So I am thinking since there is so much to catch yall up on, I am going to go backwards with all the amazing events and activities that have occurred since the last time I actually blogged! Meaning, for tonight, I'm going to share with you what I did this past weekend!
Long story short, we have owned our home now for 2.5 years, and our guest bathroom has looked like this since the day we moved in...
Since that August 1st day in 2009 when we moved in, I've searched high and low for a shower curtain to hang in here. I finally found one I loved at Pottery Barn which we received as a Wedding gift, as well as some monogrammed apothecary jars (also PB), last June. Those sweet gifts resulted in a slight facelift...
And yes, the shower curtain is, in fact, hanging over the rod!
Last week, I had had enough! I was going to finish decorating the bathroom! I knew what I wanted it was just a matter of setting aside the time to get it done! I did not make a single plan with anyone for the weekend (and because of this, we ended up whipping up a fire in the fire pit, grilling hot dogs and roasting marshmallows for s'mores on Saturday night all in the comfort of our backyard, with just the hubby, pupster, and myself). Back to the bathroom...This is what "to do" list looked like: - need shower curtain hooks - wall decor
- buy floor mat/ toilet seat cover - hang decal - buy and hang towel holder - buy and hang hand towel holder - buy navy and white towels, hand towels, and washcloths that remained on wedding registry - buy folding white panel door to replace the white plastic accordion style door on the bathroom closet - white spray paint
With the exception of the floor mat and toilet seat cover (the Bed, Bath, and Beyond closest to my house does not carry the color we registered for) I purchased everything else! And this is how it turned out...
I am beyond thrilled at the end results! There are still a few things I'd like to do but for now at least it is decorated and welcoming! It's a shame the lighting is so terrible or I would turn it into MY bathroom!
Until next time my Real Young Housewives, much love and blessings! XoXo,
I am back, my fabulous real young housewives!!! Though I do not have a blog prepared for this evening, I will be posting one very very soon! There is so much to update yall on!! Since the last time I posted there was a wedding, a fantastic honeymoon, a furry child brought home, more decorating, some babies were born (not mine), lots of expecting friends and acquaintances (yes still not drinking the water ) big time birthdays, a new position at work, a business started and lots of other fun events!!
Stay tuned ... and I promise I wont leave for so long next time I take a hiatus!
Hello, Hello my lovely young housewives! I have to apologize for slacking on my postings! Between a much needed vacation to Emerald Isle, NC, helping plan our Engagement Party, shopping for my Wedding gown (in which I found!), and working, I have not been very dedicated to my blog postings! My apologies!!
I've been meaning to post this blog for a while now, showcasing what I enjoy creating for friends and family for special occasions! I've been doing this for about 2 years now, and my first gift was a wedding present to my old roommate Kelly and her husband Tyler! I wish I had a picture of it but I don't :( It consisted of 4 juice glasses and a carafe and featured their duo monogram and some flowers in their wedding colors! Kelly messaged me recently to tell me that they still use and love them! Oh how that warms my happy heart!
I create these special items usually as Wedding gifts and Bachelorette gifts, but I have done a few Engagement gifts, Christmas presents, and Birthday surprises! All in all they are perfect for ANY occasion! Pretty soon I am going to experiment with some new designs, like college logos and sport teams! Just recently I had my very first order for 8 personalized wine glasses! Needless to say the buyer and her friend's LOVED them! I am really contemplating opening an account on Etsy so that I can really start selling them!
Here are just a few items that I have done recently:
For a Bachelorette, in matching colors as her yellow dress she wore for her night on the town! Her first name began with a "B"!
A platter with glass marbles given as an Engagement gift! The bride-to-be's new last name begins with an "H"! Created to match the couple's wedding colors!
Matching Rocks Glasses with the first initial of the fabulous ladies names who attending the Bachelorette party!
My first order! Features the first initial of all the Ladies attending a Ladies Night get-together! Painted in each ladies favorite color!
Another platter given as an Engagement gift! The bride-to-be's new last name will begin with a "W" and the color's match the decor in her home!
I really enjoy making these gifts and I hope that the receivers have enjoyed them just as much! It allows me to give something personal that I know they will truly love and appreciate!
If any of you lovely, fabulous, and fantastic ladies are interested in ordering from me please feel free to contact me!!
Until next time, if you Young Housewives enjoy creating gifts and making crafts, please share!! And if not, maybe this post will leave you with some inspiration!
If you couldn't tell, I am a HUGE Real Housewives fan! I am not sure why I enjoy watching all of them so much, but I do, and it truly is one of my guilty pleasures! I am beyond excited for the D.C. season to premier tomorrow night! Poor thing, the fiance will be moaning and groaning for another 3 months about how he does not understand why I watch "that crap". Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I secretly hope to be just as successful as they all are in taking care of their families and their careers, or maybe it's that they are so dramatic and childish that they make me feel like I am actually normal, or maybe it's just simply fun to watch how disastrous their lives are when they seem to "have it all"! I kind of think the latter is the real reason I continuously watch these women!
I don't pretend that I have it all, however, I do have all that I need. I've never gone without having what I needed. Growing up, my parents were able to give me most of what I wanted. I had a car by the time I was in the 8th grade. No it wasn't brand new (it was close to 10 years old) but it was available to me as my first car once I turned 16. When special occasions occurred, I'd unwrap gifts, of the latest "it" shoe, fashion trend, or gadget/toy/electronic. Needless to say, I was blessed growing up, but never spoiled. I appreciated those gifts and still have some of them to this day. Just as my parents blessed me growing up, my fiance now blesses me continuously, as we grow together. He always comes through with the gifts I ask for, for birthday's and Christmas's, not to mention, he purchased the engagement ring, I would've given my right arm and left leg for! His reasoning, "You deserve the best". How can I not love him, for wanting to give me the world?!
I am beyond gracious and appreciative for my fiance and the life we have built together. We bought a townhouse just over a year ago, that I could not be more proud of. It is our first home together and a stepping stone as we embark on this forever journey, side by side. We are both college graduates, he from a private, all boys, extremely prominent college. I from a public university. We both have jobs, no not careers, but jobs that allow us to live our life comfortably. We know we won't be stuck in them forever and know when the time is right, we will be able to advance into careers that we want. We are able to go out to dinners, movies, and take day trips and vacations. We are able to pay our bills and buy groceries. We are able to plan our wedding. We are able to do it all and we've done it while I have been a server! Yes, a full blown, waiting tables, serving food, filling drinks, working for tips, server. And not once will I regret that! Serving allowed me to finish college, and pay for it on on my own, as well as many other things in my life. I refuse to regret that.
You see money doesn't mean much to me. I don't care where a person buys their clothes, what kind of car they drive, where their home furnishings were purchased, how much certain things costs, what kind of job they have, etc. Those things mean nothing to me, because if you have to brag about your finances and the amount of money you make, then obviously you are not happy with something in your life. I care about a person's character, how kind a person is, and how they treat others, including strangers AND friends. Yes, I do like nice things, but it is no ones business as to the price tags on those nice things. I find it incredibly tacky when people have to express how much their material items cost! Hence the title of this posting.
The Countess Luann de Lesseps, from The Real Housewives of New York , sings it best in her song, Money Can't Buy You Class. No her voice is nothing to fawn over, but the lyrics are true enough for me to say "keep singing it girlfriend"! She may have been too dramatic, bitchy, and a bit of a backstabber, but there is some serious truth to that song she sings! Classy to me is when you can be gracious and poised without having to prove a thing to the people around you. Classy, is saying something, without saying anything at all. It's about respecting the people you meet throughout the day and those who remain constant in your life. It is about keeping your mouth closed when everyone else is putting their two cents in. It's about accepting others for who they are, not for what they have or don't have or what they do or don't do. Classy is what I strive to be everyday. Some days I may not be as classy as I like, other days I can be classier than I ever thought, however, either way, my paycheck has nothing to do with it!
So to you Real Young Housewives, don't worry about your paycheck, or other's paychecks, just keep it classy!!! Don't judge someone's lifestyle because it may not be exactly like yours. It is not your business and it sure as heck is not classy!!! Respect, Accept, and Adore regardless!
So this past weekend, I had the lovely chance of being invited to a "Girls Night Out" Slumber Party! My new, fun, and sweet friend Miss Brandi was the gracious hostess and my goodness did she do a fantastic job! She sent out the cutest invitations, that she of course purchased off of the best website ever, ETSY.com, purchased a hotel room for us at the Oceanfront, decorated the room, and made us gift bags with candy, nail polish, and fun scratch cards inside! Lord knows, I've needed a night with some loving and supportive girls and that is what I got!
The fiance was out of town for the weekend, so I figured there was no other time than that night, to hang with the ladies! After attending my step-sisters, twins 1st birthday party, I met the gals at the hotel. We all chatted about the upcoming events in our lives, my wedding, Miss Brandi's wedding, Miss Jen purchasing her first home, and etc., we also moaned and groaned about the crappiness in our lives, like Miss Whitney getting stranded on a boat, stung by a bee (in the middle of the ocean), and receiving some serious sunage (from being stranded on the boat for some time) all earlier that day! Poor thing, she was red as a lobster, but the minute we opened the door for her, you could see the relief on her face! We were there to make that girl feel fab despite her very eventful afternoon!
We began to get ready for the night. Showers to wash off the nastiness of the 105 degree heat, curling of hair for those who aren't blessed with curls, straightening of hair for those of us that hate our curls, makeup to makes us hotter than we already are, and I can't forget tweezing of the eyebrows to prevent the uni-brow (just kidding) growing on my face! I learned Miss Jen ENJOYS tweezing eyebrows for her friends, but I think my pessimistic twin just likes seeing her friends in pain ;) Check her out below working on my brows!
After we were all primped, primed, and looking our most fabulous, we ventured downstairs to have dinner and drinks at Catch 31, a local hot spot. The wait time... 1 hour and 30 minutes! We were all more than willing to wait so, we grabbed drinks at the bar and Miss Jen and I snagged a cocktail table, and there we waited. Waited. Waited. Waited some more. And some more. We even got some nosey guys to snap our pictures to pass the time. And then we waited some more! Finally, Miss Brandi went to the host stand to inquire about how much longer the wait would be, only to be given the cold shoulder and an attitude from the hostess. So we continued to wait. Mrs. Briana ordered appetizers to try and hold us over. At this time we had waited an hour and fifteen minutes... We were all beyond STARVING! Mrs. Briana even confronted the ugly hostess only to have been told that our wait was now TWO HOURS! Needless to say this made 7 hungry ladies, really P.O.ed! After much debating we decided to head back to our room to think of some other options. Room Service was terribly expensive and lacked nothing of interest to us. Next option... journey to the hotel restaurant next door. However, after standing by the opened bar for 5 minutes they then decide to inform us that they were closed. Finally, we found a hole in the wall Mexican place across the street! We all ventured in hungry as hell and a little apprehensive, but we were greeted by a very sweet waitress who offered us $2 Kamikaze shots and some killer chicken tacos on special! HELLO FOOD!
Meanwhile, as we were all sitting and waiting for food, I noticed Miss Brandi had been outside on the phone with her fiance for some time. I walked out to find her crying and knew exactly why! She had put so much time, planning, and love into preparing this wonderful evening, and it was not going the way she had planned! The "plans" didn't matter much to me, I was having fun just being with her and the rest of my sweet girlfriends! However, I know it meant the world to her! I gave her the biggest hug I could and reassured her that everything was fine, and we were not judging her for her "failed attempts" at a fun evening (they were not a fail what-so-ever). We are her friends and no matter how the night would have ended up, we would have had made sure to have fun no matter what!
After going back in to the restaurant, finally eating, taking another round of shots, and cheering up we all decided to head back to the hotel! Once there we all changed into our P.J.s and hopped into bed (no pillow fights for these girls), and watched Remember Me, starring our man, Mr. Rob P. Needless to say those who stayed up for it, very much enjoyed the steamy scenes, however they were a bit disappointed in the ending. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it! I think its great regardless of the twist in the end!
Mrs. Briana finally fell asleep after suffering from a horrible migraine, in which I think she passed on to me because I woke up the next morning, half spooning Miss Whitney, and with a KILLER headache! But it was by far the most fun I've had with some girlfriends in a while! The girl talk alone was enough to make me feel better and more connected to these fabulous ladies (who needed a fancy dinner to do that... not me!). So this post is for Miss Brandi... I had a great time girlfriend and don't you worry your pretty face about your plans! Plans are plans, sometimes they work out sometimes they don't, but in this life you just have to roll with the punches, and who better to roll with them than all of ladies that love you for you! XOXO girlfriend, I love ya to pieces!!!
Miss Brandi, Miss Amy, Me, Mrs. Briana, Miss Whitney, Miss Jen, & Miss Elizabeth
So to you Young Housewives, always remember, it's not always about the plan, it's just about the lovely people you are with!
So you ladies know what I'm speaking of right?! That kind of day when the moment you wake, you just are not feeling it!? You're in a funk and no matter what you do, ya just can't seem to get out of it!? By Golly, Yes, you ladies know EXACTLY what I am talking about!!
Today has been one of those days for me. I've been feeling lazy, but highly irritable! The house (in my opinion) is a wreck, however the thought of cleaning is enough to make me want to pull my hair out, piece by piece! I've been hungry all day, but for what, I have no clue! Nothing in the kitchen seems at all appetizing! Then there is the "job hunt"! I desperately need a career. Being a super-server is not cutting it for me anymore, however the thought of actually looking for a job terrifies me, therefore I have yet to really look, in detail, for a career! The same goes for wedding dress shopping! Something about that process terrifies me as well! Maybe because I will learn that I am, indeed, overweight and need to lose some serious pounds! Or, maybe it is because I am scared I will settle on "the dress" only to see something later that I can not live with out! Or, possibly it is the whole price tag that is attached to my beautiful ivory flowing gown that scares me! I don't want anyone to go broke paying for such a thing but I sure as heck don't want to go broke either! Ohhh the predicaments Ohhhh the days!
And then there is the biggest issue for me, that leads to why I need a personal day! I want to sit and pout and sulk about how I can't seem to get a grip on the whole losing weight deal! The fiance and I ordered P90X a month ago! I have seen what this program has done for people in my life, therefore I know it works, and when I say works, I mean you lose weight and get seriously buff in exactly 90 days! However, what I don't know, is how in the freaking world do you motivate yourself to stick with it and to get up every day excited to work your body to the core for an hour to an hour and a half?! This is not just a struggle I have had since ordering the P90X program. I have somehow always seemed to give up on weight loss programs since I was in middle school! I would get excited first and stick with it for a few weeks, and then the excitement would die, and I would gorge myself till I felt better! Well hello, it is still occurring 13 years later! You don't even WANT to know what I ate this weekend! Just thinking of it disgusts myself! Maybe I should start blogging about what I eat! If I am publicly sharing my disgusting eating habits with the whole world, maybe I can then start making healthier decisions as to what I put into my body! I am definitely embarrassing myself by doing such a thing, but maybe it will work! One can only try right?!
So here goes... Today I ate:
1 Peanut Butter and Grape Jelly Sandwich on 2 pieces of Light Honey Wheat bread 1/4 of a normal sized bag of Sour Cream & Onion Potato Chips 1 Cadbury Bunny Egg (left over from Easter... how flippin' disgusting right?)
At least it was good sulking food right?! Maybe I can decide on something better to eat for dinner, however, this whole lounging around and getting nothing accomplished but pouting about being super uber lazy is getting the best of me!
Oh a lighter note, I received a mock up of our wedding invitations today in the mail! Our wedding invitations are going to follow this design found at www.btelements.com. My fabulous and very creative cousin has graciously been helping us design our invitations! We figured it all out a week and half ago and I could not be happier with the design! Instead of doing separate invitations with separate RSVP cards, I decided I would rather have it all contained in a pocket folder! My cousin knows all the secret websites and showed me what www.cardsandpockets.com has to offer! I ordered a sample mock up in the colors I figured would match our wedding colors! I was scared to death that they would not match up and that I'd have to find another website to look to for help! Luckily the colors matched perfectly and I could not be happier! Our rough draft mock up looked great even without all the little details that need to be added! Looking and holding it made it feel so much more real that in less than 11 months I will marry my very best friend!!!
Here's to my personal day, looking a little brighter, all due to a fuchsia metallic pocket folder and a meadow metallic matte! :)
Hope you real young housewives are having a fabulous day... even if it was a personal one!!!!
Well... HELLO THERE Blogging world!!! I have been MIA since before Christmas and I sincerely apologize for my absence in the journaling world!
So much has happened since I last wrote! I celebrated my 25th birthday, what a HUGE milestone to have reached! In February I got engaged to my amazing fiance and for the last several months we have been busy planning our June 2011 wedding! I also FINALLY graduated from college in May!! I received my Bachelor of Science Degree in Communication with a Minor in Sport Management from Old Dominion University and made the Dean's List for the Spring 2010 semester! How amazing and excelerating my life has been!!!
The fiance and I have also been continuously working on our home! We just recently recarpeted the upstairs and laid wood laminate throughout all of downstairs! I will post some before and after pictures so yall can see the change it has made!! AMAZING to say the least! The house just feels much cleaner as well!
I suppose, now that I have more time for writing, I will continue to post about life in general, now just adding some wedding plans into the mix :) Not enough to tell all our huge celebration details because, of course, I want everyone to be surprised on our big day!
It feels great to be back in the blogging world and I can't wait to share more posts with all of you lovely real young housewives <3
My first order! Features the first initial of all the Ladies attending a Ladies Night get-together! Painted in each ladies favorite color!
Another platter given as an Engagement gift! The bride-to-be's new last name will begin with a "W" and the color's match the decor in her home!
