The best relaxing weekend ever!

This weekend I felt like I was in heaven. I did two amazing things that were both so fun and yet so different from each other:)

On Saturday I surprised J with a night at the Desert Ridge JW Marriott! Well, really I had kept it a secret for a solid two months, and ended up spilling the beans a week early:( Neither of us had ever stayed there and always wanted to. With me working at the Camelback Inn (a JW Marriott as well) I got us an amazing discount and made it happen! It was a surprise to him kind of as a thank you. My work has been so slow lately and I feel like some husbands would put pressure on their wives to find something else, or different, or anything- but J has been amazing. He realizes this job is perfect, just not so much in the summer :/ So needless to say, I was so excited to be able to bless him with this surprise. We seriously had a blast. No exaggerations here, probably one of the best times ever together! We got there on Saturday afternoon and enjoyed the pool

{pina colada heaven}

At night we went to an incredible dinner at The Keg. UGH that places is so good. Dirty martinis, lobster, steak, hot hubby, what more could I ask for!  We just spent the whole evening cracking jokes, remembering the old times, taking in just how much we have grown together, and how were so excited for whats to come! One part of the evening that didn't make me laugh too much though was when we were walking out of the restaurant. The hostess said that she liked my dress, and as I was about to simply say "Thank you", J has to shout out "OH she got it at Ross!!" Ahhh! What was I to do other than say "eh, yeah, it was $15" and walk out embarrassed. Now normally I am ALL about exclaiming my bargain finds, whether it be clothing, furniture, etc. BUT on a night where I got all gussied up for him(which I do not wear a dress and heels often) and was feeling good, that was not the time! Haha he apologized profusely and didn't understand why I got upset when the dress was a good deal and looked good, and honestly I ended up laughing about it too after about, oh, two minutes! Oh boys...

The night ended up with him proving how strong he was to me by jumping for a bar and doing a pull up- gotta love him:)

The next day we hung out at the pool for awhile and then headed to my parents, who were watching our kids {dogs}! Boomer is just figuring out the whole pool thing, so any chance we get, we throw him in!

Now if that wasn't enough fun for me, I then proceeded to spend Monday night at the Doubletree Resort with girlfriends. We got an amazing deal through price line and were sold! We spent the afternoon at the pool and then headed to happy hour at Trader Vics.

It was so much fun being able to catch up/get to know these ladies better. It was a fun dynamic because we were all at different stages of friendship with each other, and by the end I felt like we knew each others life stories. After happy hour we went back to the hotel and talked in the hot tub. Soo nice! It was some much needed and precious girl time.

All in all, I have had the most amazing past couple of days, So blessed! Now heres to hoping that work will pick up. Also, I have something in the works that I am excited to tell y'all about- so watch out:)

<3,
Adri

Shoe love

I just have to say, I think Emily from Design Star is the best! Her designs are amazing and she is soo cute to boot. One thing about her in particular that I am loving right now though is her shoes. I am not even a "shoe girl" at all, but, I LOVE her shoes in the latest episode. Does any one else do this, watch a show and fall in love with some sort of clothing on it? Ugh- I want those shoes! I would actually be ok with having the whole outfit;)


What do you think? Is that your style at all too?


PS-She's the one on the right, incase you don't watch the show.

<3,

Adri

Remodel Reveal part 2:The Bathroom

The Bathroom

We did a lot of work in here! We {or I should say J} replaced the flooring, added bead-board to the walls, installed a new vanity, subway tiled the shower, and obviously painted. I love the difference in here. The tiling of the floor and shower simply make me smile:) One of the best surprises in our house was in the bathroom. The wall to the right when you walk in seemed like a waste of space to us, so we wanted to tear the wall down and build shelving. When we got the initial layers of the wall down we found a GREAT surprise! There was already a huge pantry style cabinet in there! It was seriously dirty but in amazing condition! Why anyone would ever cover over extra storage space in a bathroom is beyond me, but it worked out great for us.

When we first moved in

My inspiration for the high bead-board

Oh the joys of painting!

I'll explain the glue on the wall later

There were 3 layers of flooring

Some hot guy pulling out the vanity

Installing the rad floor

The shower and floor finally finished

The only photo I could find that shows the secret cabinet

Melissa Young Photo

Final product 

Subway tiling in shower

The floors and trim

The glue on the wall was from previous bead-board we had put up. Initially we thought we were just going to paint and put up bead-board, no other renovations, because we simply didn't have time. We put up pre-cut 4x4 squares, and the seam line was horrible. We thought we were having a housewarming that week, so we just left it. Instead, I got super sick and had to cancel the party the day of {big bummer} but that meant that we had more time to fix it! Hooray! We tore down the 4x4 squares and instead used 4x8, which lead to no more seam showing! All in all the bathroom really only took about two weekends to finish. Even though the main projects are done in the bathroom, the room still bothers me for a couple of reasons. When we got married we got these beautiful brown towels and bath mats, they are great quality, but now our bathroom is black and white..thats an issue! Also, it has been near impossible to find a shower curtain we both love, so for the time being, shower liner it is. All in all though, I love the new look.

What do you think? Are you as much of a lover of subway tiles as we are? Any fun renovations going on in your home lately?

<3,
Adri

CB2 Contest!

Hey all,

If were not friends on Facebook and you haven't seen this yet, please,PLEASE take the time (roughly 30 seconds is all!) to vote for our house. We could win up to $10,000 to CB2 {heaven}. Thanks so much for your time..more re-model reveal posts coming soon:)

Definitely Eclectic – CB2 - The Selby is in Your Place Contest

Go there to vote! THANK YOU!

<3,
Adri

Remodel Reveal: The Dining Room

Over the next few weeks I am going to be writing about all of the re-modeling we did.

We moved into our house in April 2009 and didn't finish the big projects until January 2010. Thats right, 9 MONTHS! Now don't get me wrong, I loved making our home our "own", but there were many nights when I would get home after a 10 hour shift and the last thing I wanted to do was paint baseboards, or tear up carpet, or really anything. Luckily I am beyond blessed  to be married to a man who is not only incredibly creative and handy, but also patient and loving. There were many days and nights where I would just start crying because I was so done with working so hard, and J was there to encourage me and get me motivated again. One of my favorite memories of working on the house was when both J and I were painting the ceiling in our hallway.We were both complaining about how sick of painting we were BUT YET not once did we stop painting. At that point we just laughed because we both were wanting to quit, but knew that that was not even an option! I know a lot of people say that one of the biggest stressers in a marriage is home improvement, so I feel lucky that we made it through ours with minimal tears{from me} and fights! I am SO happy that we are done {at least with all the major stuff} and now can actually be a part of the world again, because we literally didn't see friends or family for a long time!!

So without further ado...

The Dining Room

When we first moved in

After having the top 1/2 of the walls smoothed out and the tile demo complete.  There was a significant amount of floor leveling that had to be done in the dining room, it was originally the carport so the flooring under the tile was definitely not level.

 New wood floors are in and we are making some progress with the paint and trim.

Melissa Young Photo

The final product 

Melissa Young Photo

Melissa Young Photo

Updated photos as of March 2011:

One of the trickiest parts of the house when we moved in was the walls. They had a horrible texture to them, and we knew that if we wanted wainscoting, we couldn't have the texture. Since we needed so many walls to be smoothed, we hired people to do it (almost all of our projects we do ourselves). The money saving tip that we did though was only have them smooth out the top half, that way we could just put 1/8" tile board up on the bottom, and save a ton! Putting up all the wainscoting and trim throughout the house was the most daunting of all tasks. SO many nails and cracks to caulk over, so many surfaces to paint, so many angles to measure, so much wood to cut, UGH! I don't think there was ever a day that went by that we weren't using the nail gun, mitre saw, or paint. It was all so worth it though, because in my opinion the wainscoting is truly what makes our house. 

It seems silly to post "after" pictures on here because I had my best girlfriend Melissa Young take these photos on Wednesday, and by Thursday the room was already different (we sold the three grey chairs). Our house is always changing, but I love it! Well, that is the start of our re-model reveal, hope you like the room...because theres more to come:)

<3,

Adri

Adventures in Sewing

Guess what I finally learned to do today...

I got this sewing machine for Christmas last year (HOW PATHETIC THAT I WAITED THIS LONG) and finally made my mother-in-law come over today to really teach me the in's and out's of it. It was a lot easier than I thought, once I got the basics down. This is by NO means me saying that Im going to succeed at making anything fancy soon, but I sure will try! Today I made a table runner out of some doilies that I got at an Estate sale. I saw this on a blog {for the life of me I cant remember which one, sorry} and I loved it! It was a perfect easy first project, and one that I now adore.

Final outcome...

I love it. I can keep it on the table for almost any occasion, wash it easily, and I love that its not perfect {on purpose} I made it a little zig-zag.

Thanks for helping me Debbie<3

On a side note, we came home the other night to the most beautiful double rainbow outside. It seriously took up the sky and put of an amazing glow.

                                      

Just another reminder of Gods beauty! Thanks Jesus:)

<3,
Adri