Housewarming Ideas

Okay...I know I'm getting a little ahead of myself because we haven't bought a house yet but I was perusing Pinterest and stumbled upon some adorable housewarming ideas that I couldn't resist sharing. (wow that was a long sentence...whew..)

Moving Announcements/Invitations

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Party Ideas

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Guest Baskets

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Making Memories

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Have you ever hosted a housewarming party? I'd love to hear about it :)

If you've been following along, you'll remember that I shared a challenge Tim and I decided to take on in 2014. We are donating to a different charity each month and Charity: Water was our January selection. 
I first learned about Charity Water my senior year of college. We were to select an organization (from a list) to design an office space for. After watching one of Charity water's promotional videos, I knew this was the one! If that doesn't inspire you, I don't know what will. They are doing great things and I am happy to help in any way that I can.

You can keep up with them here:
website/blog/facebook/ twitter

My Spring and Summer

I know we are WAY into Spring but I still wanted to share this with you! I always need to have some goals written down so I will actually get things done :) Some are related to the seasons, some aren't.

I am also thinking about doing a 101 in 1001 list! We shall see....

Coming soon: 

• A recipe for Peach Frozen Yogurt
• May Design Collaboration
• My Birthday Wishlist

You may have missed: 

• Bedroom Reveal
• Home is Where Your Mom Is
• Jackie's Inspiration

What is on your bucket list this Spring/Summer??

Spring

• get beach (ok probably just the pool) body ready
• sign up for Zumba or Step? (see above)
• do some "spring cleaning" (basically donate some stuff/clothes)
• volunteer
• re-pot some plants
• go camping (and make smores)
• start some traditions with the husband
• go to the Farmer's Market
• join a small group at church
• run a 5k

Summer

• be in 2 awesome weddings
• celebrate our 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY
• celebrate my 23rd birthday
• go to a lot of the RVA festivals
• country concerts (enough said)
• make homemade ice cream
• use the grill more often
• have a successful blogger meet-up (working on this)
• make some new friends in the area
• go to a drive-in movie theater
• go star-gazing

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My Blog Bestie and What I Do

Day 5, Sunday: Publicly profess your love and devotion for one of your blogger friends. What makes them great? Why do you love them? If you don't have blogger friends, talk about a real-life friend or even a family member

Can you guess who this is going to be? As much I talk about her I wouldn't be surprised. Before I brag on my BLOG BESTIE I want to also say that there are MANY many other bloggers that I have become great friends with and if I could talk about each of you I would. So now I will profess my love for Veronica @ Passion, Pink and Pearls. She emailed me shortly after I started blogging and asked if I wanted to swap buttons and told me how to make a button!! We emailed back and forth for a long time and I realized we always had something new to talk about. Finally one day I asked if she wanted to skype? So we did and guess what? She is one of the sweetest, most cheerful and kind hearted girls I have ever "met" and I do plan to ACTUALLY MEET her one day (hopefully sooner rather than later) :) We text each other almost every day and I am constantly discovering more and more things that we have in common. Now we have exchanged addresses and she will be receiving some mail from me shortly! So glad to know you girl!

Day 6: With out saying what your job is, what do you do?

What I do:

I love.

I comfort and cuddle.

I talk and listen.

I cook.

I eat...and eat.

I blog.

I shop.

I succeed and fail.

I laugh and cry.

I pray.

I create.

I dream.

I work and rest.
I dance and sing.

I teach and learn.

I am ME!

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Borrowed and Blue FEATURE

Guess what?? Our wedding is being featured over at Borrowed and Blue as wedding of the week! Go check that out ASAP! And if you want to see more of our wedding, head over {here}

I "met" Brielle through her blog Mr. D and Me. And now she has this event planning business and a very cute Etsy shop that even sells blog designs! Whew, I bet she stays busy!! Go on over and say hi to her :) And you can even submit your own wedding to be featured!!!

Goals Update for February (I know....I'm behind)

Here are those goals I mentioned I would be working on for 2013. I've given you an update after month 1, am I doing any better? Let's see!

1. Eat healthier Have to admit that I am not really doing this...its not quite as bad as around Christmas time but I know I can do better (less sweets and soda)
2. Exercise once more Still been trying to get to the gym twice a week. But I got a good workout helping some friends move last weekend.
3. Read 12 books (1 per month-gotta start small) Divergent was my month 2 book. Waiting on the second one from the library. Tempted to just buy it though.
4. Try more new recipes- Still need some new ideas. Trying to not eat the same things weekly/bi-weekly though
5. Make and order our wedding album Yikes...someone MAKE ME DO THIS
6. Be a better friend -yes, however I would love to send some of my friends some snail mail (packages would be better..too bad I'm poor haha)
7. Travel more - Visited our parents, went to Blacksburg and going to D.C. soon. I would say that is plenty for now.
8. Be more active at church -we've been going pretty much every week but I still want to get involved in a bible study. I think this would help me keep God in the forefront throughout the week.
9. Get more organized and get rid of clutter - Need to do some spring cleaning! and get rid of some old clothes when I switch them out. Otherwise we are pretty organized.
10. Do more DIY projects- gonna be soon once its warmer :D already have a few in mind!!
11. Blog more efficiently- This I am doing. I will try and pick down times to just write a bunch of posts and schedule them. And also responding to comments through email is much faster.
12. Do more for others-trying to think of ways to do this...my brides- let me know if you need ANYTHING! I know how stressful that can be!
13. Budget wisely-pretty proud of where we are with this...can't wait to get our tax return to pay off a loan!!

What are some suggestions you have to help me stick to my goals? What are some goals of yours for this year??

Happy Monday!

New Look..

Did you notice something different about visiting my blog this time?? I decided it was time for a unique, new look. My lovely friend Sara gave me some great suggestions on design/layout and so I built up the courage to just dive right into Photoshop and try it myself. 

I wanted a brighter, cleaner look. And I definitely think it is more "ME" I knew I had to incorporate teal, some sparkle, navy, chevron and the citron was the perfect balance. The new about me section is much easier to read and the text area is much wider allowing for bigger pictures!! I was joking with my friend Veronica about having my own blog design business, but who knows with some practice ;)

My new button I am going to add to my sponsor page soon!

What do you think? Did you notice the color scheme is from the Office Mood Board I posted last week? 

Hope all of you readers had a wonderful weekend...we visited our parents this weekend and it was very relaxing! Now I can't wait to watch the Walking Dead tonight! If you think I am crazy for this, I would highly recommend giving it a chance first! Haha and if you do watch the show, you should take this funny quiz! Any guesses on which character I was??

I also just finished reading Divergent by Veronica Roth. I am waiting to get the second book Insurgent from the Nook library. If you liked the Hunger Games, I would definitely recommend this book.

Get excited for what's coming to the "new" blog this week:

Bedroom Mood Board- linking up with Design Your Dwelling

Design Dilemmas- rug options and new accessories

and possibly another Wedding Wednesday or The Newlywed Game link-up!

Goals update

If you haven't taken my blog survey yet, PLEASE do so {here}. It only takes a minute...Don't make me beg!

We "Decked the Halls"

After envying many bloggers homes decorated for Christmas I have finally decided to share mine :) I've already shown glimpses of our apartment in it's Christmas spirit, but I want to show the whole shebang together. I love that I can document this so that next year I can see how I had it and make changes/add new things. Do you have any special traditions for decorating your home/tree? Any sentimental ornaments? I love that its our first married Christmas and we get to start new traditions and memories! So here we go...

First up is the kitchen:

Love my penguin from Pier One! Buy it here

This worked out perfectly for my teal dishes!

Can you see me??

Next is the tree!

attempting to be artsy...haha

The topper!

 EEEEKKK!! Its sooo pretty :)

And for the rest of the living room:

transitioning from fall to winter!

my beautiful velvet Target tree!

 For the doors:

Happy Holidays sign-get a similar one here

My beautiful wreath that Olivia made me!

Still missing pictures of a few things such as the stockings and I want to do a pretty christmas tablescape (not sure if that will happen??)

Days 12 & 13 of Photo Challenge:

Day 12:

YAY! We finally started watching Season 6 last which means new episodes!!!

Day 13:

One of my favorite decorations! It's actually an ornament but I like to hang it on the door :)

and p.s. I made a new signature for the blog (see it below)

linking up with: