It's Almost Here

This wedding is about here! Big changes have happened around the house. By big changes, I mean big TVs…

Actually this is the TV from upstairs. Chris came roaming in with 50" of fun the other day

Him and my dad did a little swap

 And now the giant tv is in the living room

And we have a grown up basement

 And I installed a mirror like a lazy person

 So now I can be part of this big tv action:

 Now Chris wants a sectional. Here's where it'll be if that happens

Something as simple as a TV in the basement just made the house feel so different. It isn't that girl's first house that it once was. It has family spaces.

It has pictures of first copies of keys that I can imagine being replaced with sonogram pictures and things like that.

It's much more grown up than it ever has been before. My life is just so different than it was before. Two weeks from now I'll be in Florida, it'll be my 30th birthday, and I'll hopefully making it to the marriage license office before they close. 

I had my wedding hair trial today. I did NOT go with this.

I just needed to take a moment to reflect. Life will be very different very soon. 

Post-Registry Organization

I had my wedding shower a few weeks ago. People were SO generous and I think they ended up staring at me opening presents for approximately an hour. Seriously. After it was over Chris and I loaded up both of our cars and left everything in the breakfast room:

I had to work ALL day the next day.

Finally the next day I was able to have the unpacking event of the decade:

Now I'm left with the living room of my dreams. Seriously, what am I going to do when teal and tiffany blue are no longer hot colors. I finally have almost my whole house coordinated!

 We even have a cute little coffee station area of the kitchen

 And grown up dishes. And cups. And silverware! 

 And pots and pans!

 Seriously... getting married is so awesome for so many reasons. Wedding showers are one of them!

I Can't Do That Project

Getting married is putting a major damper on my projects! I'm itching to do so many things around the house but my days off are booked solid for the 5 (!!!!) weeks up to the wedding. I can't wait to get married for many reasons, one of the minor ones is to get back to a normal schedule so I can get crafty again. Want to see what I'm planning?

The Master Bedroom:

I got this duvet cover off of our registry.

I'm planning on painting the white walls... Again. This time the same color as the downstairs bathroom:

 

I'm planning on painting the green dormer the same color as my basement bathroom and my cabinets:

I'm planning on covering the chair... Again.

I'm looking at fabrics like these:

And, adding a pop of color like this to the bed:

I also want to add a shelf like this one in white over the dresser as a rotating photo display area:

Switching out the curtains for something more masculine:

I also would like to flip out the rickety table

 for a C-Table like this in white:

Or this:

I'd also like to replace this too small lamp 

with a combo like this:

The closets:

The front hall closet just isn't working for my shoes. Then add Chris's shoes and it's a hot mess. The pantry shelves are that cheap Rubbermaid stuff and I can tell I'll wake up one night to a loud crash as the shelves all cave in. I'd like to avoid this. We're planning on adding elfa to both of these spaces to make them more functional than now:

The kitchen:

Now that two toned cabinets are good and trendy everywhere it's time to move on. You know when something trickles to the midwest that it's been trendy for several months everywhere else first! Now I know white cabinets are the way to go if you watch appliance ads and photos from magazines. I'm ready to paint the kitchen cabinets a crisp white to replace this:

I'll also add a little white to the backsplash like I experimented here:

And I'd like to finally make this floor:

Whole again!

So, that's that. Starting in December expect to see some actual progress to these things!

Evolving Into Adulthood (This post actually IS about decorating!)

Quite the title huh? I know this blog has been pretty feelings centric lately, which isn't something I particularly like reading about as a reader. Unfortunately for you, it is something I like to write about! Today I'll attempt to balance both my feelings and some decorating :)

In realization that my house is very girly and Erin-centric in a lot of ways I've been working on making it the place of "we." This week I replaced the EJ picture in the dining room.

 It now reads EC. The good thing about that is that it's still kind of all about me ;) Just joking. Kind of. Those will be my new initials. They are also mine and Chris's. Win and win. 

 This is my final week off of work until wedding week. We started it off in Austin, TX with one of my best friends and her husband so they wouldn't be meeting Chris for the first time at our wedding. It was an AMAZING time where we got some great pictures in front of the "love wall." I'm sure Austinites have a real name for it... But that's mine. 

 After a picture printing fest, and some inspiration from my friend's amazing new house I remembered this little unused area in my hallway. It was time to tackle it. When we are more than just the two of us I'll want a gallery area to display family pictures, so it was the perfect time to start this:

 I started a shadow box with wedding stuff in it. I'll probably put wedding bubbles or some other memento in this later on. For now it's a silly picture we took moments after getting engaged and our invitation with lace envelope. 

 Here it is in action:

 Everything is from Ikea and super easy to put up. The entire project took me about 30 min. after I found screws for the shelves (I swear they used to come with them?).

This weekend really struck me that I've hit adulthood. You think you're there when you turn 18 and 21, or maybe when you get the keys to your first house, or start dreading checking the mail because you know it's lots of bills. That wasn't it really for me. It's been when I've started planning for someone else to share my life and talking about kids. 

My friend Ana and I were sitting around in their new house while the guys were watching a variety of football games. We were talking about cleaning products, paint colors, and what our future kids might look like. The guys would then chime in. It's strange when both genders are on the same page and wanting the same mature things! 

It's crazy to me that 7 or 8 years ago this was our life... 

 

Now instead of being kids we've gone and cut our hair and are out to brunch...

Wow life sneaks up on you!