Rule #4: Take Your Top Off

Ok, ok, so not literally! We are finally going to join the fellow jeep drivers and take the top off. We have been longing for this moment for so long now. It has been amazing weather, so now is our chance! Last year, when we bought the jeep we were a little hesitant to just start ripping the top, doors, and everything off, so we ended up only taking the T tops off. Now, the moment is here at last! We are taking it all off! Wind blown hair and sunburn…Here We Come!

Rule #3 : Don’t Make Excuses.

So I have to admit that I have really been slacking on our little blog. There are several reasons that I could spit out but mainly I have just been lazy. We have been in a whirl wind for the past couple months! So I need to get us back on track!! First of all, I am going to have to do something about our little subtitle because we are technically no longer in our first year of marriage. That’s right folks! It is unbelievable how fast our first year flew bye. It was one incredible year though. I figured I would take a little time to cover some of the things that we have failed to post. Let’s start from the beginning…. After our spectacular wedding day and wonderful honeymoon we came back to our little hacienda Tiny Tim.Yes, that is the name of our home. I’m not sure if getting married give you a incredible urge to start renovating your home but the bug took us over and we dug right in. We look around and decided the first step of renovation would be to start with the strange carpet tiles that were underfoot. We thought that changing them out for a vonderful goot hard vood floor would be the biggest bang for our buck! And ta-da!!!! We were right! We spent a full two months of ripping up the carpet tiles, that were so glued down to the floor that Hurricane Irene herself couldn’t rip those bad boys up, and cleaning the concrete that we were left with bruised hands and sore backs from scraping. Cody and I both vowed to never pick up a scraper again….. It makes my hands hurt just thinking about it. Moving on! After all the mess of glue and glue and more glue.. we were able to lay down our beautiful new floors.They were truly worth it. And for a killer deal at Lowe’s, we didn’t break the bank for them either. Yay!

After we enjoyed our floors and rested our poor hands we thought about the next thing that we could do…and that was to pick a room and begin. We wanted to start with something that we could really play with and have fun so we chose our guestroom. It has come a long way from the previous owners using it as a gym…I mean I’m sure we could benefit from a gym in our house if there wasn’t a YMCA right down the street. 🙂 SO we opted for a more traditional option, a guestroom. We do love to have our family or friends come stay with us to treat them like royalty …or just regular ol’ visitors. 🙂 I was inspired by a couple of photos from a magazine and then the main contributor Sarah Richardson. She chose a duvet cover that I fell in live with and had to have. It’s so bright and cheerful. Just like I like!! So we went for a more relaxed country/ cottage vibe. It’s been really fun and simple.

And no this is not our room....This is to show the duvet cover we have. 🙂 We will post an actual picture soon.

Then we had to switch gears a bit. You see I got a job! I am now a 3rd teacher and boy is it different from all the classes and student teaching that I have been through. It has been a tad difficult to adjust from being a college student to being a full time working woman. I think that is ok though because if it were easy then I wouldn’t try to do my best. A little challenge is a good thing… I am just searching for a balance if job and free time. At this point it is job, job, job… And a tad free time thrown in there. Once I get more into a routine and feel more comfortable I believe I will slowly gain mire of that free time that I love so much to spend with my loved ones. Whew… Oh and it of course doesn’t hurt to be receiving a little compensation for my labor. 🙂 We are working on finding time to start and finish a couple of projects. Yay!! We are switching gears in one room because we have finally agreed on something we both really like!! And we are also working on a project for my dearest husband 🙂 it’s been fun to just completely surrender to any decorating ideas he has and to be honest it is looking awesome!! I’ll keep you posted!

Rule #2: With Our Bare Hands

This weekend we attempted to create “The VanCleave Garden…2.” Last year when we first moved into our home Cody came up with the idea to make a table garden. It turned out pretty great! We had herbs, tomatoes, okra, we tried bell peppers, and a few other things that didn’t grow to there full potential. But the herbs and tomatoes were growing at an extremely rapid rate! We loved it so much that this year we are building a bigger better garden! We are trying to correct some of the things that had gone wrong last year. For example, it was a lot heavier than both of us anticipated so he middle started to sag. This year Cody really planned out a way to make it very durable. Instead of making a box then putting legs on it. We made a frame or skeleton if you will then put a shell around the edges of it so there won’t be as much pressure. It turned out great!! Our basil was growing faster than I could make basil pesto! Our jalepenos were looking spicy and beautiful but our tomatoes weren’t producing this year. We still have a few kinks to work out. 😦 Hopefully by the next season we will have the best of both gardens and have a garden that spits out fifty pound tomatoes. Hee hee.

Rule # 1: Limber Up

One thing that Cody and I have always done in our relationship is wrestle. We are both some what competitive people and when it comes to picking on each other we would be considered experts. Personally I have always been a playful person and my sisters usually see the brunt of it but ever since I met Cody I knew we weren’t meant to be because he loves to wrestle . You see he grew up with three…that’s right 3 older brothers! He had to learn to defend himself in his household. 🙂 Then there’s me who…little ol’ me. I for some reason just love to beat up on people I love….wait that sounds bad. Oh well.. Not in a mean way at all, but I enjoy wrestling. I guess I got it from my Dad, he was always picking on us when we lived at home…and occasionally when we visit. 🙂 It has always been fun and competitive.

That is until Cody and I were wrestling the other day….

It all started with a leg war on the couch ( you know where you put your feet together and try to squish the other person into the side of the couch) You lose if you fall off or tap out. This is where Rule #1 comes into play. With Cody getting into his ripe old age of…26…he has to limber up. Otherwise, he will complain for three days straight if he loses…weird how it’s only when he loses. Anywho! We finished the leg war and I won, of course, so Cody was being a baby, sore loser,….oh well you get the point. He then decided to take a little jaunt down our hallway in his socks….let me say we JUST installed new wood floors…it’s no longer carpet… When all of a sudden, I was right behind him when I slighty running full force knocked into him. Let’s just say he crumpled like a piece of paper! He ran smack into our guest bedroom door, lost all traction, and fell on his side into our master bedroom. I felt bad..I really did…but I could not control my laughter. It was the funniest thing I have seen in a LONG time. Sorry babe.

Sure enough Rule # 1: Limber Up came into action. He will no longer have to walk around with a limp after a wrestling fiasco again. Lesson learned.

Spring Cleaning Fever

So today I went a little storage crazy…

I went to Target for laundry soap and walked out with a leather storage ottoman, a basket, two orange boxes, a green basket, and a cute little card filer. I don’t know what came over me?!? I’m not even an organized person, you can ask anyone. To be honest, there are still things that we have not really unpacked since we’ve moved in! I think that when everyone is in the process of moving they always say…We will organize everything right from the beginning and leave the clutter behind….but that isn’t always what ends up happening. At least in our case.

I don’t know why but somewhere between watching way to much DIY channel and Cody’s inspirational talks about cleaning, a new wave of energy came over me about organizing. My plan is to hide all the clutter! Cody is the organized one in our little family he always has some “advice” about how everything needs to have a home, like the garage door opener for example! Every time we are in the car together he can’t find the clicker anywhere. This is because it migrates with me, I don’t do it on purpose but whether it’s lost in my purse or hiding under the seats, we can never find it at the right time. Then there’s my wonderful husband who puts it back in the same spot ever single time. I don’t know how he is so disciplined. So after we had a long and overdo discussion about the whole “everything has a home speech” I’m proud to say, after being reluctant to admit he was right… I caved and I’m now in organizing rehab! I don’t know if he knew his little pep talk was going to be taken so far, but I’m determined to organize every nook and cranny of our house. 🙂 I’ll shoot some before and after pics as I go, but as for now, I just have pictures of my pretty and inspirational organizers that I have purchased with somewhat of a great plan for them. Now all I have to do is….organize!! Can’t be too hard, right?!?

Oh and I’m proud to say I am doing my best at keeping the garage door opener in its home. 🙂

Birthday Cake!!

This week my sister Shannon and I were asked to make a birthday cake for a friend’s birthday party. We have been making cakes for about a year now and they are so much fun to create! For this cake we did a chocolate cake with Oreo frosting! YUMMY! It was the best cake I have had in a while. I mean, our cakes are always good, but this one was the best so far. 🙂 We were told to do whatever we wanted as far as decorations go! We found out what color she liked and went on our own from there. We decided to do an orange base with white dots and a big fondant bow on top to look like a present. It turned out awesome! It is one of my favorites so far! I think its because it was just simple and pretty.

Here is a picture of it:

Here are some of the other cakes we have done: Enjoy!

“5 Dollars Clark???”

On the 7th of this month Cordia and I celebrated our 6 month anniversary get this….In Las Vegas! Whoop! Whoop! 

Cody had to go to Vegas for a conference with his biz and so we decided that I would tag along and show up at the end of the week and start the Valentines’ weekend with a bang. I was so excited to go except for one huge, crazy, major.. minor thing…I was flying alone for the first time. I’ve flown a few times and to Vegas before but never alone. I was actually flipping out so much that I got to the airport a little too early..ok I got there 3 1/2 hours early. I was just  staring at the  waiting patiently by the gate building up the anticipation of flying by my lonesome until my wise older sister gave me great advice..Go get a margarita or something and it will calm your nerves! Genius! Needless to say after a drink…and a couple on the plane my fear of flying was completely gone. Whew! Now the fun stuff.

We had a great time and made plenty of Vegas Vacation jokes to last the rest of the year (hence the title)… The first day we visited the Hoover Dam. I had driven over it before when I was 15 or so but Cody had never been there!! So of course we took the DAM tour, took all the DAM pictures we wanted, and found some DAM bait ( I guess I didn’t get my fill in Vegas with the jokes) and as my mother would say, “Sounds DAM fun!”

Here is a pic looking down from the top:

Here is one from the middle looking out of a vent:

And one in the tunnel going through the middle:

The next day we ventured on down the strip and checked out Aria. It wasn’t completed last time we were there. It was amazing by the way! Everything had so much detail and it seriously was like a city within a city. That night Cody surprised me with a dinner out to a restaurant I had mentioned a few times, TAO. It was sooo good!! Then we went across the street to watch Mystere! It was a great night!! And no…we didn’t come back millionaires..but maybe next time. 🙂

Time On Our Hands

  So snow has taken over everything! Cody and I both were stranded in our lovely home for close to three days. Now, we knew that it was headed our way so we went out the day before and got a few things to prepare ourselves like water, food, and of course alcohol. We also had PLENTY of time to put down our much longed after floors! This was a long and extremely thought out process about budget, color, type… the list could go on. Then a few days ago we found a wonderful match for our home at the one and only Lowe’s. So we grabbed ahold of the deal and loaded up the ol’ jeep…barely. 🙂 This was just perfect timing before the big snow storm hit.  We had a few days that we could put them in! We started in the back bedroom, considering neither of us have ever put down this kind of floor, just to practice and see how smoothly it was going to go. Can I just say click and snap!?! I felt like a pro half way through the bedroom and was ready to move to the hallway!

We hit a few snags along the way when it came to cutting the boards around the doorways and then that extra piece that has to be cut all the way down the center….that was no fun.  But my darling husband figured out the best way to do it after some trial and error. It is looking like the vonderul goot floor that we have longed for all this time!

  After a few days of working on it we decided to break,  I mean we are doing the entire house and we both have a hard time living in a complete chaos. In the mean time, I decided to work on another project that Cody thought we should take on. That is to paint our trim! It has been left this dingy peach, cream, yellow combo that makes every color we paint on the walls look less than fresh so I agreed to take on this challenge, after some debating of course. 🙂 I started with a simple window sill and I became addicted instantly. Every chance I get I want to pick up the paint brush and attack my icky trim with fresh white no VOC paint. It makes our whole house look like so fresh and so clean! I’m done with the living room, guest bedroom, bathroom, and I’m itching to do more just talking about it now. It’s a little bit of a high. Cody knows how to call ’em like it is and he sure was right about this (but don’t tell him that. )  😉

Here is a picture of the dingy trim… BOO!!

And the FRESH and CLEAN WHITE TRIM!! YAY!!

Finding our style

So Cody and I have been seriously into renovation lately! We have done nothing but think about how can we change this or is it okay to paint that? All I think about is renovating our home. I think we may both be consumed with renovation, but it really has seemed to pay off so far. Our house isn’t your typical fixer upper but that is kind of what we wanted and that is what we are making this house out to be. We have practically painted every room and even more than once in some cases, but it just is so much fun trying to figure out what style we like together.

I can tell you right now that Cody and  I disagree on a lot of things when it comes to decorating. For example, I LOVE bright colors, in our last house we lived in together he thought I must have been off the rocker to paint our living room bright turquoise! I liked it and he thankfully he lived with it. Anywho! He  loves neutral things that remind him of an outdoors and things like that…(Yawn.)  So we came to a compromise!!! Shocking in marriage how you have to do that!! We decided that we would do neutral things like walls and furniture in colors that can work with several different things and put POPS of my favorite bright colors in each room. I mean I can’t help it! Our wedding was bright yellow after all.

Something that I have learned from being married is that we are in this together… I love being with Cody, he is absolutely my best friend and if that means sacrificing a freakishly green entry way then I will. I can tone it down because we both have to love everything in the home we are building together. ( I did this while he was in Chicago by the way, SURPRISE!) We love each other and we  need to decide on what we want for our home… together.

Hello world!

Welcome to the Ol’ Ball and Chain blog! Let me start out by telling you a little about the two us.

 

     I’m Kelsey VanCleave. My husband goes by Cody to the general public but to me (and my family) he is Cordia. This is a whole other story on it’s own but for now, I’ll just say he can tell my Pops thank you for that one. Any who! I’m 23 and Cody is 26. We have been together for 5 or 6 years, depending on who you ask, and recently got married in August! We have two puppies that we adore, well they aren’t really babies anymore, a 60 lb boxer and a 3 lb pomeranian that are both about 5 years old but they will always be puppies to me. A whole lot of things happened to us in the big year of 2010 and it’s one that I will always remember.We are starting a whole new chapter in our lives and we’re excited to start sharing some fortunes and misfortunes that we’ve had and will have! I want to start this blog because, to be honest, it seems fun, I love reading my sister’s blog (which everyone has to check out!) and it sounded like something Cody and I would really enjoy doing. Here’s a little laundry list of what has happened to us recently:

* Got engaged

* Shopped for a home

* Bought our first house (YAY)

* Planned a wedding

* Got hitched! (YIPEE)

* Cody started his first real career…that’s right, Lowe’s doesn’t count!

* I graduated…finally!

….and the list could go on from that. Hopefully we will take care of this little baby and get some good stories out to whoever wants to read them. This year is all about being married, figuring out our careers, fixing up our home sweet home, and keeping Buddy and Lady entertained. So stay tuned!!