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!

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!

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!

Welcome Little Bloggie

Well, we did it! On April 15, 2011 we bought our very own home for the first time. To say we are in love with the house is an understatement, more on that in the coming days. What better way to mark the occasion than for me to start another blog? I think all my other failed blog attempts stem from not loving the topics (or lack thereof) I was talking about. There was no central theme and of course I am a theme girl and everything has to have a purpose or reason. It comes in handy with my day job I think, you know, being a planner and all. But my friends have been hounding me to come back to blogland so now I feel like I have a purpose to be here: making our house into a home (and all that jazz in between).

We have been in the process of buying this house for about 2 months now, I take that back, we first stepped foot in our *new* home back in January, I just had super cold feet about making such a HUGE purchase so it took me awhile to warm those tootsies up. Any who I immediately loaded my RSS feed with tons of DIY home décor bloggers that inspire, create, and are all on the thrift. I knew when I grew up (in a few short months) with my very own house keys, I wanted to be just like them. So here I am, with those keys in my hand, growing up, creating, hopefully inspiring, and definitely thrifting in “The Thrill of Huntsville.”

I got the name for my lovely new *bloggie* home from my very favorite nail polish. I laid my eyes on OPI’s Thrill of Brazil, back in 2007, I might have even drooled just a tad as the lovely nail lady was painting on the gorgeous red lacquer. That day my whole life changed, well at least my nails’ life changed, but I like to think my own did as well. Since that fateful day, my nails have always been red, but not just any red, “The Thrill of Brazil.” I will admit that I’ve cheated on her a few times, for OPI’s Big Apple Red or even once a ghastly PINK (that was my mama’s fault) but I always regretted it almost immediately. For the last 4 years and many more to come, you will always find me with “The Thrill of Brazil” on my fingers! How fitting that Brazil and my lil ol’ town of HuntsVILLE rhyme! It’s fate I tell you, just fate.

I love to write and am excited to take you all along with me as I itch this creative bug in me. Hope you enjoy it, welcome to the world lil ol’ blog of mine!

Here is AOK with the keys to the house after the closing. He’s so cute & excited.