Southern Domestic Bliss

House Tour {+ Paint Colors}

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 18:42:00 +0000

I finally got around to taking pictures of our house now that we've painted and made some updates.

I painted everything by myself! The only rooms left to finish are the computer room and the laundry room. I painted every ceiling which required two coats, plus all the walls in our house. It was beyond rough. The ceilings were the worst. Thankfully all our trim was white so I didn't have to change that! The paint guy at Lowe's even knew me and knew what kind of finish I wanted every time I picked up a new can. I was there a lot. I went through 8 gallons of ceiling paint and 7 gallons of paint on the walls. I bought and tried just about every painting tool there is and towards the end I felt very knowledgeable in all things "paint"!

(I took all photos with my iPhone so the lighting isn't the greatest.)

Living Room, Dining Room & Entry

-Paint color: Benjamin Moore "Revere Pewter"

-The big basket on the fireplace hearth is for firewood, we just don't have any yet.

-We want to add a rustic, dark stained mantel to the fireplace.

-I want a new rug with some color that doesn't blend so much with the tile.

-We are finally mounting our TV on the wall this weekend! We keep putting it off every weekend.

-I need something on the walls in the dining room but have no idea what.

-I'm on the hunt for pieces to put on the coffee table, so for now it's empty.

Kitchen & Breakfast Nook

-Paint color: Benjamin Moore "Revere Pewter"

-We are replacing the el cheapo sink and faucet soon! We both hate it! We will also be adding hardware soon.

-Hopefully in 2-3 years we can replace the counters and add backsplash. But it's not in the near future.

-I'm planning to make the breakfast nook a little seating area. I've already bought a small round table that's hanging out in the garage until we get chairs. I've seen this chair at two different Marshall's and it's exactly what I want. As soon as I see them again, I'm buying them:

Master Bedroom & Bathroom, Plus My Closet

-Master Bedroom paint color: Valspar "Urban Sunrise"

-Bathroom paint color: Valspar "Tempered Gray"

-Closet paint color: Valspar "Berry Taffy"

-It's hard to photograph the closet thanks to the ugly florescent light above. I'd love to change that out for a mini-chandelier.

-I'm on the hunt for curtain panels in our bedroom but not sure what color I want to go with. I also want two matching mirrors to go behind the nightstands to reflect some light into the room.

-We need some major wall decor in our bedroom too.

-We also need a little decor in our master bathroom.

Hallway, Guest Bedroom & Bathroom

-Hallway paint color: Benjamin Moore "Revere Pewter"

-Guest bedroom paint color: Valspar "Hazy Stratus"

-Guest bathroom paint color: Valspar "Tempered Gray"

-I'm not really happy with the color of the guest bedroom. I wanted something darker and bolder, and the color I went with is just a little too similar to our bedroom. I'm hoping to update it in the next couple of months with something a little outside of the box!

-I'm thinking my next furniture purchase will be this headboard for our guest bedroom from Target. It's exactly what I'm looking for at a fabulous price. Once I get this and change the paint color I will do an update!

Well, that's our house.... so far! The painting really took over my life for a while there. I had paint samples everywhere:

Yay, you made it to the end of this post! ;)

We've made more updates outside which I will share soon. Our back deck is still a small wreck and we are working on getting our fence started in the next couple of months. We'd also love to add crown molding to every room, but that's expensive, so it's going to be a one-room-at-a-time kinda thing!

I think our house will always be "in progress"!

Southern Domestic Bliss Is Going Private.....

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Sun, 25 Aug 2013 14:05:00 +0000

On Friday morning I will be changing my blog to private! It's something I've thought about doing for several months now but am finally getting around to doing.

In the beginning this ol' blog was a means to cure my boredom while living in Maryland, being stuck inside because of 20 degree temperatures and sitting on the couch because I was unemployed. There wasn't much thought put into any of my posts. But now it's turned much more personal and I'd like to keep that from being blasted all over the internet for all to see!

If you want to read along (not that I post that often these days!), I'd love to have your email address so I can add you to the list! You can email it to me or leave a comment below and I will make sure you get added!

southerndomesticbliss@gmail.com

My Besties Come To Texas!

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 15:31:00 +0000

Awesome. This past week was awesome!

Our besties flew in from Maryland for a week and we had such a great time with them. Lately our lives have been work, the house, work, the house. It was so nice to take a step away from the normal day in, day out routine and enjoy a little fun around South Texas!

Our first day with them was kept low key, just hanging around the house and getting some mexican food for dinner. We spent our second day lounging around before heading to San Antonio in the late afternoon to visit The Alamo and The Riverwalk.

Sunday was a completely lazy day around the house, which was nice for everyone. That's what I love about my besties- we can hang around all day doing nothing and it's awesome. There's no awkward silence, no boredom, no entertaining them. It's just easy.

Monday we headed to my little hometown to visit with my mom and drop our dogs off with her for the week. After eating at my hometown's famous bbq place and a visit out to Buc-ees, we made our way to Austin. We stayed at the Sheraton (it was okay) down by 6th street and near the Capitol. After drinking in the room and getting all dressed up, it was a wild night down on 6th street that involved lots of drinking, mechanical bulls, shots of cinnamon whiskey and trying to feel like we were 21 again!

(Last picture of the night. Evidence to how we were feeling!)

We were all pretty hung over the next day, but we rallied and headed out to some of the murals in Austin for a photo shoot. After our little photo session we made a pit stop at Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood for some heavenly food before making our way home for the day. I did everything I could to stay awake until 9 that night!

Wednesday was another one of those lounging days were we did nothing. It was glorious!

Thursday we headed down to the river in Gruene to go tubing. The water was moving sooooo slow and it took us about 3.5 hours to float 1.5 miles, but it was awesome. After floating we headed into Gruene for dinner at The Gristmill, then hung out in Gruene Hall listening to some live music before heading back to the house for the night. For being mid-August in South Texas, the weather was pretty nice and not too hot!

(Yes, we look rough after drinking and floating all day, but memories were made so I must document!)

I was so depressed on Friday when they left. My husband was also leaving for the weekend for a fishing tournament, and Friday was also our 6 year wedding anniversary, so I was very sad!

Chris and Nicole,

Why do you have to live so far away?? We love you guys so much and thank you for making such a huge effort to come see us. Texas misses you!! Until next time....

Anybody Out There??

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 15:44:00 +0000

Howdy! I'm sure the only person out there reading this is my mom and my cousin because they keep asking when I'm going to do a new blog post! What can I say, the last six weeks have been full speed, non-stop, can't slow down insanity!

The last two weeks before we closed on our house things starting getting really stressful, and in particular the last week. Our loan officer was terrible, we were stressing big time about closing, but at the end of the day we ended up closing on schedule on Friday, May 31st at 4:30pm. We were completely moved into our new house by 1pm the next day! We had scheduled movers to get all our belongings out of storage and the whole thing went much quicker than I expected.

The new house has completely taken over our lives. My husband is working a lot, averaging 50-60 hours a week, so there are a lot of things we need to do that he just doesn't have time to get to. We are in no rush, but we have a looooooong to-do list! I love our new house so much and our new little area! We moved to a really small town (population 1200) about 30 minutes outside of San Antonio. We have 1 acre of land in our neighborhood and we are so happy to have a little space. My in-laws have been down twice with their ranch equipment to help us get our yard cleaned up, in particular the back 1/2 acre where our land is. It's coming along good!

I'm always on Instagram if you wanna follow along! My user is sheaneumann.

So here's a major photo dump of the move and our new house!

We are homeowners!

Gorgeous sunset taken around our first week. Love living in the country!

Hubby installed blinds and new pendent lights.

New mirror and lamps, spray painted the hardware a brassy gold. (I've since changed that white tray out for a small mirrored one.)

I painted our bedroom and ceiling! We want to add crown molding down the road.

Also painted our master bathroom walls and ceiling. The walls are a really light gray. We'd love to add crown molding in here too. (You can see where I've got some touching up to do!)

Our backyard is starting to look cleaned up!

We've also been busy doing other things outside of the house!

We went to visit my in-laws at their timeshare in San Antonio. I can't get enough of my adorable niece!

I also got to spend an afternoon with my new cousin. She's adorable!

We were lucky enough to attend the first game of the finals in San Antonio with our sweet friends. Our Spurs KICKED the Heats butt and it was awesome! We were so sad The Spurs didn't win the championship but we still love them!

My mom and Grandmother and I went to Costco and on our way back to my house we went through some crazy storms!

The sweet love of my life!

We took my parents out to a fancy pants dinner as a thank you for letting us stay with them for 2.5 months. We could never repay them!

Hubby surprised me with this tank top. Love it!

My 31st birthday was this past Friday. My hubby surprised me with tickets to the Cory Morrow concert at Gruene Dancehall. Our friends Kody and Jennifer went with us!

The night of my birthday I got a video message from my Bestie telling me her and her hubby are coming to Texas NEXT MONTH for a WEEK! Needless to say I'm over the moon and can't wait!!

And my favorite thing besides our house?? I FINALLY got a new car! I traded in my 2004 Pontiac Bonneville with 158,000 miles on it for a Cadillac SRX! I am sooooo obsessed and in love with it!

I've actually never had a car payment in my 15 years of driving. And no, I'm not spoiled! I've always had used (like 3-4 years old) cars that were passed down to me from my parents or a car they picked out for me (when I was younger), so it was very exciting to actually buy my own car and pick out what I want. I love it! I'm NOT excited about a car payment though!

Well, I hope y'all are doing well! I've been considering changing my blog to a private setting, but I have no idea how to do that or be able to still let people read it. I will have to look into that a little more.

We Are Homeowners! {House Tour}

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 15:44:00 +0000

After five weeks of being under contract, we are FINALLY HOMEOWNERS!! The house we own is a new construction, 3 bedroom/2 bath/2 car oversized garage that sits on 1 full acre. When we first toured this home it was a week away from completion, so we had zero input with anything.

The main things throughout the house we will have/want to do are-

-Blinds! We are going with white, wooden blinds, and every window will have to be outfitted with them.

-Landscaping! We have a blank slate. No grass, fence, flowers, etc. We will throw down seed and see if we can get any grass going. We will probably focus on the yard next spring and do a complete overhaul of the front and back yard.

-Paint! Every surface of this house will eventually get painted except for the trim and the garage. The house is painted entirely in your typical builder beige, but this color has a small undertone of pink. Yuck. Once we get moved in and settled we will decide what colors we want and start one room at a time.

We also really, really wanted darker wood floors throughout the entire house, but we ended up with tile and carpet. Boooooo. But... it's all brand new and changing out the flooring will be a big task, so maybe down the road we can change all of that. But for now we will learn to love it and live with it.

Ok, on to the pictures!

Front & Back Yard:

-Like I mentioned, all landscaping and grass (the dirt has been leveled out since I took these pictures)
-Privacy fence
-Tree removal in both front and back yard
-Paint front door and trim
-Replace front door handle and lock
-Build lower deck at bottom of the stairs for additional space
-Stain wood railing
-Install outdoor speakers (the back porch is wired for speakers, that's the white cords hanging down)
-Add hardware to garage to fancy it up
-Vegetable and herb garden built in

Entryway, Dining Room & Living Room:

-Paint!
-Add entry way light fixture in place of the recessed lighting
-Change dining room light fixture (we've already bought this one!)
-Add mantle to the fireplace (wanting something wooden and rustic)
-Put recessed lighting in living room on a dimmer switch

Kitchen & Breakfast Nook:

-Paint!
-Install new pendent lights over counter (we've already bought three of this one!)
-New counter tops (thinking either granite or quartz)
-Add backsplash
-Install undermount sink and new faucet
-Buy refrigerator (We actually bought it last week, our first purchase! We got this one for the kitchen and this one for our garage to keep drinks, booze and extra meat stored.)
-Install hardware to cabinets and drawers
-Replace ceiling fan in the breakfast nook with different light fixture
-Dog door installed in back door
-Replace back door with new deadbolt

Here's a few extra pictures:

{The laundry room with space for the dog's kennel!}

{Hall closet with guest bedrooms on both ends. We have two nice size closets in the hallway on either side of the guest bathroom which will be awesome for storage.}

{Our monster size closet! Still trying to convince the husband that it should be mine, all mine.}

{Looking back toward the master bedroom from inside the master bathroom.}

We have other small ideas for the master bedroom and bathroom, plus the two guest bedrooms and guest bathroom. Those rooms are pretty generic, so decor will be what jazzes those rooms up! We also want to add a shelving system to the garage. The garage has a huge oversized storage closet which will be awesome for extra storage like Christmas decorations, tools, lawn tools, etc.

Well, that's our new home! We have so many ideas and things that we want to do to make it our own. After renting for 13 years and not being able to change one thing, there's a million things we want to change with this one to make it more our own! Maybe now I'll have more things to blog about! ;)

Weekend In St. Louis

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:50:00 +0000

When we found out a couple of months ago that we were moving back to Texas, my mother-in-law invited me to go away on a girls weekend trip to St. Louis with my two sister-in-laws for a wedding. Of course I said yes! Scott's cousin married her boyfriend of 18 years. EIGHTEEN YEARS PEOPLE!

The wedding and reception was held at the Four Seasons in downtown St. Louis, and it's located right next to the famous St. Louis Arch. We spent 85% of our trip inside the hotel. The hotel and our room was gorgeous! Stacy and I shared a room and we were ooohing and aghhhing at everything! I told Stacy my "redneck" was coming out and I was taking pictures of everything. Our favorite thing was the TV built into the bathroom mirror, the rain shower head in the shower and the huge bath tub. We both could have lived in that bathroom forever.

Friday night we went on a shuttle bus with the rest of the family to a local brewery. I forget the name, but we had a couple glasses of wine and several mini cupcakes. They were so good! We had room service breakfast the next morning and it was so good too.

The wedding was held very early on Saturday (11am) on the 8th floor terrace of the hotel. The views were stunning! The bride wore a Monique Lhuillier wedding dress that was dyed a custom navy blue. It was gorgeous! I feel like the pictures I took (with the iPhone) don't do justice to how stunning she looked. Her dress was so dramatic and jaw dropping, it looked much better in person! The ceremony ended and there was a cocktail hour with hors dourves and an open bar. We stuck to mimosas since it was 11:30 in the morning! ;)

I also met my nephew, Connor, for the first time. He lives in Austin and it took going all the way to St. Louis to finally see him. I was obsessed with him! He is the sweetest, happiest baby ever!

The reception was held in the "Mississippi Room" of the hotel. I was so in love with the charger plates, it's exactly what I want! The centerpieces were so unique and different. We all loved the asparagus tied around the vases.

The food was Asian and I even tried tofu for the first time. It wasn't that bad! The bride and groom passed out these fun little stick things (not sure what you'd call them) and we all had some fun playing with those. I even got photobombed by the man-of honor. Yes, man-of-honor! He was really nice and quite the character!

Somewhere around 6pm things get a little fuzzy! All I'll say is my sister-in-law and I both woke up in our dresses back in our room in the middle of the night. I blame the two glasses of wine I chugged towards the end of the reception! ;)

We woke up Sunday morning and went to brunch, then packed our bags to head home. We left our luggage with the concierge and walked to the Arch. It was a gorgeous day. It was a bit chilly, but so perfect! The area around the Arch was really beautiful, much nicer than I was expecting.

After the Arch we walked back to the hotel to retrieve our bags and take a cab to the airport. The concierge asked if we wanted to take the next door casino's complimentary limo to the airport. Complimentary as in "free"? Yes, please! We made it in one piece to the airport and boarded our flight back home.

Thank you to my amazing and generous mother-in-law for a wonderful girls weekend! Love you!

iPhone Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Thu, 09 May 2013 19:19:00 +0000

I was looking through pictures I've taken with my iPhone and realized there are some things I haven't shared! So I figured I'd do a little iPhone photo dump of some pictures....

My little sister turned 20 years old last month! Geez I feel old! We went to Olive Garden and I stuffed my face. I felt so sick afterward! I didn't hold back and nothing I ate was considered healthy. It was definitely the biggest cheat I've had since starting yeast-free in January.

Also my dogs love their Aunt! Our daschund Duncan goes bananas times fifty when she comes over to visit.

My mom has a little chihuahua named Sam and him and my boys have a bit of a love/hate relationship. They co-exist great, but any time Sam tries to play with Duncan, Rocco gets very jealous and tries to break up their party. Sam loooooves Scott too! He's very happy when Scott gets home from work.

They also love being in my parent's RV camper. We are ready for some weekend getaways in it this summer with all the dogs!

Sam also gets his own breakfast taco every weekend (no joke!), and Goomy made him share his taco with my boys. They sat at Goomy's feet watching her every move waiting for their piece of sausage and egg!

My uncle got box seats to the Lakers vs Spurs playoff game a couple of weeks ago and invited Scott and I to go. Free food and booze? Yes, please! We had a great time and thankfully the Spurs won! And how cute does my baby look with his short hair??!!

I snapped this picture driving back to my parent's house after we had the inspection at our *hopefully* new house. It was raining all over and the sun was trying to come out and play.

One night Scott was trying to throw me the keys to the house while he got some stuff out of the car. He overshot by a lot and ended up throwing the keys up on the roof! He had to use his shoe to reach them.

A few weeks ago, Mom and I ventured out to the weiner dog races in Buda! Holy crap that was the biggest ordeal! Needless to say, my dogs are not well behaved (no idea how that happened since I trained them) and we didn't stay long! They really weren't bad, they were just very overwhelmed and it was sensory overload. They were hot too, and so were we. When we got to the car we gave them some water and Rocco had to lay down to drink it! Duncan laid down in the front and was asleep before we even left the parking lot! They were wore out! I would definitely go again, but I would go without them next time.

Well, that's all for now! I'm headed to St Louis this weekend with my mother-in-law and two sister-in-laws, so I'll have some pictures from that next week. Take care!

A Couple Of Days At The Bay & A House Update

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Mon, 06 May 2013 15:33:00 +0000

Last week my hubby and I snuck away to a little town on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico for a couple of days! My in-laws have had a house down there for, I don't know, maybe 25 years? They've had 3 or 4 different ones down there, and Scott and I had yet to visit their newest house. Scott has been going down to this little town since he was a little tyke and every time we go I always ask him a million questions about the area.

The new house was actually broken into a few months ago, and the living room TV and two guns were stolen. It's the first time they've had any issue in all the years they've been down there. But it's nothing a new alarm system couldn't fix, so I dare anyone to try and break in again! ;)

Anyway, we headed down there Tuesday evening after Scott got off work and came home on Thursday afternoon. We hired a fishing guide to take us out for five hours and do some fishing. I love fishing and being on a boat! I hate being in the water, but I love being on the water.

We caught a million of these fish loving referred to as "criminals".

The biggest fish was caught by me! Even though my hubby says he caught the biggest one. Lies, all lies.

We caught 10 trout!

Check out all those pelicans begging for some fish guts!

There was even a dolphin watching our guide clean the fish!

After fishing we headed back to the house to relax. It was wine and beer time! We played around town taking the house jeep out to explore, act like a kid and get on the swing set, and head to a hole-in-the-wall seafood joint for a good ol' shrimp and crawfish boil. It was sooooo good!

The house is located in the best location with a great view!

This house cracked us up! Very, umm, interesting?

On Thursday we headed back and made a detour to our *hopefully* new house. Our inspection was done last Monday and all went well! There was an issue with the A/C unit installation, but it's getting fixed and isn't a big deal (although it threw me into a meltdown panic at the time). Of course anything can cause the contract to fall through, but so far everything is going well! I can't wait to share pictures!

House Hunting Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:16:00 +0000

Is anyone still out there?? Sooooo sorry for the silence, we've been busy little bees around here!

We are knee deep in the house hunting process and dare I say, we are under contract on a house we are in love with!! I don't want to say or reveal too much for fear that it will all fall through (I've got major anxiety and have pretty much made myself sick with worry that it won't work out), but we found exactly what we are looking for! I'll share pictures once it's a done deal, but I did share a sneak peek on my Instagram. My user is sheaneumann if you're interested!

We actually put an offer in on a house last week, as well as someone else, and in the end our offer was turned down. It was frustrating at first, but it truly was a blessing. I would say we were 85% settling on that house and it was more of an impulse offer because we knew it would go quick for the price it was listed at. It really wasn't what we were looking for, but we saw the potential it had down the road. We really loved the backyard:

We walked through a new construction that is definitely out of our price range, but it's been on the market for a few months, so we went ahead and looked at it to get our realtors opinion on what we could offer. Although we really liked the house, it is located in a neighborhood where houses are built on top of each other and there's minimal parking on the street, so that was a deal breaker for us. Plus it would have been at the waaaaay top of our budget.

But it's a great house and I definitely would have had some fun in the kitchen!

Between house hunting, I've been shopping and taking pictures of anything and everything that catches my eye. I've spent way too much money at the local Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma outlet since we moved back! I've got bags and bags of new stuff for when are settled somewhere.

We spent our official 10 year dating anniversary at our favorite place, Lowe's! I could stay in Lowe's all day long! I've also been window shopping at Target, Hobby Lobby, Home Depot, World Market, etc getting tons of ideas.

I want this mini chandelier for over the master bathroom's bathtub!

Mirror is my next purchase!

Fabric shopping for window coverings.

Well, hopefully everything works out with the house we are under contract with. We are supposed to have our inspection tomorrow or Tuesday after the AC unit gets installed. Our close date is scheduled for May 31st but our realtor feels confident we could be in before that. Until then I'll be on pins and needles!!

House Hunting

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 20:53:00 +0000

Last week Scott and I got the best news ever- we were pre-approved for a home loan! After living in 11 different rentals in 5 different states over the course of 13 years, we are finally settling down and planting roots somewhere! It sounds super cheesy but it really is a dream come true. We are so ready for this next chapter in our lives.

Now comes the house hunt! Literally we have not talked about anything else in the last two weeks but potential houses. And I truly mean that literally!

We are now leaning very close to building a new home, and we've found a neighborhood we love outside of San Antonio, but we are still keeping our options open for another piece of land or a house we love that might pop up on the market.

We have viewed 2 foreclosures, and since we aren't going to go with either one, I thought I'd share some pictures and what updates we would have done if we decided to get them.

First up, house #1:

We would have painted every inch inside the house! The walls, crown molding and base boards would all have been changed! The kitchen island has a weird tile top that doesn't match the granite counters, so we would have had that removed and had a new counter top put in to match.

We also would have added new dark wood floors throughout to get rid of the tile. The house has a ton of potential, but being a foreclosure, there were several issues with the house we just weren't ready to take on as first time home buyers.

I've recently realized I've got a major thing for front doors! This one had me drooling and staring at it for a good 10 minutes. We estimated it is about 9 feet high.

Dining room when you walk in on the left hand side.

See the weird tile on the island?

Standing in the second foyer looking at the front door. Yes, I said second foyer.

The laundry room had this huge counter with a utility sink. There was also space for a deep freezer or a second refrigerator.

Master bathroom vanity space. There were two separate vanity areas, a huge walk-in shower and separate bathtub that could easily fit two people.

Good size master bedroom walk-in closet.

We would also have added all new light fixtures and plantation blinds, plus we would have put in a privacy fence. The entire yard was nothing but dirt and stickers, so we would have had to add grass, plus mulch and landscaping in the front yard. I also hated the backsplash. It didn't match with the counters at all.

All in all, it was a gorgeous home, but in the end it just wasn't going to work for us with all the added money we would have had to put into it.

House #2 was also a foreclosure, but again, it needed a lot of updates!

The main thing is the master bathroom. Just wait until you see the pictures below! We would have had to gut the entire bathroom down to the walls and completely renovate it. (Well not us, we would have hired someone.) I have never in my life seen such a hideous, disgusting, mismatched bathroom! Parts of it weren't even finished and there was rotting, exposed dry wall. It was bad news bears. I didn't even take pictures of the area where the sinks are because I was so turned off by the whole thing.

We also would have added dark wood floors throughout the entire house, especially since there were three different types of tile. Yes, THREE! Where do people come up with these ugly ideas?

The kitchen had a ton of potential. We would have stained all of the cabinets a darker color, put in new backsplash and counters, added all new stainless steel appliances including a wine fridge (you'll see the open space where they took the one that was there), plus a new light fixture over the island.

Actually the whole house needed new light fixtures, plantation blinds and new paint on every square inch of the house. The paint was hideous and whoever painted it did a terrible job. The outside paint color is what we lovingly referred to as "baby shit yellow", so we would have wanted the exterior painted as well. We also would have had to add in a privacy fence and grass since this house has stickers and dirt like the first foreclosure. But again, the house had a lot of potential, it was just more than we wanted to take on.

The house sits on 2 acres and has a really nice circle driveway, which would have been great for accommodating a lot of people.

The back porch had plenty of space. The fans would need to be replaced and there was trash left on the ground from a birthday party the previous owners had.

Butt ugly light fixture in the foyer. Notice the painters tape left behind on the upper part of the wall.

The dining room is to the left when you walk in.

See the big hole on the right hand side of the counter?

So obsessed with that hood range! We would have replaced this funky stove with a really awesome one.

Wine fridge would have gone where the empty space is.

Weird nook and lights in the master bedroom. We would have removed the lights and made this a little seating area.

Seriously, the pictures do not show how HORRIBLE this bathroom really is!

Again, the house has a lot of potential and it's so beautiful where it's located, but it's just not gonna work for us.

We are so excited to see what's next! We are meeting with a builder next week to go over floor plans and options for custom building our home. I think I've pretty much lived on Pinterest the last week! There are a million ideas flowing through my head! I just can't wait to have our own home and do all the things we've always wanted to do.

Well, hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Life Lately....

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:05:00 +0000

....has been crazy!

We have been busy little bees running all over South Texas doing all the things we love to do around here! This post will probably be all over the place with lots of pictures (the usual).

First I'll start with Scott's new job and say it's going well. Buuuttt, the positive and negative is that he will be working a lot. A lot more than we anticipated. He will be working at a minimum 50-60 hours a week, but the positive of that is all the overtime he'll get! My cousin Mike got married the first weekend we were here and unfortunately Scott had to work. We really didn't anticipate him working weekends, so that will take a little getting used to, but the fact that he found a job in our dream location and they have so much work for him is something I'm not going to complain about!

But I did go to the wedding and had a great time seeing all my family! The timing was perfect since we got back to Texas a week before.

I've spent these first couple of weeks running errands around town, unpacking our bedroom, organizing our closet (which is the first time in 9 years of living together that Scott and I have ever shared a closet), visiting with family, and taking our dogs to the vet. I had to break my yeast free and have a glass of wine mid-week after taking our dogs to the vet and getting this bill:

Duncan has a double ear infection, a bacteria infection in his stomach, and was prescribed a gastrointestinal food.

Rocco went in because his ear was red, but he has no infection. Within 15 seconds of being looked at, the vet asked me, "Have you ever had his thyroid checked?". I said no and he said, "No one has ever mentioned that to you before? He's very overweight". We've had him on diet food for 3 years and he hasn't lost really anything. I told the vet everything we've done to get him to lose weight and nothing has really worked, other than a pound or two weight loss here and there. So we had blood work done and wouldn't you know, two days later the vet called and said yes, he's hypo thyroid! I pick up his medicine today and he will take it every day for the rest of his life. The vet feels confident that this will help him lose some weight.

Meanwhile, this is how they sleep while we are living with their Goomy and Goopy (yes, those are grandparent names the dogs have given them)-

Scott and I had a busy three day weekend! We spent Friday afternoon at our favorite place, Gruene! We ate at The Gristmill for lunch, then had a couple beers next door at Gruene Hall listening to live music. The weather was gorgeous! (Gruene is pronounced "green" like the color for all you non-Texans).

Friday night my mom, me and my little sister went to one of our favorite spots in New Braunfels for happy hour and had ourselves a full-on feast! We ate, a lot! My dad and Scott went to shoot skeet and drink beer with a bunch of men until late Friday night. This is an every Friday night occurrence with my dad so I better get used to not ever seeing Scott on Friday nights! Now he won't stop talking about buying a shot gun. I think a monster has been created!

Saturday afternoon we went to San Antonio to see our friends (Kody and Jennifer) new house and head to the Alamodome in downtown SA to attend the Padres vs Rangers preseason baseball game. I'm pretty sure Jennifer and I talked home decorating the entire time, but we had fun regardless!

After the game Scott and I went to one of my favorite seafood restaurants ever, Clear Springs. I pigged out on coconut shrimp and fried oysters. It was soooo good! Gotta love a place that serves your food on paper plates and gives you plastic utensils!

We spent Easter Sunday at my in-laws house in Victoria. Almost all the family was there and it was so nice seeing everyone. I love spending time with my nephew and nieces! They are always cracking us up with the words that come out of their mouths! My mother-in-law always goes all-out when we are there and they make the best food. I may or may not have had mac & cheese and two slices of dessert!

And speaking of stuffing my face, we are still doing the yeast free diet! I did my weekly weigh-in this morning and have officially hit the 12 pound weight loss mark since January 21st, with a total of 17.5 pounds lost since last July 1st. I'm very happy with the results and am starting to see a noticeable change with my clothes now. I've had a couple of meltdowns trying on clothes of mine that won't fit anymore. It's a good problem to have, but when you're rushing out the door and nothing fits (and you're having another bad hair day), it causes some stress. (This may or may not have happened 3 times last week).

I had a total cheat weekend, the first time I've really had one, so I was scared to death to weigh-in this morning. I was surprised to see a one pound loss for the week. Hey, I'll take it! I've used my mom's elliptical a few times and I'm going to continue using it. I haven't done zumba as much, mostly because I'm really liking the elliptical at the moment. Scott has hit the 27 pound weight loss and I'm so proud of him! He's staying motivated and doing really well!

Well, that's all for now! I'm going to try and keep up with the blog, but things have been so busy lately that it kinda gets put on the back burner.

Hope y'all are all doing well!

We've Made It To Texas!

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:58:00 +0000

After 27 hours of driving time over the course of 3 days, we made it! We left Maryland right at noon last Tuesday after we did our walk-through with our landlord. We kenneled our pups overnight due to all the stress it would cause them with the movers, packing, doors opened, etc. I drove Scott's truck with the boys and he drove the 26 foot U-Haul truck with my car connected.

We had zero room left for our stuff! And I mean zero! Scott must have said to me five different times, "Why do you have so much stuff??". Over the last six months we have purged and consolidated a lot of our items, so I can't imagine if we didn't do that how much would not have fit.

We hired movers for 4 hours to load our things, and they were there until the last second and never took a break. They honestly kept me from filing for divorce that day. There is nothing that makes a couple fight more than moving. :)

Before we left, we enjoyed our last weekend with friends. I have the most sincere, loyal and thoughtful best friend ever! Nicole surprised me with a photo book of pictures from our time in Maryland, a Maryland coffee cup and dish towel and the "best friend" Kate Spade gold bangle bracelet, which I'm totally obsessed with! She also had "Texas" cupcakes made at a local bakery for our last dinner. We also went out for a happy hour with my old co-workers and went out for drinks with Scott's co-workers. We were busy!

Once the movers moved everything out, it was so weird seeing our house so empty! It was very bittersweet. We really loved our house and made a lot of memories there, so we were very sad to leave! Nicole came over to help us clean and get stuff done. I think we spent the first 2 hours gossiping before finally getting to work!

I won't miss this tiny kitchen with it's one drawer and four feet of counter space.

We drove 7.5 hours the first day, stopping in Charlotte for the night. We drove 13 hours on Wednesday, stopping in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for the night, which only left us about 7.5 hours on the last day. We drove through NINE states total! We've driven that route several times between all our moves, so it was nothing new.

Our dogs did terrible on the trip, as evidence in this series of pictures:

So yeah, they were pretty good and slept 95% of the time. :)

We crossed the Texas border and had another 4.5 hours to go until we arrived at my parent's house, where we'll be staying until we find a house in San Antonio.

(My Louisiana picture sucked so it didn't make the cut!)

We unloaded all our belongings into a storage unit on Friday and my in-laws and mom helped us. Thank God it wasn't too hot and there was a breeze because it took us almost 3 hours to get it all done. Our unit is a 10x20, and surprise surprise it's completely full! And it doesn't have any of our bedroom furniture so I can't imagine how it all would have fit.

Our plan now is to hang out at my parent's house until I can find a job and we can maybe, just maybe, buy a house instead of renting! We are sooooo excited for this next chapter and can't wait to see how the next few months go!

A Look Back At Our Time In Maryland....

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Now that I've shared the beyond exciting news that we are finally headed back to our beloved home state, I thought I'd take a look back at some of the wonderful, special and unforgettable times we've had during our two and a half year stay in Southern Maryland.

The best thing that came out of Maryland was my Bestie! Nicole and I casually met a couple of times several years ago while I lived in North Carolina and we were both dating Marines (our now husbands). I couldn't tell you a thing about her from all those years ago, except that we sat at the same table at a Marine Corps Ball and for some reason took a picture together, even though we really weren't friends:

Fast forward to four years later and we reconnected, and I found the most loyal, loving, caring best friend I could have ever asked for! We do everything together, have lunch (at least) once a week together, travel together, go to concerts and sing our lungs out together, have way too much wine together, survive hurricanes and earthquakes together, (used to) work together, our husbands worked together, basically everything! I love you Bestie! BFF for life!!

Eric Church & Jason Aldean concert in Virginia!

Willie Nelson & Jamey Johnson concert!

Drank waaaay too much at another Eric Church concert!

Had a small surprise 30th birthday for her and went to the Jimmy Buffett concert over Labor Day Weekend!

Went on a girls-only weekend trip to New York City and had the best time ever!

Had the shock of my life with a surprise gathering thrown for me on my 30th and enjoyed my birthday weekend in Washington DC!

Ventured over to the Eastern Shore of Maryland to visit Nicole's hometown and bunk with her gracious family for the weekend!

Drank too much at a local tiki bar!

Spent a fun and memorable night in DC with one of my favorite people!

I love you so much Bestie! We are never ever breaking up! Me and you together 'til the end!!

Along with all the memories I made with my Bestie, my original Bestie and I made a ton of memories too! We traveled more in the last two years than we have in our ten years together and enjoyed every minute of it!

We traveled to Beaver Creek, Colorado on our most recent trip and fell in love with all of Colorado's beauty.

Spent NYE Weekend with The Vintage Apple in Washington DC!

Attended our first NASCAR race in Richmond, Virginia!

Went on an overnight trip to New York City and had the best time, and I got my first (and hopefully not last) Louis Vuitton!

Spent Veteran's Day Weekend in Nashville and fell head-over-heels in love. We loved it so much we wanted to move there and even applied for jobs to see what would happen. :)

Went on another one of those overnight trips to Philadelphia!

We also attended a few profession games in the area!

Saw our beloved San Antonio Spurs in DC and had a fashion show on the back porch!

Watched the Washington Nationals take on Scott's favorite team, the Atlanta Braves, not once but twice.

Spent the day in DC and ate at Hill Country BBQ, where they had a little tribute to my hometown!

Had the shock of my life when my baby booked an overnight trip to DC and planned everything out himself! Somehow we managed to only take one picture of us together and it was this one...

We made an unfortunate and unexpected trip back to Texas, but reunited with some of the best, greatest people on the planet! This trip really sealed the deal for us that we were ready to move back to Texas and not give Nashville a try.

Enjoyed a visit from my cousin Torri and had fun posing!

And enjoyed a week long visit from my parents and grandmother!

Not only did we enjoy our time with wonderful people, we also loved making our house a home and loved waking up to our backyard every day!

There are a million more memories we made that were never documented on this blog. I pray I will always remember them! We have truly enjoyed (almost) every minute of our time here in Maryland, but we're ready to start this new chapter of our lives in Texas.

So long, Maryland! It was a wonderful ride!

Big News- We're Moving Back To Texas!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 15:00:00 +0000

After two and a half years of living in Southern Maryland for my husband's job, we are finally moving back to our beloved home state of Texas.... for good!

Scott got a job in San Antonio, which has always been our dream location and where we always saw ourselves settling down. For the last six months, he has been applying for jobs in Texas like a crazy person. After a few weeks and no success in San Antonio, he broadened his search to anywhere in Texas- Austin, Waco, Corpus Christi, Dallas, and even his hometown of Victoria. We were just hoping something would come up. So as you can imagine we are thrilled that something came up exactly where we wanted it to!

We're both very sad to be leaving Maryland and the life we've made for ourselves here, but we're ready to close the door here and open a new door to a new life of settling down and really planting some roots somewhere. Next month marks our 10 year anniversary together, and in those 10 years we've lived in Texas, North Carolina, Florida, back to Texas, Georgia, Maryland, and now back to Texas. It's been a hell of a ride! One of my favorite songs that I've always considered to be one of "our songs" says it perfectly how I feel right now:

"And we go rollin' down this highway

Chasin' all our crazy dreams

I've gone your way and you've gone my way

And everywhere in between

Maybe one of these days we'll find a piece of ground

Just outside some sleepy little town

And set this circus down"

We are set to leave Maryland next Tuesday and embark on the 25 hour drive back home. We are leaving later on Tuesday, so it will take us 3 days to get there. Scott will be driving the 26 foot U-Haul truck with my car connected and I'll be following him in his truck with our pups. We are staying at my parent's house back in my hometown for a couple of months, which is about an hour from SA. We plan to live there until I can get a job and we can find a short-term rental, then hopefully buy a house next year!

I'm sure I'll be posting tons of pics on Instagram throughout the next couple of weeks, so you can follow along there if you'd like. My user is sheaneumann. Until then, I'll continue to live in the organized chaos of my house until we leave next week!

Our Yeast-Free Diet & What We've Been Eating

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:29:00 +0000

Today marks the start of Week 7 that we have been doing the yeast-free diet, so I thought it's a perfect time to fill you in on our little change! (Hi, Jennifer!)

First, I have to say, after Day 3 or 4, I totally got that this was a lifestyle change, not a diet. On Day 3 or 4 all the bloat that I had in my stomach was gone and I immediately felt so much better, both mentally and physically.

I feel like I could ramble big time in this post, so I'll try to keep it simple!

Basically with the yeast-free diet, you cut out all fruits and butter for the first two weeks, then you can add back in most fruits and butter. Click here to see a list of what you can and can't eat. After 5 weeks, I added sweet potatoes back in, but I slice them really thin and bake them, eating only 4-5 pieces per meal so I don't overindulge.

Now for what you can't have:

-Dairy
-Sugar
-Yeast
-Alcohol
-Bread
-Pasta
-Grains

When I first started looking into this "diet", I told my husband about it and he was instantly on board. I started freaking out, seeing everything we were going to cut out, but the fact that he was so on board kept me on track. Once I meal planned and went on that first grocery store trip, I was ready! It felt so good to buy 90% of our food from the cold and produce section, versus down the boxed, processed food isle like we have been doing for so long.

I started preparing myself, and 5 days before we started the diet I cut sugar out of my coffee. I had a headache every single day for 8 days straight! I stuck through it and now I feel great! Haven't had sugar for 48 days!!

We are also not coke drinkers, so that hasn't been an issue for us, but I know that would be very difficult for some people. I probably only had a coke once a month, so that made this easier for us. I drink a ton of water and pee constantly!

I started using a food journal the first day we started, and I have tracked everything in there- the date, what time I ate, if I had an cardio that day, and my how much I weigh. That has helped a lot- being accountable for what I'm consuming.

Now, here's several pictures of food we're eating and things I love!

Baked salmon, steamed green beans, spring mix with lemon juice and evoo, sliced tomato

Spaghetti with ground turkey, made with spaghetti squash, spring mix with lemon juice and evoo

Scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, sliced avocado with fresh lime juice

Hummus with sliced cucumber and cauliflower, La Croix sparkling water

Sauteed chicken with salsa, roasted brussels sprouts, steamed green bean

Grilled pork chops, steamed green bean, spaghetti squash

La Croix sparkling water. My favorites are peach-pear, coconut and grapefruit!

1/2 baked chicken, sauteed green bean, roasted asparagus and brussels sprouts

Grilled turkey with salsa and sliced avocado, roasted brussels sprouts and butternut squash

I just kinda winged this- Spaghetti squash with grilled Italian sausage, artichokes and sun-dried tomatoes

Tuna made with vegenaise and relish, cucumbers with hummus, turkey slices, strawberries with Justin's chocolate hazelnut butter

Sun-Dried tomatoes and artichokes

Chicken tortilla soup, without the chicken and rice soup, corn, sour cream and cheese. Add an extra can of black bean and diced tomato.

Larabars

Nuts, don't get honey roasted! My favorite are raw, unsalted almonds.

Ham and egg cups (this was the first time I made them and burned them, since then they haven't been burned!)

Roasted cashews, broccoli and hummus

Coconut oil

"Taco" bowl- ground turkey and black bean, topped with salsa and homemade guacamole

Coconut milk "ice cream" sandwiches

YF pancakes topped with butter only

Erythritol

Tastes exactly like chocolate ice cream

Spring mix with baked salmon, sliced tomato and avocado, topped with lemon juice and evoo

Almond butter

Vegenaise

We eat lots of hummus! Our favorite is the jalapeno.

Oat flour, garbanzo bean flour, flaxseed meal

Justin's chocolate hazelnut butter

Hot tea

Terra chips- original only!

Sliced turkey from the butcher with hummus, almonds, blueberries, 1/2 orange

And now for our weight loss! My husband has lost 18 pounds since the day we started!! He is doing sooooo great!

I, on the other hand, am only down 7 pounds. My weight does not seem to be falling off as fast as him or other people that have started this diet. Actually the first week I lost 4.5 pounds, then I weighed myself the next day and my weight shot back up to my starting weight! Very strange. Since then I have lost on average .5-2 pounds per week, and I only weigh on Monday mornings. But, I have noticed a huge difference in my waist line and my clothes are starting to fit much bigger, but for some reason the number on the scale is moving very slowly. I have taken naked pictures of myself in my underwear weekly, then compared them side by side from previous weeks and I can see a big difference, which keeps me motivated. (Lord help anyone that finds my phone because they will not like what they see!)

My highest weight was on July 1st when I went to my yearly appt and weighed in at.... 163. Yep, I'm putting my weight out there! I'm only 5'3 so that is a lot of fat! I weighed in this morning at 150.5, so I have lost 12.5 pounds in the last 8 months, with 7 of that being since January 21st. If I can lose at least 1 pound per week, I will be 25 pounds down at Memorial Weekend! That is my goal and motivation.

We have started taking several vitamins daily, and I started Zumba last week now that my shin splints are gone. I love Zumba and plan to do it 4-5 days a week. It feels so nice to break a sweat and get my heart rate up! I have also started juicing 4-5 times a week. I bought the Breville Juice Fountain Plus and love it! I will do a post in the future reviewing it and share some of my favorite recipes!

I hope this post is helpful for anyone wanting to make this lifestyle change and start eating healthier. Here are some links that were very helpful to me throughout the last six weeks:

Guidelines

Healthy Recipes

Beautiful Mess Blog with several links- This is what started it!

I would say at this time we are still following the guidelines of the YF diet, but now I'm starting to make better choices for us and using my own common sense, versus following the YF guidelines strictly. I read the ingredients on everything, and have added in a few very small cheats in the last two weeks. I had two beers and a glass of wine Friday night at a concert, and had sweet potato fries too! I know it's unrealistic to follow these strict guidelines forever, but right now I feel very motivated and I'm not going to cheat simply because I "need to cheat". I just want us to eat healthy!

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them!

Scenes From The Last {Two} Weeks

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:11:00 +0000

Hello! Hope y'all are doing well! I've taken the last week off to rest up thanks to these stupid shin splints. I'm doing MUCH better, pretty much 90% better. I'm going to continue staying off my feet and hopefully I'm 100% better by next Monday so I can work cardio back into my life.

Do y'all do Instagram? I'm slightly obsessed with it! My user is sheaneumann.

We went to dinner with a co-worker of my hubby's.

We added fruit back into our diet after two weeks without it. Can you tell I was excited!?

I made our bed and five minutes later the boys destroyed it!

At the end of January we went to the Robert Earl Keen concert in Washington DC. It was so much fun!

My mom ordered me Zumba and I can't wait to start using it, hopefully next week!

Good Morning.

Slightly obsessed. They were 2/$5 at Target so I had to stock up. :)

"We love going bye-bye!"

My new kicks! The Nike Lunarglide+ 4.

Flowers from my Valentine.

Cuddles with my boo.

Followed this recipe to make my morning breakfast cookie!

The first picture we took together, August 7th, 2002, and our most recent picture from two weeks ago.Do we look older??!!

Followed this video tutorial to make homemade body butter. It is awesome, I love it!

Completely obsessed with this sweater I ordered from ASOS for our Colorado vacation back in November. I wore this on the plane and it was so comfortable. Plus I love that it shipped from London, makes me feel so fancy-pants.

If you're looking for a warm and cozy sweater, order it here! And it's on sale now, plus free shipping!

Followed this recipe to make a yeast free, sugar free, butter free chocolate cake that microwaves in two minutes! Sooooo good!

Date night with love muffin.

Oh My God sooooo good! Perfect with Terra Chips.

If you don't see me comin' from a mile away you better get your eyes checked. I was awful bright this past weekend.

Our first born was having some issues yesterday so he went to the vet. Thankfully he's doing better today.

Our House: Updates In The Master Bedroom

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 17:17:00 +0000

I meant to do this last week, but last week totally got away from me! I'm not quite sure what happened!

I've bought a couple new things, made some changes and moved some stuff around to update our master bedroom a little bit. Again, we are renters and I HATE, all caps HATE, the wall color! But what can you do, deal with it I guess.

I found the two Chevron accent pillows at Ross for $5.99 each! And that was not a clearance price or anything! Just their regular ol' price! I love the little pops of color it added to our room without being too girly for my macho-man husband.

I have been obsessed/in love/dying for the Altuzarra trays that were a part of the Neiman Marcus for Target collection. I actually bought one when they first came out, but couldn't stomach the $80 price tag, so I ended up returning it. I was sooooo happy when my Target still had one for $23 when they slashed the price down to 70% off. I bought one and had it in our living room, then had the epiphany to buy another one and use them in our bedroom. I'm very matchy-matchy and love when things are in pairs!

Since I moved our regular master bedroom lamps into the living room, I moved the guest bedroom lamps into the master temporarily until I find what I want. They don't look bad, just not really the overall look I'm going for.

I also (a year later) got around to spray painting the hardware on my dresser! (Before picture linked here.) I used the Rustoleum "Oil Rubbed Bronze" color, and I'd take a picture of the spray paint for you but it's out in the garage and it's too cold outside! ;) I'm soooo happy with the way it turned out, and for an $8 bottle, it's a much cheaper upgrade than replacing 10 knobs.

I can't wait until we can mount our TV back on the wall, but thanks to that stupid slant we are unable to right now. (Check out that dust around the cable box! How obvious that only clean around it? I'm really rockin' this housewife thing.)

Those are the updates I've made so far! I'd love more wall decor, a floor length mirror, a huge area rug, dramatic curtains and a pair of chairs with a reading lamp, but as usual that'll have to wait until we have more space (and money)!

Hope y'all are having a good day!

Scenes From The Last {Two} Weeks

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:25:00 +0000

I love to hear a piece of sports news, then mention it to my husband and throw him off!

"Everything I love is at the end of a dirt road...."

My sophisticated baby

Husband and I started a yeast-free diet last Monday. Vodka & Soda is about to become my new BFF. So far we feel GREAT! I'll share more details further down the road.....

Had a little Come-To-Jesus with Birchbox. After cleaning out my bathroom and finding all these samples, I canceled my subscription. I had it for 15 months, which totals $150 on samples, so it was time to call it quits. (Husband, ignore that amount. Pretend you never read that.)

Went to a local winery with my bestie the weekend before yeast-free. Had a wonderful time sitting and chatting! Nothing better than good girl talk!

Who's gonna win??!!

We got snow!

Love it when the sun sets around these parts....

Living by these words lately

Framed love note from my husband I keep in my closet. Written many, many years ago when the Marine Corps kept us apart.

A storm rolled through and the clouds went cray! And there's no filter on this, this is exactly how it looked!

Taken about 2 hours ago after my walk. No more snow, 60 degree weather! It's so beautiful outside!

Is there really a better song than Neon Moon?

Good morning, Sunshine!

Are y'all on Instagram? I'm a little obsessed! My user is sheaneumann.

Our House: New Living Room Rug & Decor

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 20:01:00 +0000

Since I've been home every day after being laid off, I've been playing around and moving furniture and decor around, mostly to not be too bored! I'm trying to see what I like in the living room, so that when we do have a bigger house and a bigger living room, I've got some ideas to look back on.

I moved the guest bedroom nightstands and the master bedroom lamps and mirrored trays in here. I really like the look of the lamps in this room, but I love them in the master too, so I'm on the hunt for a new pair to go in either of these rooms! I'd loooooooooooove a pair of wing-back chairs, but since our living room is the size of a box, that will have to wait until we have a bigger house.

We also got a new rug! I hated the last one we had, pretty much within a month of having it, and I've wanted a much bigger one in a more neutral color. After searching and searching, I decided to get the Safavieh Shag Collection from Amazon and the size is an 8x10. (The price has since gone up $65 since we got it two weeks ago and they changed the name.) The rug is a bit big for this space, but I know it'll go in a bigger room in the future so I'm okay with that. We are very happy with it and it's so soft! Our dogs love rolling all over it too!

Here's some updated pictures! (And sorry these are kinda bright- I suck at figuring out the white balance on my camera!)

I also made a couple of changes in our master bedroom and got a few new things that I'm loving. I'll take some pictures soon and share those next week! Hope y'all have a great weekend!

Scenes From The Last {Two} Weeks

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000

Hope everyone is doing well! I've been meaning to do a new post, but what can I say, trying to live in the moment and not worry so much about the internet!

Oh yeah, I'm on Instagram now! I mean, I've had it for a year but never interacted with people, just used it for editing my pictures. I'm under "sheaneumann" if you want to find me!

I didn't leave the house for 6 days! Finally washed my hair and put on some makeup and made a trip to town!

During my trip in town I found the most GORGEOUS pair of chairs at Marshall's and sent my husband a text telling him I was buying them. He asked for a picture, and as I was sending it this girl came up with a worker saying, "It's these two..." and the worker and her proceeded to load the chairs onto a cart. I almost DIED!

Apparently my husband didn't care for them.

I'll say it again: BEST SHOW EVER!

Day trip with husband to DC

Something new! Details coming soon....

Love this picture of my Marine! The day he graduated boot camp in San Diego, December 2003.

Dinner with my Bestie!

Gotta love Marshall's! C Wonder plate for $10 with original price tag of $38! I love C Wonder. :)

As long as he's comfy that's all that matters.....

Husband's asleep on the couch and I'm watching my boy RG3 kick The Cowboy's ass. What's wrong with this picture?? I was not happy the next week when The Redskins lost though. :(

Thank you Target for bringing your Neiman Marcus collection all the way down to 70% off! I bought the Altuzarra tray I've had my eye on. I love it so much I went back to Target and bought another one yesterday!

It's A New Year! Plus A Trip To Hill Country BBQ & Anthropologie

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 14:31:00 +0000

We are sooooo glad that 2012 is over and a new year is here! The last few months of 2012 SUCKED and I'm ready for a new year, new beginnings, new goals!

Scott and I spent our NYE at home in our comfy pj's, flipping back and forth between college football and Full House reruns and staying off those dangerous roads with DUI checkpoints. No thanks, I'll stay home and drink my cheap wine!

Anywho, Scott and I were talking about our resolutions, but we have more goals than resolutions. A few of my goals for 2013 are:

Continue to build up our savings account. This will be a little harder now that I'm a stay-at-home wife, but we are gonna do our best! Saving money has been a big priority for Scott and I since we got married, and I hope we can build it up more than it is now.
Save enough money to take a vacation to Paris and London! Scott and I are planning a big vacation to Paris and London that we can hopefully take at the end of this year or early next year. We've been saving since April of last year, and we're not even close to having enough! It's expensive to fly to another part of the world! :)
Buy a house! This is HUGE and could very well push back our big Europe trip, but owning a house and settling down is the most desired goal I have for this year! I dream of having a home with my husband and I pray that this happens!

We've got a few other goals and wishes for 2013, and I'm hoping this public post will keep us on track to reach our goals and stay accountable! I hope I can look back at this post on December 31, 2013 and say we achieved at least one of these!

Also on a separate note, Scott and I went to a restaurant in Washington DC last weekend called Hill Country BBQ and we loved it! There are two locations, one in DC and the other in New York City. The restaurant is themed out to reflect the Hill Country in my beloved home state of Texas. That's how awesome Texas is- there's a restaurant 1500 miles away to imitate a specific area of my great state! How many other states can actually say that??!!

I'm born and raised in Luling, Texas! Population: 5,000

After we had lunch we ran into Anthropologie so I could restock a few of my favorite candles! I love Voluspa and Capri Blue, they make your house smell amazing! I plan on repurposing the jade candle on the left as a makeup brush holder once the candle has burned down.

I hope everyone has an amazing 2013!!

Scenes From The Last {Two} Weeks

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 15:04:00 +0000

Went to dinner with the Birthday Boy!

Made homemade pizza- pepperoni and jalapenos for him, tomato, basil and mozzarella for her. :)

I got the new Naked Basics palette a couple weeks ago and I love it! I wasn't crazy about the Naked 2 palette, but I love the first one and this one!

Watched two tear jerkers and cried like a baby at the end of both!

We spent Scott's birthday at the vet. Our baby boy has a cyst on his front paw and he was gifted the "cone of shame" for Christmas!

Got a new couch pillow from Marshall's.

Red velvet cupcakes with homemade icing!

Happy Birthday!

We had a bad storm roll through and one of the boards on our pier become loose.

Made my friend Kristen's delicious chili and for the first time jalapeno-honey cornbread. The cornbread was SO GOOD! I've never made cornbread before and this was so good and easy. Scott loved it and it was just the right amount of sweet and spicy and perfect with the chili.

Went to a bonfire....

Our boys are loving that I'm a stay-at-home mommy and can walk them during the day!

Our Christmas & A Banana Nut Bread Recipe!

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 17:24:00 +0000

Our Christmas this year was pretty low key! Scott and I decided to stay at our house in Maryland this year instead of going home to Texas for Christmas. We were dying to open all our gifts since our family had mailed them to us days prior to Christmas. They were staring in our faces begging to be opened! We were able to make it until Christmas Eve night, then we broke down and opened them.

(And don't judge, I had mismatched pajamas on, zero makeup and a hot mess bun on my head!)

Gifts from my husband! The Design*Sponge coffee table book, my favorite Voluspa candle, Kate Spade earrings to replace the pair I lost during our vacation last month in Colorado, and one of my favorite perfumes, "Chanel Chance".

And the husband's gift from me, an air compressor! It was so heavy I couldn't lift it to wrap it, so I tried to dress it up with a little ribbon!

I'm dying over these hand painted canvas pictures of our dogs that my cousin Torri painted for us! Hands down my favorite gift!

One of my other favorites was from my bestie, the Le Creuset honey pot I've been obsessing over the last few months!!

We also got gift cards and cash and I can't decide what to spend mine on! There are so many house things I want but we don't have any more room in this house. I'm going to try to save it, but cash usually burns a hole in my pocket so I probably won't be able to!

Also during our 4 day weekend I made banana nut bread from scratch! Back when we lived in North Carolina, my favorite restaurant in Wilmington was Boca Bay, and they made a dessert we are still dreaming about. It was warm banana nut bread, with vanilla ice cream and bananas foster over top! So, I did my best to recreate it!

I got the banana nut bread recipe from my mother-in-law, and I believe she said it's a Betty Crocker recipe:

Banana Nut Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 eggs, beaten
1-1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (4-5 medium)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom and halfway up sides of one 9x5x3 loaf pan.

In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Make a well in the center of flour mixture and set aside.

In a medium bowl combine eggs, bananas, sugar and melted butter.

Add the egg mixture all at once to the flour mixture. Stir just until moistened, then fold in the nuts. Spoon mixture into prepared pan and smooth the top.

Bake for 55-60 minutes, covering with foil in the last 15 minutes to prevent overbrowning.

And now for the bananas foster recipe that I have used for years:

Bananas Foster

2 ripe bananas, sliced
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons rum or bourbon
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a medium nonstick skillet, heat the butter and brown sugar over medium heat, stirring until the sugar melts, about 1 minute.

Add the bananas and cook, stirring frequently until they soften, about 2 minutes.

Stir in the orange juice, rum and cinnamon and bring to a simmer, then remove from heat.

While the sauce was cooking, I sliced a small piece of the banana nut bread and warmed it in the microwave for about 25 seconds. Afterward I scooped a small amount of french vanilla ice cream on top of the bread, then poured the warm bananas foster sauce over everything. It was divine!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! And a big THANK YOU to our family and friends for our very generous gifts!

I can't wait to see what 2013 brings!

I'm Married To An OLD Man Now.....

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 16:05:00 +0000

Happy 30th Birthday to my best friend! I love you soooooo much!

Scenes From The Last {Two} Weeks

noreply@blogger.com (Courtney@SDB) — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 19:51:00 +0000

NOTD: Essie's "Butler Please" from the Winter 2013 Collection

Got my roots done

Made homemade whipped cream and used it in my coffee!

Date Night

December Birchbox

Someone loves laying in mommy's arms

I die....

I'm married to a kid who likes to play games

Someone else loves laying in mommy's arms

Favorite!

Boo!

My big find at Marshall's- an $80 DL & Co candle sold at Barney's New York for $15 on clearance at Marshall's! Holla!

Followed this recipe for a yummy sauce over baked salmon

Saturday afternoon yogurt date with husband