Kitchen Facelift - Before & After

Earlier this month, our kitchen got a major facelift!! We found a perfect combination of contractor work and DIY work to bring it to a beautiful state at a cost we are so happy with.

First, we finally sucked it up and paid a contractor to come in and paint our cabinets white. They were previously a light stained oak.

Before cabinets & counters

After cabinets!

Also note, we got a new microwave and stove! The microwave is brand new, but the stove was Marc's parents old one that his dad refinished the top of so it looks brand spankin new!! We had a gas line run as well, and I love cooking on it much better than the electric one. Not to mention we finally have matching appliances!!!

One more thing to note is those hideous light pink/peach countertops. The prior owners were so proud of this kitchen and the woman had designed it all herself. Bless their hearts they loved it, but wow how ugly!!!!! We have been talking about new countertops for years now and just have been delaying eating the cost of granite (plus I don't love the look, I want soapstone! but of course Marc wants granite, so here we are with pink still). Then, Marc threw out the crazy idea and said - let's just paint them and see what happens! So on a Friday night Home Depot run, Marc convinced me to just try it, so $20 later we came home with a can of this Rust-Oleum Countertop Coating and selected the most neutral gray color from the color chart on top. We thought, hey if it looks terrible, we are only out $20 and we want to get new counters eventually, so whatever, let's just try it!!

 

1 coat and an hour later, this is what we had!! I was 100% shocked with how evenly this stuff went on with a perfect texture, how great it looks and how easy it was to apply!! We let it dry and did another coat the next day and here is the finished product!:

After countertop paint!!!

don't mind the blue tape :)

Our next step is to continue the tan paint from the living room on the side walls into the kitchen, and do a tile back splash instead of the red wall. We also have a small wooden island on wheels that I want to repaint black and stain the butcher block top a darker wood color. But hey, for 2 days and less than $2,000, this was a huge dramatic change I couldn't be happier with!!!

Has anyone else ever used this countertop paint?? I had never heard of anyone doing it and am so surprised because it was cheap, easy, and looks great!

New Flooring - Before & After

Let me preface this post by saying that this whole project was started in early December and now we are in what month...? February?! What a project it's been and I am so so glad it's finally over. 

Marc and I knew right when we moved into the house that we would eventually want to rip out the carpet and put in hardwood in the living areas and new carpet in the bedrooms, we just weren't quite sure when we'd do it. Now that we're married and considering adding a dog to our family, we decided it was time to get this project out of the way.

 

To paint an accurate picture - this is what the living & dining rooms looked like before we moved in, so this is the previous owner's stuff... UGLY! haha.

 



Hi Kelly! :)

 

 

First, we started by ripping out the old carpet in the dining, living & family rooms, and the hallway. That was a pretty easy task, removing all the staples from the subfloor was the worst part - can you say blisters on our hands?! 

 Check out this beautiful linoleum from the 70s and some sort of odd electrical mat (we are thinking maybe it was a motion sensor for the alarm system)...

As you can see, the floor was covered in stains. The previous home owners had small dogs who had lots of accidents in the house and I guess they never cleaned up after them, because this spot below on the subfloor was STILL WET!! Talk about disgusting. We knew there was a carpet stain there and had cleaned it many times to try to get the smell out, but we never knew the extent of the damage. After using pet stain remover and bleach, Marc ended up chipping out the first layer of the subfloor, pouring in bleach then filling it with wood filler. THEN painting the problem areas with odor blocking paint. I think we finally got it....hopefully our house will smell normal soon!

Then, it was finally time to start laying down the laminate. After at least a month of research and bringing home samples from flooring stores, we chose the Select Surfaces Canyon Oak from SAM's Club which we found to be great quality for a great price! We also purchased their standard Premier from Armstrong underlayment. Since the laminate came with a pad already on the back, we opted not to upgrade the underlayment and have found that it was a good choice. When we walk on the floors, there is no "clicking" or echo sounds - great sound barrier!


The main reason this flooring took us so long was maneuvering from room to room, doorjams and around the oddly shaped kitchen cabinets. Lots of precise measuring, double checking, precise cutting (we borrowed my dad's chop saw and my uncle's small table saw and even used a handsaw for some of the intricate cuts and doorjams, all tools are a must!!). This is not a project for someone looking for a mindless update, it took lots of concentration, calculating and precision to make it come out right - just to give you an idea, each piece must be at least 12" long and 2" wide, so we had to measure the whole house and anticipate how long rows would be so we didn't get to the end and be left with a 5" gap... Lots of work!!


 Here is our first room transition!

In the kitchen, we decided to get a new dishwasher since the old one was on its way out anyways, plus the laminate is so thick that it would be a huge hassle to get the old one out after we put the flooring down. We are so happy with it! It runs so quietly and matches our fridge perfectly. Plus, Best Buy delivers the new one and hauls away the old one for FREE!! This is the link to the one we got. 

In the picture above, you can see the difficult angles of the kitchen cabinet/counter on the left of the photo - it's like a half-hexagon shape. That was a doosie!!

And so, I'd like to present, after 3 months of LONG, HARD work, the finished product!

still no furniture... :) but check out those baseboards!

 

the new beautiful "wedding wall" & new carpet in the bedrooms!

 

Also, here is a great shot from my beautiful sister-in-law's baby shower last weekend which was 100% our motivation for finishing the floors and baseboards last week! I will post more about the shower in a future post, so this is just a teaser.

 

 It turned out so perfectly and I can't wait to meet my little nieces in June! Now that the floors are done, I am excited to decorate the rest of the house since we have been putting off a lot of it since the carpet was so gross. We are so proud of ourselves for laying all the flooring ourselves! And thanks to our parents for helping with the finishing touches!

 

2013: What a year!

I can very easily say that 2013 has been one of fastest years of my life. I can't believe all that's happened in the past 12 months:

our engagement, wedding planning, becoming an Auntie, making lots of improvements to our new house

my best friend and I both getting married within a few months of each other, an amazing honeymoon in Hawaii, accepting the role of Matron of Honor for another great friend's wedding next year

traveling around the country for work, especially to Kentucky and watching horse races at Churchill Downs, witnessing AHS Water Polo history and they clenched the NCS Championship

another whirlwind holiday season filled with family, my Nana going to heaven and seeing my family gather around each other showing so much love and support, spending extra time with the grandparents that are still with us

then saying goodbye in style to that crazy, wonderful, busy, unforgettable year!

2014 has so much in store for the Fisher family:

some expected changes and some surprises, times of joy and surely times of struggle. we'll take it all on together. 

finishing the biggest home project thus far (new flooring throughout!), job changes, a quick visit to New Orleans, grad school, our nephew's 1st birthday, a trip to London, more wedding festivities, our one year anniversary, and many more! 

I am so lucky and blessed to get to share all these past memories and future moments with my family and friends. Here's to a fabulous year done, and another one just begun!

My favorite number of days until the wedding!

Yes, that's right ---

Just a little quickie before I head off to bed after a very long and very productive day (first, I was on-time to work, got LOTS done, came home in minimal traffic where Marc had dinner ready, did some wedding planning, then went for a run, then back to wedding planning, and wrote a blog post)! I would say that's pretty good for a Monday.

I'm getting sidetracked here, where was I?...

In the past few days, we (my parents, Marc and I) have crossed SO many things off our wedding to do list! It feels so great. I think with each thing crossed off, I relax a tiny bit and get a little more excited (if that's even possible)! Here's everything we did since last week:

• Dress fitting! It fits great! I tried on my veil with the dress as well, I made my veil from my mom's and I'm so glad it's going to work out. I just need to jazz it up a little :)
• Wedding day walk through with the caterer at the venue. He is going to be the coordinator on the day of, which I didn't realize, so that's a huge help!
• Made hair and make-up appointments for wedding day.
• Ordered the vases for the center pieces which we are making ourselves.
• Picked out the flowers we will order on Wednesday (since they can only be ordered 1 month in advance) - we're getting them for a great deal at SAMs Club.
• Purchased my jewelry - love it!
• Purchased my second pair of shoes for the wedding/reception - wedges that will be easier to dance in. I tried them out at work today, they feel pretty good, considering they're still quite tall.
• My uncle became an official Deputy Commissioner and can legally officiate our wedding!
• Sent out rehearsal dinner invites.
• Wrote wedding programs (won't print them until 2 weeks before, just in case we change a song or something).
• Made the flower girl basket - my mom decorated it so cute with ribbons, I love it!
• Made the prelude and ceremony music playlists.
• Bought Marc a new honeymoon wardrobe - my most successful shopping trip for him yet! Everything I brought home fit except for one shirt. Woo hoo!
• Made the Wedding Day schedule and shared it with the bridesmaids.
• Decided on our "thesis" for the wedding ceremony, we just need to email it to my uncle so he can finalize what he is going to say.

WOW! Making this list of what we did just this week makes me feel so accomplished! I can almost breathe! I am sure I missed some things too.

Oh ya, Marc and his dad replaced all the trim on the front of the house in preparationon for painting the house next weekend. Things sure are picking up here at the Baldisher household! Soon to be the Fisher Household in just ...... 33 days!

A Furniture Makeover Success

I completed this project a few months ago, but have received several compliments on how great this piece of furniture turned out so I wanted to document my process here on the blog-o.

My inspiration for this project came from Pinterest (of course)!

{http://thevintagewren.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-08-04T14:13:00-04:00&max-results=3}

Behold, our new coffee bar!!!

It's a great way to free up some kitchen counter space

and add some decor to a random blank wall.

First, I did some blog research of my own to determine which paint, brushes and process I should follow. After staring at a paint sample color in our living room for about a month, we finally decided we were comfortable with it and headed off to Lowe's.

We settled on a small can of this rusty cranberry/raspberry color Valspar paint in semi-gloss so that it would stand up well to any spills and easily clean up. I also picked up a small container each of Zinsser Primer and Minwax Polycrylic Protective Finish in clear to use as a coating on the top surface. I also picked up some foam brushes, a foam roller and several different grits of sandpaper. I already had some regular paint brushes, blue tape, tarps & gloves at home. I have learned that painting with gloves is a must!! No more having the "I have obviously been painting furniture" look on my hands & nails.

I started out by taking the dresser apart, removing the doors and hardware and setting it out on our driveway to begin sanding. Which proved to be the most arduous task. Sanding an intricate piece of furniture like this takes a loooooong time if you want to do a good job. Do you see the detail in the doors and legs? The electric hand sander was great for the flat surfaces, but I had to do all the fancy parts by hand of course.

After a good sanding and wiping the whole thing down, I was ready to prime! I painted the whole thing in 2 coats of primer (sanding once in between) to cover all the grain of the dark wood. Everything I read online said that if you want a quality painted piece of furniture, do not skimp on the sanding & priming stages. So I really took my time on these parts. I think I finished sanding and priming the first coat in one day, then sanded it again and did the second primer coat the following weekend.

A little something I learned about primer - don't use a brand new brush for primer unless you have paint thinner to clean it with... My brand new brush was ruined because the acrylic-based primer did not come out. Oh well... now I know for next time!

Then, the next weekend, I sanded again and did the first coat of color, which was so fun to see it on the actual piece of furniture! I used a regular bristle brush that worked great because the roller turned out to be annoying to use with all the curves and detail in the wood. Here you can see my set-up which was taking over half our garage for at least a month!

As you can see, I decided not to paint the inside of the shelves. I like to have a little glimpse of the "original" wood and plus I thought that sanding, priming, sanding and painting the inside shelves was a little pointless. I decided not to sand in between the two coats of color because the brush strokes were not severe.

After 2 coats of color, the following day, I applied the first coat of Minwax coating to the top surface. The trick with this was to apply a very thin coat and brush in only one direction or else it got sorta sticky and goopy. I let that dry for a few days then painted another coat of Minwax (I heard that if you didn't let it dry completely in between it got weird, so I went to the extreme).

Theeeeeen, I let it dry completely for about a week. If you don't let the Minwax dry for a long time before placing objects on the surface, it can leave marks and dents in it. After I brought it inside and set it all up, it has done great, so I would definitely recommend letting it dry outside for a while. It also kept all the fumes in the garage and our house didn't smell like paint or top coat.

I love how it turned out! I do want to get a little shelf to hang above it with hooks for our coffee mugs so they are there for easy access & some extra wall decor like from the inspiration picture above. Marc even said he might make one for me! Let's add that to the list of projects I have on his list... ;)

Home Sweet Home

We are officially moved in to our new home. Well, the home isn't new, but it sure is new to us! This weekend was one of the most exhausting, exciting weekends I have ever had. I am so amazed at how much we were able to accomplish in those 3 days (I had Friday off work to allow us to get some extra stuff done at the house before move-in day).

***Be prepared for a very long post.........

Thursday night, we headed over to Lowe's and finalized our paint color choices and bought the paint for our master bedroom, living room, dining room and family room. Then, we stopped by my parents house to borrow their suburban and painting tools in preparation for the painting marathon that would happen the next day.

~ Friday ~

Marc and I woke up early (8am is early for us)! I had a doctor's appointment then I grabbed some coffee and bagels for us on the way home. While I was gone, Marc made about 50 trips to load up my parent's truck with some of our belongings so we could take a load over to the house. By the time I got home, he was ready to go so we just ate our delicious bagels and I changed into my painting clothes and off we went. We arrived at the house at about 11. While Marc unpacked the truck into the garage, I opened all the windows to get some fresh air in the house and started washing the walls in the master bedroom and prepping the room for painting. We took down the blinds, the closet doors, etc. My dad rolled up on his trike (a super cool recumbant trike with a motor assist that he uses to get around town and ride for fun since he doesn't drive) and brought us some putty to fill the holes in the wall. Luckily he called us that morning and said he was headed to Home Depot and asked if we needed anything, he knows us too well! Meanwhile, I made 2 trips to my parents' house for tools and a vacuum. It's less than 2 miles away so it's a short drive. :) We began painting our bedroom a pretty grey-blue color and were hurrying since the carpet cleaners were scheduled to come at 3:00. I was the edger and Marc was the roller, we are a great team and got the room done just in time to clean out the room when the carpet cleaners arrived. My dad even rode his trike down to Wendy's to grab us some lunch which we enjoyed sitting on the floor in the middle of the living room. :)



Painting the master!

 The carpet cleaning really made a big difference, there are a few pet stains in the carpet as the previous owners had 2 small dogs. There are still a few stains that probably won't come out, but we are working on getting the smell out, I can't wait until the house smells like "us." The carpet cleaners were great until they dumped the dirty, gross smelling water out of their vehicle right onto our driveway... that was just rude. Marc said, "That smells nice." and the guy responded with, "You get used to it." Really? I'd rather not get used to the smell of sewer on my driveway, thank you anyways. End of rant.

My dad headed home around 4 to get a few things done then he and my mom came back over and brought dinner (Los Panchos, yum!) and we were back to painting the living room. My parents were a HUGE help! We were able to finish painting the living room, which has vaulted ceilings! and the dining room. We finished up at about 11:30pm so we were all exhausted, but we are so glad we got it done. The living room is a light earthy green color, and the dining room is a medium brown color, it's called Cafe Ole, so that gives you an idea.



Look at those vaulted ceilings in the living room!

We finally got back to our apartment at about midnight where we quickly showered, climbed in bed and fell asleep to rest up quick for the next day.


~ Saturday ~

Marc and I woke up at 7am to finish packing the apartment. We were literally RUNNING all morning to try to finish up and get another load of stuff into the suburban. We met his parents, brother and friend at the house at 10:30. They brought a 20' Uhaul with lots of furniture for us from his Nana's place and from his parents. It is really nice not to have to buy any furniture right off the bat, the house is full and we get to focus on making other small improvements to it instead of buying furniture. Thanks everyone!! Right after we all got there, my sister-in-law arrived to help too. While the boys all began unloading the Uhaul, the girls and I started in on cleaning, or should I say, bleaching the house top to bottom. Shortly after, my sister and her boyfriend arrived, carrying the cutest mini-Christmas tree as our housewarming gift!! We put them straight to work! Within an hour, the Uhaul and suburban were unloaded and the kitchen, bathrooms, linen closet and window sills were all clean and ready to be loaded. Like I said, our families are AMAZING!

Marc and I still had all our big furniture at the apartment that needed to be loaded into the Uhaul and I needed to do a final cleaning of the apartment before our walk-through at 2:00. Again, we were running around like crazy people trying to get it all loaded. I had no idea how much stuff can fit into a 700 sq. ft. apartment.... we filled the Uhaul again! I cleaned much too thoroughly because the property manager just opened one cabinet, the fridge and oven and then glanced at the bathroom and she was done. Did we really need to clean the ceiling fan, microwave filter and scrub on our hands and knees for days?! NO, we did not.

This is when Marc and I said our final goodbye to our first place together. It was a perfect place for us, but after a year and a half, we outgrew it and were ready to take on a new challenge together. We loved our time at Spring Meadow, but we were not exactly sad to say goodbye ;) that place was tiny! 700 sq. ft. is not enough for two strong-willed people, no matter how much love there is! So we closed that chapter and opened a new one on that sunny Saturday afternoon.

While we were gone, I left the rest of the crew at the house to do some more cleaning, line the kitchen shelves, etc. and my mom did a Subway run for everyone. By the time we got home, my mom, Marc's mom and my sister-in-law had completely unpacked our kitchen! Those women can work!!! After lunch, we unloaded the Uhaul from the apartment, Marc's brother and friend put our bed together, my mom raked the leaves, my brother tore out some overgrown plants from our porch area, everyone was busy busy busy all day long. We finally stopped working and ordered Chinese for dinner. Just as it arrived, so did our beautiful refrigerator, washer and dryer!! That fridge is amazing, it's a Samsung with french doors and the freezer on the bottom. Thank God for Black Friday or else we would never have been able to afford that thing!! That experience is a whole post in itself...

My mom and I decorated the mini-Christmas tree and set it up in front of the big window at the front of the house. It immediately makes the place feel like home :) We are going to get a full-sized tree too, but this one is so cute!! Note the mini-rocking chair that Marc's dad snagged from our apartment dumpster, that place was a gold mine for goodies that people didn't want!! It wasn't actually IN the dumpster, people would just leave their unwanted things next to it for the taking. He said it's for "little Elizabeth" someday :) It's a keeper!!




After dinner, Marc's family headed home and mine hung out to watch a movie. We were in bed and asleep by 9:30pm after the longest 2 days of our lives!

~ Sunday ~

After waking up several times to the new house's noises, Marc and I were up for the day around 9. It took us quite a while to find towels and shower stuff... but when we finally did, we discovered the shower had a temperature limit on it.  We toughed it through some luke-warm showers and headed out to Target to pick up a few essentials and some much needed FOOD! Sunday was spent unpacking random boxes of things we would actually use in the next few days. We did lots of laundry which was actually fun to do with our very own washer and dryer. My Grammie came over to see the house and brought us lunch and some homemade blueberry bread. She approved! A big deal if you know my Grammie... Marc and I washed some of the blinds out on the driveway so we could have some privacy at the front of the house at least for the night. Those blinds were so dusty!! And do you know what dust is? Skin. Other people's skin. That just grosses me out so bad we had to take care of it ASAP. My sister came over in the evening to drink some champagne and share some design ideas; she even let me borrow her Domino book, "her life" so I am sworn to protect it with mine!

That basically sums up a crazy busy weekend of moving, fun and excitement. We are SO glad to finally be living in our home and cannot wait for all the memories that are to come. We know we will be living there for a very long time. :)

Packing our lives away!

We are currently packing, packing and more packing! Or should I say, Marc is doing a lot of packing... :) It has been so nice to come home from work to another section of the apartment packed away in boxes. It is much different having his help this time compared to last time when I did most of the packing on my own before we moved in together.

Just one little corner of boxes, this box pile has
tripled in size since I took the picture this weekend!

Our official move-in date is this Friday!!!! December 7th! We are so excited it is literally hard to sleep at night. The house is finally empty from most of the sellers' enormous amounts of belongings.

It is amazing how much stuff people accumulate over the years...I think we have learned we need to do annual purging of our excess stuff that has not been used and either donate it or toss it so we don't end up like "Hoarders."

I hope to remember to take pictures of the house before we put our furniture in so we can see some before and afters and show our progress as we make it our home.

This is going to be a very busy week of packing, moving, painting, unpacking and relentlessly thanking those who are dedicating their weekend to helping us move. Thanks in advance to all of you!!!

We are HOMEOWNERS!

Marc and I are officially the owners of a wonderful 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1,700 square foot wonderful home!

After riding the Short Sale roller coaster for nearly 4 months, we survived the ups and downs and rounded the last bend this morning. Our Escrow Officer confirmed everything and the process is finally over.

I can't believe it has actually happened!

Now all we have to do is make sure the sellers (now our renters...well free renters) pack up all their stuff and move out by the agreed upon date of December 1st. Good thing Marc and Mr. Seller are buddies and Marc calls him frequently to check in and make sure everything is still on track.

The next step that Marc and I are planning to take is those 2 scary words.... JOINT CHECKING. It's the logical thing to do since we now own a home together and will be paying for everything together, why bother writing checks to each other each month to pay the other one back for the bills they paid...? But the details remain: When should we combine finances? How should we do it? Whose bank do we go with? Who should pay the bills? Should we still have separate checking accounts or credit cards for our own "private" purchases?

I'm totally open to suggestions on how to manage being first-time homeowners and gradually combining the other aspects of our lives in the months leading up to our wedding.

Such an exciting day! Another post to come about wedding updates - 298 days to go! :)

Almost Homeowners!

In just a few short days, Marc and I will be homeowners! We are scheduled to sign the papers at the title company today or tomorrow and will close escrow on November 6th or 7th.

I want to recap the timeline and process of buying our first home so we can remember this exciting time of our lives.

The house is 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 car garage, almost 1,700 square feet and a perfect sized yard for a dog to run around and play. It was a short sale but the process went a lot quicker than most short sales are moving right now. We submitted the offer in late August and found out that there were 4 other offers. It was the third offer we had put on a house (the first house had a total of 22 offers, the second had 15 offers!) and we knew from only a short 15-minute showing, that it was the place we would make our home. The home we would come home to after our wedding, the home we would bring our future children home from the hospital to, the home where we would host Christmas for our families, the home where we would really begin our life together. In order to better the chances of our offer being chosen, Marc and I wrote a letter to the sellers. Yes, we wrote a sappy letter on stationary and included it with the offer. And guess what?!

The next day, August 30, 2012, our realtor called and shared the news we were waiting for: the sellers chose our offer!!! As a counter-offer, we agreed to allow the sellers to live in the home until December 1st at no cost. We worked out that it wouldn't be more than a couple weeks after we closed escrow and we really felt for the sellers - they're an older couple in their 60s-70s who appear to have some health issues. Marc and I decided we didn't want to lose the home over just a few weeks and we hope that if we (or our parents/grandparents) were in the same position, someone would show us/them some compassion as well, so we agreed.

The next step was to wait for the bank to approve the short sale which was estimated to be in about 30 days. And on October 5th, after signing what felt like hundreds of documents and emailing back and forth with our realtor, our broker and the listing agent, we received the approval from the bank!

The appraisal was ordered and it came back above our offer, which was great news! Next, we hired an inspector to come out and take a look at the property and make sure everything was in good shape. The inspection was a little awkward because Marc and I both wanted our dads to be there since they're very handy and hadn't seen the house yet, Marc's mom came along as well. In addition, the sellers were present which was weird because they followed us everywhere and we didn't really feel comfortable enough to poke around. At least we got to spend some quality time in the home and solidify the decision we made to buy the house.

We have lifted all the contingencies and are now just waiting for the papers to be ready to sign (and for mine and Marc's schedules to cooperate so we can go sign them...).

Here is a sneak peak of the front of the house - just from the listing:

{from the listing on Trulia.com}

I can't believe how quickly it feels like this process is going. We are beyond excited to move out of our TINY one bedroom apartment into our first home and make it our own. We already have so many plans for painting and decorating other changes we want to make to it. This is a time of our lives that we will never forget!

So much has happened!

I know it has been MONTHS since I've posted, let me just say that it has been a crazy crazy few months and other things have taken priority over this bloggy.

Let me try to fill you in brifely, and maybe down the road I'll do a post about each exciting event.

• I got engaged!!! He proposed on a cruise in the Caribbean and I was 100% surprised. It was amazing. And the ring, is amazing and exactly what I had hoped for!

• My brother got married to my wonderful new sister-in-law in Chicago. It was the most magical wedding and week of celebrating.

• We bought a house! Well *almost* bought a house. It's a short sale and we are opening escrow today/tomorrow. It is so much more than we dreamed our first house would be and we are so thrilled to move in and make it our own!
• I got a new job! I love it, I love the company, I love my new co-workers, I love the opportunities I have ahead of me with this company.
• We set our wedding date and chose a venue! September 14, 2013 is now scheduled to be one of the most memorable days of our lives! <3 Here's a little sneak preview:

• My wonderful friend gave birth to her sweet baby girl this past weekend. She is absolutely adorable in photos, I can't even imagine how much I'm going to fall in love with her when I meet her in person!

Now I have some very exciting things to discuss and document on this blog, so I hope I will be posting a little more often :)