Mom

 

Today is my mother's birthday. It is a "big" birthday - but if I put the age of her online she would kill me. I remember her reading Dr. Seuss to me all of the time when I was little.

 

To my mom - I love you. I am the person I am today because of you and Dad. I am so proud to be your daughter.  You bring so much love and joy into my life. There truly are no words to say how fortunate I am to have you as my mom. I was raised in such a loving home and truly as the years go by, I know how lucky I am to have you. I love you more than you will ever know and yet probably less than you love me.

 

You truly have given me the world. From our trips to Paris, truly your favorite city in the world- to encouraging me to become myself. I know we differ on so many things, but the big things - you taught me. You instilled adventure, love, generosity, and selflessness in me.  I learned these traits from watching you and seeing the kind of person you are- because as much at my little brother and I give you a hard time - you truly are the very best person we know. I love that you taught our family that being together is truly a gift - that you instilled in my brother and I that we are to be friends, not just siblings - and that family comes above anyone else.

 

You love with your full heart. You have a sense of adventure that probably could have gotten you killed a few times and you are such an incredibly hard worker. You taught my brother and myself how to LIVE. You give of yourself tirelessly so that your "babies" have such wonderful lives. Truly- because of you- B and I's wedding day was our perfect day. Without you it wouldn't have happened.

 

So - as you turn a milestone today- know that your son and I are so blessed to have a mom like you.

 

I love you.

Couches

B and I are in the midst of painting and redoing our living room (ok our entire downstairs, but one project at time.)

So in the midst of redoing our living room - I want to start furnishing it better.

We currently have a black leather chair and black leather couch (these are from our pre-us days) and we haven't gotten around to getting something nicer. We also have a glass top coffee table and end table.

We were gifted a pottery barn rug (pictured below) from our registry and I want to build the remaining living room around it.

Now B wants a leather couch - the thought being once we have children it can go into a game room and/or not be ruined if something spilled on it. I am ok with that - but I don't want black leather (it screams Bachelor pad to me). 


So currently - I am in the market to find new living room furniture that isn't too crazy expensive!

Any ideas of places to look for couches and other living room furniture?

MAKE IT HAPPEN

Wedding Wednesday- 10 things I would do again

With the wedding behind us and life starting, I was thinking about our wedding day and there are a few things in a heartbeat I would tell people to do.

These are the things that REALLY worked for us. Everyone is different.


1. Receiving Line.  We had 143 guests. The line took a little under 20 minutes. In 20 minutes we said hello to everyone and truly got to just party at our reception. We were standing at the doors to the ballroom right before the cocktail hour ended. They opened the ballroom doors, and started to lead people towards us from the cocktail hour area. It was perfect- everyone got to say hello to us and our parents. We got to thank everyone for coming, and it was over with in 20 minutes. We got to hug everyone. It was more of a "hugging" line than a receiving line and it was perfect. For us. The rest of the night I didn't feel obligated to go by each table- I just met people out on the dance floor. I also got to sit next to my husband during our dinner, instead of walking around.

2.  I am 30 and my husband (eek I still love calling him that!) is 31. We skipped the bouquet and the garter. I am glad we did.

3. Once everyone was through the receiving line - they closed the ballroom doors. Everyone took their seats. Then they reopened the doors and announced us. It was still special and we went straight into our first dance.

4. Our wedding was the day before mother's day. We made sure to have our flowers go to good use- to moms that lived in the Houston area, my dad went to their hotel rooms and gave them flowers- our florist did a great job in making the centerpieces really easy to give away in little bouquets. Hearing one of the people tell my mother in law that I am the most thoughtful person - that was obviously really nice - and the rest of the flowers went to a nursing home. We felt that flowers were a big part of our budget (I LOVE FLOWERS) and we wanted them to be enjoyed as much as possible.

5. Getting cake to those in our family that couldn't attend. The hotel was great at putting some slices of cake into to-go containers in their refrigerator after the wedding. (We requested this.) B's great grandmother and her sister could not attend, so his Aunt dropped off some cake to them on Sunday. It was wonderful to hear how much they enjoyed it!

6. Having a few minutes before the ceremony with just my immediate family. I love my friends, I love my bridesmaids. I loved that everyone wanted to have time with me. I also love that I could say- I want only my immediate family in the room. Right before the procession started- it was my dad, my mom and my brother and me. Our last moments as a family of 4.  I'm so glad I got that.

7. Not doing a first look. I know this is controversial- but I didn't want it. Plus - we wouldn't have had time anyway!

8.  Writing a card to each other. We didn't do wedding gifts- we wrote each other wedding cards to read right before walking down the aisle. I love my card. I keep it next to my bed.

9. Having a "game plan" with B- before the wedding. We knew what we both wanted from the wedding. He knew I wanted to dance and party, I knew he wanted to have some time on the porch (our reception room had an outdoor part of it) to smoke a cigar with his buddies and he wanted a few minutes with just me - as well as time to party. We both got what we wanted. He also knew I didn't want cake smashed into my face!

10. Since our reception was in a hotel, we were downstairs around 10AM. A lot of people (at least 60% of the people) came from out of town. We wanted to be downstairs in the lobby to thank them one more time for coming. I'm glad we did. Then we had our game plan- we wanted to have brunch as a married couple - by ourselves - with our puppy. So we headed to get our dog and then we headed to have brunch as a new family. It was perfect.

I truly believe a wedding day is just one day. It is a very important day, but it is one day. Our wedding day was perfect for us - but being married and starting our lives together, those are the moments I love. I love being on "this side" of married. :)

Calvin

Painting

So B and I are about to embark on a very large painting task. We are going to paint the entire bottom floor of our townhouse.

This includes- the kitchen, breakfast room, entryway, living room, master bath, master bedroom, closet and up the stairs.

The big issue is - all of those areas, except our kitchen, closet and bathroom - have 2 story walls and ceilings.

So this will be a very long project.  The project also includes repainting all doors, floorboards and putting up board and batten in the breakfast area. Right night everything is white. Well kind of white. White that has yellowed over time.


So....we have our final color for our main living areas. The kitchen, entry, breakfast room and living room are all somewhat connected - so they need to be the same color.

The color for those rooms is this:

It is a brown/grey color. We have natural stone on our fireplace and travertine tile floors - so I believe this color works perfectly.

The big question I have is - WHAT color WHITE should we use? I want a BRIGHT white for the baseboards, windowsills and doors. There are just so many options.  Any ideas?

Lipstick