- I Smell Christmas! -

The weather is changing, the leaves are falling, the days are darker...

It's the beginning of November and I can smell Christmas in the air!

...Which means that fall is "officially finished" in the Fleming home.  [Forget this post!]

November 8, 2013: the day Santa Claus puked in our brand new house.  [Not in the exact fashion that Fr. Meconi graced/blessed our brand new house, though we love them both for different reasons.]  But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Step 1: Embarking on an adventurous day in Farview and hitting ALL the prime decorating stores: my natural coffee-free high. Tree - check. Garland - check. Ornaments - check. Other miscellaneous decor - check. Brian was super duper thrilled.

We walked out with our very first [larger than 4-foot] Christmas tree!!! WAHOOOO! 

[You can tell from the majority of these posts who the family photographer is.........]

Step 2: Unload and build. 

Step 3: Get to work.

Step 4:  Take a short break, but only to eat a small snack and take more selfies.

Step 5:  DECORATE!!!

This nativity scene means so much... Read its story here: my decorating post from Christmas 2012!

One last perfect touch before bedtime:

Believe it or not, we still have more Christmas "stuff" to bring up from the basement. Although I think this is a decent start for now. ;) 

...Because why settle for dull orange pumpkins when you can have glittery multi-colored Christmas trees?

Merry Christmas in November! ;) 

- One Year Down... -

...and forever to go!!

Welp, we've officially come full circle with what this blog was started for in the first place: OUR WEDDING! 

1 year...365 days...8,760 hours...525,600 minutes... 31,536,000 SECONDS of burning passionate sexy love just bursting at the seams.

I like big numbers. 

But seriously fo rizzle, WHERE did the time go?! I .c.a.n.n.o.t. believe we are celebrating our first anniversary! The day was just an ordinary day made extraordinary with all of our favorite things...

--> French toast for breakfast. And a sentimental ceremonious ritualistic [soon-to-be annual] lighting of the unity candle.  Brian:  "How many years do you think it will take this thing to burn out for good?!" ...Romantic.

--> A glorious 2-hour nap. [Unpictured for obvious reasons.] 

--> Reminiscing with the wedding attire. In the wedding room. Ca-yoooot.

"DO I REALLY HAVE TO PIN THIS ON? Or can I just hold it?" #angrybird

Return of bridezilla.

--> Steak dinner at Fleming's. It's so cliche and cheesy that we HAD TO. Plus Brian loves loves loves a legit steak and I love love love to be wined and dined so boom. And they have iPad menus, which is probably the coolest thing ever.

--> Free "bubbles" on the Fleming's staff. After we chugged a bunch of wine bottles.

--> And then 9pm Mass at the College Church.  Back to where it all began! 

--> Cards, chocolates, and flowers. "Woo-ing a Woman: 101." Actually the chocolates were another free gift complimentary compliment of Fleming's. But beauti-mous flowers and mushy gushy love notes are Brian's specialty. Men: take note! He gives free lessons!

--> And LASTLY, the infamous one-year-old wedding cake topper...which was not one of our favorite things or extraordinary in any way.  Whoever started this tradition either had non-existent shriveled up taste buds or just found a twisted enjoyment in eating moldy/mildewey/freezer-frost-bitten/downright disgusting slices of shit. What a waste of a perfectly good cake!! :( After the first bite, we invited everyone we knew over for free ass-tasting. The positive: we got a good belly laugh or two out of the gunshot wounds and the icing sloughing off the side. One year. So rough.

Counting my blessings today!!! ...Minus the cake. Cheers to forever! Happy anniversary, Brian!!! :-*

Other wedding-ish posts to stalk:

• 6 months!

• Kelly Manno Photography's blog post!

• Complete Music and Video's wedding video!

- B&A: Guest Bedroom #1 -

Project: Goodbye House, Hello Home!

~ Guest Bedroom #1 ~

~~~~~

Paint color:

• BEHR - Dolphin Fin

A few details I love: 

• Chevron canvases.  Bought this material [on sale, obvi] at Jackman's Fabrics and went to town with a staple gun. I definitely recommend it for your next planned rainy-night wine-guzzling project. 

• Curtain.  My mom sewed this with more material from Jackman's. We have elephant material just sitting in a stash for when this "guest bedroom" becomes a "nursery"... But not yet. Yellow curtains shall remain for now.

• Reused furniture.  I had this IKEA dresser chest and bookcase in my apartment for a few years. Love being able to reuse everything; and it looks different and awesome in a new space! 

Posting the progress:

• Chevron Canvases

• Closet Doors [Installed]

Goodbye house, hello home!

- B&A: Master Bathroom -

...Because with the master bedroom obviously comes the master bathroom... 

Project: Goodbye House, Hello Home!

~ Master Bathroom ~

~~~~~

Paint color:

• BEHR - White Sapphire  [Wasn't exactly going for iceberg or baby blue, but I am a leeeeettle bit disappointed that it didn't turn out blue-er. I guess I should've found something like "sapphire" instead of "white sapphire"...?! But it's fine. And half of our towels are blue, so it pulls the wall color out a bit more.]

A few details I love: 

• Shower curtain.  Love it love it love it. Saw it in college whilst casually browsing through Bed Bath & Beyond and whaddya know: [because I'm a freak,] it's in my house now. 

• Toilet.  Hot off the rack from Lowe's. Super-sucker flush power + handicap height so we don't have to squat toooo low + elongated bowl which is perfff for big-booty-Judies [like me]. Three stars for three stellar qualities. So glad this toity is mine.

• Medicine cabinet.  Which is DARK as I like it and gigando and holds all my hair/make-up/beauty supplies perfectly.  We ordered it from RP Lumber to match our vanity cabinets.   

Posting the progress:

• Master Bathroom

• Toilets

• Toilets [Installed]

• Shower Scrubbing

• Lights and Shower Heads

• The Decorating Continues

Goodbye house, hello home!

- B&A: Master Bedroom -

Here we go... Finally! I've been sitting on these pictures for months now, so here is numero uno of a million-o posts of our house before and after the remodeling! 

Project: Goodbye House, Hello Home!

~ Master Bedroom ~

~~~~~

Paint colors:

• Dark wall x1: BEHR - Belgian Sweet

• Light wall x3: BEHR - Gobi Desert

A few details I love: 

• Mirror over the bed.  I am a freak for admitting this, but I bought this mirror before I was even engaged or married knowing that some day I would design a master bedroom AROUND IT. And that just happened. So boom. I bought it 50% off at Hobby Lobby at least five years ago, and I recently saw the exact same mirror there! [Good to know they don't change their stock for decades..... But if you love it, this is great news: so you just go right ahead and buy yourself one, too!] 

• Lamp on the nightstand.  I am getting freakier by the second: I bought this lamp on final clearance at Pier 1 a few weeks after I bought the mirror planning to "fit it in somewhere." The wheels are always turning... 

• Dark walls.  Last March, I walked out of Home Depot with my chest out and nose in the air boisterously waving all the paint chips I chose for the house.  Brian non-arguingly agreed to all the colors, but my dad [who is a much classier and more experienced decorator/color schemer/painter than I] just nodded his head and tried to disguise a little chuckle.  Apparently having dark walls makes already small rooms look even smaller, which was not ok.  My dad kindly revisited the paint department and helped me choose new colors. ...No, not really new colors.  The SAME colors...just like three shades lighter.  I did decide to paint the wall behind the bed with the original dark brown, and I'm pretty much obsessed with the two-toned look. Not to add emphasis to the bed or anything, buuuuut you know. We ARE newlyweds after all. ;)

• Dark furniture. Are you noticing a trend here? I hope it's not a sign of being all dark and twisty, but I am attracted to everything being dark dark dark.  I searched forever and ever and never found the bedroom furniture I had in mind, so I was juuuust about to settle for something mediocre when I walked into Kettle River and found the set of my dreams! A+. You have my heart, Kettle River.

• Ceiling light. I hate the look of ceiling fans...even though they are practical.  But I still hate them.  We found this light at A&D in Litchfield after looking all over. I originally wanted a dangly sexy sparkly little chandelier, but the ceilings are low and the room is small and this midget light definitely does the trick! [Oh, and there are a bunch of little can lights all over, too. Brian has them on a dimmer switch which he loves to titrate up and down and refer to as "mood lighting"... The best benefit is actually being able to have the lights on a teeny tiny bit to get ready if one of us is sleeping and the other is awake. You know, because Brian is unfortunately married to a night shifter who does a lot of daytime sleeping!] 

• Tree.  Brian cut this down for me in the timber behind our house!  Doesn't it look awesome? ...Joking. A steal from Old Time Pottery. Greenery adds just the right amount of charm and beauty [old classy decorating tip I learned from my momma!].

• Circle rugs.  Resurrected from my college days.  Can't even remember where I got them. But they are just the perfect amount of fuzz and fluff to step out of bed onto.  Our hardwood is da bomb, but it is a liiittle chilly in the morning.  Or maybe my tootsies are just tender.

• Curtains.  They're Eclipse blackouts [which I literally do not survive without], but they're gold and shimmery and look like kickass expensive ritzy curtains.  I stole them from Kohl's [50% off + my 30% off coupon which = 80% off, which is basically a steal]. In the apartment, I used to have some thick plasticky hard ones that looked like they were attacked and beaten with an ugly stick; but those have since been retired and gold and gorgeous to the rescue.

Posting the progress:

• Painting and Tiling

• Bedroom Furniture

• Blackouts

• The Decorating Begins...

I think that is all for now...

Goodbye house, hello home!

- Anniversary! -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

ONE. YEAR. DOWN. THE. DRAIN.

...You can tell we really love being married.

This is about to be the most boring slash pointless post ever [basically because I already have some-ting else posted about our one-year-anni BUT I am OCD and cannot miss ONE. D-WORD. WEEK. of a Sum-It-Up-Sunday so now you are just stuck on my page reading this random hideous diarrhea of the mouth].

So celebrating our anniversary was the most exciting thing that happened all week and you can go here and read all about it.

Other week highlights: 

-- Nothing. I am a blogging Grinch.

- Fallness -

I got a 30% off coupon from Kohl's this week...holla!! 

Brian: I hate when you get those 30% offs!
Bridget:
Brian: What are you going to buy this time? There is nothing else left to buy.
Bridget:

The silent treatment + angelic face. Swoons him every time. 

"There is nothing else left to buy..." 

Yeah right.

Who does he think I am? 

DISCLAIMER: I DO hate clothes shopping, which is why I'm horribly unfashionable and hideously dressed pretty much 24x7 [and also why I am grateful to be able to throw on a pair of scrubs when I do actually have to be looking presentable and/or go in public]. But house shopping... Now that's a different story. And I love buying gifts, too.

So baaaasically as soon as he left for work today, I got dressed and floored the pedal to Kohl's. What he doesn't know won't hurt him right? Yes yes. :)

They have like a million and a half Christmas gifts-to-be stacked up in all the aisles with red bows and ribbons dangling everywhere. And the trees are out and decorated, and the Christmas soundtracks are playing, and everything in the Christmas aisles is 50% off.

...+ my 30% off...

...which = 80% off...

I freaking love Kohl's. ...If only my husband could see the light?

I left the store itching worse than a dog with fleas to decorate for Christmas.  It's our first year having a house big enough to clutter with more than a 4-foot tree, and I'm super stoked. If Thanksgiving wasn't towards the end of November, I think people would start decorating earlier and earlier every year.  I hopeeee we can wait for a few more weeks to decorate, but.................

But in order not to, I am consciously and constantly trying to erase winter from my mind and remember why I love fall! 

Fall.

*sigh*

Firstly and obviously, pumpkin spice lattes! Panera's are the bomb diggity, but I settle for Starbucks' every now and then. Also: spiced candles, leggings and boots, apple picking, Red October BASEBALL, colored leaves, scarves and sweaters, pumpkin carving, and Halloween.  

And these subtle little reminders in our house:

^^ Ok, that might do the trick for another week or so. 

...As long as I can stay away from Kohl's! ;) 

When do you decorate for Christmas???

- 4 Up --> 4 Down! -

Phewww, this month has been one for the record books! It's official: 4 weddings up and 4 weddings down, and we somehow made it out alive to tell the stories! October has love just bursting at the seams! ;)

Last weekend was Jake and Katie's turn, and it was literally the most.perfect.day.ever. We have been wedding crafting during our short but sweet [self-granted] breaks at work for MONTHS now [and even finishing up some last minute things in between Nikki's wedding and reception last weekend!], and all of her our hard work definitely paid off. Just kidding. It was totally all Katie's hard work.  All she needed me for was my handwriting... ;)

 

The rehearsal dinner was nothing shy of ultra classy and super fun, and Jake's dad gave an AWESOME toast before the meal! It even made this unemotional girl with zilch for hormones tear up a teeeeeny bit. I also loved their personalized wine box; they sealed it during the wedding ceremony with a bottle of wine and letters to each other...NOT to be opened until the five year anniversary, of course!

Wedding timeee!  Each detail of the day was so well thought out and so HER, and the ceremony and reception went off without a hitch!

Happy wedding day, Jake and Katie!! You are such a beautiful, picture-perfect couple in front of the camera AND in real life! Thanks for letting us be a part of your special weekend!! :) 

#realdealKATIEPIEL!!!

- Landscaping [Part III] -

We're on landscaping post #3 and there's still more to go...

But progress is good! 

And patience is a virtue...

Brian has put an EXTRA lot of hard work into this project [with a little bit of help from his brother and an even tinier bit from my dad] + everything he touches turns to gold, so I'm pretty sure we're gonna have the best damn landscaping wall in the subdivision.  That blessed perfectionism... Gets me every time. 

We were thinking it would be best to throw down some mulch now and save the planting for spring, but the raw truth is that neither one of us know jack about flowers or bushes or miniature trees so we desperately need the winter months to research! ;) And I'm not known for having the GREENEST of green thumbs [yes, we will refrain from posting pics of all the brown plants I've parched in the past], but maybe by next spring I'll master that trade.

ANYWAY...

You go, baby! Thanks for making the front wall look great!

Check out Part I and Part II!

- Nashville -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

Brian loves Nashville, our friends love Nashville, and my cousins just moved to Nashville, so we blocked off the calendar for a long weekend and took a little roadtrip to the Music City! 

The trip there took for.ev.er. because we stopped off at this awesome 1800s plantation settlement place for lunch. They had awesome food and an even better atmosphere! Loved it!

And eventually we made it to Broadway! 

Country Music Hall of Fame + Brian's fantasy/idol Carrie Underwood...  Of course.

Even managed to find the natives! ;) Thanks for hanging out with us, Tommy and Chelsea! 

Other week highlights: 

-- Cards lost the World Series... Boo! :( Too soon to talk about it.

-- Happy Halloween!

-- Happy birthday, Toby!