The Parkland Project

(Guest Post) What Are Milwaukee Homes Selling for Now?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 17:21:00 +0000

Sometimes you get a great opportunity to help others in your area. Well if you are living in Milwaukee and wondering about selling your home in the near future, "What can I expect to sell my Milwaukee home for?" Our new friends of Zillow.com gave us a little insight to that question. Our neighborhood of Brown Deer for a single family home is right around $129,500, according to Zillow, at this time. If Max and I decided to sell, we'd be looking at around a $39,000 profit after our initial investment of $80,500 and around $10,000 of improvements And that's just at the average home listing price. Who knows, an appraisal might say something else. That makes for a really nice down payment on another home.

Anyways, be informed. You always want your home to sell well but do not set yourself up for disappointment. Know your neighborhood. Watch what similar homes are selling for in the area.

By: Tali Wee of Zillow.com

Thinking about selling a home in Milwaukee? Before considering buying or selling a home in the Milwaukee region, review the statistics of home values throughout Milwaukee county, examine the listing prices of homes verses their sales prices and compare these numbers to the state of Wisconsin and the United States. Having this information on hand gives real estate consumers greater understanding of their initial investments and potential listing prices for their current properties.

According to the Zillow Home Value Index for Milwaukee, home prices are estimated at $91,600 as of June 2013. Prices are on the rise in comparison to this past winter when the median home value dipped down to $84,000. This was an all-time low for Milwaukee real estate since 2008. Luckily for home owners, Milwaukee’s home values are rising at a steady pace of 1.6 percent year-over-year.

The list price of a home is the dollar amount that homeowners expect for the sale of their homes. The current median list price for homes in Milwaukee is $100,000, an increase of 16.4 percent from last year.

List prices are often set by the seller’s agent who best understands the market value of the home. However, due to multiple offers and bidding wars in competitive markets, the final sale prices of homes can fluctuate significantly from their initial list prices.

The current median sale price in Milwaukee is $116,500. The higher sale prices are good news for sellers who are receiving more for their properties than originally expected. The median sale price has also increased 5 percent year-over-year.

The neighborhood with the highest median list price of $669,000 is Northpoint. The neighborhood is located right on the shores of Lake Michigan, which inflates home prices.

For mid-range real estate in Milwaukee, check out Riverton Heights, where the median list price is around $82,500. Although it is a bit farther away from the beach, most who live in Riverton Heights are higher-income urban families, upper-scale singles and young married couples. Location, including whether a neighborhood is family-friendly, is an important factor when gauging a home’s value.

Purchasing a home in Milwaukee is less expensive than homes in the state of Wisconsin. The statewide Home Value Index is $141,600. The median list price of Wisconsin is $159,900 and median sale price is slightly higher at $172,600.

These numbers suggest a less competitive market across the state than in Milwaukee, where the list prices are significantly lower that the sales prices. Therefore, selling a home in Milwaukee may be quicker and homes may close higher than the seller asks.

So, how does this compare to the national housing market? As of June 2013, the median sale price of U.S. homes was $214,500 with a median list price of $199,900. This figure is significantly higher than Milwaukee, but note that highly affluent neighborhoods and individuals are included in the data.

Almost half of the population of Milwaukee owns a home. These homeowners should be relieved to know that 56.4 percent of Milwaukee homes have increasing values, which is a 23.3 percent increase from last year.

Based on the home value trends in Milwaukee, selling a home now is of better return than just one year ago.

LPB - Curtains (pun intended)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 02:48:00 +0000

After living in our house for almost two years, we finally got around to putting curtains in our living room. I found a pattern from Target that I liked and since we were getting married, put it up on the registry (free stuff is the best stuff).We luckily got one set from my friend Grace and I purchased the other set with a Target gift card also from the wedding.

We put the first attached the brackets higher than the window to make the ceiling feel taller as spoken about at Apartment Therapy. Everything was going swimmingly until...

Right before we finished hanging the curtain rod, Max, who was standing on the couch instead of a chair, twisted his ankle, fell onto the coffee table and almost fell on a screwdriver. Thank the Lord he didn't. Turk knew he was in pain and began to lick him to make him feel better. Sometimes it's crazy how intuitive animals really are.

The rest of the day we spent in urgent care making sure he didn't re-break his ankle again. Sad news was he did trigger his hairline fracture but it wasn't severe. Here he is rollin' like a badass at Target while we waited for his pain medication.

After all that, we have lovely curtains in our living room. I'm loving the Moroccan print!

Do you like the mix of brights, neutrals and patterns?

LBP - Storming The Door

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 22:37:00 +0000

Unlike many people in the United States a storm door is not a necessity and their homes look super adorable with a nice door. Well here in Wisconsin, we don't get that luxury. Our harsh winters make storm doors almost, but not absolutely, a necessity. If you have an exterior door in awesome money saving condition with great weatherstripping, it isn't a necessity.

We have a decent standard steel door with a foam core for warmth. It does the job.

So why do Wisconsinites tend tend to have storm doors? Well storms door tend to create a tiny pocket of air in between the two doors and keeps some of the heat from escaping. 20-40% depending on how energy efficient your current door is. Also, ever gotten blasted by a -20 wind chill after being in a nice warm house? Sometimes its nice to get a semi-cooler blast at first at about 30 to 40 degrees. On the other hand, we have hot summers and having a variance for that much, you like to get a breeze in the house as well while keeping the bugs to a minimum.

I chose a Larson First Impressions Full-View Clear glass and screen storm door from Menards. What the website doesn't show is the fact in-store you get to chose your choice of three tempered glass inserts, color of the finish of the actual door and a handle style. We got the white finish with a two-line glass and aged bronze (oil-rubbed bronze) handle. I wanted to be able to still see our door (eventually we will paint) and any wreaths I might (and will) hang.

From these photos, you can tell we installed these in mid-March. Max and Mark tackled the installation which was actually pretty quick and painless.

After unscrewing the old storm door, they used the same fitting and installed the new door.

Mark did the screwing while Max held the door frame steady.

Let's be honest, you follow the directions and magical things happen.

Max put the finishing touches on the door frame and added the door handle.

After all that. Here we have our new door!

Here is the before with the old door circa summer of 2012. It's has a very country bumpkin look to it and it did absolutely nothing for warmth for us.

Flash forward from March to July. Here is our after July 2013. Much cleaner lines and much less dated. Looks pretty snazzy with my herb wreath.

And although we currently have the full screen in because it was summer, it was very nice when it was cold out not to get blasted by the cold every time I went outside. I say, win!

LBP - The Bedroom Lamps

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 17:28:00 +0000

So this "Lost Blog Post" was pretty much a year in the making. Seriously. Lost for a year. Wedding planning pushed this bad boy back so far I almost forgot about it! I redid these lamps in June or July of 2012.

Here we go!

I found these brand new, matching Target overstock lamp bases at Goodwill for $12.99, retailing at Target for around $24.99 (sorry its been a year later and now they are no longer online, this is similar).

Although the lamps were black, I knew a quick coat of spray paint would make them match wherever I finally decided to place them. Final place decided would be our master bedroom.

The Goodwill stickers were on the ceramic base quite well so I used the paint and adhesive remover Goof Off to remove them. You can find it in the paint section of any major home improvement store. Goof Off uses citrus extracts to break down the gunk and it sort of just wrinkles and falls off. A quick wipe with soap and water made it a clean surface to start.

Before painting, I covered the electrical base with a plastic bag and sealed it with painter's tape.

I wrapped the cord as well with painters tape.

I hit the lamps with my Rust-Oleum Ultra Cover 2X Coverage Primer that I've used in various other projects. I love it. It does a great job. I put on two coats just to make sure my coverage was even and there were no operator issues.

With all DIY projects, sometimes you have a little fail. I didn't anticipate how large the over spray would have been with the spray cans and my cords got covered in primer. Oops! From now on, I will always put the cords in a bag as well!

After I added two coats of Rust-Oleum's Painter's Touch Ultra Cover 2X Coverage spray paint in Gloss Warm Yellow.

Overall, I love the results! I added two lamp shades I already had and they are just perfect accent for reading in bed with the hubs.

I love the warm ambiance they give the room now!

What paint mishaps have you had while DIYing? See another LBP in this photo?

The Real Life

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 23:41:00 +0000

It has been awhile. I will very honest. I just haven't been in the mood to blog. Since this is not my job, just a creative outlet, I just have been taking a break. Max and I have been focusing on our relationship, time with family and ourselves.

Little life update, I got a 4.0 my first semester back to school at Milwaukee Area Technical College. Not too shabby for a kid who never really focused on school until now. All this makes me very excited for my potential with web development. The web was definitely my first love and it seems I'm coming full circle to my 16 year old self and saying, "Hi, I was here all along. If you would have just followed your instinct, you'd be way more successful already." Well 16 year old self, I guess the best thing I could say back is, "You live. You learn. You change. You grow. You thrive." Although I am backtracking in a sense, I have never been a truer version of myself then right now; focused and hardworking. I have Max to thank for a lot of that. He definitely compliments me to make me want to strive for more.

Another thing, I have actively starting volunteering for my sorority again. I have always been a more active alumna but its a little different this time. Along with being the president of our local alumnae association, I recently sponsored a woman go through the alumna initiate process. For anyone thinking it, yes, you can become a sorority woman as an adult and its a wonderful experience to share (ask me for details)! I have also been recently appointed as the chapter adviser for a local collegiate chapter of the sorority and that has definitely been a new challenge, experience and joy. I can't wait to see what the women accomplish this coming school year. And did I mention that our convention next summer is at Disney? So pumped! So look out for these ladies on the St. Norbert's campus. They will be the fierce ones in royal purple, pure gold or their LBDs.

They will take after their adviser soon enough.

Max has been getting quite into cycling as of late as his big hobby. As well as on his own, he's been going on weekly cycling club rides. He has been losing weight and I'm very proud of him.

Max and I have been reassessing things a lot as well. We have been prioritizing and doing some heaving pre-family planning. We both have decided we are ready to have kids but there are always a few things to get in order. We still are not a 100% sure yet, but we have been thinking about finishing up our updates on this house, getting the house reappraised and then putting it on the market to see if we can make a profit. The house has only two bedrooms and we want two kids. We know we could still build a third bedroom in the basement but we aren't sure we want to do that. Will this be the end of the "Parkland Project". Definitely not. No matter where we live, we will always have some projects to work on and share. We just might not live on Parkland Ave. anymore and that's okay. We have been looking at houses/jobs in different parts of Milwaukee and other cities we feel would be a good fit for how we want to raise our future kids.

So on that note, I will do my best to update you all on our projects. I have been documenting everything its just getting around to writing about them. I vow to be completely caught up on posts by fall. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, which you should because I'm awesome, you will see we've still been working on the house and still documenting but I just haven't gotten around to posting. The biggest thing we have begun has been tearing out the rest of the carpet in our home, refinishing the 60+ year old red oak hardwood floors, repairing some of the damage and installing new matching hardwood in the home's addition. Oh and some tile, did I mention that too? And some build-ins. Lordy! Max and I are busy!

So bare with me, good things are coming! Hopefully more giveaways for all of you as well. We all love free stuff!

(Giveaway) FREE CONSCIOUS BOX FOR ALL!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:20:00 +0000

Do you ever have a day when your day went from great to awesome???!

Be prepared to be mind blown!

Conscious Box just become BFFs with The Parkland Project readers and offered something even better! EVERYONE can get a free month of Conscious Box, you just need to pay your own shipping and handling. That is a $19.95 value!

I feel like Tori on Good Morning America with her Deals and Steals. Only mine are definitely cooler.

So how do you get this awesome deal?

1. Go to subscription page.
2. Chose your box (Classic, Vegan or Gluten Free).
3. Enter the promo code: SECRETCODE when checking out.
4. Pay your shipping and handling and you are done!

Make a difference this Earth Day (Monday, April 22nd).

LBP - The Hall Semi-Circle Table

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:19:00 +0000

Lost Blog Post - The Hall Semi-Circle Table

I haven't talked much about our house's hallway: 1. Because its a hallway and 2. It is a narrow space and this makes it difficult to design. Luckily...

One of my many Goodwill impulse buys was a small semi-circle table. I found it on a random summer day for $9.99 (as you can tell with the $10 marking so no one tries to rip them off).

The table already has a light cream color with that aged look to it. As of now, I have done nothing to it other than put it up against the wall.

There really was no other way to put furniture in this hallway. It is only 3' wide. So this guy really was perfect. It also doesn't interfere with the way the doors open and close to the bedrooms which also a great functioning plus.

One other thing you might notice, the hallway is painted! When painting the kitchen, I painted the hallway the same Behr's Wheat Bread that went in the living room. I felt the color already was blended around through the living room and dining space, it was easy to take it a little farther and blend the neutral with the bathroom and bedrooms. Not too shabby huh?!

How are you liking the LBPs? I think they tie all those gaps together and you can really see the progression of our place.

(Giveaway) GREEN Spring Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:39:00 +0000

I am so excited to say, we finally hit 100 Facebook Fans! Finally! And I'm all about celebrations, even ones that embarrass Max (ie. birthday cakes for dogs). And to celebrate I thought what better way than a giveaway! I know I can't control my excitement either!

Here it goes.

You know from reading that we like to be as green as possible over here at The Parkland Project and the Anderson House. So in honor of our minor Facebook milestone and Earth Day (Monday, April 22th, 2013) our friends at Concious Box would like to make your home a little greener one day at a time.

How Does Conscious Box work?

Get a variety of unique pure & natural products every month!
From organic food to vegan beauty products, you're sure to find new favorites!
Discover ethical and purpose-driven businesses of all sizes!
Get content on daily living tips, exciting monthly themes, and creative ways to use your box!
Easily earn points you can apply to full size products for unbeatable discounts!

Conscious Box is the best way to discover the most ethical and sustainable products on the planet! Focusing on strict tenets of organic, fair trade, and pure and natural products, each month Conscious Box will introduce you to healthy and honest alternatives for every aspect of your life and for every member of your family. Discover the best natural products, earn points for leaving feedback and reviews, and buy your favorites at incredible discounts!

To one lucky winner will win a three-month subscription to Conscious Box to the latest and greatest green products, a $59 value. So how do you win? For four entries and four chances to win:

Like The Parkland Project and Conscious Box on Facebook.
Share this page with others on Facebook.
Email me something to pin to our Pinterest Board Green Living at maureenanderson16@gmail.com.
Leave a comment in the comments section on how you are going to spend your Earth Day 2013 to make this a better world for everyone.

Contest lasts until Sunday, April 14th, 2013.

Winner will be announced Monday, April 15, 2013.

Better yet? Conscious Box is offering PP readers 50% off their Conscious Box subscriptions until 4/30/13 with the promo code: LOVELIFE.

Not too shabby for a celebration huh? We do like to party!

How are you spending your Earth Day?

WINNER: Cecilia Cook
Please claim your prize by Friday, April 19th, 2013 or another person will be chosen.

LBP - The Sconce

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 22:31:00 +0000

Lost Blog Post - The Sconce

I found this wrought iron sconce at Goodwill for $3.99 after a random summer day at work. I'm definitely one of those kinds of people who buys things without always having a place for them or hoards them until a later date. This may get me in trouble in the future...Better call A&E now.

I took my sconce out and primed it with two coats of Rustoleum 2X Ultra Cover Primer in White, that I already owned, as seen here. (Also note: another LBP in the works...)

And then after two coats of Rustoleum white high gloss spray paint and we were good to go.

We attached the sconce to the odd living room wall since it was thin and although it needed something on it, most artwork wouldn't work since the space is skinny. I added a wonderful smelling Bath & Body Works candle and we were in business!

Not too shabby for a $3.99 find! What quick fixes have you found? How are you liking the LBPs? Do you think the sconce should be a different color and if so what?

LBP - The Yellow Mirror

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 20:09:00 +0000

Last year, our wedded bliss had put a little damper on our projects. Not so much from the stand-point that we didn't do projects and update our house, but more so we completed projects much faster than we could document them. If you are an avid follower (which come on now, you really should be), you noticed a lot of sporadic postings.

I'd like to introduce a series of blog posts to you called the "Lost Blog Posts" or the LBPs for short. Some of these posts are semi-broken up. Some of these posts overlap with other posts. Some have a start and are missing steps in getting to the final product. The long story short, these are Maureen's little orphans. So let's get reacquainted and give these orphans some light.

Lost Blog Post - The Yellow Mirror

The mirror doesn't have a huge fancy story but it does have a big impact on our living room wall. We found this little shining star at the Appleton Goodwill store while in town visiting our future officiant for our wedding. I made Max stop in and then after perusing their inventory found this little beaut for $5.99.

The golden rod color really gives a pop of color to our wall and it works really well with some of the pillows we already have. As you can tell, I'm really trying to blend the bright colors with neutrals to keep them grounded and not overpowering the room. No one likes to come into a room and BAM! Color just puked all over them.

So that is orphan #1.

In other news, I just had my 31st birthday. It was quietly spent this year with Max and it was quite nice. The biggest surprise of the evening was after cooking me a whole meal of delicious stuffed peppers with wine, he went straight for a sorority girl's heart and started a fund to help me pay my lifetime alumna dues along with my sorority's flowers (our wedding flowers). Such a winner! Truly, I am a lucky woman!

New Job!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 18:45:00 +0000

As you may have seen from Instagram, I took a position at a new company M3Cloud Technology about a month ago. I'm still getting the hang of things but so far so good! I'll be doing some account management and website development. Have to have a shout out to a college pal who sent my resume over there! Thanks Andrea!

As for my previous statement about working for Goodwill and being worried about my credibility have no fear. I am 100% not affiliated with Goodwill anymore.

Here is to new starts!

Sun-Kisses and Jamaican Hospitality

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:37:00 +0000

I wish old man would get out of here. Seriously, he didn't get the memo about spring this year! So I would like to invite you, with the newlywed Anderson's, to lovely Negril, Jamaica. Max and I took a week long honeymoon on the famous Seven Mile Beach and loved ever second of it. So pack your bags readers, you are heading to the Caribbean! We scored this awesome trip through LivingSocial. If you haven't checked them and GroupOn out, you are missing out!

After the wedding, Max and I headed back to Milwaukee to take a red eye out. We spend the evening reflecting of the craziness that just happened, moved all our wedding gifts into the house and just sort of collapsed. We double checked our mostly prepacked suitcases and were ready for our big tropical adventure.

Day One: Travel and Arrival

Our first flight headed out of Milwaukee at 6 AM so we had to be there quite early. We had a quick layover in Dallas then then we were off to Montego Bay, Jamaica.

We look pretty excited for 5 AM at Mitchell International here at MKE.

Upon arrival in Montego Bay, there instantly was a rush of humidity that we haven't felt in awhile. It was actually quite refreshing.

We nervously awaited a driver and didn't know where we were supposed to go. Negril is about an hour and a half drive from Montego Bay and we were told by our resort we would be picked up at the airport. Random people kept asking us where we were staying. Eventually, one guy recognized our resort and yelled at his friend. After switching about three signs he was holding, he got to a hand-written one that said "Country Country". Max and I gave each other a little look and went along with the guy.

The driver's name was Andy and he was very friendly. So we headed off to Negril. Along the way he gave us the low down of Jamaica as a whole and the "real", off the resort, experience; how the locals live, social barriers, ect. He was very nice and informative.

When we finally got to our resort it was about 2 PM and it was about 85 and both of us really began to feel the heat we were not used to. We both headed down to the ocean to grab a drink at the bar. This was our first sight and I knew this was going to be the vacation of a lifetime. Horseback riding on the beach, yes please!

Fruity drinks + Sun = Happy Anderson couple!

After getting our refreshments on we headed back to get our swim suits on and unpack a little bit. We beached it up the rest of the afternoon and waited for the sunset. To our surprise, this little, furry-native island dog came to visit us. His nickname became Marley for the week but he was quite snuggly and had a striking resemblance to Turk. Yes Turk, we cheated on you all week with your island look-a-like.

Our first sunset in paradise. Thanks to this photo, we made two new friends who were married the same day as us, Stacy and Chris from Dallas. Stacy thought it was a special moment and took it on my camera.

Max enjoying one of many Red Stripe beers. Jamaica has quite harsh import laws on alcohol and pretty much just has Red Stripe, Red Stripe Light, Heineken and Guinness Special Import. Oh yeah, and lots of rum.

Day Two: Rented Scooters and New Friends

Still not adjusted to just relaxing and sleeping in, we took an early morning stroll on the beach together. Each taking photos in front of our little "home" for the week. Cottage 508.

Our resort had everything groomed and ready to go for the day's worth of sunbathers. I couldn't wait!

Strolling barefoot in Jamaica's super soft sand. You really can't ask for much more.

Max is definitely the more adventurous of us two and decided he needed to see the island on his own terms. With the help of our hotel's trusted vendors, we rented a scooter for about $30 a day and headed out to explore the island. Here were some great shots we got of the West End cliffs. The West End is an area of Negril which as you can tell, has cliffs instead of sandy beaches. The center of town is sort of the split area.

Renting the scooter had some advantages. Once we figured out from other guests you could buy beer and such in town and store it in your room refrigerator, we could easily buy what we needed for the week and save a bunch of money (what can we say, we love beer and a great deal).

After many of our fellow guest suggestions, we had lunch that day next door to our resort at the Tree House resort, which is known for their amazing Jerk Chicken. All of Jamaica has the amazing food but when you have it 50 feet away, you can't go wrong.

I even got to watch the ocean lap up next to my feet while I ate.

With our new friends, Chris and Stacy, we decided to catch a little air and went para-sailing in the afternoon. Max had done it before but I was excited but a little bit scared at the same time. I was the one who wanted to do it though since I've always heard great things.

It. Was. Amazing!

As we got strapped in and the para shoot took off it was awesome. I mean amaze balls awesome.

Looking at each other saying, "here's starting our new adventurous life together!"

Lift off!

We got some great views of some of the all-inclusive resorts that we didn't stay at. They looked very nice but I will definitely stay we made the right decision for us by going boutique style.

We did spend some time here at Margaritaville just down the beach from our resort. But more on that later.

After we were done, Chris and Stacy had their uplifting turn.

Chris was kind of a show off doing some crazy Superman moves but he was definitely not scare of heights by any means. He's in the military and has absolutely no fear of heights. We found out he proposed to Stacy by making her sky dive with him. I would have died if it was me. Max was quite jealous.

Day Three: Snorkeling Scooter Adventures, Cliff Jumping & Night Dining

After another great breakfast beach side at Country Country, Max and I went for a morning snorkeling trip on a glass bottom boat. They took us to a very shallow area off the shore where we could see some reefs and get some great shots of fish. Again, this was my first time and Max was very patient with me. I ended up cutting my toe on some coral but nothing that was too bad. Just painful with the salt water.

For a late lunch, we decided to scoot over to the world famous Rick's Cafe, a top-ten best party bar in the world, for the cliff divers.

Here is our little mini-marriage mobiles. Hehehe Marriage Mobiles.

I will say, Jamaican drivers are very aggressive. There are few rules to the road and no ~~set~~ followed speed limit. They drive on the left side of the road but really that is their only guideline. They use their horns as a guide like "hey, I'm here" instead of "#$@* off %^?hole!" which is kind of nice. I'm glad we had helmets.

When we got to Rick's, we had barely gotten seated and ordered drinks, before Max and Chris were running up to the cliff to jump off. Stacy and I laughed about how enthusiastic they were about it.

Chris didn't even hesitate. Just waiting for the Jamaican "lifeguard" (if you can call him that) to say "ya mon'" and leaped right off.

Max at least took a deep breath before he followed.

Then it was the ladies turn to be brave. Since Stacy could jump out of planes, she held on to her boobies and took the plunge. Then lastly it was my turn.

I have a slight fear of heights. Now somethings I do not have a problem (looking out on a high rise), but jumping off a 40 foot cliff is apparently something I have issues with. So I started on the top platform like everyone else. Then I freaked out.

Ran down the second tier platform, about a 30 foot jump. Still freaked out.

Went down to the last tier platform, which was about the height of a stand U.S. high dive (not the Olympic ones, just the ones at your average city pool) and finally could jump. I was not impressed by all the laughing of the Jamaicans or my husband and our new friends. Whatevs. I still did it.

What I couldn't photograph was the fact that we ended up climbing into that tiny cave (in above photo of me) at the right of the dive. Everyone else got claustrophobic while climbing in there and then swimming out. Guess who didn't, me. So there. Ha!

After our lunch at Rick's we scooted down the road to the Negril Lighthouse. It is one of the few historical landmarks of the area.

Stacy had a little fun in the swing.

The area had a spectacular view and friendly guides.

Yes, although a great photo, you can see we were starting to get a little sunburnt on our Wisconsin pasty skin.

To be even more adventurous (because our hubbies are insane) we decided to take the road way out of town and basically up the mountains into Jamaican villages. Like free-range beef? They definitely got it here!

Surprisingly enough, when we go to the mountains, we found tons of abandoned or half-built mansions. Drug money? Maybe...

The views down the mountains were amazing. Just look out for potholes in the road. Oiu!

That night, we had sunset dinner cliff side at the Rockhouse Hotel. Freakin' amazing! There is nothing I can say more about this. Food was completely delicious, the space was modern and funky. The individual bungalows they had were literally hanging over the cliff!

Such a huge highlight of our trip. We have decided we really want to stay here at our next trip to Negril.

Day Four: Booby Cay Island and Party-Time Central

With the other newlyweds, we chartered a boat and headed to Booby Cay, a small island off the coast of Negril. If you have stayed at any of the all-inclusive resorts there (Sandals, Couples, RIU) you have seen it off the beach. Now you might be saying, what does this island have that the main island doesn't have?

First off less tourists and vendors trying to hauk you things but the biggest attraction...

Live lobster! For $20 for a small or $25 for a large lobster, you got to choose your own and watch it be grilled by two men on their open air grill.

Max and I decided on a large one and split it. As you can tell, the lobsters in Jamaica are different than the ones we have in the States. They don't have claws but these long tentacals.

Outdoor grilling Negril-style. Pretty badass!

Since we had to wait for our deliciousness to cook we went for a little hike on the island. There were hermit crabs everywhere.

The terrain was quite rocky. Recommendation for anyone going, bring heavier sandals to walk in.

This was my favorite photo of the two of us on the trip. Sun-kissed and loving life!

Here is the fisherman that caught our day's fresh lunch.

The family operation on Booby Cay was great. So friendly and genuine. You could tell they weren't affiliated with anyone and just wanted enjoy each day they were out there. We got some great insight on how Jamaican celebrities act, the running culture and real life on the island.

The other two of our newlywed group, Jordan and Kristy from Houston, enjoying their grilled lobster. They were quite the foodies telling us everyday of somewhere new to try out. Jordan even tried some conch penis... He said it was a little tough but good. Conch, for you non-sea dwellers, is the shellfish you can hear the ocean from.

Devouring the deliciousness! Seriously, I want some now!

After lunch, we chilled on the island swimming, drinking and getting to know each other better. Us girls all compared wedding details while the boys, well they were boys hehe.

Say it with me... aww...

After we returned we all gathered for the nightly sunset ritual. I mean how could you miss your daily dose of natural beauty?

Marley showed up and the cocktails continued.

Things started to get rowdy Texas-style at dinner with our Houston and Dallas friends. We were definitely the life of the party. A little Reggae band showed up and played for us. Jordan started dancing and pulled Kristy up to dance with him. We all just laughed hysterically.

We then headed over to their cottage, or as Jordan liked to call it, "the party porch" for more drinks. We ended up meeting an older couple from Maryland who originally lived in Mequon and got married about four block from our house. Talk about a small world!

When we decided to stumble down the beach to Margarittaville, Marley the dog followed us. With the laziness of this dog, you really would have thought he was Turk's cousin.

Since Margarittaville in Negril is an open air bar, we got to see some craziness. We heard a bunch of screams and then turned around from the table we were all conversing at. All the women at the bar had jumped up on their bar stools because a large crab about the size of a dinner plate had wandered up in the bar.

The bouncer grabbed our crabby friend and took him off-site.

Day Five:

This was our huge lazy day. Lots of drinks, reading, sunbathing and just relaxing. Just what the doctor ordered!

Our big trip was lunch next door at the Tree House Resort, again remember we went a couple of days ago, for jerk chicken with Chris and Stacy. The chef was wildly entertaining and called everyone "movie stars".

I would like to mention I did gain 3lbs. while on this trip. The food was so amazing. You just had to eat everything!

*Both of the following images are from Trip Advisor.

Late that afternoon, we decide to explore up Seven Mile Beach of our sunset walk. From where we were located in the center of the beach, the all-inclusive resorts were this direction.

We walked as far as the Couples Swept Away Resort. The beach itself is public but each resort has its own little claim on it. Most of them also have their own security guards to keep locals from peddling to you if you don't want them to.

This is now Max's dream for retirement. A boat like this, bumming around the Caribbean I guess I could do worse right?

Here he is ~~plotting~~ dreaming.

That night, up in the mountains, there was quite a storm a brewing. We didn't get any rain on the beach but the clouds were pretty intense. You'd see the occasional flash of lightening inside these giant, billowy clouds. Sadly from my photos they are hard to see but they were pretty awesome as well.

Day Six: Royal Palm Reserve, Margaritaville and Green Bay Packers

Our last full day in Jamaica, we decided to get off the beach and check out a little bit of nature. According to my Frommer's Travel Guide, the Royal Palm Reserve had a great tourist rating of a must see thing while you were there. So we figured why not check it out. I love seeing birds and animals.

We show up on the day they were closed.

Luckily, the groundskeeper was very nice and let us pay our money and walk the grounds. It was very nice to get away from all the tourist things and just see some of the real glory of Jamaica.

The whole things is on one long wooden path that stretches at least a mile or mile and a half. You are basically walking through the swamp so we both followed the guide book and poured on the bug spray. Between the constant sun, the heat and the constant rain and humidity the path has seen better days. There was a lot of rotted boards, boards missing (i.e. they rotted and fell to the water below) and nails sticking out. We both braved it out and looked at nature's beauty.

Overall, it was a great experience. I was very scared of climbing to the top of their lookout tower however since the regular path was in such dire need of repair but I did climb it and take my quick peek out over the land. Glad I did, it was gorgeous but my nerves took over with the slightly swaying tower and I quickly headed back down.

After we came back, being the ~~insane~~ true Packer fan that I am, I had pre-scooped out where we could watch NFL games with DirectTV's package. Awesomely enough, our new friends at Margaritaville had our back. Tons of NFL fans from all over the country were already there getting ready, may were wearing their team jerseys. With the free WiFi everyone was checking out their fantasy teams.

There was a real camaraderie that I always love with football fans. Doesn't matter where you go you always find friends. We found our fellow Green and Gold fans and grabbed a couple of margaritas for the game.

After a week of exotic foods we were craving good ol' fashion American junk food and our fellow Packer fans suggested the nachos but told us they were huge. They weren't lying. They came in a large tin plate. We were told they had never seen anyone actually finish them.

Until now.

Things I love, watching the Pack beat the Rams and seeing the Caribbean Sea at the same time!

Packer fans we met were the doctor from Michigan (who's a Lions fan at heart) and his wife from West Allis.

The couple from New Lisbon which is right by my hometown!

And us! With this selfie you can't quite tell but Max is wearing a black Pack hat and I'm rocking my Packer tank with my beachy wavy braided hair. Wish I had that hair right now!

Day Seven: Travel Home

The last day was peaceful and stressful. We got up and packed up the last of our things and headed for our last perfect beach breakfast. I couldn't decide between the banana pancakes or the honey French toast. Both of which I had so many times before but were just that good.

We walked the grounds and settled the last our of bill and just took in our last few moments of paradise before the shuttle took us back to Montego Bay and ultimately back to reality.

The pristine beach said goodbye to us, awaiting its next guests. Don't worry we'll back soon.

When we got to the airport, our flight itinerary had changed and instead of one layover in Dallas before Milwaukee, we now had to go to Miami then O'Hare in Chicago and then Milwaukee.

Miami airport is huge and laid out poorly I might add. This was my second time there but first time going through customs there. Nightmare. We find our bags since we had to claim them coming Internationally then head back to recheck in for domestic flights. Tram it over to our next flight gate. We get there and they tell us there is a problem with our plane and there is a delay. Then it is announced we are moving to a different gate. We get over there and there is another delay because of weather in Chicago. After about a total of 3 hours of getting bumped around, we finally board. We were way behind schedule which made me very nervous for making our Chicago to Milwaukee flight.

On the flight, I kept a watchful eye on the clock. The flight attendant announced to the passengers that we were behind and to please who have connecting flights and announced the cities. We were on the list but let's be honest, people on airline are not always the most courteous. I was trying to look up the gate number we needed on my phone but in the short amount of time it was no time. We got off, ran over to the flight board and found out our flight left in 10 minutes and we had to from Terminal A to C on foot. Max grabbed my had and we ran the whole way. I thought I seriously was going to die of a heart attack and started wheezing. We get to the gate only to find out they delayed it two hours (then additionally delayed it another hour). For those of you that know the area, we could have drove home in an hour and a half. The flight itself was only 15 minutes. I slept the entire time we left the ground until we touched down. It felt like I just closed my eyes.

Overall, it was a wonderful trip and I wouldn't trade anything in the world. We made new friends and got to spend our first married week in paradise.

For a history reminder, the following day, Wednesday, Hurricane Sandy hit Jamaica shutting down the beach for the day. As we all know, the following week we watched as it moved up the Eastern United States coast becoming Superstorm Sandy and damaging so many homes and lives.

(Giveaway) FREE Download Craft My Letters!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:11:00 +0000

Sorority sisters rejoice! Our friends at Craft My Letters are offering their iPhone app FREE to our readers until Friday, March 8th, 2013, to help us all celebrate International Badge Day! Usually this is a pay app but for your this week its free! Tell all your friends!

http://itunes.apple.com/app/id588176598

The cool thing about this app is that you can decorate your sorority letters to basically any background and upload them easily to your favorite social media sites.

Here are a few samples.

Here is a quick one I did for International Badge Day!

Have fun ladies! Share with your friends!

Designing My Life

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:25:00 +0000

I suppose you wonder where I went after I got married. Well we didn't run off to some far away land or drop off the face of the planet. I have been doing some soul searching and really have been settling in to married life. It's been nice being all snuggly after work with the hubby and the Turkster. It has really been a time for personal connection, family and reflection.

For the past five years, I have really been stuck professionally. After I lost my graphic design job in 2007, I bounced around with temp jobs, did the waitress/bartending thing and now have been at Goodwill of Southeast Wisconsin for the past three and half years. I really do like my current job. Do not get me wrong there. It is really opened my eyes to this whole DIY and repurposing items phenomenon that many of us have really caught on because of Pinterest. It has also gave me a rewarding job that working for a non-profit and learning so much about retail. I still work here but I want to let you know, any projects I have shown where I have used a Goodwill purchased product. I have always given you the price of the item in the total of the project. I will say, I get an employee discount. Yes, it helps overall in the cost for me. But what I do want you to know, I always give the price of the project if you did not have the discounts so they are always very inexpensive for anyone to do. Goodwill also doesn't pay me for any kickbacks or anything. I only make money because I work hard for them. No adds, no extra promos. They are just a wonderful organization. AHH, feeling better for airing my dirty laundry. Well not really, but that is my disclaimer.

So back to my point, I can admit, I have been down on my awesome self for the past few years and Max has really been a wonderful and supportive boyfriend, fiance and now husband. I had to find a way to get my mojo back. After a lot of thought of wanted out of life and what I originally wanted in a career. In college, I always wanted to be a web designer and own a design company. That is why I majored in Graphic Design. Unfortunately, after graduation, I could only get jobs in print and slowly, but surely, the resume gets farther and farther away from my dream and my skills fell away by the wayside.

I made the decision to make a change. I was sick of sitting letting my life pass me by the wayside. It was time for a change. The world of web design had changed since I left school in 2005 with the addition of mobile applications and devices. I needed to change as well.

You may have seen this Instagram photo. That was my precursor.

Without even consulting my hubby, again he really is amazing, I signed up for a year long technical diploma program of Web and Mobile Application Design from Milwaukee Area Technical College. It was on like Donkey Kong.

I'm taking as many classes as I can online or as night classes so I can still work full-time. This time next year, I hope to have a new career and feel amazing about myself again. I already feel invigorated and motivated again. I want to BE something again. Be prepared to changes to the blog as I brush up on old and learn new skills.

I also want to do more with this blog. I want you the reader to be more involved and be showcased more.

Look out world. Maureen Dolezal Anderson is back!

The Wedding: Ceremony Details & Reception Party!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 22:29:00 +0000

After all my wonderful and fun morning wedding prep, it was time to get this show on the road!

Our photographer, Brittni, set up a "first look" for Max and I before the ceremony since we were taking some photos of us and our wedding party before the ceremony to leave for more party time. For those of you who do not know what this is, for many modern couples who already live together (and let's be honest 70% of engaged couples do), we tend to care less about the "seeing the bride before the ceremony" bad luck since, well, chances are that is bound to have already happened but we try to keep a little mystery.

I came through the barn to see my future husband standing with his back turned waiting for me.

Here is his first look at his beautiful bride on our wedding day. Such a priceless moment.

Now we really couldn't wait to get started!

Before the ceremony we took our wedding party photos because let's be honest, we'd rather have our guests enjoying themselves after the ceremony with cocktails than starring at us.

Deepher unicorn horns anyone?

A shot of my 'maids and our TOMS shoes. Six children got new shoes because of our wedding. Yay, for green weddings and great causes.

Look at all those crazy cats! Jazz hands!

Max and I of course had our own photo shoot as well.

This one was our fav. See more of this later...

Love the look of my bouquet here. Such a great shot.

The Ceremony

With the 100% chance of rain we were given, yes that really does happen apparently, we moved our ceremony indoors of the barn with the gorgeously lit bubble lights. Max waits patiently for me to come down the aisle with my dad, Mike.

Such a calm look came over his face when he first sees me.

Since we had to improvise things, our wedding party came upstairs from the basement of the barn. Fun fact: A live horse lives down there. The maids and I went down for a "horse shot" during the reception.

The fun little quote about brides and grooms "When everyone's staring at her, she'll be staring at you." Here's looking at you Max. *wink

Our ceremony was read by James Baer of Simplicity in Weddings out of Appleton. He did a wonderful job and we couldn't have been happier with how wonderful, professional and genuine he was on making our day so special.

Max's sister, Molly, read a prayer for us to start. Well at least she tried to.

Our lovely niece/flower girl , Claire, decided mom needed to be by her side instead. Completely overshadowing the reading. Oh well. I already predicted she would steal the show anyways.

Max and I chose to do a "burning bowl ceremony" instead of a unity candle that many people are accustomed to. In this ceremony, participates write their biggest flaws and secrets. They vow to do their best to not bring those things into the marriage and/or will work hard to improve upon them. Neither of us actually saw the other's slip of paper but the active thought of it we thought was wonderful. You constantly have to change to become the best version of yourself for your spouse and family.

My sister, Kari, read a poem about love for us. This time no interruptions.

Then came the vows and the rings.

Both of us teared up looking at each other but neither of us actually cried.

"You may kiss the bride."

"May I present, Mr. & Mrs. Max and Maureen Anderson."

The Reception: The Details and DIY

Max and I had a sweetheart table instead of a head table with our wedding party. Instead, our friends could sit with their significant others and we could have all eyes on us the entire day. It was also nice we could whisper to each other the entire time and freely talk about our thoughts of the whole day. We got to eat our entire meal (including all three cake flavors) and really just soaked in the day.

The table numbers were a hand-me-down from my matron of honor's wedding last year. I swapped out the numbers with burlap adhered to cream card stock and wrote on them with a fabric pen from a different project. These also housed menus for hors d'oeuvres, dinner and drinks.

Since the original plan of our wedding was supposed to be an outdoor ceremony, we were going to also have a bond fire for guests to make s'mores. From Goodwill, I found Target marshmallow roasting forks for $0.25 a piece. With the cost of the chocolate and marshmallow and graham crackers, each favor was less than $0.50. I even found dry erase activity boards for the kids also for $0.25. Although we didn't have the bond fire, our caterer set up Sterno cans for our guests to roast their marshmallows.

To line the aisles, we wrapped burlap and satin around Mason jars. We used twine to tie the to the chairs. When the ceremony was finished, they were re-purposed around the room at tables for extra decor. Tables were also decorated with taller vases decorated the same.

Our custom artist cake by Tamara The Cake Guru from Oshkosh was well worth the money. Each layer of the three-tiered cake was different. Each layer incorporated a different element of our day. The topper was a clearance find at Michael's for $2.00.

We ended up having three long angled tables that faced our sweetheart table in the corner of the room. We alternating 14 navy and plum satin table runners around the room found on LinenTablecloth.com for a total of $42 including shipping.

In lieu of a large digital photo slideshow, we used the twine from the flowers and some clothes pins to string up three "clotheslines" of our lives. One for Max, one for me and one of our lives together including the photo below on the weekend we moved into this house and started this blog!

I used a white mailbox and a sample pot of paint to put a matching chevron pattern for our card box. That still might end up in front of our house... TBD...

A last very important element we surely didn't plan on but helped tremendously was the heaters our venue installed. With the rain, it was quite chilly inside the barn. We really were happy to have these bad boys.

The Reception: Dinner, Speeches and DANCING!

Before dinner began and we sat down to really start things, Max and I decided to cut our beautiful cake and get the ball rolling. Many people usually miss the cake cutting and we thought this would be a great idea to do it before hand. A few people apparently still missed the show but we enjoyed every bite.

And no, we didn't shove cake into each other's face.

Before speeches could even start, the clinking of the glasses began so of course, we happily obliged.

I think Max was even happier than I was.

Max's mom, Ellen, led us with a welcome and stories about her lovely son.

My dad, Mike, welcomed Max into the family.

Max's brother, Mitch, jumped in and made sure I knew what I was getting myself into by marrying Max. Good work Mitch.

My matron of honor, Kate, sang us a personalized song set to the tune of the Little Mermaid's "Part of This World". You want talent? She's got plenty.

Max's best man, Tom, told us how Max almost sunk his dad's boat in high school. The cat is out of the bag now, Mark.

After dinner had started, Max's grandfather, Tom, jumped up and told us a speech about how at his wedding 25 years ago (weird coincidence, on my birthday), a certain someone jumped up during his ceremony to protest (Max), so it was only fitting that Claire jumped up during ours.

After dinner, we kicked off dancing with our first dance to The Fray "Look After You". Everything about the song has always represented how Max's and my relationship has always been more about showing love than always saying the words (even though we say it as well, don't worry).

Although I am not a fan of country music, I chose Heartland "I Loved Her First" as my father/daughter dance because I loved the way it made me think about my dad.

My dad held it together for most of the song joking about the day until he finally cried at the end of the song. My mom said she started to cry as well. After the dance, one of my bridesmaids, Brittney, came up to my dad crying telling him she danced with her dad to the same song. It was a very emotional moment. I'm crying now writing this.

Max and Ellen danced to The Beatles "In My Life". The song reminds Max of his mom. They were a little less emotional than my dad and I.

Being both giant beer nerds, Max and I felt it was only appropriate we had our Hofbräuhaus German liter beer mugs to cheers our guests. I DYIed chalkboard mugs for our wedding party which became quite the source of entertainment for them writing messages on them for the evening. Seriously, our friends are messed up and I love it.

Random mug shots. Get it "mug" shots...

"Like A Boss" - Scott Duescher

Photo by Grace Johnson

"I Like Big Butts And I Cannot Lie..." - Tom Werner

Photo by Barbara Riley

"This has been roofied." - Grace Johnson via Josh Van Valin

Photo by Grace Johnson

Mr. Fix-It-Mark dancing with his favorite grand-daughter. He can't wait for more.

Max had a little too much fun going after my Green Bay Packer garter.

But definitely not more fun that our groomsman, Dustyn, who wore it around his head the rest of the night and plans on making it a permanent display in his "Packer Room" at his house. Glad a true fan got it.

Little scrapping was done with the bouquet toss since bridesmaid, Grace, didn't even spill her beer. I was thoroughly impressed and proud.

Livin' On A Prayer.

Tom, the best man, calling someone onto the dance floor.

Max's Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity brothers showing him some brotherly love with a giant group bear hug.

The "other" Andersons' cutting a rug and weaving it on the dance floor. These two seriously have some moves. Hard to live up to their legacy.

The future Mr. & Mrs. Anderson???

My sorority sisters also didn't disappoint by doing our traditional toast.

Look how I am holding my beer mug while I dance. Skills.

Kate, matron of honor, showing her awesome "Sprinkler". Be careful, she'll show ya the "Shopping Cart" as well.

Did I mention she wears long underwear under her dress and is "Sexy and She Knows It"? Yup. That happened.

Dustyn also showed us his skills with a solo to "The Safety Dance". Not many people got it so I tried to help him a little.

If you can beat my sweet robot dance here. I'd like to see it. Just sayin'.

My parents busting a move on the floor. God, I love them!

The last song of the night was Billy Joel "Piano Man". Max's fraternity always played this song as a "time to leave the party" song and they always gathered in a circle and sang. We started dancing together and every guest left joined in a giant circle around us and sang. It was by far the best moment of the night.

While the rest of our friends hopped on the party bus for more debauchery, apparently karaoke was involved, Max and I retreated to reflect on our day. Well and you know...jk, well not really.

Thanks so much for sharing our special day.

With Love,

The Andersons

*All photography by Brittni Weston of All Business Photography & DJ

*All videos by Thomas Werner (aka Best Man) edited by myself

The Wedding: Getting Ready

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 17:54:00 +0000

So I lied. I tried to split this up into three posts but as I was writing and adding photographs, they were way too long and drawn out. So here is the first part of the wedding day. The day of "get the bride to the alter" things.

The night/morning of the wedding I couldn't sleep. I was alone in our suite at the B&B and I was so restless. I tried just about anything to settle down and get a little sleep. Soaking in the jacuzzi tub to relax my muscles; nothing. Warming up my room with my little fireplace heater; nada. Writing my thoughts down to just get them out of my head; well it was a try! But it was just no use. I ended up just swirling in my own thoughts.

Eventually, my mom came to the door to see how I was doing and to bring me down for breakfast. So happy too. Renee, the B&B owner, is one mean cook! She made peach french toast that was to die for. Another favorite was her loaded hash browns. Such a great way to start the day! I enjoyed chatting with my parents and sister before all the craziness began. I had a semi-tight schedule to make sure everything happened on time.

First task of the day was flowers. I was bound and determined we were going to be able to afford Max and I had bought our flowers from a wholesale website FiftyFlowers and they arrived at our house on three consecutive days depending on how long it would take for them to bloom starting with my "lovely purple irises" first (DPhiE shout out!)

The flowers were set up assembly line style:
1. My brother-in-law Brian: Cutting Stems
2. Anderson family ladies Ellen, Molly and Kalin: Bridesmaid bouquets, aisle and table vases, boutineers
3. My mother Shelly: Bridal bouquet and extra flower assistance
4. My sister, Kari, and dad, Mike: Miscellaneous flower and other decor help

The Anderson women braving the drafty barn while arranging bridesmaid bouquets.

My mother proudly making my bridal bouquet with my sister, Kari's help.

Finished bridesmaid bouquets. They look so lovely!

With all the help we ended up getting everything arranged in about an hour to an hour an a half. There were still a few things getting finished when I had to run off for my hair and make-up appointment. Thanks to those who stayed.

Running slightly late, I met my bridesmaids at Studio 212 Salon in downtown Waupaca, while their hair appointments were already in progress.

I started out first in the make-up chair. Everything really was feeling surreal. "Is this really happening? I've been in so many weddings before, is this actually mine? Look at the girls' hair! My mom looks so happy. There isn't enough coffee in this world right now."

When it was time to move to the hair chair, I made the fatal mistake of leaving my veil in my room. My bridesmaids Kate and Erika flew to the rescue and went off to retrieve it in the rain. Yay for 100% chances of rain on your wedding day. Yup, that's what I got.

My girls put me at ease with plenty of laughs. It was so great to be surrounded by them. Sometimes you really just need your friends to make any situation better. We were all seasoned brides/bridesmaids so joking around was definitely the way to go.

Unlike many brides, I didn't really have a plan on how I wanted to wear my veil. I took a poll and we decided on the back. I ended up wearing it the entire ceremony and reception without it bothering me at all. Gave some great lighting effects at the reception as well.

My friend Brittney's reaction to the finished look was priceless.

After a few hugs and a little more laughter, the girls went to the B&B to get ready while I waited for my mom to get her hair done.

From left to right Grace Johnson, Erika McKee, myself, Brittney Klaas and Katharine Farchmin.

I was so happy to see my mom pampering herself. Sometimes I feel she works so hard for everyone else she forgets that she's a beautiful woman that deserves that too.

This was the moment I felt and knew I was a bride. It was a very emotional feeling. Everything finally felt real.

After a last minute trip to the local K-Mart for 2-3 forgotten items we went back to Willow Pond to put on our dresses and start to get this party started!

I arrived to the B&B to see my maids have already started pre-gamming without me. Crazy girls.

Touching up the lip gloss.

Trying to squeeze my boobs into my dress. In hashtag form: #neverthoughtidhavethisproblem

Something old: a broach from my grandmother's aunt who raised her when she moved to the United States. Something new: basically my whole outfit. Something borrowed: A locket pendant from my bridesmaid/sorority sister/roommate Erika. The locket was given to her by her grandmother before she died. Erika always wears it. Something blue: My blue TOMS wedges.

Please note my Green Bay Packers garter.

A quick cheers before my "first look" moment with Max and bridal party photos began.

After to speaking to Max, he spend his morning with his family for a little bit then decided to join the rest of his boys at the hotel. He spent it playing cards and taking it easy.

All photography by Brittni Weston at All Business Photography & DJ. All rights have been given to post all these images.

Wedding Part One: The Rehearsal

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 19:27:00 +0000

It is finally here! The post(s) you have been waiting for. THE WEDDING! I thought I would break this down in to three posts: the rehearsal, the wedding and the honeymoon; all three have different feelings and emotions and different themes. The rehearsal I do have to apologize in advance. It is mostly just thoughts and feelings. Very few photos were taken. Just a lot of emotional love.

The months leading up to the wedding, I was a sleepless wreck. I tried very hard to stay awake but either nerves or the 100 things swirling around my brain just would not keep me asleep so usually somewhere between 2-4 AM I would be up and on here. Overall, I was usually highly productive but I really started to look like a zombie that last month.

I got a little relief a month before the big day with my bridal shower and bachelorette party thrown by my matron of honor, Katie. My favorite parts of the day/night were spending time chatting catching up with all my closest friends and sister, seeing all the creativity that went into their gifts and the comedy show we went to. Thanks for all the fun ladies!

Myself with my bridesmaids Grace, Erika, Katie and Brittney.

Photo via Erika McKee

Bridal shower attendees along "the pantie line". A very fun gift with new underwear for me and creative gift to go along with.

Photo via Erika McKee

Myself and all the ladies of the bachelorette party at the comedy show "Bye Bye Liver".

The week before the wedding. Max and I spent his 29th birthday with a trip up to Wild Rose to drop off decor, our wedding outfits and miscellaneous things at the cabin. I figured since we would have Turk the following week, I didn't want him stomping all over my wedding gown. Although Max wasn't thrilled about spending his birthday in the car, we ended it with a nice dinner at home and a house less filled with wedding things. Don't worry, Max spend the next day celebrating his birthday and bachelor party in one. I hear paint-balling and a trip to Goodwill were part of the day.

Max with his brother Mitch at paint ball.

Photo via Mitch Anderson

Max and I left for our big day the Thursday before the wedding. We had planned to leave early in the afternoon and have a relaxing evening at the cabin before the hectic weekend began. Our plan got derailed when our last minute stop to FedEx to get our programs printed got derailed and we ended up spending an extra 3 hours there since our card stock kept getting stuck in their copy machine. So much for trying to save time and energy. At this point, my stress level was through the roof and I just wanted shut down.

The rest of the night with the family we tied labels on to favors and tried to get to bed early.

The start of the next day was filled with errands to run and a hall to decorate. While Max and his dad, Mark went off to buy the alcohol for our day, Max's mom, Ellen, and I headed to pick up linens for our tables and pay our catering bill. On the way back, we heard the weather report on the radio. "Tomorrow chance of showers 100%." Have you ever heard of 100% chance of showers. Me neither until now. Of course, also on the day of my wedding no less.

After a quick rendezvous at the cabin to eat lunch and pack up the cars, we were all off to Willow Pond, our venue site, to start with set-up and actually rehearsing.

From the weather report, it was a no brainer that this was going to be an all-indoor wedding. So much for the beautiful outdoor ceremony and photography. That was completely gone. I had to reconfigure the whole event to be placed inside the barn.

This was the raw view of our venue space about mid-afternoon. It really was a gorgeous place to have a wedding and I started to feel a little better that the whole event was going to be inside.

Photo via Kalin LeBrun

When configuring the reception tables, I came up with a snag and the way I had it set up did not fit with the actually venue layout. This was admit-tingly my largest "bridezilla" moment. I with so many adults all trying to help out, there were just too many opinions of how it should turn out. After about three different tries I screamed and chucked my papers up in the air. I snapped at Max's brother, Mitch, who was just trying to help. Again, I'm so sorry Mitch! Luckily, Max's dad, Mr. Fix-It-Mark, came to the rescue with a layout that was similar to my overall plan. Problem solved.

Here was Mitch's girlfriend, Kalin, and Grandma Anderson sharing a blanket through our cold rehearsal ceremony. Which ran surprisingly very smoothly minus one late groomsman.

Photo via Mitch Anderson

After the rehearsal we headed over to the hotel where the rest of the guests were staying to enjoy a little Mexican food (Max's favorite) at De Fuego in Waupaca. I was so happy to get a drink in and decompress my stress a little. Horray for margaritas! Our party shared their back room. The food was delicious.

Look how excited Max is!

Photo via Tom Werner

This photo shows how stressed I really was.

Photo via Tom Werner

When all was said and done, this how everything turned out. Gorgeous and everything ended up being perfect.

Photo via Kalin LeBrun

What pre-wedding jitters, mishaps and random things went wrong for your special day? How did you deal with them?

Give Thanks

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 17:14:00 +0000

That's right folks! We have so much to be thankful for this year. Most of all, each other!

You may remember from our last year's holiday card from Cardstore we were looking pretty slick and our family and friends loved the photo card on heavy cardstock instead of just a photo print. This year, Cardstore is sent us a deal we couldn't help but share with you our readers.

On their website they are now offering 70% Holiday cards plus free shipping. Sounds great right?

I CAN BEAT IT!

Take 75% off Holiday Cards + free shipping!

Promo Code: THANKS4U

Offer Expires: 12/11/12

(Sponsor): A Brief History of Weddings

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:32:00 +0000

So before I give you the whole rundown of our wedding (we finally got our photos!), I wanted to share this fun info-gram with all of you courtesy of Moissanite. It gives the background of many of our modern day wedding traditions. I definitely learned a few things! My favorite? 1775 if a bride wore makeup on the wedding day, the wedding would be null and void. Guess Max is screwed right? LOL!

Presented By Moissanite.com visit moissanite.com

Like them on Facebook!

I Choo, Choo, Choose You!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 00:17:00 +0000

Well the wedding has come and gone. We have got our tans in Jamaica. I'm sure you are all dying to know how everything went. You'll just have to wait a little longer. I want to tell the story with our professional photos (hey we paid for them, might as well use them) and it would be unfair to share the Jamaica stories out of context.

Here is a teaser from (hopefully my future sister-in-law) Kalin LeBrun.

I will say though, that we are very blessed by our family and friends. They surrounded us with love and support and really helped us in the last minutes pulling everything together. Thanks again everyone!

While we all wait for the stories of our special day, I would like to take this time to urge everyone to use their hearts and minds. We are very lucky to live in such a great country where we can choose our leadership and governance. If you are over the age of 18, and let's be honest, you probably are if you are reading this, please, educate yourself on the issues and go vote.

As of today, 30 million people (myself included) have already cast their ballot. This kind of response has been unprecedented in a Presidential election. One vote really can make a difference. For anyone who is unaware of where to vote or how to register head over to Vote411.org. Even if you just plug in "where to vote" in Google, it will spit out a place for you. Good job guys!

So get out there and let's make some 'Merican History!

Here is a little Will Ferrell to get you in the voting mood.

*vote image from the Huffington Post

Hangin' Ten in the Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 13:20:00 +0000

I've been doing more than my little fingers can type and photograph. First off, let's rewind. You know from my previous post I was starting to paint the kitchen. I don't know if I was just feeling the Olympic spirit or what but I ended up painting the kitchen and the hallway in a couple of marathon paint sessions. One during swimming and gymnastics events and the other during the Closing Ceremonies. Well I went a little overboard and my paint went throughout the kitchen and down the hall.

Since I have been trying to be a good bride I have become a bad blogger in the process, I am deciding to treat you with a reveal before the process it took to get there. Adoring fans, please forgive me!

Here is our kitchen wearing Behr's Premium with a Satin finish in Surfer (hey, fashion week just happened). Here is a comination photo of both natural and overhead lighting. The color definitely changes with the light. This lighting brings out the green more.

Here is the same photo without the overhead. Looks way more blue.

One thing that I really noticed was our white backsplash really pops out now. It is not longer just blending in with the wall. We just got a new The Tile Shop up the road, might have to do some scoping for some backsplashes. When I finally paint the cabinets white (shade of white still TBD) the backsplash will fade back in and we don't want that!

Our eat-in dining room looks way more inviting now. I'm really going to have to get on refinishing the table.

Also, now that the door to the door to the garage is featured more, we will have to paint that to make it blend well. Anyone got suggestions for interior door paint? I don't want it the same as the all white hallway doors but I don't want it to be an eyesore either. Please suggestions welcome!

Here is the overall view from the eat-in to get more of the full scope of the space. I do plan on painting the island cabinets the same Surfer color and we plan to switch up the counter tops. The laminite is just not our style, butcher block maybe?

The other wall I painted was the backside wall that joined the kitchen with the living room. Using Behr's Premium paint in my favorite neutral wall color, Wheat Bread in a Satin finish, I made the spaces cohesive and kept the flow going.

The last area I painted with Surfer was the other side of that adjoining wall in the kitchen.

I have one more painting project I left out of this story, but I will leave that for another day. I will say that I think the kitchen is my new favorite room. It makes me happy to be in and I can't wait for the other projects because its only going to make the space more inviting.

I know I won't be posting in the next 3 weeks. I apologize for that but you will have plenty of fun things to read after that. I won't be able to stop myself from writing with excitement. In two weeks we will "officially" be The Anderson Family! Max and I are taking an eight day trip to Negril, Jamaica to sip on rum drinks and Red Stripe and enjoy our new wedded bliss.

Leave us lots of love!

If you want to read more about our journey to the alter, check out my guest blogging gig at The Budget Savvy Bride.

DIY Wedding Craft Extravaganza

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:30:00 +0000

I would love to say that this was an update about how awesome my kitchen color turned out. I would love to say that "Surfer" is completely surftastic and I'm in riding waves all the way from Honolulu. Unfortunately, this post is not it.

As soon as I got the kitchen painted, I went into wedding overhaul before I took nice pictures of what everything looked like. For the last three weeks this is what our kitchen and living room have looked like periodically.

The kitchen table looks like crafting threw up all over it. There are tons of tiny burlap fibers everywhere. I have boxes and boxes of wedding decor strewn about the floor.

Although this area has been cleaned in between projects, the living room has been my crafting/watch Netflix station. Today was a Grey's Anatomy season 8 eight marathon... hey, got to get ready for season 9 right (the plane crash finale was so bogus by the way, Shonda Rhimes)?

There is a silver lining though. DIY wedding projects are done and since I am a huge movie fan and love teaser trailers, here is a little preview of some of the wedding things I've been tackling. Half finished of course. You'll have to wait for the big wedding reveal to see the whole projects.

Even though I went to Michael's for ribbon and such, the main shopping trip was to my local home store Menards. Figures right?

Definitely hit up the Dollar Tree for some DIY gifts for our wedding party.

Goodwill escort cards anyone?

And yes, the green painters tape was hella busted out for some chevrons. What up.

So now that everything is cleaned up, look forward to new updates!

Catching Some Waves

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 11:22:00 +0000

I may have cracked. I feel like wedding planning has taken over my life and I needed to take it back. I've had so many little things go wrong in the last week or so I was just like AHHHH. I decide to take a break and go back to the one thing I know I have control of, this little house.

After work on Tuesday, I went and bought some test pots of paint from Home Depot to finally start work on our kitchen after 15 months of living here. I knew I wanted a Tealish color but I also knew I had to match the colors of the living room the make sure the flowing space was cohesive. I held up the previous paint swatches of the wall colors we already have, Behr's Wheat Bread and Glidden's Cool Cobalt, in the store and these were the closest matches I could find. I chose two of Behr's colors Teal Zeal and Surfer. Teal Zeal (left) was a little bit darker and more dramatic. Surfer (right) was a little more light and airy.

If you are a little apprehensive about a color for a room, Behr's website you can virtually "paint" any room by upload photos of the space. It's an easy way to try out some colors before you head to the store. I like to jump in with the test pots, but to each their own.

As soon as the colors of the test pots had dried, it was almost a no-brainer that Surfer was the obvious choice.

I painted the test spots in different areas of the room to get different angles of how the light would look with the color and with the colors already established. Not too shabby.

I bought a gallon and a quart Behr Premium paint with the paint and primer combined in the satin finish to ensure I had enough for basically two rooms. After using it the last time in the living room, it have been by far my favorite paint. The coverage is really great and I only have to spot paint after it dries for the few places that got missed by the roller.

The dining area had the most wall coverage and the kitchen not quite a much with all the cabinet space. I also wanted to have enough to paint the cabinetry of the island the same color to make a bold statement. I also bought a gallon of Wheat Bread in satin finish as paint the adjoining wall that goes from the living room in to the dining area. The backside of this wall, sorry I have no photo of the wall from before.

I foresee the cutting in taking the longest for this project since there isn't a ton of wall space to actually roll with the roller. Just a ton of angles and corners in the space. We shall see!

Summer Lovin'

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 11:06:00 +0000

The sun has brought a drought on to much of the Midwest including Milwaukee. And this blog. Apparently we had no takers for the Your Bangin' Home Contest! I'm a little shocked! Either you are holding out for what is behind door number two or the word just didn't get out because of the holiday. Who knows... either way, I have faith that people are still reading... Being an emotional person sometimes, I have ignored writing for two weeks. I apologize.

Wedding season is in full force with ours being the tail end of it. I feel like I've been running around on my days off from work like a chicken with its head cut off trying to squeeze in any extra wedding planning activities and normal fun so I don't go insane as possible. A few days now I have just randomly been crashing from exhaustion.

The 4th of July was quite laid back though. Max and I bought food for a cook-out. Ended up getting a crazy awesome deal at Pick 'N Save. We were buying a case of Miller Lite to have friends over later that evening. The cashier asked if we were getting the meal deal with that. I was a little confused. Meal deal? She explained for buying the beer we got a pound of fresh ground beef, a pack of hamburger buns, a two-liter of Pepsi (or diet which is what we went with), a bag of Doritos and a bottle of BBQ sauce. And it was free. So pretty much super awesome 4th of July trip to the grocery store.

We took a slight break from the 100 heat at a local Lake Michigan beach. It was really nice since the bugs down there were at a minimum. They normally eat me alive.

The evening was spent with good food and great friends. We grilled, had a light meal (seen below) on a very festive table. After dinner we played a new board game called Ticket To Ride: Europe Edition. Super fun game about making trains that go across the country. Might have to buy that one. I won on my first try. Beginner's luck?

During the game, we started to hear the fireworks going off around us. I immediately thought it was the village that we live in just setting them off. We were in for such a treat. FOUR different firework displays in the area were all going off at the same time. Disclaimer: Do NOT try this at home. We decided to climb on the roof of our house to get the best vantage point. I was definitely scared I'd fall and kill myself but the view of the fireworks was impressive. Here are a few of the best shots I got.

A few days later, Max and I went to his fraternity's Family Reunion. Super fun to meet a bunch of the men who made him who he is today. It was great to see guys from different generations sharing the same experience.

Truly great men come from Tau Kappa Epsilon. And the kiddos were adorable too.

Max and I also attended Milwaukee's Bastille Days. For those of you who don't know, its a French festival. Neither of us are French but festivals in Milwaukee are really something you have to enjoy. Made for all. We attended during their Mardi Gras night. Super fun. And the music was bumpin'.

The famous "Storming the Bastille" Fun Run was also that night at 9PM. The race announcer said that this was the largest group they had ever had. It was at least 5000 runners or more. Pretty cool being the only 5K to go through downtown Milwaukee. Most are held at the Lakefront or some where with more room (Miller Park or the Zoo). Although I am keeping up with my running, I didn't feel I was up for the 5K yet. I'm sticking with I will do it next year. Someone please hold me to that. History of the Storming of the Bastille here.

The best runners got through in just over 12-15 minutes. Seriously ridiculous. And everyone seemed to be an experienced runner, all checking their times.

We ended our night in Paris with a shot by the Eiffel Tower.

Lastly, we went to Chicago's Morton Arboretum for a wedding for a fraternity brother of Max's, Dan, and his new wife, Kristin. It decided early that afternoon it was going to monsoon after almost two months with no rain. Seriously, the last time it rained was my sister's wedding in May. Luckily, after a little patience, the sun came out for their ceremony and it was beautiful.

Here are some of the gardens.

Who is that good looking couple?

Max had a little too much fun with the mustache party favors.

There hasn't been a lot of house improvements lately with being so busy, but we definitely are trying to make the most of the few summer months we have and enjoy the moments while planning out wedding.

Your Bangin' Home Contest

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 11:21:00 +0000

Happy 4th of July everyone! To celebrate this great United States holiday, the Parkland Project wanted to celebrate...you!

Are you firecracker of a DIYer? A Yankee Doodle Dandy of a paint pro? The Betsy Ross of crafters? If so, I want to hear from you! I'm looking for the most "bangin'" room remodels. Give us your best 1970s shag carpet before and show us all how amazing a lil' good ol' American "can do" attitude will do! You the readers will get to vote on the semi-finalists. The winner will take home their choice of a $50 gift card from Home Depot, Lowe's or Menards for your next project. Pretty sweet!

So here are the details.

Contest rules:
1. Send us just one room for submission. Make sure to include as many before and after photographs as you can. Explain thoroughly how each room was changed and what products were used, approximate prices that were used and the overall cost of the room remodel. Please all submissions must be in by Midnight 12:00AM (CST) of Sunday, July 8th, 2012.

2. I will choose four semi-finalists to be featured throughout the week of July 9th-12th, 2012. You will be notified by email if you are chosen to be a semi-finalist. On Friday, July 13, 2012, voting will go up for your favorite redo. You will have until Sunday, July 15th, 2012 at 8PM (CST) to get people rallied and vote for your room.

4. Winner will be announced Monday, July 16, 2012. The winner will be contacted by email for contact information and what gift card they would like.

5. Summit entries to maureendolezal@gmail.com.

Sounds easy right! So let's get BANGIN'!