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Monday, June 27, 2011

The Beginner Decorater

So we made the big move last weekend! Finally. It was months and months in the making.

It was a tremendous amount of work, but everything is at least IN THE HOUSE now. For the love. I'm still exhausted 9 days later. I'm a compulsive shopper/spender so I was nervous that I'd blow this entire year's budget within the first 24 hours of moving in, but for some reason moving has had the opposite effect on me. All I've bought is two trash cans.

The hard thing about a house is that everything is so p.e.r.m.a.n.e.n.t. I'm terrified to buy something that I may or may not love, or to put a hole in a wall that I'll later decide against (which would then require spackle, sanding and re-painting to correct said mistake). The only thing I HAVE decided on is the color palette for our formal living room and dining room (which is another tough project because it will clash with the other current colors in the house until I find time to fix those).

Our dining room is the first room I'm attempting to envision and decorate. It will be grey and white for the most part, with silver accents. My goal is to have some bright pink or yellow flowers on the table, but I'm not quite there yet (mainly because I only have the chairs, not the table - which would obviously hinder my ability to decorate the table).



This is the material that I have covered the seats of each chair with (and by I, I mean my grandmother). It has creamy white, grey, and taupe in it. The chairs and table are dark brown, so my hope is that they'll blend with everything. (sorry this picture is not great - its from my phone)


These are my dream curtains from West Elm. I'd like to go see them in person at some point before I buy them, but that might not be a possibility. I might spend all of my birthday money on them. WHY ARE CURTAINS SO FLIPPIN' EXPENSIVE?


I am painting the dining room walls this shade of grey. The bottom half of the dining room is white beadboard, so my hope is that the grey won't feel so dark. I love the grey and white combination.

I haven't decided on the wall decor, but here are some ideas or accents I'm open to incorporating somehow:






Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Our humble abode

So tomorrow we officially close on our house! We did the final walk-through with the realtor tonight, and I'm pumped. It will be so great to have our own space that we actually OWN. It's been 8ish years since I've lived in a house, so I can't wait to not have people that live above me and below me, people that play drums late at night or who get in fights outside our room. But I love the community here, and I have LOVED our apartment complex tremendously. It will be sad to leave the place that Patrick and I started our marriage in, but all seasons come to an end. So my hope is that the seasons will only get better from here!

In other news I'm going to bootcamp in the morning. Yes, bootcamp. A military style workout that starts at 6am and leaves you sore for a full 7 days. Oh man. It's amazing how I go in and out of work-out seasons. I'm so externally motivated that it takes a village to get me to do something active. But once I do it, I enjoy it...I just can't make myself do it alone. I hate breathing hard and sweating, but when I'm with friends I hardly notice the pain. So come on friends! Work out with me! Jk. I don't want to sacrifice fun connecting time with work-out time. Unless you're willing to do both. :)

So stay tuned for house and work-out updates (which I probably won't do because I don't know how to make either of those that interesting).

I'll leave you with a shot of our new house. It will be officially ours at 9am tomorrow morning. This is an old-ish picture, but you get the point. Its really beautiful!


Wednesday, June 8, 2011

the confident-ish woman

So, I'm going through this book (circa 1960) and it's practically kicking my butt. And I'm only done with chapter 2. But the weird thing is that none of the lessons in it are new to me. None of the Scripture, none of the stories...I've heard it all. But for some reason I'm receiving it all in a new way in this season. Things I never thought I struggled with I have come to realize are the roots and causes of so many of my frustrations and insecurities. Maybe it was just pride that made me push certain things like performance and control out of the way, but let me tell you. I shouldn't have pushed any of it away. These things have reared their ugly faces at me with a vengeance and its going to take a mighty act of God to clear those suckers out.

The good news is that once you start to identify whats going on in your heart, and what your mindsets and tendencies are, its way easier to tackle them. Now, I haven't quite gotten to the easy part yet, but I trust that it's on its way. :) Jk. I'm not expecting any of this bid-ness to be easy, but I hope and pray that its rewarding and helps improve all of my relationships. I wish I could go spend a few weeks apart from everyone and work out my junk, and then return to everyone a new and changed person. But I think God keeps you in your current stage of life so that you can practice lessons as you learn them. And slowly find ways to build them into your day-to-day life. Ugh. Sounds easier than it is.

So cheers to you Anabel Gillham, Carly Ward and Hayley Bidez.

And apple and brie sandwiches to make the time more enjoyable, despite all my crap hitting the fan.