Melissa's Bridal Shower

I'm pretty excited, I am having a bridal shower for Melissa at my house. Of course the non-exciting part is the list of things I have to do to the house prior to the party. I decorate here and there, but don't always finish things. Well, the list has been started.

To Do:
Finish Hanging Photos on Photo Wall
Finish Hanging Other Random Art Around House
Get New Dinning Room Table Set(We aren't getting one because of the shower, it's just time for a new one)
Get Husband to Work on Backlighting Project (this might be the hardest one...lol)
Get Paint and do Random Wall Touch Ups

I think that might be it, but I'm sure I'm missing something.

The Bridal Shower is going to be a tropical themed one, since the wedding is a destination wedding. We are having a candy/treat bar, smoothies being made with a Margaritaville Blender, a few games TBD, and of course Food also TBD.

Once things start coming together I can post some fun photos. Melissa has some really cute ideas.

An Awesome Wedding Invite

My BFF is getting married in Florida Jan. 2010. They sent out the invites now, since after the wedding a bunch of the wedding guests including the just married couple are taking a 7 night cruise.

Their save the date's rocked too. They looked like airplane tickets.

Here is a picture of the awesome message in a bottle wedding invite. It has sand and little shells in the bottom of the bottle.

Paint Progress

So far we have painted the living room, entry way, stairs, loft/family room, dinning room, and the hallway to the bedrooms. We did that in 2 days. It went fast because my father in law came and helped. Saturday we are going to paint the kitchen and the guest bathroom...maybe the master bathroom if we are motivated.

After that we will only have 2 bedrooms to paint. Maybe we will wait a while to finish those...I'm more excited to decorate the house now that the painting is coming along.

Here is a picture of the paint. The left is builders white and the right is the new paint color.

Paint

We've decided on the paint color for the main rooms. It's from Sherwin-Williams. The color is called:

Pediment SW 7634

It's a nice neutral color with a hint of gray. I tried my best to take a picture of it. I tried to take one against the wall, but it did not turn out well. I had to put it on kitchen counter to get a clear shot.

My Walk In Closet

The master bedroom has 2 closets. One is a standard closet and one is a walk-in closet. Closets are very plentiful in the house, which is nice for storage.

I get the walk in closet, of course. Here are some pics. It's kind of hard to take a really great shot, so it's a series of a few photos.

View from Open Door.


The view to the right. The hanging shelf is higher for dresses.


This is the view to the left, it's a shelving unit that will be used for my bags.
(The 2nd picture of the shelving unit is the beginning of my purse collection moving in. It's only about 1/3 of my collection)

Cloth Napkins

I don't know why, but I've always wanted them. I even registered for a set. I found both these sets for amazing deals at World Market. They were 90% off during the store closing sale. We'll see how much use they get once I wash them. They also needed to be ironed...I haven't ironed anything since Home Economics in Jr. High, so maybe they won't survive being ironed...

I think I personally like the black one's more, but both a pretty.

Laptop Desk

We have one desk in the office already for the PC. I wanted my own desk for my laptop. I knew I did not want the traditional computer desk. I spent some time searching Craigslist. I think at this point I have a love/hate relationship with Craigslist. I was lucky and found the desk/table pictured below. I know it's white. The seller gave me the black table pad for free. I have a pink laptop, so it works. Also the walls won't be white much longer.

The desk ended up being another find of a person who was moving and needed to get rid of the item. It's in perfect condition. You can't tell someone else even used it. I found out it was from Ikea, but I paid a lot less, so I'm happy.

New Camera!!!

It's not decor, but I wanted to share. I got my 1 year wedding anniversary gift a little early. On Friday night I got the new Nikon Coolpix P90. I totally love the camera.

It's kind of funny, I guess when we got it the camera was not released on the market yet. We had a question not answered in the book, so we called Nikon Saturday morning. They answered the question and then asked how we got the camera since it was not on the market yet.

Here is a picture of the camera:



We went to the Como Conservatory on Sunday to take some pictures. Below are just a few:

DIY: Cork Board

I decided to make a cork board from wine corks. I know I could have bought one done, but I like to make things myself. I was off to a slow start, but then a waitress was nice enough to give me all the corks they had a the bar. I bought the frame at a craft store. It was a shadow box, but I removed the glass. Here is a picture of the work in progress. Once it's actually finished I will post an updated photos.



After the photo I did remove the green paper and flipped around some corks.

Nesting Bowls

We received a set of 3 Nesting Bowls as a wedding gift. They are really pretty. I was trying to figure out how to use them. I stacked the bigger of the 2 bowls together and added balls. The 3rd little bowl is a candy dish on the piano.

I picked up the balls at Target when my best friend and I were out. She was working on re-decorating their bedroom and I am working on decorating the whole house. The whole section was on clearance for 75% off, so were both found some great deals.

Here is how the Nesting Bowls art project turned out:


This view shows it a lot better:

TV Stand

We needed to find a new TV stand for the loft. We didn't want to spend a fortune, but also wanted quality. I decided to turn to Craigslist. It took a lot of looking and contacting people, but we were finally able to get what we were looking for. It was a great deal since the people were moving and needed to get rid of it. They even delivered it to our house for a little extra cash, since it would not fit in our car.

Check it out:

IsaBella had to sniff out the new TV stand.


It has a nice drawer for storage too, I have a feeling it will be taken over by video games.

Decor...

We have the frames from bridal showers/wedding gifts and some we bought on our own. I've only finished adding pictures to a few...

This one was a wedding gift:

This was a wedding gift from Vietnam:















I bought this one myself and actually finished adding pictures to it:



The signature frame from our wedding. I just need to change out the picture:



This was a shower gift, I just need to change the pictures:


I have some more pictures in the works. I ordered my photos from artscow. They do a really nice job, but it takes about 2 weeks to get the photos since they ship from Hong Kong. We also just took a print to be custom framed. It should be back in 2 weeks, so more photos will be added when we get them. I had no idea how pricey it was to get something framed, since I usually buy frames myself.

Before pictures: Main Level

Since we are in the process of painting/decorating, it only seems appropriate to post the pictures before we paint. It looks a little messy, we are in the process of cleaning too.

On the main level is the kitchen, dinning area, guest bathroom, and the living room.

The dinning area:


Partial view of kitchen:


The guest bathroom:


The other side of the kitchen (we have a big kitchen):


The living room:


As you can see all the walls are white, and not just white, matte white. If you touch the wall it will leave a mark. We are in the process of picking out paint for the whole house.