I'm back!!!

Um, hi! Is anyone out there? Is there anyone who still reads my poor little neglected blog?
Well to the three of you still there, hello friends!
It's been a crazy summer for us here in H-town! Between traveling to see family and road tripping to friends' weddings

BEAUTIFUL wedding! 

And the best part of TX road tripping. . . BBQ :)

going to the beach for some R&R (and amazing sunsets!)

Sammers chasing birds on the balcony! Sam LOVES the beach as much as we do :)

visiting my new nephew

HA! Baby G was a 9 pounder (well closer to 10 lbs really at 9 lb 11 oz) 

and celebrating my 30th birthday in the month of July (yes I celebrate all month!)

I haven't really been around the computer much, but with summer coming to a close (craziness) I figured I needed to get back to a schedule! So I'll be around more often- promise :)

And this fall will bring some fun projects and maybe a few Pinterest recipes/ ideas that keep me busy and hopefully some cooler weather for everyone! But up first, more pics of my sweet nephew G!

I'm Done!

So, I don't often talk about my real job on the blog here not because of privacy so much as just it's boring. It's a good job but it's never been something that has interested me personally. It is a position that I was very lucky to kind of fall into when we moved to Houston and I have really enjoyed working there! BUT the goal was always to find a way to do something that I am more interested in. But, problem #1: let's get real here for a second- I realize I am an (almost!) 30 year old adult woman but seriously, I don't know what I want to do when I grow up!!!

Am I alone here??? I hope not! There are so many things that interest me and that I enjoy, I have a hard time narrowing it  down to what is something worth perusing as a career versus something to keep as a fun hobby. Sometimes I think of ideas that I think could really work as business ventures but I just don't know enough people here, or the right people!

All this to say- I don't know what I want to do with my life (career wise at least!!) but I am ready to actively try to figure that out! So in an effort to give myself more time to try out different things, blogging more being one of them, I have quit my full time, 8-5 job! SCARY!!! It's fun don't get me wrong but it's also a little daunting.

Last week was actually my last day. No more will I have to park with thousands of people in the parking garage and trek into a job I don't care about enough to do well!

Goodbye Greenway Plaza!! For now I'm going to be doing a lot of research and reading, blogging and projects I've been putting off because I never had the time!!
Wish me luck!!

Versatile Blogger Award

I always LOVE getting comments from readers on the blog and I try to always respond fast because it is so fun for me to have people get excited about what we are doing! Last week I got an extra fun comment from Kat at WithyWindle. She has nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award! This is a first for me so I did a little happy dance! Thank you Kat, you totally made my day, even my week month, who am I kidding!!

The Versatile Blogger Award  is a really neat award and community really that was created by bloggers for bloggers to support bloggers. When you are nominated for the award you get to tell seven (relatively) unknown facts about yourself and then share your favorite blogs for everyone to go checkout! So here goes:

1.      I organize my sharpies in ROY G BIV order (anyone else??? I try to tell P it’s totally normal but he’s not really on board). .. just one sign of many of my hyper organization. I may or may not drive my husband completely mad re-organizing the house all the time or just trying to keep everything in its ‘spot”

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2.      I am taking a photography class to help take better pictures for this here blog and it’s been very fun and informative! Hopefully you will see at least a small increase in the quality of the photographs on the blog as I figure the camera out more!

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3.      I am actually pretty shy in person, at least until I get to know you. I am SO bad at meeting new people and feel super self-conscious about it.

4.      I’m a night owl- I think I get my best work done in the middle of the night! Pretty much every room I’ve painted in the house I started around 9pm and finished late night. I like to clean late at night too!

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5.      I’m VERY reluctantly headed towards a gluten free diet.  . . and I’m not super jazzed about it, BUT my stomach definitely thanks me when I do! Purely Elizabeth makes my FAV gluten free stuff so far

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6.      When I laugh really hard (usually at my sister!) I cry AND my jaw shakes like I’m shivering. It’s completely involuntary, and once it starts I seriously can’t stop! SO embarrassing! My family intentionally tries to make this happen so they can laugh at me J

funny, but not super pretty, especially in pics!

7.      I have always lived in the city, not even the suburbs, the CITY city but I desperately want to move to the country and be out in the middle of nowhere! Is that weird??

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As for other blogs that I read, here are 15 that I read pretty much daily and suggest you do too! They are great!

1.      7th House on the Left

2.      Amanda Carol at Home

3.      Better After

4.      Danielle Oakey Interiors

5.      Pineapples and Pickles

6.      Joy the Baker

7.      It’s Great to be Home

8.      Blue-Eyed Bakers

9.      The Norwood Nest

10.  Rambling Renovators

11.  Pawley’s Island Posh

12.  Pixel Impress 

Check them out, they are all GREAT and put up really interesting/ fun blog posts consistently

Slambo

So I realize that I my posting has been more intermittent lately, but I have a really good excuse . . . well a cute one at least!

Apparently puppies want you to play with them, not just sit in front of a computer when you get home! So play we have!! And run and learn to jump and learn our own name and sleep and EAT!

Sam will be 11 weeks old tomorrow which I can't believe- and he is SO much bigger than when we first got him. He was 9.5lbs when we got him and when we were at the vet last week he was 14.5 and I'm sure he'll weigh even more by the time we go for the next booster shots! And he's so tall now too! I just can't get over how cute he is!

This is the day we brought him  home:

And now:

after he learned he could climb (not jump, climb) up onto the patio furniture. He seriously sat there perfectly upright until we saw him, he was so proud of himself!

How I find him most of the time, playing with a toy

before learning that beds are to sleep on:

ahh- that's MUCH more comfortable, although he still does sleep on the concrete or the tile occasionally

grocery bag?? I think this is called a TOY!

And the day I realized that he was too big/ energetic for me to hold in the car on our way to the vet!

He changed the channel and put my car into neutral at the stop light while trying to climb onto the dash! HA

I think I could take his picture ALL day long!

Hello there friend

Wow! Is it already June??? Life has been crazy recently which is my only excuse for the lack of posts last week. Between traveling, transitioning jobs at work (to something that is a LOT busier than my old job), pulling a muscle in my back, then catching a stomach virus that had me out for 3 days and now staying up late to watch my beloved Mavs play in the NBA finals I haven't had much spare time for blogging :(

And I worry that it might get worse before it gets better. Its funny though that as my "real" life speeds up, I have less time for blogging and checking on my favorite daily blog reads in the morning. It's hard to say its bad when we've just been having so much fun hanging out with friends and taking little summer trips, but doing "blog worthy" things just hasn't been on the radar. My posting may be a little more sporadic this summer but I'm still here and I will DEFINITELY be posting as new and exciting things happen around here, and let me tell you- there will be some exciting stuff as we get further into summer. But for now- my biggest dilemma is the pillow situation in our living room. After lusting after SO many pillows for SO long now- I think hope I've made up my mind! There are just so many fun fabric choices I can't seem to stick to what I want for long.
But for now, this is what I'm thinking:

We have two couches, one tan and one denim, BUT I know eventually I want both of the couches to be a light linen/ natural color so I want to make sure that whatever we get will transition well to that.
For now on the denim couch I want to have one of these Waverly trellis pillows on each side:

Etsy- Loubella1

with a small 10 x 14 Chaing Mai Dragon like this in the middle:

Etsy - WillaSkyeHome

I actually want to do the small Chaing Mai Dragon in the middle on both couches, and then on the tan couch I think I am going to do two Kelly Wearstler Imperial Trellis on each side:

Etsy- WillaSkyeHome

Then when we get either a large sectional or two matching couches I can mix them together and add more pillows. This is my thought for now- I'm going to make sure it sticks, and I still like it in a week then I'll pull the trigger.

The problem is, I've been down to High Fashion Homes and I found some really nice geometric and florals in a nice persimmon/ coral color that I might like even more than the green. . . we'll see.

What do you think? Any thoughts to help my pillow trouble?

A New Look

Happy Monday!! As you might have noticed, I have a bit of a new look here behind the ivy! I've been wanting to change up my design for a while now and include more patterns and colors but was having trouble doing this on my own. I just do NOT know how to write code and templates, etc. so I was going to need some major help.

I stumbled across Designer Blogs after reading about how Elsa at Casa Greer used them to spruce up her blog. I wasn't looking for a major overhaul or wanting to pay for anything too custom but I found this design in one of their pre-designed templates that are VERY reasonably priced and you just download and they give you all of the instructions for how to install it. So easy and just what I was looking for. I'm just loving it!

In the meantime, I also FINALLY ordered some calling cards! I searched and searched through Etsy and got multiple recommendations from other bloggers and ended up going with Pam at Pixelimpress and I'm so happy! She was so wonderful to work with and amazingly got my cards to me, in my hand in less than FIVE days when I needed them in a rush! AMAZING! And the cards themselves are beautiful- printed on very nice heavy paper with a nice felt weave texture. I couldn't be happier with them. If you are looking for any paper products, PLEASE go check out her Etsy shop! So many pretty goodies.

I also worked on a few projects this weekend AND stopped by The Urban Market on Sunday morning which was WONDERFUL of course! I'll have more on that this week.