I do... well, they do.

A day off from work sure gets me in the mood to get organized at home. The house, my car, our budget, my workouts got on a regimen yesterday, I will share more about that throughout this week.

I first want to stop and thank each one of our military personel for fighting for our country & freedom. Both AOK and I have friends & family who have served or are currently serving our country. Memorial Day is not only a day of fellowship but rememberance as well. Thank you for all you do & God Bless America! We enjoyed our day yesterday at our new home grilling out with friends.

My weekend was FULL of weddings, again! My cousin Matt married the perfect girl this weekend, we are so lucky to welcome Crystal to the family! I've gotten to know her more and more over the past year as I have been there through a lot of the wedding planning process. I helped her with her invitations and stationary needs as well as provided day-before and day-of help! I couldn't help but notice how happy she was all day. It seriously spoke to my heart to see how much love there was between the two of them. All brides deserve a catch (well, he is most of the time) like my cousin, Matt. Here is a few pictures I snapped from their FABULOUS day!

Look at him looking at her, who knew he could grow up to be so sweet? :-D

Her dress was seriously TO DIE FOR!

I joked with her about her wedding being "blinged out" and her cake was no different! Perfection!

I also attended my former roomie, Nicole's wedding day on Sunday evening! She was beautiful and the venue was out of this world gorgeous! If you are a bride in the Conroe/Huntsville/Montgomery area you have to check out Crystal Springs in Magnolia, I was amazed. I sadly did not snap any pictures as my camera died on me, I did notice her photographer tagged her in a sneak peak on Facebook, so I'm stealing one of those!

Aren't the trees amazing? I thought this picture was gorgeous! I hope they get a large print and add it to their mantle, at least that is what I would do! :-D

There are 3 weekends a year that I'm not allowed to mess with in the world of AOK. This just happened to be one of them so I went to the weddings stag! He had a great time with his friends camping out at a dirtbike race. With this Texas heat I was glad I had other plans!

Congrats to both newlyweds! They are both on their honeymoons sipping on drinks with umbrellas (maybe even out of a coconut) on the beach! Jealous much? Yes, I am.

Tonight, I might make a fancy drink to make me feel better.

Come back tomorrow to hear all about my new bootcamp!

BLINK!

HOLY COW! Where have the last 20 days since I last posted go? I blinked and here we are on May 26th. Let me see, the end of my LAST Spring semester as a graduate student, full of tests, projects, and finals. BLAH! I was so ready for the semester to be over and now it is. I am only taking summer school the first session then in July AOK and me can just relax and enjoy the house THAT WE MOVED INTO THIS WEEK! Well started I should say, there are still boxes all over the place & lots still in our apartments. It's a long process but it's looking better and better! We both could not be more thrilled to finally be in the house. It feels like home... it is home. Can't wait to really start on my projects for the house and show you guys! As a young couple we definitely are on a budget and I never knew how much fun thrifting and making "rocks" into "diamonds" could be.

Last week AOK's parents took us to VEGAS! It was my first time to go and we got to spend a whole week exploring the fabulous town! One of those days we made our way to the Grand Canyon. A Hummer picked us up at 6:15am and drove us to Arizona to see what I think is one of life's special treats. If you have not been, you have to go. It's pure amazingness. I had been before a few years ago but never like this. We took a HELICOPTER ride INTO the Grand Canyon where there was a boat waiting for us to cruise along the Colorado River. I've never experienced anything like it. We had a blast. Well, I have to admit, the helicopter ride totalllllly freaked me out a bit. I had to sit in the front seat, all by myself, looking at all the controls, freaked out that if I moved my knee even the slightest bit to the right I probably would blow the thing up. Not to mention the wind tossed us all around the sky. I seriously talked to God the entire time. AOK and the sweet couple from Norway who joined us laughed at me the whole time. On the way back to Vegas we stopped at the Hoover Dam and saw (and rode over) the new bridge that was built. It was a fantastic day and it definitely was a memory maker. I never will forget it. Here are a few pictures from our trip, be looking for some house projects coming up in the next couple of days!

Fabulous indeed!

TAGGED to sit in the front seat! The smile on my face is because I have no idea what being in the front seat really means just quite yet...

 We just landed from the ride down... I think you can see the stress on my face a little. Right after this picture was taken and I told AOK how freaked out I was, he reminded me the only way out is to get back on! AHH!

I have no words...

Ok... this made it totally worth it. Look at the view.

Back in Vegas, AOK's celebrity siting. Ton from Auction Hunters on Spike. Ton was so nice! AOK was so happy!

The pool at the Monte Carlo (where we stayed) that we only got to use on FRIDAY! For a whole week Vegas was in the 50's and RAINED! Total fluke, but our day at the pool on Friday was so enjoyable, to me, that is what vacation is all about!

This is at The Venitian, it was my second favorite place. I'll talk about my favorite place in Vegas in another post as AOK and me are experimenting on something that hopefully I can brag about!

It was definitely a much needed vacation. I realized I had never taken a week off work for an actual vacation ever! AOK and his family are just as fabulous as Vegas was! Kayli and me get to go to Rome next year with my cousin and her husband! Another memory maker! What are some of your memory making vacations?

I'm back, for real!



It's here, it's here!

My Kindle is here! So excited to own a device that induces hours of procrastination in a land of imagination! EEEeeeEEE! (that is my excited sound) Bought it with some birthday money from a few weeks ago. I told myself to wait until graduation (with my MBA) in December when I'd actually have time to read but I just couldn't. I wanted it for Vegas in a week and for the month in July when both AOK and me are taking a break from schooling. Let's just face it, I'm incredibly impatient and couldn't wait 6+ months to own one.

Need book suggestions? I'm currently reading Water for Elephants in paper format. Borrowing it from AOK's mama FO FREE! I also bought Heaven is for Real & Something Borrowed (to reread) a few weeks ago before the Kindle hype in me surged. Have to get through all of these pre-Vegas so I can just take my lil Kindle with me.

Send the book suggestions to me starting.... NOW!

Have a great weekend y'all!

A Living Room is NO place for a Dirtbike.

Seriously.

I think the title of this post says it all.

Currently, AOK keeps his dirtbike in the living room at his apartment. You think I'm joking? I'm not, case in point:

Notice the junk to the right of the picture, that is his make-shift "garage" tool spot.

When we looked at houses this was a BIG must for me, a garage. There would be NO wheeled objects in our living room, ever.  AOK is the tinkering type, I'm surprised his mama didn't give birth to him in the garage. He loves having oil/grease on his hands, he loves the way engines look, he loves doing "man things" as he calls it. Don't get me wrong, I love watching him do it and learning myself, just not in the living room.

AOK's dreams came true with this house. No garage, just a little carport for Baby Jett, but behind the lovely house is a 600 square foot workshop. I'm not kidding you. The first time we stepped foot in the house, our realtor laughed at him because he shot off straight to the backyard and his eyes never left it. I tried getting him to ooohh and ahhh over the fireplace but there are windows in the living room facing the shop, he was not interested. It was love at first sight with him. When we got in his truck to leave he was mad that I wasn't on the phone with the lender right then and there to talk about making an offer. Our house's workshop had AOK at hello.

Clearly, the backyard and shop are AOK's favorite part of the house. Our backyard is MASSIVE with a huge covered porch, green house, tree house, HOT TUB (score!), BBQ area, it's the perfect entertaining spot for a young couple like ourselves. But what I love most about it? Because of the trees and landscaping, you are in the backyard in a neighborhood but feel completely alone. There are no neighbors right on you you feel like you are on 20 acres of land. AOK has big plans for this retreat, here are some pictures before we move in.

This picture was taken in mid-January, the grass and trees are GORGEOUSLY green now! Big, huh?

Here is the workshop, birdhouse, treehouse view. The shop has a sliding door & everything. I hope AOK doesn't leave me for this shop, that would be the ultimate bummer heehee!

Like I said, we have lots of plans for the outside, can't wait to share our progress! We are t-minus 19 days (7 days of which we will be in VEGAS!) until move in! And we both still have not packed one dang box! We better get our move on! Get it? Get it? haha

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

The Sickness.

I got hit with the sickness pretty hard recently, in fact it's lasted a couple of months. I know, you know, what I am talking about. The sleepless nights wondering if I should DIY my striped curtains or buy them, the thrill of awaiting an email answer from a Craigslist offer, waking up before 7am on a Saturday morning to score old junk, even digging through a "trash" pile to find a treasure. Oh I've done it all, in spirit of my new hobby. I love turning trash to treasure by refurbing cheap & ugly furniture.

My first fever broke a few months ago when my lil sis, Kayli and I went to some garage sales at the crack of dawn. She hated me for it but I kept feeding her gallons of Diet Coke and it made it ok. We were about to give up without ANY purchases for the day when I spotted one last yellow sign with arrows. We followed and I found this little baby for $5:

Kayli had just moved into her apartment and her desk needed a chair. It was like God knew that if I was ever going to drag Kayli to a garage sale again He better give her a good score. Thank you, Lord!

Anywho, the chair was HORRID, the picture makes it actually look better than it did in person. I cannot even describe to you the color it was and the faux spray paint texturing that was on it. It was just awful.

We headed to the fabric store and I bought her a yard of fabric for under $5 with a coupon. I thought she I could use scraps to maybe make a pillow or something. Kayli's room is hot pink and lime green so here is what we came up with:

We saved this chair's life- it would have been thrown away, I promise you or even worse, tortured to spend another day in those shoes. Kayli wanted to take the chair back and show the garage sale people what we did. She was so happy and so was I, oh yeah except for the sickness. I blame the sickness on this chair. I had so much fun and can't wait to show more projects off. I wish I knew to take pictures while we were "in the process" but never thought about it. Oh but I will now, for my blogger buds! I also will use a camera other than my phone- it's just so convenient!

Here it is in her room in all her glory. We still need some wall decor.

I am linking up to my FIRST ever blog at Thrifty Decor Chick's Before & After Party. So exciting, it's a monumental day for this young blog. Thrifty Decor Chick was the very first DIY decor blog I happened onto so it's exciting for me to share my first linky project with her even if she doesn't neccesarily see it! :-D
Wish me luck!

A House is not a Home without a...

Fireplace.

Let me start this post with the fact that there are lovely, non-fireplace, homes; I just want a fireplace. When AOK and me started looking at houses I told him and our realtor that I "judge houses based on their fireplace." At first I was kidding, but once I got down to the nitty gritty of it, I really wasn't kidding. Hi, my name is Cameron and I am a fireplaceaholic.

Not sure what sparked this fireplace sensation in me? But let me tell you, a good fireplace can make me go weak in the knees and this is mine ours:

All I can say when I look at it, is whoah.



Another view, and a glimpse at the rest of the living room, including the GORGEOUS & huge windows.

I haven't shared too many pictures of the house because I didn't want to impose on the previous owners' privacy. Their home is their home and I would never want to impose on something like that. I made a quick trip over there last week to let our insurance guy snap a few photos and I noticed they started doing a little packing. I took advantage of it and snapped a few photos of my own, but on my camera phone, hence the bad quality.

Any who, back to the fireplace. Isn't it unbelievable? I love it so much. It's honestly my favorite part of the house. When we were putting in an offer for the house one of the first things I told AOK was "OMG I cannot wait to decorate the mantel for Christmas." Of course he thought I was crazy, but he will understand in December & so will you!

What do you guys think? I already have some projects in the works for our "everyday" mantel decor. Can't wait to share!

The weddings were fabulous! Both brides looked so pretty & happy. Plus, I got some decor ideas! Which I would have taken inspiration photos of but my camera AND my phone died!  Oh well, best of luck to both the *new* Kelly's and Williams'!!

Tomorrow I'll be introducing you guys to AOK's favorite part of the house. It makes me laugh every time I think about it. 

Today, I'll leave you with something that AOK's mama told me yesterday and I just haven't been able to forget: "Always do the right thing & you'll never have anything to worry about." So simple but so inspiring.

Try extra hard to do the right thing today & always blogger friends!