Making A House, A Home

Or an apartment, a home. Whatever!

While I'm home, I'm working on transforming our place to make it feel more "homey". Of course any place that Jay, myself, and the dogs are at is home, it always helps to have some pretty things to look at and fall in love with.

Moving in was a disaster. We have so much stuff (which we're so thankful to have) but organizing it is chaos! Our handy dogs were of NO use, obviously. 

After unpacking (mostly) we made our first big purchase as a married couple, some decent living room furniture. We originally were just going to buy a couch, but we were able to catch the end of an Ashley Furniture Sale and got a 14 piece room set for an AMAZING price! Ahhh, we're such grown-ups!

The dogs own this place, they loved our new furniture. We can't keep them off the couches or bed.

So here's our "before" pictures (excuse the mess, unpacking remember?).

Kitchen:

 Dining Area:

Bedroom:

 Bathroom:

So, I set off on the bedroom next. I gained some inspiration from here & here. I had visions of a white serene bedroom with gold accents. Of course in an apartment I can't paint the walls (I could, but changing it back would be a hassel) and I'm slightly limited but I'm doing what I can.

I first got a new duvet and comforter. We've never needed a down comforter before in AZ so this was so exciting! My pictures aren't great (waiting on that new camera!) but this is the duvet cover. I'll work on the camera skills, promise. I also sewed these gold pillows with some fabric from JoAnns.

Next, I needed to paint our furniture white. I began with the side tables. I got some Pantone Bright White paint (it has primer and low VOC) and some metallic gold spray paint. After sanding them down it took just a few coats and I was good to go! I also added some wording to a canvas I already had. It's my handwriting so it's not fabulous, but it'll do for now.

Notice how Uley doesn't bother to move for the camera, this is HIS bed.

For the bathroom I wanted some mint green with gold accents. Inspiration from here.

I can't really paint in here either so it'll always be kind of bare and boring until we buy. 

 We finally got a few pictures up, and now we have some curtains on that huge window. It's a sloooowww work in progress, but it's starting to feel more US everyday. 

If you'll notice there is an upstairs loft space. It's basically Jay's game room, it's got a lot of work to do!

In the future I hope to:

-Finish painting the bedroom furniture (dresser and possibly bed frame)

-Put up a wall of pictures from the wedding in the bedroom

-Paint the dining room table

-Transform the upstairs space

This apartment will never truly be what I hope for it because of the lack of alterations I can do in an apartment, but everything I do I will be able to bring along to a future house!

This apartment will also never be clean to my standards, these dogs do NOT like cleanliness. Le sigh.

Wrigleyville

This past weekend we attended our first Chicago Cub's game! It was only fitting that they were playing a Texas team, of course.

This was a childhood dream come true for Jay, I think he was in heaven. 

Look at that skyline! I love Chicago!

We had a blast exploring some of the bars and streets in Wrigleyville, and I know we're both very excited to go back!

Chicago, you're being too good to us!

Chicago!

We're in the Chicago area now but, before we moved we were able to come scope the place out for a few days. Jay's company flew us out for a house hunting trip, and boy was it a doozy. We spent a lot of time searching for a place, but it didn't pan out. Yup, we left without a place to live in a few months. It was stressful, but in the end (a week before the wedding) we found a place and we're loving it so far! We had fun in Chicago though, and while we haven't been able to scope out too much yet so far we really like what we see! Plus, it's not 100+ degrees outside. That's always nice.

We left on Jay's 26th Birthday (lucky him). We had this cake early of course, but it was a great way to celebrate the mid 20's hump!

I love everything about downtown Chicago. There's so much to see and do it's amazing. The food, entertainment, shopping, ALL OF IT. So awesome. 

We got one day of good weather, the rest of it SUCKED. When we left the flooding was so bad that we were evacuated from our hotel, 100's of flights were canceled and tons of roads were closed. Nice way to end the trip I guess, we got out of there just in time!

We still have so much exploring to do, not only in Chicago but the town we live in and the surrounding areas. We're starting slowly (the food and booze alone will get ya!) but are so excited for the weeks and months to come!

Let me brag about Jay

After 8 years of college, 5 in undergrad, 3 in graduate, a new apartment every single year, 3 colleges - Jay finally finished college for good!

Jay gave his doctoral defense in March and we watched him walk the stage and get hooded in May (2 days before our wedding!)

I am incredibly proud of all the hard work he has put into his degree. For the 3 years I have known him in school he has spent long days and nights working towards this final thesis. I've never seen somebody so driven to achieve their goals (and so quickly none the less)!

I wish there were more words to explain how happy and proud I am of him!

You deserved it babe! I love you!

Congratulations!!!

YOU DID IT!!!

Happiness

Moving can be a real pain. Unpacking, deciding where things should go, getting new IDs (with a new last name!), and figuring out the town is a lot to do and for some reason we feel like we have to do it ALL RIGHT NOW!

But it's an exciting experience all at once, and I look forward to discovering every inch of our new home.

Here are some things that make me happy lately...

1. Having all these beautiful professional pictures of Jay and I everywhere, I seriously can't get enough of them.

2. Uley's personality. He's so funny, yet so laid back. It's a nice contrast to Cocoa. Here he is being king of the beds!

3. Old pictures. Josh and I always used to celebrate our birthdays together because we're one year and 3 days apart. Isn't this cute?

4. Cocoa's personality. She's so full of life and excited about everything! She loves you so much and has to show it 24/7.

5. Reminiscing on the time I was able to spend with my best girlfriends. We had such a blast while I was back in Texas and I miss them already! 

 6. Seeing Josh! Both of us left for school so far away from home, and now I'm even further away. I don't see him as often any more but we grew up more like siblings than cousins.

7. All of the greenery here in IL. Such a nice change from the desert we're so used to. The dogs can't get enough of it and I find myself always wanting to be outdoors.

8. Deep dish pizza! OMG how did I never have this before! I have a feeling I have to up my workouts living here...

9. Airplanes. Weird one, but after driving 29489344 miles from AZ to TX to IL I am so glad I don't have to always drive when I want to travel.

10. Being able to call Jay my HUSBAND. It's only been a month but I find myself using it whenever I can slip it in, and I still get all giddy whenever I hear him call me his wife!

Cocoa No!

Let's start with our newest addition, Cocoa!

We got Cocoa early December. We had just started looking for a sister for Uley and didn't expect to fall in love so quickly!

And of course, Uley took her in as his own. They get a long so great, it's adorable! They love to play and cuddle together. Cocoa tends to become too much sometimes, but they move on quickly.

An interesting note on Cocoa, she is the WEIRDEST sleeper I've ever seen. She sleeps in the most uncomfortable positions I've ever seen, but it doesn't seem to bother her. Go figure.

Now shes 8 months old (sniffle) and she's got these HUGE ears. They're always up, or one up and one down and it's absolutely adorable!

In April Cocoa got very sick, she got Parvo. Going through that was just as bad as our incident with Uley last summer. Jay and I were a complete mess, taking her back and forth to doctors and hospitals, having to leave her when she's most vulnerable. Seeing her absolutely miserable and seemingly on death's doorstep. It was the worst week ever. Seeing your poor little girl so sick is so heartbreaking.

Thankfully, she got better and got back to her old ways quickly!

We fell in love with Uley so fast and were always worried that we wouldn't love another dog as much as him, but we've managed to make some more room in our hearts and love them both equally and so much! Having these fur-babies have enriched our lives in ways that is unimaginable and we're so lucky to have them! They bring us so much joy every single day. Each day is a new adventure and I'm so excited for our future with them!

P.S. "Cocoa No" is an ongoing joke. For the longest time (and still fairly often) I feel like her name is COCOANO because we're always saying "Cocoa, No! Don't eat that! Stop jumping on Uley!" Typical puppy!