Dining Room Renovation

The dining room is FINALLY done!  WOHOOOO!  The furniture, accessories, & lighting have been in place for a while, but we just got the painting done!  I'm thoroughly loving the color, it's pretty fabulous, Lake is still warming up to it.  ;)

Dining Room Table & Buffet:  Ashley Furniture (circa 2008)

Mirror:  Not sure, we've had it a while

Chairs:  World Market, these took me FOREVER to find all of them!

Lamps:  Target

Vases, Flowers, Candle Holders, Plates & Bowls:  IKEA

Plate Chargers:  World Market

Chandelier:  Lamps Plus (Plano)

Guest Room Renovation

So this post is a long time coming but I've finally been able to sit down & get this done.  We spent lots of time putting together our new home & we absolutely love it!  One of my favorite rooms in the house is our "official" guest room, I say "official" because it won't change into anything else, mainly because it has it's own bathroom in it.    We went with gray & yellow as the color scheme.

Bed:  Ashley Furniture

Duvet/Duvet Cover/Bedding:  Bed, Bath, & Beyond

Throw Blanket:  West Elm

Frames:  IKEA

Photos in Frames:  Courtesy of our honeymoon in Paris (2008)

Nightstand:  Lamps Plus

Lamp/Chair/Mirrored End Table:  Target

More reno posts to come ;)

Oh My Goodness....I LIVE HERE! (and other realizations)

Yesterday, after an incredibly fun morning of volunteering at the Dallas Arboretum, which like seriously, if you've never been during "Blooms"...you have to go!

Spring at the Dallas Arboretum

Anyway, I was driving around doing house stuff (or as my bestie calls it, my foreman job!) and I went to look at a piece of furniture at a store location in Plano (Lamps Plus), when I got there, the piece that I wanted & had seen online wasn't available, but was in stock at their Dallas location.  I asked where it was, they told me & I was like...oh, I know how to get there, cool!  Hop into good 'ol Roxie, start making my way down 75 & of course there's a wreck, because...well, that's life here, so I make an exit around Mockingbird to avoid traffic & get to my location off of Knox....as I'm meandering on side streets to get to my location, I realize that I know exactly where I'm going & no longer need my Google Maps app.  (Side note:  before October all these streets & highways were GIBBERISH to me, so don't worry if you're confused)  As I pull up to the store, I think to myself, when did I become so acquainted with my new home?  When did I understand & remember where streets were in reference to where I am?  It was an odd feeling, it made me super happy & a little sad all at the same time.  Happy because this really does feel like home now, which may be an odd statement to say considering that we've lived here for almost 5 months now & getting to know this city has basically been a job for me.....but on the sad side of things it also made me miss SA, which I know, we don't live there anymore, I need to get over it, but still, I have slight pains at times of missing my former city....just like I still get pings of pain when I miss the Valley.  Moving is a funny thing, it's an awesome opportunity to get to know a whole new place, all new awesome people, but I think, for me, it's also made me appreciate the things about SA & the Valley that I love & when I do get to see those things again, makes me appreciate that time even more!

Maybe I'm being nostalgic because we are about to move into our new house on Tuesday, YES TUESDAY!  This entire process has taught me immense patience & also made me a granite expert, though I'd really rather NOT be!  As we bid farewell to our Addison apartment & say HELLO to our new home in the 'burbs I'm very grateful for all the past 5 months have brought to us, the good, the bad, the frustrating, and the wonderful moments are all apart of this new journey of ours.  I'm really excited to see what this next chapter brings!

Let's do this!

I think my "granite expertise" was well learned!  We
are in love with our new kitchen!

2014 - It'll Be a BIG Year!

That's a bold title, right?!  Well, if the rest of the year is anything like the first couple of weeks, than I completely stand by my statement.

Today is January 13th, not even two weeks have gone by during 2014 & A LOT has happened, A LOT!  Here goes:

On Monday, December 30th we finally found "our" house, we put in an offer on January 1st & it was accepted later that day.  So, if everything goes as planned, we'll be closing on the house on January 30th & then moving in, slowly at the end of February/March.  There's not much that we need or want to do to change the place up, but there's a couple of things here & there.  Ideally, we'd like to have any updates done before we move in.  We have the apartment lease until March 27th, so it's kinda nice we aren't super rushed to get out of here (even though we REALLY want to get out of here!).  The house is everything we said we didn't want, it's fairly new construction, it's in a new neighborhood, it's two-story, & bigger than we need for right now, but we just loved it, so maybe what you think you want, really isn't what you want.  Here are some pics:

 

With all that happening, that would probably make the first couple of weeks of a year seem crazy, right?  Nope, not crazy enough for us.  On Tuesday, January 7th I had a small outpatient surgical procedure to remove a cyst from my ovary, it was an hour long procedure, all is well, cysts were benign, things are looking good.  The recovery has been pretty OK, just trying to take it easy, which is proving to be harder than I expected.  And of course, the weather over the past couple of days has been absolutely gorgeous, which just makes me want to go RUN!  Yeah, that won't be happening until February, I did however go for a nice leisurely walk this morning (1 mile) & I'm just excited that I was able to do that.  It was the first time I'd gotten out to "exercise" since my great trip & fall during my first & only run of 2014, haha, that was quite epic.  But yeah, I'm feeling good & I'm so grateful to Lake & my mom for doing such an amazing job taking care of me & also all of my friends & family who called & texted last week to wish me well & check in on me, I'm very blessed.

So overall, I'm very HOPE-FULL for 2014, lots of things going on, still adjusting to our new home & city.  The move hasn't been the easiest thing but we are definitely getting adjusted & enjoying ourselves & through it all, the best part of it, aside from the new home, have been getting to know a whole new, awesome set of friends.....well, some old & some brand new, but all definitely awesome!  :)
HOPE is "my word" for 2014, rather than make a resolution, which I guess we did, just made a resolution to eat out LESS, Lake & I eat out way too much, so just trying to eat in & with a big new kitchen in our house that won't be too hard....but I also decided on an overall "word" for the year, and that word is hope.  Hope for so many things, some that I've thought of, some that probably haven't even crossed my mind yet.  So, cheers to 2014!  May the beginning of this year be just a glimpse at what amazing-ness is to come for Team Ellis & for all of our friends & family out there!!