Long Process

It's been just over a year since we started looking for our first house.  It was a long and stressful process, but totally worth it now.  It took eight full months from the time we decided to start looking for a house, to the time we closed on our house.  We put offers on two other houses (that we didn't get) before we found our house.  You can read more about our house hunting process here.

Even though it was a long, almost depressing, eight months of looking for houses with no luck, I think it worked out for the best in the end.  I believe everything happens for a reason, and we couldn't be happier in our house.

We love the neighborhood, the house itself, and having our own yard.  I love that the house didn't need any work before we moved in, but I also love that there are "projects" that we can do to update the house and make it our own.  I love being able to paint the walls and buy stuff for the house.  I even loved raking our OWN yard this fall.

Owning a house is definitely different than renting an apartment.  We have to shovel our driveway, rake our leaves, and mow our lawn.  If an appliance breaks or there is a leak, we have to fix it (or pay someone else to fix it).  There is no calling maintenance to come take care of it.  But you know what?  We love it.  We love being able to say we are home owners.  It makes me feel so "grown up."  I feel like I've accomplished something.  I'm not saying renting is wrong or bad, because we did it for two years, and that was right for us at the time.  Buying a house is not for everyone, and it doesn't happen for everyone at the same time in their lives.

I can't wait to finally unpack the last few boxes, get everything in it's place, and get things hung on the walls.  I can't wait to do more painting and projects in the house this year.  And I can't wait to marry the love of my life on June 29 and start our life as a married couple in our house <3

January Birchbox

Another good month with my Birchbox!  Here's what my box looked like and a description of each product:

Deborah Lippmann the Stripper to go - This are nail polish remover wipes. They would be great to take with you on vacation or leave in your purse in case you want to take your nail polish off and you aren't home. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm excited about it!

theBalm® cosmetics Hot Mama Shadow & Blush All-in-One - I don't know about using this as a shadow, but I love it as a blush!  It's just the right color.   Not too bright, but gives just the right hint of color your cheeks.

Number 4 Clarifying Shampoo - I haven't tried this shampoo yet, but I'm happy I got it.  It's supposed to help clean up all of the buildup of products in your hair.  It's a good sample size too, which is nice.

Aerie Shimmer Fragrance - I really like this fragrance.  Light and girly.  The sample size will probably last me a few days.

Embryolisse Lait-Crème Concentrè (24-Hour Miracle Cream) - I used this instead of my daily moisturizer in the morning and I really liked it.  It was light and did a good job moisturizing my dry face.  It also says it can be used as a makeup remover if you add some water to it.  The sample size will probably last me a week or two.

Do you have any "box" subscriptions?  What are they?  Have you been happy with it?  Do share :)

Happy 2013!

Happy New Year everyone!  I had a lot going on during the New Year...Christmas parties, cleaning the house, and watching my cousins (can't call it babysitting, they aren't babies anymore!).  We played Headbandz, watched a movie, and ate popcorn.

As for New Years resolutions, I suppose I made a couple.  I made the typical eat healthier/exercise more resolution that I make every year, but this year I'm getting married and really want to look and feel great in my wedding dress and in a bathing suit on the beach on our honeymoon (just booked our hotel in Atlantic City!!!).  So I joined the LoveYourBody series on ToneItUp.com.  It's great and I love it!  They post printable workouts and videos of them, calendars, meal plans, recipes, etc.  It's a fun motivating tool for me to get serious about getting in shape.

My other resolution is to be more organized this year.  We moved in to our house at the end of August and there are still boxes that have yet to be unpacked.  I want to get everything put away and organized in our house so that I can start tackling some other projects I have in mind...such as painting, moving the "laundry room," and some other DIY projects.  I have so many ideas of things I want to do, but I feel like I need to everything put away and organized before I start making more of a mess doing projects.  I found a great site to help with getting organized called Home Storage Solutions.  They are doing something called The 52 Week Organized Home Challenge that I am going to try to keep up on.  They give you weekly things to clean/organize in your home.  It doesn't seem too overwhelming and I think it will be a good way to stay on task.

Of course, I'll end with some adorable pictures of The Admiral and Nera over the past week:

 

This is how I can tell they are related....they both like to sleep on their backs.

Christmas Re-Cap

I know I'm a little late with this post.  Ok.  A LOT late.  But things were so crazy busy over the Christmas and New Year's holidays, that I decided to wait and try to re-cap everything when it slowed down a little.  I'll do Christmas and New Year's in two separate posts so I don't overwhelm you ;)

Kevin and I went to our parents for the entire 4 (5 for me) day weekend of Christmas. His brother was in town and my sister was in town, so we spent all of our days off spending time with family and going to Christmas parties.  And guess what?  I forgot my camera!!  So the only pictures I have are from my phone.  If you follow me on Instagram (erickamarie87) you might have seen some of these already.  My mom and sister had their cameras, so I'm tagged in some of their pictures on facebook.

Friday we had a Christmas party at work, and there is a contest for "Most Creative Holiday Attire."  The girls on my floor decided we would dress up like Christmas Trees...needless to say, we won the contest:

I painted my nails green and red with a hint of silver for Christmas, and did a very sloppy job of it:

On December 23, Kevin's family had a bridal shower for me.  One of Kevin's Aunt & Uncle are living in China right now, so this was the only time that they would be home before the wedding, so they decided to do the shower when everyone could be there.  Here is a picture of all of the WONDERFUL gifts we received!

My Dad, sister, and myself took a trip to the casino Christmas Eve morning...and we all left winners!!!

On Christmas Eve we celebrated Christmas with Kevin's Dad's side of the family and then Kevin came to my parents and opened his gifts from my parents and my sister.  My parents got Kevin two Nerf guns...have I ever mentioned he is just a kid trapped in an almost 25-year-old's body?  So we spent part of the night trying to shoot an empty beer can off a chair with the Nerf guns:

Admiral and I on Christmas Eve:

On Christmas day, I opened presents with my parents and my sister, then went to Kevin's dad's to open presents, and then to my Grandma's for our family Christmas party.  Kevin had to head back to our house after that because he had to work the next day.  I took the day off to go shopping :)

I did go shopping the day after Christmas and got some good deals, but nothing too exciting.  I was so excited to go shopping and then when it finally came time to go, I was so worn out from the busy weekend, that we only went to three stores and then I was ready to be done!

Random: Admiral loves sticks.  He loves to carry them around and he loves people to chase him to try and get the stick.  My parents have a wood burning stove to heat their house.  So Admiral went in the basement to help my dad load the fire, and he came up with this.  He was very proud.

Kevin's brother and his wife are currently on vacation in Hawaii (late honeymoon), so we are watching their puppy, Nera.  She is actually Admiral's sister, just from a different litter.  We took her back to our house with us after Christmas and will have her until the 14th.  Her and Admiral have so much fun playing together, they tire themselves out and love to nap together.

And that is my Christmas in photos :)  I'll post my New Year's re-cap later this week!

Bubbles

First off, I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!  A holiday recap post will be coming eventually...but until then, here is a fun little money saving wedding post :)

Kevin and I decided that we want to have the little bottles of bubbles to hand out to people after the wedding, so they can blow bubbles at us as we walk out of the church (instead of doing bird seed).  One day, I was just randomly browsing wedding stuff on craigslist and saw an ad for someone selling 191 of the little bottles of bubbles for just $15!  Want to know what's even better?  They were PURPLE bottles!  In case you didn't know, purple is our main wedding color.

I emailed the girl and she still had the bubbles, so we met up and I bought them.  The girl had an outdoor wedding, but it rained, so they didn't use the bubbles, although she thinks some of the kids may have taken some bottles to play with, hence 191 bottles instead of an even 200.  

When I looked up the cost of purchasing bubbles, it would have been about $25 plus tax and shipping to order them online, so I think I got a good deal.  If you are looking for cheap wedding decorations, don't rule out craigslist as a resource...you never know what you might find!

Saw It. Pinned It. Did It.

Today I am doing my first link up!  I am linking up with Katie and Steph for Saw It. Pinned It. Did it.


I have two super easy holiday decorations for you.  The first is just finding a cute printable, printing it, and framing it!  I saw this super cute printable on Pinterest one day and knew I wanted it in my living room for Christmas.

Original Pin:

found here

All I did was download the picture, print it out in the size I needed, put it in a frame, and displayed it on a shelf in my living room:

Total cost of this project was $0.  I already had the frame, just had to print the photo.

The second project is also super easy.  I had seen all kinds of lanterns on Pinterest and knew I wanted one.  So the last time I was at IKEA, I picked up a black lantern for around $8.  I was just going to put a candle in it and call it good, and then I saw these super cute lanterns decorated for Christmas:

found here

found here

When I was getting my ornaments out to decorate my Christmas tree, I remembered seeing these pins, and decided to put some of my ornaments in my lantern.  I love how it turned out!  Super easy and super cute!  I want to get more ornaments after Christmas so I can fill up my lantern next year.  I'd also like to get something fun to tie on the top of it, but I'm happy with it for now!  Here's how mine looks:

Total cost of this project was about $8.  I already had the ornaments, and you could always pick some up the day after Christmas for a good deal!

Be sure to visit Katie and Steph to see more great Saw It. Pinned It. Did It. projects!

December Birchbox

December's Birchbox was another good one!  Here's what I received this month and my thoughts on each item:

ModelCo SHINE Ultra Lip Gloss - I received the full size lip gloss!  I love it!  The lip gloss has a little mirror on it, which is great for applying on the go.  The gloss gives a little color and great shine.

Juice Beauty Stem Cellular Repair CC Cream - You've probably heard of BB creams (which I love).  This is a CC cream.  I haven't tried it yet, but the sample size is decent, and I'm excited to try it.

Nick Chavez® Beverly Hills Advanced Volume Shampoo with Expansion Technology® - I haven't tried this yet either, but it is a large sample size, so I'm excited to try it out.

Cartier Déclaration D'un Soir & Cartier Baiser Volé Eau de Parfum - This is the men's cologne and women's perfume fragrances.  I really liked the perfume and have worn it a couple of times.  Kevin said the men's cologne smelled like bug spray.  I didn't think it smelled anything like bug spray, but it was not my favorite men's cologne.

Frownies® Eye Gels - I haven't used these yet, but maybe I will over one of the long holiday weekends.

Overall, I was very pleased with December's Birchbox.  Can't wait to get my next one in January :)