A Real Portfolio

Jessica is being awesome and photographing all my paintings for me! Professional style. At least all the paintings we can manage to get our hands on. Some are at my aunt and uncles in Florida and James has some which I doubt I will ever see those again! But for the most part I should be able to get pictures of most of them. Surprisingly my paintings are spread out amungst my family and some friends.

• Shea,
• Alyssa
• my grandma
• my mom
• Aunt Stacy
• Aunt Becky
• Aunt Joni
• Janet
• Josh
• Ashley
• James (won't get pictures of that one)
• Jamie has one too.
• Then of course I have some. I wonder if I am forgetting anyone....

Now I have set a goal for myself. With the encouragement of my soon to be husband. He is the one pushing this portfolio thing along...Plus the fact that my awesome cousin Ashley has got a show of her own in the largest building in Virginia! (I think thats the building its in). Shea was also talking to me about us having A Galleria Gegan! Hahahah Which in our little dreamland would be an Art gallery up front housing our art, maybe joni's steppy stones, and maybe cousin Ashleys work with a studio for our creative exploration of paint and clay in back! If this ever became reality it would be awesome though right now it seems to be in the very distant future.

Back to my goal: which is create a body of work and open my own Etsy shop by the end of summer. Maybe I should set another goal of one(or more) paintings a week after we get back from our honeymoon. If I stuck with that plan I would have 12 paintings by the end of August. Granted depending on size I could probably get more done if I did a bunch of smaller works. I know it will be hard to find the time... with all the home projects and stuff going on, but instead of watching tv and doing nonsence after work I probably should be dedicating some time to painting and hopefully will end up with some extra income as a result of it.

Truthfully there is too much going on with buying the house, and moving, and the wedding to start now. But after all this stuff is over there will be no excuses. I will post pictures on here of my work as Jessica and I get the photos taken!

Things are looking up I just must keep myself motivated. The nice weather we are having really boosts my mood too. I don't know if everyone feels that way but perfect weather makes me alot happier. Plus Ashley and I had a great run this morning ( despite how difficult getting up at 6am is) and I guess a combination of the endorphins(is that what you get?) from the exercise and the coffee I consumed after... i feel extremely motivated despite being a bit tired.

Awesome thrift store find

Thanks to Janet and her awesome thrift store hunting for furniture that Zach and I desperately need. This gem is now mine! I love it, and it will be even better with some paint!

MMM Clothes

I love clothes. I decided to browse some clothes partially to get ideas for what dress I will wear to my rehersal dinner. Here are some things I liked.

Photos Courtesy of J Crew, Express, BCBG Max Azria, Ann Taylor

Bathroom picks?

I have been attempting to pick out things for the bathroom... Though now that I think of it I am not sure that we can wait with registering for it all, because we will probably need a shower curtain before the wedding. I still am not sure if I really love either of these shower curtains either... Is it all too matchy? I dont know. I also do not know why I am doubting myself so much about this! I wish I could go into the bathroom and measure! I also want to measure the windows and everything. Hmm. Well here is my attempt at some type of mood board. Originally I wanted to paint the room a seafoam green. But with alot of the rest of the stuff being green I think I may need to either change my selections or pick a different paint color... I definately know I want those two cabinets though...

New coasters

Zach and I used to have some coasters that you put photos in, only they eventually got all ruined. I have been hunting for new ones for a while and I found the PERFECT new coasters yesterday. Where else other than my favorite store Anthropologie! On an impromptu trip to RVA with Jessica to move the rest of her stuff back here to VB. We decided we couldn't resist a trip to the best store ever. So here is a pic of the new coasters, though mine look a little different. I got 6 total. three more tealish and blue and three more the darker olive green color. I ABSOLUTELY love them and they match my stuff perfectly!I also want to incorporate these knobs somewhere in OUR new house!
Of course they don't come cheap but maybe on a piece of furniture or in the bathroom? Love them!
Photos courtesy of Anthropologie

We are homeowners!

Zach and I got the house on Kenneth Road! Now I feel overwhelmed with how much decorative planning I need to do. I need to register for SO many things! Yikes! I am really excited though! I think I may even be able to let Penguin outside at this house since it isn't on any main roads.

Regardless of what Zach says, we have got to replace the floors ASAP. I guess I need to look into how much laminate wood costs. I think it would be silly to put real wood in that house because I doubt we would make our money back on it...

Possible house #2

So this house is still in aragona, on a quieter street. It is a little smaller than I wanted and not as open of a floor plan as I would like but it is a definite contender. I took these pictures, and yes they suck, but I was having a hard time taking pictures since the rooms were kind of little.

More lovely things I can't afford...

I should just NOT look at anthropologie. They always have things I love that there is no way I could ever afford. But maybe they will be used as inspiration in decorating my future house.

I really am liking all of these items so much. I think I like eclectic things as well as some modern. I've been leaning towards alot of lighter things as well. More white and blonde/ sandy colored wood lately. I used to love black and darker richer woods. The lighter furniture just seems to be more airy rather than heavy like dark furniture and I think that works well, especially since Zach and I may end up with a little house.

Search Continues

So the house I really liked didn't work out. :( Wasn't meant to be. So the hunt continues. I think we ( or maybe just Zach) are going to see 4 more today. They are all in the lynnhaven area so not sure about that...
There is still one in Aragona that is okay too I have looked at it twice. I feel like I have really been slacking with the wedding planning lately, since I have been consumed with house hunting.

This whole thing is pretty disheartening. I have sure seen some horrible houses that give me the creeps. Have also had several strange and awkward encounters with people being in the house when you look at it. Every time that has happened it has been super weird and you can't really talk about the house in front of them for fear of offending them. I prefer houses without the homeowners inside. I think I like looking at vacant houses more too. It always throws me off more when other peoples things are in there. Especially if they have made no effort to straighten up. We have seen over 30 houses now it seems like and I have really liked one. and kind of liked another. There was a third that was Ok but had too many downsides. I wonder if it always takes people this long to find what they are looking for.
Hopefully tonight will bring on better luck!

On another note the weather has been beautiful! The fact that it is too dark to run in the morning is rather annoying though. Going after work is way more inconvenient. Price to pay to look nice and fit. We are almost to the 2 month mark until the wedding which completely blows my mind. It is coming up fast! The spring weather sure makes me feel more cheerful though!

Stressin!

I never expected to fall so in love with a house. I guess I came into this whole thing with a slightly pessimistic outlook. But for some miraculous reason Zach and I both Loved this little house. Miraculous that we even agreed on it! Of course nothing is easy and now the chances of us getting this house are not looking so good. :(

Although this house has been on the market since August the seller is not too motivated and in no rush to sell the house. It is listed at 209,900. Our first bid was 180,000 then our second was 190,000. Not sure if the seller is going to go any lower than 205,000 which we probably can't afford.
The loan officer we have been working with has estimated the mortgage rates to be at 1450 per month for 200,000 while the first loan officer had it at like 1244. We could afford the 1244. So I guess right now we are trying to figure out what our mortgage payment would really be so that we know if we should try and put in a bid at 200,000. Which even with a bid at 200,000 the seller still may reject the offer.

All in all this has me super stressed out and anxious. I really love this little house and we have pretty much seen everything else out there and nothing even compared. Zach is really set on buying something though and is talking about getting a condo. which I really don't feel like I would be happy with. I don't know. Hopefully this works itself out and FAST! Fingers crossed.

Our First House?

So Zach and I have put a bid on this little house! I really hope we get it. So exciting! Our first bid was rejected and we put in a second. We will see...

its a 3 bedroom 1.5 bath ( the half bath could easily be turned into a full) and it is 1648 SF. No garage but it does have a carport we could easily close in and use as a studio/workshop. I REALLY want this house, fingers crossed.