The Bathroom is DONE!

Well, kinda. There are still a few spots on the cabinets that need to be touched up, but due to the fact that my sister is getting here TODAY (we're all about the spontaneous visits in the Carter/Roberts family), we decided to clean the bathroom up and call it good.

Here is what we did in this space:
-Ripped up the old linoleum tile
-Put down new, pretty, neutral ceramic tile
-Put a fresh coat of white paint on the cabinets
-Repainted the baseboards and trim
-Touched up the wall paint (that we should have done oh...10 months ago)

And I'm loving how it's turned out!

Here's a quick "before" of the gross blue/green/gray discolored peel-and-stick tiles (and chipped cabinets):

And here's the "after"!

I LOVE the tile! Bryan did such a great job!!

I love fresh coats of paint....these were pretty bad and now they look brand new and so much more clean.

Yay for pretty bathrooms!

Now onto the next project, haha.

P.S. I also wanted to mention that Bryan's JV team placed 1ST in a 2A Varsity Baseball Tournament this past weekend! I didn't go since it was out of town, but I am so happy for him!

I'm so excited for Julie to get here, she's staying till Thursday and it will be so fun!!! Happy Monday and have a great week!

I am linking to The Shabby Nest and Miss Mustard Seed!

I Heart Invitations

So last week I was finally able to see one of my designs in print! Usually when I make something, I send it off and never see it again. I about jumped up and down when I got Megan and Westin's Save the Date in the mail!

Excuse the brick house in the background... I was running out of daylight and didn't want to take the picture without it...natural light is SO great for photography.

Anyway, she had them printed on linen textured cardstock...I love them! She also printed and sent out this one as well:

I also wanted to give ya'll an update on my brand new Etsy Shop. I haven't sold anything yet, but since it's only been open for a week I'm not worried at all and I'm still hopeful that things will pick up in the next few months as I add more items (and maybe start advertising). Here are a few more invitations I added this week:

Yes, I did use my sisters and sister-in-law for these, and YES they are marrying celebrities haha!

Love them all! I might get this printed just so I can post pictures of how much cooler they would look in person!

Confessions

So....

Firstly, I would like to apologize for my lack of personal posts. I know that I originally started this blog to document our house projects AND our personal life, but honestly we have been complete losers lately and have just been hanging around the house when we aren't at work. Well, I actually take that back....we DO have friends and we DO hang out with them fairly often, but I'm horrible at taking pictures at any sort of "outing" with people, mainly because I don't want to be "that girl with the blog and the camera". So for the extreme lack of pictures with people in them....I am sorry. :)

Now that I've gotten my apology out, I would like to continue disappointing those of you who read this for personal posts with a HUGE secret that I've been hiding in my house.

For anyone who reads this blog and knows me personally, you know that I am a self-admitted neat freak. Like bad. Like, to the point that it has annoyed every roommate I've ever had and is often more of a character flaw than anything else. SO, you will be shocked when you find out my secret.

You may either gasp or laugh when you see this picture...choose one or the other:

I KNOW. It's terrible. Bryan keeps calling me Monica because of that one episode of Friends when Chandler finds her secret junk closet and discovers that she really wasn't the clean freak that he thought she was (that's one of my favorites by the way). Well people, I don't have a junk closet, I have a junk ROOM.

It didn't originally start out this way, but it has been like this since....Christmas.

You are probably thinking, "Why on earth is she showing me this?" Well, after spending the last year looking through blogs and magazines that feature pictures of "perfect" homes, I found myself wanting that form of perfection and wanting it NOW. In the last few months however, I have realized that it's okay to have crap in the corners....it's okay for things to not be done, and for things to get messy. It also really annoys me when people act like their whole life is perfect....no one's is, so I wanted to do my part and show you that I am definitely a part of the "imperfect club".

Now, don't think that I have changed my "neat freak" ways. Just like Monica, I keep the rest of the house pretty clean (90% of the time), and I actually do have future plans to turn the junk room into a craft/office/scrapbook/gift wrap room. BIG plans. Be excited.

Here are some of my inspiration photos (I pulled these LONG ago...and don't remember where they are from):

For now however, the junk room will continue to be the catch-all of the house unless I randomly have the time and energy to tackle it once and for all. Until then, I have slowly been making my way through all of the drawers, bins, and closets in the house to declutter and re-organize (I try to do this every few months....I'm not a fan of junk drawers and messy closets). In fact, I got a whopping 3 trash bags full of clothes to donate just from MY dresser and half of the closet.

This doesn't include the 2 bags that are already out in the garage from the last time I cleaned out the closets almost 2 months ago!

I would also like to wish a pretty belated birthday to my Nanny! She celebrated her birthday last Thursday and of course I forgot to post it! (If you think I'm bad with this, you should see me try to send cards...) I don't know how much she gets to read this at the moment, but if you see this, I love you Nanny and miss you so much and can't wait to see you this summer!!

Ok, random post: complete.

Random Weekend Project

So last weekend, as we were watching a movie, I casually mentioned to Bryan that we needed to redo the bathroom floors sometime this month. Next thing I know, Bryan has locked himself in the guest bathroom and there is a suspicious ripping sound coming from the door. Oh....my husband. Bryan took out the toilet and ripped up all the vinyl tile in about 30 minutes.

Our dog is obviously used to the camera.

The demolition.

Bryan catching Louie in the act of eating the vinyl flooring a little too late.

(Sorry, I had to put this in here. This literally happens on a daily basis.)

The next day we set off to Lowe's, picked up some tile, and 2 hours later, this is what we had:

Looks amazing! And I should note that I didn't help whatsoever with this project. Floors and I are not the best of friends (except for cleaning them, that I will do).  I will however, be repainting the bathroom vanity this weekend, woo-hoo!

Can't wait to show you all the finished product!

Our Living Room (So Far)

As I've stated probably way too many times before, our house is a major work in progress. As I've also said before, I created this blog not only to share our life with our families that live far away, but to document our first-time-home-owning experience. SO, today I've decided to show you our living room because I'm pretty sure ya'll haven't gotten an update in it in a while. Here are some of the things that have changed in the living room in the last month or so:

-new floors
-new fireplace surround
-new throw pillows
-new rug
-new blinds
-new curtains
-new dresser
-new coffee table

So....lots of "new". BUT, I still have a ton to do....which includes but is not limited to:

-putting a HUGE sunburst mirror above the fireplace
-hanging a bunch of frames with wedding pictures above dresser area
-Get a different lamp...?
-accessorizing everything (which is a lot)

Ok, so it doesn't sound like that much, but it is!

Here is a picture of our living room last summer:

I actually like all of the stuff in it, but I was kind of over it.

And here it is NOW: (remember I'm not done yet!)

LAST SUMMER (much more accessorized):

NOW:

I love my new pillows! I was going to just make some, but then fate intervined and I came across these PERFECT pillows at TJMaxx for just $16 each! I just about freaked out, they are exactly what I was envisioning!

I cannot for the life of me make the window show up better.....there's a way to do it, I just haven't figured it out.

Oh yeah, we are getting the couches cleaned this Friday....I'm so excited!

Yay living room! I'll post more updates as they occur :).

P.S. Go to The Shabby Nest  and Between Naps on the Porch link parties to see other things! I decided to link my blog to them too :).

Link Parties:

Think Pink Sundays
Whatcha Got Weekend
Amaze Me Mondays
Just Something I Whipped Up
Market Yourself Mondays
DIY Showoff Project Parade
Thrifty Decor Chick
Take a Look Tuesday
Show and Tell Wednesday
House of Hepworths
Show and Share Day
Fun to Craft
Weekend Wrap Up Party
The Shabby Nest
Remodelaholic
Furniture Feature Friday

Our Guest Bedroom (So Far)

So... after many hours of taping, painting, hanging, stapling, ironing, and starching, I think our Guest Bedroom is finally worthy of the blog. There are still several things that I would like to add to it, like a dresser, wall art, a floor lamp, and maybe even an upholstered bench at the foot of the bed. But for now, I'm very happy with the room so far!

Here's a quick "before" to refresh your memory:

And here's the "after:

Before:

 After. We just hung new bamboo blinds throughout the house!

Yay!

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you all are doing something fun and romantic :). Bryan and I are going to see Josh Hamilton speak at LCU tonight.....not really romantic but definitely fun!!

P.S. Go to The Shabby Nest and Between Naps on the Porch link parties to see other things! I decided to link my blog to them too :).

New Etsy Shop

I finally got around to starting my own Etsy shop! It's called KatyLady Designs!

I've been talking about doing this for months, so last night while I was STILL recovering from my cold/fever/deadly illness, I went ahead and made a shop. In the last year, I've probably made some sort of invitation for someone every couple of weeks, so I decided that I want to start selling them.

I only have 2 items for sale right now, but I intend on adding more in the next month. I will be selling pre-made digital templates for people to print their own invitations/cards for weddings and parties. Eventually, I want to do custom orders and maybe even print them myself, but for now, I'm going to stick with this. We'll see how it goes! I may sell nothing at all, and if so, I'll change my methods...only time will tell. If I ever get too busy or just don't like doing this anymore, I'll close the shop, but as of right now, I'm having fun doing this in my free time and am very excited!

You can visit the shop by clicking HERE!

More Recipes!

Well, people are telling me that they like my recipe posts so I thought I'd do another one....I have to admit, I stole ANOTHER recipe from Fly Through Our Window, but it was so good, I couldn't resist! I did however, make a few changes to it, so I guess I can sorta call it my own. It's a really easy Asian Stir-Fry recipe and I'm kinda addicted to it so I hope you like it too!

Ingredients: (Makes 4 servings)

-2 cups stir fry sauce
-1 package frozen stir fry vegetables
-2 chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes
-spaghetti (just use however much your family normally eats)
-dried low mien noodles ( love those things, optional)

Directions:

Cook cut chicken breasts in an oiled skillet over medium-high heat. Mix in 1/2 cup stir fry sauce.

Fill another saucepan with water. Bring to boil, add desired amount of spaghetti.

Add frozen veggies to chicken. Once they are cooked, mix in another 1/2 cup of stir fry sauce. Drain cooked spaghetti and add to mixture. Add last cup of stir fry sauce. Saute for 5 minutes or until everything is mixed well.

Sprinkle low mien noodles on top and enjoy!!

I don't even know if this counts as a recipe since it's SO easy.

Have a great day!

Birthdays and Sick Days

Blah, I've felt like such a slacker lately mostly due to the fact that I feel like DEATH. I've had a 101 degree fever all day today...and I don't think it's going to get better anytime soon. I don't do well with being sick, especially when there are other things I need/want to do!

I also wanted to send out a shout-out to my WONDERFUL mom for her birthday!!! Sorry, I'm almost late....but this fever thing kind of threw me off. Anyway...thank you for being SO amazing and for loving me even though I probably drive you crazy 90% of the time. You are so talented and fun and I want to be like you when I grow up! LOVE YOU!

I used the oreo cake picture again because I know you liked it :).

I will hopefully (depending on how I'm feeling) be doing some more fun projects this weekend so there should be some interesting posts coming up!

Homecoming!

Hi! It's been a whole WEEK since I have posted! That's very unusual for me, but I have good reason: this past weekend was LCU's Homecoming/Master Follies weekend. As most everyone who reads this knows, I am the Event Coordinator in Alumni Relations so I was VERY busy all last week.

Despite being completely clueless as to what goes on with the "Alumni" side of Homecoming (I was always on the Master Follies side), I think that we (when I say "we" I mean the Alumni Relations Team) pulled off a pretty successful weekend. There are several things that will be changing in the years to come, but I would say that we did the best with what we had and the time that we had to plan it in. I had such a great time meeting alumni and hearing their stories--I can't wait until next year!

The weekend started off with class reunions, which had a pretty good turnout considering the fact that all of our Dallas alumni had to cancel due to weather.

I don't really have any "people" pictures at all since there were university photographers at all the events, so I just brought my camera for detail shots for my portfolio :).

My friend Whitney and I made all the centerpieces for the weekend. I don't normally like daisies at all, but I have to admit, I really like these and LOVE the way they all turned out! We used lilies, Gerber daisies, roses, and bear grass.

 These guys were both in Hard Travelers (LCU's band) when they were in school and had a little reunion of their own--it was actually really neat!

My lone picture of the Golden Anniversary Luncheon. I told you...nothing but details! This luncheon went great and I loved seeing all of the 50th reunion class reminisce with each other!

We had a LOT of events going on at the same time (like literally all day Friday and Saturday), but our biggest event was the first ever Alumni Awards Dinner. This was my absolute favorite event of the weekend (besides Follies) and went SO well!

This lady is AMAZING at the piano.

Our awesome programs that the Director of Marketing made for us at the very last minute!

Dr. Jones!

And on to Master Follies! I loved being able to go to every show (we usually helped with them too). On Saturday night (aka the "big" show) we actually got to sit in the front and watch the show in its entirety.  It was really good!

I have very random (and very few) pictures from this. I actually have a lot of people I don't know at all, so I decided not to post those since that's super creepy.

I had to put this one of Sub-T up because they were Avatar and it was hilarious.

I didn't get any of Kappa due to the fact that I spent the time during their show screaming my head off. BUT they won, and I was SO proud!

Here's a very dark picture of a few of them after awards (they were Jack in the Box):

Love!

So....busy weekend. But....FUN weekend!!!

I've been spending the little bit of free time I've had decorating our living room so I'll post pictures of that sometime this week! (if you're lucky)

That's all for now!