CSN Giveaway

I found another great giveaway today that I wanted to share. Kendra over at Kendra Diaries is giving away a $25 gift certificate to CSN.com. I don't know about you all, but since moving into our house, I have found that we need so many things. A rug for our bedroom, patio furniture, a rug for our living room, window treatments, rugs for our hallways...it goes on and on. Now, I have never bought anything from CSN, but that doesn't mean I haven't wanted to. They have some great stuff!

These would be so cute in our main bathroom once we redo it. I love the light and floaty feeling they give me:


Love this rug! It can be used indoor or outdoor and I just love the pattern and splash of color. It would look great in our kitchen, our bedroom or outside on our back patio:
This light would look so awesome in our foyer!

See? So many choices! Head on over to Kendra Diaries to enter (though, I'd prefer it if you didn't so I had a better chance to win - HA!)

Marley Lilly Giveaway over at Chic & Pink

Hello! The Husband and I are back from a long weekend in North Carolina. It was very nice to get away and relax. My parents have a second home down there and while I've visited many, many times over the years, I had never been to the area during this time of the year. It was nice, usually in the low 60s (much better then the snow and ice we were getting back home!) and sunny! I did some shopping and lots of seafood eating - YUM!

I wanted to share with you all the giveaway happening over at Chic & Pink. She is gifting a monogrammed floppy hat from Marley Lilly and I just adore it! The monogram and trim can come in six different colors. If I win, I was thinking of orange and turquoise to match the new beach bag I got while in NC over the weekend.

Check out the rest of the Marley Lilly's website. They have so really awesome and cute things. Thanks!

A mish-mash

*Over President's Day weekend, The Husband and I purchased a new toy for our home: A 50" Panasonic Viera Plasma TV. It even comes with 3-D capabilities, though with glasses priced at 2 for $300, I'm sure we'll never use it.
Holy moly, is it huge! Switching from a Sony 36" tubal TV circa sometime in the 1990s, this TV is like the most amazing thing since sliced bread. Yesterday evening, I actually found myself fake-debating with The Husband to get to watch what I wanted (the Oscars) last night.

Me: The Oscars are on tonight.
The Husband: Oh goody. I so don't want to watch.
Me: Well, it looks like you are watching TV upstairs tonight then.
The Husband: What?
Me: Hey, you got to watch it all day yesterday (while I was out running errands and then to the David Gray concert) and this morning while I slept in. It's my turn!
The Husbad: We'll see...

...and he ended up watching the Oscars for a bit just so he could enjoy our newest addition before heading off to bed.

*Speaking of 3-D, we went and saw "Gnomeo and Juliet" last week in 3-D. It was definitely cute and I loved all the accents on the little gnomes. I don't know if it's worth seeing in 3-D, as it's not one of those movies (like "Avatar" or "A Christmas Carol") with all the action and effects used specifically for 3-D, but it's cute! The Husband and I joked about taking our glasses home with us to see if they work on our new 3-D tv - LOL!! I put mine back, but he kept his to test it out. I will let you know if it works (probably not)...

*My sister-in-law took me to see David Gray in concert this past Saturday night for an early birthday gift...and it was amazing! I've seen David Gray about 15 times (give or take) in concert now and each time it is seriously awesome and totally different from the last show. If you haven't already, become a fan and go see him live! You are welcome.

*The Husband and I took a trip to Disney World with my family last April. On the way home, we volunteered to give up our seats in exchange for a hotel for 2 nights and 2 round-trip tickets each for the continental U.S. Since we have yet to use any of the tickets yet, we have planned a trip to my parent's second home in North Carolina soon. We are going on a Thursday morning and coming home the following Monday night. With the short, non-stop flights both ways, that pretty much gives us 4 full days to enjoy some warmer weather, hush puppies, outlet shopping, crab legs, walking on the beach, and yummy crab cakes!

*We have hit a wall when it comes to painting/fixing up the house. We have always said that we want to get all the painting finished before Spring arrives because then we'll want to start working outside, but we just cannot get motivated. The Husband has taken down the wallpaper (both layers!)in the family room and has started to work on getting all the paste off and patching the walls, but that was many weeks ago and nothing has been accomplished since...other then picking up tons of paint swatches from Home Depot to pick out colors. Neither one of us wants to paint anymore. We would rather hire someone to do it, but I just can't justify spending money on something we could do ourselves. We'll see what happens...

*We have a covered outdoor patio right off our family room and it has a swing attached to the roof. Super cute, but needs a paint job. I was at Kohl's and Target over the weekend and saw some awesome outdoor pillows in beautiful bright colors.

It totally inspired me to paint our swing either a bright yellow or green and put some of these pillows on it to make a cozy, comfortable place to spend some summer evenings! I'm also on the hunt for a cute chandelier or light to replace the dinky, old one that's up now. Any ideas?

*It seems like we have gotten so much snow in the last month of so. It's been crazy! Last night, however, we got a thunderstorm with lightning and everything! In fact, it thundered so loud one time the entire house shook! Hope that means Spring is on its way!

I couldn't imagine...

The last few weeks, I have been vigorously devouring blogs about war widows and women whose husbands are deployed. It seriously makes me think about what I would do and how I would cope if something ever happened to The Husband. And the answer is...I wouldn't. I wouldn't be able to cope. I honestly believe I wouldn't know what to do with myself. I would be so heartbroken and saddened to the point where my life just couldn't move forward without him.

I think about these women and how strong they are and continue to be. Some have young children, others are carrying their babies still. And my heart truly breaks for them. I try to put myself in their shoes and the enormous amount of loss and anger I know I would feel doesn't even come close to what they are feeling. Because what they are feeling is real and mine is only how I would imagine it to be.

These thoughts and feelings I've been having over the last few weeks have really hit home with me. They've made me stop and think, more then once, about how I can do better and be a better person when it comes to The Husband. Instead of picking a stupid fight or getting upset over something small, I try to remember these amazing and strong women, who are moving forward in their lives without their whole hearts. I am so very lucky to have my whole heart with me every day.

Snowverrated!

I live in Michigan and we were hit by the Death Snow Blizzard 2011 (or whatever they were calling it) yesterday. Everyone was saying 10" - 15", maybe more. I work about 30 miles from where I live, and since we were all given the chance to take the day off (using personal or vacation time, obvs.), I decided to stay home and bring work home with me so I could do something productive and only use a few hours of time. Unfortunately, it was never as bad as they said it would be and I kind of feel like I wasted some precious time, but at least The Husband was home with me and we got to hang out, with each other and with Samson!

Now that is RED!

We started a new project this week: The Fireplace. It's brick, but has been painted at least twice before. When we moved in, the brick was a pink-y, beige-y color. Not my taste at all. I had painted the wall above the mantle in our old condo a burnt red and really loved it. All of our decor went with it and I just love red as an accent color. So we decided to try it again in the new house.

Here's the fireplace right as we started painting:



Samson watches over us and isn't really sure what to make of it all:



And here's the fireplace after the first coat - Wowsa!



It's showing up a bit brighter in the photos then it really is (I was going for a more burnt, brown-y red), but it is still pretty bright. The Husband put a second coat on last night so it's a little darker/better, but I am just not sure. He also painted the mantle white, so I don't know if that makes the red even brighter or not. Either way, the red really makes the fireplace stand out and look bigger. Before, when it was that pink-y beige, it just kind of blended into the room, because the walls/wallpaper were all beige. Now...not so much.

What do you think?

First of the new year

I hope everyone had a happy and healthy holiday season! It's already been a busy year for me and The Husband.

*Our holidays were amazing, as usual. We both have very giving and generous families and this year was no different. The Husband got a grill from my parents for christmas and his birthday (in January) and then a few smaller things. I received a beautiful Kate Spade ring, an art piece I really wanted, some clothes, ornaments and a lot of other really great things! The Husband gifted me with a Kate Spade bag (which I knew about since I purchased it myself when it went on sale 2 months ago - HA!) and he completely surprised me with a Kindle, especially since I told him the bag was enough. He is so awesome!

*We went up north to spend NYE with my Aunt and Uncle at their lake cottage, along with my cousin and her husband and young son. It was so fun to be up there in the winter (we usually go in the summer) and so relaxing! Cousin and I got a little too tipsy on NYE and there are videos and pictures of us floating around. YIKES! :)

*I was off of work for over two weeks and am just starting to get back into the swing of things. I was supposed to return on 1/4/11, but I had some major pain in my back and, on the morning of 1/4/11 when my husband had to come and help me out of the shower because I was crying in pain, he insisted on taking me to urgent care. So they gave me two shots in the hip and 5 minutes later I was feeling wonderfully better and my body finally stopped clenching in pain and started to relax. I returned to work 2 days later, but still have a little bit of pain on the left side of my back. It's awfully stiff and sore when I wake up in the mornings, but tends to loosen up as I start to move around. I hope it goes away soon.

*The Husband and I are going to the Kid Rock 40th Birthday show this Saturday in Detroit. We tried to get tickets back in Novemeber, but couldn't get them as they sold out in less then 19 minutes. However, The Husband wanted to go so very badly, so I got together with my MIL and we surprised him with two tickets on Christmas day (from StubHub - YUCK! Normally I would never fall prey to such evilness as StubHub, but it was for The Husband and I hate to deny him something he wants so badly. He is such a giver to me and I wanted to give back). Anyway, after weeks of us talking about how we could never pay over 2x the amount of the original ticket price and how he was just getting over the fact that he wasn't going, he opened up 3 boxes to find 2 tickets for him and I and he was FLOORED!! First thing he said to me "I am not very happy with you. You have been lying to me for 3 weeks!" I said "Actually, it's been longer then 3 weeks. I've had the tickets since the Monday after Thanksgiving!" :) Needless to say, he has forgiven me and is super excited!

*I just purchased tickets to see my favorite artist, David Gray, at the Detroit Opera House next month. We got great seats and this show promises to be something completely different then past tours. Mr. Gray wants to make it more intimate, more like a recording session, and I am all for it! I have seen him at least 10 times now, possibly more, and have met him on a few occasions. I have to say, he is brilliant, unique and completely awesome. Check him out if you haven't already!

*The Husband's work is always slow this time of year, so yesterday he found time to rip down the wallpaper that's in our family room so we can hopefully start painting soon. I received a txt from him that read: "I got all the wallpaper down, but found a surprise waiting for me underneath." A minute later, I got another txt from him with a picture of MORE WALLPAPER!!! He was so angry and cursing the inventor of wallpaper. Luckily it came off pretty easily and we now have bare walls waiting to be painted!

I guess that's about all that's been happening in my life. Pretty exciting, no? :)