my new purchase.

remember that purchase for the house i was so excited to make? the one i made a trip to marshall's specifically for the purpose of making this one purchase? well i got so wrapped up in the other purchase i made that i forgot to show you this little beaut.

isn't she lovely?

christmas decorations.

i don't like how a single picture turned out; that's why i've been reluctant to post pictures. the room doesn't glow in the pictures the way it does in real life. i tried taking pictures with the flash, without the flash, with the overhead lights on, with them off ... you can get the idea. everyone continues to request pictures though, so here we go ...

random thoughts.

01. i really don't know how i let so much time pass in between my posts.

02. for the first time in as long as i can remember, i finally know what people mean when they say they don't want to sit in front of a computer when they get home from work. i love being online, but lately when i get home from work, it's not that i don't want to ... i'm just so exhausted. i have an hour drive home from work, and i rarely get home before 7:00. then it's time for dinner, a show with my boys, and time to prepare for the next day.

03. i LOVE this time of year, but i really do feel like it is passing all too quickly. i've waited and waited for the christmas season and now it's at the end of this week!

04. holiday vacations were so much better when you were a kid (or a school teacher)

05. i love. love. love. seeing the apartment all decorated for christmas.

06. i bought a tree at the owasso christmas tree farm all by myself last week. travis and i had decided we weren't going to have a tree, but on the drive home i just couldn't bear the thought of that, so i stopped off at the tree farm, picked a beautiful tree, had the guys load it up on my car, and headed home. travis was in class and i didn't want it to get stolen off my car, so i drove around looking at all of the beautiful christmas lights. travis was surprised to find me at home with a tree, but he got it unloaded. while he was setting it up i went to target to get a stand for the tree. when i got home we got it placed into the stand ... and it.was.humongous. i actually don't think it's that big now, but when we first brought it in, travis kept making fun of me saying i would never be able to pick out a tree by myself again. haha. it made sure it was the right height when i purchased it, but i never thought about the width of it.

07. i never want to take our beautiful tree down.

08. the apartment is so warm and cozy and feels like a home now. we have all of the rooms fully furnished and set up. the office has a desk and bed (and an oversized leather chair for now, while the tree is in the living room). i even have pictures and artwork hung. we still need something for the walls in the dining room and a few finishing touches here and there, but all in all, i'm pretty happy with the way things look. if we have to be in an apartment right now, i'm glad it feels like home.

09. i've been in the mood to bake, but not to gain weight. i've put on another ten pounds since starting conocophillips. something i am not dealing with well. i'm afraid a diet and trainer are in order.

10. travis and i are addicted to smallville. travis started watching season one and somehow we were sucked in. we had never watched it before, so the beginning seemed like the perfect place. last night we started season eight! we've blown through the seasons so quickly ... well, travis has especially. i've watched most of the episodes, but he stays up at night after i'm in bed and watches them and he also watches them during the day on tuesdays and thursdays since he doesn't have any client visits those days.

11. i need to get back to work so i should cut this short. have a very merry christmas if i don't make it back on here before then.

home sweet home.

we got our new bedroom furniture today. the delivery guys came and assembled it first thing this morning! i couldn't believe they got here so quickly. we spent the morning reassembling it after the delivery men left {it didn't fit right the way they first had it situated} and then getting the room organized and straightened up again. i love it!

l is for love. or leach. or lear.

so after travis put our sofa table together last night and we had situated the furniture like we wanted, we both sat back, read a little, spent a little time online, and just basked in the glorious rays from our beautiful new lamp.

he had been waiting to hear from justin and lindsay, though, because they were going to need a little extra help. it was well after 11:00 p.m. before he heard from them, but they were going to need his help so early in the morning, he decided to just drive down there last night so he would already be there bright and early.

i didn't realize how late it was when he left. i think i was still riding the new-furniture-high and i didn't feel sleepy at all. when we moved out of our last apartment and back to muskogee, travis had put our furniture in storage. the media stand part of our entertainment center {was cheap and} had bowed in the storage building. since he had given away our flat screen tv anyway, we decided to ditch the console piece, keeping the two piers for the time being. the console had two doors on it, though, that i rescued. i always see such cute wall hangings made from old doors. i told travis i would make something. he was skeptical {i may have a slight tendancy to be a packrat}.

the new comfortable feeling, shopping and looking at home decor for the past two days, and the warm lamp light inspired me to finally start my old door wall decor project. i can't buy fun fall decorations, so i decided i would make my own decoration ... even if it wasn't specifically directed at fall.

this is what i came up with ...

aren't they fun?! i love them! i was a little skeptical myself that i could turn them into something i would really love. travis isn't here to help me attach wire or any necessary hardware to the back, so for now, you get to see a picture of them on my carpet and on the kitchen counter. i'll post a pic once i get them on the wall.

lazy on a sunday afternoon.

when travis and i woke up on sunday, he asked if i wanted to go look at the furniture again at rooms today or if we should head over to mathis brother's again to see if they had anything we liked better. another afternoon out of the apartment sounded wonderful to me. i pulled on one of my new pairs of pants {why is it so wonderful to have new clothes?} and a shirt my sister had gotten me a while back. it has gray in it and matches my new {gray} pants perfectly.

we headed out to the shops once again. we really like the saleslady at mathis brother's. she is great to work with us when we want/need her, but she doesn't hover. she's helpful and kind so we wanted to give her the commission from our living room set if at all possible. after spending quite a bit of time in the store {again} we decided there really was nothing there we liked as much as the furniture we found at rooms today.

away we went. when we got there we had our sales guy check on the bedroom furniture, too. it was such a good deal {basically the two pieces for the cost of most of the other beds in the store} that travis thought we should at least check it out. we decided if it was still available, we would buy the bed and then get the living room furniture later.

the sales guy told us someone had held the furniture on the 27th and were supposed to come back in on monday {as in today} to put 10% down. our sales guy really wanted to sell it to us, but his manager said he wanted to do right by the other customer. i was just shocked they would hold a piece of furniture {especially for that long} with no money down. our sales guy went back and forth several times. he was finally able to talk to the sales person who had originally held it for the customer. in was like a 5 second conversation and that sales person told our sales person we could absolutely have it. we decided it was meant to be.

we had talked about buying the bedroom furniture and then getting the living room furniture later, but we have a payment system with them, so we decided to go ahead and get all of it. the whole reason we started seriously looking for furniture was so travis would have tables to sit lamps on so he would have better lighting to study. the bedroom furniture was too good of a deal to pass up, {and we do need a new bed since our mattresses have just been sitting on the floor} but i just felt like lamps and tables were more important.

we got the living room furniture, the bedroom suite, and two beautiful lamps. i'm going to post pictrues of the lamps below, but you can also see them displayed on the dresser from yesterday's post. i was so excited! the only downside? the furniture we really went to get ... it's not in any of the warehouses!! we have to wait four weeks or so to get our coffee table {which apparently is now called a cocktail table} and our end table. they did have our sofa table, and we were able to take it home with us.

we got home and got the car unloaded and travis set to work putting our beautiful piece together.

it's so silly, but just this one piece of furniture and the lamp made such a difference in changing our apartment from a "house to a home." travis and i both thought so. it's hard to describe, but it was such a good feeling to feel like it was a home. i love our piece. i'll try to take better pictures and share. we did a little bit of rearranging, swapping the love seat and the oversized chair and ottoman. the funny thing? we had done that exact same thing a few days ago and hated it. the sofa table really made all the difference. the place just feels comfortable now.

our bedroom furniture will be delivered tomorrow. i'll share more then.

saturdays, how i love you.

this weekend, the weather has been wonderful! it's not quite fall because there is no "crispness" in the air, but the temperature has been perfect. so very beautiful.

we woke up and decided to hit up a few stores for a few new pairs of pants for my job. after last fall and winter i got rid of so many of my clothes. my closet was looking pretty scarce. i picked up a couple pairs of pants, a few camis, and a lightweight v-neck sweater that i can wear now all the way through winter.

we stopped into kirklands and looked around. i wanted to buy everything! i was a good little girl, though, and we walked out without a single purchase.

we hit up barnes and noble for a bit, and we also checked out the mall. {actually, reverse that. we hit up the mall and then headed to kirklands and barnes and noble}. we had lunch at our original date place -- el tequila at 81st and memorial. it was oh so yummy. we hadn't eaten there together in quite some time; i honestly don't remember going there since i was at addison. we used to go all.the.time. we've been spending a lot of our days together, and i have really, really enjoyed it.

after the bookstore, we checked out best buy {again} for a tv. this time travis took notes in his phone and then we headed to mathis brother's. we've been looking for living room table sets and lamps, too. the lighting in our apartment really isn't that great. travis needs better lighting by our furniture when he's reading. we walked around, but mainly looked at tvs. somehow we always get distracted by the flashing lights and moving pictures. we've decided we want to get a really large tv {think 73"} and decided that if we're going to make that kind of purchase we might as well save up and get the one we really want. we walked back through looking at table sets for the living room and then decided to check at rooms today.

we found a set we really liked. we rarely make "impulse" purchases, though, so we both just took pictures of it and continued to look around.

there was a bedroom suite my brother and lindsay had pointed out to us when we were in before. we had just purchased our living room set, so we couldn't afford it at the time, but it was an incredible deal. we moseyed back to the bedroom area and couldn't believe to see it still on the floor. we were told by a salesman other than our sales guy that he was pretty sure it was already sold, but that we should have our guy check. we waited around for a bit, but our guy was tied up with several other people. we took pictures of it, too, and decided that it wasn't meant to be. the bed is actually much more elaborate than either of us would ever pick, but it's still pretty and the dresser and mirror that come with it is right up my alley.

we had to head home to get ready for our rescheduled date night with chris and monica. {and have i mentioned they're getting married in san francisco? so jealous!} actually, scratch that, we didn't have to go home. we just headed over to johnny carinos by the river. chris and monica had an errand that ran a little long, so travis and i enjoyed the weather and sat on a bench outside the restaurant visiting and watching youtube videos on our phone. we're so silly.

dinner was delicious. i'm not really a big italian food person, i enjoy it on occasion, but it's not usually my pick. having just had it with my brother earlier in the week, i wasn't sure i would really be on board, but the sangria, italian nachos, and chocolate cake were delish. my pasta was good too, but i think i enjoyed all the little "extras" the most.

after dinner we crossed the river and spent a little time on riverwalk crossing. we were waiting for our movie the american to start. we actually ran into a former co-worker of chris ... whose wife turned out to be one of my friends from xa in college -- cindy. so weird. we were all just letting chris and ricky visit and then i looked up and realized the girl in front of me was cindy!

we didn't spend a lot of time on the river since our movie was starting, but it was still nice to be outside. the sun had already set, but the temperature was still so comfortable. i could have sat out at the outdoor bar and listened to the live band that was playing, but the american was calling.

i never should have answered that call. the movie was terrible {in my humble opinion}! nothing at all like the previews suggest. there was so much natural noise during the movie because the movie is super slow and super quiet. there was no orchestra soundtrack for most of the movie. maybe i would have liked it more had i been more prepared for the kind of movie it was. travis told me i was like a little kid when we were watching it because i was so. bored. sobored! it probably also didn't help that i had already been tired by dinner time after all our walking around that day.

i think everyone was exhausted. chris had worked until a little after 6:00 and monica had a rough week. we all quickly said goodnight, went to our respective homes, and fell straight to sleep ... i know that's what we did anyway.

all in all, it was a great day well spent.

random update.

since it has been a while that i posted anything of significance on our personal blog, i thought i'd give you a glimpse into what's on my mind today.

01. i'm at the apartment today while travis helps his dad on the roof at his parents' house.

02. i love being back in the broken arrow/tulsa area

03. we've lived in our apartment for about two months, and aside from our new furniture {did i ever mention we got new furniture??} we have done very little to our apartment. when we moved out of tulsa last time, travis gave away a lot of our furniture. it went to his sister who was just starting off on her own. i'm glad we were able to help her, but it left us with very little.

04. since i'm pretty sure i've failed to mention the new furniture before, here are a few {horrible} pictures, but you get the idea.

05. next on our list? a new television since amanda got that, too. =)

06. i'm trying to figure out where i am going to work for the next little bit to bring in money, but still be able to work on notably noted. on thursday i contacted my old regional manager about a store manager position that is available in edmond, and then i also applied for a marketing coordinator position in okc. i'm not finding a lot around tulsa, but am seeing opportunities in okc/edmond. i have also been looking in san francisco.

07. i'm having a terrible time making up my mind about where i would like to go. travis and i have talked about the fact that whatever i do doesn't have to be long term -- a year to two years at most. we both are okay with having a long-term relationship for a little bit, but then i wonder if we're being realistic about that or not.

08. connor is running around her like a crazy man today. he keeps trying to get outside because he met a 3.5 lb yorkie named teddy yesterday. teddy isn't even outside, but i think connor can still smell him or something. he is about to drive me nuts.

09. i had a dream about having two children last night. it was weird. i don't usually think about having kids, and even after the dream, i don't feel a strong desire for them, but i remember how much i loved the two little boys {who were named connor and chase} in my dream.

10. i really, really, really want to decorate the apartment, but i've limited our funds right now by not having a second job to notably noted.

11. i am SO ready for fall. so ready! i posted about it on notably noted's blog a few days ago, but i can't get it out of my mind. haha! kate's comment on that post sums up my feelings perfectly! "...I can't wait for new cashmere sweaters, soft turtlenecks, leather boots, and wool trousers." I'm also looking forward to the crisp fall air {after 100+ degree temperatures since July, I could definitely go for crispness that doesn't refer to the baked grass and leaves}, and all of the yummy fragrances that come with the fall season. oh! and fall television programming. very excited about this upcoming season.

12. i'm ready for us to have a desk in the office so i can get everything back in order again.

13. i'm getting tired of making this list while connor tries to share my lap with the latop ... when he's not running to the door and the window acting like a crazy man!

... so that's what's been going on in our world. hopefully travis won't be too burned when he gets home from working on the roof all weekend. update us on you and your families! for now, i'm going to try to calm down my little man and enjoy an episode of leave it to beaver.

all things homey.

wow. these past couple of weeks have gone by in a blur! i have so much to update you on ... but tonight's post, oddly enough, will not be about my recent trip to hawaii {as fabulous and beautiful as it was -- most special wedding i've been to i think}. don't worry though; that post will come.

instead, i want to talk about my latest obsession: decorating blogs! travis and i have both talked about how we want our new apartment to feel like a home when you walk in. not a drabby ol' apartment. i don't want to wait until we have a house to have a home.

megan of talesofthetrees.com recently purchased a home with her husband and became facinated with decorating blogs, too. tonight i decided to look through her archives and check out the decorating blogs her readers had suggested. i've only gotten through two or three and already i'm in love.

in case you want to check them out as well, you can visit:

www.glamlifehousewife.blogspot.com {i looked specifically at her "decorating" labeled posts}
www.thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com {i looked specifically at her "decorating" labeled posts}
www.brynalexandra.blogspot.com
www.emilyaclark.blogspot.com
www.brooklynlimestone.com
www.younghouselove.com
www.blog.urbangrace.com
www.hookedonhouses.net
www.southernlivingathome.com -- which i discovered is the same thing as www.entertainingathome.com ... just with different names; but the same products and the same company founders.


swoon.

because i don't want to spend a fortune, i need to get more in the habit of doing things like the thrifty decor chick -- a little spray paint; a little fabric here; a little embellishment there. i am completely capable; i'm just not much of a do-it-yourself-projects kind of gal.

i'm sure i'll have more to come because each of these blogs was following additional fun decor blogs.

happy decorating!