confessions

hello. my name is coley and i've had a lot on my plate these days. but i want to come back. a lot has happened since we last spoke, but i'm not ready to end this. i want to make this work.

wedding planning has been back in full swing now that our house is now liveable. here are some long overdue pics chez nous - mostly of the outside because we're still unpacking and making design changes. before and after shots to come soon (we didn't take near enough unfortunately).














we also took a trip to new orleans, la to celebrate our 4 year anniversary/ 1 year anniversary of being engaged and it was awesome. and although we were there to celebrate mostly, we also took the trip to take a breather and get refreshed to help get on the right track. we walked the french quarter, took the trolley to the garden district to walk magazine street, went to the french market, got snowballs, we ate at cafe du monde (chickory coffee and beignets!), took the nanchez river boat cruise, and did an awesome "haunted" tour. we had a great time all around and enjoyed the big easy (although it's good to note that it is not a vegetarian-friendly city for the majority, however angeli's on decatur street was ggggrreat)!








oh, and on a final note, i have decided i need this:

[cake topper from etsy seller, melabo]

i should also tell you...i've missed you [all]. how's things?
xo

back to reality

first off, i wanted to start today by saying thank you (x infinity) to any and all of you that stepped up last week to help show your love and support for jason and me! we are forever in awe and grateful. i also want to congratulate sam and kaitlyn on their upcoming free wedding!!! they are such an adorable couple (with a ridiculously cute little boy) and i hope that their wedding is all they could dream of and more!

j and i had a blast participating in the contest, but at the end of the day, we are super stoked to be able to plan our own wedding that is all about the things we love. and we will continue to do just that and share those plans with you guys! the save the dates will be going out this month and i can't wait to show everyone!

now that we're back in the mindset of that fall wedding (which i'll be honest, a fall wedding instead of a may wedding allows for me to get in back in shape before putting on a wedding dress so that's another plus!), i found a wonderful wedding to pull inspiration from!







[all images via fifth business's flickr]

i love the leaves on the ground with the huge trees in the background! the bike signs are so perfect and i love the streamers and tin cans. these bikes can give tandem bikes a run for their money any day.

happy monday!

p.s. jason and i are fully out of the apartment (yay for not being responsible for 2 residences) and made the commute to work from our house for the first time this morning! weird. also, it's so easy to forget that unpacking takes even longer than packing. sighs. at least there are no time contraints!

normalcy

it's amazing how much we crave stability. jason and i have almost fully packed up every pen, pot, and pillow. we are in the final stretch.

all we can daydream about is sleeping in, cooking dinner together, reading our daily dalai lama quotes (we have A LOT of catching up to do), listening to the birds in our backyard while eating breakfast, gardening, laying around while jason plays the harmonica, planning our next tallulah gorge hike, watching movies, going camping, riding bikes, and just being able to hang out with our friends and eachother. our lives have been so hectic that our brains and our bodies are just simply exhausted. i know that nothing can prepare you for times like this, but the good news is that we are so adaptable and we'll get through it like we always do. one day this will all just be a memory...and a damn good one at that.

this phosporescent video says it all. we may not technically be a-roaming, but we sure are ready to be home.


have a wonderful weekend and i promise to be back with some awesome wedding-related info next week. xo

p.s. only 2 more days to vote, so if you want to help out some folks who could sure use a free wedding, please vote for jason and me here!!!! i know we're awfully behind, but apparently votes won't fully determine the winner so every vote counts. it's not over 'til it's over, right?

go figure

so now that i'm home from the retailer convention that i attended this week, i am sick. super sick.

i guess when you're on your feet, giving the same presentation every 8 minutes for 11 hours within 2 days (no, i'm not kidding and somehow i still have my voice), getting sick seems pretty inevitable!

with that being said, jason and i now have to move tonight!!! hopefully we'll miss the rain! fingers crossed.

life will be normal soon. life will be normal soon. or so i keep telling myself.

it still hasn't hit me that last night was the last time we'll be sleeping in our apartment. good things to come...

tunes to get me through

after the grind of working on the house this weekend - i never want to paint trim again as long as i live. regardless, none of this makes being at work any easier today. but i will put on my ipod and i will carry on.

i'm excited about wednesday! jason and i are taking somewhat of a break from the house [ok, well maybe not all evening] but we are going to see phospherescent at the drunken unicorn venue in downtown atlanta! not only are they from athens [my college town] but one of my best friends, scott, is in the band and i haven't seen him in many years! if you haven't ever listened to them, you should definitely check them out.

in the meantime, here's a greatttt cover song to help get you through this manic monday. enjoy!

dream of stars

i am so happy that it is friday. although this weekend will yet again be another weekend dedicated entirely to working on the house [and it's supposed to rain-ugh], hopefully we'll get a bit more sleep than we have all week. and plus i get a jason-cooked breakfast which is my favorite. i hope your weekend is full of sunshine, good friends, great laughs, and lots of peace!

now that we're [somewhat] getting closer to being able to do more cosmetic changes on the house, i can't stop thinking about how i want to decorate the house to make it feel more like home. ever since i saw emily st.clair's artwork on nicole bach's living room wall, i have been smitten! i would love to have one of these pieces hanging in our new house!








i wonder if this was the inspiration?


"rituals are important. nowadays it's hip not to be married. i'm not interested in being hip" - john lennon

sneak peek

i know i've been complaining about all of the house work recently. maybe whining would be a better description, but either way i wanted to share some of the experiences with you!

we don't have any furniture moved in so it doesn't feel like home at all really - it's weird talking about "home" and that still being 2 different places. however, we did meet some of our neighbors yesterday which makes it feel more real! exciting!

we've painted 4 of the rooms so far [we have to paint every room, trim, closet, etc.] but i want to show you the paint colors we've picked and get your input! all paints are behr brand.

for the master bedroom, we chose mocha accent.


for the office, we went with ashwood but then due to the home depot drama, it's actually has a bit more grey in it than the ashwood below.


for the art room, we went with sonata for a pop of color.


for the kitchen, feather gold to go with our blue/ teal tiles.


for the main hallway and dining room, the lovely mother nature.


for the living room, we went just a tiny bit darker than the color that was already in the room but it needed to be touched up. let me introduce you to castle path.


for the add on guest bath, we chose spring hill.


for the guest bedroom, we went with garden wall.


and last, but not least, we will have sandstone cove in the add on hallway.


fingers crossed that it looks good once it's all painted! also, fingers crossed that eventually the paint fume smell goes away!

p.s. i just noticed that jason and i were obviously biased towards browns and beiges. we were aiming for earthy organic colors. hmm...go figure.

[paint samples from http://www.myperfectcolor.com/]

merci beaucoup

[photo via nisedesigns flickr]

i wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has stopped by my blog since january! the love and support of such an amazing and talented community is breathtaking! i appreciate all of the wonderful advice, inspiration, and thoughtfulness! my wedding planning process would definitely be more difficult without you all!

i haven't updated in over a week and i've been feeling horrible about it! this past week [actually the past few!] have been a bit overwhelming with the new house that once i leave work, i am working on the house with j until extremely late and by the time i get back to our apartment [our lease is up during the first week of april thankfully because the house isn't ready just yet], we cram an unhealthy [ughhh] dinner down our throats and then we pass out before we hit the bed. somewhere in here, i'm hoping this helps justify my lack of posting. sadly, it has been affecting my inspiration [and sleeping needs]. also, i should note that having home depot give us the wrong paint color to use as touch up paint [which results in us having to repaint the WHOLE room tonight] definitely lowered our spirits after this loooong work weekend! at least it was beautiful outside!

i know that with each repair we fix, each wall we paint, and each sleepless night we have will result in an extreme happiness once we are completed. for now we are just kind of on auto pilot trying to get everything we need to done. once again [because i could never say this enough] we couldn't thank our family and friends more for their love and support!

anyways, i hope to have some great [wedding-related] posts this week, but really - thanks again for everything. xo

"let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful" - buddha

cars and guitars

the boy and i have already started working on the house and it feels so great. we have a LONG way to go and i couldn't be more thankful that we have a month to fix it up before we have to move and our current lease runs out. owning a house is definitely a labor of love and i can't wait to show you all the before and after pictures!

we only have one other tiny part of the save the dates to make and those will be able to be sent out! that reminds me, i need to start getting together all of the addresses!

i also need to start working on the birdcage veil. i have all of the materials, but i just need someone to let me use them as a model to make it. jason might have to step up to the plate on this one - which would be so funny [i may have to take a picture while he isn't looking]!

hayley and tyson's wedding below is totally motivating me to get started on the birdcage veil. the bride looks so cute in her veil! so classy and fun! i love the flowers and setting for their wedding. i should also mention that i love the picture of hayley and her dad! his beard is amazing!







[all images via hayleyandtyson's flickr page and veronica olson photography]

live simply that others might simply live

readymade magazine asked different artists to recreate the populist poster art during the great depression. below are some of the resulting posters [my favorites!]. all are available from readymade to download for free so check them out!

i can't wait to frame this first print to hang up in our new house! i think the message is timeless and dead on. i have already started donating garbage bags [4 already!] full of clothing, shoes, and more to the local goodwill. i am really trying to live more simply and in turn, more conscientously! at the end of the day, i've already got everything that i could ever need.






[images via readymade.com]
[header quote via elizabeth seaton]

have any of you recently made any attempts to simplify your life? if so, which changes had the biggest impact on your standard of living?

first

so as of yesterday at 3:00 pm EST, jason and i officially became homeowners!!! this is our new house!

for this past week i have been so busy trying to make sure everything was in order to close on time for our house and i couldn't feel happier. j and i have worked so hard and now we will have a home to call our own. we can't wait to paint, garden, sew curtains, and just give our new house [gosh that feels so weird to say!] some personal touches. we know it's going to take some work, but we're ready! i will definitely share pictures of the rest of the house soon and keep you guys posted on the design and upgrades! if you have any advice or suggestions, please send them our way!

although we've got some work to do, i really need to kick it into wedding planning mode. i know i keep saying this, but i'm really trying to get myself motivated. jason and i worked on the design for the save-the-dates today and i can't wait to get them done so that i can share! i hope you guys will like it!

i think my biggest hiccup is the catering. we have the venue and if only the catering was decided on, i think i'd feel more at ease about the planning. the first catering proposal we got has EVERYTHING included but it also includes the hefty price tag (even considering the vegetarian menu). although i couldn't bear to pay the proposed amount, it sure would be easy to have the catering company handle all rentals and everything in between. i know i kept telling my dad that i could handle it all, but somedays i feel like having some intervention could really lessen the stress.

with a guestlist of 150, what would you suggest as the cheapest catering option? jason keeps suggesting that we ask family to help with cooking for the wedding, but i don't want to instill the stress or responsibility of feeding 150 people on our family.

hmm...maybe pizza could work? it looks awesome at the wedding below and the guests don't seem to have a problem with it! any thoughts?

in the meantime, enjoy this amazing portland wedding!



[all wedding images via evrim gallery]

"we shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started...and know the place for the first time" - t.s. eliot

celebrate

this wedding is making my day. the sweet dress and birdcage veil combo is wonderful. and the "just married" sidewalk chalk is so creative and so easy on the eyes [and wallet]. i also love their officiant's sash that reads "celebrate!"




[all images via kara anderson's flickr]

on a side note, j and i are still celebrating our soon-to-be new house! we close in exactly 9 days! also our parents got to see the house tonight and it makes it seem that much more real! we have a lot of little things to upgrade and repair but we're super excited about the adventure! however, once this is done it means that i have to get serious about the wedding planning and diy stuff that has been looming over my head. one thing at a time...or so i keep telling myself. oh the joys of planning a wedding while still trying to lead a normal life.

time to catch up on past office episodes that i have missed with my j. so fun!