Nesting and Birthday fun!

So we close on our house in less than a week and I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! Last weekend I went garage saling and to the Master Gardener's plant sale and found some great plants and things for our new yard. This morning I went to a fantastic estate sale and also to some local stores to find some other things I've been looking for, and some I wasn't looking for:

I got a pair of these sweet lamps for $15, the vintage song book for $2, and the cute enamel pots are going in my green kitchen!

Ooo, and then I got a small acid green chandelier for my kitchen also. I can't wait to decorate! 5 days until closing!

My birthday was this past wednesday and I had a super time! It happened to also be administrative assistants day, and there was cake and presents waiting for me at work. I seriously love my job. Everyone that I work with is so great. I couldn't feel luckier! After work, I went with some of my favorite people to see the new Disney movie, Earth. Loved it!

Last night I went out to eat with my mom dad and sister for my birthday at Bonsai and had sushi, and my parents gave me a beautiful locket:

Anna gave me some wonderful Starbucks tumblers with the best travel lids I've ever seen. And they're super cute! I love them! Wow, it's been a fun birthday week!

Ch-ch-ch-change

I did it! I decided! I'm going to ACU! I'm very excited and mostly just relieved to have that off my chest. You learn a lot about yourself and God when you have decisions to make. The coolest part of all has been God's faithfulness in all of it. Everything just keeps falling into place. It has been a really good experience. So, changes are in the works...we'll be moving in May since I'm graduating and we are trying to get that figured out.

We've made an offer on a house, which is terrifying but exciting. We're in the negotiation stage with repairs and such, so it's not official yet. It's amazing. We're going from one major decision right to another! Here's what it looks like:

It definitely needs a paint job, and some other cosmetic stuff, but that's the fun part! Keep your fingers crossed!

What a weekend!

We're almost half way through January and I'm having a blast so far! This weekend has been one of those weekends that I want to remember. It has been so much fun. We were given an old church piano and I have been sooo excited to get it moved in, crossing my fingers that it would fit in our tiny house. I had never seen it before we went to pick it up and when I did I was surprised to find that it was painted white! The piano bench was covered in a lovely shade of avocado corduroy, and one of the legs of the piano had been sadly ripped off. But...it's a tiny piano (as far as pianos go) and it fit perfectly in our house. I wasn't sure about having a white piano until I discovered that I had exactly enough lovely black and white damask fabric to recover the bench, and now it looks absolutely fabulous! I'm going to have my mom paint a verse behind the music stand in black letters and I think it's going to turn out to be smashing.
But the most wonderful part has been the two days now that Austin and I have been hanging out in the guest room playing piano and singing together. We have a long way to go, but at this rate, we'll be playing concerts before you know it! (just kidding). Oh, and the poor broken leg fit back in the space it is supposed to, so that worked out okay too.
I spent hours yesterday with my sister on my makeover shopping trip! For Christmas, I asked for a makeover and everybody pitched in. We found some awesome after Christmas sales and I couldn't be happier. Oh! And I chopped off my hair before Christmas...15 inches, as you can see in my new profile picture.
Then I found out today that I get an HSU class ring free from the school for graduation, and that made me really happy.
And then today we went to Starbucks with some giftcards that we had forgotten about and Austin surprised me by buying me a steel water bottle I've had my eye on for months. It's been an incredible weekend, and I don't think I could have ended Christmas break on a better one.
We start classes tomorrow, and I'm not really ready, but a weekend like this one sure does help.
.......

On another note, here's a verse that I really enjoyed today:

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one
another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with
gratitude in your hearts to God." Col. 3:16

I finally found the usb cable for my camera!

Last night a friend called and invited me to go ride horses with her this morning. I was completely thrilled! I haven't gotten to ride in two years and I have definitely missed it dearly. I took my camera along and had an absolutely wonderful time. Emily and her husband Vadim are in MRNA with us and we are enjoying so much getting to know the others. We had a great time talking as we rode. What a great morning. Call it the dream of every little girl, but I love horses. It's something that is very dear to me and I am sooooo glad I had the opportunity to be around them today!

This is Sugar Bear...why do white horses always get silly names? We walked up and noticed that his lips were bright purple, like he was wearing fuchsia lipstick...the mystery was solved when we were riding and saw that he had been snacking on yummy purple prickly pears.

Also, a week or so ago Austin and I went to the balloon festival with Xander and Nicole and had a fabulous time...

Also, I wanted to show you some pics of our house. I'm really happy with how it turned out since we can't paint our walls...

This is our nifty little desk area, furniture placement courtesy of Domino magazineMy vanity, finished.

All in all, we're very happy with the little nest we've created. I've had a ton of fun taking pictures lately. I didn't know what I was going to do if I didn't get to do something creative soon!

Creativity!

I picked up my vanity yesterday with the help of one of my new friends, Kara, and I'm sooooo pleased with it! I still need to figure out what kind of knobs I want for the drawers because the little wooden ones are a little bit too country for me. But anyway, after I got the dresser I stopped by Classic Collections and lo and behold! They had it... Exactly what I had been rigorously searching for! A little vintage wire vanity seat. It was bright yellow, but i got some antique brass spray paint and voila! It's everything I dreamed it would be. Now, I am on the hunt for a great celery green fabric to make a cushion for it. That's the plan, folks! Sorry for the really poor quality cell phone pic.

As we speak, my cool potter husband is making me my very own custom set of dinnerware. Check it out at Brown Pottery. I'm so excited about it! The set is going to be super cool. I'm so glad we're finally going to get to use our own ware.

This was the gorgeous sky earlier today. Now we are enjoying a decent rain with thunder...and one very close strike just now!

And this crazy caterpillar we picked in my sister's garden! It. Was. Huge.

And of course, all of this happened while I was trying to write a paper that is due on Monday...I really should start that now...

Hard Day's Night

I had a very productive day yesterday, as you can see, but I have to update you in that it wasn't over until it was over!

I wrote and turned in a resume

I got coffee with a friend (yay!)

I went to walmart at about 10 oclock last night to buy straight pins because i was dying to sew something, came home and made a curtain for my kitchen, a project that was two years in the making.

Fabuloso, no?

Needless to say I am completely worn out today, but it was a blast.

Where's my coffee...

nesting

I've been so busy lately! sorry for the lack of "postage" these days. We've been working on our little house, unpacking boxes, repacking boxes, reminiscing and decorating. I really love decorating! I think that might be my career choice #2. I love hunting for the perfect peice of furniture or funky little extra, I love placement of things, and functionality, and most of all I love making each room have a personality. I'm absolutely devouring each Domino I get in the mail and even issues I haven't read in a while.

Anyway, I really need to save up for my other half of my camera, because I'm so inspired to take pictures right now! And I know I would remember ideas for my house better if I could snap a picture of something I see.

Since we only have one little bathroom, I decided to find a vanity for our room. After much searching, I found one and one of the best kept secrets in Abilene, Bloomingdales. This place takes old furniture and repaints it and then sells it unbelievably reasonable prices. I happened upon a piece that she had not started yet, and so I got to choose the color. I'm having it done in a soft, dusty blue, and keeping the top natural wood. I'll post a picture when it's done! Now I want to find one of those little chairs like my Mema had when I was little. It's a low backed gold wire sort of stool with a little round cushion.

Anyway...

Austin and I had a wonderful friday night in our house last night. We settled in with a Little Ceasar's hot-n-ready pizza, crazy bread and dr pepper and watched Juno. The whole event cost $15! Not bad for a date.