ding-dong...

..."Travis! Wake up! The doorbell rang!" As I elbowed Travis in the chest to no avail, he began sleep talking. Well shoot, I thought to myself. There ain't no way I'm getting up to answer it! It's 1:30 in the morning. #perksofbeingmarried

So I lay there quietly, until a few minutes later, ding-dong! Travis finally heard it and got out of bed. He took the longest amount of time to throw some pants on and finally made it to the front door. What do you know, whoever it was had been gone by then. Seriously, how long does it take to throw sweats on?! He noticed it was someone on a motorcycle that took off right when he got to the door. So he waited to see if they came back down the hill. Our neighborhood only has one way in, one way out, and we are at the beginning of it. Well, it never came back down. To add to Trav's confusion, it was his birthday the night before, so he'd had a few birthday drinks. So, after waiting and no one coming back down, he came back to bed.

Of course we just lay there because I couldn't fall back asleep. Who could it be? This is weird. About 5 minutes later, ding-dong. Wow! Travis was still awake. And he had clothes on! So he makes it to the door. I lay there waiting for a gun shot or loud scream. #bestwifeever I hear another man's voice and Travis goes to the mudroom to put shoes on and goes outside. Uhhhh. I hop out of bed, go potty, throw my robe on, and quietly leave the bedroom. I then tiptoe around to the front door and peek out the window. I see lights from a car but can't see what car. So, I walk around to the guest room to creepily peek out of that window.

Two cop cars?! What is going on? In our nice, quiet, new neighborhood? At our house?

Then I hear Travis opening the garage. So I creep back to the mudroom and try to hear through the door. And no, I couldn't just go outside and find out what's going on. Where's the fun in that!? So I hear talking but I have no idea what they are saying. So I go back to the guest room and see one of the police-persons taking a photo of Trav's truck. Hmm. Are we in trouble? No comprende.

After what seems like a long time, Travis finally comes back in. "Someone broke into my truck!" Well, technically they just opened it because someone likes to leave doors unlocked. Apparently the mysterious motorcycle man was our neighbor who was on his way home from work and noticed the truck doors wide open. After we didn't answer the door, he went home and found his vehicle broken into as well and called the cops. All they took from the truck was a $2.00 bill and a new unopened package of speakers worth about $100 but thankfully nothing was broken, they didn't try to enter the house (the side garage door was open! *shudder*) and the speakers are easily replaceable. Turns out this is the second time this has happened to the neighbors.

Things like this make me wonder: Is the person that did this desperate for money, bored, or just likes to hurt/scare other people? Why are there people who take away from others for their own personal gain? I will just never understand.

Basically the point of this story was to remember that our neighbor's sombrero got stolen and to tell you guys *cough:Travis:cough* to lock your stuff up.  People suck. Oh, and Travis sells fancy camera thingies and yes, he is going to be installing one.

Christmas in January...

...because I can. This is my blog and I'm allowed to post snapshots of my Christmas even though people have moved on. So if you are sick of shiny lights and cozy trees then you better just move along. Don't worry, though, I just have pretty pictures to share and not many words! We didn't decorate a whole lot considering we don't have many decorations yet, but we loved everything we did have. Our first Christmas in our home was the best I can remember. I can't wait to add more next year (after I go clearance shopping this year).

I bought this at a thrift store but you could make one yourself so easy!

Find my ruffled tree skirt tutorial here.

Aaaand that's pretty much it. Don't worry, we aren't Grinches, I just took the photos before all of our Christmas gifts were wrapped. Mostly because gifts weren't wrapped until the last possible minute. Oh, but I love how my house looks again without Christmas! Woo!

Saw It, Pinned It, Did It: {Ruffled Tree Skirt}

Holy 5 days until Christmas, Batman! I can't believe 2012 is almost over. It's been a whirlwind, that's for sure. I'm ready to spend the weekend with family and spend Christmas Day for the first time in our new home with my love and Riley. We decorated a little bit for Christmas and I will share the rest of our decor tomorrow, but now it is time to share my most recent DIY project with you! I totally stole was inspired by Katie's ruffled tree skirt project and I knew I had to make one for myself. Not only was I inspired by Katie's project, but by this pretty one I saw on Pinterest:

I obviously had to keep with the burlap and red theme. I think one made out of all burlap would be really cute, too! So, you will need:

• Fabric of choice. I used a little less than 2 yards of each.
• Glue gun and glue sticks. I needed a whole bunch.
• An old tree skirt for the base.
• Scissors.
• Patience and time.
• Wine.

1. Purchase awesome old tree skirt from the thrift store and debate keeping it as is. Everyone loves Tigger!
2. Cut strips of fabric about 2 inches wide. No need to measure, I just eyeballed it.
3. I found it easier to make my ruffles first and then glue that strip to the old tree skirt. Start at the outer edge and where the slit in the middle is and glue your strip to the skirt.
4. Make your ruffles as big or as little as you want. You can make your placement of the different fabrics as wide or thin as you want. There's no right or wrong way!

This isn't meant to be perfect so just have fun with it! It only takes a few hours if you do it all at once and yes, you will burn your fingers. I'm very happy with how it turned out and Travis likes it just as much! Oh, and good luck from keeping your critters off it while you work. #hesluckyhescute

No Riley, I'm not trying to do something productive...

I'm pretty obsessed with the Christmas lights and the background of city lights.  

Sorry there are more pictures of my dog than the actual process! Really, it is as easy as it looks! I can't wait to see what everyone else has been up to!

Saw It, Pinned It, Did It: {Yarn Wreath}

We finally got our house [a little] full of Christmas cheer and I wanted to make a few projects myself. I've been wanting to link up to Katie's and Steph's spectacular party since they started it and it was just the motivation I needed to stop pinning and start doing!

I've been seeing those yarn wrapped wreaths all over the interwebs and Pinterest for forever now. They look so easy but so cute and can easily be made for any reason/season. I like projects that I can do myself but take minimal supplies and not too much time. I'm a really picky pinner (is this in the dictionary as a verb yet?) and since there are so many variations out there, I pinned a simple one I liked and used it as inspiration to make one for our front door.

Pinned from here

So cute and simple, right?

So, first you'll have to gather supplies. I used:

*1 Styrofoam wreath, any size you want
*yarn, any color you want
*felt, a few different colors you want
*ribbon, twine or anything you have around for hanging
*glue gun
*scissors (make sure they're sharp)
*any other pretty things: twine, beads, etc. to jazz it up

See, cheap and easy (just the way I like it)(that's probably what he said), especially if you already have some of these things on hand!

....Drum-roll please....

Voila!

I didn't take pictures of the process because it really is so easy. I took my pretty red yarn, hot glued the end to the wreath and started wrapping. Round and round you go. I would hot glue about every 10 wrap-a-rounds just to hold it in place. If your yarn is nice and thick it will cover pretty well so you shouldn't have to go around more than once. This only took about a half an episode of 90210. There were a few sad spots, so I just randomly wrapped yarn around those spots, which also added a little bit of variation and texture. It won't be perfect but that's okay! Imperfection is better in this case.

Now, for those simple little flowers, all you have to do it cut some circles or strips out of felt. Make some bigger to add some excitement to that little wreath of yours. There are so many tutorials out there to make felt flowers, so I'm just going to direct you to the one I used. She spells out five different ways to make them, and seriously, once you read through them, you'll probably never have to refer back to it. It's that easy. Can you tell which ones I made?

After you make as many flowers as you want, start hot gluing them to the wreath in any arrangement that suits your fancy. I didn't make a specific plan or anything, I just started gluing one by one.It would be fun to add some pine tree sprigs or mistletoe to jazz it up a bit, too.

In my case, I used a pretty ribbon that came from my wine club vino to hang the wreath on the front door. I'm pretty smitten with how it turned out and I can't wait to make some more. These would make a great handmade gift, too! There are so many ways to personalize them. I can't wait to make one that can be hung anytime when there isn't a specific holiday coming up.

Now let's hope the crazy wind we have up on the hill won't blow this baby away....and next time maybe I won’t use such a baby sized wreath…

House Tour: Pre Move-In

The day has come! I’m finally getting around to posting pictures. I almost don’t want to tell you that I took these pictures the day we closed on the house ::cough, June 20, cough:: It is before we have anything moved in aka before we could make any messes. I plan on posting updates as we slowly get our house decorated. We have so many projects planned that we are so excited about. Anyways, enough of me rambling, I hope you enjoy the photo overload.

p.s. to get an idea of our floor plan, check out this post.
p.s.s. excuse the horrible photo quality. I’m still learning how to use my fancy-schmantsy camera…
p.s.s.s. picking colors from tiny swatches is probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do…

The basement with a cozy, corner gas fireplace. I spy Jess legs. I forgot to take a picture of the door. We have a walk-out basement. It’s to the left of me in the bottom picture. It’s amazing.

Our wet bar AKA where we spend most of our time. Ok, not really. But once we get bar stools? Really.

The extra bedrooms. The one on the left is our office and the right is our guest bedroom.

The main bath with the cutest little closet you ever did see.

The mud room off of the garage with a separate door to the laundry. Oh, and a happy darg.

Our dining table nook with a terrible view, and the nook looking towards the kitchen.

I. Love. My. Gas. Stove. and the chipped edge granite. and wine in boxes.

More terrible views. This is pretty much what we see from every window on the back/side of the house.

Our main living area which is open to the kitchen. This door will go out to our someday amazing deck. Yes, I picked green as an accent. Yes, I love it. Yes, I’m sure I’ll get sick of it someday.

Where the magic happens AKA beauty sleep. The closet is bigger than it appears. So is the room.

Our lovely master bath. Yes, the tub is as amazing as it looks. Yes, that is a thermometer for the heated floor. Yes, the mirror really is that huge. Yes, we got that last light covered. You were going to ask those questions, right?

A few notes:

* The paint is the same throughout the entire house with the exception of the accent wall. {Sherwin Williams – Nomadic Desert, Dried Thyme}. It was expensive to paint each room different, so we’ll do our own painting and save moolah. I wanted to stay pretty neutral so I could decorate with lots of color.
* I didn’t show you all of the closets. They are all amazing.
* There is more to the basement but it is unfinished. One room we use as our band room, one as the workout room, and we have a toilet in the unfinished bathroom. I can’t wait for that project! Seriously.

There ya have it! Our empty, clean, new home. It’s amazing how wonderful hanging pictures and setting up furniture looks. It makes it much more cozy. Anyone have any decorating tips/ideas? I need all the help I can get.

Bloggy Break Mission: Complete

...well, for the most part. Anyone still here?? ...crickets...??

I sure hope so! The you still being here part! I missed being here but I'm pretty much addicted to blogs so I stayed caught up reading all yours. Priorities! We are all moved back in after having to move out for the Parade of Homes. At the time, it was a huge pain in the rear, but now that it's all said and done, it was so totally worth it.

We had hundreds of people walk through our house while we had to stay somewhere else, but we got this beauty of a wet bar for payment.

We had it framed in the building of our house but were saving some dough by planning on finishing it ourselves. Well, they finished it way more fancy than we ever would have and saved us time and money! Woo! And in case you were wondering...Yes. We're lushes.

Am I the only one that thinks he looks like Bradley Cooper?

Anyways, I'm so excited to FINALLY post a reveal of our new home. No it's not decorated and will be a work in progress for awhile, but I'm excited to share our adventure in DIY and decorating. There's bound to be a lot of misadventure as well, but hey, that's what life is all about.

Oh, and if you're looking for something extremely delicious and easy to make for a party or guests, make this SKINNY Banana Cream Pie from SkinnyTaste. It was so easy and so good. I used Plain Greek yogurt in place of the sour cream and crushed up a Heath Bar to sprinkle over the top. You could use your favorite candy bar instead, but trust me, don't skip this step. It's only a few extra calories per slice and is so worth it!

 

You can even be like me and eat half the pie yourself while having a lazy day of a Nip/Tuck marathon with your movie-star husband. It was a great Sunday, indeed.

p.s. I got fancy and created some blog buttons! See them over there on the right? You likey? If you're interested in swapping, send me an email! I'd love to put your prettiness on my blog.

Legit.

That’s what things are about to get up in here. Blogging on the regular. I even jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. I haven’t quite figured it out yet. Damn you, social media. This little newbie blog has taken a little backburner while we:

• Stared in awe at our new love on the hill:

• Moved into the new house and battled this disaster of a storage unit [it looks small due to the lighting, but believe me when I say it goes back about 40,000 feet.
• Rested in between moving millions of boxes and enjoyed our amazing backyard view.

• Went to an amazing concert including Kimbra, Mayer Hawthorne, and Foster the People. They were all great live, but I think my fave was Mayer Hawthorne. Kimbra has got some pipes though!

• Basked in the heat wave that Idaho has been experiencing by taking a spin on ‘The Dreamsicle’:

All I know is that we’ve been so busy between moving, unpacking, working. softball, taking care of the darg, eating, drinking, exercising, sleeping, and squeezing in a little bit of fun, that I needed to just put this on pause until we got somewhat settled. Little did I know that it will probably be forever from now until that happens, so I’m making this a part of my routine as well! Life is crazy so let’s add some more!
I also had to wait until we had internet at the house. Almost two weeks without it! We didn’t miss it too much, but now that it’s back, I’m not sure how we lived without it! Netflix withdrawals for sure.

So, with that little update, I’m off. But I’ll be back. Sooner than a month. Maybe. Yay for summer adventures!

House Building Adventure: [Floor Plan and Lot]

Wow, this week has flown by! We are hoping to be closing on the new house early next week, so I wanted to get all caught up on this adventure! The juicy parts and pictures are coming! Yay! So, the last time I talked about how we decided between building a buying. Now the super fun stuff happens! Minus the whole waiting 6 months. That part stinks!

So, here’s the floor plan that we fell in love with and knew would be perfect for us! The main floor is 1505 square feet and the basement is 1476 square feet. For all of you that don’t feel like doing math, that makes it a total of 2981 square feet. Definitely not a mansion but perfect for our little family. Our basement will only be partially finished. Gotta keep my handy-man busy somehow!
Our Favorite Things(in no particular order):
  
   *The mudroom! I can’t wait to show you pictures of this room. It is located right when you walk in from the garage. There is the cutest little bench with the cutest little hooks. Almost my favorite room. I can’t wait to hang little jackets and gloves from it someday.
   *The bedroom locations. We really like how the master is separate from the extra bedrooms. I may change my mind when we have kids someday, but right now, I like the idea of having a little privacy and distance.
   *The master bathroom. A garden tub for me and a stand up shower for the both of us!
Obviously we love so many other things about this house, but I’ll share all the little details when I do the big reveal!
There are a few differences in our actual floor plan, though. This is the basic floor plan from the builder’s Cascade Floor Plan.
Main Floor:
 
   * Our layout is flipped, so the garage is on the left and the kitchen/bedrooms are on the right.
   * We have a third car garage. Not surprising given the husby likes his toys. Hubba hubba. Get your mind out of the gutter. Toys as in lawn mower, motorcycle, trailer, tools, etc etc. I am actually very excited to be able to park two cars in the garage and still have plenty of room! It is definitely worth the extra cost if you can afford it. It is pricey, though.
Basement:
   * We have a walk-out basement so there is a door that goes outside from the future recreation room.
   * We are having the family room finished downstairs which includes a wet bar and a gas fireplace. We like to drink and be cozy at the same time.
   * I just realized that there are some big differences in our layout compared to this one, so I’ll have to draw up how we laid ours out. Eventually.

That’s our view. Obviously not as fuzzy. Terrible picture. Clearly if the dog approves it is a done deal. One of our few requirements was that we had a view and an edge lot so we could have a walk-out basement. I love not feeling like you are in a dungeon! We have a view from every single window. Even the front ones. It is amazing. Here are our lot details:
   * 0.85 acres. It doesn’t seem like much, but when every other lot in this subdivision is 0.35 acres or less, we won’t complain.
   * We will never have a neighbor to the right of us. Right now, we have no neighbor to the left, but when we do, our lot is big enough that we will have plenty of space in between.
   * It cost a pretty penny extra. We didn’t have to buy our lot separately, the builder takes care of that. However, their house price includes a certain price lot. Ours was more, of course, so the purchase price went up. It wouldn’t be worth it to everyone, but to us, not being crammed in a tiny cul-de-sac is worth every penny.
I’m not going to broadcast what we’re building our home for, but if you’re in the market and are curious, leave me a comment or shoot me an email! I will say that now is the time to buy. If interest rates weren’t so low, there’s no way we could afford this. If you’re stuck renting and are at a point where you want to buy, take advantage RIGHT NOW!

Pretty sure he’s as excited as we are! I’ll be back tomorrow with another Friday’s Letters!