Introducing...my house!

Many of you have asked to see pictures of our home and decor, since I've talked the heck out of IKEA on here. And I know you're also probably curious to see our new floors, since I've been talking about them forever.

Well you can go to my new Facebook photo album to see pictures! Don't worry, you don't have to be my Facebook friend to see them. (But if you wanna be my Facebook friend, that's even better! *hehe*) I was going to post them all here but decided not to because, 1. I don't really have time and 2. There are most pictures than I can probably put in one post. 

I will, however, post some "BEFORE" photos of the old carpet. Just so you can get an idea of how much better everything looks! 

"AFTER" but before the trim went in

The kitchen/dining area

So go check out my photos and let me know what you think! :)

BEST-WEEKEND-EVER!

I have had just an absolutely fantastic weekend. I hope you've all felt even 1/4 as blessed, because I've just been riding on a cloud for the past three days.  Life is GEWD. :^)

So obviously, getting my new job kicked things off on a high note. Thanks for all of your kind congratulations and warm wishes. I really am so excited about it...my stomach is all twisted in knots of anticipation, just like a kid on Christmas Eve. I start tomorrow morning! Did I mention that? (I'll break all the details of the job down in a later post.)

But after that I got to spend 14+ hours scrapbooking with some HILARIOUS and fun women whom I enjoy very much. Get Scrappy was a blast. We laughed and gabbed laughed and sang...and I actually got quite a few (by my standards) pages done for my NYC album. Plus the event raised a ton of mullah for the cause (I'll let you know what the official number was as soon as Mary posts it).  

Having never been, I really didn't know what to expect. But I have to tell you that this is an IMPRESSIVE event! I'm so proud to say I'm friends with the masterminds that put this thing together. God bless them for all their hard work, cause it really is like a SIX-ring circus! They've got contests going on and drawings for door prizes, plus raffles and live & silent auctions. (OOOH the silent auctions! I participated in my first bidding war. It was completely exhilarating. *haha* There's not much SILENT about it!) Then there's an extensive "sale table" which is really more like 10 tables, full of goodies that have been donated. 

I don't have pictures of my pages yet...and I'm sure I'll have more from the event to share as my friends share them with me. :) But here's what I have so far (I didn't take enough - I was too busy having fun! *haha*)

All the tables had cute little centerpieces on them, like these pinwheels they MADE. How adorable are they? 

A great group of gals I'm lucky to know and still be in touch with, even though we don't have the pleasure of working together anymore. (Mary and Linda are in the pink t-shirts, they're the amazing founders and organizers of this event.)

Toni & her sweet daughter Haley, with Nikki.

My "Sandy Dandy" and her grandson Christopher that came along Friday evening. He was being a little stinker and wouldn't look at me for the picture. :)

Our out of town guest Michelle and her daughter Samantha. I had the pleasure of sitting at a table with these two yahoo's. *wink wink* We laughed and broke out into song so much that the whole room was usually staring at our table. They were just jealous. ;) Why is "my table" always the loudest everywhere I go? I just can't figure it out. *haha*

And guess what! I won a contest! Yup, my wonderful scrapbooking comrades voted for my page so I won a gift certificate to Scrap Funattic! Hmmm, wonder if I'll ever be able to find a way to use that? *hehe* Too bad I had already made a trip out there with Michelle and Samantha a little before the contest ended. Oh well, I'll just have to go back. I have a full punch card to redeem, anyways.  (I'll post a close-up of the page later.)

So that in itself adds up to a darn wonderful weekend, right? Well just wait. When I got home last night, Jeremy's car was in the driveway so I couldn't pull in. He came out to meet me and help me carry my stuff in and I was like, "Why are you parked in the driveway?" and he said, "Cause you can't pull in the garage tonight." "Why not?" Then he showed me - there were lengths and lengths of trim lying on the garage floor. He had been spontaneously motivated to finish the trim on the main floor!! (For newer readers, you can read all about our flooring project that's been on pause for over three months: HERE and HERE. My house has been sitting in a state of unrest since Thanksgiving weekend...and I've got "BEFORE" photos with no "AFTER." It's been fairly frustrating.) He'd gone and borrowed a friend's saw, bought & cut all the trim and was painting it so it could be installed. So by the end of today (or maybe tomorrow) it should be FINISHED! And then I can finally push my furniture into place, unbox the books and stuff that have been sitting on my landing for all this time and bring the "extra" furniture back up from the basement! *huge sigh of relief* I'm so excited. It's going to look awesome. You won't even believe the difference. 

Anywho, so that's been my amazing weekend. Just too, too good! I am one happy girl. Now, diet/exercise wise I have been the total opposite of good. I haven't been to the gym in three days and I've had candy, Mexican feasts and a Shamrock Shake (they won't be around much longer, y'know.) I've chalked it up to celebrating, and am actually quite ready to get back to normal tomorrow. (Although "normal" won't really be that normal anymore, since I'll be starting a new routine. But you know what I mean.) 

It's my house and I'll decorate how I want to!

Jeremy and I were in the kitchen department at Target the other day. He was looking for a meat thermometer (because we had pork chops in our cart and the last 10 times he's made pork chops he wished he had one, since we can never tell if they're done or not). As he looked, I wandered across the aisle to the miscellaneous gadget area and immediately let out a squeal when I discovered these: 

It's a skunk scrubber!

It's a blue whale ice cream scoop!

It's a tou-can opener! AAAH!!!

There's an entire collection of these things! I was totally lovin' them. "Jeremy! Why didn't they have these when we got married?!?!?" You laugh, but I SO would have registered for these.  It would have been awesome, too, because everyone shopping for our wedding would have done a double take. "What, they REALLY want this pair of scissors that looks like a woodpecker? REALLY? Are these people old enough to get married?" *haha* 

Anyone who knows me (or has seen my house) knows that I am not one to shy away from the bright, cute and kitcshy. I don't know what it says about me, but I love to be surrounded by things that are colorful and fun. My tastes are far from traditional when it comes to decorating. And I am SO fortunate that I married a guy who "gets" that. (No he's not as into the cutesie stuff...but he tolerates it. *haha*)

I remember that at one point in my teens, I started to think about how I'd want to decorate my own house. I'd look around at other people's houses and displays at furniture stores...and while they were beautiful, I just wasn't drawn to anything I saw. I almost felt guilty, like "well this is how you're supposed to decorate, so don't fight it." But I really couldn't picture myself in a house full of "normal" furniture" and "normal" decorations.

Then Jeremy came along...and he felt the SAME WAY! He didn't like "normal" either! It took me a while to really embrace it, though. It wasn't until we discovered an IKEA catalog in all of its colorful, retro/modern glory that I realized I really could have my unique style and live around it too. :)  What an amazing revelation!  And the rest is history...now we have a house full of IKEA merchandise and walls painted in colors that give some people headaches. AND I DON'T CARE! It's my house and I LOOOOVE it! (Well, I don't really loooove it...there are still a lot of improvements to be made. But I like it a whole lot. *haha*) 

I'm FLOORED!

I'm typing this from my living room staircase, which is the only real sittable (is that a word?) surface in my house. Everything else is piled with stuff that used to be somewhere on the main floor. My Dad, Jeremy and our friend Steve Ludlow (remember the turkey & pilgrim pictures he took?) are slaving away in front of me, installing our new laminate "wood" floor. It looks AWESOME! It does amazing things to this room. It looks so much more contemporary and bright. I'll post pictures as soon as I have time...whiiiiiich could be like a month from now. But bear with me. *haha* 

We started yesterday afternoon after Jeremy got up and with Dad's help we'd ripped up the carpet in about an hour and a half. As today draws to a close, they've finished the living room, entry and most of the dining room. All we have left to do is the kitchen. That being said, I'm still not confident that we'll be done with this lovely project before we leave on Tuesday. Dad can't help much tomorrow because of church commitments and I'm not sure how much help I'LL be.  Plus we have to go buy all new trim for all of the walls (our old trim wasn't wide enough and really wasn't worth saving) and install that. And the kitchen will be time consuming just from the standpoint of moving all the appliances. Yuck. So we'll see. I'm still a little overwhelmed at the thought of needing to continue this when we come back from NYC, but I'm a little less begrudging about since I've now seen how nice it looks. *sigh*

On another note, I feel like my vision is much better today! It's still a little blurry, but not nearly as terrible as it has been. So that's exciting! Thank you Lord! :)

Tick tick tick...the clock is rapidly counting down to the trip I've been anticipating for over a year! Our itinerary is chalk-full!  Looking at it makes me a bit tired. *haha* I'm bringing my laptop because I want to upload all of my photos and videos to it each night when we get back to the hotel (that way I don't have to buy more memory cards) and originally I thought it would be cool to blog each night FROM New York City. (Our hotel, as most do in that city, has free Wi-Fi.) Now I'm wondering when I'm even going to SLEEP! *haha* So I won't make any promises about how much you'll get to see until after we get back...but there's a chance I'll at least peek in here or on Facebook to let everyone know we're safe and sound.

Speaking of safe and sound, have you heard about the increased security on New York trains and subways. Yeah, apparently there was some information leaked to the FBI about a "desire" for terrorist attacks on the NYC transit system, specifically the trains going from Long Island into the city. While we won't be on those trains at all, we will be doing a lot of subway travel. So please keep us in your prayers while we are there, and the rest of the city too for that matter. I'm hoping that since the security has been increased it will erase any possibilities of danger. *yikes*

Well my booty has fallen asleep and that is NOT a pleasant feeling, so I'm going to sign off for now. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! It seems like a big blur to me since we've had so much to do, but we did have a really nice day with my family and delicious food! What more can you ask for? :)

Aye yi yi IKEA!

We got back late last night from a whirlwind trip to Dallas. We visited a mall or two, REI (though nothing was purchased there since there are currently no camping trips on the radar and we certainly won't need waterproof matches in New York City...I hope...) and other stores we don't have in Wichita. But the most important place we went (and our entire reason for going) was IKEA!

Those of you who know us well already know we have a slight obsession with this place. And those of you who have been to my home know that every single piece of furniture we own was purchased at IKEA. (Seriously. Ok, so maybe not one file cabinet or my old drafting table. But everything else.) So whenever we see the need to add an item of any sort to our decor, we make a pilgrimage to this wonderland of good deals and build-your-own furniture.

As much as I love IKEA, the place wears me out. That might have something to do with the fact that we can never get out of there quickly. On Monday, we were there for at least 7 hours. And folks, we normally can clear an entire mall in under 45 minutes. We're not poky and we don't doddle. We're the fast-walkers that run you over in Wal-Mart. But time stands still at IKEA. Partially because we love it so much and we try to bask in it's glory for as long as we can. It's also because I have no knack for interior design and I have to steal as many ideas as possible, which is overwhelming when we live so far away. Then there's the fact that we're normally dropping a significant chunk of change and we have to do the math continuously to make sure we're within budget. All in all, I always leave IKEA feeling exhausted and a little numb. (And this time it didn't help that I was feeling under the weather.)

Still thinking, "HOW ON EARTH could you spend so much time in ONE STORE?!?" You've obviously never been to IKEA! It's not just a store. It's monstrous. It's gigantic. Take three SAM's clubs and stack them on top of each other, and that's an IKEA. Except only one level of it resembles a warehouse. The top level is one huge showroom, with real "livable" rooms set up showing how you can live comfortably in relatively small spaces. They have examples of creative decorating and storage ideas. You can test out the sofas or the closet doors. The showroom level also has ALL of the furniture: a section for couches, a section for tables, a section for beds....etc. But you don't really SHOP from this section. You just write down the numbers corresponding to what you want to purchase and then pick it up when you get to the "warehouse."

The middle section is like Target on steroids: pots & pans, dishes, pillows, rugs, curtains, bedspreads, lamps, frames, mirrors...all for a steal of a deal! This leads into the last section, which is the warehouse where you grab up all of the items you picked out in the showroom. All of the furniture IKEA sells has to be assembled once you get it home. Everything comes in boxes and is flat as possible so you can pack it easier. So you load up your carts and mosey (wearily, in our case) to the checkout.

Wanna see some of the stuff we got? OF COURSE you do!!!

This is our new amazing sofa! (Sorry about the weird floating-in-space picture. It came that way off the website.) We wanted something bigger and comfier for our basement. Yes it's bright orange. Yes it's super-snazzy-fantabulous. Oh, and it has huge ottomans. AND, all of the cushions' slipcovers come off and can be dry-cleaned, which is a pretty good idea when you live in a dog house like we do. I love it! :)

This is the rug I have wanted to buy since the very first time we ever went to IKEA. It is HUGE and will cover almost our entire basment. I adore it! No, it's not as bright as the picture shows. It's BRIGHTER. Wow, have you really never seen my house? What would you expect? ;) It's going to tie our new super orange couch in with our existing red chairs that we already have down there, as well as tie in (if not completely cover) our hideous blue carpet we so terribly despise.

I am psyched about this find! Jeremy and I can never find art that we really agree on. I've always kinda liked black and white photography but wasn't sure if it went in our house. You know, with all the COLOR. *haha* Well, not only is this a beautiful black and white photograph of my beloved New York City, the splash of color rocks my world! It's going upstairs in the living room. They also had one of the Chicago skyline (Jeremy's city of choice: GO CUBS! GO BEARS!) which was equally fantastic, but it was out of stock. We'll definitely look for it next time we come back because they would look great next to each other on the wall. (Ahem, I only know this because that's how they had them displayed in the showroom. *haha* Told you a steal ideas!!!)