The Luckiest Girl in the World

Here are some photos from my son's 1st birthday in November. This was a mini session we did with Kristen Gonzales. She did an amazing job, and we had such a wonderful time during the shoot. I hope we are able to continue capturing such great moments in our lives throughout the years. I really do believe that beautiful photographs really completes a home. I hope to cover my walls with portraits of all my family members in the years to come.

There are two things I believe everyone should invest money in:

1. A good hair stylist and color expert

2. An amazing photographer

The Monster Bash

Photos from my little monster's bash!

Photographed by our friend Kristen Gonzales, and cake by Cupcake Hearts.

Home.

Our front door

My cow creamer from Target!

Found the perfect bird feeder to hang from our tree

We have officially moved into our new home. Above are a few photos of some items I am very excited about. Welcome home Eric and Julian! That chair is staying very full.

Update

Kitchen

Master Bedroom

Living Room

View into kitchen

Every Girl's Dream.

Excuse the ugly light!

Excuse the ugly paper bag!

We have a brand new walk-in closet!!!

The garage had a sturdy loft against our bathroom wall, so what we did was opened up the wall in our bath and built a walk-in closet by using the existing loft.  My husband insisted we do this because we LOVE our clothes and shoes. He is very fashionable. So here it is courtesy of my amazing in-laws Mai and Scott, and a lot of persisting from my husband Eric.

You were right honey. It was a great idea.

Decisions, decisions.

Rustic laminate I chose for our floors.

Cashmere White granite to match my white kitchen!

This is the reason making decisions is so hard.

All the blues are beginning to look the same!

The past couple of weeks have been non-stop Home Depot and various flooring, tile, and granite shop visits. I get very overwhelmed by the abundance of choices they have of nearly everything. Especially paint. They people at Kelly Moore know me now on a first name basis. I even have my own compete Kelly Moore color swatch book courtesy of my father-in-law. This has only made things a little bit harder since the choices seem even more endless!

These are my choices so far:

Trim, Molding, and Doors: Swiss Coffee

Kitchen Cabinets and Bead Board: Swiss Coffee Dura Poxy

Downstairs Bath:  Sierra Spring

Bathroom Walls: Antique White

Living Room Walls: Star of the Garden

Dining Room and Kitchen: Blue Green Gem

Master Bedroom: Sierra Spring

Julian's Bedroom: Star of the Garden and Antique Orange (Behr) under the chair rail.

Progress!

 Us covered in paint!

It has been 2 weeks so far. The contractors have been making a lot of progress.

Things that are left:

1. Carpet installation

2. Finishing the recessed lighting

3. Caulking the bathrooms

4. Caulking the baseboards

5. Floors

6. Kitchen

7. Granite

8. Finish painting the vanities

9. Installing door knobs

The largest feat has been painting. I feel like I have been painting forever. It never seems to end, and the high ceilings definitely do not help, but once the paint is on, the difference is HUGE. I really appreciate everyone who has come to help us in our new venture. Keeping that chair full!

COOK.

The first thing that must go is the kitchen! I want my kitchen to be white like a country cottage. I have TONS of shabby chic and vintage items from my wedding that I plan to decorate my new house with so I am completely changing my living decor. They motto is "white and light!"

Here are a couple inspiration photos of what I have in mind:

Eric and I are very lucky because his best friend, David, (who happens to be married to my best friend) is a custom cabinet craftsman. He can build anything, and his work is amazing! So obviously we hired him to help us make our kitchen into a reality. Obviously, what David would really love to do is tear everything out and start new, but we are on a tight budget so David has thought up some great ideas to help us save money.


1. Keep top cabinets and simply refinish.
2. Completely brand new bottom cabinets. Our old ones didn't seem secure enough for granite. David went ahead and made these and painted them in 2 days!!!
3. Get all new doors. David happened to have extra bottom cabinet doors from his place when they first moved into their new home, so all we needed to order was new top doors!
4. Crown molding.