Tuesday, March 24, 2009

House Update

So here we are... A month away from our closing date! We had our inspections last week and all went fairly well. A few small minor things that need to be taken care of but nothing that would stop us from moving forward on purchasing the house.

Right now we are just awaiting the appraisal, which should come back today or tomorrow. From there its just a bunch more paper work...we are actually keeping our fingers crossed that we will be able to close earlier then the scheduled date...we shall see...

Micah and I are beyond excited. We have paint samples picked out that we want to try on the walls. Some fabric swatches to recover my favorite chair. And we bought a new front door handle/deadbolt set!

We have a few boxes packed but need to get more serious, moving day will come fast!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Angelika's Baby Shower

My sisters mother in law Amy and I hosted her baby shower on February 21st at The Lost Leaf in down town Phoenix. It turned out really great! Olivia's nursery has a shabby chic theme to it, so I tried to stay with that in the decore of the shower. I went to many many thrift stores looking for dinner and salad plates to set the tables with, I wanted to use china to give the event a little extra importance.
I had help in a few places. Patrick Tipton was on hand to take photos for the big day, he did such an amazing job. I high recomend Patrick for any of your photography needs. One of Amy's friends/co-worker, Mellisa, did the flowers, which turned out perfect (We used left over vases from my wedding)! My good friend Nicole helped me with the cakes. I wanted 3 different cakes for the shower but didnt have the $200-$600 a cake that the local bakeries were quoting so I decided to do them. We baked all the cakes on the Thursday before the shower and made all the buttercream icing and then on Friday we put them together, in all we spent 7-9 hours on those cakes.
I bought the soap eggs in a nest favors off of Etsy, they turned out really cute and the seller was very easy to work with. The Olivia banner and cake plates were all made by some of my bridesmaids on a craft day I hosted, I would have nver accomplished all this stuff with out their help!
Enough gabby, bring on the photos!

Outside the Lost Leaf
Its a Girl
Angelika Arriving! Ryan is such a sweet husband and drove her to the shower!








The room all set up once you've entered the Lost Leaf


The table setting
Decore...























Baby Pictures of Ryan and Angelika






Drinks and Food



I made homemade Raspberry Lemonade and Fruite Infused Iceed tea and also served Izze and Pelagrino sparkling water















Amys amazing food spread!





















The candy and cake buffet was a HIT!

































Now for the cakes! When I have a chance I will remake each of these and show step by step on how to bake and decorate :) I just didnt have the time this time around. There was a Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting. (And yes I totally taught myself how to do a basket weave! Insane!)











The carrots were made out of marzipan and were a joint effort on Nicole and I's part.

Next up was the Yellow Cake with Strawberry Jam Filling and Strawberry Buttercream Frosting, and the only cake I didnt make totally from scratch. Reason being, if you use a Pillsbury Moist Supreme box mix and use olive oil in it it makes the worlds yummiest cake! You can get the step by step instruction on this cake however, HERE. The Strawberries were also made from marzipan.
















Last but certainly not least was the Dark Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate Coconut Buttercream



















Angelika and Olivia made out like bandits! Olivia is going to be one of the best dressed babies out there! AndI dont think Ang and Ryan will need diapers or wipes for the first year, I held a raffle, the price of a ticket was a box of wipes or box of diapers...the raffled item was a huge basket filled with lotions, candles, wine, note cards and all kinds of other goodies!























My favorite little baby in the world, Miss Mackenzie, Mark and Nicoles daughter...Angelika got this really cute sheep book, poor little Mackenzie really wanted it, Ang let her hold it during the rest of the shower...


I really had a blast hosting Angelika's shower. It went much smoother then her bridal shower did a few years back (actually tomorrow is their 3 year wedding anniversary)! Congrats Angelika and Ryan!

Monday, March 9, 2009

We bought a house!

As I previously posted, Micah and I were very hard at work trying to find our first home.
Well, we found one, put in an offer and it was accepted! Right now we are waiting for the seller signed documents so we can go forward with the inspections! Its all very exciting and nerve wracking!

Here is the front of the house


















Entering into the foyerThe formal living/dining room is just to the right when you enter. It is closed off from the family room and kitchen, we are hoping to do a little demo and tear the walls down and make one big great room.













The kitchen has a galley lay out. Which will be fine for right now, we are hoping to eventually tear down the wall between the kitchen and formal living space and have a nice sized island














The family room is right off the kitchen, it has a huge sliding glass door out to the pool and a nice fireplace! The house was built in 1970, and the master bedroom totally has some 70's charm to it, dig on the built in vanity...it will be coming down!

The backyard will be great for AZ summers! Micah and I both have very different ideas when it comes to how to decorate the house, he likes very modern stuff where I like very traditional stuff...BUT we were able to agree that we both liked old world/rustic type decore...I threw this inspiration board together and Micah liked it, so we may have a design concept here!