The official unveiling!

We've been in our house for about a month and a half now, and we've been working hard to make it feel like home. In a previous post, I mentioned that I would be posting pictures of the changes we were making, but I never got around to it. I guess I wanted everything to be done and perfect before I showed it all off to the internet world. While things are far from perfect (and will be for a long time), we got quite a bit done in preparation for our housewarming party this last Saturday. And I figure if I can show off my house to my local family and friends, it's about time I show some pictures to my distant family and friends. So...

This is the moment you've all been waiting for!

Some of the first things we changed after we got into the house (other than the magenta fireplace) were the light fixtures.

The before (top) and the after (bottom) of the hall, kitchen, and dining room lights. If you can't tell from the pictures, the old fixtures were brass and dark iron colored, and the new ones are brushed silver.

Not much has changed in the living room, but it looks different with our furniture and art in it.

It was exciting to put all my strawberry accessories up in my kitchen. While the green will not be permanent, it doesn't look too bad with the green on the strawberries.

Notice my beautiful mixer on the counter. She's happy there.

One of the changes I'm most proud of is in the dining room. The previous owners had some odd, mismatched curtains hanging, but I knew they had to go. So I made some new ones.

The before and after of my dining room.

Though there's really nothing special about it, one of my favorite rooms is the basement. We have our old college furniture down there, and it really feels a lot like our apartment we had in Emporia. Oh, how I miss college...

We didn't do much to the guest bedroom, and yet it looks pretty nice:


My craft room is definitely functional (see the pretty curtains I made above), but it's not the most beautiful room in the house. Though I'm sure it was loved by the little girl who lived here.

My craft room will not stay this color for very long. I promise.

It's crazy how much putting art on the walls can change the feel of a home. We put up all our vacation pictures in our hallways, and now it really feels like our place.

We only made minor changes in the bathrooms.

We added some art and shelves to the half bath.

I made a little "shower valance" for our master bath. Because there's no door, the air would just flow right into the shower making me cold. But not any more.

For outside, we purchased a nice patio set and fire pit. And Matt's gigantic grill, of course.

We still have some painting and other changes to make in a couple rooms, so I'll continue to post pictures as we continue to do work. But now you've seen most of our new house!

As for our housewarming party, it was a success. Yet again, I forgot to take a picture of the TONS of food we made. Matt grilled and I made sides and snacks. It was a lot of fun to just enjoy being in our new house.

Toasting to our new home, and many happy years in it!

I love Bret and Jemaine!

Flight of the Conchords is one of the coolest bands ever. Really.

If you've never heard of the Conchords, they're a New Zealand folk comedy duo (Bret and Jemaine). They've had a couple of seasons of an HBO series, also titled Flight of the Conchords, and they're awesome.



And I got to see them in concert on Saturday!!!!

But first I had to cook lots of yummy food for my sister's graduation party. Because Salem graduated from college!!


She was excited:


For some reason, I didn't get any pictures of all the food and decorations, but I really did make a lot. In fact, all the work made my back hurt worse than usual, so I borrowed George's inversion table to stretch out. It's pretty much the best machine ever. I'm going to buy one.


The machine left me feeling refreshed, and I was able to rejoin the party. We ate food, played a little poker with the kids, ate food, had some drinks, ate food, and even had a little sing-a-long as my dad played the piano.


I think it was a good time for all, but most importantly for Salem. And it's a good thing my back was feeling better, because I still had a concert to go to!

There are certain things about living in Colorado that are just really cool. Getting to see shows at Red Rocks is definitely one of those things.


If you've never been to the venue, you'll just have to believe me when I say that it is one of the best out there. It's definitely my favorite. Listening to music in the cool, mountain air, while looking out over the city, is just amazing. I can't even begin to describe it.

In addition to the Conchords, there were a couple of great opening acts. The first of which was Iron & Wine:


He's a favorite of a couple of our best friends, John and Anna, and we thought of them as we watched his performance.

The comedian Arj Barker, who plays Dave on the FotC TV show, was also an opening act, and he was pretty funny. But nothing was to compare to the awesomeness that is Bret and Jemaine.


They put on a really good show. And they played "Jenny," which is my favorite song. So it was tons of fun, and I'm really glad we went.

Yay for Mommies!

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there. For the mothers in my family (my mom and my two sisters) I made my first attempt at paper-crafting and card-making.


I'm pretty proud of what I pulled off. I didn't really have much to work with because a lot of the tools and cute scrap-booking decorations cost a lot of money. So, I cut out all my own letters and decorations by hand with tiny scissors. Very time consuming. Once I get more into this, I'll have to purchase some cool stuff.

We went over to my folks' house today to spend some time with my mom. We had fun hanging out and laughing at the baby. She's getting much better at grabbing and holding on to things.


Salem had way too much fun putting the bottle just out of her reach, so she had to work for it. It was pretty cute.

I think it was a nice, relaxing day for the moms in my family. Hopefully, it was the same for all you moms!!

Musicians are da coolest!

I wish I was an awesome, talented musician. Like my dad.

On Saturday, my dad had a solo gig at a bar in Littleton, so we headed down to see him play.

Salem and Matt. (Salem's friend, Mark was with us, but he's not in any of my good pictures.)

Everyone loved my dad. Things were a little slow at first, until the local production of Bat Boy:The Musical got out and most of the cast came into the bar. Then it was just CRAZY. Everyone was singing along -- in harmony. It was awesome. And a couple of the ladies were really liking my dad... that part was a little creepy actually.

My dad and his fans.

For fun, Salem got up and helped my dad with a couple of songs. I was actually up there too, whispering the words to Salem and probably looking stupid. But Salem was way cooler than me.

It was pretty fun. We don't go out to bars very often (or ever...), so it was cool to get out for a bit. Plus, it's always fun to see my dad play.

I also got to baby-sit a couple of my nieces for a bit on Saturday. That was fun, as well.


Ah, good weekend...