Our Painted Master Bedroom

I am so excited to share our newly painted master bedroom! When we moved into our house, it had been flipped but the wall colors weren't necessarily to my liking - they weren't horrible, I just would've chosen something different. We have a light yellow and dark tan/brown color throughout the whole house and while the darker color isn't bad in the main rooms with a lot of light, it's pretty rough in bedrooms where there's only one window. It took me a while but I finally convinced Stephen to paint our room to make it brighter and with the help of our friends, it was so much easier than anticipated and it looks amazing!

We decided to go with Sherman Williams' Agreeable Grey because I've seen it used in so many other houses where it looks amazing (Shelby, April) and this meant we didn't have to sample a ton of colors. You can check out our room before we painted it, here in our house tour after we moved in (almost 3 years ago!! What!?)

Before

Before

After (The lighting is still kind of dark)

We still have the TV but Stephen's working on it

We seriously love it so much! The room went from dark and shiny (horrible, cheap paint) to bright and "normal" looking. Now we want to paint the whole house - kidding, but we are going to use this paint in the nursery and our new combined office since that room is the brown color too (and maybe the guest bath that has the brown if I can convince Stephen). And if it wasn't for the help and knowledge of our friends, this wouldn't have happened so smoothly and I'm pretty sure there would have been some arguments between Stephen and I ;)

Happy Friday!

Fall Decor

I figured since I was cleaning the house and putting things back into place after the hurricane last week, I might as well go ahead and decorate for fall ;) I love all of the little touches of fall throughout the house and the smell of fall candles burning. I love collecting new things every year during the end of season sales! (Sorry for the bad lighting - I took the pictures while our windows were still boarded up)

I hope everyone is having a great week so far! I'm really enjoying the cooler weather in Charlotte! Linking up with Jessi

Weekending

We had the best weekend hanging around the house and it was bliss! Friday after work, we had an exciting date night at our local Aldi picking up a few things for dinner and then after we got back, I gave Stephen a haircut - real exciting things ;) After dinner, we finished watching Tangled and headed to bed with no alarm clock set.

We actually slept in for the first time in who knows how long and after seeing an email for 50% off jeans at Old Navy, I ran out to the mall. I didn't end up finding anything but popped into Homegoods afterwards and spotted the perfect bench for our entry way. I've been looking for a bench for our entry for a while now and haven't been able to find the right one. I love the shape of this one and that it's all wood so I don't have to worry about kids putting their shoes all over it. After convincing Stephen it would fit, I brought it home and it looks perfect!

Now, I just need to find some pillows that coordinate well with the ones in the pictures because those are on our chairs on the opposite side of the room. I love floral pillows like this, this and this.

After getting the bench setup, we had lunch and then I cleaned the whole house. It felt so good to have a clean house where I actually cleaned everything and not just a quick vacuum. After cleaning, I painted my nails and watched 3 episodes of Southern Charm before getting ready for the white party. 

The white party was in downtown Orlando and was a lot of fun! It was for a great cause and we enjoyed getting to catch up with friends. I loved wearing my new dress and we made it to bed around 2 am that night. 

Our alarms came very quickly Sunday morning but we rallied and headed to church. After church, we had lunch with our friends and by the time we finished and ran to Publix, it was after 3. I took a quick nap while Stephen mowed and then got to work on some embroidery and getting ready for the week ahead. It's too bad there's not another day to recover but it was a slow weekend which was much needed. 

I hope everyone else had a great weekend!! Linking up with Biana

2 Years in Our Home

2 years and 1 day ago, we purchased our first home. After 2 years of being married and living in a tiny apartment that Stephen had for 1.5 years before we got married, it was time. We had a hard time deciding when to buy a house and settle down but the Lord taught us me patience during this time and gave us the most perfect house.

Our apartment wasn't the nicest, sure it was newly redone but we had 1 bathroom and didn't have common luxuries like a garbage disposal or an ice maker. Our neighbor downstairs was a creepy, old man who sat outside his apartment (right next to the stairs we had to go up) 24/7 smoking non-stop; it caused all of our belongings to smell like cigarette smoke. It was tough for me. We were in a terrible city and we had no friends where we lived. I hated it and put up a stink about it more times than I'd like to admit. We were constantly looking into other jobs because we didn't know how stable Stephen's job would be - within the company and outside of the company. At one point, Stephen applied for a job, within his company, in Denver - thankfully, that one didn't pan out.

One day, we volunteered with Stephen's company for an event at a high school local to us now. We saw this area and thought it was amazing. I said I could live in Florida if we lived here. Stephen pushed back and said the commute was too long. Months later, God gave us our answer and told us to stay. We knew it was time to buy a house and decided to look in the area that Stephen said we couldn't live. We fell in love. We knew this is where God was calling us to live.

I was extremely unhappy with the church we were attending so before meeting our realtor one Sunday, we decided to attend the church we would probably go to if we were in the area. We really liked the church and most importantly, there were actual young people! People our age and that we could be friends with. We were so excited at the possibility of Christian, couple friends.

After church, we decided to drive by a house before we met with our realtor. That house needed a lot of work but it was already pending. We decided to drive around the neighborhood to see if there was anything else when we randomly ran into one of Stephen's co-workers. He was telling us how he's lived here for years and a lot of other people from work lived around here. That gave Stephen hope for his commute. He also happened to inform us that the house down the street was being flipped and we should check it out.

We drove down the house and the painter let us see the inside. It was a mess and in the middle of complete renovation. We thought it was nice but we weren't sure... it was a little too big. Still, we got the owners information and headed out to meet our realtor. The house we met at was awful and when we told her about the flip house, she was very excited. She called and got a ball park price - it was within budget!! After looking at a few other houses, we decided we should take her to look at it. She liked it but we then put an offer in on another house.

The other house was smaller, backed right up to a flood zone and needed some work. The owner wouldn't budge on his price so we said no thanks. Thank goodness. We then turned our attention the the flip house, had some conversations with the owner about his designs and decided to put in an offer. They accepted our offer within 1 day and the house was ours! We were so excited - we found out we got the house while we were visiting my BIL & SIL for their gender reveal.

The house still needed to be finished so we waited a few months before closing. The owners were the nicest people you'd ever meet and we got along so well. We were so thankful they transformed this house into our home - we did some minor updates after moving in but nothing big. After 2 years, we still love living here. It is literally the perfect location, the perfect size and we live on one of the best streets. We could not be more thankful to God for orchestrating all of this for us! He has blessed us with so much - we are so thankful to have Christian, couple friends who are all in the same season of life right now.

Phew, I did not expect this post to be this long... 2 years in a house full of memories can bring out the emotions ;)

Linking up with Jessi

Weekending

Happy Halloween and the official last day of October!! We are officially moving into holiday season and I couldn't be more excited, yet feel so unprepared! I honestly feel like I missed fall this year - it's been so hot and we've been so busy; I only baked 1 pumpkin thing this year!

Anyways, after traveling for the past 2 weekends, we were looking forward to having a weekend at home. Even though we were home, it was packed to the max with parties and getting things ready for my niece's 1st birthday party next weekend. I feel like my list never ends!

Friday, Stephen got home from CA and since he was tired from traveling, we stayed home, cooked dinner and watched Singin' in the Rain (lol! It was fairly good). Saturday, we got up for a volunteer meeting at church before heading over to a friend's baby shower. It was the most beautiful shower and we can't wait for baby Olivia to get here!

This will be hard to follow - the mom-to-be is my SIL, Lauren's brother's wife. So my niece has 2 Aunt Ashley's and we got a kick out of the adorable labels

After we got home, we went to work pressure washing the driveway. Since the day we moved in, we've known our driveway needed some major work and Siena's upcoming party was just enough to make us do it. It was amazing how dirty the driveway and sidewalks were and now they're so bright! Later that evening, I worked on some party decorations while we watched the World Series and FSU game.

Before/During

After - Ignore the giant cracks lol

Before

After - and ignore the overgrown grass lol

Before

After - I'm most excited about how well this turned out and got rid of that giant dark spot

Sunday, our church was celebrating their 20th anniversary so they threw a big service at a nearby park. We volunteered for it and were there until about 3 pm. We had a great time but we were exhausted and needed to get home to finish some projects. We finally finished the final 2 windows and now our whole house has upgraded blinds - goodbye metal ones!! We love them and are so glad it's finally done. 

Before - We actually had vertical blinds in the left window and horizontal, metal blinds in the right window. The vertical blinds had 2 missing panels so our guests had to close the curtains if they didn't want everyone walking by to see them lol 

After!

I hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoys their Halloween! We'll be hanging out outside handing out candy and then walking around to see the "local" haunted houses in the neighborhood. 

Linking up with Biana

Life Update

It's been a few days since I've been able to get a blog post up and I definitely didn't mean for the radio silence! Since we just finished fortifying the house for Hurricane Matthew and it's not here yet, I figured I'd give everyone an update.

We've had an interesting past 2 weeks to say the least... two weekends ago, we went with our friends to some local springs for the day. We had so much fun but my mom always warned me against going into any sort of water between Aug-Oct when it's really hot outside because bacteria can grow easier. We figured since the springs were so cold, we'd be fine. Fast forward to last Monday after work, we bought my new car and not 30 minutes after getting home, I started feeling symptoms of an infection. I was up all night and felt so bad - Tuesday morning I ran to urgent care to get some medicine.

My mom told me she was allergic to the medicine they gave me but she's about allergic to everything so we thought I might be fine. Thankfully, I started feeling better and was able to go pick up my car once Stephen got home Tuesday and I returned to work the rest of the week. Towards the beginning of the weekend, I wasn't feeling well - something was off. After church on Sunday, I noticed I was getting a rash which meant an allergic reaction to the medicine so we raced off to another urgent care since the original one I went to was closed. I was put on a steroid once a day and was put on a different antibiotic.

I won't get into too many details but thankfully my biggest reaction was a rash and nothing to put me in the hospital. Throughout the rest of Sunday, the rash continued to spread. I was worried because I was set to leave Monday morning for Kansas City to run a photoshoot at a power plant. I didn't want to let my co-workers down but I was so nervous to leave all while in the middle of an allergic reaction. I was advised to cancel my trip if I woke up Monday and the rash was worse. Well, Monday I was worse so I cancelled my trip and was off to the original Dr I went to the week before. He gave me a shot, upped my steroids to 3 times a day and gave me some other medicines to take as well.

Thankfully, all of those worked, I am slowly getting better and I'm so glad I didn't go on my business trip - the Lord really protected me especially with the hurricane. My co-workers were awesome and had everything under control! Wednesday (yesterday) rolls around and it's time for me to go back into work after being home Monday and Tuesday and what do we hear, Hurricane Matthew is legit coming for us. Thankfully, Stephen had me to go to the store during lunch while I was at home on Tuesday and I was able to stock up on a lot and one of my co-workers in Orlando picked up water for us since they were all out over here.

Stephen left work really early on Wednesday to start working on boarding up the house and thankfully, two of our friends came to help since I couldn't get off work until later. I joined everyone before our buddy had to take his wife to the airport and we worked on boarding up the house until past 11 pm. We were up at 5:30 am this morning finishing everything up and I can officially say, WE ARE READY!!

We never boarded up for hurricanes in Tampa - this will be interesting not being able to see anything!

I want to thank everyone who made sure we're alright and offered a place for us to stay! We are right on the coast, but we're not on any islands and not in any evacuation areas. We have a friend staying with us since they live right on the beach - he has been SO helpful (and this will be his first hurricane ;)). When you see the eye starting to hit FL, think of us and keep us in your prayers! We should be fine and I will be sure to let everyone know our status on instagram.

And because this is legit happening and SO funny, I had to share

Five on Friday

It's been quite some time since I did a Five on Friday and it feels good to be back!! It's been very exciting around here so let's get to it!

One
I cannot believe it's officially September and therefore, officially fall! I couldn't be more excited for fall to finally be here! Now let's be real, it won't get cool until January but we have some weekend trips to "fallish" places and I just love all things fall! Since we're going to be pretty busy this weekend, I'll probably decorate the house next weekend...nothing like decorating in early September and it's 90 degrees outside ;)

Two
I've been wanting to add a chair to one of the corners of our living room for a while and on Wednesday, I ran into Homegoods in between rain bands after work and found the perfect chair. I was a little worried it was going to be a little too short and wide but I think it fits amazingly! I'm so excited I was able to find something so quickly in the store and I think it makes the room so cozy and complete :)

Ignore the mess in the right corner - I just threw our workout gear over there to move the chair in

While waiting at Homegoods for Stephen to measure the space at home, I wandered over to the baby section and was able to find some amazing baby items for friends and family for cheap! I couldn't believe the amount of books that they had! My SIL always said they have the best stuff and she wasn't kidding.

I was also able to snag like 8 picture frames for pictures from our CO trip. I'm so excited about them and can't wait to get them filled! Now I do have a question for y'all - are there any good and cheap picture printer companies out there other than just using our local Walgreens? I've had some problems the last few times I've used Walgreens and that makes me nervous when I'm about to print a handful of bigger photos.

Three
After coming back to work on Monday, I was greeted by a giant "figure" of my boss. He was off at a conference the week before and one day before work, a few guys put this together. It was a riot and everyone was taking pictures with it. Since it stood taller than the cubicle walls, you could see it all the way down the hall and it was a little creepy.. it's since been taken down but the picture of his head is taped inside his desk which still gets me sometimes lol

Four
On Tuesday, I saw that our primary election ended that evening so after work, we ran out and voted real quick. Since we always mail in our ballets, I had to get a picture with our "I Voted" stickers. This place was so quick, so I'm hoping we can do early general election voting here - because let's be real, I want that sticker again!

Five
I'm sure most people have seen that FL is getting our first hurricane in 11 years (which I find hard to believe!) but thankfully we shouldn't get it too bad. My sister is in school at FSU and is bracing for impact since it's supposed to go right over them. Thankfully, most of the rain and wind happened at night so I didn't have to drive in it to and from work.

As for our plans this weekend, we're hoping the rain will be gone by this evening so we can go to dinner and a baseball game with our friends. Saturday, my sister is coming down to stay the rest of the weekend with us and I'm so excited! We're hoping to do a big cookout and then maybe go show her the new Disney Springs area on Sunday :) I'm really looking forward to a fun weekend at home since we've been traveling the past 2 weekends and a day off work is the icing on the cake!

I hope everyone who's in the way of Hermine stays safe and isn't affected too much!