-men?! As I sit here recapping my weekend I'm in awe again of how quickly they always seem to fly by. But I love reflecting back on the times that make me who I am.

Friday H and I were boring and stayed in and had happy hour at home again which is becoming our favorite Friday evening tradition. Our patio, our food, our booze mixed just right, firepit, H, and our doggy is perfection to me.

Saturday my original plan was to go to the beach, but we did a crap ton of shopping for the house. You know you've done some damage when your feet are aaaaaching. It was a gorgeous day out so we went down to one of my favorite areas for some shopping and an amazing lunch.

We enjoyed lunch outside and had the most amazing bruschetta *my favorite app* and antipasto salad topped off with a yummy Sangria.

Next, we stopped in Pottery Barn to use an old gift card. I of course was drawn right to the candles and accessories but this beautiful vase caught my eye in the color scheme we've been using for our living room. 

~ Vase for our living room once our new furniture comes in (it's more of a light blue, not sure why it photographed green)

~ I went to Sephora for the first time in since December which is huge for me! Stocked up on foundation and bronzer. 

~ Picked up a copy of Peter Pan to add to our Disney collection

I've been wanting to put a big clock up over the archway from the living room into the dining room and I picked up this one and love that it's a mix of roman numerals and regular numbers. Now all that's missing in the living room are our chairs. They're en route and I'll post pics once they're assembled and the room is complete... with a real camera so they're not grainy iphone pics :-P

My favorite buy of the weekend was of course the portrait of the new Yankee Stadium. I added it to our game room to go with all of H's team stuff. I'm so glad I finally have a place in there :)

Oooh and I finally started framing some of our vacation pics that come in those pesky 6x8 prints but you can never find a frame for them. So, I stuck them in 8x10 frames with a black background which worked out great. 

Linkin' up with the awesome Sami for Weekend Shenanigans. Come join us and tell us about your weekend :)

Home Decor House

Continue Reading →

Weekend Wrap Up

Another one bites the dust... yep that's how I feel every week *sigh*

H and I decided to skip happy hour on Friday and went to Target in search of Christmas decorations for our upcoming 1st annual Christmas party here at the house. I kinda want to go all out, so this is probably going to get dangerous! Their Christmas section is up and running but it's not all out yet since there are still several aisles devoted to the leftover Halloween stuff that's now on clearance. *LOVE Target*

Saturday, we went to our friend's housewarming party at their beautiful new home.

I made these little signs for the food so that the hostess wouldn't be bothered all night with people asking her what was what. Everyone thought it was a Pinterest idea, but nope it's just a Kate idea :)

She did a great job on the food, everything was delish! My favorite was how she displayed the napkins and silverware in paint chips she picked up at Home Depot. 

Good times with good friends

Is it Christmas already? Haha.. our pants looked like Christmas colors together. Mine are from Target and she said hers were from Express in case you're looking for a pair of great fitting colored skinnies ;)

The happy couple in their beautiful new home

Today, H and I worked on the house a little. We decided the living room looked really nak-ee and was past due to get some curtains. 

Still looks pretty nak-ee

Much better! Of course we got the rods and the curtains at Target.. where else? :-P

House

Continue Reading →

Home Depot Lovin' Weekend

I was feeling like poopy on a stick yesterday, but I got a great night's sleep last night and woke up this morning feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the house projects H and I had planned for this weekend.

We went to Home Depot and picked up the coach lights for our garage. We paid for the pre-wiring when the house was built last spring, but had never gotten around to buying the lights. At $60 a piece, they weren't a priority since we needed 3 of them and had other things we were concentrating on. But check out these beauties! They're energy star rated and have timers and motion sensors.

Of course we used energy saver light bulbs too ;0)

We wrestled with them for a while, and one of our neighbors came by to help H with the 3rd one, but we did it and they look great!

Someone wanted to come outside and help, but kept bolting out into the street when a car would drive by so her hay-day was over.

We also picked up some paint chips for the kitchen and our master bedroom since it's high time for some extra color in here. The entire interior of the house was painted in a color called "Sprite" which is basically a yellowish cream, and has white trim on all the baseboards and doorways. It's nice, but it's the ENTIRE house! 

For the kitchen, we are going for a maroonish red to go with the rest of our color scheme we've got going on which is black, stainless steel, and maroon like my Gloss Cinnamon Kitchen Aid.. soooo purty! 

These are the 3 we narrowed it down to at the store, but we're leaning towards the center one the most which is Behr's Cherry Cobbler. Paint sounding yummy enough to eat!

For our bedroom, I would like a nice gray to go with our black furniture, and H would like yellow. So, we picked up a bunch of yellowish and grayish paint chips to see what we liked best.

The grays

The yellows

One of my favorite yellows is Crisp Ginger Ale

Some of our favorite grays

We have most likely narrowed it down to a grayish color since we discovered that the yellows look too similar to what's already on our walls and we're looking for something different that will pop with our tray ceiling.

Any suggestions for either room?

We also picked up a new lamp for H's bedside table since he's had 2 bite the dust admist our moves and I picked up some things to help organize my bathroom vanity.

Exhibit A:

Yes, something must be done! Stay tuned... 

House

Continue Reading →

Weekend Decorating

So sad to see another beautiful weekend come to an end, but H and I got to relax as we didn't have much going on compared to the last several weekends. We did a lot of cleaning and decorating of our new home. We realized we still didn't have much hanging up on the walls and had a ton of stuff in boxes still, so we went through them and starting taking more things out and getting creative ideas of what we'll be doing with the empty rooms.

We recently ordered this sofa table from Overstock.com to go behind the couch in the family room

We ordered it last Sunday and it arrived on Thursday. Super quick shipping and it was also really easy to assemble. As of right now, we've put a candle (candle and candle plate from Pottery Barn), our wedding invitation frame (from Kate Spade), and a vase of fake roses. The flowers are from Walmart and the stones we're using as a filler are from Ikea. 

I'm also really excited that I was able to get the 8x10 Kate Spade frame from Bed, Bath, & Beyond on sale from $99 to $44. Then on top of that I used a 20% off coupon for our entire purchase which means I only paid $35 for a $99 frame! Jackpot! The Kate Spade June Lane line is what we got for our wedding china, so I was so happy to be able to match our wedding invitation frame and 8x10 frame to our china pattern. It's a truly beautiful set and great quality.

This is our Kate Spade June Lane china and stemware set:

So pretty! Hope you all had a great weekend and were able to enjoy some beautiful weather. H and I will be spending the remainder of the evening watching football and possibly peeking in on all the shows I have the DVR set to record. I'm excited about the new show Pan Am that airs tonight at 10:00. 

House Kate Spade

Continue Reading →

Loooooong Weekend

Actually the weekend went by too quick as usual, but it was jam packed with lots of great things.

We closed on our house! But.... we didn't even have a chance to really enjoy it because after closing, we had to drive up to South Carolina for the night for my brother's marine graduation the next morning.

My brother's platoon marching out

Me and my little brother the marine!

It's amazing how much he's changed, but how much he's still my little brother. So proud of him!

One of my friends from work watched Roxy for us when we went up to SC for the night. She's never tried Skinny Girl Margaritas so I got her a bottle to try out as a thank you.

New pics of the house to come once we're more settled and I'm not as exhausted :-P

Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend!

House Skinny Girl Margarita

Continue Reading →