House Update!

So, it's been forever since I have blogged and I have all these videos of the house renovation so I figured now would be a fine time to post them :-)

We have lived here for 3 months now although it feels like MUCH longer... I can hardly remember that little cramped apartment anymore (and neither can May, she zips all around this house like she's lived here her whole life).

Our main accomplishment since we have moved in is the big ole living area renovation -- here are some video's tracking our progress :-)

Before:

Here are some before photos:

from the living room (with the fireplace) looking into the weird shaped part of the room and the eat in kitchen

Living room/Eat In Kitchen (this wall is no more!)

The formal dining/living room - the wall with the two air returns on it is gone now and it's open to the kitchen

After #1:

Here some photos I took right after the walls came down:

Taken from the same spot as the first before photo above - standing in the living room looking at what used to be the weird part of the living room and the eat in kitchen...

There used to be a wall in the middle of this photo! Now we can see all the way to the front of the house... feels about a million times bigger!

Looking at the formal living/dining room - the wall is gone!

 After #2:

Chris added some of his carpentry handy work to give the rooms a little bit of separation while leaving it very open feeling still (oh and we painted, got a new french door in the back and a new fridge!)

No after-after photos... you get the idea from the video, I think :-)

I also have done a few DIY projects around here -- I'm not very good at DIY stuff but I really love painting things! So, we don't have very nice things so it's OK if I mess it up -- here are a few of the projects I have done...

More lamp makeovers -- man, I love a good lamp makeover! :)

You may remember this little number I did a while back -- old thrift store lamp that I originally painted blue, I can't find a good photo of the blue but here is a before:

I repainted it marigold yellow and found this AWESOMELY perfect shade to go with it at Target. (also, how cute is my fly garden ornament? I need to make my garden pretty before I put it in the yard though):

And here is another lamp that I painted the same color that sits on our side table - I forgot to take a before photo but it  would be similar to the one above -- brass (and wood, classy):

I decided, about two days before company was arriving, that I needed to do some work in the guest room... first up was to find a dresser to put in there.  I remembered that my dad still had some of our super old childhood dressers in his basement, so I sent Chris over to pick one up and I painted up using leftover paint samples from when I couldn't decide on a paint color for the living room.  And, thanks to my good friend Ashley, I learned how to make my very own chalk paint which made for a nice finish.  I am not completely satisfied with the color and I will probably redo it someday but I like it enough for now!  (and, thanks to the magic of chalk paint, I only needed one cup of paint to cover the WHOLE dresser... insane.)

Before:

After:

I wanted to replace the knobs with some nicer one's but they are super-glued on (thanks, mom!) so I just painted them white with the rest of the drawers :)

And now, on to the rest of the guest room make over -- it's still a work in progress but it's WAY better than it started! Again, about 2 days before company was arriving, I decided that it NEEDED to be painted -- we had leftover paint from the living room so I just went for it.  Chris got home from work one day and I was in there priming my heart out -- thank goodness for nap time! :-)

Before:

Obviously I had moved things around to take the photo already but you get the idea... blue. paint. everywhere. (yes, even inside the closets -- yes, there are two closets -- no, there are no closet doors... on any closet in this house... we have no idea why)

 

And After:

It's hard to tell but the walls are now grayish (Sherwin Williams, Perfect Greige), not inside the closets though, that felt like too much work so they are still blue, ick. -- I need to hang the curtains and get some matching side tables, and find some closet doors, and organize the desk and replace the carpet... we'll get there. :-)

And here's the newly painted dresser in the guest room -- It serves it's purpose, we needed somewhere for our guests to be able to put things (my poor mother in law was hanging her jewelry on an old bed frame we were storing in there last time she came to visit) and I wanted our guests to feel like we care, and we tried... so, mission accomplished.  On another note, check out that carpet, pretty nice, eh? ick.

OK, that's all for now! I'm hoping to have some new DIY stuff done soon (painting every piece of furniture in our living room, finishing up the bedding for the master bedroom and painting the walls)... plus we have a list a hundred miles long of house projects!

And here's an obligatory picture of my darling little boo boo, we finally took an updated family photo (it had only been about 7 months since the last one)... 

Lil Boo Boo Turns ONE!

My sweet little darling turned one a few weeks ago.  I remember, before having a baby of my own, thinking that one year olds were super grown up... and thinking that parents of one year olds were like old pro's... they've had a baby for a whole year so they've got it down.  Does anyone else feel (or remember feeling) this way?  It feels like we just brought her home from the hospital, AND like she'll turn 15 tomorrow - all at the same time.

Here she is, 5 days old! (photo courtesy of Heather Hart Photography)

 

 

 

And here she is at her first birthday party being adorable...

Anyways, my last post was all about what May is up to these days so I'll cut to the chase here... just wanted to share a bit about May's first bday bash because I and my army of amazing family and friends worked really hard on the all the decorations and such and I think it all turned out pretty cute.

So, the theme wasn't anything specific.. started out as "rainbows and polka-dots" and changed to "a custom rainbow and more balloons than any one household should ever contain."

My awesome husband and father in law spent the night before the party blowing up roughly 400 balloons... that might be an exaggeration but it was alot of balloons. May got to wake up on party day to a living room full of balloons, she got a kick out of it.

Lynnette came over early on Saturday morning and worked tirelessly for HOURS putting together this amazing balloon banner (that I left up for a week after the party) and a bunch of balloon bundles -- this was all done using a needle and thread and ribbon - she's amazing.  I owe pinterest for this idea... (please disregard the missing crown molding and unfinished carpentry in the backgrounds of all these photos... we are under construction)

Besides the balloon banner, the monthly photos was my very favorite decoration... I put each of the monthly photos I have taken of her in frames and put them on the mantel.  Then I put a block with the number of the corresponding month in front of each photo.  If I would have thought of this more than two hours before the party I probably would have painted the frames to match the party because I am sort of OCD sometimes. It turned out pretty cute and, I admit, it's still up. 

My mother in law and I prepared food all day long, nothing fancy but it sure was pretty!  We made some sloppy joe's (they weren't pretty), a veggie tray, a fruit tray, deviled eggs and a few different desserts.

I ordered cupcakes from my baker/cake decorator friend Melanie, they were so pretty!

We spent about two hours making these AMAZINGLY awesome rainbow rice krispie treats (another pinterest find!) -- only we did them in our custom rainbow colors (red, orange, yellow, turquoise, pink and purple).  These were a labor of love but totally worth it, they turned out awesome.

My sister in law whipped up this awesome little carrot cake for May -- she had a chocolate cake the previous weekend for a little photo shoot and she did not like it one bit, so we toned it down a bit for the party and I think she liked it!

These are May's birthday bloomers that she wore whilst eating her cake... thanks Gumby (sorry we didn't get a better photo of them)!

We blew up some extra balloons so the kids could run around like crazy people in the back yard with them... it was a big hit! And I should mention that it was a rainy cold miserable day and then the clouds parted and the sun came out just in time for the party to start! Thank goodness because there were about 70 people at this crazy shindig and we needed the outdoor space! I cannot imagine if all the kids had been inside the house... yikes.

This is my nephew Jack, isn't he adorable? Yeah, he is.

 

 May got this hilarious little tiny chair and she LOVES it... doesn't she look relaxed? :-)

 

 A good time was had by all!

A perfect year.

Woah, it's been a while since I've blogged. I've thought about it, I swear... just no time lately! We moved, we renovated, we painted, we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned, May turned one, we had a HUGE party and this was all within one month.  Yikes.

So, for today I'm going to write a bit about my little boo boo and how magical she is :-)... May turned one on March 25th.  I simply canNOT believe how quickly this year went by and how much she has changed (despite all my mom-friend's warnings that this would happen). 

She is definitely turning into a little toddler with a mind of her own! She knows what she wants, which is fun for everyone, as you can imagine.  Here's a little listy-loo of all the fun happening around here..

May is...

• Cruising the furniture like crazy
• Crawling faster than lightening
• Standing by herself for long periods of time
• Taking a random step here and there (but no interest in using this as her primary mode of transportation just yet, we're OK with that)
• Chatting up a storm - she has her own language, it sounds like gibberish but I know she has lots to say!
• Dancing like a little crazy person, man she LOVES music
• Hugging her baby dolls (you cannot imagine the cuteness)
• Playing very well by herself, she's turning into quite the independent little lady
• Smiling suspiciously when we tell her "no" -- this starts younger than I realized
• Pointing to her nose, head, hair and belly button when we ask her where they are 
• Only drinking her milk from a sippy cup... no more bottles!
• Learning sign language -- so far she knows:
• Milk
• More -- which looks more like clapping
• All done -- which she only does on occasion and it's never the right occasion, life will be easier when she gets this down...
• Saying a handful of words:
• Zipper (yes, this was her official first word besides dada) - pronounced "Zizaaaaa" and said in an almost whisper, it's hilarious
• Dada - she FOR SURE knows that this word refers to Chris - she says it when he walks in the room and looks for him when I say "Dada's home!"
• Light - this is one of her faves, she points to the ceiling (or the sun, on occassion) and says "Light" with astounding clarity
• Sock - she loves socks
• Eyes - she says this often, not sure she really knows what she's talking about though
• Doggie - prounced "DADA!!" -- if you aren't screaming then you aren't saying it right -- only reason I know that this is "doggie" is because she says it while pointing at a dog, so that makes it pretty clear.
• Diaper - prounced "dada" -- again, only said in regards to diaper changes so I guess she knows what she's talking about
• Booger -- I have no idea how to write this one out phonetically... she starts mumbling about boogers when she see's the bulb syringe coming.  I might be responsible for her teaching her this word, maybe.
• Night Night - Pronounced "nah nah" - it's very cute :-)
• Up - no explanation needed there
• HI!
• Mama - she just says this randomly and never ever in regards to me.... but it's OK, I'm not taking it personally... I swear.
• If I tell her to call daddy on one of her many phones she puts the phone to her ear and says "HA DA!" so cute.
• I think there are more but I can't think of them :-)

 That's all for now! Here are some pics for your viewing pleasure.  I'll post soon all about May's 1st Bday bash and about the house!

somebody looooves spaghetti!

11 month photo!

she's in the roller derby. obviously.

12 month photo!

Oh yeah, we're moving... again.

I move about every 8 months or so.  At least that's what it feels like.  I did a quick count in my head the other day and this upcoming move will be my 11th move since graduating from college in 2002.  Yes, my ELEVENTH MOVE in 10 years.  That is ridiculous.  This will be the 5th place that Chris and I will live in together in our 4 years of marriage and May's 3rd home.  She's not even one year old yet and this will be her THIRD home.  Like I said, that is ridiculous.

Now, onto the good news.  We are buying a house! SO, if everything continues to go smoothly... we shouldn't be moving again for a very very very long time (insert giant deep cleansing breath here).  We found a precious ranch with a finished basement in Gurnee.  I spent my entire non-adult life in Gurnee and Chris spent a large part of his childhood there as well.  I am a little bit more excited about moving back "home" than he is though.  Where we live now is about 2 minutes from Gurnee but this is different.  I feel like we're coming home. Is that weird? Well, it is what it is.

Here are some pics of the new place.  Obviously, these are from the real estate listing.  I canNOT wait to start posting some after pics of all the projects we will be doing!

The outside... I hate that giant tree but I'm sure it will be there for years to come.  I think we'll be doing alot of landscaping and painting...

The family room... LOVE the gas fireplace and the hardwood floors (although it will be funny to watch May slipping and sliding around since she used to carpet)

Another view of the family room -- the opening to the right of the fireplace goes to the bedrooms. 

The Kitchen... A very amazing person is GIVING us a stainless steel fridge and oven... and I totally plan on painting the kitchen cabinets (one day when I have like, a month with no other plans and May has become completely self sufficient).  I LOVE the window above the sink.  I've always wanted that... I spend so much time standing at the sink, I love that I'll have a nice view of our back yard :-)

This is actually a formal living room in the front of the house but the previous owners obviously used it as a dining room.  It's oddly cut off from the rest of the house though so the entire wall to the right is coming down which will open it up to the kitchen eating area (below) and the family room.

This is the eating area in the kitchen - the wall with the built in shelves will be coming down and it will open up to the formal living room -- the wall to the left is also coming down and will open up to the family room.

This is the AMAZING shower in the master bath.  It has multiple sprayers.  I might not ever get out.

This is the time capsule basement... I'm not-so-secretly in love with the wood paneling and the leather padded bar.  The door in the back there leads to the laundry room and a storage area -- the storage area is going to becoming a 4th bedroom for the parents.  My dad is giving us a giant sectional and giant TV for the basement.  We're pretty stoked. (Well, I'm pretty stoked because I don't have to get those two giant items out of my dad's basement and into our basement.)

So, that's everything! The projects mentioned with the walls coming down will be happening on our second weekend living here.  My darling husband, the carpenter, is going to use his one weekend off to work on our home all weekend.  He's so excited to finally get to do work on his own home.

And, I almost forgot to mention that this house is on a cul de sac in a REAL neighborhood and there is a little playground at the end of the cul de sac! Yay!

Here's a picture of May... just because.

Then and Now...

Today is our 4th wedding anniversary.  I'm pretty sure that our wedding was the funnest wedding ever... maybe because I was the one who got married that day... so, that made it extra fun for me.

Our colors were black and white... it was a winter wedding so no other color made sense to me at the time... plus, I had this dark, romantic vision in my head. My bridesmaids chose their own black dresses (this was the BEST decision ever by the way).  

I felt like a princess in my giant pick up skirt and Chris looked dashing in his tux! 

The sanctuary was dimly lit and there were candles everywhere... ugh, so romantic! 

There were FOUR toasts which was probably a bit much to anyone attending the wedding but was SO fun for Chris and I.  To hear our closest friends share their stories and well-wishes for us was the perfect way to kick off our reception. We had our bridal party and their dates at a big giant square head table.  Thinking back, this was probably kind of awkward for the bridal party's dates but it was SO fun to have everyone at this big giant table, and I have gone to one to many weddings "alone" because Chris was a groomsmen, so we just went for it! :-)

Our first dance was to Van Morrison's "I'll Be Your Lover Too" -- Chris picked the song and my favorite line was, "I'll be your king and you'll be my queen and I'll be your lover, too."

The DJ was awesome and the dance floor was full all night... so so much dancing!

 AND, here we are now... a little chubbier but so happy to be living life together. :-)