Makin' Changes

So something I've learned in the past few months is that as a homeowner there are always about 127 things that need to be updated or fixed or something. This might sound like a bad thing, but as a person who isn't so great at laying around and relaxing, this just means that I always have some project to work on. And something to try and convince Arsen to assist with...he loves it.

I have a list a mile long of things I want to do around here, but I thought I would share a few of the things that I (we) have accomplished so far. 

One of the first major things that I wanted to deal with was the fireplace. This picture is one that I took before the last guy moved out....I'm not sure that it's a great idea to post a picture with his stuff in it, but he had it in the online listing so....we're good.

I seriously HATED the gold fireplace screen. And the pink and white brick. Ugh. Our house is the same brick on the outside, but somehow it is just so much more hideous with that brassy gold accenting it. I decided to rip out the screen first, which Arsen did before we put too much though into it, so it just sat there not-connected for awhile. After a bit we decided to paint the brick, and we got a really pretty screen at Target. I'm still working on deciding exactly what to with it all, but I'm pretty pleased with how it's looking so far.

We also decided to pain the half bath downstairs. It was just so plain and white. We're still planning on having tile floors installed, but that may be a bit down the road. Here's what we were working with: 

Gross. So all we've done so far is paint the walls, change out the light fixture, and add a few decorations. But I think it's a pretty major improvement.

It's so amazing how much paint can change a room. I'm kind of obsessed with painting everything I can get my hands on now. I feel like Lowe's is my home away from home. We've also painted the front and back doors, but I'm waiting on a few more little adjustments before the big reveal...

 

Love & Marriage

We're coming up on six months of wedded bliss in a few weeks, and it's kind of unbelievable that it's been that long. Things have been wonderful/stressful/interesting/challenging/amazing....and more. Arsen and I had been together for three years by the time we were married, so I figured marriage wouldn't really change things all that much. But it kind of has. I think our first big challenge was dealing with the holidays. 

Thanksgiving wasn't too bad, but Christmas was an absolute nightmare. I seriously considered calling everything off completely and not seeing a single family member because it was so stressful. Not only do we have Arsen's parents, sister's family and brother's family here in Dallas, we have alllllll of my family in Oklahoma. My parents are divorced, so that equals two Christmases, but there are also my Grandparents, my mom's new husbands family, my dad's brother.....sigh. I believe all together we had seven Christmases in about four days.Yeah....so next year we're going to have to work on that in advance. We had a great time, and everything worked out perfectly, but goodness....

Addie LOVES Presents!

New Boots! Arsen is a wonderful gift giver :)

He's Just So Thoughtful

Dallas Cowboys Christmas Ornament.....Anything Cowboys is a Winner

Other than that, things have been pretty great! The main thing we have going on right now is working on the house. We've decided we want to stay in this house for several years, so now we're excited about all the things we want to fix up. Luckily the kitchen is completely upgraded, so that HUGE expense is something we won't have to worry about. We've got the stainless steel appliances, granite counters, nice floor, all that jazz. But in just about every other room in the house I can probably list at least five things I want to change. But honestly, I loooooove it. We had a three day weekend last week for President's Day, and I literally spent the entire three days pulling everything out of every closet we have, organizing it, getting rid of things, and re-organizing it in the closets. Pretty much the most relaxing/enjoyable weekend I've had in a long time. When did I turn into such a housewife? Unbelievable.

So, my goal is to start taking before and after photos of all of the things we work on. My problem is that I'm a bit scattered, and I get excited easily, so I've usually got about four projects going on at once, and when I come up with a good idea I start working on it immediately....usually about halfway through I realize I forgot to take my before picture. Hopefully I get better at that! 

Another goal....make a blog post more often than once every four or five months....

Sweet Relief

We made it. Our wedding was a little over a month ago, and I feel like I can finally breathe. The wedding was amazing, beautiful, SO much fun, all of the things we were hoping for. And I'm so glad we had this big wedding with all of our family and friends who mean so much to us. But oh my good Lord I am so beyond happy that it is over.

The eleven months of wedding planning were quite possibly the most stressful of my entire life. Not only was I planning the wedding, but I started a new job a couple of months after we got engaged, we bought a house about midway through, and I'm pretty sure Arsen and I argued more in those eleven months than we did in the two years before.

But it was worth it! Everything was gorgeous and everyone had an amazing time. Of course there were the little wedding day disasters that had to happen. First of all, this summer in Texas has been the hottest, driest summer ever. We didn't have a drop of rain for what felt like 3 or 4 months. Well, wouldn't you know there was a massive thunderstorm during the rehearsal dinner, and a more than 50% chance the day of the wedding. I wanted my beautiful outdoor wedding SO BAD. I was furious. I made everyone wait until the very last minute to make the final decision, and we ended up doing it indoors. I was so upset, but it all worked out.

Then, as soon as I showed up to the venue that day I was told to go look at the cakes because they were so amazing. And they were! However, there was one small problem: our Oklahoma State University groom's cake was iced in white and RED! Like OU, or OHIO State. Arsen didn't care about many details, but he was set on an OSU groom's cake from day one. I had a momentary, internal freak out, but our wedding coordinator was on it. She had them come out and re-ice the cake before it was even time for the reception. And it looked beautiful and OSU orange! No one would have ever known :)

Hideous Original Cake

Cutting the Re-Iced ORANGE Cake

Other than that, the biggest freak out came courtesy of one of my lovely bridesmaids (love you Amelia!). They all decided to get ready about 45 minutes before the wedding was set to start so they could help me closer to show time. I saw a little whispering going on, and a few concerned looks....and then I was told one of the bridesmaids had two right shoes. She called the David's Bridal where we got them, which thankfully was right down the road, and wouldn't you know...they had a box with two LEFT shoes. So we sent my uncles racing to David's Bridal to exchange the shoes, and they made it back just in time. Disaster averted. And it makes for a great story!

My Mom With the Missing Shoe!!!

After all of that, everything went pretty smoothly. The ceremony was short and sweet, just like we wanted, and the reception was SO. MUCH. FUN. It was a non-stop dance party from the minute they cleared the plates after dinner until we had to leave. Definitely everything we were hoping for and so much more!

So now that all of the wedding craziness has passed, it's back to life as usual. And I'm loving it. I've been working on getting the house all put together, Arsen has been watching a lot of sports, and I'm pretty sure Addie is relieved that life is back to normal. 

Hopefully now I will be able to keep up with the whole blogging thing. I've never been great at doing it on the regular, but I'm hopeful that now that I am a mature, responsible, crafty little wife, things will change. 

I'll leave you with a few wedding photos. If we are friends on Facebook you have had the joy of seeing about 8 million of them, but just for fun I'll add some here as well. Until next time!