The disaster that is my yard!

Our yard has fallen to the bottom of our renovations list. I am looking forward to this summer when I can try to spruce it up a little bit. To our credit, we were kinda left with a mess from the previous owners and as we moved in the middle of the summer there wasn't much we could do! 

This is the back of the house and is shaded in the afternoon/evening. This used to be a strawberry garden when the previous owners lived here but last summer it was just a weed pit!

This is along out fence line, if you can see the mulch there. This used to be a L-shaped row of trees against the fence. The trees apparently got worms and the previous owners had to remove them. This is in the sun nearly all day since its in the middle of the yard! I kind of wish we still had the trees =(

This is the other side of the patio in the back yard, these are our rose bushes that actually get pretty and big and they require NO maintenance which is awesome! Chad just trimmed them down at the beginning of winter.

This is our side walk to the front door/front yard. On the left against the garage is a bunch of weeds, nothing was there last summer. I'm sure something used to be there but now it's just ugly! On the corner is a big green/purple bush, straight ahead is three more of those rose bushes and on the right are some green hairy things! Clearly I have a green thumb =) 

This is our front yard. Those bushes are nice, chad just has to trim them occasionally throughout the spring/summer/fall. Don't ask me what any of the other plants are though! I have no idea! 

Hopefully this spring I will have a lot of time to garden! We plan to eventually put in a deck in the back along with the concrete patio that we already have now. But these are plans for the WAY future, many other projects on the list first. I think that just a little gardening will go a long way and make it look a lot better. I did get gardening tools, bag and gloves for Christmas! So I'm ready, just waiting on Spring now =)

Before and After

So we have lived in our house for 8 months now and we have done a lot to our house since then. We have decided to tackle one of the last remaining things, the KITCHEN! I cannot wait, this is the one room since we bought the house that I've wanted to renovate. We still have 3 weeks until the cabinets come in and we can't do much until then. So while I'm anxiously waiting, I decided to post before and after pictures of our house so far!

I mentioned before that we had to paint every wall in the house when we moved in, and I mean EVERY wall! We have also done a lot of decorating, there are more wedding pictures than anyone cares to see in our house now! Also, we have bought a lot of new furniture and renovated our master bathroom. Okay I'll just start with the before and after photos and explain as I go =)

The before pictures are from our walk-through while the previous owners still lived there.

Before - Front Room

After - Front Room
We painted, bought a new couch, end tables, shelving and bookcase

Again After Front Room

Before - Downstairs Bathroom

After - Downstairs Bathroom
New Vanity, Toilet seat, mirror, light fixture, paint and  towel/toilet paper holders

Before Master

After - Master Bedroom
New furniture, flat screen, decor, curtains and paint

Before Family Room

After Family Room
Paint, furniture, curtains, decor

Again After Family Room

Before - Eat in Kitchen/Family Room

After- Eat in Kitchen/Family Room
New table/Bench

With the kitchen renovation this floor will be all new hardwood and the light fixture above the table will be changed

Before Dining Room

After Dining Room
Paint, cabinet, decor

With the kitchen renovation this will also be hardwood and we still have to buckle down and buy a dining room table. Although I like our make shift card table/dining room table!

Before- Master Bathroom

After - Master Bathroom
This was completely gutted and re done. Everything you see is new except the vanity (which was stained) and the lighting and mirror, which we plan to change asap

Before - Master Bathroom

After - Master Bathroom

After - Master Bathroom

Before - Guest Bathroom

After - Guest Bathroom
This looks a lot different but we really didn't do much. This is the last room on our list we will renovate (new floors, vanity, mirror and lighting)

Before - Spare Room #1

After - Spare Room #1
new Paint, Furniture

Before -Spare Room #2

After - Spare Room #2
Paint, furniture (we are also going to be adding fans/ceiling lights to all the spare rooms)

Before - Office

After - Office
Paint and furniture

Now I will show you pictures of our kitchen as is and in a month or so once the kitchen is complete I will show you after pictures! Nothing has been done to the kitchen since we moved in except a coat of paint!

I am so excited for new floors, new cabinets, new appliances, new countertops, new lighting, new backsplash, plus our ISLAND! I hope the next month goes quickly so I can start enjoying our new kitchen! 

The Holiday Season

As usual, time has gotten the best of me and it has been a month since I blogged last. I left off after getting home from an amazing trip to Chicago. We got home and had to prepare for Thanksgiving that week. Tuesday before thanksgiving we had all of our friends over to celebrate, play games and eat a pot-luck Thanksgiving meal everyone chipped in on. It was great to catch up with friends and have some fun!

The only picture I took at Friends-giving!

We spent thanksgiving day in Chad's hometown with his family. It was laid-back, fun and relaxing! We had to come back that night, I had to work on Black Friday, Chad spend the day shopping. He got us a brand new flat screen TV for our bedroom that has paid off to be an amazing idea - I love to lay in bed and watch TV! Then Saturday we had Thanksgiving with my family! It was another laid-back fun day. We ate way too much and just hung out!

A couple weeks after Thanksgiving, we went to the Festival of Lights with a couple of our friends and their kids. It was a lot of fun, not too cold, and watching the kids get excited made me smile! The Festival of Lights always seems to get me in the Christmas spirit!

Festival of Lights

With Christmas around the corner, we went over our friends for an annual Christmas party. We watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation and eat food and celebrate! It was great to have fun and see our friends at Christmas.

This was the first Christmas season we had to splint the holidays between our families. I was very thankful to be off work for several days following the holiday which allowed us to spend time with both sides of our families. We sent Friday night and Saturday (Christmas Eve) with my family. We typically do most of our Christmas celebrations on Christmas Eve, so this worked out very well. We ate a big meal and unwrapped our gifts. We are extremely spoiled and got way more than we deserve. After a long night driving to Chad's hometown, we went to bed only to wake up early the next morning.

Chad and I on Christmas

I woke up around 730 because I forgot to make the dessert I was planning to make the day before. I wanted to get a head start on the baking, so it could be in the oven while we opened gifts. Well all was well until halfway through the gifts when we realized the kitchen was full of smoke. Apparently the pan I used had a hole in it and the sugar was burning to the bottom of the oven. My mother-in-law spent too much time Christmas morning cleaning the oven and we had to keep all the windows and doors open to all the kitchen/living room out. However, it gave us a funny story to look back on. Again, we were way too spoiled and got way more than we deserve. We spent the afternoon with Chad's extended family and the next two days in his hometown visiting with friends.

Blackburn kids on Christmas 

With New Years (Chad's birthday) on the horizon, it made me stop and think about our past NYE. We have not had a normal NYE together since we met. Our first NYE was spent apart, Chad went home and I stayed in our college town. Our second NYE was spent in Miami, probably our favorite time. Our 3rd NYE was spent in New Orleans, although we hate the town, it was a fun time. Last NYE I was supposed to be working  night shift, I got sick and had to call off. I spent the night on the couch watching Glee reruns. Chad had already made plans, expecting me to be at work, to go skiing with his brother. This was my least favorite NYE - didn't like ringing in the new year all by myself. So this new years we decided to surround ourselves with friends and spent the night with our friends. We had a great time and hope that 2012 brings a lot of fun and happiness.

Neither Chad or I have a new years resolution and looking back on 2011 with all the great things that happened: getting married, buying a house, our honeymoon, Chicago...etc I think we just hope that 2012 is relaxing and laid-back. We have the best family and friends we could ask for and we look forward to a great new year! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The Windy City

This weekend we went to Chicago with a couple of our best friends! We have been planning this weekend trip since this summer and we were so excited when it was finally time to go!

We all took off on Friday and left early in the morning. After the 4.5 hour drive, we finally arrived in the windy city (and yes, it's extremely windy)!

After we checked into our awesome hotel, we were off to walk to city and see all it had to offer. We ate some delicious Chicago style Pizza at Lou Malnati's.

We went ice skating in Millenium park. It wasn't too cold but there were a lot of people on the ice so I was a little scared since I'm not the best ice skater.

That night we ate at Michael Jordan's steakhouse. We all had some huge, expensive steaks!

After a long day of walking the city we found a nice bar and had a few drinks with friends!

On Saturday, we didn't get up early enough for breakfast (walking wears me out)! Once we were up and ready we hit the streets once again.

We did a ton of walking and found some awesome shops like Garrett's Popcorn, Hersey's, the Nike Shop...etc

We made our way to the Navy Pier and it was extremely cold and windy by the lake! I thought we would blow away.

We had lunch out on the Pier at Harry Caray's Tavern. The restaurant had a ton of Chicago memorabilia that was awesome to look at. They had the foul ball that Steve Bartman caught (they have blown it up, but they have all the strands), major sport figures jerseys, tons of pictures with famous people and lots of other stuff.

After lunch we made our way back to Michigan Avenue for, what else, more shopping, until it was time to stand and wait for the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival. Mickey and Minnie came by on their float and lite up the streets one block at a time. We were 20 people deep on the street and couldn't see much! There were sooo many people there is was incredible.

After the first several floats we decided to make our way back to the Hersey's store and get a snack (Yum). Then we made our way to dinner at Weber Grill. This was a really nice BBQ restaurant in downtown that we all enjoyed a lot.

After dinner I was so tired from two days of non stop walking and shopping and eating that I went back to the hotel and crashed!! The boys went walking and had some man time together.

We woke up Sunday, sad it was time to leave the Chicago, but we were determined to use every bit of time we had. We went to breakfast at a place called Eatt, then we walked Michigan Avenue one last time and got some souvenirs!

Then we packed up the car and made the 4.5 hour, rainy drive back to Cincinnati.

Chicago has a lot to offer. It is a huge city, much bigger than Cincinnati and there is so much to do there. I think that we were successful in doing everything that we wanted. We had so much fun with our friends and are already planning where to go next year! It is nice to be able to get away from life for a couple days on a mini vacation, especially before the holidays get here and we are running around crazy and time flies by without us noticing.

Where did October go?

Wow, I can't believe how time is flying by! It's already November and before we know it Christmas will be here. It flew by so fast, it's already been a month since I posted last! There really isn't much to tell about October, it was really a month full of getting back into routine. I started my normal routine at work and I am loving the hours and the location, 15 minutes from our house. The days are long, but it is a small price to pay for only working 4 days a week!

Our weeks fly by with both of us working all day and our weekends are usually full of football. We are very proud of our #23 Bearcats and our Bengals for great seasons so far! We have attended quite a few home Bearcats games, but not one Bengals game this year, maybe we are bad luck!

This month we finally got our wedding video, which was so awesome to watch. There was so much that I didn't get to see since I was last down the aisle and hidden for most of the day. Our videographer captured the entire day and also gave us a separate disc with raw footage of people dancing. The speeches were amazing to see again. We were able to finally here my maid of honors speech that was riddled with tears and hard to understand that night, but on the video we caught every word. It was also nice to hear our best man's speech again, it was funny and heartfelt and I know it meant a lot to Chad.

As for the house, we haven't done much updating. Mostly, replenishing our funds from the last update. We did do some minor work: updated the front door handle/lock and the screen door handle. They used to be an awful shade of bright gold, now they are a much more modern brushed nickle. We also bought an ottoman for our living room, which has proved the come in handy a lot!

With October over, we have a fun-filled November in store. Chad had his first practice has a middle-school basketball coach. I am really hoping his season goes well and the kids win a lot of games. Chad has always wanted to be a head basketball coach and I want him to do well at it. I'm sad I will only get to attend a couple of his games because they are on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4:30, and I won't be off work in time. I think this is silly, they should have the games later, what parent or fan can attend at 4:30?

In a week and a half we are going to CHICAGO with our best couple friends Lauren and Blake. This will be the second time I have been there, but the first time I was 11 and I don't remember much. We are only going for a weekend but we have 3 days packed full of fun things to do! I can't wait to go shopping at all the amazing store they have there and see the Navy Pier again. This was the only thing I can really remember about Chicago and I loved it. We are going to eat some amazing Chicago style food and go ice skating! We also have planned to see a parade and lighting of Michigan Avenue which should be fun! I can't wait.

After we get home from Chicago, Thanksgiving will be knocking at our door. Now that Chad and I are married, we have to try to figure out how to split holidays. Neither of us wants to spend a holiday away from our families and we can't do both in one day because Chad's family lives 2 hours away from us. So this year we think we have it worked out to where we can see both families for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Who knows what we will do in years to come. Especially once we have kids to tote around as well.

Like I said, Christmas will be here before we know it. With such a jam packed November, I just know it is going to fly by! Chad and I love the holiday season and all that it brings (except the snow). I have already started to prepare, I ordered our Christmas cards off SnapFish, once again utilizing our wedding photos. Chad tells me people are going to be getting sick of seeing our wedding pictures on everything we send them, but I promised him this would be the last time. I want to be able to enjoy the holidays and not be running around so crazy that it passes me by. I hope that we are able to enjoy our first holiday season as a married couple with few bumps in the road. We will see!

With so much happening in November I should have a lot to post about. Hopefully I will have the time!

Catching up on life

So it has been quite a while since I last blogged....sorry! I have been very busy. I started a new job!! :) I am loving it so far. It is amazing to be on the same schedule as Chad and the rest of the world.

A lot has gone on in the last several weeks. We had a housewarming party and were able to meet several of our neighbors! I started my new job, like I said. We went to Chad's hometown and celebrated the anniversary of our engagement at the Oktoberfest. It is hard to believe a year has past since our engagement but on the other hand it seems like forever ago.

With all the updates we have done on the house, it is starting to feel like a home! We love it and are saving up money to do the final things we want to make it just how we want it.

Fall weather is well on it's way here and it feels wonderful outside! I love this time of year bunt in the back of my mind i know that cold weather is near :(! At least I will only have a 5 mile drive to work in the snow this year instead of 45 minutes! With fall comes a slower schedule. It seems like in the summer we have plans every night. October has come and we finally have some time to ourselves and time to relax! We are looking forward to quite nights in our home with no plans, just a movie and a glass of wine!



So this post was very random but not much excitement in the Blackburn household lately, just catching up on life.