He Still Gets Me

Once upon a time there was this poor little blog. Its blogger was a total slacker and it often sat for weeks with no new posts.

Yeah, yeah that's me.
Slacker status over here.

Here I am once again about to blog about superficial, mundane, surface stuff. Its all I can do right now which I think is good enough. 

Our new life here is insane.
It's different but we are still so unsettled we haven't even been able to to have everything sink in yet.

Even though we got here in July and had the keys to our apartment about a week later, we didn't start living here at our apartment until two weeks ago. My in-laws went out of the country and we house sat for them. We were finally able to move into (as in actually start sleeping at) our place the night before I started work. Yeah, crazy timing I know. I got hired on at my job about 10 days after we got here but since its a State job I wasn't officially in the computer systems until much later, delaying my start date.

So we have been living here in our tiny little Salt Lake City apartment but I still have boxes full of stuff, our balcony is full of boxes we no longer have a garage for, there is tape on walls waiting to be painted, furniture half-way refinished, bags full of clothes and things needing to be sent to D.I. (Utah's version of Goodwill), and everything is a MESS.

Here's a few pictures though.

The first wall I got fully completed. Right behind our sectional!

Our tiny hallway is halfway finished. One side has the chevron painted while the other is just taped off. 

This is the before, during, and after of my 4$ D.I. find! My new desk chair!

That fabulous fabric? Totally scored that from my MIL's craft room and she scored it from Colorado like 15 years ago. LOVE it!

Now this is directly across from our sectional. That's the dresser Mr. Superman got me for my birthday this year and I LOVED refinishing it. I did a mini-makeover on that lamp and I still love it but I just didn't like it in that corner. I'm really trying to have balance between all of my bright, colorful decor and my vintage, antique, eclectic pieces. I'm also having to just do what I can with what I already have. The lamp I have there now is a lamp we got five years ago for our wedding. It has modern lines Mr. Superman loves (the opposite type of design I'm into) but I like it a lot more now. I just taped it off and did a coat of paint I already had. Voila!

This ugly wicker chest of drawers? I've had it for 6 1/2 years. When I went away to college I inherited all sorts of ugly, unwanted, really old furniture from people. This, I think, came from my SIL's grandma. I've kept it around for years with every single move just because it was great for storing things. I decided to throw some of the same yellow paint I used for the lamp shade on it and it's now residing in the corner by our desk. Eh, it'll do for now.

Our bedroom is my labor of love. I didn't redesign anything from what I had in Georgia because I already love it so much. It's got a vintage/antique French theme going on. The square footage of the master bedroom here is SO much smaller than the square footage in Georgia so its been a little tricky. It's still very much an ongoing project and I have yet to finish painting the edges and refinishing the antique vanity I scored almost two years ago but I will. Someday, it'll all be done and perfect.

So that's it so far. I have SO much left to do including finishing everything that is only half done AND all of the stuff I haven't even started. I've got the guest bedroom, both bathrooms, the kitchen, and the laundry room/closet. After all of that I have a giant list of little things like replacing all of the door hardware, outlet and light switch covers, installing shelving into the closets, stenciling and painting the inside of the closets, replacing the light fixtures, installing custom molding around the bathroom mirrors...

I could go on and on but instead, I'll wrap it up.

I just had to share this last picture.
Every Thursday I get to see Mr. Superman in ABU's and guess what?
It still gets me.

Everything in our lives has changed.
Everything is different.
We moved.
He got discharged.
I'm working.
Our puppy lives with my MIL.

Everything has changed except once a week, I get to see something that makes my heart smile and gives me the reminder of why we are doing all of this. It reminds me that in three years we will once again be an Active Duty family. Every week I get to see my Loverface in uniform and it still gets me.

He still gets me.
Right now, that's enough.

Loving Paint With Grand Design

Lovelies! Here we are again with another fabulous line up of guest bloggers to entertain you all while I am busy cleaning our new house from top to bottom, grocery shopping, and all of the ever-important mani/pedi, spray tan, waxing, and hair appointments in preparation for the big HOMECOMING!! I am so glad I have all of these wonderful Lovelies stepping in for me so I can focus on the important things not to mention so I can be sure to take breathers in between my anxiety attacks. So please be sure to show all of my wonderful Lovelies lots of love because they deserve it. Today, I can't even tell you how stoked I am to have Nikki here. She's the BFF Forever I've mentioned before that I met while in Arizona. Her hubby is an officer in the Army National Guard who finished his first year tour in Iraq flying Black Hawks late last year. I also want to give a big fatty shout out to her hubby because he just got an incredible new position as a flight instructor!! She's a bagenius and an incredibly talented designer. Here's her take on making houses into homes when you move a lot. I also included pics of her own gorgeous house and be sure to check out her design blog. All of her projects are incredible.

I was completely stoked when my husband and I got the call that he had orders to go to flight school. I was so tired of Arizona and the stupid desert and wanted a new adventure. Not to mention I romanticized the South after watching movies like Gone with the Wind, The Notebook, and Sweet Home Alabama. So I loaded up all our stuff, my husband flew home from BOLC and two days later we were on our way to Fort Rucker.

When we got there I was in awe. Imagine my surprise to learn that grass, trees, and flowers could grow in the wild without constant drip lines! There was water everywhere we looked (although some of the lakes on post were inhabited by crocs and the like) and amazing historic homes. I loved to drive down main street in Ozark looking at old houses and fantasize about owning one of my own.

But that isn't where we lived. We lived in a house built some time in the 50's that was infested with mold and other critters (Alabama lingo for bugs). Animal control actually called themselves the "critter gitters". And even though the house was ugly as sin, smelled questionable, and made everything I hung on the walls look crooked, I LOVED it because for the first time in my life, I had a home that I could make look any way I wanted. With paint. And boy did I paint. I painted every wall in that place. 

I suppose that's where I developed my love for paint. Because it took my house on post from ridiculously hideous to a place I wanted to show off. Now that we have settled down and bought a house of our own, I have enjoyed painting the walls of my new house just as much as I did then. Its one of those things I don't think I'll ever get sick of. Being able to paint makes something gnarly into something beautiful and helps make a house into a home. Even though my husband isn't active duty, we have moved quite a bit and I'm one of those people who gets stir crazy after 2 years. Paint is one of those things that makes transitioning easier and I'm not going to complain about having a fresh canvas when we do move. Decorating a blank slate of a house is the best part about moving.

(Ingeniously painted wall. She used flat pain, a stencil, and clear acrylic spray paint.)

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(Her fabulous master bedroom)

(The baby's nursery/office/craft room.) 

(Her little girl's room. Best princess, girly room ever!)

You can tour her entire fabulous house HERE

Full Utah Re-Cap

For those who didn't know, I was able to go and spend a wonderful two weeks in Utah with Mr. Superman's family. Thank you again for hosting me!!

I know most of you have been waiting with baited breath to hear all about my fun (don't even try to deny it) so without further ado, here it is complete with major photo overload. 

I had so much fun and soaked up all the cold weather and snow that I could. After the glorious ha-ha days (where you can breath a ha-ha and see it) this 70-degree Arizona stuff is rather disappointing. We played, ate, laughed, watched movies, indulged in Harry Potter, and I got to meet The Annoyed Army Wife!! Man she's fabulous. Even my HHT (which causes horrendous nosebleeds) didn't stop me from sledding to my hearts content. 

Here are some photos which more than likely are not in order.

Olive Garden!!

Listening to Mr. Superman's sister Katie sing at a Christmas concert

Sledding with Mr. Superman's sisters Carrie and Katie at South Mountain.

Yucky nosebleed mid sledding.

Three people on a one person sled leads to....

This and this....

My back had some gnarly ice burn and my left leg and knee were pretty thrashed. My leg stayed under the sled while the rest of my body rolled down the mountain. Sweet.

First date night with The Annoyed Army Wife. We got lost in the mountains looking for a cupcake shop, abandoned hope and found a different cupcake shop, we saw Harry Potter 7 at the iMax and ended it all with a fabulous dinner at Chipotle. First photo was a fail.

Second? A success!

Seeing Harry Potter for a second time the Saturday after Turkey Day.

Headed outside to build a snowman that failed which turned into a snow fort that failed which turned into a snow tunnel.

Mr. Superman's mom at another of Katie's performances. I think she had five in a week. Insane!

Now for a quickie recap of my second date with The Annoyed Army Wife. She just happens to have that same 'gift of buying stuff because its on sale and then eventually finds a use for it' as me. She told me she had ABU fabric and I announced we should make stockings. Well we did just that.

It took me a while but I made a pattern out of computer paper, tape, a few bowls, and a book.

It's a good thing she knows how to sew because I hadn't done it in a very, very long time.

Thank goodness she had just recently made a hat with a complicated lining too otherwise we'd have been bigger messes than we already were. That is a broad use of the word 'we'.

While I was there we indulged in some gloriously delicious tortellini soup that she made (heaven!) and lots of giggles. I got to meet the chihuahuas and the bunnies. The size of Dennis shocked me. I've never seen a bunny that big. Anyway, a lot of you may have read about what happened in her post so I'll spare the details. All you need to know is it was fun. What date between two military wives with two deployed husbands would be complete without a visit from Murphy eh? None. Perhaps that is why we discovered her basement horribly flooded and had a nice run in with the high as a kite creeper chester'esk pot head who was sent to suck up all the water. I am pretty sure I have never seen anybody that high operating heavy machinery and trust me Lovelies, that is saying something. 

We didn't have time for me to completely finish the stockings but I did that yesterday and today. Here are the finished products! Try not to ooh and awe too much over my amazing picture taking skills.

• Outside: ABU fabric
• Lining: White fabric stitched to the green trim which are actually pieces of Army issued tourniquets. Yes, we are that good.
• Mr Superman's Extra's: Brown biased tape around the trim and for the loop. Across the pocket are antique/vintage buttons several of which have crests and eagles. 
• Mrs. S's Extra's: Cream lace from JoAnn's around the trim and for the loop. Cream lace also across the top of the pocket overlayed with antique/vintage diamond-esque buttons. 

Thank you to everyone who helped make my two week break amazing and full of fun!!

Family, I'll see you in Palm Desert in January.
Annoyed Army Wife, I'll see you in July (hopefullywithourhusbandsatoursides).