Christmas Decorating

It's that time of year again! When I was growing up one of my favorite things to do was help my mom put up the Christmas tree and decorate it while watching a holiday movie and enjoying a cup of hot chocolate. Good memories! This year Matt and I finally have a place of our own to decorate for the holidays! We got our tree really cheap off of craigslist and my mom was generous enough to take me shopping for lights and ornaments. I decided that every year I want to have a slightly different color scheme, this year will be brown, green and red. Here are some pictures of my progress so far.

 

We found some cute reigndeer that matched the red bulbs on the tree, and of course theres an M and an A for Matt and Ashley. Hopefully next year there will be one more letter on the tree for a new puppy!

I was able to bring the leftover ornaments into the dining room decor by switching out the decorations in the table centerpiece. Next I would like to finish the tree with a tree topper, and to wrap some garland on the railing behind our couch.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with our leftover string of lights, I'm sure i'll think of something creative!

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Making progress . . .

So this past week has been pretty busy for us, last Friday Matt and I got our engagement pictures taken. We did a lot of nature ones at Shawnee Mission Park & then went to the Plaza to get some urban shots. I can NOT WAIT until we get them! Our photographer is talented and amazing and soo much fun to work with, I have no worries about our wedding pictures now. We should get our cd of them in the mail in about three weeks and i'll post my faves!!

We also reserved our ceremony location this past Monday!! It will be at Elmwood Park Grotto in Omaha, and the ceremony will start at approximately 3 pm. Things are definitely starting to come along with the wedding plans. As each thing that I can cross off my wedding planning checklist, I can relax a little more so I can focus on the next thing that needs to be done. The next thing on the agenda is finding a band, florist, and baker for the cake.

Luckily it was set up for a wedding so we could envision how it would be!

Totally switching gears now, Matt tore up our 1/2 bath in our basement and stripped the ugly wallpaper out, so this weekend i'll be able to prime and paint it. The mirror that was in there is the perfect size for the room and vanity, but the color was hideous, so I decided to paint the frame. It looks completely different and I love it!! I love being creative and being able to express it in my home and accessories. I have all these good ideas but unfortunately I don't have the income right now to make my ideas and dreams a reality, but i'm making the most of what I have :). I can't wait until the bathroom is all put together, I just need to find some new hardware for hand towels then it is donezo!

Frame before, plus hideous wallpaper

After! Can't wait to see it hanging again after I finish painting the 1/2 bath!

That is all I have for now, when the 1/2 bath is finally completed I will post more pics of all our hard work!

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Pumpkin Carvings

 Matt and I decided to get out of the house and go to the Johnson Farm Pumpkin Patch just south of Kansas City yesterday. After we looked through all the pumpkins and made sure that we found the perfect ones, we went straight home to carve them. I prepped the table as Matt searched for stencils online. Eventually he found one he loved and went straight to work. I drew mine free hand. After 2 whole hours of carving we were both finally finished, we still have a couple more to carve but we'll probably get to those later this week. I just wanted to share what we did yesterday! If you can't tell Matt carved Mario and I did a little ghost peeking out from behind a gravestone. It was hard work but lots of fun and I can't wait for our first Halloween being able to hand out treats to the trick or treaters in our new house!

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Before & Afters

Ok well here goes my fist ever blog post. Matt and I have been updating the house that we moved into in March and I thought I would share our progress so far. While I was fixing up the interior, Matt has been busy working on the outside, specifically the deck. He has power washed it, rebuilt the railings, sanded it down and stained it. It's taken him all summer long to do it, but it looks amazing now! We are far from being finished but it is definitely coming along and feeling more like home! As our progress continues i'll post more pictures!

Ugly floral wallpaper in guest bathroom

Guest Bath After :)

Matt is currently building a frame for the mirror & bought a new vanity to replace this one.

Living/Dining Before

Deck before Matt & Jared stained it

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