Closing the Chapter.

I've been doing a lot of personal reflecting over the past few months in preparation for the New Year. 2014 was such a good year for me and the Mr. We literally received more blessings this year than I think I've ever had before. 

It was a year marked with so many firsts for the both of us, our first home and our first child among them. 

As I've been reflecting I've realized that 2014 marks the end of a decade of firsts for me. And also in some ways marks the end of my life chapter as a young adult. In the past ten years I've grown and shaped myself into the person I am right now. And wow, it's amazing to be sitting here and thinking about the last 10 years and to know that this is it. This is my life. I've finally, finally made it to the part where I know who I am, what I want, and where I want to be. 

Closing out this chapter in my life is such a feeling of accomplishment. Knowing that I was able to see and do so much over these last 10 years gives me a sense of preparedness for the upcoming chapters. And it gives me unexplainable joy and excitement to think about all that is yet to come for me and my family. 

I feel it's only fitting to close out this blog. I rarely update it anyway, so I'm sure most of you aren't super surprised. But it's time to move on to bigger and better things. Don't worry, I have a few things in the works, a new family blog and cooking blog among them. If you are desperate for updates in the mean time and really wanna know whats going on day to day for me, check out my Instagram acct. I'm on there far more than any other social media site. 

So with bittersweet feelings, I'll XOXO you one last time. See you around. 

XOXOXOXO

The Mrs. 

Nursery Remodel

(The original room) 

Well these last few months have not been lacking in things to do. We have been anxiously preparing and awaiting the arrival of our little bundle of joy. Who is here by the way! And we are so excited to have him in our lives. He is the best part of my day everyday! Even when I'm running on 0 hours of sleep. 

I wanted to post one of our main projects from this summer. Earlier this year we were fortunate enough to purchase our first home. A beautiful brick front townhome. We have slowly been going through and making it our own. And the nursery was no exception. When trying to choose a nursery theme I knew I wanted to stay away from sports (gasp I know, the hockey mom doesn't want a sports theme?!) I wanted it to be something different than your typical nursery so I settled on a Vintage aviation theme. Focusing mostly on hot air balloons and world travel, while still trying to keep it in the realm of a little boys room. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and we really didn't have to spend too terribly much money which makes it even better. I'll list out below everything we purchased vs what we refinished ourselves. 

John started by putting crown moulding and chair rail up. We did the chair rail higher than standardly done. It's about 2/3 up the wall. The paint colors we used were from Sherwin Williams. The blue is Resolute Blue and the cream is called Designer White. We finished all the trim in a gloss called Snowbound.

John and my dad wired the ceiling fan through our attic access. Finding one small enough for the room was a bit of a challange. The room is only 8x8 essentially so a standard fan was definitely too big. We found this little guy at Lowes for a steal of a deal.

 John and I had many conversations about what to do in the closet. We went to the HoDeDo and actually bought a pre-made built in unit. Upon arriving home John decided he didn't like it and wanted to try and custom make his own. I was 38 weeks and needless to say freaked out a little! However it worked out for the best. I made these size dividers out of scrapbook paper and rings I bought at the container store. I stamped the sizes on the top and love how they turned out.

This chest was an especially fun project. My Mother in law had this peice sitting in her garage. When my mom came to visit we cleaned it up, gave it a fresh coat of paint and then decided to custom fit it to the nursery theme by hand painting hot air balloons onto some old travel maps my mom had from a trip to Europe. I love how it turned out. 

It's probably my favorite piece in the whole room. 

 

 We are using it as a diaper changing station and used bins from Lowes to organize burp clothes, diapers, wipes, and swaddle blankets inside. My changing pad fits perfectly on top of it.

So here are is the finalized product of a summers worth of hard work. 

The rocking chair was my Mother in laws. She used it to rock my husband and all her other children. It fits perfectly in our tiny space! The hot air balloon mobile was hand made by my mother. 

The shelves were a great deal from The Container Store. I made the G and my sister made the two matching map cnvases. The binoculars were a score from a thrift shop in MD that my bestie Gentri got me. The banner was leftover party decorations from my baby shower. 

Johns custom closet. It turned out WAY better than the HoDeDo built in ever could of looked. I guess it was worth it. 

 The crib was a gift from my Mother in law and that amazing basket came from the PA's I worked with. It's full of extra diapers. But I love it because it totally looks like a hot air balloon basket. The rug was a lucky find off amazon but it worked perfectly and is super plush. Both framed pictures were gifts from my mother and my MIL. There are so many custom and personal touches to this room from family members and I think that really makes it even better.

Glad that's over with! Now we just have the rest of the house to go!

Graysons Nursery :

Crib - Babies R Us - gift from MIL
Hot Air balloon Rug - Amazon.com
Rocker - hand me down from MIL
Chest - refinished hand me down from MIL
Crown moulding - custom done by the Mr.
Closet - custom built by the Mr.
Clothes size rings - The Container Store/Michaels
Ceiling Fan - Lowes
Shelves - The Container Store

XOXO

The Mrs.

Spring in Arlington

hi.

It's me.

Anybody out there??

So it's been a hot minute since I was on here. In my defense, I've been busy. growing a human is a lot of work... Oh did I forget to mention.. I'm expecting baby Dow in August?

My bad! This growing a human thing is no joke. The first trimester was the PITS! But thats a different post maybe for a different day. Bottom line. Baby Dow will be making an appearance in August in our lives. Which means I may not be making an appearance on here for a while... We will see. 

Anyway Fast forward a bit to Spring. Which FINALLY decided to visit us here in NOVA. My darling family flew up to visit us this past weekend and we had such a great time relaxing and spending time in Arlington. My grandfather is buried in Arlington National Cemetery so we got to go visit his grave site, and then paid our respects to the Tomb of the Unknown and just wandered around the beautiful grounds. I can't think of a more beautiful place for the people that sacrifice so much to be laid to rest. The feeling of order and peace on these hallowed grounds is amazing and if you haven't been I highly recommend going. It's a beautiful experience and these images capturing my family and the beauty of Spring in Arlington were too pretty not to share! So Enjoy! And see you in a few months... maybe. 

xoxo

The Mrs.

Double Whammy... We are both expecting.... 

4 generations right here ladies and gents.

QOTD

This is so true. How often are we too afraid of rejection that we don't even bother trying to be friendly to strangers. I know that as I'm out and about I am guilty of doing the duck and weave. No eye contact, just keep going. I'm going to challenge myself to break that habit and to start smiling and stop avoiding. Sure I might get weird looks, or frowns, or people quickly looking away. But that's ok, cause I really don't have anything to lose. 

The Mrs. 

Oh Hello You

I'm dusting off my blogging cobwebs... and they are thick. I had so many plans for my blog this year. And I have sadly let them all fall by the wayside. Life has been busy. That is my honest truth. Between family obligations, work being an absolute nightmare and trying to squeeze in as many fun things with the Mr. that I can I have had zero time that I have felt like dedicating to this blog. Maybe someday when I don't work full time anymore I will pursue those dreams again. I hope so. But for now let's just settle for a quick Pinterest update.  Here are my 3 favs from the last few months.

 Sometimes I feel like my blog is to try and impress others. And that has been a key factor to me not updating it. It used to be more of a journal type thing for me. And then suddenly I felt like I had to catch up to all my amazing blogging friends. Turns out I suck at that. So ya... I'm just going to live vicariously through them. 

This one is so true. November was an absolute nightmare for me. My only escape was reading in the evenings to give my mind a break from the stresses placed on me. The power of the written word is amazing and I love getting lost in a book. 

This has pretty much become my motto this fall. I'm hoping that I will be a bit more fabulous in the new year. It's on my resolution list. But we will see.

No promises,

The Mrs.

Travel Thursdays, Hawaii Life pt 2

Hello Lovelies!

Welcome to my first ever Travel Thursday!

I am really hoping to develop Travel Thursdays on the blog into something that can eventually have guest bloggers so if you have an adventure and are willing to share keep me in mind! Traveling is the one thing that I am passionate above a lot of other things so you can expect my blog to take a shift in that direction soon!

Enough of my rambling though... On to Part 2 of the the Lovely Hawaiian Adventure that I recently took!

The Big Island of Hawaii is a very active Volcano. So of course the best part of a live volcano is that lava right? I was all for hiking down through the lava fields to the shore to watch the lava flowing into the ocean, or taking a boat tour right up to the active rift zone, at sunset. I'm all about mood lighting.
However the more... conservative... members of my travel party vetoed my vote by offering a view by air instead. And it was breathtaking. We saw everything from the Volcanoes, to the valleys, all the major waterfalls and the ranches covering the island. Definitely a must do if you are there. We covered a lot of ground and it gave us a good overview of the whole Island.
Bit on the pricey side, but well worth it.

 

Our Helicopter was a 6 passanger Eco-Star. It was awesome and was a pretty smooth ride for how windy out it was. There were a few times I gripped my seat as we came around the windier parts and the poor Russian girl in our hilo with us was very motion sick... Wear your Sea Bands! 

 

It was so surreal to see the Earth building itself up at the cost line. The steam was hundreds of feet tall coming off the lava going into the ocean. 

It was really beautiful. 

A look at the mouth of the crater of one of the 6 volcanoes on the Big Island. This one is actively flowing and we saw lots of breakaways... Ok Mom maybe you were right and it wasn't the best idea to go hiking across the lava field.... Still would of made for some great photos though. There isn't anything I'm not willing to do for a good picture apparently. Anywho. The mouth of the thing was glowing like crazy for mid afternoon. Again I'll voice how amazing it was to see the Earth literally breathing and growing right underneath us.

The view of Waipio Vally from the ocean was beautiful. I think one of the neatest things about Hawaii is the combination of the cliffs and the ocean combined. 

One of my favorite places that we visited on the Big Island was South Point. Which just so happens to be so aptly named as it is the Southern most point of the United States! Looking out into the ocean and knowing that there was nothing between me and Antarctica was pretty amazing. South Point was nature at it's finest. The waves were so loud and rough crashing into the shore at 90 degree angles. The trade winds coming from both direction were like whips hitting us. It was absolutely amazing. I feel like this is one of the few places in the world you can actually feel Mother natures power. Hawaii is such a volatile state and it was really breathtaking to experience the vengeful side of nature that is an everyday occurrence there.

 I could of stayed here for hours watching these waves roll in! I probably would of gone deaf from the wind noise though!

  We all lost our footing more than once. Don't fall in!

Still don't believe me about the wind? Check out the tree above... One of the most amazing shots from the whole trip probably. (I was hanging out of the car's sun roof to get this shot.)

On our Day trip around the Big Island we stopped off at Punalu'u Black Sand Beach State Park. WOW. I have never experienced a beach like this. The black sand was much coarser than the beaches in Florida I'm used to, but it wasn't rough. Think of it like a really good exfoliation at the salon! The shore was a mix of pebbles and finely ground up lava.

Visiting a Black sand beach was on my Life Bucket List so I was super excited to be able to check that off my list!

This particular beach is also a favorite place for some of the locals! Sea Turtles! They were so big and so chill. They just hung out wherever the waves rolled them up. This guy washed up and then just fell asleep on that rock. We were able to get pretty close too. 

 My Momma taking a rest from exploring on a lava dome on the beach. Isn't she pretty??

Definitely worth a stop. Even if it is out of your way I highly recommend visiting Punalu'u. It's a once in a lifetime experience for sure!

Deep Sea Fishing. Being an Island fishing is a huge thing. And EATING fish is a local must do! Seeing as you are closer to Japan sometimes than the states as well that means Sushi is pretty popular on the Isalnds. And what do you put in Sushi? Ahi Tuna!

 Check out my man's 129 lb Yellow Fin Ahi Tuna! That thing was a BEAST! Congrats babe I now know we won't starve if we have to live in the middle of the ocean! HAH! The Hubs and my Daddy chartered a private boat and took it out for 6 hours. They both caught these beautiful tuna's.

XOXO The Mrs.

Live Aloha!

Tonight I am so excited to bring you the first in my Hawaii Life posts! These will be all about my recent trip to the Beautiful state of Hawaii and will be kicking off a new posting series on my blog called Travel Thursdays.

Let me just start by saying that Hawaii is amazing!
We stayed 6 days on the Big Island, Kona coast, and 2 days 1 night on Ohau, Waikiki Beach. I feel like we conquered the Big Island. We drove around as much as we could without driving into an active lava flow, saw 1/3 of the island by helicopter, and explored every small town we passed! Here are the treasures we found during our many day trips around the Big Island...

**Just so you know this is not in order of how we did things on our trip, but I tried to group similar activities together**

The Hawaiian Vanilla Company factory is a gem of a find on the Big Island. It is the only vanilla factory in the Islands, and it smelled amazing here. It is a full vanilla farm and they give tours to show how the beans are harvested. We didn't get to go on a tour, but we looked around the farm and shop and got the most amazing fresh vanilla bean ice cream. They partner with a local dairy farm and have them infuse their vanilla beans into their ice cream. It was the BEST vanilla ice cream I've ever had! I love shopping local.

I loved these doors leading into the shop, they were huge and heavy and had the coolest details on them like those door handles! 

The shop was adorable and they had the most delicious smelling products, everything from pancake mixes, to teas, lotions, body scrubs, and even BBQ sauce! We of course grabbed a few bottles of vanilla extract and I got this amazing body lotion that smells heavenly. 

They had these beauties everywhere. They are so cool. It's like a cactus mixed with a rose.

For my Birthday I decided I wanted to hike some waterfalls around the Island and to visit the famous Waipio Valley. We decided on Akaka Falls and the lookout for the Waipio Valley. Both were absolutely gorgeous and the views were breath taking.

The Mr. and I at the Akaka falls lookout.

The falls are 442 ft tall and legend says that they are named after Chief Akaka. He fell to his death from them after being caught cheating on his wife with another woman. There is a large red rock at the bottom of the pools that legend says he turned into when he fell from the falls. The nearby Kahuna falls is said to be his mistress and the large rocks at the top of the falls are said to be his wife and dog watching down on him. Kind of a sad story... But the falls were gorgeous! And they were a super easy hike as well. So don't count them out if you aren't wanting anything too strenuous.


What says Hawaii More than Sunsets on the beach? We had ample opportunity to take in this Hawaiian experience almost nightly! Growing up on the East coast you get to see the Sunrise over the ocean any morning you feel like waking up at 6am. But there is something so spectacular about watching the sun go down into the ocean!

 The quintessential Hawaiian Sunset... Don't you think? I have a hundred pictures of this, it was so hard to choose just one. But I loved this palm tree. I wish there was a way to put sound with pictures because one of my favorite things about the ocean is the sound of the breeze going through the palm trees.

While on the Big Island we explored several local beaches. One of my favorites was Hapuna Beach State Park. It was a shell sand beach and was long and wide and not very crowded. The water wasn't as warm as the Atlantic that I'm used to but it was very refreshing on the hot June day! We spent the whole morning here one day just taking in the sights and sounds of the ocean. Not a care in the world eating macadamia nuts and relaxing to the sounds of the waves. Ah vacation.... You bring such peace to my soul!

 This beach was particularly cool because it had all these fun rock formations on either end of it, and on one end there was actually a natural cave you could get into when the tide was low enough. So fun. I kind of expected to find Narnia inside of it... I still loved the tidal pools and lava rocks though.

 One of my most favorite places we went while on the big Island was the Lava Lava Beach Club. This place was perfect in every way. It is an all open air restaurant right on the beach. At night they have local musicians come in and do a mix of hawaiian, reggae and top 40 songs. The picture above and on the right is our view from our table one night. (It was so good we had to go twice!) They served everything from Barbecue ribs (AMAZING) to the fresh catch of the day, I had the Mahi Mahi, It was exquisite. The atmosphere was so casual and comfortable and the wait staff was all so laid back. They bring you your check in a childrens book instead of a normal black check folder. You could take a marker and write a message about your experience or to your waiter over the pages of the book. It was such a fun and unique dining experience that I am already craving being back home!

 Since I can't be sitting on the beach there I'll just have to settle for my satellite radio to bring me the hits from my favorite Hawaiian radio station that is all to blame for this trip, 93.1 Da Pa'ina.

Stay tuned for the rest of my Hawaii Life posts!

XOXO
The Mrs.