Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Here and There

As many of you may already know, we bought a new house.

When we started the house hunt, I already started thinking of all the ways I can personalize our future house to make it into our home. Once we finally knew which house was ours, my head went spinning nonstop. I even purged all my Pinterest boards pertaining to our home. I was more excited then ever to start working on our new house.

My first line of business, moving into the house, was making it livable for all of us while getting ready to host 25+ people for Thanksgiving. I was able to accomplish both things this last month and now I cannot wait to start all these other projects I have in mind.

However, Christmas is two weeks away (I am hosting Christmas Eve dinner with a gift exchange) and money is tight. All the beautiful things I would love to do and most likely would take forever for me to complete anyways is on hold at least for a little bit. I am not at all disappointed because it gives me more time to enjoy this holiday season with my hubby. We are both on break from school and he has vacation time coming up, exciting!

I also can take my time unpacking all the other boxes left in the garage (and possibly complete some smaller projects I started up and never completed).

As always, my posts will continue to be sporadic. I hope you all (if anyone) sticks with me!

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stormieariel

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Saturday, November 29, 2014

Tabletalk

Posted by stormieariel

So the last you heard from me, Ant and I made the decision to attempt to build a dining table once we moved into our new house.

That time frame gave us four weeks before Thanksgiving which sounded very doable. However, due to unseen circumstances our closing date was postponed two weeks.

Once we were finally homeowners to our anticipated house, we were two weeks away from Thanksgiving and things seemed pretty hectic.

Not only did we need to focus on making things livable for all of our sake but we needed to figure out a seating arrangment since we were gonna host Thanksgiving for 25+ people asap.

Basically, we found a table similar to the one I wanted to build at a local antique store with all the details I was swooning over!

I originally wanted to place this table in the eat in kitchen however the table is a little fragile and probably wouldn't last every day use. Because of that, the table resides in the formal dining room and I cannot wait until the room is complete.

Although, my cousin and I were able to play around with tablescape ideas for Thanksgiving.

Little progress like this makes my heart happy and excited for the next thing in store, whatever that may be!

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stormieariel

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Monday, October 20, 2014

Home Life

New House, New Project

Posted by stormieariel

We finally sold our bedroom furniture, it wasn't the price I was hoping for but it's finally out of the way.

In my first master bedroom plan, I was going to sell it and work on a custom headboard.

But...

We are in the middle of selling our house and buying a new one!!

Originally we planned to live at our current house for at least 5 years especially since we haven't started a family yet. Our little 2 bedroom house was perfect for us and our dogs. However, my grandmother, Babcia, moved in with us and we desperately need our own bathroom and a little more privacy (the bedrooms are so close to each other in our current house). While I'm sad that I won't be able to complete everything I had planned for this house, I'm excited to start decorating and beginning projects at the new one!!

We already have the house picked out, approved, and accepted. We are only waiting on closing now.

I have quite a few projects to begin once we move in. The most important is some type of table for eating as we will be hosting Thanksgiving. We sold our little table because it's counter height and Babcia had a difficult time being able to sit on them comfortably and get off of them safely.

For the kitchen table, I would like a 6 seat table. I had my eyes on the Cindy Crawford Ocean Grove white table

http://www.roomstogo.com/product/Dining-Tables/Cindy-Crawford-Home-Ocean-Grove-White-Leg-Dining-Table/42106319/

but I'm not to crazy about the finish on top. It's like a cherry finish and I prefer the brown wood tone like dark walnut.

All other tables I found in the stain color I like aren't as good quality and solid as the Cindy Crawford one.

I previously played with the idea of building a farmhouse table but I didn't want to go through the hassle. The idea reappeared and I'm leaning towards it again. I already had some pins on Pinterest pinned from my previously thought so I will be going back to those and see if I can successfully build a table in time for Thanksgiving!

No promises that I will even follow through yet, it's still an idea and I have to get Anthony fully on board.

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stormieariel

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Saturday, February 15, 2014

Life Love Marriage

Smell the Roses

Posted by stormieariel

A few days before Valentine’s Day, Anthony and I sat down to look at our finances. We have started seriously budgeting and wanted to be sure to stick with it even with this holiday approaching.

After bills were paid and savings set aside, we did not want this holiday to leave us broke for an entire week so we gave ourselves a tinsy budget. I told Anthony I didn’t need the expensive things to make me happy. I just wanted a nice dinner with him, roses and to have fun. I would rather collect memories with him than things.

Don’t get me wrong, things are nice to have but aren’t an essential. By finally getting serious about budgeting and reading some amazing blogs about thriftiness, I have a new take on things. I don’t want to worry about obtaining the newest thing.

I want to enjoy the time I have with my husband.

I want to create memories with him (sometimes that is hitting the thrift stores or the golf course or just staying home watching netflix).

I’m not perfect and sometimes I (ahem) whine when I don’t get what I want. Having stopped to smell the roses, I realize grass isn’t always greener on the other side (haha I used two cliché phrases in one sentence). This new time set aside for budgeting each week has created a stronger bond in our marriage. It is quality time well spent where we talk about our dreams and goals. I look forward to more of these moments of budgeting, laughing, and dreaming together.

Have you smelled the roses lately? Do you budget? What is your take on budgeting?

I am linking up with A Wise Woman Builds Her Home and Yes, They Are All Ours.

P.S. I am making progress on one of my many projects, here is a sneak peak.