friday + a giveaway winner

We did it! We made it to Friday again. If you've had a week like we have, then you're welcoming the weekend with open arms. It's been a full week, so a weekend with some down time is just what we need. We've also been battling a severe case of poison ivy (the hubs-- not me). So expect a post dedicated to home remedies for poison ivy soon.

I don't have a whole lot to share with you today, to be honest. But if you are a fan of country music, then you should definitely watch the opening skit from this week's CMAs. It's hysterical. And even if you have seen it, you should watch it again. I think Brad and Carrie work well together, plus the DD crew makes an appearance. Check it out for a Friday laugh.

But I do have a winner to share with you! The winner of the $25 gift card to Flourish Boutique is Justine Marie! Congratulations to you, Justine and I hope you just love shopping at Flourish!

the thankful project: an experience

Have you heard of The Thankful Project yet? If not, you should jump on over to Chasing Happy and read a little more about it. Such a great concept for this type of year. While I missed the first three days and probably won't be doing the full month, I will be blogging about a few topics along the way. 

November 4: An Experience

In July 2007, I was blessed with an opportunity that I had dreamed about since I was a little girl. You see, I grew up in a small (like 350 people small) midwest-farming town and the biggest event of the summer was our county fair. The whole county basically shuts down and everyone you know spends the week at the fair. Still to this day, it is one of my most favorite times of year. And for my family, it is something that we all are a part of. We all spend the week together and it's just so great.

And ever since I was a little girl, I had always dreamed about being the fair queen. As silly as it may sound, it was a big deal to me. In the summer of 2007, that dream became a reality. It was my third attempt, which is more times than most people compete. Honestly, it took a lot of courage for me to run that third year. Most people stop after two years, but I knew that I wanted to try one last time and if I didn't, I would have always regretted it. Thankfully, that persistence paid off.

It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. I got the opportunity to meet a lot of people, travel to new places and do a lot of fun things. It really was a dream come true for me. It was a time where I could represent something I loved and believe in. But more than that, it was a time in my life where I learned about God's timing and perfect plan for our lives. I learned more about patience and letting go of a situation than I ever meant to. That summer was one that could have been filled with a lot of pain and struggle for myself and some family due to different situations going on, but instead it was one filled with new experiences and celebration.

So while being the fair queen was filled with fun events, dressing up and other wonderfulness; it was also a time in my life when I saw God work in a very real way. Plus, I learned a whole lot about interviewing, public speaking and public relations (which was my major so that helped, too). All of those things together made for an experience that shaped me then and still does today.

 

welcome to november + a giveaway

Welcome to November! Today I am blogging over at Simply Clarke so be sure to head on over there and check it out. Plus, you can enter to win a fabulous giveaway!!

Ok, now go visit me over at Simply Clarke-- Happy Friday!

welcome home

As you may have noticed, I've been a little mia for the past week. Since then, we've moved into our house and I've turned a whole year older. On Monday, I turned 27, which just seems crazy to me. And even crazier is that now we are homeowners. A whole lot of awesomeness going on here.

The past weekend we were so blessed to have our parents, siblings, cousin and grandparents help us move out of the apartment and into the house. It took a lot of muscle, advil, patients and love from them and we couldn't be move thankful for all their help. Plus, it was even more wonderful to have so much of our family in OUR home. Talk about warm fuzzies--I was full of them.

As we are starting to make our space look like a house again, it is so great to make it even more of our own. This weekend we have plans to take a trip to IKEA-- two points for my husband coming up with that idea. I'm not sure if he realizes what he just got himself in to.

And even though I'm not a big fan of Halloween-- the dressing up part, let's be real I do like the candy part-- Happy Halloween. Enjoy a fun and safe day of trick-or-treating!

wednesday words

For the sake of my sanity, today I have to focus on packing and more packing. So I leave you with this.

house inspiration

These days all my creative juices are being used up in our house, or they're being killed by inhaling too many paint fumes. Either way all my energy is being poured into painting, cleaning and dreaming about our new house. This week is moving week and so there is a lot to be done in the next few days, including packing up the apartment (which I may or may not have yet to really start). The carpets in the house are being cleaned tomorrow so it is my deepest desire to have all the painting completed by the end of the day. We've gone through gallons and gallons of paint, which I have mentioned yet that paint is a bit expensive when you're painting your whole house?!? But besides the endless hours of painting, exhaustion and body aches, I am so so pleased with how the house is slowly transforming into our own. It's amazing how paint can completely change the look of a room. We're almost done with the painting, as husband says-- we're rounding third-- and I know it will all be worth it in the end.

From paint to decor, here are a few images that I'm looking to for inspiration for our new home. 

Master Bedroom:

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

 Kitchen:

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

 Half Bath:

via Pinterest

 Entry way:

:

via Pinterest

 Living Room:

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

That's all I have for you on this chilly Monday!

first peek at our house!

We have been spending every extra minute of time at the house this week-- painting like crazy. I love watching the house transform into our own space. But as much as I am enjoying this process, my arms hurt and I will be thankful when I no longer come home with paint in my hair.

Here is a brief look into the downstairs of the house. I took these pictures right after we got the keys so there is no painting done yet. I promise I'll show you the after pictures soon.

Entry Way and Stairs

I loooove the arched doorways.

Living Room

More living room

And I love that we have a fireplace, and that we've already used it!

Family Room

My hunky husband in the kitchen.

Dining Room

We have a lot of plans to continue to transform the house into our own, but for now painting is our biggest project. Plus, house renovations are expensive. So we're taking our time on making changes, but don't think we don't already have it planned out. Here are our first five projects:

• New kitchen counter tops and flooring
• Add an island in the kitchen
• New storm doors for the whole house
• Completely renovate the master bathroom
• Add a deck to the backyard

As you can tell we've got big plans and most of them are big projects, so we'll be completing them slowly over the next few years. As for now though, I am so so pleased with how the painting has turned out and I can't wait to share it all with you. Plus, I can't wait to move it! Only eight more days!

Hope you have a fabulous Friday!

arizona recap

I finally remembered to bring my camera back from the house, so now I can give you a full recap of our trip to Arizona! We originally traveled to Phoenix for a work conference for Jake, so we spent the first few days visiting and exploring with some of his work colleagues. We had a great time hanging out by the pool, exploring the city, shopping and, of course, eating. So many good places to eat. Seriously, so much food. But we also spent a good amount of time exploring the outdoors. The landscape is so different than here in the midwest. It's a lot less green with a lot more dirt, but it really is beautiful. On our last day in Phoenix, we rented a jeep and took it off roading through Tonto National Park. It was awesome and so scary all at the same time.

The men had so much fun scaring driving through the mountains. Even though there were moments when I thought we may tumble down the cliff, it was seriously so much fun! And a great way to see the mountains.

 

 

 

 

During one of our out of car explorations, my hubby managed to open up a prickly pear cactus to see what it was like.  He may or may not have acquired some pricks in his fingers.

 

 

On our way to Sedona, we took a side trip to drive the Apache Trail. It wasn't as nerve wracking as the jeep, but it was still filled with hair pin turns and cliffs. But again, it was beautiful. Plus, we stopped for some ice cream at a local ghost town.

 

We arrived in Sedona after having dinner with some of my family in Prescott. It was great to see them and visit with some friendly faces. Our first full day in Sedona was cold. We were really surprised that it was so cold because it was 90 while we were in Phoenix. Even though it was cold, we still wanted to hike in the red rocks. We started at the Boynton Canyon which was great, until it started to sleet on us. Then it got a little colder and wet. Thankfully, the sun came out and we could hike a couple other trails.

 

 

Yep, snow.

 

 

Oh, and there were the bears. We didn't actually see any, but it made it more interesting.

After hiking, we spent the rest of the day walking throughout Sedona shopping and taking in the sites. If you've never been to Sedona, it's a great little town to visit. So much to see and so many shops. Plus, there is a stunning view everywhere you go.  We originally had planned to go to the Grand Canyon, but thanks to the government, we couldn't go. Only slightly annoying.

 

We left Friday morning and traveled back to the midwest. We had a fabulous week in Arizona and definitely will go back. Hopefully, next time we'll get to go to the Grand Canyon. Anyway, thanks for letting me share all my vacation pictures. Now, I have to get back to packing so we can move in just 10 days!!!

i'm back

After a wonderful week of vacation, we have returned back to the midwest. Arizona was so beautiful. There were mountains, cactus, clear blue skies-- just beautiful. And I would love to share all the beautiful pictures from our week but I left my camera at our house. 

Yep! That's right, our house! We got the keys to our new house. 

We're so so excited! Today was the first day we actually started doing some work in the house. One wall has its first coat of paint on it. So far so good! We still have a couple weeks before we move, but we hope to get all of our painting and a major cleaning in before we actually have to move things in.

I promise to give you a full report of our trip to Arizona and pictures of our house as soon as I remember to bring my camera home.

this week

Just in case I forgot to tell you-- we're on vacation this week! We're enjoying Arizona! I'll see you in a week! 

happy closing day!

Today is a big day! We closed on our house this morning. Isn't she beautiful!

We are now officially homeowners! We're so excited for this next stage in our life and cannot wait to get into our new home. Although we don't move for a couple more weeks, we'll be busy painting, cleaning and packing. But for now we're off to celebrate and start packing!

fall bucket list

It's is an exciting week here! We close on our new house on Wednesday! Eek! So so excited! I can't believe that it's almost here, just as much as I can't believe tomorrow is the first day of October. Before fall gets away from me, I figured it was time to put together my fall bucket list! I love lists and especially love it when they include fun things to do. So here is this fall's list!

 

• Go to a pumpkin patch
• Make these apple donuts
• Paint our new house!
• Make lots of pumpkin bread
• Carve pumpkins from number one
• Go camping (this one is still in question) 
• Go through a corn maze
• Tailgate at a ND game
• Make apple cider
• Celebrate my birthday by moving
• Enjoy my hubby's pumpkin ale brew
• New blog design

Honestly, I don't expect to get a whole lot of activities in during these next couple months. Between vacation, painting, cleaning and moving, I figure most of my energy will be already taken up. But I can't let fall go on by and not enjoy all it has to offer. Oh, and we're leaving for Arizona on Sunday! Woo hoo! Can't wait for a vacation with the hubby. It's a partial work, partial pleasure trip and I'm really looking forward to it. I've never been to Arizona so this will be a whole new adventure.  Any suggestions on places to visit or eat? Ideas are welcome!

What other things are on your fall bucket list?

five on friday

Hey guess what? It's Friday again and that means I'm linking up with Christina, Darci, Liz and Natasha for Five on Friday.

 {ONE} Although it's already been a week, it was still a big highlight. Last Friday, I finally got to have lunch with two of my oldest friends. I have been friends with these two for a long time and since we live hours apart now our visiting is more limited. But Sara, Sophia (Sara's sweet baby girl), Kelly and I spent a few hours at lunch catching up and talking wedding plans for BOTH of them!

{TWO} Speaking of friends, this weekend I am heading to Indianapolis for a baby shower for a friend from college! I also get to meet another friends new baby boy and see some of my best friends from college. Babies, babies everywhere! So so so excited!

{THREE} Our apartment is back to looking like this...

which is totally ok, because that means we're moving into our house soon!!! Words cannot express my excitement!

{FOUR} Not sure if this counts, but I am tremendously pumped for next week. We close on our house on Wednesday!!! AAAH! I can't believe it. It's hard to believe it is actually happening. I'll be sure to share pictures soon!

{FIVE} Shhh...don't tell anyone, but I some how managed to find the first episode of Season 4 of Downton Abbey this week. And of course, I watched it. I am not going to say anything else just in case you are still in the process of catching up (like my mom and aunt). But I just love this show and can't wait until it premieres in the States!

Happy Friday to you!