Finally Done!!!

We have been in our house now for about 2 months and we are still in the process of getting settled in. We got the house organized and now it's time to make each room the exact way we want it. We decided to take one room at a time and work on it until we have got it just how we want it and then move onto the next one. I am almost done with the living room and then I think I will move on to finishing up Eden's room and then onto our bedroom and bathroom. The living room was somewhat of a challenge. When we moved in we decided we were not going to put a TV in the living room. We had several reasons for this...1.) Nick and I have really been trying to not watch as much tv and we knew that if we had a tv in the living room, it would most likely be on a lot of the time. 2.) We really wanted Eden to have an open place to play as well as have an open space for guests and friends. 3.) We didn't want the focus of the living room to be the tv.

When we moved in we placed the couch up against the back wall and the space was very open. After having it that way for about a month and a half we really found ourselves not spending a lot of time in it and weren't using it to it's full potential. It just seemed really dull. We discussed it and decided to put the tv in the living room, but we wanted the tv not to be seen. We opted to get an armoire that could house the tv. I searched and searched and became increasingly discouraged by the prices of armoires. The cheapest one I found was $600 and it wasn't even that great. I decided to look through craigslist.com to see if I could find something a little cheaper and...I did! There was a woman who lived really close to us selling her armoire for $175. When we went to get it we realized this thing was HUGE!! With the help of our good friends Hayley and Alex we were able to get this massive piece of furniture to our house. We actually ended up buying it from the lady for $120 because it definitely needed some TLC. I researched ways to re-do furniture and came up with the idea to do a faux finish on it. After FOUR coats of primer, I was finally able to put the glaze on it and make it look beautiful. It took me nearly 2 weeks to finish it up and I am VERY happy to be done. A LOT of sweat went into this thing as I was only able to work on it while Eden took her naps - (around 2 pm - which equals HOTTTTT!!!) I am so glad it is finished and I'm quite happy with the way it turned out. For Father's Day Eden and I got Nick a new tv - something he has always said he thought would be cool to get. Since we got married we have been using a hand-me-down tube television that is actually quite small, so this was a fun surprise for him and he was very excited. I was more excited about the cost than anything. We were able to get a new tv AND a new (unique) armoire for the price of the armoires I saw in the stores.

Our living room also did not have a mantel on the fireplace. When we moved in, I told Nick that was one of the first things we needed to buy for our living room. Well, I also became discouraged when we looked up prices on those things....I mean the cheapest one we found was around $1,000!!!!!! Ahhhhh....NO WAY!!! We finally saw one on Home Depot's website that was around $200 and we decided to go look at it. When we got to the store they said they don't carry mantels in the store - you have to order them online. Ugh....again discouraged because what if we ordered it and it wasn't what we wanted. A guy working at Home Depot gave us the idea to make our own. We were a little hesitant at first as we have NEVER done anything like that before, but he explained it all to us and so we did. It turned out awesome and guess how much we spent on the whole thing???? $65!!

With the money we saved on our new mantel, armoire, and tv, we were able to get the rest of the fun stuff for our living room. I still have some projects for the living room I will be working on soon and there are still a few things I want to do, but for now it actually is lookin' pretty good!!

The armoire all done!!

Side view of the armoire.

The armoire being functional!

Check out these cool lamps!

I really like my new lamps - that's a lot for me b/c I am super picky about lamps!!


Side view of the new mantel! - I love it!


The new mantel - cool huh?


The fireplace with the new mantel - I am still in search of the perfect item to hang on the fireplace above the mantel - any ideas?


Like our 80's touch with the wet bar? haha...another project is to paint the cabinets to a more updated look. And, I think I will add a table and some pictures on the wall to the left of the bar - what do you think?

View of the loveseat/into dining room and kitchen

Eden's Play Nook

In another life...

I would be a dancer!

If you have never seen So You Think You Can Dance, you really should! Last night's show was AMAZING!! My favorites were the hip hop dance with Phillip & Jeanine, the bollywood dance with Caitlyn and Jason, and Kayla and Max at the end with the ballroom dance! I wish I could dance like that! I lack in the coordination department.








This dance is mine and Nick's all time favorite dance from last season!! It is SOOOOO amazing and Katee and Joshua are so gifted!! ***Nick read my post and really wanted me to add this - which I agree...this defiantly deserves a watch!!

Mommy's Little Helper

Eden is such a sweet little helper and it makes doing non-fun house chores so much better! Everytime I say "Do you want to help me with the laundry?" she heads straight to the washer and dryer. She loves for me to push her in the basket from our bathroom to the laundry room! Here is a little peek at how she helps me :)

Enjoy

***Don't forget to pause the music at the bottom!

Untitled from Carissa V on Vimeo.

It Won't Go Away!!!

Plantar faciitis that is...

An inflammation of the plantar facsia (the muscle that supports the arch of your foot)

The second week we were in our house I was swiffering my floors when all the sudden I couldn't put pressure on my heel. It hurt so bad!!! I kind of blew it off for a few days thinking that maybe I just pulled a muscle or something. Three days later the pain was much worse and my left heel was double the size of my right heel! OUCH!! I went to see a podiatrist and he said I have a classic case of plantar faciitis (pronounced fah-she-itis). Apparently I have really high arches which makes me a perfect candidate for this condition plus the fact that our house has tile and hard wood floors throughout, adding to the problem. He gave me a cortizone shot in my heel (which hurt SOOOOO bad) and gave me a steroid pack. Well, a week later it was definitely worse and I had a hard time doing anything. If you are a mom - you know how difficult it would be to be out for the count for a few weeks. I went back to the doctor and he seemed really surprised that the treatments didn't help at all. So, he gave me a boot to wear for 2 weeks which I only wore for a few days. I know, I know...it's horrible non-compliance, but wearing it only made my situation worse and it was much easier to just not wear it. When I had it on it took me 10 times longer to get anywhere I needed to go, it still hurt to put pressure on my heel inside the boot therefore I was still tippy toeing with the boot on which then caused my shin to bruise and hurt - not to mention the fact that Eden was afraid of it at first and people just looked at me weird! Well it's been a month and a half since this all started and I am STILL dealing with it. It is not near as bad as it was and some days are better than others. It is more frustrating than anything. By the end of the day my feet are aching and throbbing and in the mornings I have to use the bed as support to get started! Nick has been so sweet to massage my feet every night which has helped some, but I still can't get rid of this pain!

If you have this or know anyone that does...What do you do to help it????

Dance Eden, Dance!

The other day Eden was stomping her feet and I told her that was dancing. Being the smartie that she is, she will do that everytime I tell her to dance. The other day I was eating breakfast and she was playing in the kitchen and we were listening to Taylor Swift. When this song came on, I looked over and she was just dancing away. I grabbed my video camera and got this... (please excuse my naked baby - she wouldn't let me put clothes on her that morning - I think she would rather be naked anyway. I promise my child has more clothes than me!)

***Don't forget to pause the music at the bottom!

Dance Eden, Dance! from Carissa V on Vimeo.

Memorial Day Weekend

Oh how I love 3 day weekends!! This weekend we got to spend some quality time with my old roommates (and their husbands) from college. Everyone is all spread out accross Texas (and one in Iowa), so it was so great to have everyone in the same place and catch up.

Here are the girls at Lupe Tortilla...
K.C., Anne, Me, Rachel, Cynthia, & Krista

Here is everyone... (minus Anne's husband, Scott - he had to stay in Iowa)
K.C. & Sterling, Rachel & Patrick, Myself & Nick, Anne, Cynthia & Mike, Krista & Henry

The girls again...the girls came over Sunday afternoon and they all got to see Eden! Good times!


I had so much fun catching up with these special people!!!


This weekend we also got to see baby Kynnly Statser! Our good friends and former neighbors, Aaron and Heather had their baby last Thursday. She is sooooo precious and such a beautiful girl!!

Here she is...

A Neighborly Issue

We have been in our house for a little over a month now and I have only met ONE neighbor. Aren't your neighbors suppose to bring you cookies and introduce themselves? Maybe that's too traditional. The second week we were here the neighbor next door was out walking what I think was their grandbaby and she waved at me. I waved and said "hi" and started walking toward her to meet her and she turned around and started walking the other way. Hmmmm....maybe we live on a street of introverts. Do I just need to go introduce myself?? Any thoughts...suggestions??