Covered in Paint... and Sore!

It is true what they say, they being my mother, if you have things around the house that you are unmotivated to get done, throw a party and it will motivate you. And boy does it! I have done more around the house since we have decided to have a housewarming party in two weeks than I have all summer! This weekend I decided to buckle down and get the last remaining rooms of our house that needed painting done! And I am very proud to say that I did it! I painted three rooms in three days! They look sooo much better than before and I finally feel like our house is coming together and looking like a home! Now we have officially painted every room in our house! Phew!

First was our "yellow room" or "queen room" as we call it. When we moved in it had a Raggedy Ann and Andy boarder around it and thanks to some wallpaper-be-gone, I think that's it's official name,  and a fresh set of paint it had a major transformation. Unfortunately, I didn't take before pictures, so the pictures we took on our walk-through before we bought the house will have to do. :)

Before

After

Next was the "Princess Room" which my niece is very disappointed we painted, Chad is a little too :), but it needed to be done! It was painted pink on the bottom and white on the top with a princess boarder separating the two colors. Like so....

Before

We spent our Sunday running around town, literally in the car for hours, picking up box spring mattresses from wonderful friends who gave them too us for free! Now that we have something to put our mattresses on (instead of the floor, which made the room look like a frat house) and a some paint, Voila!

After

Last, but certainly not least, is the office. This room had a lovely Noah's arc boarder and a HUGE Noah's Arc mural on the wall. My mother in law and I took this boarder down with the wallpaper-be-gone when we first moved in so thankfully, it was just in need of some paint! 

Before

After

Before

After

This is our favorite room, and also the only room we bought new paint for. We love this color! The other two rooms we recycled and used left over paint from other rooms in the house! It was hard work and my body is hating me and so sore right now, but it was worth it!

Lastly, amist running around like crazy today, we also went and picked up our couch we bought for our front room! Check it out, I'm in love! 

There is still a lot to do on the house, little things, but we have time. I am trying to priorities now what can be done after the party and what I want done before (also what we have money for now). It was a crazy weekend with Chad being out of town and my last few days of my job. I am excited for tomorrow and to start my new job! When will I have time for home renovations now?

Labor Day Weekend

So we had a fun filled four day holiday weekend! After Chad got off work on Friday we went to my very favorite place to eat Chipolte. :) we had to scarf it down so we could meet up with Lauren and her kiddies! We packed everyone in the van and headed off to watch our friend, lauren's husband, coach high school football! It was extremely hot! We were all sweating to death in the humidity. The game was good and very close. Both teams played well, it was the first high school football game I have been to since.... Well... probably high school! It was interesting to see today's "youth" and how different and similar highschool is since we have been out. It sparked much conversation. Soon it was the kids bed time so we headed home! We were so tired from the heat we hit the sack to get some rest for the days to come.

Saturday we woke up early and went to our local farmers market. Unfortunately, there were only 4 tents of produce. We stocked up on corn and potatoes though! We were very excited to get home and get ready for that night THE FIRST UC FOOTBALL GAME OF THE SEASON! We put our UC gear on and made our way down to the campus that Chad and I miss so much. It was great to be back down on campus and see all the things that are different and all the things that have remaind. We ate at a campus pizza place with some great friends from college and met up with my parents who were tailgating. The game was great, a blow out, 71-10, or something like that. I hope we can play well all season! Being out of college is bittersweet, we miss it so much but we do like being "grown up" at times and having our own house and finances.

Sunday came and it was a rainy, gloomy day.... Chad's favorite! We had planned to go to the fireworks with chad's brother and my best friend but with the rain we decided to forgo the hours we would have to sit outdoors and save seats, the money we would spend on carnival food and fighting the crowd. Instead we decided to invited my parents over to see the decorative additions we have made to the house since they saw it last, mostly hanging pictures and an AMAZING dining cabinet my husband remodeled but painting it and adding new hardware!

Looks great! 

We went out to eat with them and my best friend and then came back and watched the fireworks from the comfort of our, dry, family room! We were very glad we didn't go when we saw how wet everyone was getting and the fireworks were not that great!

Monday came all too soon! We woke up early to hit up the local labor day furniture sales, bought a new couch for our front room, and then headed to Chad's sister, Jenna's graduation party. Jenna just graduated from college and to celebrate we thought what a great time of year to have a picnic! No one would have thought it would be 62 degrees out and cloudy! We were all wrapped in blankets and fighting the cold the whole afternoon so we decided, after eating to pack it in and call it a day. We went back to Chad's grandparents to let Jenna open her gifts and eat cake. We ate WAY too much food that day, but it was great to see family and spend quality time together.

Overall, we had a great weekend, filled with a lot of football, food, family and friends! We are so blessed to have all that we do and all the people around us that love us. And weekends like this remind us just how lucky we are!

Wedding Videographer: Highlights!

One of the best, last minute, decisions we made for our wedding was to hire a videographer. After reading many wedding blogs of brides who regretted not having video of their wedding, I broke down and found room for it in our budget. Although we don't have the final product yet, I am very excited that we will always have professional footage of our wedding day. Especially because, I was unable to see a lot of what happened: the boys getting ready, everyone walking down the isle, entrances into the reception... etc. Now, hopefully soon, we will have footage of the two of us getting ready separately with our wedding party, seeing each other for the first time at the park, our photo shoot at the park, our ceremony, our reception and our guests! Also included in our video is special messages from our guests dictating where they think we will be in 1 year. The theory is that we won't watch it until our 1 year anniversary but I doubt I'll be able to hold out that long! :)

I loved our videographers, they were great to work with and our personalities went together well! They were a husband and wife team, which I love, and they were very professional! I would recommend any bride to hire a videographer and if you are in the area hire ours (if you watch the video, that is their website).

So it has been just over 2 months since our wedding and although our videographer told us it takes 10-12 weeks, I'm so anxious I've been pestering the poor man and so he broke down and gave me a sneak peak video, a highlights video if you will.

There are many things I love about the video, the way it was shot, the angles and the way it was put together, and the fact its the first video of that day I've seen. There were a couple things I didn't care for, I wouldn't say I hated them but we asked for "rat pack" like songs, or Micheal Buble something along those lines and we don't really care for the song choice, also I wish it were longer! :) I just want to see more of that day!

I hope that I can learn to edit video/get a computer program that allows me to, and I can edit a video of my own once we get all the footage but until then, I will have to resort to watching the highlights video 5 times or more a day! :)

Anyways, without furthur ado here is the video, Enjoy!

Chad and Kristen's Wedding Highlights Video