My Built-In Best Friend

This is not a flattering picture of me.  Obviously.  But I thought it really captured how I feel when I'm with my sister.  Pure joy.  I have know idea what we were laughing about.   I'm grateful that my brother-in-law stole my camera and took a few candid shots of us.  I love these moments. 

Remodel

by Ang

First off, we're back in New Mexico and had a fantastic time with my family in Nebraska.  I'll post some pictures of my cute niece and nephews, but first I wanted to share a major project for us that is now DONE! 

After one week of sleeping on our bed in the living room with our old furniture scattered throughout the rest of the house, our bedroom is now done.  We (and when I say 'we', I mean someone else) replaced the floors, the closet doors and all of the trim.  And did some painting.

Here is some of the 'befores':

The carpet was in really bad shape.  And the mirrored closet doors had to go:

Here's the new floors:

Pretty, huh!!

And the new closet doors (before we painted them):

Inside the closet:

Now was the fun part!  After our furniture was delivered, I got to decorate and put it all back together.  Our colors for the bedroom were blue and dark brown.  They're still those colors, but I wanted to bring in an accent color of some sort.  My husband kept suggesting red, but I was convinced that wouldn't go with everything else.  Until I seen this rug:

It's hard to tell, but there is blue all throughout the rug mixed in with the red.  It's really pretty! 

Then I put together some artwork with some red in it:

The pieces in the top, middle, and bottom frames are all cards I got in Paris.  And I put patterned scrapbooking paper in the second and fourth spots to fill it in.

And I got this pillow to add a little more red:

Here's the bigger picture:

(the blanket and pillow on the right is the dog bed)

We each got charging stations for our night tables to control the cords:

I am VERY pleased with how it all turned out.  There's still a few minor things to do, such as putting the pulls on the closet doors, and maybe some more artwork.  But I am so happy that it's done!  Thank you to my husband for making it happen.  He knows how to get things done!

And on an unrelated note, I am once again going to profess my love for Ross (the store).  I got the rug, the mirror above the dresser, the pillow, the frame for my Paris cards, and the dresser runner all for a grand total of.........$75!!!!  Not bad, huh??

Moving Day

 These two were the cutest two helpers ever!

 And while the men were moving furniture and boxes, the ladies were being just as helpful by making sure no donut went to waste.  (:

 My boy helped out too by keeping track of Miss A.

Everything went well.  The weather was perfect and we were moved in our new house around noon.  Mom made chili for lunch and our new neighbor brought over rice crispy treats and brownies.  It was a good day.  But exhausting. Still trying to get used to sleeping in a different house.  I have tomorrow off.  Guess who I'm going to spend it with?  My sister!  She is flying in tonight.  I can't wait!

Excuses

by Ang

Once again, I apologize for my lack of blogging.  We have been swamped.  We had someone come and redo our bedroom - new floors, some paint, new trim, etc.  So the rest of our house was torn apart for about 5 days.  Our bedroom is done now, but we're still moving stuff back in.  You know how it goes....you start with a completely blank slate, and then when it's time to move stuff in, you want to go through everything (clothes included - I have one bag so far for the Goodwill) and pare down and not put everything back in.  So that's where we're at right now!

And in two days we leave for Nebraska!  I am so excited!  I can't wait to see everybody.  So I've been busy getting ready for that and getting things lined up for our housesitter.

And then there's my homework. Oh...the homework.  This week, my homework is due Sunday and Monday.  However, I don't want to do homework in Nebraska.  So I'm going to try to get it all done before we leave.  Which leaves me tonight and tomorrow.  I have math problems, a quiz, and in Medical Terminology I have to watch two surgeries, take one quiz and two tests.  Yikes.  I better get started!

The Kitchen

By Amy

Remember these lovely cabinets?

 They went bye-bye

 In with the new! 

 Hi Pops! The wiring is a bit out dated. I think my dad actually groaned when he saw it. But he is fixing it so that all my appliances will be up and running by Saturday.  And the house won't burn down.

 And my man made sure I had water to the dishwasher and sink.  He has been working his brains out.  The kitchen won't be finished but it will be functional.  The big day is Saturday!  Probably won't post again until after we move in.

Floors, Doors & Walls

Weve been busy!  Here are some before's and after's.

BEFORE

AFTER

 BEFORE

AFTER

 BEFORE

 AFTER

 (this is Darren's room but Micah's looks exactly the same)

 And this is our room.  The walls are a very pale blue.  I love it!

 All the doors are painted and have new hardware. 

Tonight mom and dad are coming over and dad is going to do some electrical stuff for us.  Hubby is going to start gutting the kitchen.  I am so excited to see my new cabinets and countertops!

More Organizing and Rustic Looking iPhone Pictures

by Ang
Between work, classes, and other responsibilities, I’ve sort of let things slip around the house. I mean, it’s being kept clean at all (largely because of my great husband), but as far as cabinets, clutter, and keeping things organized, well, it’s slipped through the cracks. I reached my breaking point when I had 5 books on my desk and there was NO ROOM anywhere to put them.
Enter one of my favorite places: Target.

I snagged this great bookshelf/storage unit for our entryway. I had something similar there before, but it just wasn’t doing the job like it should and was a lot smaller. So I bought this for $39 on sale, and my husband put it together.

I love it because it has built in dividers, which makes categorizing our books much easier (travel, animal, reference, medical, etc.).

I got some fabric storage drawers for the bottom. As of right now, they contain books that I want to keep for sentimental reasons, but I will probably not look at very much, bookmarks, and a few other random items. This cleared up space in my husband’s office for more of his books (which were stacked on top of the bookshelves). We don’t buy books all the time, really. I have my trusty friend Nanette the Nook, and my husband has been doing a lot of reading on his iPad. However, Hastings was having a 5 for $25 on all of their used books, and Borders was going out of business (with great sales), so we ended up with a few more ‘real’ books.

I love this new unit. There is room to grow and I can move stuff around if need be. Plus, there’s more room on top for all of our family photos. I am all for better storage solutions!
On a completely unrelated note (I probably should have saved this for another post because it has NOTHING to do with organization), I downloaded an awesome camera app on my iPhone and here are some of the results:

Balloons coming towards my mother-in-law's house:

Balloon landing practically in her backyard:

My Russian nesting dolls:

Little Miss A (a long time ago!):

I love it! I only used one setting, but there any many different settings to choose from, so I’m definitely going to experiment a bit more with it.