back to reality // living room

it's Sunday night and the weekend is unfortunately over.

and tomorrow I have to go back to work after 2 weeks off - always such a hard thing. I had a nice weekend at home with Josh. we had a lot of relaxing and working on new year goals. we found a new coffee shop, shopped for healthy food, I cooked a healthy meal, I worked out Friday and ran yesterday, and I've been trying to be more proactive (I already finished my lesson plans! - still not feeling prepared for tomorrow though). I even picked out my clothes for the morning. it is going to be cold and rainy with a chance of snow. maybe school will be on a delay... :)

my weekend:

(quinoa pizza bites - even Josh thought they were good!)

today we put in our new door!

it is so pretty and so much warmer.

I will save that for a post when it is all finished.

today's will be dedicated to the living room.

this was our living room when we first moved in:

the dryer was gone when we got there. and that ugly gold light switch plate is also gone now :)

 Putting on the first coats of paint with Sky.

The days when we actually lived in our living room.

Then we painted over the riesling that we originally painted with the grey and a week before Christmas, Josh got to painting the disgusting yellow/brown ceiling (don't ever buy a house where the people before you smoked in it).

seriously. disgusting.

also, maybe not paint during Christmas with all your decorations + all the furniture still in the room.

it looked sooooo much better than the gross yellow popcorn ceiling.

the next weekend, Josh wanted to put one more coat on everything to even it out. after he painted one last coat, the popcorn started crumbling off. poor Joshua was not happy as he had spent probably close to 8 hours prepping and painting.

we originally wanted to scrape the popcorn off anyway because there were parts that were uneven but we had decided to just paint for now because it was easier. now we were basically forced to scrape it off because we'd rather do that than repair.

we stared scraping around 6pm (thank you clock). at about midnight I fell asleep and Josh was still finishing the sanding of the ceiling (which is also an awful process). and he stayed up a few more hours trying to clean up.

if you want to scrape popcorn ceiling, move everything out of the room. it gets EVERYWHERE.

I spent about 4+ hours cleaning up the popcorn ceiling the next day and still didn't get it all. and our tree was covered in popcorn ceiling dust.

we finally got everything pretty much cleaned up and after Christmas, Josh painted the ceiling. and the 3 of us hung up our new ceiling fan in the pitch black which was comical but a learning process. I was an expert flashlight holder.

(we did clean after taking this picture today)

I love how bright the living room is and how much better it looks. We need to touch up the edging but it is a million times better. It was a long process, but definitely worth it!

the last thing I want to do is paint the trim on the fire place and the mantle white.

next post I will share our updated downstairs bathroom :)

it's getting late, I need to make my breakfast/lunch and get to bed I suppose.

let is snow let it snow let it snow!

two thousand and fourteen.

I cannot believe a new year is here!

I always say "this year, I will blog more" and it never happens. I figure I can start today on this second day of the new year (and since I've had a lot of free time today) and see where it goes. I really love being able to go back to old posts and see where the house was and what it is becoming now. I want to keep that up because we have a lot more work to do!

I was looking through my 2013 album and am so thankful for pictures so I can remember everything that has happened this year! What better way to start off a new year than to recap all the great memories of the previous.

My favorite thing about 2013?

adopting this little lady.

Chili has given us so much happiness in the 8 months we've had her!

We adopted her April 14th. She was around 2 months old, so I'll pretend her birthday is valentines day :) cannot believe she is almost a year old!

 

my little doodle bug keeps growing and growing but is still just as cute. she is a long legged, snuggle buddy, bearded beauty that I wouldn't trade for anything!

other wonderful 2013 moments:

we got a big snow.

we won a costume contest.

one of my best friends got married.

I ran on the beach on Easter morning.

 

I donated my hair.

I learned how to use a lawnmower. 

I attempted to have a hanging garden (better luck in the new year I hope!)

I grew butterflies in my classroom.

Josh won a medal for running really fast.

got to go on hikes with these cuties.

Josh won another medal.

lots of trips to the beautiful mountains.

I ran a race on the Fourth of July.

I got to spend time with all my precious nieces and nephews.

I turned 25.

Laura adopted a dog.

we ran a really fun wipe out obstacle course.

one of my other best friends got married and I was the MOH!

we went to the lake for the kids' birthdays (and Josh got me the new iPhone for my birthday so I can take really cool pictures like this now)

 

 we ran another race and Josh got more things for running fast.

we carved pumpkins.

Chili got her first hair cut.

we dressed up ridiculous for Halloween (Spring Breakers characters) and saw Flo-Rida.

 

went to my brother's house in New Jersey for the first time and fell in love with the color of their trees, the cute houses, and my new nephew pup, Dusty.

 

went to New York City for the first time ever! (times square)

went to a park in New Jersey where you can see the NYC skyline and a piece of the World Trade Center.

picked out another Christmas tree together.

went to Joshua's first UNC basketball game.

another successful Christmas with lots of love.

visited Josh's parents in their new high rise apartment in downtown Orlando.

and went to the college football bowl games parade.

              

 

went to dinner and tried raw fish and sake.

and rang in the new year with our BFFs.

and finally, Josh and I celebrated 3 years together.

I must say it has been a pretty good year.

Since it is 2014 now, I have some resolutions and goals I've been thinking about:

• eat healthier, cook more meals, and try new recipes
• drink LOTS of water everyday
• do something active/workout at least 5x a week (preferably get back into running and yoga)
• spend less time on my phone
• keep the house clean and get more organized
• try not to procrastinate, especially on stuff for school
• change my attitude about things
• appreciate each day and manage stress better
• budget our money, use coupons, shop smart, and save up to travel
• get a passport
• visit a few new states
• do DIY projects for the house
• be more proactive
• read more books
• walk/run with Chili as often as I can
• be more thankful
• blog/journal
• become truly happy each and every day

I don't want to have too many "resolutions" but these are things I need to do to better my life in general, so they really will become habits that I hope to keep for a long, long time. When we went out for our anniversary dinner Josh kept saying it was "all about the experience" because we didn't particularly like the sake we ordered and I didn't like the taste of some of the fish, but I can say that I tried it. I hope I have more experiences this year and do things I've never done.

oh and win the lotto ;)

We have done some work on the living room and I need to show the final downstairs bathroom updates so I will hopefully share those tomorrow, my last official day of winter break - trying to be optimistic about it though! Happy 2014!