Patterns & Colors

It's thunderstorm central in Katy, TX tonight so I decided to pour myself a glass of wine and redo my blog design. Pretty happy with how it turned out. I've been slightly obsessed with the background pattern, and the color gray (since I'm redoing our bedroom in gray + yellow) so both reflect the current me. Since Nick has been gone I've spent a lot of time watching HGTV, SVU marathons (guilty pleasure) and living on Pinterest. 2 out of the 3 have given me lots of ideas for room/home decor, and I can't wait to put those ideas into action. The two things I'm drawn the most to is:

Stripes & Gray

I'm thinking about doing a striped bathroom upstairs (the only place Nick will let get away with it) and a striped accent wall in Eli's room. I'm doing gray in the Master bedroom and possibly the guest. The guest room is debatable because I want to do a whole house color scheme, but Nick and I can't agree on colors.

I like:

The only problem is both these palettes feature variations of blue and Nick can't quite get past the color. The story behind that is because our bedroom is sea foam green but looks more blue -and we hate it. So I'm still trying to sell him on the dark teal blue color. Particularly this one:



The room is painted in Martha Stewart's Plumage.

I realllllly want this color in the study or dining room. But for now, it will just exist on my idea boards until we get closer to moving in or Nick approving the color. Hopefully the latter comes first. Still working on my idea boards, they change daily so when I get around to making up my mind I'll post. Now off I go to daydream more about patterns, colors and my new house.

Building Our Home: What Goes Into a Home

The most overwhelming part about building a home is choosing what goes into a home. Kitchen cabinets, bathroom cabinets -what color for the cabinets, what kind of wood? wood flooring - real or laminate? Counter tops - granite or silestone? Faucets - chrome or brushed nickel? Things I've never even thought of before have been dominating my thoughts for the past week. Since we signed the purchase agreement on the house, we've been going over a pricing sheet for every possible upgrade we could make on our home. The whole process was a bit overwhelming because there is so much to choose from and you have free reign to do whatever you want. As long as you can afford it. And with our taste, we are always drawn to the most expensive stuff but we had to be realistic and compromise. After several lists, google images & some serious 'sleeping on it'...we made our final decisions, all of which I'm very proud of!

Interior.

Exterior.

Overall, I'm really proud of what we chose. I have complete confidence that all of our decisions will produce the most beautiful house I could ever dream of. Everything is very cohesive & gives you that warm, welcome home feeling. Plus we were able to get pretty much everything we wanted and stay within our budget!! (Yay! *pat on the back*) Don't get me wrong the experience was definitely fun, challenging at times, but fun. I mean who wouldn't want to decorate their house from the inside out? But I have to admit what I'm looking forward to the most is the decorating!! Now the hardest part...waiting!!

But before I go,

Happy 5 months to my little man.

love him to pieces.

Building Our Home: A Dream Come True

Exciting news.....We're building our dream home!! It all happened so fast, so I'll start from the beginning before sharing all the details.

A week ago we began the hunt for our future home. We just extended the lease on the patio home we're living in, giving us 6 months to find the perfect house. We knew we were looking for a 1 to 1.5 story, 3/4 bedrooms + study, large kitchen, open floor plan, in a community neighborhood. First stop was Fairfield. We looked at 6-7 houses on the first day & by the end only 2 really stood out. The last house we saw was a model home & that was when the option of building came up. Originally I hadn't really thought about it but after the first mention, building a house started sounding like a better fit for us. Especially since we had the time frame. But nevertheless, we continued the house hunt. Day 2, we explored spring cypress/tomball and fell in love with a model home. As soon as I walked in the house, I had a good feeling. Open floor plan, 3 bedroom, study and a game room (I really wanted a game room but wasn't going to allow it to be a deal breaker). Upgraded kitchen + awesome incentives. Everything was perfect, except the neighborhood wasn't really what we wanted and there was only 1 lot available to build for that floor plan. Even though we really liked the house, we didn't want to rush ourselves into such a huge decision. So we slept on it and continued to look. That evening our realtor called us and said she had found our dream home. It was the same builder as the model home we loved, but in a better neighborhood and better incentives. However, she wanted to keep the neighborhood a surprise. I couldn't wait so I googled and found out the neighborhood was Blackhorse Ranch South. I'd never been in the neighborhood but I knew it was nice because it was a community neighborhood with a golf course. By this point we were sold, the house we wanted & in the ideal neighborhood. However, the builder had another floor plan that we might be interested in. When we went to view this floor plan, the house was in the middle of construction. All there was to see was the actual frame of the house & dry wall. Even so, I knew that this was our dream house. It was perfect. The search was over for me, but Nick felt everything was happening so fast & we needed more time to think about it. There wasn't much to think about because we both knew it was everything we wanted and more. Plus they had great incentives, upgraded kitchen with stainless steel appliances included. As if that wasn't enough, they threw in a sprinkler system if we signed that weekend. And that was all it took. Next day we went to sign the purchase agreement for our new home!!

Our SOLD lot for our future home :)

And now for the details...

Here is the floor plan for the 1st story.

The first story alone is around 2500 sq. ft. Plus we decided to add the optional bonus plan which includes a loft, full bath and 4th bedroom. So the total sq. ft. will be around 3100 when it's all said and done. It's definitely more house than we need right now but it gives us plenty of room to grow into as our family grows. And I have SO many ideas. I'm already driving Nick crazy with all my idea boards for all the different rooms. The expected completion date is December 15 so we should be moved in just in time for Christmas! Probably the most expensive Christmas gift I'll ever get! I just can't believe what a fairytale it has been. To find a home so quickly and it be everything I've dreamt of and more -is just unreal! I can't say I know many other 22-year-olds who get to build their dream home. I really am extremely grateful for this huge blessing God has given us. I know for sure it wouldn't have been possible without the big man upstairs. We prayed for him to lead us in the direction he wanted us to go and we ended up in Blackhorse! Amen to that!!

The end result.

Look for pictures of the building process + my idea boards for the many rooms!

The end of my childhood & the beginning of another

As many of you know, I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan & this weekend was the release of the final film in the HP series. I'm a true, die hard fan meaning I read the books before the craze of the movies. I read the first book in 5th grade and the final book after I graduated high school. As I grew up, Harry grew up and became a huge staple in my childhood. Even though the book series ended 4 years ago, this final film marked the end of my childhood. It was a bittersweet feeling sitting in the theatre, awaiting for the movie to start knowing this would be the last time I would attend a midnight premiere or be able to see the characters I've come to love on the big screen. It's so much more than a book or a movie though. As weird as it may seem, the characters have become my friends over the years. We've grown up together, I've experienced their highs & lows, and related to them. After the movie, I was so sad. I felt like apart of my childhood had just died and it was true. Although I am sad that I won't be able to look forward to another book or movie involving Harry, I'm looking forward to sharing such a huge part of my childhood with Elijah. I'm planning on rereading the series by reading them to him. Not anytime soon, but once we begin reading bedtime stories Harry will be the first pick. When I was a toddler, my mother's friend read me the Hobbit every night. I think that was the book that sparked my imagination and my love for fantasy novels. I want to give him the same experience and allow him to find his own love for reading. So as I say goodbye to my childhood, I embrace my sons. I hope he will love the books as much as I have. If not, as least I can share that special part of my childhood with him and no matter what "the stories we love best, live in us forever." -J.K. Rowling.

(From Left to Right: Me & my fellow Potterhead/bestie, Lany. We've gone to the last 4 films together. Me 5 months pregnant with Elijah. And the most recent, me before the final midnight premiere.)

Speaking of the little one...

He is 4 months old today!

(yes, that is an HP onesie :P)

He's growing SO fast!! It seems like just yesterday he was a little, fragile bundle of love. Now he's vocal, kicking, chewing, drooling, sitting, rolling & sucking his precious little thumb. He's still my bundle of love but not so little anymore. He even holds his own bottle!! Before I know it, he'll be all grown up and won't need his momma anymore :( Sike, he'll always be my little momma's boy. And he's looking more & more like his Daddy every day. I tell people that he has his momma's eyes & his Daddy's looks. I just love everything about him.  

Getting Fit

You may have noticed on Facebook that I am attempting to get back in shape. I started a boot camp class 2 weeks ago, and have only made 2 classes out of the 2 weeks. Last week was more of a struggle because Nick was going out of town & Eli wasn't feeling well. But now I feel worse about my body than before. I read in all the books during my pregnancy the changes your body goes through adjusting to carrying a baby before, during & after. Yet, for some reason I thought I would be one of the lucky ones & the weight would just shed off after birth and during nursing. WRONG.

I gained 50 lbs during my pregnancy. I'm not proud of it and my biggest regret was not exercising while pregnant. Everyone warned me, "Be careful what you eat.", "Make sure your walking." But I told myself, this is the one time I can get away with eating what I want and people won't judge me. Little did I know that I would be paying for it ten fold afterwards. I have lost 20 lbs since Eli was born but have yet to lose anymore. I've been watching what I've been eating but I haven't been hardcore about it. Signing up for the bootcamp classes was supposed to motivate me but somehow it intimidated me. It made me realize how out of shape I really am and the long road ahead of me. I've come to terms that I won't ever have the body I once had. Some women bounce back from pregnancy like it was nothing, others look better than before baby. Not in my case, but that's okay because the end result was way worth it. I can accept that my body won't be the same, but I won't compromise that I always have to be this way. I may not be able to erase stretch marks, but I can lose the unnecessary weight & that's what I plan to do.

I'm not writing to feel sorry for myself but more so I can look back on this during my journey to getting back in shape as I reminder of how far I've come. My goal is to lose 50 lbs, do 30 mins of cardio a day and attend at least 3 bootcamp classes a week. I purchased 2 months of classes in advance so I have 7 weeks of classes left to go. I will be updating my progress along the way. My motivation is feeling better about myself and setting an good example for Eli.

Today is Day 1 of Getting Fit. Off to Bootcamp class I go!

Elephants, tigers, and lions, oh my!

So the circus is coming to town and I know it's forever away but its got me thinking about Eli's first birthday party. As soon as I began my elephant fetish for his nursery, I knew that I wanted his first birthday to be circus themed. I mean, who doesn't love the circus? It's so fun, colorful and there are so many creative decor possibilities! Not to mention the awesome goodies...cotton candy, popcorn & peanuts! I may have to go while the circus is in town. (for research of course! ;))

Call me crazy but I just can't wait!!

(I'm a party planner...can you blame me!)

Sweet Summertime

Summertime just isn't official until you put on your swimsuit for the first time. So this weekend we officially started summer by taking our first beach trip. Growing up, I have the fondest memories of the beach. My mother loved the beach and passed that love onto me and my sister. I hope that Eli will grow to love it too.

Our little Panama Jack

Mimi & Munchkin

Fast asleep to the sound of real waves.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th!