Wedding Gift

One of my sorority sisters got married this past summer and when I saw this on Pinterest, I knew I wanted to do something like it for her gift.

Source: occasionsonline.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Here's my take:

Basically the idea is to put a bunch of bottles of champagne in a gift basket and put a little tag on each one telling them when to drink it.  I put a note on the front that kind of explained the gift (it didn't print well and I waited until the last minute so I couldn't really get it right.)  

The one with the baby tag is sparkling grape juice and the others were different types of reasonably priced champagne.  I used some washi tape from Target to embellish the tags.  The basket is from Hobby Lobby--it needs to be something sturdy enough to hold the bottles.  You can't really tell from these pictures but instead of using tissue, I used extra bridesmaid dress fabric (the dresses we picked were long but we had them altered to be knee length since it was a summer wedding).

It was really a super easy gift to put together and I loved how it turned out.  You could customize it to the couple really easily.  Sorry my pictures aren't better.  I forgot to photograph it at home so had to snap a few quick pictures during the shower.

Life

Hey friends!

Sorry for my absence the last couple of weeks just after I got things going again.  I had something come up that pretty much shut me down for a couple of weeks.  Its not something I want to talk about just yet because the situation isn't fully resolved yet.  I'm trying really hard to let go and let God handle the situation.  I know that He is trying to teach me really great things out of this whole ordeal and I have been trying to reflect on that instead of worrying. 

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.  We were busy, of course, but enjoyed the weekend.  I'm pretty sure that Christmas will be here before we know it and then 2013 will bring a fresh start.  I personally plan on using the new year to get a few different areas of my life a little more sorted out.  Some of them are big projects, some not so much, but I'm thinking I will probably share some of them here with you all.

So that's more or less (probably less) of what's going on here.  Here's a little something to think about for this week:

Source: redletterwords.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Cinco de Mayo

Once upon a time we had a Cinco de Mayo party.  Back in May.  I took pictures of it for a blog post and never wrote it.  Better late than never right?

This was so long ago I can't even remember what we ate.  Probably tacos.  Whenever I think of Cinco de Mayo I think of the party the people in my study abroad program threw for our British friends when I was in England.  It was an epic party complete with hillbilly margaritas (we could not for the life of us figure out how to make a good margarita with the ingredients available to us so one of the guy's mom saved the day and sent us a recipe that used beer--it was delicious) and Mexican wrestling (our British friends managed to convince school officials that it was an American tradition so they should not force us to stop despite the fact that we were creating a ruckus outside at night during exam time).

Queens Wing kids--those were the days

Anyway back to this year.  Apparently all I took pictures of are the drinks.  It may be more accurate that the only pictures that survived my computer crash are those of the drinks.  Either way, here you are:

Margaritas and limes--a Cinco de Mayo staple

 The whole set up.  I put a white sangria type drink in the drink stand.  And a sneak peak at our old coffee station (I have since rearranged a time or two)

If I had the resources (money and storage space) I would serve drinks in mason jars at every party.  The straws are from Target. 

Check back soon to see what other random pictures I find on my computer to post :)

Alex's Birthday Party

So Alex had a birthday.  Back in June.  I threw him a birthday party.  I took pictures for a blog post and never wrote it.  Better late than never, right?  I procrastinated a little too much and didn't get quite as much done as I would of liked but it was fun none the less.  The party was beer themed because Alex likes beer.

I cheated and ordered cupcakes for dessert.  I got a Groupon for a place that delivered and let Alex pick the flavors.  They were delicious.  The Boulevard (a local brewery) thing came from my dad.  I'm not sure if it was originally supposed to hold bottles or candles or what.  It held the cupcakes nicely.

Dinner was hot dogs and a topping bar. Think of it kinda like all those new frozen yogurt shops but with hot dogs instead of ice cream.  I picked that because it was relatively cheap, relatively easy and did not require me to turn on the oven (it was hot this summer).

The little bowls came from Target.  I was going for the colors in the Boulevard logo as my color scheme.  The table decorations were kind of lame but I just used whatever I could find.

The idea was that everyone would bring a six pack or so to share so people could try different beers.  That didn't go so well but I think that was partly because we didn't push the issue.  I set up the drink station with small glasses for tasking and big glasses for full beers.  Plus a bowl full of lemons because I like lemon in my beer.  And bottle openers too.

I had stuff to play games (drinking games) but we didn't end up doing anything other than sitting around and chatting.  It was a fun party (I had fun at least) and we got to hang out with some pretty cool people.  Anytime Alex gets to talk to people he's a happy camper.  :)

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Being a Grown Up Kind Of Sucks

Sorry for the long absence friends.  I've been dealing with some grown up growing pains lately and have been having a hard time getting my thoughts sorted out.  I've also kind of been having a blogging identity crisis but I think I've finally come to terms with what I want to do.

So what's new?  Mostly just being really busy living and trying to figure out life.

One of my big projects right now is trying to get a healthier.  I've spent the last year trying to make up for being socially deprived during law school and a result, I've put on some weight.  But I'm working on it and will probably share a little about that along the way.

Hope everyone is having a great day and happy first day of basketball season!

A Day in My Life

One of the blogs I read is doing a day in the life link up and I thought, hey that's something I can do that doesn't require any pictures so I don't have to be at my laptop.  My poor laptop has been super neglected since my boss decided we needed iPads for work.  So here you go:

6:20--My first alarm on my phone goes off.  I used to pretend that I actually got up when this happened but now I'm more honest with myself and really this alarm just wakes me up.  I use this time to wake up slowly, pray or fall back asleep. 

6:40--My alarm clock starts going off.  This is (sort of) my actual cue to get out of bed.  What actually happens is that by now, Alex's two alarms have gone off.  If he gets up with his alarm, then I get out of bed halfway through his shower so I can take a shower when he is done.  Sometimes if he was slow getting out of bed and needs to shave, I will shower first because I can get my whole shower in before he is done shaving. 

7:00--On a good morning I am out of the shower by now.  If its a late morning I'm just getting in the shower.  Then I get dressed, do my hair (which means I brush it and put mousse in it) and wipe down the sink and toilet in the master bath.  Then I move to our guest bath to do my make-up and wipe down the sink and toilet in there.  Wiping down the bathrooms takes two seconds in the morning and means that if we have unexpected company the bathrooms aren't gross.

7:15-7:45--Breakfast gets made by whoever got to the kitchen first, we pack our lunches and coffee/drinks for the day (I take two water bottles to work with me plus whatever I am drinking that morning) and if we have time eat breakfast and watch the news.  If not breakfasts get packed up to take to work.  If by some miracle I have extra time I will pick up or switch laundry or something like that.  Then I make sure I have my stuff for the day and head out a few minutes after Alex.

8:00-4:30--Work.  I work at a tiny law firm so what I do every day varies a lot.  Sometimes it is research, sometimes writing a memo or drafting pleadings, sometimes I go to court or do a million other things.

4:30--Leave work.  Here is where things get interesting.  If I am going straight home it only takes me 15 or 20 minutes depending on traffic.  Sometimes I will run an errand or go to the gym on my way home.  If we are having dinner at home I will start cooking when I get home and usually put on some trashy TV and empty the dishwasher/deal with laundry until Alex gets home a little before 6. Then we eat and he cleans up the dishes (whoever does not cook cleans up).  Then we will either run errands or maybe hang out at home and watch TV or go to they gym together if neither of us has been yet that day. 

If something is going on that night, like we plan on going out to dinner or to a game or something, I will usually go straight home and try to get a couple of things done around the house while I wait for Alex.

11:00--Bedtime, although lately we have been watching an episode of Game of Thrones while we lay in bed so we don't turn the TV off until later.

Weekends are a whole 'nother ball game.  Pretty much there is no normal weekend for us.  Last Sunday included tailgating, Chiefs game, batting practice for Alex and two-year-old wrangling for me, dinner at Pizza Street (not a good idea) then chilling at home.  Last Saturday I got my oil changed then we went to brunch/lunch and then zoo and met up with some people to watch the Mizzou game and hang out.  Last Friday night Alex was helping his dad with a boyscout thing so I got to relax and home and enjoy the quiet.

So there you have it, a day in my life.  It isn't much, but its where I am right now.  Ask me again in a few months and who knows what it will be like.  That's the great thing about life, I guess.

At Home Drive In

Here's a super old post for you.  I am a huge college basketball fan.  Always have been always will be.  My team of choice is of course the Kansas Jayhawks.  If you ask my dad, he will probably tell you that my first words were Danny Manning.  This past spring, Coach Self took a group of boys who weren't supposed to amount to much of anything and took them to New Orleans.  Not everyday your team makes it that far, so we had to do something to celebrate.  We have an extraordinarily large tv but unfortunately not an extraordinarily large living room.  So in order to accommodate the number of people we wanted to accommodate, we moved the party outside.    

We borrowed a projector from my parents (they have the coolest stuff at their house).  It wasn't the prettiest, but we were able to finagle everything so that we could hook the projector to a cable box (which is luckily plugged in right by a window at the back of the house).  In case you were wondering, the white fabric is a scrap I found to hang on the cord so no one would trip over it after it got dark.

Here is my sweet set up.  Yes that is an arm chair in my backyard.  It is from college and I keep it in the garage for backyard gatherings.  I tried to give it away for free on Craigslist but no one came to pick it up so I figure I will keep it for outdoor furniture as long as I can convince people to move it for me.

In case you were wondering, they won in the Final Four (the game we watched in these pictures) then lost to Kentucky in the championship game.  Broke my heart, but they break my heart every time they lose.  ROCK CHALK!

Wine Rack From Pallet

I can't take credit for this project--it was a Christmas gift from my aunt who lives in Nebraska.  But I love love love it and I just had to show it to you all.  I wish that there was a good place in my house now to display it where everyone could see it, but this house is just a bit too small.  However, when I live in a house that isn't a rental, its totally going on the wall somewhere.

Look how much wine it holds.  Alex and I realized recently that we had become wine hoarders--we kept buying it but never drinking it.  Such a bad problem to have.  But we are working on remedying the situation.  I do think we are going to stay mostly beer people though.

Bridal Shower Games

Like I mentioned in my last post, I was on Team Decorations/Games for my friend's shower.  I wasn't really going to plan any games at first becasue I fall into the category of people who don't like shower games.  Activities I am okay with most of the time.  But I think that most of the time shower games are awkward/boring/unnecessary or a combination of all three.  Then a few weeks before the shower, I was having dinenr with the Bride and she happened to mention how she had been at a bridal shower for someone else the weekend before and it was so boring because they didn't have any games.   Whelp, there goes my plan.  Games it is.

I'm pretty sure we only planned the shower to be 2 hours long but it may have been three.  (Alex would finish that last sentence with "I've drank since then" which apprently is a good excuse for not remembering things).  Factoring in socializing and opening presents I knew that we weren't going to have a ton of time to do much else.  But I get super parnoid and like to over plan, so I planned to games and one activity.  And then the Bride was almost an hour late so we pretty much only did one game.

The game we didn't do is the one where you are on teams and dress one people up in a toilet paper wedding dress.  Then the Bride was going to pick her favorite.  But we didn't have enough time so we didn't do this one.  That was okay though because I'm not sure people really like this game.  Plus its not like I wasted any supplies because I planned ahead and did not buy the super cheap toilet paper.  Now I'm stocked fora  few months.

The game we did do was a how well do you know the bride/how well does the bride know the groom game.  This game went well other than two small issues, only one of which was my fault.  You can find free printables for this type of game all over the internet but because I like to reinvent the wheel, I made my own list.  Basically the questions are things like 'what are the names of the Bride's cats' and 'how many kids does the Bride want' and 'what elementary school did the Bride go to.'

Once I had my list, I modified it a little and printed a copy for the Groom to fill out.  Then at the shower, the Bride had to guess what the Groom had answered.  Small issue number 1.  I may or may not have waited until the night before the shower and handed the Groom the list of questions at a tailgate for the Royals-Cardinals game.  So by the end of the night when he got home and started answering the questions, he may have had one or two drinks.  Which may have put the Bride at a slight disadvantage because she was guessing what Sober Groom would have said.  Whoops.

For the other half of the game, I handed out lists of questions to everyone at the shower including the Bride.  Then once everyone had written down their answers, the Bride said what she answered and you got a point if you got it right.  SLight issue number two was I think the Mother of the Bride got a little upset that she didn't know all of the answers.  I tried to come up with a good mix of questions since we had guests who were the Bride's family, the Groom's family, friends from college, friends from church and other random people.  The Bride is from St. Louis but lives in KC now so hasn't live at home with her parents for a while.  Nothing I could have done probably to remedy the situation so I didn't stress about it too much.

For prizes for the game, I went to Trader Joe's and bought a lot of chocolate.  It was cheap and almost everyone likes chocolate.  And if you don't like chocolate, you know someone who does.  Plus, I took the extra home for me and Alex to eat.

The last game wasn't really a game, but more like an activity.  We did a Date Night Jar. I got a jar from Hobby Lobby and cut up slips of paper and had people write down ideas for dates.  Some of them were funny and some were serious.  Alex actually asked me to write down all of the ideas for him because he has a hard time planning dates.  We actually held on to this and had it at the bachelorette party too because a lot of the girls at the bachelorette party didn't go to the shower.  I stuck the instructions in a frame so people would know what to do.  This was really great for downtime at both the shower and the bachelorette party.

Wedding Shower

One of my sorority sisters and dear friends got married last month and I was lucky enough to be one of her bridesmaids.  The other bridesmaids were other sorority sisters and the maid of honor was the bride's childhood friend but we liked her so much we tried to convince her to move to Kansas City so we could hang out with her more often.  Anyway, back at the end of June we threw a shower for the lovely bride.  It was lots of fun and I thought I would share some pictures.  I will come back and do specific posts about projects I was in charge of later 

 Food table (with the MOH in the background)

 Drinks and more food

Bride to be playing a game in her seat of honor

Cutting the yummy cake

For anyone wondering about the logistics, I can share a little bit about how we planned everything.  There were four bridesmaids plus the maid of honor.  Like I said before, the bridesmaids (myself included) are all sorority sisters so we know each other well.  The maid of honor lives in St. Louis and is a childhood friend of the bride.  We talked with her about what help she needed and we decided what would work best for us would be for us all to plan the shower.  We split it up so that three ladies were in charge of food and two ladies were in charge of decor/games (we thought that was the best way to split up the financial responsibilities).  I was on team decor/games.  Anyone who is looking for guidance on how to plan a shower, my best advice is just to start talking to the interested parties and figure out what everyone's expectations are.  If you need help connecting with someone in the bridal party, ask the bride for help.  Not that you should ask the bride to plan her own shower, but in our case, since we didn't know the MOH, we asked the bride to talk to her to make sure the MOH knew that we were here to help her with whatever and that we didn't want to step on her toes if she had it covered.  It ended up working really well and the shower was great.  I will be back soon to share some of the decorations and games I was in charge of.

27 Things To Do Before I'm 27

I've kind of been wandering lately.  For the first time in my life, I'm not in a place where I am working on X which will lead me to the next step Y with an ultimate goal of Z.  I am so not used to this much free time.  Once upon a time I made a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days (a Day Zero list if you will).  But my life is way different now than it was then.  Plus 1001 days is a long time.  But I liked the idea, so I came up with 27 things to do before I turn 27.  My birthday is at the end of February, so I have a little over six months to get it done.  So without further ado, here is the list:

1. Learn how to use my camera on manual settings
2. Lose 30 lbs
3. Finish an unfinished project
4. Read A Confident Heart
5. Read 15 books
6. Watch 15 movies
7. Sell something on Etsy
8. Get rid of 100 things
9. Reach 100 blog posts on this blog
10. Write a living will/health care directive
11. Unplug for a weekend
12. Go on 10 special dates with Alex
13. Complete Couch to 5K program
14. Do/make 10 Pinterest pins
15. Make a donation
16. Update/fill all picture frames throughout the house
17. Do something spontaneous
18. Carve pumpkins or make a snowman
19. Make list of 100 things that make me happy
20. Finish captioning my JYA photo albums
21. Get off Facebook for a week
22. Go to the zoo
23. Finish reading/listening to the Bible
24. Don't buy anything online for a month
25. Try something new
26. Hand make 1/2 of our Christmas gifts
27.  Make a list of 28 things to do before I turn 28

Gallery Wall Inspiration

I did this a little out of order, but I wanted to share with you all some gallery wall inspiration.  Next week I will show you a couple of other places I have used this concept in my house, but for now, here’s what other brilliant people came up with

Source: marthastewart.com via Courtney on Pinterest

 

I love the boldness of this one. I think it could be really striking in a hallway to lead your eye down the hall.

Source: ana-white.com via Courtney on Pinterest

 

The ledges are way cool because you could change stuff up all the time (my favorite pastime) without messing your walls up.

Source: smallchichome.com via Courtney on Pinterest

 

The colors on this one are super cute. A little random for what I usually do but I also like the shapes. I found frames like these at Hobby Lobby the other day.

Source: tatertotsandjello.com via Courtney on Pinterest

 

This one has the fun shapes but is more uniform in color, which is a little more of my style.

Source: thehouseofsmiths.com via Courtney on Pinterest

 

This one is so super cute!

Hallway Mini Gallery Wall

So I am more or less obsessed with decorating with picture frames.  I  really love to be surrounded by my family and friends.  I tend to buy frames when they are on clearance and they match one of my color schemes.  Then I change color schemes and need to frames and have extras.  Such is the case when we moved and I moved towards a more masculine palette for our bedroom.  Before we were rocking a jewel-tone/black and white damask theme.  Anyways, I had a lot of extra frames and a blank wall in the hallway.  Any guesses on where this one is going?

 

The hallway is really narrow so its is pretty much impossible to get a straight on shot.   This wall leads to our bedroom and opposite it is the utility closet (where the furnace and vacuum live).

The picture frames also help the thermostat blend in.  I have since added some silver frames which look nice with the black and purple.

Here it is when looking from the doorway to the living room into our bedroom.  I think I want to add a few more that are art instead of pictures, but who knows when I will get around to that.  The Keep Calm and Carry One is vinyl on glass so I can switch out the paper whenever I want (if I get tired of yellow).  The Always & Forever frame is similar, but the ampersand is etched and the words are vinyl. All of the frames are attached with 3M Velcro Command Strips so I can move them around easily without messing up the wall.00

Laundry Room

I finally got my photo software put back on my computer so I was able to upload pictures of our laundry room.  It isn’t much and certainly isn’t super fancy, but it does the job and after three years of living in an apartment sans washer/dryer hook-ups, it might just be my favorite room in the house.  It also happens to be super hard to photograph.

The laundry room is off of the kitchen and the door on the right leads to the garage.  We just got the washer and dryer a month or so ago and they work amazing.  Turns our Alex and I can’t make decisions like where to go to dinner to save our lives but when it comes to big things like appliances, it only takes us a few minutes.  The laundry room is really more like a big closet, but that’s okay.  This is what you see when you look in from the kitchen.

This is the wall above the washer and dryer.  The shelf and bar were in the room when we moved in.  The baskets are all from the Dollar Tree, but they haven’t had them the last few times I’ve been in.  The top frame just has white paper behind the glass so it can be used like a dry erase board.  The bottom frame has metal in it so it is magnetic.  The baskets up on the shelf have various things in it—floor cleaning stuff, extra attachments for the vacuum, our iron, miscellaneous random stuff (dog treats, shoe water proofing spay, a roll of shrink wrap we used when we moved, etc.), and trash bags.

The two smaller baskets hang from the rods with rings that I used in law school to hold my notecards together.  One holds our Tide Pods and he other has stain remover, Febreeze and other stuff like that.  The phone booth is a charging station that my parents got me for my birthday a couple of years ago.  It doesn’t work real well as a charging station, but it is really super cute.  Other than that, we are trying not to keep much stuff on the washer and dryer to keep them from becoming magnets for clutter.

On the end by the dyer hangs our broom and Swiffer and dustpans.   The London canvas came from Target and the Keep Calm and Carry On canvas I made—I painted the canvas and applied vinyl I ordered online using a Groupon.  The vinyl isn’t really straight which bummed me out a little bit, but it is what it is.  I probably should have just bought a poster instead of vinyl but the DYI bug bit me and I couldn’t help myself.

The other wall is pretty blank.  I put a random dry erase board over there for notes and we keep our trash can there because it is too big to fit under the sink.  There is a rack of hooks on the garage door that I use to hang stuff that doesn’t got in the dryer.  (Please ignore the clutter on the kitchen counter, I have already cleaned it up.

So there you have it.  It’s not too much but it is functional and in my opinion, cut.  Not sure which room I will share next and I’ve got a busy week anyway so you’ll have to wait a bit for the next installment of the house tour.

Dream Laundry Room

After living for almost four years without my own personal laundry facilities, Alex and I finally bought a washer and dryer not too long ago. The apartment we lived in prior to this house didn't have hookups so we either did laundry in the basement if we had quarters or at our parents' houses. Once we moved we had hookups but we didn't get around to making the purchase for a while. Finally Alex got sick of having to go to the laundromat when we got behind so he decided we should go shopping. It took us all of about 15 minutes to pick some out. I will share our laundry room with you soon but for now, here is some laundry room eye candy.

Source: centsationalgirl.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Source: camerasandchaos.blogspot.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Source: yourhomeonlybetter.com via Courtney on Pinterest

I like how much storage this one has between the two shelves and that hangy down shelf. 

Source: houzz.com via Courtney on Pinterest

I am not sure I can justify a TV in the laundry room. But I do like the shelf that spans the top of the front loaders. 

Source: blog.familybringsjoy.com via Courtney on Pinterest

I love these bins. But instead of doing one per person, I would probably use them more for storage. It would be nice to just take Alex's softball clothes from the dryer into a bin so that they are where they need to be for the next game.

Source: etsy.com via Courtney on Pinterest

So cute!

Source: closetworld.com via Courtney on Pinterest

I am intrigued with the idea of stacking them. 

As soon as I get my photo software loaded back onto my computer, I will share some pictures of our laundry room now.  Happy Tuesday everyone!

Yay!

Good news is that my recovery disks came in the mail today and my computer seems to be as good as new. And by new I mean there is nothing on my hard drive.  However, it really could be worse.  I rarely delete things off memory cards so I should be able to recover a lot of my pictures.  Also I recently found my iPod that I thought had drowned and plugged it in to see what would happen.  Turns out it works again (just needed to dry out for a couple of years), so I haven't lost any music I don't think.  I'm on the lookout now for a good online photo storage website so if you have any recommendations, send them my way.

Hopefully I will be back soon with an actual post but I have to get a bridesmaid dress fitted tomorrow and have a bunch of work to do for my friend's bridal shower this weekend.

Uh Oh

Guess who was all ready to be creative last night and type up some blog posts?  Guess whose computer decided to freak out?  It was one of those nights.  The good news is that while I was freaking out, Alex stayed calm, cool and collected and we ended up realizing that my computer is still under warranty and my new friend at HP support showed me how to order a recovery CD which should be in the mail in the next day or too.  And all I had to pay was shipping (well I also already bought a new copy of Windows but Alex wouldn't let me open it so hopefully it will be returned soon).  Fingers crossed the recovery CD will work and I will be back in business.

Of course I haven't run a back up on my computer in a while and have been having some issues with my external hard drive so I'm not really sure what all I will have left when the whole ordeal is over.  Luckily I recently found by 80GB iPod that I thought I had killed my first year of law school when a water bottle spilled in my purse on the way to a final review.  Apparently letting it dry out for 2+ years did the trick so between it, my little iPod that replaced the big iPod and my phone, I should be able to recover all of my music.  I don't delete pictures off memory cards very often so I can hopefully find most of my pictures too.  Moral of the story is BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER. 

Anyways, just letting you know so you don't think I am slacking.  I will be back as soon as I can!

Lookin’ Spiffy

The blog that is.  Not me (I’m in my pjs).  I was looking to get the blog a new outfit and I found a website with some really cute designs and this one just jumped right out at me.  I hope you like it as well as I do.  Any who, so you just don’t get a boring post, here’s a travel pic for you.

Acropolis, Athens, Greece

Welcome to my Home

Hi friends.  I'm back and I think I might stick around for a while this time.  I'm not making any promises quite yet, but I have a bunch of fun stuff that I am working on and I'm pretty excited about it.  Also to (hopefully) jump start the creative juices, I wanted to share with you a little bit about our house. 

When I started law school, I moved into a cheap little apartment.  At first it really wasn't too bad, but three years later, there were a few too many things that we hated about it.  We found cute little house to rent and moved in just before Thanksgiving.  Our lease goes to the end of 2012 and we aren't sure yet if we will stay here beyond then or look at other options, but for now I have slowly been working on making it our home.  In my defense, we moved in and immediately were immersed in the holidays.  Then I started two solid months of bar prep.  Since then I have been transitioning back into civilian life.  And doing a little bit here and there.

I don't really know if I have a "style" at this point.  I like things to be functional.  Most of what we own is hand-me-downs.  And I have a tendency to switch things up when I get bored.  I like the color blue.  And I love photographs.  Nothing can be permanent and no painting the walls since we are renting.

Here is my attempt at showing you all a floor plan.  The top of the picture is what the house looks like if you were standing in the street.  And it is not really proportional (but I tried).  I'm thinking that I will go through room by room and share some of what I would love to have one day and what it looks like now.