Goodbye Christmas. Hello 2010!

We decided to take down all of our Christmas decorations today. Surprisingly, it only took about an hour. Since we started decorating as soon as we moved in, it feels like our house is less moved in than it was the first week we were here! We have a huge void in one of our arches in the living room. The only thing in that huge nook is an electrical outlet! So I have no idea what to do with that space. Seriously, we need help guys! Give me some ideas pretty please!

On another note, it's almost 2010! I have mixed feelings about 2009. Personally, and as a married unit, we had a pretty great year. We adopted the sweetest puppy a person could ever hope for and we bought our first home. Oh yeah, and I got a job as a teacher this year! For some of our friends though, it has been the worst year of their lives. Here's to wishing everybody the best year in 2010! Happy New Year!



View of most of the living room. Two equal arches on both sides of the fireplace. New sectional (see previous posts) will replace ugly bachelor couches soon! I'm not really a fan of that bookcase against the wall on the left either. Excuse the mess... although the Christmas decor is packed, it's not yet in the garage!


View from the front door. Arch is on the left. Pardon the poor quality of the pictures -- I was playing around with the shutter speed.

Daily To Do List (Courtesy of Saverchic)

Yep, I'm inspired. I think this blog is my long lost twin (and yes, I am STILL convinced I have one out there). She is a teacher, has a new house, is a newlywed (hey, it's only been two years for us!) and loves to create new blogs (remember P365 anyone?).

I am totally going to "borrow" her daily to-do lists. It's awesome! If I can break my wifely dutiful blah blah chores into smaller chunks I can totally keep a clean house. Right? RIGHT!?

So, if you need motivation to clean or ideas for what to do, I highly recommend checking Saverchic's blog out.

(P.S. I found you on the nest if you're wondering why this strange girl is raving about your blog!)

A couple of honey do projects...

"OMG that's a big hole... that's a big hole..." was all I heard as Zac emerged from the bathroom. Here's some obliterated dry wall.


Zac, smile! But, this is what I got...


"What? You're supposed to be helping me, not taking pictures." Boo!


Tilty things for the cabinet faux drawers. I had these in the house I grew up in and thought, "super easy project!" I was wrong. Way wrong.

Goose's first Christmas!

It was our baby's first Christmas!!

Christmas with the Simons! (All of us!)

Oops for not getting pictures of the whole family! Sadly, I was pooped and passed out in my snuggie shortly after lunch. Unfortunately, family was still here! Our dining room furniture still hasn't made it over here yet, so we dined in the breakfast room. Thanks to Dianna (Mom Simons) for the C&B Nuit settings... it only took four years* but now we have enough for us to eat on!







*Apparently before we were even engaged I created a C&B registry. Shortly before getting married (which was about two years after creating the faux registry) we received one place setting in the mail and were super confused. It's now a running joke and every Christmas Dianna gets us one more setting. In four years we can have both sides of the family over for dinner!!

Cedar Park Town Center

A few pictures of where we live! Random pictures of our community as well as some of the models. (Photos courtesy of DR Horton)

charliehooper07 - Inspiration

charliehooper07 - Inspiration
An amazing collection of inspiration pictures found on charliehooper07's (fellow nestie) blog.
(P.S. if I don't blog about it I'll probably never remember how to find her site again!)

Christmas with the Jones'!!

We got Papa a digital picture frame so he can see his family whenever he wants. I spent hours on Christmas Eve uploading pictures from my parents' computer. Then we wrapped it up in the original packaging. Perfect!


I totally surprised Zac with a new LCD tv for the bathroom! The look on his face was priceless when he saw it. Giving is SO much better than receiving!


Again, I totally rock at surprises. After all the gifts were unwrapped we asked Megan (a la A Christmas Story style) if she had a good Christmas and if she was happy with all of her gifts. We told her to go to the office because there was one more gift left. This is her discovering she in fact DID get a PS3. She just LOVES having her picture taken so this shot captures her perfectly.


I hate Tinkerball with a PASSION. Megan got me Tinkerball wrapping paper. The hideous look on my face should give an accurate description of how I felt.

Score one for Zac!

Zac is getting his mancave all set up. His wonderful dad decided to take us shopping at IKEA for a couch for his room. We fell in love with this one for two reasons: one, it was on sale BIG time at only $349 and two, we can cuddle on it while watching movies.
So, this is what we ended up with, the KRAMFORS sofa in an orange-red (I forgot the "official" color's name.)
Next step, dark gray paint on the walls, black curtains to block out light, and hang our original art pieces. Any other suggestions? *PS it was Zac's request to stick the chaise out like that. Pick your battles, right? ;)

ANDY WARHOL - 9J -- Rug Decor Online Store

ANDY WARHOL - 9J -- Rug Decor Online Store

CASUAL LIVING-4340 -- Rug Decor Online Store

CASUAL LIVING-4340 -- Rug Decor Online Store

BOMBAY - 003 -- Rug Decor Online Store

BOMBAY - 003 -- Rug Decor Online Store

KIBATSU - 007 -- Rug Decor Online Store

KIBATSU - 007 -- Rug Decor Online Store

ASHTON - 006 -- Rug Decor Online Store

ASHTON - 006 -- Rug Decor Online Store
Thinking about this rug with the sectional in the previous post. I'm not sure if it will tie the colors together very well. Perhaps I should keep looking...

Furniture shopping = not fun anymore

I'm so sick of shopping for furniture!! It seems like we've been everywhere and have yet to buy a thing. Is it because I'm just THAT picky!? We found one bed and one sectional that we absolutely loved at Havertys, but it seems that every other place we go to has inferior furniture (Rooms to go, Lacks, Star, Thomasville, World Market, Roomstore, mom & pop places, etc.). Today we went to Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware to get some design ideas and holy moly, if I could decorate my house with their things I think we'd end up spending more on furniture than our entire house!!

I've found that every piece of furniture we see we are comparing to Havertys. Is that our sign? Should we just take the plunge and buy what we love instead of settling for meh stuff?

(By the way, here's a picture of the couch we want...)

(and... the bed)

Decorating sorrows, oh my!

I used to think of myself as an avid decorator who knew the current trends and could put a room together if I had the chance. So why is it that now that Zac and I own a home, OUR home that we can do WHATEVER we want to it, I have absolutely NO idea how to decorate. I think realizing that I can't have it all right now like I'm used to has put a damper on things. It's just not like that on HGTV... in thirty to sixty minutes you have complete home makeovers. Why isn't it that easy in real life!?

I honestly don't even know where to start. Big things? Little things? Whole house? One room? Big room to start? Little room to start? Most important/lived in room or least? I always wanted to be an interior designer so maybe it's time I go to school for it. (Just kidding! I could never leave my babies!) In the meantime I will continue pouring (pouring? poring? hmm...) over home decorating magazines for some inspiration.

Any ideas are much appreciated! Or at the very least, may I have some direction for Christmas decorating? Sadly, I have to add on a budget this year. (Look Dad, I said budget! I'm all grown up!)

Deck the Halls! falalalala....

I love decorating for Christmas. I have to make up for last year when I had no motivation since we were in an apartment. Plus, it's Goose's first Christmas so it has to be special! Oh, and the new house is a pretty good reason to go all out, too. ;) We debated getting a new tree this year since our tree was bought five years ago when we lived in an 800 sq. ft. apartment with hardly any room for a tree. We ultimately decided to keep this one and use the potentially $250 for LED lights, bills, and other Christmas decorations for the house. I dragged out the DSLR for the first time in months just for the occasion.

New furniture!

After stopping by a family friend's house to look at dining room furniture, we were on a mission to find at least one piece for the new house. Those people are getting back to us with a price (but considering they only paid $200 originally for the table, I think we'll go with them as I'm sure they will give us a great deal!) so in the meantime we went to Rooms to Go (blah) and World Market (a disappointment with hardly anything on the floor). We were headed home when I mentioned a place in our new hometown, Austin Consignment Furniture in Cedar Park. Wow is all I have to say. We loved the assortment of furniture and left with two saddle bar stools and a wooden entry hall table for only $199. Luckily for us, they were having a 15% off sale today. Pictures to come!

Zac's 30th Birthday!!!!!!

Zac turned 30 today! He made me promise to have a low key birthday so I did as he wished. For breakfast, I made him a 3 and a 0 out of pancakes with bacon on the side. He wanted to find a Christmas tree so out we went on an adventure. Hobby Lobby, Hemispheres, Academy, Walmart.. so many stores to explore! He ended up at Freddy's for some custard when he discovered they served steakburgers. That small thing completely made his birthday. At Walmart we decided to buy LED lights so for the next two hours he was on the roof installing our new Christmas lights. Megan, my sister and I spent the afternoon on lawn chairs sipping soda while "supervising" Zac's handywork. We finished Zac's birthday at Red Robin, where he had ANOTHER burger. In his eyes, it was the perfect birthday. I'm glad I could share it with him.

Turkey Trot and a Happy Thanksgiving!

I finally convinced Zac to do the annual Thundercloud Turkey Trot with me this year. Honestly, I didn't know if we would stay friends that first mile. We were NOT happy with each other. I wanted to run, he wanted to go home. I wanted to then walk quickly, he wanted to sit down. By mile three, we were closer to the same page and I stopped being so mean. Hopefully, the five miles was worth it because it made the Thanksgiving dinner guilt free. My family is the best... I felt guilty not being there helping out; but nobody seemed to mind. And I DID make the salad after all. Gobble Gobble!

Home Improvement Pictures...

We spent our first night in the new house, Saturday, November 20. By Sunday, we were already starting projects! Priority number one was covering the gaps in the white fence so our little Gooseter couldn't get through to play with other puppies in the neighborhood. Three trips (or was it two?) to Home Depot later, we had zip ties and white lattice. It probably took Zac an hour or so and our backyard was dachshund proof. (Pictures to come... of course I start writing this post late at night when I can't go outside for pics!)

Second, our front door had a wobbly lock so Mrs. Fix-It found a teeny alan wrench and tightened it right up.

Thirdly, Zac installed a fingerprint reader on our garage. How cool is that!? We can now access our garage with one swipe of an index finger. He also put up house numbers viewable from the alley. (Thank goodness because I get confused sometimes!)

We closed on our house!!!

It only took a month and we are in our new house!! The process was simple; I had no idea buying a house could be so easy. We found our house October 5, 2009 on a random chance at looking at homes with our amazing realtor, Brian Martin. The first house we looked at, the first step inside and I already knew. THIS was our house. A few weeks later and it's ours! Here's a few pictures the seller's realtor took...