Ryan's 30th!

I've been a bit incognito lately. 

Sorry! :(

BUT is was due to the fact that I was so 

busy getting ready for my hubby's 

(SURPRISE) 30th Birthday Party!

Surprise birthdays are hard to pull off. 

Especially when you live with

the person you are suprising.

I spent hours worrying if he was going 

to walk in while I made the invitations or

worrying he'd catch me in a little white lie.

I was relieved when he finally knew about it.

Probably because I am a horrible liar.

I couldn't remember what I had and hadn't told him.

I had out of town guests hiding from him for a few days!

All in all though it was worth it.

Here are a few pictures from the party.

Table Decorations

My Family... Gotta Love them!

My Niece Kinzee with her Mom & Dad :)

The Infamous Couple that set Ryan & I up... :)

Mike & Maria

Nano & Ashley

Ryan's Uncle Kelly, Aunt Jill, & Uncle Stanley

Rich & Danae

Teunis & Grandma Pat

Hank & Kate

The Birthday Boy

My niece Keira... She was upset we were having Ryan's party on her birthday!
So Grandma Lori made it all better by buying her Cinderella's Castle!

I was new to planning a surprise party...
So here are a few tips I would have found helpful from my experience:

1. Plan the party a week or 2 before their actual birthday. 

It's more of a surprise.
They will have a sneaking suspicion

the closer it gets to their birth date.

2. GO on lots of "girl" (or "man") dates to get away... 

You'll need every spare moment.

3. Use Pinterest to help for any quick 

decorating ideas or even invitation ideas.

4. Make sure your plan to get the honoree party person

to the destination doesn't involve too many people &

make sure you are all on the same page for your story.

Those are just a few things....

I'll post the invitations here soon.

You'll love them.

Thanks to Pinterest for the idea!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Life (aka House) Update

Hey everybody!!!
Life sure has been busy here...
But when is it ever not?
Christmas has come and gone...

Sad day...

A new year is here...
Where does time go?

Lately our time has been busy with the
holiday hustle and bustle...
With a side of redoing our floors.

Back in November I went to the beach without the hubs and he calls saying,
"Hey babe... Don't get mad but...
 I ripped up all the carpet in our house!"

I'm thinking.... "Yay!!! That carpet is gone!"
I'm also thinking..."crap... What does our house look like?
What am I coming home to?"

Well....
Underneath the carpet was just some linoleum &
 underneath that was some particle board....
BUMMER!!!

I was secretly wishing there were wood floors.

I mean this house is old.
There would HAVE to be wood floors, right?

WELL...
The hubs calls again a few hours later and says,
"Babe! Guess What?"

I'm thinking... "You just spent $500.00 at home depot, huh?"

"There goes my spending cash... huh?"

Nope....
"There's wood floors!!!!"

What???
Wood Floors!!!!
***Happy Dance***

Here's Ryan carrying out the carpet...

The Carpet

See the wood floors??? :)

Tiles where the wood floor wasn't....

Rainey being her usual helpful self
pinning down her papa with a million kisses... :)

You can see the hideous carpets...
So glad to be rid of them.

There weren't wood floors underneath all of the carpet.
***sob sob***
(This 850 square foot house has been added onto 3 times!)
We happened to hit part of the addition which didn't have
the old wood floors & had to tile the floors instead.

So that's our house update...
As far as Christmas goes...
It came and left much too quickly this year.
Every year I try to buy a few new

(but matching because I'm anal)
Christmas ornaments for our tree.
This year, I found the

CUTEST

PLAID

TWIGGY

BIRDS

TA DA!
SO CUTE
<3 at first sight

Unfortunately... All I have for a picture of our whole tree is blurry!
Of course I hadn't noticed until I tore down the whole thing....
:(

Have you seen those ruffle tree skirts on pinterest?
The no sew ones?
Like this one here!

I made one...
Of course mine pictured isn't as beautiful....
Dang camera...
Why was it blurry??
Oh well...
Here's the blurry pic anyway...
You get the idea, right?

That's the latest here....
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas
& a happy new year!
xxxoooxxx

Talia

Favorite Time of the Year!

So if any of you know me at all, I LOVE Christmas!

It's so much fun for me.

I love decorating the Christmas tree.

I love watching Christmas movies, like Home Alone 1 & 2,

Miracle on 34th Street, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, etc...

My poor husband think I'm like a 4 year old when it comes to Christmas.

I think he's like a grumpy old man (possibly Scrooge?) when it comes to Christmas...

There's a balance in there.

 Some where.

Well.... I usually have my house decorated by now.

This year, not so much.

Not because I don't want to!

Trust me!
We've just been working non-stop on our flooring.
Pictures to come soon.

So since I cannot decorate yet...
I'm going to live vicariously through Pinterest.
Here are my favorite things...

Fireplaces:

I love this living room.
I would so decorate like this.

I love this mantle because it blends so well with the homes every day decor that it's a nice simple soft Christmas touch.

If I had a log cabin.... This would be my Christmas decoration for it. <3

I think these wreaths are kinda cool... Not your typical wreath hanging.

I love these lights with the sheer curtains over. *swoon*

If I lived in NYC, I'd decorate like this.

I love this dining room... So sweet & soft

I plan on making the burlap garland.... Maybe even the tulle... So cute!

I have already made something similar to this. Which once I decorate, I will show you! :)

I love the burlap stockings!
These would be so adorable in a beach style house with starfishes hanging with the letters!

LOVE the garland on this bed with the stars... So beautiful!

Love the garland over the mirror... Mine wouldn't say DREAM though...

Love the matching but not the same wrapping idea here!

Hilarious Ornament...

Love the candy Canes over the window with garland!

Love this home!

This is pretty much me... :)

Funny Stuff

Print this out and frame it for easy decoration!

Ha!

Reindeer Names! Love them!

This is my future absolutely adorable daughter at a Christmas party... :)

All of my pictures came from pins on my Pinterest board called Holidays.

Hopefully this weekend I will have my decorations up...
Wishful thinking?
I hope not!

House Update

About 2 weeks ago. We decided to see if our house had hardwood floors underneath the carpet.

Our thought was that our house was so old, there HAD to be wood floors, right?

This house originally never even had a bathroom. It had an outhouse.

Do you remember what our carpet looked like before?

Here's a picture you can see it in:

I know you can't see much of it... 

But you at least get an idea of the beautiful colors.

So we started by ripping up carpet in our hallway.

Underneath the carpet was old linoleum tile.
Underneath the linoleum tile was particle board.
Bummer!
Well over by the door the particle board was rotted out…
Cha Ching!
Score!
Wood floors after all!
*Happy Dance*

So our weeknights and weekends have been bombarded with getting all those layers of flooring out the door.
It’s been a lot of hard, hard work.

I have blisters, bruises, and calluses to prove!
I don’t have any pictures for you now,
but I promise they will come when I can find my camera in my mess of a home.

Excited to be posting pictures of it soon!

xxooxx
Talia

We Have A Winner!

I went here to get a random number. I entered 1-4 (number of entries) &:
#2 was our random number....

Number 2 is Teena!!!
Yay!
Teena won a personalized set of 12 Glass Christmas Bulbs!
Congrats!
Please contact me with information about what letter you would like on your Christmas Bulbs!

1st Ever Blog Giveaway!

Starting NOW!

Are you ready for this one???
What can I say about this giveaway....

Well for starters, it's Christmas related.
(Of course )
:)

Second, it's something you put on a Christmas Tree!
(WOO HOO!)

Third, it's personalized to cater to you.
(Yup... any letter of the alphabet... All 26...I can do!)
(Aren't you proud?)




Know what it is yet???













Personalized Christmas Bulbs!
Specially for YOU!
Set of 12!

Original Source here.

To enter you must be a follower either by e-mail or by Google friend connect.

Google friend connect is located at the bottom of my blog.
Email is to the upper right-hand side of my blog.

Then you have to tell leave a comment telling me your
most favorite thing about Christmas tree decorating!

Please don't leave a comment as "Anonymous"
I wont know who you are.
:D

Giveaway will be closed Monday, November 7th, 2011 at 11:59 pm (PST)

My most favorite thing about Christmas Tree Decorating is all the memories I have.
Like this one year I leaned over a candle and my hair caught on fire.
Not all of it though.
It pretty much just died out itself before I even knew what happened.


Good Times!

Excited to see what you all post!

xxxoooxxx

Talia