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Drumroll please.....
Since I started this blog (first post on April 15) and started taking pictures of my scrapbook pages to share, I have made....
90 pages.
In 3.5 months. That seems like a lot. Even to me. And this doesn't count the 7-10 pages I've still got in the pile that just need to be glued together. Wow.
Alright, I'm sure no one else thinks that's interesting or cool, but I'm really impressed. Maybe I'd better stop blabbing and just post a couple of these numerous pages.
I wish you could see the photo on the page better online, because the face that Will is making is absolutely priceless. I was trying to recreate this page I found online, and I think it came out pretty well. I used the Wedding font with my Slice to cut the title AGAIN. My favorite part about using the die-cutter to make titles is that you always have exactly all the letters you need. When I went to glue this page, I couldn't find one of the "t's" for the title. I must have just gotten blown off the page while it was sitting on my desk. But no big deal. I still had a scrap of the black paper to just go back and cut another one. :)
I LOVE this page. First of all, the picture is came out really well, and I think the proportions of the picture fit really well with the rest of the page. I used this cute page as a guide, but obviously used a military theme instead. After about a week of cajoling, I managed to get Adam to write some thoughts and memories about his Detatchment Commander Colonel Taylor for the journaling, and I'm happy to get some of his perspective into my scrapbooking.Adam had to go in early to give a PT test this morning, and he has to go back for some sort of brief at 3pm, but right now we're going to head to Pensacola to spend the rest of his birthday money and scheme over appliances and home improvement stuff at Lowe's. Maybe I can even convince him to stop at the Hobby Lobby up there. :)
Hooray! What a good day. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with another six in a row (my boss scheduled me off for the LONG weekend even though our travel plans feel through), but that's a worry for another day. For now, things are going well. I've been cleaning, packing, scrapping and running errands. I LOVE feeling like I'm getting stuff done. Adam won't be home til after 7pm most likely because of his flight schedule, so I should be able to squeeze in a run before dinner, too. Well, since that has none of the drama necessary for an interesting blog post, I'll just finish with some recent pages. I got pictures taken of a few more today and I'll update tomorrow with how many I've made since starting the blog.
Part of me feels like I've scrapped way too many pictures from Adam's birthday/4th of July weekend already, but part of me still loves all of the pictures I've taken (AND the pages I've made so far) so I don't feel so bad about it. I thought this picture of Adam and Mike Alcide at Adam's birthday dinner came out really nice (good job on the matchy shirts, boys) and it gave me a chance to write about our friends living just up the block. The little diamond shapes were just part of the pattern of another sheet of paper. I thought they turned out cute as little embellishments.
I'm torn about this page. Sometimes I look at it and like, other times it just doesn't look right to me. It's kind of a shame because I was trying to recreate this page that I thought was so cute. Mine definitely doesn't do it justice. But I do love the picture of my little puppy acting like he owns the laundry, so I'm happy that now it's in my album forever.
So, I feel like I should be updating my blog more often, but then I don't have much to share. I'm just working, cleaning and packing while we wait to hear about our appraisal and repair requests. There's still more than four weeks until we get into the new house. Sigh...
At least that means that I don't have to pack up my scrapbook stuff anytime soon. I've been scrapping and gluing a lot in the past few days, but unfortunately my glue sticks are getting low again. Good thing I get paid tomorrow. :) I really hope that I'll be able to set my scrapbook stuff up even more efficiently in the new place, but I don't have a perfect vision of what it's going to be yet.
I guess that's all for now. Here's some scrapbook pages I've worked on in the last few days.
This is one of those pages that I kind of struggled with. I felt like I just didn't know what to do with the patterned paper background. I didn't want to cover it up or fight with it, so I went really simple with everything else. I kind of based the layout on a sketch in Scrapbook and Cards Today magazine. You can download a digital copy of the magazine from their website completely free. Score!
This page was also somewhat problematic. It's really hard for me to scrap pictures like these that are really nice, but don't really have a story to tell. It's just my mom and Adam's mom at our rehearsal dinner. Since I don't have a clear idea of what the page is "about" I have a hard time moving forward with the title, the design, etc. But after all is said and done, I think it came out pretty cute, and I'm glad that I can include this cute picture in my scrapbook.
Oh yeah, blogging! I always have such high expectations of blogging, but then never get around to it. Well, I was thwarted from taking Skeletor on our walk this morning by a storm that decided to blow in just as we were leaving the house, so I think it must be a sign that I needed to come back inside and post this update.
My weekend was pretty quiet. Adam had to work furiously on his final paper for his first online grad class since he pretty much left it all for the last minute, but he did have no problem making the deadline on Sunday night and already got his grade for the class by Monday. Hooray! He got a 96.4. Good job, baby. Anyway, since he was busy I mostly did my own thing. I cleaned up a little, packed a little and wasted time on the computer a little. I did have to work on Saturday night, but on Sunday I got a little spurt of scrapbook momentum and put together about four pages. Yay! I think I'm going to take and edit some more pictures later today and get an estimate of my total page count since starting the blog.
I skipped the scrapbook pictures in my last post because there was picture overload as it was, so here's a peek today at what I've been clearing out of that big pile on my desk.
This page was done with the help of this sketch posted on the Noel Mignon blog and also with the help of my pirate-wannabe husband. Since the picture is of him on a trip to Key West without me, I had to coerce him into writing the journaling since I didn't know the story behind the picture. (Though knowing him, I could guess.)
I like how this page turned out a lot. It was a little tricky to figure out how to make the inside cut out of the patterned paper using just my little trimmer, but I think it looks good. I also really like the photos and the kraft paper background. Usually dark brown is my go-to for a background, but I might have to start using kraft more often.
OK, I promise this is the last of it. I know I went a little picture crazy, but it's my first place, so what do you expect. Anyway, if you haven't seen the rest of my picture posts, keep scrolling down to see other parts of the house and the outside.
Ok, so this isn't in the master suite, but just outside it. When you go into the nook off the living room toward the bedroom, this little closet is on the left. When you turn right you're in the master bedroom. 
I really like the size of this bedroom. It's spacious without feeling like it's too big or like we need more stuff to fill it up. The sliders out to the backyard are nice, too.
View of the master from the opposite direction. The door is into the bathroom.
As you enter the master bath, the vanity with two sinks is on the left. I don't really love the counter tops or the fixtures (or the light fixtures), but what bugs me the most is the empty space in between the sinks. I would much rather have some more drawers and stuff than a place to stow a chair. Without any medicine cabinets, I really don't know where all of our stuff is going to go.
There is this closet, which is fairly large and deep, behind the door (so, immediately to your right as you come in from the bedroom). Adam is used to keeping his toiletries in a closet, so maybe this will work for him. This closet might also be a good home for a hamper if we want to hide it.
This is the stand-alone shower. Nothing really too exciting or cool. It would be nicer if it had a glass enclosure instead of a curtain, but a curtain will have to do. It's directly across from the sinks, between the linen closet and the tub.
The soaker tub is nice, but not quite as big or deep as others I've seen or the one here in the house we're renting. But then again, I've only used the one in this house once in about 5 months, so maybe it's not such a big deal.
I do like that the toilet has a separate door from the rest of the bathroom. It makes it nicer when two people are trying to get ready at the same time. The toilet is on the left as you walk in, just past the sinks. 
Finally, the closet. Yes, only one closet. This will be the first time since we've lived together that Adam and I will share a closet. Good thing it's pretty big. I think it has as much space as our separate closets now. The only annoying thing is that the door gets in the way of about a third of the space, so you have to go inside and close the door to have access to that stuff. Other than that, it's pretty standard, pretty nice. I AM a little worried about getting Adam's cooties from having my stuff so close to his, but these are the risks I'm just going to have to take if I want to own my own house.
Obviously, not much else has been going on around here. I've already started packing and gathering stuff ready to move into one of the extra bedrooms here. I've already nabbed several free boxes from work. Other than work and the essential stuff, I haven't really had time for much else. No scrapbooking and not even a whole lot of glueing. I still have a (slightly smaller) pile sitting on the desk needing attention. But with five weeks until closing, I think I'll probably have some time to play again before I have clean up and pack. I will post some more pages soon. I also had a couple of unlucky days where I couldn't run, but I hope to get to that sometime soon, too.
Now I'm off to catch up on READING blogs, and maybe even to sneak into bed early with my book. I hope everyone loves our new place as much as we do. Come on down to Florida and visit!
Whew! It's harder than I thought to upload all of these pictures and add comments to help make sense of them. I've still got another batch of pictures (master bedroom/bathroom) coming next that I'll start working on when I get back from taking Skelly to the dog beach.
Make sure you keep scrolling after this post to see pictures of the OUTSIDE of the house.
This area is kind of tight, so it's really hard to take pictures that really make sense of the space. Essentially, this is the mini hallway (to the right when you come in the front door) where all of the extra bedrooms and bath are. In this picture the first extra bedroom is behind you, the first open door is the second extra bedroom, the closed door is a closet, the next open door is the bathroom, and straight ahead you can see a little bit into the third extra bedroom.
Here is a little bit closer view of the bathroom and the sink. I really like that the bathroom has 2 sinks. I feel like 4 bedrooms with only 2 baths is not exactly ideal, but the 2 sinks makes it a little more practical.
This is the inside of that hallway closet. Not very big, but plenty wide for extra towels and things.
This is the third extra bedroom and the one with the biggest window facing out to the street. I wanted to get a picture of the funky shaped wall as you enter. I like how the previous owners have those pictures there. Adam is checking out the closet. You can see the big window in the second picture.
Moving on to the kitchen. I really wanted to get a picture of these cabinets because you can't see them anywhere in the pictures of the listing. This is on the right as you enter the kitchen (next to the fridge obviously). It adds more counters and more storage space and I love it. P.s. I'm totally loving the color of the cabinets.
This is a picture of inside the pantry. It's a small door, but there's a lot of space inside. You can tell there's alot of walk-in space since the previous owners keep their high chair tucked away in there.
In this picture you can see that the sink and the dishwasher are built into the island.
Last kitchen picture. This is just a close up of the stove. It's probably my least favorite part of the house, but it's no worse than our stove in Texas and I know that stuff like this can eventually be changed.
Just a detailed look at the wood-burning fireplace. Can't wait to hang some Christmas stockings here.
The coat closet, yay! Not very common in Florida (or Texas for that matter). From the front door, the coat closet is the second door on the left before you reach the living room. The laundry room that leads out to the garage is the first door.
And speaking of the laundry room, here it is. It's pretty small and pretty hard to get a good picture, but basically you walk in from the garage and the washer dryer and these shelves are on your left. Then you exit out into the main house hallway on your right. I like that there are two rows of shelves in here for more storage.
Also in the laundry room (on the wall opposite the washer/dryer) is the home security system keypad. Right now it's monitored by Brinks, but I think ADT can also monitor the house with the exisiting equipment.
And finally, the last picture for this post. Looking from the living room-ish back to the front door. Adam really likes the floating shelves, so we might have to do something like that ourselves.
Things are going SO well with the house. Maybe a little too well. It's kind of freaking me out. Mostly now I'm a little paranoid that there are still 5 weeks until closing because our current lease isn't up until the end of August. It seems like we won't have much to do but pack and worry that everything stays carefully in place. The past week has been so busy, and we've made progress everyday. Without that to keep my mind occupied, I'm just going to sit around worrying because I can't say that everything is 100% official until closing.
But I don't want to do too much complaining. I know that it's a good thing that we haven't had too much difficulty securing our loan and that the house is in such good shape. I'm also excited that yesterday we got to go inside for the first time since last Wednesday when we saw it for the first time. I brought my camera and a measuring tape with me during the inspection, so I have some more detailed pictures to share. You can see more general pictures at the listing here (click on the picture of the house to see more).
The outside of the house from the north (the house faces east). I really just wanted a picture of the Coldwell Banker sign because I has the little red star that says "Sale Pending." Hooray!
These two pictures are for my Grandpa. When my mom was buying her first house he grilled her about everything the house had, but she was stumped whe he asked her where the outside water spigots were. Well, there are two at my new house. The first one is at the fron of the house to the left of the garage (you can also see the house's satellite dish), and the second is on the back of the house. And don't worry, Grandpa, I also have a sprinkler system that covers all of the grass and landscaped areas. :)
See. Here's Adam and the inspector checking out the backyard sprinklers. No, sadly the grill on the right will not stay. We'll have to put that on our wishlist.
Speaking of the backyard, here are a couple more pictures. The pictures in the listing give a good idea of how big the backyard is generally, but there's also a good amount of space on either side of the house. Each side is about 14 feet wide. Each side also has a gate to get in and out, but the one on the south side (the picture with Adam) doesn't open all the way (it gets caught on the ground).
Now to the front of the house. There's a nice covered entry way, so when you're fumbling for your keys, you don't have to stand in the rain. It also has a pretty new looking Pella storm door. You don't see that a lot in Florida. The front is all landscaped with cute little shrubs and plants. The sprinklers are built into it, too.
The mailbox is big. Plenty of room to send us fun packages. :)
The garage is a little smaller than the house we're renting now, but I think we'll manage just fine. There's a neat little line of hooks running along the right-hand wall that will probably stay.
I didn't want to go up into the attic (pull-down stairs in the garage), so I made Adam take few pictures for me. There's not a ton of storage, but I don't think we really need much. The house has four bedrooms and plenty of closets.
OK, that's enough pictures for one post. I'll be back in a minute to post some inside pictures.
So things have been pretty crazy in the last few days. Tomorrow, we put down our earnest money and are officially under contract to buy a house. I'm SO excited and SO nervous at the same time. I just want everything to go smoothly and I don't want to make any mistakes. It seems like we're doing things right so far, but how am I supposed to know for sure? I've never done this before.
With all of this house stuff and working, I haven't done much of anything else lately. I'm looking forward to a day off tomorrow to take care of everyday stuff. We have to turn in our money and really get the ball rolling on an inspection, but other than that, I want to run some errands, maybe hit up the library and clean up this house with moving in mind. I do have a couple of pages to share that I made/glued earlier this week.
I really like this page of Adam at the beach on the 4th. It's kind of based on this page I found while perusing scrapbook blogs. My title didn't work out so perfectly. I feel like it's kind of crowding the picture. I cut all of the stars and circles with my Slice.
This one is kind of similar (I really liked the color palette for boy pages for Adam), and the pictures are even more outstanding. This is how I found Adam when he was supposed to be getting ready to go to the store on his birthday. No sketches this time, just me, and I think it turned out pretty well, considering.
That's all for now. I think I'm going to hit the hay early since I had a long day with church, work and serious discussions with the husband. We shall see what tomorrow brings.
Did I seriously just offer to pay $214,900 for something?
Oh. My. God.
We'll find out by tomorrow at noon if the seller's agree to our offer on their house. If this seems sudden, it is. We saw this house for the first time yesterday morning, but it was too good to pass up. Of course, I'll update tomorrow whether they accept or not, but until then there's not much to do but wait. Guess I'll try to put my mind on other things by posting some scrapbook pages.
Just a real simple one I did with this cute picture of me and Adam in Budapest. I like that it's kind of subtle.
This one is cute and simple, too. I used this sketch posted on the Write.Click.Scrapbook. blog (definitely one of my new favorites). I cut the title with different sized letters from my Slice. Not bad, huh?
What is it about sitting quietly in the dark for three hours that makes you so exhausted? I don't know man, but I came out of the theater after watching Harry Potter and all I wanted was a nap. Fortunately, I was able to fight the feeling and still get a lot accomplished this afternoon. We went to a Jo-Anns on the way home and found albums I like (FINALLY!) on sale 40% off. Then we stopped at a bike store to order Adam a new post for his bike since the current one keeps slipping and screwing up his seat. Even once we made it back home I escaped the lure of my bedroom. We played with Skeletor, did some talking to banks about home loans AND I got out and ran for about 25 minutes. Now, after dinner and some TV time (along with some time putting pages into my new albums) I can literally feel my eyelids getting heavier. I will soon be tucking myself into bed, but not before I post a couple new pages.
This page came together really quickly with the help of this sketch from the Mix it Up! blog. I especially like the way the hand-drawn border lines came out, and I think you'll definitely see more of that in the future.
This one came together with the help of my pizza pan. I wanted to add a curve, so I traced my pizza pan onto the patterned paper. I thought I was pretty clever. :) As you can see, I used my new Slice design card again to cut the title. I still absolutely LOVE that font. I think the page LOOKS cool, but I also really love the picture and the story. I'm really glad to be including memories of other people in my life, not just me and Adam. I want to remember everybody that is important to our lives. I just know that I'll really appreciate this years down the road.
In another thought....the Harry Potter movie was flippin' awesome! Even Adam totally loved it. Money is a little tight right now, but I'm already thinking of reasons to go see it again. (Number one on the list is the crappy seats at the front of the theater that we had to sit in today. I'm sure it'll be even better at a reasonable distance.)
