Update coming soon...

As of last night, I am officially caught up on thank you notes! I made a deal with myself that I wouldn't blog or upload photos to facebook until I was completely caught up.  While, a few weeks ago, I felt like I was drowning in a sea of never ending thank you notes, I am now officially caught up! 

Stay tuned, I will be posting about the latest happenings with wedding showers, wedding planning, and house remodeling soon!  And.... guess who is getting out the paint brushes again this weekend! We are having a painting party on Saturday if anyone wants to join.  I have already lured Whitney in with the promise of low-carb meals for the whole weekend in exchange for her manual labor.

Seagrass Rug

I've been on the hunt for area rugs lately. James' house has really pretty hardwoods throughout, and what better way to dress them up than with an area rug. Upon a suggestion from my soon to be sister in law (45 more days till I'm officially an "O"!), I checked out www.naturalarearugs.com. They have some awesome prices, and I heard good things about the company from Jenny, so I ordered one for the dining room area.

I was a little nervous about ordering online-- was I going to pay a ton for shipping? was it going to get ruined during the delivery? what if it looked totally different once it finally arrived?-- clearly I'm not a worrier at all...

I really didn't have any reason to fret--the website offers free shipping for all orders over $49, so shipping was free. It got delivered rolled up like a burrito, no damages or defects, and it looks great! Not to mention, a 6'x9' rug only cost $109!

We are so happy with it, we will probably be ordering another one for the living room. Here are a few pictures:

I feel as though I should explain why part of the wall in the back ground of this third picture is plywood so that you guys dont think we are trailer trash... That is the area where the built in shelves will go and while it looks like plywood from afar it is actually un-painted wainscoting. My dad and James are going to build shelves with cabinets on the bottom half for storage. I'm hoping it will be a nice display area, while also serving a functional storage purpose. I am hoping it will turn out kind of like this inspiration picture:

Indecisive...

So, remember this post about all the Olympic paint drama, and me wanting to change the paint color of the foyer? Well, I am being a typical girl indecisive, and am not 100% certain that I like the new paint color for the foyer. It is still a bit too peachy for my linking.

Obviously, James is just thrilled about this latest development. While he isn't too crazy about helping me re-paint the foyer, he does know me well and he knows that if we don't change the color I'm going to say something about the paint color every time I walk into his house. In about 45 days, I will be walking in and out of that very same foyer every single day... so I'm thinking we may be putting our painting clothes back on one of these upcoming weekends. Oh joy!

It's The Final Countdown!

53 days till the wedding! I don't think I can contain my excitement!

With the wedding only being 53 days away I am starting to realize that all the "little" things I have been saying I have plenty of time to do need to get done! Here is my current to do list before the "I-Do's":

• Select ceremony songs & readings


• Figure out wedding favors


• Welcome bags for out of town guests


• Bridesmaids Luncheon


• Wedding day transportation


• Practice wedding up-do


• Wedding day make-up


• Final Dress Fitting


• Marriage License

I am absolutely certain there are 123891928 things I am leaving off the list, as the "official" list is at home. But...as they say, proper planning prevents poor performance. I better get to checking these items off the to-do list!

Live & Learn

Like many Saturday afternoons, James and I found ourselves at Lowes this afternoon. You see, there has been a paint color in James' house that's really been getting on my nerves lately.... if a paint color can get on your nerves? It wasn't nearly as bad as the neon green bathroom. I think it was the previous owners attempt at a neutral color, but in my opinion the color had a bit too much of a pinky hue for my liking. This pinky-neutral color was painted in the foyer, & hallways & clearly had to go. So, we deliberated over paint colors:

Actually, I shouldn't say "deliberated". Picking the color was pretty easy. James and I basically just held each paint sample up to the current colors in the house and very quickly said "yes" or "maybe" to each color, then narrowed our maybes down to one yes. Thank goodness we have similar taste, or else there may have been more of a drawn out deliberation process. As soon as we got back to the house, I started painting the foyer, while James was fixing a few problem areas in the sheetrock in another area of the house.

The new paint color in the foyer really isn't drastically different from what was already there, sans the pinky hues.

Some of you may have been wondering by now why this blog post is entitled "Live & Learn". Well, you see, James and I don't have a ton of experience painting with this being our first house. After today, we have definitely lived and learned when it comes to what kind of paint to buy. When looking for potential paint colors, I just grabbed a bunch of paint colors from all different paint brands. The one we chose just happened to be an Olympic paint color. BIG mistake, BIG, HUGE. While everything turned out well in the end, the paint was not our favorite going on. The paint was thin, didn't mix well, the colors in the paint kept separating, meaning we had to keep re-mixing and stirring the paint and it went out very splotchy. All in all, the project turned out fine, but we will probably go with a different brand of paint on our next painting project. Here are some pictures of the finished product. I even found a home for some prints I found back in December- YAY!