Nesting in color

This weekend we painted two more rooms in the house: the study and the master bedroom.  I wanted to get them 'out of the way' before the baby arrives.  We painted the study 'Nile Sand', which is the same color in the living room and hallways.  For our bedroom we went with 'Peanut Butter'.  The color compliments our bedding and looks great with the mocha curtains.  Our plan is to eventually purchase new espresso bedroom furniture, which will look AWESOME against the paint color.  :D  Of course new bedroom furniture is a good year or two away.

Study view 1

Study view 2 - nile sand color

New family portrait from our wedding, had it matted a couple weeks ago!

Master bedroom w/ mocha curtains and peanut butter walls. 
The curtains and 2 dark furniture pieces look great against the paint color.

I can't wait to purchase new espresso furniture, it will look awesome!
Our old furniture has seen better days and has been through 3 moves - plus now it blends in.

I love that mirror!

Home Projects

Over the holidays and while my parents were here we finished off quite a few home projects!

Malek finally hung the new mirror in our bedroom (we've only had it over a month!).  Luv it!

And this is a picture of my new jewelry armoire (just wanted to show if off).  Still need to xfer over all my jewelry.

We (as in my dad and Malek) hung curtains in the nursery and put together the crib.  Malek and I painted the room.

Everyone (but me) helped install new cabinet hardware in the kitchen.  I supervised watched.  :D I'm loving the new look, very sleek!

And today I started painting Emma's old chest espresso to put in the nursery (WIP).

Holiday Recap

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas/Holiday vacation and New Years Eve!

We had a wonderful 2 weeks here at the Malek household. 

My brother and sister-in-law arrived Monday evening (12/20) just in time for dinner.  We took them to our favorite pizza place, Maggiores, for football, beer and pizza!  They also brought their puppy Bowser, Josie and Bowser became fast friends and played/cuddled together throughout their stay.  My parents arrived the next evening and we celebrated their 36th wedding anniversary at home with steaks, potatoes, salad and our family cheese torte (cheesecake) which I had made the day before.  The next day we baked our traditional Christmas cookies, watched movies, wrapped gifts and enjoyed chicken and dumplings for dinner.  Thursday we drove to Copperas Cove to visit my grandmother on my dad's side.  We managed to take a nice family picture of all of us!  It was the first time we'd all been in town in over 5 years. 

 

Finally Christmas Eve had arrived!  It was a nasty, wet, rainy, cold day but we didn't let it spoil our mood.   Steve and lil' C made sugar cookies, we watched Funny Farm, had a nice standing rib roast for dinner and then went to the midnight candlelight service at our church.  After church we came back home and warmed ourselves up in front of the fireplace, enjoyed some eggnog and each opened one gift.  I think we were up until 1:30am!  Christmas morning we were awake by 8am and ready to dive into the presents.  After the gift unwrapping frenzy it was 11am and everyone was ravenous, time for our traditional breakfast of eggs Benedict!  I ate 3 of them myself.  :D  I managed to fit in a quick workout later that day before making jambalaya for dinner and watching The A Team.

 

Sunday the kids arrived and we opened gifts with them before Malek's family showed up for the Malek family Christmas.  We hosted this year and grilled chicken, ribs, sausage and veggies.  Steve and lil C left Monday morning for home and I went to San Antonio with my parents to meet up with some old family friends for lunch. The next day mom and I ran some errands and went to buybuy BABY to register!  I was like a kid in a candy store scanning items onto the registry, I had so much fun!  I think the hubby was happy to get out of that activity.  :P  Wednesday marked Malek's 40th birthday!  We made him breakfast, opened gifts and cards, took him to Chuy's for lunch and for dinner he requested my mom's schnitzel.  We followed it all up with an awesome cake from HEB.  Happy Birthday Hubby!

On Thursday mom and I ran yet more errands and went back to buybuy BABY and HomeGoods (I love that store, awesome home furnishings at an affordable price).  Dad and Malek stayed home to put the crib together and various other home projects.  Later that night I took down the Christmas tree and inside decor.  Finally New Years Eve had arrived!  My parents went back to Copperas Cove for the day while Malek and I stayed home, cleaned house and prepared for our NYE/40th birthday party.  We had a wonderful time with family and friends ringing in the new year.  Hello 2011!  New Years day we hung around the house and recovered, we finished a couple home projects (easy stuff) and then took my parents out to dinner at Maggiores.  I also found a great deal on craigslist for a glider and ottoman for the nursery, which we picked up after dinner.  Oh and can't forget we each had a spoonful of black-eyed peas for good luck.  Mom and Dad left early Sunday morning (1/2).  The house is very quiet, which feels strange.  But I know that won't last long as our baby will be here in 3 months!

How things have changed; last year mom and I were working on wedding stuff (dresses, invitations, etc)...this time it was baby stuff (registering, nursery, etc)!  :D

Here's to a wonderful New Year! 

   

Painting Galore!

I took this past Friday off from work and Malek & I spent the weekend painting 3 bedrooms, cleaning house, grocery shopping and overall preparing our home for our holiday guests.  :)

I've very proud of our painting job!  Like packing, when it comes to painting, I usually prefer help. We were going to wait until my parents arrived to help us, but we decided to give them a break and do it ourselves. 

Evan's room - light gray with red stripe



Emma's room - light aqua





Guestroom / Future nursery - beige





House Unveiling Party

We did it!  3 months after moving into our new house, 2 months of projects, 1 month Evite notice and what seemed like a gazillion purchases....we finally had the big unveiling of our home.  For the party I had a snack menu prepared of my favorite food staples, but after relentless teasing from 2 of my closest friends (who shall remain nameless - A&J!), I switched it up.  We prepared a wonderful spread of Tex-Mex themed apps including a nacho bar with all the fixin's, queso, taquitos, 7 layer bean dip (that I made myself) and home-made Mexican Wedding cookies.  And to really top it off we rented a MARGARITA machine!  Everything went off without a hitch and we had a great time sharing our home with all our friends, family and co-workers.  Surprisingly I only took 5 pictures during the party.  I know!...so unlike me!  I was having too good a time to mess with the camera.  ;-)

I must say all our hard work really paid off!  We received numerous compliments on our home.  HUGE kudos to my friend Jennifer R for all her decorating advice and to my awesome husband for all the manual labor he had to endure.  LUV you guys!  I had the easy job of shopping for everything and supervising.  :-D

Here's a list of all the home projects we completed before the party:

• raised vanity in the master bath and a cabinet installed over the 'throne'
• raised vanity in the kids bath, added double sinks, and cabinet over the commode
• installed a cabinet above the powder bath commode as well
• new curtains and hardware for the living, dining and breakfast nook areas
• new curtains and hardware for both kids rooms
• new bedding (comforters/sheets/pillows) for both kids rooms (Thanks Nana!)
• new 55" flat screen TV for the living room (AWESOME!)
• hired professional painters to paint the living room/hallways/entry in Sand Nile (khaki/green), kitchen/breakfast nook in Cherry Cobbler (red), and the dining room in Aster (light purple).  There was NO WAY we were painting those 2 story high walls in the living room ourselves.
• laid down edging for the front flowerbed
• planted 6 new trees in the backyard
• hung rope lights on the back porch (mood lighting!)
• sealed the tile in the bathrooms (still need to seal the kitchen/entry/living rm areas)
• stained the fence (this was actually done the day after the housewarming party)  ;-)
• new rug for breakfast nook
• several new wall decor pieces, decorative couch pillows and various other items throughout the house
• new his and her L-desks for the study and matching bookcase
• several new frames for all our engagement/wedding/family pictures
• installed new fans for the study & kids room and bought a nicer fan for the living room (which we still need to install, old fan will go to the guest room)

And of course what you've all been waiting for - the pictures of our home!

by cfreund

Odds & Ends

#15 – Home cooked meals  (98/143).   I made breakfast on Sunday (sausage patties, biscuits, coffee) and spinach ravioli last night.  Granted these are 2 very easy things to make..and all I really had to do was defrost them...but darn it I'm still claiming them because we ate at home and stove top flames were involved.  :-D

Malek and I have been spending A LOT of time (and $$) on our house in preparation for our house-warming party.  I must say I'm super excited on the progress we've made.    My wonderful friend Jenn R sent me free decorating ideas and let me use her designer discounts (she's an interior decorator), and I MUST say she's EXCELLENT!  I LOVE everything she's suggested and the 1st floor of our home looks spectacular!  I can't wait to show it off to our friends and family.  I don't want to spill the beans yet on everything we've done (I'll blog about all our house projects after the party), but I must say it's been extremely entertaining listening to Malek hang curtains.  ;-)  We have yet to tackle the game room...right now it's a hodgepodge of all our miscellaneous furniture.  Unfortunately that project will have to wait until next year.

#44 - Work out 3x's a week (IP).  Still going strong!  I run 2x's a week in the mornings, and have been going to the gym on the other days for weights and elliptical.  Plus I'm still playing volleyball.  Softball has been put on the back burner since I took a nice line drive to the chin.  Ouch! 

#45 - Weight management (IP).  I managed to lose ~10 lbs for the wedding and have since been maintaining.  It fluctuates a little, but I'm happy where my weight has come to rest.  I feel GREAT!  I'm happy with my body and my life.   

#16 - Bathtub time.  Major FAILURE.  I guess I'm just a shower girl.  We have this great jacuzzi tub in the new house and we still haven't touched it!   I did chill some of our wedding champagne so we could enjoy the bubbly while taking a bubble bath...alas the champagne is still sitting there forlorn in the fridge. 

Can you tell I had fun with the smiley faces today?

#2 - paint bedroom and bathroom, #14 - Meet my neighbors, #8 - Unpackmy stuff (IP)

Wow it's been a busy weekend/week.  Closed on my house on Friday, parents came into town on Saturday, went to Copperas Cove on Sunday to visit relatives, painted bed/bathroom in the new house on Monday, did the last of the packing Monday night and moved on Tuesday!

So yes, the painting is done!  My parents did most of it, but I did help!  They started on Monday while I was at work and as soon as I got home I jumped into the fray. I helped with the bathroom and the laundry room.  Wish I had taken pictures, I was covered in paint, it was quite amusing.  Not to mention I practically gave myself a concussion.  :-S

Tuesday was moving day!  Movers arrived at 8:30am and were done by 1:45pm.  Thankfully there was minimal damange in the move (lost a couple glasses).  Right after the movers left the cable guy showed up.  Perfect timing!  Everything is up and running after only a few hours of being unplugged.  I also met one of my next door neighbors during the move.  They seem like a really nice couple and hopefully I'll get to hang out with them once I'm settled in.  Now commences the unpacking of a plethora of boxes.  :-P

Tonight we'll clean up the apartment and continue with unpacking.  I also have to figure out if I really want to get out my Christmas tree and decorate it...with everything going on...I'm not sure we (my mom & dad & I) could handle yet another task.

Oh, btw, my knee is fine.  Just tweaked it.  Should be good to go in a couple weeks...I just have to stick with low-impact stuff.  Not the best time for this to happen with all the Holiday foods and cookies around.  :-(

 HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!