Bathroom update

Well, it's been a while since I wrote last. I have been working on some house projects. Little by little the past few months, I have been trying to update our master bathroom. Now, I am pretty much done, aside from a few small things, that are not going to be a priority for a while. See some before and after pictures of the bathroom below.

My next big undertaking will be painting all the interior moldings of our house white. They are currently wood colored, and they bother me. I have wanted white since we bought the house. A couple weeks ago, we got an estimate from someone for $2500 to paint them. So, I gave up on the idea once again. Then, late Friday night, I was cleaning up our guest room and noticed all the paint on the moldings (done by previous owners). I decided I really wanted to paint the moldings and would do it myself... little by little. I started with the bathroom. I am doing our bedroom next and working across the upstairs and then downstairs. It will be a long process.

Anyway, here's our bathroom pics (sorry some of them are sideways... I need to figure out how to fix that). I am still planning to work on the windows (new blinds and/or new fabric curtains of some sort), a new faucet (already have it... waiting for Chip to install it), painting the doors, and doing something to make the big mirror look better.



Before (when we were looking to buy the house)

Before (walls painted dark brown on the tub wall and vanity painted brown... see above pic for original color)

After:

Christmas Wreath

I have been obsessed with making this project since I read about it. As soon as ornaments were 75% off at Walmart, I bought a bunch of them for my 2009 decorations. However, I couldn't wait to make this. You can find the directions here.

Here's my finished product. I am pretty excited about it.



While I am still motivated, and before I pack the Xmas stuff away completely, I plan to make our new Xmas stockings too! I hope to get that done next weekend.

Resolutions

I have a few big resolutions for 2009. It is a big year for me since I turn 30 and will celebrate my 1 year wedding anniversary.

1) Fit by 30. I want to lose 30-40 lbs. by the time I turn 30 in October. However, I'd like to lose 20 by the time school lets out and it is beach season. In order to reach this goal, I will continue going to the gym 4-5 times a week, but will work harder while I am there. I will also walk the 2 mile loop around our neighborhood more often (with the dogs of course). In addition, I am trying to eat healthier, which leads to my next resolution.

2) Cook healthy and more often. I'd like either Chip or me to cook dinner 4-5 times a week and then have leftovers for some of the other meals. I plan to accomplish this by cooking in the crockpot a lot. One of my favorite blogs to read is http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/. I have tried a number of her recipes and hope to try many more. She's inspired me :).

3) Be more crafty. I just finished my craftroom and my desk (made by Chip) should be done this week. I can't wait to get to work finishing my wedding scrapbook (another goal of the year) and working on other paper and fiber crafts. To inspire me, I am in a few crafty meetup groups and constantly look for fun ideas on blogs and scrapbooks, etc.

4) Be better to myself. I plan to spend more time relaxing (taking baths) and I hope to spend less time scouring the Internet out of boredom. This resolution kinf of links to my other 3 because being fit and healthy is being better to myself. Also, crafting is something I enjoy doing, so that's being better to myself.

So, I hope next year at this time, I am still blogging and I will remember to come back and be able to say I accomplished my resolutions for 2009.

About Me

I figured if you're going to read my blog, you might as well know a bit about me. My name is Stacy and I was born and raised in central, NJ. I went to college at Towson University, just outside Baltimore, Maryland. My major was mass communications and advertising but after a little while in the field, I went back and got my Masters degree in Education. After college I stayed in the Baltimore area and eventually met my husband, Chip. We finally got married after almost 4 years of dating, in March 2008. At the same time, Chip's company offered us a relocation package we couldn't pass up. So, during the summer of 2008, we officially moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia. We bought a house and have been doing little things to fix and update it. Now, I teach fifth grade in Virginia Beach. Overall, we're very happy in our new home and state :).

Two of the most important things in my life are my dogs. I got Zoe in May 2005 (she was 1.5 years old) from the SPCA. She is a miniature dachshund. Then, in April 2007, we adopted Jake (now 2 years old) from another shelter. He's a golden retriever/collie mix. I never had dogs growing up, so once I decided to get one, I spent a lot of time and energy researching breeds, training, etc. If you know me, you know how important my dogs are to me :).

Zoe on her fifth birthday. She loves committing stufficide to her squirrel.



This is Jake on the 2nd day we had him. He keeps that one ear up 95% of the time :).

Entry #1

Lately, I have been reading more and more blogs by people and I really enjoy them. I especially like reading about crafts and home updates/decorating people have done. Since one of my New Year's resolutions this year is to make more crafts and continue decorating our new (to us) house, I figured I'd try writing a blog.

So, I mentioned my NY resolutions. Well, in order to follow through with the crafts, I have taken a few steps. Firstly, I am part of a fiber crafts meetup group and a scrapbooking meetup group. Both have monthly meetups, ideas, and challenges to inspire me to create. I also love a lot of the ideas I see in other people's blogs and some bios on The Nest. Lastly, I just finished painting my craft room. So, I am super inspired right now to get going on my crafts. Actually, I just returned from Walmart where I bought a bunch of Xmas decorations at 75% off. Now, I am ready to create!

On the homefront, I am continuously looking for things to decorate our home. Soon, I will post some before and after pics of stuff I have done. Soon, we need to pick a color and paint all the hallways. Monday, we have someone coming to give us an estimate on what it would cost to paint all our moldings (currently wood) white. I have my fingers crossed that it won't be too much that Chip says no to the idea. I just really think it will brighten the house and make it look more modern. This spring, we'll be updating all the landscaping too. Eventually, we'd like new kitchen countertops and perhaps to paint the kitchen cabinets.

Well, that's enough for my first post.