Our "Crib List"

When you've been married for three years (next month), have steady jobs and now several empty bedrooms in your newly completed dream house, a lot of people start asking when you're going to have kids. We had always just said "eventually" or "some time," but now that we've finally finished building our nest, we've started to give it some thought and discussion.

What we've found is that there are still a few things we would like to do, learn and see before we're prepared to devote our lives to the next generation. I started calling it our bucket list, but after realizing that it would sound like I was comparing children to death, we decided the term "crib list" would be more appropriate. Building our perfect home was probably the biggest hurdle to us being settled enough to have kids, but there are lots of other things still to do.

To us, a crib list is a list of things we want to do before we have kids, to put it simply. For us, it's mostly travel. We've traveled a lot together already, but there's a lot more we'd like to see that we haven't, most notably Europe. Because our vacation time from work has limits, we'll have to pace ourselves, but that will give us time to plan. Our crib list is below, with items crossed through that we've already done since being together (we had to give ourselves some credit for our adventures from 2007-present).

Our "Crib List"

1.       Build dream house

2.       Furnish & decorate dream house - only two more empty rooms at this point! my goal is to finish the dining room before my best friend's bridal shower. the media room will come after that.

3.       Take lots of road trips together

a. D.C.

b. Las Vegas

c. NC Outer Banks

d. Chicago

e. Destin, FL – have been, would like to go back pre-baby

f. New Orleans – have been together several times, but would like to go back pre-baby

g. Houston – lived there together for 3.5 years, always want to go back

h. Austin

i. San Antonio

j. South Padre Island

k. Galveston

l. Dallas

m. Asheville

n. Charleston, SC

o. New York City – have been, but would like to go back pre-baby

p. Chicago

q. St. Louis

r. Springfield, IL

s. Adirondack Mountains

t. Miami

u. Myrtle Beach

v. Emerald Isle – have been, but would like to go back pre-baby. It's so good for a weekend trip.

w. Charlotte

x. Atlantic City

4.       Cruise the Caribbean together

a. Mexico

b. Jamaica

c. Cayman Islands

d. Costa Rica

e. Panama

f. Key West

g. Bahamas

h. US Virgin Islands – booked for July for our anniversary!

i. British Virgin Islands – booked for July for our anniversary!

j. Antigua – booked for July for our anniversary!

5.       Travel to Europe

a.       Italy 
b.      Malta 
c.       France 
d.      Greece 
e.      United Kingdom 
f.        Germany

6.       Travel to Hawaii with family – booked for November (thanks to Ross’s mom and step-dad!)

7.       Go out with friends

8.       Spend quality time with our dogs

9.       Volunteer – currently volunteering with one swim team & one animal charity but would like to ramp it up while we still have the time. I'm looking for a good veteran's charity if anyone knows of one.

10.   Buy a convertible - my car is on its last leg, so this one should justify itself before too long

11. Whitney learn to play the piano

12. Work on learning some French and/or Italian together before traveling there

13. Motorcycle trip between Ross and his dad in the NC mountains

Updates, Odds & Ends from the BDH in May

Hello barbie dolls! May has been a whirlwind at the BDH - we've done a lot of decorating, building, tweaking and home making. While I don't have any major projects to report on, I'm posting pictures from odds and ends around the house that will show that we're inching along. We've also spent some really fun days and nights in and around Hasentree with some of our amazing new neighbor families and also spent some time just us at the pool. Pics are below!

 Our family room from the upstairs hall.

 Our pink curtains and vaulted ceiling the formal living room.lady cave.

 

Our island. We now have the walls filled up!

  

 My favorite arm chair in the family room. :)

All of my pewter/Arthur Court serveware pieces on display

 Master bedroom - we now have blinds up, our new black damask nightstands, curtains and mirrors!

 

 

 Our new mirrors for the master bedroom. They have a cream colored lace pattern around them, keeping with the room's black & cream theme.

Hubby finally got on a ladder and hung our 18 foot brown and cream curtains. Note also the photobomb by our boxer Scout.

 

I recently bought this - love this quote... reminds me of my sweet hubby.

We're currently working on painting the Library this dark brown color and finishing up furnishing it. We just ordered the CUTEST chair in the world to go behind our new desk. There's a photo of it below. We also have over $500 worth of blinds for this room in the mail (blinds are S O  E X P E N S I V E... it seems like we have spent hundreds on blinds every week since we moved in, going room by room since we're having to get them all done custom, but thankfully I think we're almost done).

One of my favorite pieces: a rustic wrought iron candelabra that I bought in Houston at the amazing Nutcracker Market.

 The lady cave at night.

Hubby installed the exterior accent lights on the BDH - he did a great job!

I finally finalized the black and white china display in the end of the island:

These pictures are of our downstairs guest bedroom. It has a small pink chandelier and gray, white and pink decor and pillows and sheer pink curtains. The furniture is my childhood bedrooms suit.

 

My view from the couch as we watched an epic Downton Abbey marathon on DVD. This is how old people spend their Friday nights!

And the best news to report is... my hydrangeas are starting to bloom!! Everyone knows how much I'm obsessed with hydrangeas. Despite our very poor gardening and landscaping skills, somehow these things are surviving!

 

Oh, we also went to see Gatsby - OMG, it was amazing! I'm a sucker for anything with Leo, but this thing was so good, especially the soundtrack.

 

 Eating a DELICIOUS melted avocado sandwich at Hasentree's poolside country club restaurant. Divine!

Lastly, we celebrated Memorial Day last weekend with friends and family and at the big Hasentree Memorial Day party at the pool. My Dad, Granddaddy, several Great Granpas and of course also my husband have all served honorably in various branches of the US Military, so we love to honor our fabulous troops!

Some photos with friends at the Memorial Day pool party. I wish I'd gotten a big group picture with Lisa, Lori and Jess also. Next time!

 

Thanks for reading barbs! The Library painting/decorating post is coming soon!

A Few Pics from the BDH Housewarming

Hi barbies! We finally got the BDH in order enough to host a few people for the BDH's Housewarming Party.

We had a DIY fajita bar on the island and these fingerfoods on the kitchen table. Any excuse to break out my Arthur Court pewter serveware collection is a good one!

BDH favors!

 Pink bows on the front porch.

I won't put my other friends and neighbors on the internet without knowing whether they're okay, but my best friend has been on here before and hasn't yelled at me, so here's a photo of my gorgeous BFF and I. Many people have asked about my dress, but it's really a sheer maxi skirt (with a non-sheer mini skirt underneath) with a black and white striped tube top underneath and a black vinyl belt to hold it all together.

Favors again:

Living Room Inspiration

When we started building the BDH, we knew we had no shortage of formal spaces and entertaining areas, but that the living room had to be a comfortable place to unwind. The problem was that the living room is in the middle of all of those formal spaces, so it couldn't exactly be an old, worn in futon and a TV sitting on a mini-fridge. The challenge at hand was to decorate the living room in a way that allowed it to flow well with all of the formal areas around it, yet still feel comfortable and not uptight.

So I began to scour the internet for comfortable living spaces with decorative ceiling trim, chandeliers or other fine features that didn't undermine the comfort of the space. Much of what I found was still too upscale for the space we envisioned, but beautiful and helpful nontheless. Here are some of my favorite photos:

There's nothing ridiculous or excessive about having a pool in your living room right? lol. I just liked the stained beams on the ceiling with the arches, which look like ours.

I'd kill for this view. Isn't it breathtaking?

I thought this one looked especially cozy, despite the room's large size.

This is ridiculous, but too beautiful not to include. Hubby plans to switch out our banister ballusters for iron swirled ones before too long.

The ornate moulding and large chandelier really make an otherwise casual space feel more formal.

 

Pictures of our finished living room will appear before too long in the home tour section of the blog. Stay tuned barbs! xox!

Formal Living Room Decor

Good evening barbies! I'm pleased to report that the formal living room furniture and decor are coming together. This room, which my BFF has aptly dubbed 'The Lady Cave' is intended to be the female gathering place of the BDH, the site for bridal and baby showers and just a place to embrace your girly side (which for me is every side).

I got the Victorian sofa and chair from an antique shop near Smithfield, NC. They're in great shape for their age and I got a great deal on them. My mom sewed the curtains from 90 feet of fabric I got for $30 total (!!) at Morningstar Curtains in VA. I wrote about that fabulous little store in my curtains post - basically, it's full of steals, deals, great people and lots of custom drapes! The curtains are 18.5 ft each and a dusty pink color.

The gold mirror is an Italian antique that we picked up at the flea market for $40. The white console table was completely made from scratch by hubby, which he explained how to DIY in this post. My mom picked up the two chic antique chairs in the turret for me for a steal from a coworker. Lastly, the big gold frame above the sofa was an old painting (which turned out to be a famous painter... which I found out after I painted over it... oops) that I picked up at a thrift shop for $20. I hated the painting but loved the frame, so I painted over it and added our monogram!

Here are some pictures of the progress:

The picture on top is of our first dance at our wedding and in the frame below is my bridal bouquet, which my best friend had framed for me and I cherish very much. 

Gotta have the bridal portraits up in the lady cave! The gold sconces are also Italian antiques that we got for a steal at the flea market.

This was our coffee table at our first place. It was yellow oak, but we refinished it and distressed it to make it fit in with all of the antique furniture. A pig on a post and pics from our honeymoon and my law school graduation round it out!

Thanks for looking barbs! The last step is the wallpaper. After we wallpaper the room (I have a light pink trellis pattern picked out) I'll update you!