Ready for our first Halloween!

Paul and I have always lived in an apartment or a condo since we've been married, so we are SUPER excited about having trick-or-treaters this year! Well, I'm super excited, Paul is being a really good-sport about the whole thing! When we lived in Charleston, I loved going to my parent's house and passing out candy to the kids and seeing their costumes! Like always, there are some really creative costumes, really thrown-together-at-the-last-minute costumes, store bought, and also home-made. But nonetheless, I love seeing them all! And I can only imagine what Pinterest has done to the costume industry and creativity this year!!

We carved our pumpkin on Saturday with Paul's parents, and his sister, Anna. We carved the "R", Mr. Reid carved the Clemson tiger paw, and Anna carved an "N". I think we all did a pretty good job!

Being a teacher without my own room has it's benefits - like Halloween decorations that I can now use at home!

This is our latest piece of furniture - we bought it last weekend at this amazing antique mall in Landrum.
It's inauguration will be serving as a candy bowl perch!! With some more added decorations. :)

Paul stocked us up on candy. The previous owners told us to expect about 150 kids! Evidently they come by the van-loads to the neighborhood from all over Inman!

 

Come on over!!

Happy Halloween!!

God Bless!

Kitchen - before and after

We finally finished the kitchen!

I decided to stick with the same shade of gray for the kitchen that I used in the living room and backdoor entry, just to keep the "flow". Originally, I had planned on using a shade one step darker, but I actually like how it turned out.

"Way Before" - again, this is how the previous family had it arranged. They used this space as an eat-in for their family. The mom was really strict about never taking food or drinks out of the kitchen, so it made sense for them to have the daily table in the kitchen.

We on the other hand, eat dinner every once in a while in front of the TV (a habit that will be broken when we have kids!). But for us right now, it's not a big deal, and since we don't have that really open floor plan, I thought it would be good to use this space as just a sitting area - either for us, or when we have guests over. I had seen some really cute ideas on Pinterest - of course - and it's still a work in progress, but so far I love how it's turning out!

"Before" - pre-painted. My mom found these chairs at a store in Charleston, and my other designer friend, Laurie, found this rug on Craig's List!

"After" - now the after! I love how the gray looks!! I just think it's so much brighter and cooler!

So - the next room is the princess room. We begin taping tonight! The work never ends - on to the next room with a joyful heart!

And, one more thing! I went to an antique mall today that is literally 3 miles from the house, and found some amazing pieces in it! I want to take Paul back so he can see them and we can decide if any of them will work - an old pew bench, a dresser, a mirror, an old school desk, and maybe a China cabinet.

God Bless!

A Lot of Updates!!

Quick disclaimer - the delayed posting hasn't been do to the lack of things to say. On the contrary, I've actually had A LOT to post about recently, but absolutely NO time!

Here's why -

The short version -
1. We closed on the house!! (October 5)
2. We started to the paint the house (October 8)
3. We moved into the house!! (October 12)
4. I still love being in kindergarten (great field trip on October 12)
5. Clemson football games have been exciting and wonderful - Go TIGERS!

And the long version -
1. After many long weeks, and some very frustrating stumbling blocks, we were finally able to close on our house. Words cannot express how excited we are to be in our first house, and to be transforming it into our home.
As mentioned in previous posts, with the help of my mom, dad, and Paul, I picked out three shades of gray from Benjamin Moore -

• for the downstairs (living room, garage entry way, kitchen, and stairway): Marina Gray 
• for the upstairs loft, and one of the bedrooms: Sandy Hook
• for the "princess room" (the owners before had a young daughter and she had a decal on her wall that said something along the lines of "daughter of the King, Princess" - hence princess room): Timberwolf 

So far, things look great! I've painted the living room and the entry way, and I'm working on the kitchen. 

This is the "before" picture from the previous owners.

 This is after painting - it looks more blue in this picture, unfortunately, but it really is gray. That's our new chair that my mom found in Charleston, and the old window frame coffee table that I built with my dad. 

Our other furniture was just ordered, so hopefully in 6-8 weeks if you want to come visit, we'll have a place for you to sit! :) We got a new couch and another chair.

This is the dining room - we didn't paint it because the green they had I actually liked, and I love how our table looks with the room. 

Those are all the house pictures for now, but many more will be coming - I just have a lot more unpacking to do! We got the loft area pretty much set up with the TV, couch, and love seat set we had in Charleston, so it is comfortable and a good place for "break for the night" and watch TV.

Basically, we both come home from working a full day and get to work either painting, working in the yard, unpacking boxes, setting up rooms, hanging pictures, etc. We work until dinner, take a 30-60  minute break, and then go back to work till maybe 8:30 or 9:00 when we're both so beat we can't focus enough to do anything else. But I'm not complaining - honestly! I am seriously having a GREAT time paining, and knowing that I am working on OUR house makes it even more enjoyable. There's a sense of true ownership, and love  for this house that I have been waiting for for a long time. I would work all night if I could, but then I wouldn't be able to function in the morning for my kids, so I do stop.

Which brings me to the next update - kindergarten!! LOVE it! 

We took our one and only field trip this year to Strawberry Hill, and it was amazing. Not only was it a great venue for the kids, it was educational, fun, and they got to take home a pumpkin that they "picked" from the pumpkin vine, and I really got the chance to bond with my students, which is so important to me. They are precious kids, who make me laugh all day long (which coming from Charleston where some days I was crying on my way home, this is amazing). 

The Cooley Brothers own this HUGE farm that grows everything! Obviously right now is pumpkin season. 

On the trip the kids got to -

• Go on a hay ride around the farm, with a stop in the cow pasture to feed the cows "candy"

•  Play in this awesome Playground that had all sorts of fun things to climb on, sit on, swing on, and play on! 

• Go through a corn maze - in the maze there were 5 stations and each station had a color chalk that the kids dipped a finger in. The goal was to find all 5 stations and end up with five fingers of chalk - so much fun!! And who's class do you think came in first!?! That's right! OURS! 

•  Help feed and pet baby cows named Darla and Alfalfa. 

•  And watch LT try to catch a baby pig! 

Probably the best field trip I've ever been on - no joke. And in the spring, I plan on going back and picking my own strawberries! 

And then there's good old Clemson! Go TIGERS! The last home game was close to my birthday, so Paul surprised me with a cookie cake, which was delicious and wonderful! My parents were here to experience the "most exciting 25 seconds in college football" and had a blast tailgating with us and sitting with us during the game. Honestly, there's nothing like a Clemson home game! I'll be in Cleveland for a meeting for this week's game, but I'll be cheering in my heart!

I hope you are all doing well! I've noticed more activity on my blog, so if you are new and getting to know me and my crazy life - welcome! If you're my faithful family and friends, just know that I love you and would love to catch up anytime! 

God Bless!