No rules.

So 2011 is in full swing and I have been one busy girl! You know we have been in our house since last August and our living room is the room I struggle the most with. It's very open which makes for limited wall space which oddly equals less furniture space. And to make matters worse, there is a vent under our large window. When we first moved in, I closed the vent and moved the loveseat under the window. This arrangement worked fine when it was still warm out. The only other vent available to heat the living room is on the complete opposite wall in the dining area. Now that it's gotten colder, this plan isn't working out so well. I was inspired by a post a few weeks ago from Thrifty Decor Chick. She too has a very open living area with limited wall space. She inspired me because she did something non-traditional... so I decided to do the same. After all, there's no such thing as the couch police right? RIGHT? please tell me I'm right! haha If not and you don't hear from me in a while, well, you'll know why!

So anyway, onto the fun part. The before and after pics!
(please excuse the mess... I blame it on after Christmas shenanigans and trying to move everything out of the way to move furniture!)
Before:

Ugh. So much empty space!

After:

This new empty space feels so much more productive than the first empty space, if that makes any sense! Keep in mind this is before I finished cleaning! I've since moved the rug back and put the coffee table back in front of the couch. I think we'll eventually replace it with something rectangular or oval compared to square. I also have a plan for curtains and I'm trying to decide on wall decor. So far this new arrangement is working pretty well for us!

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It's Beginning...

... to look a lot like Christmas :)

We have roughly two inches of snow at the moment with more coming down.  It's stunning! My only wish at the moment is that my hubby was here to watch it with me instead of at work.  Anywho, I thought it would be a great time to update on how the house is looking for the holidays!

 Recognize this tray???

 I had the hardest time with the hutch. Matthew ended up finishing it for me. I think he did a pretty good job!

 Our tree and stockings with some goodies :)

 I lurve this little snowman nightlight!

 This is hanging on the dead tree in our front yard. Props go out to Charlie Brown :)  

(Click here if you don't get it)

 SNOW!!!!!

If you look close in the window you can see the lights from our tree.

So there you go. That's all I have at the moment.  Look soon for a quick, cheap, and easy Christmas craft :)

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Inspired

I realize that Thanksgiving is less than a week away, but it is still not here yet. So why in the world am I itching to decorate for Christmas?!  It's a personal rule of mine that Christmas decorations do not go out until after Thanksgiving, but I'm finding it quite difficult to keep to that rule.  I guess it doesn't matter if I break it because it's mine right? But I'm not so sure how hubs will take that...

I've spent most of the morning online shopping for ideas to decorate.  At the moment I am very inspired by what I found on Pier One's website and I can't wait to go by there later today.  I'm thinking of doing up the house in green, red, and white.  PO has a gorgeous red tray for $10 that I am dying to get my hands on.  I can picture it on our dining room table filled with a feathery green tree and lots of little metallic ornaments and a couple of candles. They also have the CUTEST votive holders I have ever seen.  They are little wire reindeer! Squeee!

Hubs and I visited some family last night, and they already have their decorations out.  My cousin had the neatest idea (which I'm pretty sure I'm going to borrow) of doing candy-themed decorations for the kitchen.  Candy-canes and peppermints will still go with my color scheme, so I'm thinking I can make it work. My living room, dining room, and kitchen are on an open floor plan, so I need to make sure everything flows.

Ugh, I can't believe I am this excited already, but oh well :)  I'll be sure to post pictures as I get stuff set up. It's been a while since I've done home-decor type stuff, so I'm overdue for a post anyway.  I also have a few DIY ideas I'm itching to try out.

I really love this time of year!

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Good news/bad news

So which would you prefer first? Hhhhmmmm, well, since I can't hear you (obviously) I'm going to have to pick. Haha!

We'll go bad first. I wouldn't want to end this on a bad note would I? Of course not! So here goes.

We are suppose to close on our house this coming Sunday. I have been so excited to close on the weekend so I can clean the house before we move our stuff in it. Also, almost every weekend in August is packed so I was happy to have the close on a free weekend. Well, our mortgage broker contacted us today and said he is still waiting for the auditor to look at the house. Unfortunately we cannot move forward until that happens and there is nothing any of us can do to speed up the process. We will probably have to put off the closing, but for how long I have no idea! Our lease is up at the end of August and I have to work/get ready for school/wedding stuff so I really need this to happen fast. The last thing I want to be doing two weeks before my wedding is moving!

OK, so on to the good news. Remember how last semester I was a TA? Well I had what is called a "half TA" last semester. I expected the same thing this semester (half tuition coverage and a nice stipend). I found out today, though, that I got a full TA (full tuition coverage and twice the stipend)!!! It's also in the psych stats class which I really really wanted to teach. I figured I would get the intro class, but nope! I'm excited to get to teach something different and very happy to not have to worry about tuition! Matthew is happy because my income will be close to matching his for the semester so financially we will be much better off.

It appears as though (most) things are falling into place. We only have a month left before the wedding (AAAAAHHHHH) and so much to do but it will all be worth it in the end :)

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Hello.

Hello bloggy world.

I apologize (once again) for my absence. I'm back, but not sure for how long. Life is crazy here at LLA, that is for sure! Every once in a while the title of this blog is very very appropriate. Matthew and I are getting ready to start multiple adventures. So hold on tight! Things are going to get fun...

First, there is only less than 2 months left until the wedding. I know I keep saying it, but I still have so much to do!! I picked up our invitations today though. They are SSSSOOOOO cute!!!!

As if that isn't enough, Matthew and I decided its time to move out of Lexington. We could have just rented a place outside of town, but how adventurous is that? Nah, we have to do things the fun way. So yeah, we are in the process of buying a home! Our offer was accepted on Monday and we completed inspections yesterday. We are hoping to close by August 1st :)  Our landlord gave us an extra month for our lease since it is technically up at the 31st of this month. The house is perfect and we can't wait to get the keys. You know I will be clicking away to have pics to share.

I've also started a sort of mini adventure of my own. I have started a little garden out on our balcony. I got one of those tomato plant hanger things and my mater plant is doing really well. No maters yet, but it has started to bud so I should have tomatoes by the end of the month. I also have a little herb garden (parsley, basil, oregano, thyme, and cilantro) and another pot for chives. Besides the edible plants, I have a pot of blue hydrangea and a moon flower. I can't wait for the moon flower to bloom! I should really take pics to share, but it's miserable hot outside right now. Maybe I'll take some this weekend when it cools down.

So there you go. I know I owe you two weeks worth of answers and who knows what else. Ugh, at least I'm trying :)

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