Author Archives: vanessawyler

Drew Graduated!

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msoe 2012 graduate mechanical engineer drew wyler

Today has been a day we’ve both been waiting for, Drew’s graduation. At 10pm on May 26th, he walked across the stage and received his diploma (well – actually they mail that later) as a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. I’m sure you’ve heard, but he will starting officially full time at Milwaukee Electric Tool as a Mechanical Engineer on June 6th!

I’m so proud of him and the crazy amount of work he has done – most of it I still don’t understand, but I try! Congrats Drew, I’m sooo super proud of you – now here is to a hopefully semi normal life for awhile 🙂

msoe 2012 graduate mechanical engineer ceremony

msoe 2012 graduate mechanical engineer drew wyler

Reese: Day 1

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This lovely baby girl named Reese Tayllor was born today on May 21, 2012 at 3:35pm, weighing 5lbs 15oz and 19 inches long. She had quite the papparzi experience with all of our cameras and iphones, but we just wanted to share her with the world. Congrats to my sister and brother-in-law, you did good, she is absolutely beautiful!

This little girl is going to be spoiled to pieces, here is why…

Welcome Baby Reese

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Today Drew and I became aunt and uncle to this beautiful baby girl named Reese Tayllor! There will be loads more photos to come, but here is a shot I took right after she got washed up.

20120521-215215.jpg

In Love with a Sofa

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Just had to make a special post to dedicate my love to this sectional sofa. I soo soo want this for when we purchase a house – it might become part of the “needs checklist: large enough family room to fit this couch”. I love the color, style, price and the fact that I could fit my whole extended family on it! Thank you Young House Love for the obsession – ps LOVE the color scheme of this room too.

young house love huge sofa ikea karlstad (photo source: Young House Love)

 

Pinterest Did: I Love You Frame

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Not too long ago I saw this awesome idea on pinterest to buy a frame, print off a sheet of paper, and use a dry erase marker to write reasons why you love each other to your special someone. For Valentine’s Day I made one for Drew and I, and we’ve been using it quite often. It’s just a fun little reminder to express to each other that we love them and some of those special reasons – heartwarming or just fun.

Here is the original  idea from A Content Housewife:
a content housewife i love you because frame

Here is my version I made for Drew, and how I’ve used it:
i love you because you kill bugs for me

To make our version, I bought a 4×6 frame from Walmart for $1 and then I designed the photo/print out myself. Then put inside the frame and found a dry erase marker we had laying around our house.

Our friend Serah asked for a copy of the download to make for her husband, and I thought others would appreciate it as well! To make your own, I included a copy for you to download and print off, and put inside any 4×6 frame! Click here the image below for a high res version!

I love you frame download freebie 4x6

 

Decorating with Bookshelves

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Growing up with the home styles of the 1990s and 2000s, there was always that extra room on the main level called “the living room,” but oddly enough, based on my experiences, no one did any living in those rooms. My parent’s living room had white carpeting, uncomfortable floral couches, antique accessories and french doors. You might as well put up caution – keep out tape, because that room was off limits to us.

As we are looking to buy a house, I still see houses with those same living rooms and I’ve been thinking about how unnecessary those are unless we use it for something more practical. As I glanced around our apartment, I was reminded how many books Drew has and how it might be cool to turn the living room into a reading/study room. I picture floor to ceiling bookshelves, books coordinated by color (that’s the graphic designer in me), big comfy furniture that you can sit drift away in a good book, and a desk to do some studying at.

With that idea in mind, I browsed pinterest for some inspiration and here is what I found…

living Room book shelves ideas
(House & Home)

family room bookshelves with globes
(Better Homes & Gardens)

living room book shelves, yellow and blue colored backs
(Oh Happy Day / Brabourne Farm)

bookshelves in the bedroom and guest room
(Design Sponge / Martha Stewart)


Drew’s Graduation Announcements

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Drew will officially be a graduate of Milwaukee School of Engineering on May 26th, and we can’t wait! We are so excited I designed our own unique grad announcements instead of getting the standard white ones that the graduation cap and gown company gives you. We also wanted to update our friends and family about Drew’s job at Milwaukee Tool as well.

I also took some photos to use on his announcement and include a blooper reel, he’s pretty funny and is always making me laugh.

Learning Patience – Home Buying

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I’m learning patience when it comes to buying a house, here is why…

Once we decided we were going to go ahead to start saving for a down payment for our first house, I began researching like crazy just to keep my excited. However I may have gotten a little too excited because I began downloading all those real estate apps and began searching away. And then I saw a house that I absolutely love, it had the perfect location, perfect layout, awesome touches, and more. Here are the photos…

Problem is, we are in no way ready to buy yet. Number 1: We have no downpayment. Number 2: We just signed a year lease on our current apartment in March for June 2012 – June 2013. As much as I love this house, we know it’s just not the right time for us to buy a house, and it’s pretty much impossible.

So, we began thinking more and looking at our budgets, and we could potentially have enough saved up by spring 2013 to start looking for our first house, so that solves problem number one. But problem number two we are kicking ourselves now, wishing we’d had gone month-t0-month instead of the whole year lease, so we could get out early in case we find that perfect house right way. So to hopefully solve that problem, this weekend I actually contacted our apartment manager hoping we could switch our lease to go month-to-month, it since it hasn’t officially started, because I researched breaking your lease, and that seems like a worse idea. Fingers crossed they go for it!

So here’s the plan: Get our lease changed, in June meet with a lender to see what we all need to do to get to that point to purchase a home in Spring 2013, and make a home-needs checklist. And for myself, instead of researching actual homes to buy, to begin researching ways to improve our future home and other decorating ideas!

So coming up, I’ll be blogging all about our home buying progress along with ideas for transforming a house into our home – along with the usual blog stuff of our daily lives 🙂