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.