Five on Friday: 2014, volume 8

I'm rounding out my week with five on Friday! Today I'm linked up with Darci.

 This week it's a random compilation of all the things I was doing when I wasn't blogging over the past month and a half. Happy Friday!

-one-

My sister granted all immediate family members the 'right' to watch her kids for a few weekends in the spring due to some travel plans, so Mark and I took one of the first shifts in late March and had Audrey and Noah come spend about 48 hours at our house. We started off big with the plane museum, Chick fil a, and the park. By the end of the weekend we were playing in the front yard in our jammies and keeping it casual. We had a fun time and the kids were on their best behavior, so it all went well. I'm not going to mention the fact that I haven't gone a day without severe back pain since then...

-two-

We rang in Luke, Mason, and Griffin's birthdays in mid April and had a funny moment when Mark attempted to take all of the giant balloons from the party back to Andrea's house. They lasted like this for about 2 minutes before he got above 15 mph. Then they simultaneously took flight! It was a funny moment!

-three-

I had the rare opportunity to meet my sister in the middle of a weekday when we had Good Friday off in April. She was running late so I ducked into Nordstrom Rack to see if I could find some birthday gifts. I struck out in the birthday department but got super lucky in the women's shoes! I waffled between these two pairs:

buy them here, but not for the steal of a deal that I got them for! :)

reviewed by another blogger here!

...and ended up coming home with both. :) At under $65 for both, I'd say it was worth it!

-four-

I mentioned this little guy on Instagram a few weeks ago. It hasn't changed much since we brought it in the house, but I have big plans for some shelving and a coffee bar here! I scoured craigslist for a good 6 months before I pulled the trigger on this $100 beauty. :)

-five-

Last and certainly the most frustrating, I dropped my phone a couple weeks ago. I had JUST harassed my sister's mother-in-law about her bulky Otterbox case and bragged about the fact that my little case from J. Crew offered all the protection I needed. Not so, my friends, not so. 

I dropped it on the tile in my office's lobby and it must have landed weird. It still totally works and luckily the damage is mostly on the black case part of it, but it was a sad day for us all. My contract expires soon and I haven't decided if I'll get it fixed yet. Oh well!

It feels good to be back and I'll start updating you all on house projects next week! Happy weekend!

Our year in review, Insta-style!

I'm a little behind in my game, but I wanted to do this recap for you guys as well as for myself to look back on next year! It's so fun to remember what happened in a year's time, I can only imagine what will happen in 2014!

I don't have a good camera of my own, so I rely on Instagram to store my data. Follow along with me in 2014!

January

We said goodbye to my 2002 Chevy Cavalier as it met it's demise late one night...

Spent countless hours with girlfriends watching Sean on The Bachelor!

Took lots of walks through Winnetka Heights with my best girl by my side.

February

Bought my first car and accepted an interior design job!

Saw Madea face to face at the grocery store...

...and celebrated a night with the girls for Emily's going away party!

March

Mark and I explored our sweet little neighborhood at Hunky's burgers,

spent time with family for Easter...

...and I soaked up the fun at my new job.

April

I took my first (of 5) trips to Las Vegas,

had a fun girls night for Terra's bachelorette party in Houston....

...and visited New York on a business trip!

May

Mark and I spent time at the ballpark with Corgan, 

I had girl time at a favorite local spot, Joe T. Garcia's....

....and we went to Terra and Daniels' beautiful wedding!

June

Corgan had a fun bi-annual party at the Perot Museum, 

I traveled to the client's home in Las Vegas once again....

....and we surprised everyone when we bought our first home!!!

July

We explored the outdoors,

Had girly date nights at Urban Crust...

....and started this here blog. :)

August

We revamped and moved into our house, 

Packed up the apartment....

...and had lots of pool time with these people as well as others!

September

Mark and I made the trip to New Orleans for a friend's wedding, 

bought a new sofa...

...and met my cousin's baby, Kate!

October

We got sweet seats to a Cowboy's game,

Rachel visited for a week....

...and had the first annual scarf exchange!

November

We celebrated our first year of marriage on November 10th, 

went camping as much as we could...

....and gutted our kitchen!

December

We had a fun time at home during 'icemaggedon', 

bought our first REAL Christmas tree...

...and revealed our kitchen renovation!

We had a TON of fun this year and I am so excited to see what 2014 brings us. Let's hope I can recount next year on this very same blog! Thank you everyone that has been reading since July, I'm so proud of myself for making it this far! Here's to 2014!!!

Quick weekend recap

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the late post, but today has already been crazy! I'm not sure where the morning went...

Anyway, I'm about to jet off to Las Vegas until Thursday for work, so I wanted to stop in and share a little bit about our weekend before I go MIA for a couple of days. 

Mark and I stayed in most of the weekend and worked on the house, what a shock! Here is what we accomplished:

Mark did a lot of this this weekend. He hung quite a few pictures and shelves! Yay!

My parents brought over their old kitchen table, so now we have it in all of it's 30+ year old glory, including the plastic covered red seats...

Here is some of Mark's handiwork!

I painted the kitchen (sorry, no pics yet!) and used the leftover chalkboard paint to paint the top of this table. Kelly, recognize this???

Motley wasn't much help. Also, I found a basket/box to fit in our media cabinet!

I didn't do anything new here, but I liked the look, minus the wrinkled sheets (blame the cats). I'm thinking about keeping this end table natural...thoughts?

My parents also brought this table over. It's actually really pretty, and we might keep it natural, much to my mom's surprise! It's a beautiful mahogany, and I like how it leans a little mid-century modern with Mark's books there. Very Mad Men-esque, I think!

And, ta-da! We are about 90% done with Mark's office. I want to hang some grey curtains in here, but he was anxious to get it finished and we are about there! I'll do a full reveal with details in about a week. 

And, last but not least, I painted the front of the front door! I am SO happy that I don't have to see that gold kickplate anymore. You'll notice I still need to paint the hardware and put all of my plants on the porch, but it is a welcome change, nonetheless.

We still have many projects on the list, so I think I'm going to get that all out on paper so I can share a more detailed train of thought with you guys. Maybe I'll have some time on the plane to do that? 

Until Thursday, let me know if you have any specific questions about how far we've come so far or if you'd like more details or photos of a certain area. See you Thursday!