Since both our birthdays are in April, we thought it would be fun to go away on a vacation as our birthday presents. We left Emerald with my parent’s and went to Lake Las Vegas, as well as the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, and the Hoover Dam.
The Westin at Lake Las Vegas was gorgeous, we had a great stay and would go there again in a heartbeat.
**All these photos were taken with Portra 400 film, scanned & developed by The Find Lab
So this week dad got in lots of photos – we love when he can spend extra time with us!
We’ve started a new bedtime routine that includes more of daddy now! She eats some cereal at 7:15, then jammies, story time and devotions with dad and then she nurses and goes to sleep 🙂
Every other night she also gets a bath. I love this little duck!
Shout out to this great guy – we love you and thank you for taking such good care of us while we both were down with the flu. You basically kept us alive 😉
So catching up on blogging here… my bad!
Last week (April 1) I celebrated my 24th birthday and for some reason 24 seems crazy old! I know it’s not, but it just seems like wow, just the other day I was still a kid, still eating Chef Boyardee and Lunchables… nevermind, that still occurs on a regular basis in my life.
To celebrate, both Drew and I took the day off, so it started with sleeping in. We didn’t really have plans for the day, and that is usually what I like best. Since my sister, niece and brother-in-law were in town, I decided to take the opportunity to spend most of the day with my sister, niece and mom. Drew wasn’t opposed to playing video games with Josh either – win win. We just hung out, went for a Target shopping trip and visited Yo Mama for a birthday treat. It was also Reese’s first time!
After Drew and I went to Olive Garden and enjoyed some delicious food – then came home and caught up on a bunch of Mad Men episodes to get ready for the season premiere which was Sunday.
When asked what I wanted for my birthday this year… from Drew, my parents and his parents, It was a challenge to think of things I really needed. There was definitely things I wanted, but it just sometimes seems so silly to just get things just because you want them when there is so much that other people in the word need. So this year I made it a goal to make my birthday gifts about giving back. From Drew I asked for these floral TOMS – I knew that TOMS gives a pair of shoes to someone in need for every pair you buy, so I figured this was a good start – and these are super cute for spring!
Next, I asked Drew for this 31bits necklace. 31bits is a company that sells jewelry made by women in Africa. It provides them a way to make an income without selling their bodies in order to support their families. Plus, all their jewelry is made from paper (how cool!?) and they have awesome designs.
Last but not least, with the money I got from my parents and Drew’s family I was originally going to purchase stools for our kitchen when we remodel this summer. However, I just kept thinking about how I really didn’t need those now and decided that part of the money I was going to give towards an IheartLC need – which would use the money to really help someone in need around our city or world and meet a need now, instead of a want I wanted later. The other part of the money I got from family will be going towards a new roof for our house this summer. Obviously, it is also important to take care of our own things God has blessed us with.
So there is my birthday of giving back – instead of making it about myself, I really wanted to think of others and bless them. Hopefully it inspires you to give back in someway whether in our city or somewhere in the world.
If you’ve been to our new home, you’ll quickly realize I have a love for grey and yellow hues. While I could decorate each room to scream out my love for that color duo, I wanted to stretch the color palette of our home.
One of the only two rooms left to be painted was the downstairs spare bedroom and the bathroom down there. And after Drew recently professed his desire to have a space for a computer set up, he convinced me to start working on our next project: operation finish the downstairs bedroom.
First set of business was to find some inspiration and create a color palette. I browsed thru my some hundred pins on my “home style” pinterest board to remind myself of what things I’ve been loving lately over there. I settled on the palette of Coral & Gray (plus tiny bits of yellow and a light blue, think: this moodboard, that I made for myself to hopefully re-do my portfolio site this year). But then I also had to convince Drew that this color is definitely not pink! Here are a few images that inspired my game plan for this room…
Next, a trip to Target to score all the coral decor possible made this room start to come together very nicely and easily. And if you follow my instagram, you probably saw all the things I found there…
And now to today… Drew and I were able to finally say goodbye to the flesh colored walls (gross) and painted up a fresh coat of a medium gray color Martha Stewart Bedford Gray to be exact. Here’s a quick image of how it was coming along.
Now that the paint is dry, the next step is to clean up the room and put it back together – also to make the bed with all the things I found! A few other things on the list to do before it is more finish are…
Not sure if it’s just our generation or what, but Drew and I are huge blog readers, obviously different genres of blogs though. Drew tends to read the tech blogs regarding everything from phone software, video games and computer things. While I’m a techy person, my blogs tend to be those related to design, design as in graphic design, home design, diy, and fashion blogs.
I’m assuming you are a blog reader hence why you are reading this, so I thought we’d share a few of our favorites and hopefully you can find a new favorite to follow along with this year…
Here are the links if you want to check them out…
Drew: theverge.com | imore.com | androidcentral.com | droidlife.com | anandtech.com
Vanessa: younghouselove.com | reidmore.me | mashable.com | bowerpowerblog.com | promisetangemanblog.com
The first of every year is a good time to reflect on what’s working for you and what’s not… what you had hoped to do in the past 365 days and what you forgotten about. I’m not one for making resolutions, but instead setting some realistic goals. So before I crank out the list for this year, let’s see how we came out in 2012…
TOGETHER GOALS FOR 2012:
1. Pay off Vanessa’s School Loans – literally finished this on the 31st
2. Take a vacation – cruise!
3. Save up for a down payment on a house! – check and we bought one, so we should get bonus points
4. Get better at doing our laundry and keeping our house clean – so so on this, could use improvement still
5. Go rock climbing together – fail 🙁
6. Start to pay off Drew’s loans – Luckily we don’t have to start paying these until 1/8/13
DREW’S GOALS FOR 2012:
1. Graduate MSOE
2. Start at Milwaukee Tool
3. Relax – Took the past 11 days off, I’d say he’s relaxed
VANESSA’S GOALS FOR 2012:
1. Read a book in entirety – Hunger Games 1 & 2
2. Blog more to document our lives – See for yourself
3. Sew something
4. Do less freelance
Now for 2013
TOGETHER:
1. Save up 3-6 months salary for our emergency fund
2. Pay off 1/3 of Drew’s school loans
3. Invite people over more to hang out as couples
4. Get a laundry schedule together – and fold after washing, not 2 weeks later
5. Go on a mini-vacation somewhere close
DREW:
1. Start Grad school in the Fall
2. Go to China for work
3. Hang out with my brother-in-laws more
VANESSA:
1. Enter a Minted design contest
2. Get my design etsy shop up and running
3. Get my car washed more
4. Finish updating my freelance website in hopes to do more this year
5. Sew something
6. Draw/sketch more
7. Visit my sisters in MN and IL
HOUSE:
1. Finish painting trim white throughout house
2. Start and finish kitchen remodel
3. Update upstairs bathroom
Fingers crossed we can stick to these goals!
Going through some photos, I’ve realized how much older Drew and I look now from when we first started dating. I know I haven’t grown height-wise but we definately look younger. This photo is from Drew’s Junior/Senior Banquet at Heritage (his Junior Year, my senior Year).PS Check out that sweet dinosaur flip-phone!
The other day Drew mentioned he should get his eyes checked – I immediately thought of these photos and laughed inside a bit. The first one is from 3rd grade, he’s a little cute nerd here who loved legos. And the later one is from high school and even with glasses there, he is a cute little nerd – love him!
