Happy Fall Y'all

It's September 22nd, which means it's officially the first day of fall! 

I noticed a few days ago that a neighbor down the street made the move to hang a seasonal wreath on their front door, so I was bound to believe that I was in the clear to hang up ours too. However, the hubs quickly reminded me that summer is not over, and I needed to wait until the first day of fall. Well, honey... it's here and this wreath is goin' up!

Too bad you can't get a whiff of how amazing this house smells, thanks to these fantastic Bath & Body Works candles.

To commemorate the official start of the fall season, I made my favorite chocolate chip cookies and gave myself a much needed fall-appropriate manicure.

It is the summer's great last heat,
It is the fall's first chill: They meet.

~Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt

So, on that note... happy fall y'all!

Nursery Inspiration

Today I'm sharing my inspiration for our little man's nursery. But before I share that inspiration, let's take a minute and loathe look at the "before" picture. This picture is from when our home was for sale back in 2011. Since then, we've had the carpets replaced, white fan installed, doors and ceilings painted white, and we put on new dark oil-rubbed bronze door handles.  So, that leaves the damaged dark blue walls (the previous owners were addicted to hanging things on every inch of every wall) that so desperately need to be prepped and painted and the chewed-up corner of the window sill and blinds (thanks, B and T) that need some fixing. So, as you can see... we have quite a ways to go before achieving the dream nursery.

I've put together the layout of the nursery (note: even though my dad is an engineer, I am not very skilled when it comes to measurements, etc. Oh, and if you couldn't tell from my amazing drawing skills, that circle-thing in the bottom left corner is a lamp. You're welcome.) via Paint. As you can see, we only have room for the basics: crib, dresser, and rocker. I don't want a lot of unnecessary items in his room - I want to keep it very simple, which is my typical way of decorating anyways. I also tried to think of additional storage, so I'm thinking a small table to go beside the rocker and two semi-large baskets for holding blankets, toys, etc. will do. I would really like to put a book nook behind the door, something like this, to make good use of wasted space. 

I'm also not really big into themes, more like schemes - color schemes that is. I envision this nursery as classic with a touch of rustic/edginess. With the touches of navy, gray, and white (if you're thinking those colors sound a lot like the Dallas Cowboys colors, then you're right -- GO COWBOYS), along with the mismatched furniture, I feel that this look accomplishes just that!

We hope to get out this weekend to look at paint colors; right now I'm loving Sherwin Williams Repose Gray. I also want to check-out the crib and dresser set I'm ooh-ing over from Babies "R" Us to make sure it's something we both love.

Be sure to stay tuned for more on the make-over journey of our disaster room turned nursery!

Wedding Keepsakes

After so many hours, days, and months of planning for THE perfect wedding, you're bound to left in a state of what-the-heck-do-I-do-with-my-life-now... I know I was! Deep down, I didn't want my wedding to be over. "What about all that hard work that went into it?" "What do I do with my leftover wedding keepsakes?" I knew I needed to act fast for one keepsake in particular, my bridal bouquet. I was (and still am) obsessed with my bridal bouquet (a huge thanks to LZ Floral Design), and certainly did not want to just throw out something so beautiful. Why can't fresh flowers just last forever?!



After my wedding, I knew I wanted to hold onto my flowers so I decided to dry them out so I could put them on some type of display. I spent some time looking at tons of ideas like this, and even this on Pinterest. I quickly decided that I wanted to use a shadow box to display my gorgeous bridal bouquet along with some other wedding keepsakes. After a trip to Michael's, I left with a shadow box and some iridescent paper for the background. Once I got home, I got straight to work - grabbed my cake topper, garter, wedding invitation, and dried bridal bouquet and started piecing the masterpiece together.

Once satisfied with the look, I hot glued the pieces to the iridescent paper and slipped it into the shadow box. Once in place, I carefully - you don't want to loose any of those petals - put my bouquet into place. My bouquet was thick enough and pressed right up against the glass to where it didn't need any extra securing.

I ended up hanging it on the wall above my jewelery display - which totally completed the look I was going for! 

This project only took me 10 minutes max to figure out how I wanted my display to look and to assemble. It's super easy, and a really great way to display some of your favorite wedding items.

What did you do with your wedding keepsakes?

It's a Gender Reveal Fiesta

 

We would like to give a huge thanks to our parents for helping put this amazing gender reveal fiesta together and all our family & friends that made it out - thank you so much for making this day so very special. We cannot wait to meet this sweet little BOY of ours!

A special thank you to Tony and Maria Chicas for capturing these special moments!

Friday Favorites

It's finally Friday. Even though it was a four-day work week, it feels like the longest week ever! We have our gender reveal party on Saturday, so we are super anxious for tomorrow to be here already. This past Thursday we had our 20- week anatomy scan and were totally surprised when the technician did the scan in 4D Real Life - blew our minds. We got to see baby's face, which is an unexplainable feeling. This baby is definitely a mini of my hub, boy or girl!

We had the technician determine the gender and place it in an envelope for us, which will be kept in our guest room until it's needed for the gender reveal - out of sight, out of mind... right?!

Some of my favorites this week include this cardigan from Target, it's so soft and there's a variety of colors to choose from. Not to mention, it's perfect for fall! I'm currently obsessed with Batiste Wild Dry Shampoo, not only does it smell great but it actually works, too. I have fine hair, so when I wake up the next morning, my hair is typically on the greasy side. Because of this, I tend to wash my hair every day (which isn't really recommended). So, after reading about Batiste on Casey's Blog, I thought I'd give it a try and I was instantly hooked (thanks, Casey)! And lastly, this Yahoo! article of embarrassing runway falls - enjoy.

Be sure to check back early next week for our big reveal and pictures of the party.

I hope everyone has a great Friday and weekend!

Hump Day, Bump Day

Happy September, everyone! I am so beyond ready for the fall, because, let's be honest... that means cooler weather. For us Texans, the heat + humidity gets old very fast.

I have lost count of the number of times I've told the hubs: "I'm so ready for fall to be here already!" Luckily, it's right around the corner - so that means I get to pull out my seasonal candles and decor. I think by this time last year, I already had my wreath on the front door... but I'm going to try and contain myself until Houston is at least out of the 90s.

I don't know what it is exactly about this time of year, but I get into my super-crafty-mode. So, with baby coming in January, I can only imagine how crazy-crafty I'll get this year!

Some things I'm already super excited about and totally looking forward to are sweaters and boots galore, candles/decor, hot cocoa (sadly, without Bailey's for me this year), long walks, making this one pot chili mac and cheese, and last but not least Cowboys football!

What are you most looking forward to this fall season?

Wishing you all a happy hump day!

Jewelry Organizing

If you're anything like me, then you probably have a ton of jewelry! And if you don't have anything to really organize your jewelry with, it can become more a hassle than an accessory. That's exactly what happened to me. I stopped wearing a lot of my jewelry because I'd have to unravel each piece just to get the one I wanted to wear. So, after a trip to Ross, I purchased some pretty awesome jewelry organizers - and I wasn't even at Ross for jewelry organizers in the first place (score)!

I have a bunch of necklaces (well, my necklace stash doesn't even compare to my friend, E), so I really needed something to keep them hung separately so they didn't continue to get mangled together.

I ended up going home with one black bracelet rack (it's a velvet material, which makes me feel fancy), a necklace/earring/etc. rack to hang on the wall, a vertical standing necklace/earring/etc. organizer, and a really pretty mirrored jewelry box (probably my favorite piece - makes me feel extra fancy).

I wanted a place where I can display all of my jewelry without it being in the way. I first thought about using a shelf in our bathroom linen closet, but it was full of other crap (crap that also needs to be organized - never ending I tell you!). Then I remembered that our closet has a shelf that runs along the midway of the wall - PERFECT! I cleared the entire left side (by moving all that junk to the very top shelf) and gave the shelf a good dust and wipe down. After playing with how I wanted everything to look, I must say, I'm very pleased with the end result.

This was a fun (if you like organizing as much as I do - which is A LOT) and easy project. Hey, you even get an excuse to go shopping!