Our 1 Year Anniversary 10.23.11

On Sunday, my husband and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. It was such a good day!! We spent the night in Columbia in a hotel because our friends got married the day before so in the morning we had breakfast at the hotel. I think it's always fun to stay in a hotel so this was a nice way to start our day. James' best friend, Sharif and his friend joined us as they were staying in the same hotel and was a groomsmen in the wedding that weekend also. Sharif was the best man in our wedding and we got married on his birthday which means Sunday was his b-day as well as our one year anniversary. Confused yet?? Lol. James and Sharif went to college together at Univ. of SC so they wanted to walk around campus and reminisce for a little while. It's a beautiful campus and the weather was perfect. Sharif picked one of his favorite places for lunch called California Dreaming. They have the best rolls I think i've ever eaten! So after lunch we said our goodbyes and went home.

James said he wanted to make us a nice dinner for our anniversary so he ran to the grocery store to get steaks and romaine to grill (we love marinating romaine hearts and throwing it on the grill - it's easy and delicious so try it sometime!). He came home with flowers - daisies like I used in our wedding; my favorite! We exchanged cards, teared up a little, lol, and then ate dinner. We had the top of our wedding cake frozen all year so we could enjoy it for our 1 year and I was very please with the way it kept. No freezer burn, no dryness - tasted just as good as the day of!

Here are some pics of our anniversary dinner and a couple wedding pics from last year :)

The flowers James got me (note: I painted those salt and pepper shakers recently and love them!)

Our delicious dinner!

Top of our wedding cake

We toasted with the champagne flutes that we used for the wedding - these were our favors.



It says "James & Chelsa 10.23.10"



Cutting the cake :)

Doesn't look a year old to me!

Yay I love him :)

Busy Busy

Lately, James and I have been on the go almost every weekend. Not complaining, just stating a fact!

A few weeks ago we traveled to PA for my best friend's wedding. Everything went according to plan and she was a beautiful bride! It was simply a perfect day. Also, James and I took an extra day off work so we could visit with family; a plus to an already fun-filled weekend.

We started doing a Sunday dinner with some of our Charlotte friends - planning on doing this once a month and each take turns hosting the dinner. Last weekend was the first weekend we did and our friends, Joe and Scarlett had it at their house. They served chicken florentine, a delicious tomato and artichoke pasta dish, a cauliflower casserole and cake for dessert! And wine of course. :) I think I'll volunteer for the November dinner... just have to figure out the menu. I'm thinking Mexican. Yum!

This weekend we chose to stay home and relax because this Thursday, we're leaving for a 5 day trip to Kentucky and Indiana with my father-in-law. My sister-in-law and her family live in KY and their daughter (our one and only favorite niece), Olivia, will be 2 years old this Saturday so we'll be there to celebrate her birthday. I'm so excited! Then we're driving up to Indiana to visit James' grandmother. I'm hoping we can visit Chicago while we're there because she lives very close to the Illinois border and about an hour from the city. Then we'll come back home on Wednesday.

Then two days later we go to Columbia for the weekend for our friends Brian and Steph's wedding. James and I are both attendants in this wedding so it should be a good time. They are getting married on the 22nd and our 1 year wedding anniversary is on the 23rd so we are looking forward to celebrating that as well. :)

Needless to say, it will be a busy couple of weeks, but of course a good time with our loved ones!

Our little patio :)

Loft/Man Cave

Master Bedroom

Temporary bedding

This is Mia when she was a kitten exploring the new bed



Finished product



Building Complete: June 30, 2010

Our first home

Come on in!

1/2 bath on first floor

1/2 bath on first floor

Downstairs living space

Downstairs living space looking at front door and kitchen

Our little patio

Kitchen








View of living space from kitchen

Going upstairs...

Master bedroom to the right... don't have a picture of this for some reason.

Washer/Dryer closet and storage closet

Loft

Loft

Loft

2nd Bedroom

Full bath



The whole row

Stay tuned! More pics to come of painted walls and decor. :)

Just the beginning...

On June 24, 2010, James and I bought our first house (and signed a never-ending stack of papers!). We bought it through a builder so we were able to watch it being built and pick out our carpet, floors, cabinets, sinks and countertops; very exciting! It's hard to believe we've been living in it for over a year now, but we definitely kept ourselves busy with all the decorating, furnishing and painting that comes along with buying a house. We are proud of the work we've done to make it our own.

I've taken pictures from the very beginning and thought I would start a little blog series called, "Turning Our House into a Home," showing it from start to finish. :)

                                                            Let's start with the dirt...



Painting

Last Monday, my mother-in-law and I took a painting class called, "Lily on Black," at Michaels. It was a two hour class that simply taught us how to paint a white lily on a black canvas. It was great fun and I was happy with the results. It's not completely finished, but now that the paint is dry I may have to start a new one. Overall, I think it turned out pretty well and I would definitely take another class!

I also took a painting class in college that taught me a lot about colors and technique (but not quite as fun when you're graded on the finished product :)). I actually really like to paint and would like to get better at it so I'm going to start doing it more often! Below are a couple things I painted during the college class.