Home Sweet Home.

Remember this? Well, I finally finished (and hung) my version!

I just love it--and am so proud that it's something I actually made, vs. bought at HomeGoods and just pretended I made it. Some letters were purchased as-is, and others I painted and played with a bit more. You'll also notice that the first M, W and last E are different than my original plan. I found more treasures since October and simply had to use them!

For those that need a little inspiration, most of these are from Hobby Lobby (use the 40% coupons or buy when on sale!). I also got a few of the unfinished ones from Michael's and JoAnn Fabrics (same story with the coupons, yo). The whole thing cost less than $30.

And the best part is there's not a SINGLE nail whole in the wall! I used these to hang them. (And pretty much everything in our house, because a hole in my brand new walls? So not happening.)

Be inspired, my friends! If I, the self-proclaimed "uncrafty Queen" can do it, so can you!

Five.

Today is a great day of celebration: the VeeDubs are celebrating 5 crazy years of wedded bliss!

And while normally I am very tongue-in-cheek, not-so-seriously-sarcastic and adorably humorous about expressing the love I have in my heart and girlybits for my husband, I'm finding that today I just want to have a rare moment of genuine sincerity and hard core truths.

There is a love capable by humans that, quite frankly, I didn't know/believe existed until I met Joe. It's so deep and rare that it's almost unexplainable and unfathomable. And I'm not super sure that over the course of the last year(ish) that I've been all that great about truly expressing that. Because if I'm totally honest with myself and also the Internet at-large, this last year has contained far more than its fair share of suckage. It has been largely shitty, and he has carried me through all of it. All of it.

But then I slap myself right smack in the face and am reminded of all the good and all the love and all the memories and all the the moments. We laughed and traveled to new places. We held hands as our healthy, hilarious son blew the candles out on his 3rd birthday cake. We worked hard and built a home. We watched friends and family celebrate joyous occasions in their own lives. We lived.

And that's really what love is about, isn't it? It's about buckling in, holding on for dear life and riding the highs and surviving the lows--and coming out the other end stronger and better for having done it together.

There is no one else I would rather do this life with. My God, I am lucky.

My grandmother's nook.

And no, not a tablet PC. A literal nook in our house. Specifically, this one:

It's the corner of our master bedroom and I LOVE it. (Aside from the curtains that need to be hemmed and steamed.) The table is perhaps the most special part, because it belonged to my Great Grandma.

It used to look like this:

But with a touch of love and a little bit of Martha Stewart's Hosta paint, it's the perfect piece. I had so much fun painting it--locked myself in the basement, turned on Francesca Battistelli on Pandora and went to town. I actually don't have any memories of my Great Grandma, so it was really my Grandma that I was sharing a moment with. The hardware for the table was stored in a baggie in the drawer with her handwriting on it, and I got teary eyed as I tightened them back in when the paint was dry...imagining her taking them out in the same way, putting them in the bag and labeling it so carefully with her shaky hands, "hardware for dresser. 6 pcs. from mother."

And now the table has a special spot in my home. Atop it sits a photo from my wedding day--a day she wasn't there for in person, but I carried a piece of her on my bouquet. Next to it, a little red bottle from which Joe and I took communion from on the day before our wedding--a special gift from my Mom, but the holder actually belonged to the same Grandma. And in the vase are the rose petals from my actual bouquet.

On the wall is a cool vintage frame I found on one of my many treasure hunts with Sarah. And inside that is my housewarming gift to Joe - a framed piece with all sorts of words about love, life and our relationship.

So there's a peek into one of my favorite little spaces in the house. As soon as I finish Alex's room, that'll be next!

A proper yard.

As we turned the corner onto our street yesterday, we were greeted by a lovely green surprise.

Sod. AKA how the VeeDubs grow a yard. And Alex, the smartest kid ever, said, "Look, Mom! Somebody made our grass!"

Doc McStuffins.

A new favorite in our house, and quite possibly too cute for words. Behold:

Big boy room.

Up until the new house, Alex was still in his crib. Boy loves his sleep like his Momma (read: very much) and never tried to climb out, so we didn't mess with a good thing. However, we thought the new house was as good a time as any to transition him into his big boy room.

I asked him what he wanted his room to look like, and to no one's surprise, he asked for race cars. I totally delivered on that promise.

Uncle Kyle helped me get the bed into the room...

And by the time he got home from daycare, it was ready for him to see:


And with the exception of a few random fears (all solved with the purchase of a Dreamlight...and if your kids watch the Sprout channel, I'm SO sorry that the DreamlightDreamlightStarryNightWithDreamlight commercial will now be playing in our head all day long), the transition to the big boy bed has been a successful one!

Why anyone would choose to do this more than once in a lifetime, I will never know.

I promise that I was genuinely planning on blogging daily updates of the move. But then we were actually in the process of moving and I realized how much it totally sucks and didn't even have the energy to brush my hair let alone type words and string them into coherent and entertaining sentences.

But here we are, almost a week later. My quads and calves are embarrassingly sore. This two-story house thing is going to be GREAT for the figure, though. My Dad says were about 1 month ahead of "normal" people in terms of how "moved in" we are, but I can only attribute that success to the help of my Mom, Dad, Kyle, Jill, Sarah, Susan and John. It's true what they say about many hands making light work!

Anyway, it was the end of one era...

And the beginning of another...

And if you thought I was kidding about wearing a tiara and wielding a wand...(thanks, Mom!)

We have a few more things to put together (IKEA challenge post coming soon...) and some final touches to make on certain rooms so I will do a home tour later. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek at one of my favorite arrangements in the house: