Thursday Roses: 7.28.11

We've been recouping around these parts. Not only ourselves, but the house too. I forget about the clean up job that comes with partying at your own casa. We had about 35 friends and family over this past Saturday to celebrate AOK turning 25. Yes, we're babies compared to the blogger world, but we like it that way!

I totally got to splurge a little Saturday night to ensure I could enjoy the party. We decided to not go totally crazy with decor because it would "outshine" the house & a lot of people were seeing the house for the first time. Secondly, I had the food catered. I have an awesome relationship with ARAMARK, our on campus caterer, because of my job. They went above and beyond for me and the money spent was so worth it. I didn't have to worry about cooking a THING and *bonus* they set everything up for me! It's the (only) way to go people.

I'm thankful for AOK and his 25 years. The party was a success, here are just a few pictures from the night:



There was one thing I found on Pinterest that I just had to do for AOK. Here was my inspiration via Martha Stewart. I made AOK's '25' out of the things he loves. Once I put it on the wall, I realized most of those involved wheels. I think it turned out super cute (click on it to make it larger!) 

 Here is half of our lovely covered patio. It's a massive space, in fact, we have 3 tables, a bar, a grill, a treadmill, recycling bins, anddd a hot tub all underneath it. These are the chairs and table I redid last week. Can't wait to show you the before and afters next week!

 Here is the bar area that I did up. AOK does not like a lot of fuss, so I went with black, white, and green (Kawasaki colors) for the party. In the middle is my famous Sangria. Maybe sometime I'll share the recipe. It will blow your mind. Girls request it when I come to parties.

AOK's family enjoying the party. I love that our fireplace is also extra seating in the living room!

Here he is about to open my big ol' present. He's so cute- I love this picture!

Red Bull fridge! Is that not perfect gift for a dirtbike/bmx/minibike/RC car/zooma rider's man cave workshop? I found it on Craigslist for a STEAL! He loved it, there is a case of Red Bull already in it, thanks to my sister!

AOK teaching Meredith how to ride the mini- she only crashed into the fence & let it flipout, no biggie!

AOK's mama made birthday cupcakes, they were GO BEARKAT Orange! :)

This was at the end of the night- I was exhausted! Happy Birthday to my favorite person in the world. Can't wait to spend another 25 of your years with you! :) (There's a glimpse of our kitchen behind us, I'll be revealing that next week as well!!)

Sorry for the picture filled post! It was such a fun weekend and I wanted to share the roses!

Be back tomorrow!




PS: I'm Hookin' up again over at House of Hepworths who seriously is in my top 3 favorite blogs. AND she totally made me blush last week by commenting on my Valspar post. It made me feel OH so special and like I've interacted with a celebrity. Oh, how I love the blog world! :)

Thursday Roses: 7.21.11

Wow- this week has FLOWN by. My entire summer really has. We've been working in Superman (AOK likes Spiderman better) mode to get the house ready for AOK's birthday bash this weekend. Knowing I was going to write this post tonight made me really stop for a sec and reflect on the week. We are so blessed and I am so blessed to have an AOK. He fills my heart with lots of love and mows the grass in really good straight lines!

My Thursday Roses tonight is all about our impromptu "date night" this past Sunday. We have friends coming in and out of our house all the time, we go from place to place to place and sometimes it feels like we never stop moving. Sometimes we forget to stop and smell... well, each other? hahahah that sounds horrible, but it's so true. We had to run to the Depot on Sunday & decided to eat dinner out. Where we ate just so happened to be right next door to a gas station that my boss kept telling me had the neatest "dessert" at. AOK and me checked it out:

MAKE YOUR OWN MILK SHAKE!!! (sort of)

You pick out your milk shake, already in your milkshake cup from the freezer. AOK got Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, I got cookies & cream. Then you...

 put it under the machine & select the thickness you want your milkshake, how cool is that?? Then it takes it up to I'm not sure where to blend away!!!

Here is the cow jumping on a pogo stick making my milkshake super yummmmmmmy!!

They had all these cute sayings on the screen while it was blending, by the time it came out you wanted it so badly!

It was the perfect (sort of) date night. It wasn't fancy it was just him & I and lots of laughs. I'm the luckiest girl in the world!

Have any of you seen this neat milkshake machine? Any Thursday Roses from the week you'd like to share?

Happy Thursday!

Valspar Virtual Makeover

So, have you ever wanted to “try on” a color before actually painting it on something? I change my mind constantly because I’m not exactly totally sure what the end result is going to be. This is not the case anymore. Valspar’s website to save the day!

Did you know you can upload your own pictures to Valspar’s website and virtually paint your room, cabinets, mailboxes, heck even your hair color?! I’m in love, it’s totally helping me “try on” some paint colors. Here’s my little tutorial on my most recent virtual paint session. I need your help deciding too! (click on the pictures to make them larger)

First- Open up the Valspar website and under Explore Colors, select Virtual Painter.

Next- Upload a photo of your room or whatever you want to change the color of…

I want to change the color of the shutters on the front of our house plus the mailbox to “match.” The brownish orange tan rust color really dates our house I think and we kind of have a modern thing going on. Here are a couple of pictures of the front to give you an idea:

I also will end up painting the front door as well. It’s been a dream of mine to have a red front door & figure the shutters/mailbox have to go together. But I’m also digging blue right now and color in general so I wanted to do a full researched virtual paint session. Valspar has a bajillion paint colors to choose from.  In the upper left hand corner you can select different color groupings to pick your one color to paint your picture. See here:

When I first went to paint the shutters this is what happened:

So I had to use the selection tool to draw my paintable area. I just selected the entire shutter to paint and drew a rectangle around it using this tool option shown below. Just make sure to completely close your shape so that only the inside will be filled with paint:

Then just filled in my selection with various paint colors. Which is your favorite?

Blue:

Red:

Green:

Yellow:

Grey:

Definitely could use your help deciding because AOK told me to just leave it a lone & that "plain is better!" Have you used a tool like this before? Can’t wait to do this project. I think I will add a planter box under the window too, to make it a little more homey!

Happy HUMP day!

Hookin' Up over at House of Hepworths today. Allison by far has one of my favorite home blogs. I feel like I know her so well and feel closer to her because we both live in Texas :-D Go Texas Girls!

HOL(e)Y TOOTHPASTE!

Hey there!
Told you I'd be back today with something to share! This will be a quick post- but let me tell you it will be life changing. At least it was life changing for me... I'm so dramatic. But for real, life changing.

A friend gave me some CUTE letters awhile back that spelled out "home" and in the process of getting our back porch ready for AOK's birthday party next weekend I decided I should probably hang them up. I also wanted to try a trick I saw on Pinterest a few weeks ago that involved toothpaste of all things. I am notorious for guesstimating when it comes to hanging things on the wall. I am too lazy to get a tape measure and do it a logical way and then usually end up with 5 millions tiny holes in my wall. Oh not anymore, I had this hung up in less than 5 minutes, with only the necessary holes!

If you put just a dab of toothpaste on the back of the picture, mirror, letter, wall hanging, whatever on the spot where it will need to be hung, like so... see the tiny dots of toothpaste on the hooks?

Then put it on the wall where you want it to ultimately hang, if you look close, you can see two tiny white dots, from the toothpaste. Then just put your nails, pins, etc., into the toothpaste dots.

And VOILA! It's hung, with only the necessary holes in the wall and so quick. If I were using my guesstimating technique, this probably would have taken me 30 minutes at least. I did it in about 5. Aren't these letters adorable?

Here's a wide angle, you can see AOK's shop in the background & all the stuff I was organizing on the back porch!

And here is the other angle. Those two windows go into our living room. That is our back door- it will get a paint job in the distant future. That's on the "ultimate" to do list!

We had a productive day around here. I told my sister she would have been so proud. I am sort of a girly girl when it comes to chores and what not. I do not really like doing things outside admittedly. But I had some surge of energy and wait until you see what I did. Watch for that post this week!

Happy Picture Hanging! (and Happy Weekend too!)

Hookin' Up Over at Dittle Dattle today for Amaze Me Monday. I love her blog because she incorporates Motocross into some of her home decor designs. AOK appreciates this just as much (if not more) as I do! You can find her link party button over there in my side bar if you want to participate :)



Bad Bad Blogger

Life was supposed to slow down once my LAST summer grad school session was over and in true honesty, life did slow down. I've just been having way too much fun with friends, family and crafting to post! But that all stops tomorrow. My camera is maxed out with pictures to show off all the fun projects I've been working on!

Get ready! The fun starts tomorrow!