Happy Leap Day!

Since Leap Day occurs every four years (give or take) and it kind of involves marriage I decided it deserves a little recognition on the blog today since it is February 29th after all!

According to tradition, it is perfectly acceptable for a woman to pop the question on a leap day, or Sadie Hawkins day, as it's commonly called here! So, any single ladies out there? If you like it then you can just put a ring on it! Or do you? How does this all work? Does the guy just get the wedding band early or is there such a thing as an engagement ring for a man?

Conversely, there is a Greek superstition that says it's bad luck to marry during a leap year and about one in five couples will actually avoid planning their wedding during a leap year. Phew, good thing my wedding was in 2011!

I'm also really intrigued by those born on a leap year commonly called "leapers" or "leaplings." Did you know rapper Ja Rule was born on a leap day in 1976? Instead of his hit song "What's My Name" maybe he should have written a song called "When's My Birthday?" Does he recognize the day before or the day after as his birthday?

Happy Birthday Ja Rule!

I hope everyone's enjoying leap day on this rainy hump day!

It's Official...

WE.ARE.HOMEOWNERS.

Ahhhhh! Finally, the day has arrived! We've been patiently waiting to go to settlement and take ownership of the home!

I'd love to write more about settlement but the hubs and I have a hot date at Home Depot! Renovations start now! I'll post plenty of before and after pictures!

Model Envy!

I have a confession: I like to steal borrow ideas from fabulously decorated model homes! I can't tell you how excited I get stepping into these brand new beauties bursting with lots of home decor eye candy. Most recently, the hubs and I stopped by a new town home community downtown and the decor was absolutely fabulous! One of my favorite rooms in the house was the sitting room, it wasn't a large room but it was decorated with so much detail while not feeling overwhelming. I immediately began to take mental notes because as much as I love our new home, the first floor layout is a little odd and the living room is definitely smaller than I'd like. I've been toying with the idea of not using a coffee table as a way to save space but the hubby really likes something there so he can kick up his feet. I've been looking for smaller space coffee tables but nothing really grabbed me...until I walked into this model home! The interior designer is an absolute genius, rather than a coffee table she used two lovely garden stools right in front of the sofa! Not only are they such a fun shape and size but I love the idea of having something colorful right in front of the sofa! I was so excited by the idea I made the hubby sneak a quick picture of this while the salesperson wasn't looking. I'm pretty sure she caught us though, when we toured the back part of the house I could see that her office had a camera, ooops the hubs may or may not be on their surveillance camera snapping pictures of the home while I'm jumping around in the background giddy with excitement. Yeah, I'm crazy like that.

 

I wish I had more of a closeup of these garden stools but I was really nervous about us getting caught taking pictures even though, like I said earlier, I'm pretty sure the salesperson was on to us...

How cute are they?! I want them.need them.gotta have them. Of course, I found them at one of my favorite stores, Ballard Designs, but they're more than I'd like to spend.

I love their lotus garden seat in blue!

and I really love their other garden seat but unfortunately it doesn't come in blue. 

I'm currently on the prowl for two beautiful blue garden stools with a more reasonable price tag. I went to to my decor mecca aka Homegoods and found the exact same stool as pictured above for only $49.99! I mean it looks identical to the above green garden stool, it's crazy! I would have bought it in a second if it were blue...but at least I have hope that you can buy reasonably priced garden stools! If anyone happens to find blue garden stools then puh-leaseeee let me know! 

I'm also really excited to share this next picture! The interior designer of this home chose the exact same light fixture I just picked out at Home Depot for my formal dining room! I was so happy to see the light fixture in a home not just hanging above with hundreds of other light fixtures in Home Depot! Yay me for having similar tastes as this professional interior designer!

Does anyone else like to visit model homes for ideas? Or is it just me?

Let's Try This Again...

So we're moving, like really moving this week. I know we've been talking about moving for the past month or so but the bank finally got its act together and has given us the green light! Thank.the.Lord. I honestly didn't know how much more we could take, we've been in limbo for weeks now. We started packing up awhile ago only to realize the bank has two speeds: slow and slower, so we sort of put packing on the back burner until we knew the bank was seriously ready for settlement. So many minor issues held us up and if it wasn't for the hubby's constant calls and emails to the bank's title company/listing agent/closing coordinator/attorney I don't think we'd be settling until July (gotta love future attorneys.) The squeaky wheel definitely gets the oil especially when the oil is a bank that doesn't want to be pestered daily! 

So when will we be signing those settlement papers? Well I'd love to give you a date but unfortunately that's not how it works when you're dealing with a bank owned home, they pretty much say jump and we well, jump. I can tell you it's THIS coming week, either Wednesday or Friday, Thursday is no good since Matthew has a crazy day of classes. Oh, side note: Matthew will be graduating from law school in TEN months and I'm so proud of him! Not only is he a full time law student (taking the maximum credits allowed so he can graduate early) but also a law clerk, research assistant and in the Navy Reserves, I honestly don't know how he does it! Anyway, back to settlement, you may be wondering how this time is different? Hasn't the bank been stringing you along for months now promising settlement only to postpone until later? Well yes, they have and it hasn't been fun but the biggest setback we've experienced is getting the bank to give our title company the deed to the house for recording purposes. It sounds so simple but  there were so many issues that came up while we were under contract, such as an outstanding sewer bill, failure of the bank to record the deed with the county, lender required repairs and so on. Thankfully, the deed will be at our title company's office on Monday and then all the paperwork will be sent back to the bank for final review before settlement. I still can't believe it took the bank months to relinquish the deed to this property but its definitely worth the wait, Matthew and I are so excited to move into our first home! I'm going to bring my camera along for settlement so I can document this exciting time in our lives and I'll make sure to share those pictures with you once its over!

That picture made me laugh. I once heard a comedian making a joke about Facebook friends. He asked "how many Facebook friends do you have?" to which the person answered something like 326. The comedian then asked "and how many of them would help you move?" 

With that being said...who wants to help us move?!

Shades Of Gray (And Green!)

I've been struggling with picking out paint colors lately and I need help! I really want to paint our walls something colorful and I'd rather not go with anything neutral or tan. At first I was planning on using Benjamin Moore's "dune grass" paint color, it was the perfect green which I found thanks to one of my favorite blogs, Young House Love by John and Sherry! This cute couple has some awesome DIY ideas and I can't get enough of their fun blog whenever I'm looking for some decorating creativity and money saving tips!

They used it in their bathroom, isn't it pretty?

It seemed like the perfect color until I discovered this rug I blogged about here. Now, I'm worried this green just isn't the right green, it's too much of a tannish green. Yeah, I know that's not a word but you know what I mean.  I guess I need to go back to the drawing board and look for more greens and maybe some yellows...and if I have to, even a neutral color. Not like there's anything wrong with neutral colors, I think they're great but after renting for a few years and being surrounded by neutral walls I really want to paint my walls something colorful and different! If anyone has any {colorful} suggestions I'd love to hear them!

I always prided myself in being such a decisive person, knowing exactly what I want but this new house is making me second guess everything! I was even online last night looking for news rugs that would look good with the first green paint I found. I quickly changed my mind because I really do love my rug and I want to make it work!

In other news I did find a wall color for our master bedroom that I'm totally in love with, well actually, I narrowed it down to two colors and let the hubby decide. The color he chose is Benjamin Moore's "moon shine" which I also found on Young House Love's blog!

It's actually a lot more of a shimmery gray than this picture depicts. Before I started looking for paint colors I was convinced I'd be able to find a green color easily but struggle with finding the perfect shade of gray, turns out it was the complete opposite. Go figure.

Wedding Inspiration Boards!

Another post about wedding pictures? Is she serious?!

I know, I know and I'm sorry but my awesome photographer, Amy Raab, sent me these inspiration boards yesterday and I thought they were too pretty not to share!

I promise this will be the last post about wedding pictures...

Happy Monday all!

I hope everyone's recovered from all of the Super Bowl festivities. 

I don't know about you but I was hoping the Patriots were going to win, mainly because I have a tiny crush on Tom Brady!

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Even as a little guy he knew he wanted to go to law school...

...but before that he would go to the United States Naval Academy (where he'd meet me)

...then he'd travel the world a bit (and maybe a few bars) with great friends

...but back to Annapolis he'd return, where the rest is history!

Cheers to many more years together, Matthew. My husband, my love, my best friend!

Just A Few Changes...

Look above. Do you see it? (I mean, can you even miss it?)

Are you even surprised that I've incorporated more wedding pictures into this blog? Probably not.

What can I say, I'm just in looooove with our wedding pictures so I figured why not share some in the title page so you can view them every time you visit! ...but that's not all, there are more changes! 

If you look to the right of the page you can see all of the new social networking icons! Now with just a click of a button you can follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, send me an email or even just subscribe to my blog! For all of those not pinning on Pinterest, I've said it before but I'll say it again, you're missing out big time! Although, Pinterest is like the Black Hole of the Internet sucking you in sooooo if you enjoy spending your free time away from the computer you better not join Pinterest. You've.been.warned.

If you want to join Pinterest then go ahead and click that little blue envelope under the connect section of my blog and email me asking for an invitation!

Happy Friday everyone, I hope you enjoy these changes as much as me!