New & Improved

As you can see, changed things up a bit! New name(cheesy just like me) and layout to celebrate this great month of March. Anyone who knows me will be familiar with my love for all things Irish so it should be no surprise that St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays and I look forward to it all month. Hooray for more craft projects!

Making some changes

It is quick blog post time. Big things happening here, we are now proud homeowners! While moving and getting settled in has been a huge crazy adventure, it is so great to know that we'll be here long term. It seems so silly to be this excited to put nails in the wall or pick out paint colors. But it's been a long time coming and it's an exciting change.

Next post will be pics of the new house, I promise. In other news...

I believe it's about time to change the name of this blog. It occurred to me recently that we aren't exactly newlyweds anymore. Now we're the comfortably married couple. When did that happen? It seems so strange to be making 2nd anniversary plans already. My blog direction(when I do remember to blog) isn't what I intended originally, it's become mostly updates on our family life. Now that we have a house with a list of projects (and a very healthy Pinterest addiction), it seems right to have a blog name that reflects this new stage.

Expect a change, and more of a commitment to posting regularly, very soon. The new name is to be decided, gotta get my creative juices flowing(and organize my art cave) first. More to come soon.

Gone but never forgotten

This is a post I've been putting off because it's been a rough few weeks. October 22nd, my Grandpa Irish passed away. He's been fighting cancer for years and it was good that he went peacefully with his sons and wife around him. My Grandpa was an amazing man who loved his family, served his country in the Marines, and always had a smile and a hug for everyone. I have so many great memories of him, both my Grandparents spoiled the heck out of me when I was little because I was the first granddaughter in a house full of uncles and boy cousins. I feel so blessed to have had such an amazing man to look up to, it means so much so me that he was able to travel to Arizona for our wedding last year. This summer we got to spend time with him in Vermont and I will never forget that last day, hugging him and telling him I loved him. We all had tears in our eyes and he told me how much he always loved his oldest granddaughter and how proud they were of me. I am so incredibly thankful that we were able to have that, it was a blessing in disguise that we missed our flight that morning and had to stay and extra day and we were able to have that conversation. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. I'm so thankful I got that time with him.
He will be missed by all of us. Our family is what we are because of him. His funeral was definitely an emotional rollercoaster but it was so good for our family to all get together and celebrate his life and the great man he was.
You will always be remembered Grandpa. We love you.

Our home buying adventure

Our big news for October is that we are buying a house!

Well, we restarted the process last month and have spent the last few weeks looking at houses. It was starting to get really discouraging to see the state of the houses in our price range(we are also looking in a very specific area near freeways and where we'll be at school/work for the next few years). The houses were older then we had originally been looking for but we had also been looking in the Gilbert/Queen Creek area before with newer neighborhoods so we had to change our expectations a bit. Before we started looking, we made a lists of needs and wants. I'll admit I strayed from that and had to be brought back down to earth again and again so that I could realize that a pool/french doors/chicken coop in the backyard wasn't on the need list and didn't merit overlooking being out of our price range or adding 20 miles to our commute. And yes, looking back now I'm not sure what made me think I needed a chicken coop, I can barely take care of our dog much less a bunch of chickens. To be fair, it wasn't just me. Matt fell in love with a fireplace at one house. Then again, it was pretty cool.
We put in offers on three houses and one was finally accepted! We had the inspection yesterday and thankfully everything went well. We were told it is in very good shape for when it was built. We have to wait for the appraisal which can make or break this whole thing. And I'm learning I know absolutely nothing about home buying. This is like a crash course in real estate, mortgages, home warranties, etc. I keep waiting for something to happen so we can't get it. It's a very nerve wracking process.
If everything goes smoothly from here on out we may be closing by mid November. And, in classic overachiever fashion, I have decided to try to take on hosting our first holiday. That's right, we have a trip to Palm Springs planned for the week before we would be closing, and Thanksgiving the week after. Plus about three big projects on the house to get it guest ready in a week. What have I gotten myself into.
Thank you for listening to my rambling, its a scary but exciting part of our lives and God willing we'll get through it in one piece with our sanity still intact. I am definitely up for recommendations for any books or websites that help with the home buying/remodeling craziness. And any thoughts, prayers, and finger crossings are greatly appreciated.

I absolutely fail at blogging(Pic heavy finally)

Okay it's official. I can spend hours online facebooking and of course Pinterest takes up a small percentage of my life, yet I totally forget I have a blog until I'm reading friend's blogs and remember, oh yeah I haven't written anything in eight months. Granted, this year has flown by faster then any other I can remember. And I have had a job that has consumed me for the last seven months. Still, I will consider it my duty to do a better job at this, so prepare yourself for more ramblings and random pictures.
Let's catch up. Fair warning, this may be a very long post.

All the months before June 18th this year were filled with preparations for my great friend Lacey's wedding. A friend of hers and I planned a Bridal Shower for her a couple months before the wedding. It turned out pretty amazing(if I do say so myself).

The wedding was absolutely beautiful, Lacey was stunning and everything came together great. I am quite proud of my first wedding planning/maid of honor experience. Unfortunately she doesn't have her professional pictures back yet so this is the best I can do for now.

In June was also our 1st Anniversary. I can't believe even now that it went that quickly yet I feel like we've been married for years. We spent the weekend at the Montelucia and it was really just what we needed with all the chaos and excitement of the last few months. They gave us one of the best rooms, right next door to the room I had the night before our wedding. We spent the weekend by the pool, had a nice dinner at Prado, shopped at Scottsdale fashion square and had brunch at Olive & Ivy, and ate the top tier of our wedding cake(even though it was a little frozen still).

July we took a trip back East to see my grandparents and my family rented an old farmhouse on a lake. It was beautiful and definitely made me wish I could have an east coast house with a front porch and Adirondack chairs. Unfortunately the visit wasn't all positive, my grandpa was diagnosed with cancer over a year ago and has been in treatment for it since. It meant a lot to me that he was able to be at our wedding last year and it really was important to be able to spend more time with him while we were there.

Also in July I turned 23, no biggie. We went tubing on the Salt River. And I felt officially old because I was annoyed with everyone. I did get this little baby for my birthday, I am slowly learning how to use it:)

August was nothing too exciting, just a lot of work and projects. Like rainbow cake in a mason jar...didn't turn out exactly the way I hoped but probably because I went with the shorter jars because in my mind they were cuter, just maybe not as functional. Though they did come in handing yesterday when I made apple pie filling, much easier to store. Plus Haley was my helper on these and she loved all the colors even if they did look more like baked playdough or fishing tackle.

Also, I've been wanting to do this for awhile...Ideally I wanted to do this pattern on a wall. But since we are renting and cannot paint, I tried it out on three canvases. I have a great link with instructions that I can't quite find right now. I will post soon though(I promise). I love them! They are hanging in our kitchen and our future home will definitely have a whole wall like this.

September 11th, we went to the Healing Field at Tempe Town Lake. It was definitely sobering. I am glad we went, this is the history of our generation and I'm glad people have not become to desensitized to it yet.

I'll leave you with that, October is promising to be quite eventful but that will have to wait.

How is it already February?

Well the holidays came and went. January was one big bunch of busy. We just took the Christmas lights down this past weekend. Hooray for procrastination. Along the same lines, we still have a tree stand in the corner of our living room. It's been way too cold this week to start my project of organizing our storage shed so I have no where to put it yet. I have this dream of a simplified home with a place for everything. Maybe I need a bigger house. Or to organize, but I wasn't really born with that gene, much to the dismay of my mother growing up.

I'm very impatient for the Spring and Summer this year. Lots of showers and weddings for friends, our first anniversary, hopefully some trips too. Plus I hate cold and the past week has made me miserable. I need sunshine! I'm ready for warm weather and sitting by the pool with a cold drink. *sigh*

It's Finally Fall!

I don't have much creative thought at the moment. Too much going on(at least that's my excuse) and not enough exciting material to share. So here's an abridged version of the goings on of Mr. and Mrs. Ellis these last few weeks. Or at least what I've been meaning to blog about for awhile.

The entire month of October was a blur. My brother got married to my lovely new sister-in-law. And in a funny twist of fate giving her my maiden name(practically, off by one letter). She's amazing and I am so proud of my brother, I love them together. Here's some of my favorite pictures from their wedding weekend. I was using my brother's camera, becoming the unofficial photographer(who couldn't figure out the camera no less) but it made me REALLY want a new camera. Christmas maybe? *hint hint*

(Okay so apparently Photobucket is having issues tonight, I will try to post all the pictures again in the morning.)

Halloween came and went pretty quickly. I dressed up as a nurse and Matt(after much pleading) dress up in his football gear. Not really a costume but at least he looked the part. Halloween night we went to my parent's house for a potluck/trick or treating. And I will admit...this is the first year I haven't gone trick or treating. Yes, I have still gone out and gotten candy until this year. I guess I decided being married kind of discounted me from getting free candy finally. My baby sister has always loved me going with her to get candy so I don't feel too silly for doing it for 21 years. But this year I hung up my pillowcase and we passed out candy at my parents while everyone else went around the neighborhood. That's when I discovered the only thing better then getting free candy(with a few strange looks) is getting to sit out front comfortably handing out candy to cute little kiddies. Until... A certain little 12 year old kid came to the door. We gave him candy, and he says, "Hey I like your costume." Um thanks(me) "Do you wanna go out with me?" Uh, no. Awkward...

Not too much going on so far in November. But it has FINALLY cooled down a bit. I'm not holding my breath that it will last but somehow those fall scented candles(and scentsy) and my new Fall inspired decor(really just rearranged furniture, an entry rug, and new curtains) seem so much better when it actually feels/smells like Fall outside. Not to mention chai tea which never tastes as good cold and cupcake obsession taking a pumpkin theme. I really would share the recipe/pictures however the cupcakes didn't really make it much further then just being made. I'm pretty sure we ate the entire dozen in two days before we even got around to icing them. I guess that's a good thing, I'll have to make them again and actually attempt the frosting I was envisioning. It might be wonderful.

Well I hope you are all enjoying the cooler weather I will add pictures as soon as I can.

Oh and a quick shout out to my friend Lacey who just got engaged! I'm so happy for you two I can't wait for the wedding:D