Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with their families, we sure did! It was soo nice to see both of our families, especially since we hadn't seen them since our wedding three months ago.

I thought I would catch up on the photo challenge as well, so here goes! :)





Ok I didn't take this one, but it's from our wedding day and it's a great picture of my husband :)
Continue reading Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Name Change

Well I am happy to announce that almost 3 months after we got married I finally changed my last name to Martin! The reason it took so long in case anyone was wondering was we took a late honeymoon in October and since we've been back i've been in the middle of an interview process with a couple companies. I'm still in the running for at least one of the positions but got tired of waiting and changed my name anyway, hehe.

My dog Jett and I went on a walk earlier today, and the day that i've been dreading since we adopted him has finally come: he's just as strong as me now :(. He can pull me along and it takes me using most of my body weight to stop him, luckily he's usually really good on the leash. He's only 6 months old but I still can't believe how quickly labs grow up, I wish he could have stayed the size of a puppy a little longer, oh well :). At least I have a picture of him from the day we brought him home.
Yesterday was a busy day so I wasn't able to post, so here's day 2 and 3 for the photo challenge. Today was supposed to be a picture of clouds, but there isn't a single cloud in the sky today. :)

Continue reading Name Change

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

30 Day Photo Challenge!

I've been seeing the 30 Day Photo Challenge floating around on Pinterest for a little while, so I decided to try it.

Our honeymoon in Cabo was amazing! The weather and scenery were soo beautiful! On our third day we went snorkeling and got to see the famous arch, we also saw a sting ray and a marlin jump out of the ocean, which was so cool! Another day we were lounging by the pool at the resort and saw dolphins swimming around and having fun out in the ocean! Most of the time we just relaxed by the pool or went into Cabo San Lucas to eat out at nice restaurants. I wasn't ready to go home, but we did miss our puppy a lot and are glad to be back home with him:).

It may be a little early to start decorating for Christmas, but it's my favorite season to decorate for! While browsing on pinterest one day I found a project idea that I HAD to try. I took one of our left over wedding invites, cut it up into strips, wrapped it around a pen and put them inside a clear Christmas ornament. I found a little "M" charm at Michaels that I put on a ribbon and tied it on. I love how it turned out!
I also thought i'd leave you with an update on our adorable puppy, he's six months old now and no longer looks like a puppy, he's weighing in around 50lbs now. I regret not taking more pictures of him when he was little, but I plan on taking more of him now, because you can never have too many pictures of your dog, right? :)
A girl's best friend :)
Continue reading 30 Day Photo Challenge!

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Master Bedroom Design Inspiration


 I hope everyone is having a great day on this beautiful saturday in September! Man time really flies! I can't believe that just 4 days ago, Matt and I have already been married for one month! It still seems like it was just last week! But one of the many things to look forward to is in just 3 weeks we'll be on a plane headed to Cabo for our delayed honeymoon! I'm soo excited!
Cabo!!
In the meantime while i'm dreaming about laying on the beach in Mexico, i'm also dreaming about my design ideas for our master bedroom. Here are some of my ideas for my inspiration board:


 
<>                                                    I love the canvas print as a headboard!
I love everything about this master suite, but my favorite would be the upholstered headboard!
This is pretty similar to the bed I want, & I think it's the same bed in the picture above!

We have this for the foot of the bed :)

We also have this and it will most likely go above the bed
I'm still looking for bedding and drapes for the windows, so i'll post options for those soon. :)
Continue reading Master Bedroom Design Inspiration

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Newlyweds!

It's been a very long time since my last blog so I thought I would update you on what's been going on in our lives. June 25th my oldest brother Jason married an amazing girl that I am excited and proud to call my sister! It was a very small ceremony in her parents backyard with me as her maid of honor and our youngest brother Paul as Jason's best man. I still can't believe that my brother finally found the one after 30 years! haha just kidding, i'm sooo happy for them!

July was a very busy month for me between two of my bridal showers, my bachelorette party, a friend's wedding and my dress fittings, I put A LOT of miles on my poor car! Matt and I also got a puppy named Jett! He's a black lab and of course has tons of energy, he's a lot of work but he's worth it :).

I can't believe I get to say it now, but we've been married for 2 weeks now and we're enjoying every minute of it! It really doesn't feel any different than before but it feels great to be married to my best friend and the love of my life! Thinking back on our wedding day, I don't think it could've gone any smoother, I thought it turned out to be a perfect day! The day before our wedding the forecast called for a 50% chance of rain on saturday, and on our way to our outdoor wedding rehearsal it started pouring. As you can probably imagine I was one stressed out bride! But, as soon as we got to Elmwood Grotto, the rain stopped long enough for us to do our rehearsal and didn't start back up again until we were leaving! Overall the day before the wedding was probably the most stressful for me because there were a few bumps along the way, but it all turned out in the end. :)

I was shocked that I was actually able to get some sleep the night before our big day. It really helped that my brother Jason and his wife were staying down the hall from us in the hotel and he brought a beer over to help me sleep, hehe. The next morning I woke up still feeling a little groggy but soo ready for the day to begin! One of my closest friends commented that I seemed so calm and collected while we were getting ready, and I remember feeling so happy and relaxed as if I already knew somehow that everything was going to go well that day.

One of the memories that sticks out the most in my mind was when we were driving back to the hotel from the hair salon, I started listening to a voicemail I received from one of my best friends that wasn't going to make it to the wedding since she was in another wedding that weekend. Little did I know that as I was tearing up listening to her message, she was on her way to surprise me! I don't think that I will ever forget the moment when my maid of honor walked up to me approximately 20 minutes or so before the start of our ceremony to tell me she has a surprise for me, then here comes April Nauss, one of my best friends with her hair still done up from the wedding she was in the day before! I shed a couple tears earlier when Matt and I had seen each other for the first time, but as soon as I saw April, I just lost it. The entire time i've been planning our wedding i've known that she wasn't going to be able to be there that day, and I always had a little twinge of sadness, but her making the drive that day was probably one of the best gifts and one of the best memories of that day!

Another moment that sticks out was right before my bridesmaids started walking down the aisle, my personal attendant Holly whispered in my ear, "Just look at Matt." Boy am I glad she said that! As soon as my dad and I started walking down the aisle to meet my groom, I looked out at the crowd and started tearing up and I thought I was going to cry, then I focused in on Matt and then everything was fine. I would like to thank all of our attendants, our pastor, the band, and everyone for coming to help make our day soo special. We would also like to thank our parents for everything that they did for us, all the love and guidance over the years that has shaped us into the people we are now. I personally thought that our wedding day was perfect and everything went smoothly and that our reception was possibly the best reception I had ever been to. The Pat O' Show kept everything running smoothly and it didn't follow the traditional schedule but it was refreshing and I loved it! I'm just soo excited to receive the rest of our wedding pictures back and for our honeymoon to Cabo in about 6 weeks!

One last update for this post, I started taking some classes to add to my skill sets and build up my resume. It's going well so far and I love my professor! I'm just excited and ready to start my kitchen and bath design course next semester! Oh and i'm also having a ton of fun decorating our house with all the gifts we received from my bridal showers and the wedding!
Continue reading Newlyweds!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Long time no blog :)

Well a lot of things have happened since my last post, which seems soo long ago. I am now doing my internship 3 days a week and I'm really liking it. I'm also starting to design and price out a few kitchens and bathrooms here and there. Looking at all the beautiful slabs of Granite in our warehouse make me really impatient to remodel our kitchen.

This past Friday night Matt, two of our friends and I attended Burns & McDonnell's 25 year celebration of employee ownership. It was held in downtown Kansas City, Mo; it was soo much fun getting all dressed up to go, and being there listening to the CEO of the company talk about what it takes to be an employee of Burns & McDonnell made me realize how fortunate we are that Matt has a job there and just how proud of him I am! After dinner there was dessert and dancing, it was soo much fun!





We haven't done too much else with the house since my last post, hopefully Matt will be done working overtime soon so we can finish a couple of the projects that we've started.
Continue reading Long time no blog :)

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Time to get motivated!

Man oh man I can NOT wait for spring to get here! So many new and exciting things to look forward to, one of which will be my first ever 10k in Lawrence, KS. I should have started training weeks ago, but kept putting it off because of the weather or bc I don't have a gym membership and plenty of other excuses I could come up with. With only 6 weeks away, I decided that I NEED to start training NOW. Soo to keep myself on track and motivated I will post each week on my training progress, today being day 2!

As for my internship, my first two days were a little overwhelming, but i'm still excited to learn more and it seems to be a good fit for me for now. I already started a few kitchen designs and can't wait to start building up my portfolio! It's only 2 days a week for now so i'll give you updates on everything that I absorb each week.

Yesterday Matt and I went to Home Depot and finally picked out trim for our 1/2 bath in the basement. That is the only thing left to put in for that project. I'm excited to get that finished and have one more project crossed off our to do list. Matt is also almost done with the trim for the window he cut in the wall between the kitchen & living room. Here's a picture of how it looks so far, I love it!




 While perusing through other design blogs, I found some great inspiration for side projects that I would like to tackle when I have the time and resources to do it.
Continue reading Time to get motivated!

Monday, February 28, 2011

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, job searching had been keeping me busy, then I found a job as a furniture sales associate at a local furniture store in the Kansas City area. After one month of working there, I decided that it wasn't for me, so yesterday was my last day there. In the past month I feel like i've made a life changing decision for myself, I'm soo tired of working at dead end jobs that I don't care about or working as a temp, i'm done with the ups and downs and constant stressing out about money and my job situation. I've been tossing this idea around for about a year or so but wanted to wait and see what 2010 was going to bring for me jobwise. I've made the decision that in 2011 i'm taking things into my own hands and going to make things happen for me, so I decided to go back to school this fall for kitchen and bath design. Just the other day I accepted an internship for a cabinet/sales design position. Now i'm just waiting to hear back from the community college to see if i've been accepted. I feel like things are finally starting to fall into place for me and i'm not wasting my time anymore, and boy is it a huge relief!

I'm extremely excited to go back to school after the wedding and i'm hoping i'll only have to take a few classes so I can be done in a semester or 2. I talked with an academic advisor in the Interior Design department at the college I would attend and she thinks i'll only need a few classes then i'll be able to work towards getting my AKBD Certification (Associate Kitchen & Bath Designer)!!

 The house work is coming along very slowly, Matt got his pool table put together with the help of friends and it looks awesome! His man cave is far from being finished, but it'll get there. As spring is getting closer i'm itching to get more projects done on the house, so pictures of our progress will be posted soon!

While browsing a few design blogs and finding random pictures, I though I would share some pictures that have caught my eye and I just fell in love with.
Our bedroom's color scheme is very similar to this one, I just love everything in this one!

Making beaten up furniture look new again with a fabric change & cleaning up the wood is another one of my favorite things!



I'll try to post at least once a week from now on! Hope everyone has a great day!
Continue reading

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Mantle Decorating

I was soo excited when my roommate told me that her mom needed a little decorating advice, she just moved into a new home and had a large mantle in their living area that was a little awkward and she doesn't quite know what to do with it. Here's a photo of how it currently looks.

And here are a few of my suggestions for her: First one they could put the tv on the mantle and center it, then get some vases of various shapes and sizes to place on either side. Second idea is that they could get a mirror that fits the space and lean it up against the center window, and place various frames and accessories on either side. They could also paint it a darker color to create an accent wall. I can't wait to see what she ends up doing with the space! Below are some pictures of other mantles that I fell in love with while searching for inspiration . . . also gave me some great ideas for our large mantle :)


 I love the large statement piece in this one.
Continue reading Mantle Decorating

Monday, January 3, 2011

Getting Crafty

     Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday celebrations, I sure did! I just wanted to share what i've been up to over the holiday's and also to share a few of my new year's resolutions. Number one on my list is to get back into shape, I want to live a healthier lifestyle and just feel good about myself. One of my motivations is a wedding dress that i'll have to fit into in about 8 months. Number two on the list is stay in better contact with family and friends. I love my family but don't get to see them as much as I would like to anymore since I live in Kansas City now. So since I won't be able to visit them as often, I plan on calling them more often to stay in contact with all my loved ones, as well as my closest friends. For number three I want to continue to push myself as a designer and artist and try to go outside of my comfort level to try new things and new medias to better myself and to continue to build on my portfolio. There are a few more resolutions that I would like to make for this year, but i'm keeping those private for now ;).

Painting and creating things are a couple of my favorite things to do. Painting is soothing and relaxing for me, and as I'm quickly finding out, is starting to become one of my favorite hobbies. It all started in my last semester of college (well actually in middle school but I never had the time and forgot how much I enjoyed it) and one of the last projects of my collegiate career. One of my favorite professors at Iowa State assigned us a fun project to end the stressful semester on. With this project we had to create a watercolor drawing as a discovery and design expression. Basically I chose two different sections of the floor plans of the hotel my partner and I designed and placed them next to each other. I then chose a color scheme related to the color scheme in our hotel. That was one of my most favorite projects and I had soo much fun working on it. Here was the finished product:
Once I finish designing my home office/design studio I'd like to frame this and hang it up. :)
     Then for Christmas 2009, I was short on money for gifts so I decided to make some of my gifts for family. Iowa State was my inspiration for my future father-in-law's gift. I thought it would be a great addition to their finished basement which is pretty much Greg's sweet man cave. This painting took me about a week and a half to draw and paint it. I finished the sides so it didn't need a frame but told him he could frame it anyway. This was my first time working with acrylics since middle school.
     For Christmas 2010, I'm painting Matt's gift. It's not finished yet but should be in the next week or so. His is a bit larger, it stretches over 3 canvases. I'm excited to see the finished product and i'll post pictures as well! I did create a photo holder for my future sister-in-law Sara. I was shopping in Hobby Lobby when I got the inspiration for this gift, it's soo easy to make too! Everything was bought at Hobby Lobby for under $10. The frame was a cheap one that I spray painted black, the fabric that I chose for the background was 30% off and I just hot glued it to a piece of cardboard then put it together.
     Then lastly I made myself a framed jewelry holder to hang on the wall. I had been wanting to get one for a while but didn't want to buy one since I figured it would probably be easy to make and cheaper than buying one. It's a great way to display necklaces and earrings and see what you actually have instead of fighting to untangle necklaces or trying to find mates to your earrings. I got the frame at Hobby Lobby and again painted it black, and I bought the wire at Home Depot. Here is the finished product!

I wish everyone good luck on their resolutions and I hope you enjoyed my creations! Feel free to leave comments on what you think of them or what I could do to improve them. I've been thinking about opening my own little shop on Etsy to sell the photo and jewelry holders. Thanks for stopping by!
Continue reading Getting Crafty