checked off: #13!

goal #13 on my list is to decorate our forever home to reflect both my husband & i perfectly.

well. here's the thing.

'forever' is such a long time, right? and when you're 24 years old and creating a list of things to achieve before you're 30, you don't really realize how quickly things can change, and that 'forever' isn't very realistic at that age, necessarily. so, now 4 years later, we're moving out of the home we originally thought might be our forever home - luckily, we're moving to a house that we may love even a little bit more (didn't think that was possible), and starting a new adventure. so, in honor of this new adventure, i am still checking this goal off of my list because it's my list and i can do that.

we listed our house on tuesday morning, and i was really happy to get these pictures of the house to keep forever. as much as we will miss this house, we're both so, so excited to get to settle in to the new house (new city...new state!). this house in austin was the first home we bought together, and where we brought luca home to. but, our new house will be the first one that he remembers, and we can't wait to make it feel like home.

bye, austin house! we will miss you.

(there used to be a really cool, big world map on the wall in the dining room below but we took it down for the purposes of listing the house)

full list HERE



checked off: #4!

i am so, so, so happy to say that goal #4 has been checked off my list: to own an original art piece.

this one was not an easy feat, guys. 

i try to give back stories with some of my goals, so here's this one:

tucker & i went to new orleans in 2012 to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary. we spent a lot of time going to art galleries, and came across a gallery that had some show stoppers for us. we had talked before about how hard it is to find a piece of art that two people agree on - i mean, if you're spending money with the intention of something being on your wall forever, it's sort of a big deal! but, this gallery had a few pieces that both of us absolutely loved.

and then we looked at the price tag. and suddenly, we didn't love them so much anymore. but the goal of owning an original piece was something that we both left new orleans with, and we thought it would be something we'd work towards over the next several years.

fast forward to december, a few months ago.

we go to guadalajara to visit my family there, and stay in one of my dad's new houses - above the master bed there is a huge painting of a tree, and literally at the same time, both tucker and i thought "i want that and i want it now", veruca salt style. so we get some information from my dad about the artist, and it turns out that she's a local artist there in guadalajara who he could get us in contact with, and who could provide a huge original for a fraction of the price of one in the states. we were able to provide her with the exact size we wanted for our wall, and pick our colors as well as talk about the style of the tree we wanted, which was great. this all sounds fine & easy & great until you try to ship a 6ft oil painting that can't be bent from guadalajara to austin, tx without an importer's license.

so, without getting in to the story too much, i will tell you that it took a little over three months to get to us once it was completed, the border agents actually wanted a photo of it because of how familiar they were with trying to ship it, my brother mario's help was crucial and we wouldn't have gotten the painting without him, and now we are so happy that it's here. 

so here is what my 30before30 list looks like now:

1. visit santorini, greece - 2. learn to speak portuguese fluently - 3. go on a girl's weekend trip to a vineyard - 4. own an original art piece - 5. learn how to bake my own bread! - 6. give birth - 7. start a movie night tradition - 8. participate in some sort of marathon or race - 9. plant a thriving vegetable garden - 10. go on an annual camping trip - 11. read at least a book a month for one year - 12. master taking photos the way i picture them in my brain - 13. decorate our "forever home" to reflect both my husband & i perfectly - 14. start a sunday night supper tradition - 15. visit spain - 16. see radiohead live again - 17. become crafty - 18. ride in a hot air balloon - 19. visit maui for 5 year wedding anniversary - 20. start teaching my children how to speak spanish fluently - 21. start a regular yoga practice - 22. sleep in a tree house -23.  see northern lights - 24. host thanksgiving at my house (insead of a parent's house!) -25. take a weekly photo of my child/children for an entire year - 26. take a road trip (more than like 12 hours of driving!) - 27. learn to tango with my husband - 28. take my own (professional looking) newborn photos of my children - 29. surprise my husband with the best birthday gift ever (still don't know what that is....) - 30. end this whole thing with a 30th birthday bash that's worthy of being blogged about

summer to-do list: update

near the end of june i posted my summer to-do list right: here.

i decided to put 8 goals on there because 5 just seemed too easy. and i was able to cross of 2 things already:

hosting a summer party & take a day off during the week to enjoy austin (this may seem like a strange one, but i'm super picky about when i use my time off work! i usually set a rule that i won't take a day off unless i'm leaving the city limits which ensures that i always have enough time for vacations, so i forced myself to make an exception here).

 

we had a small group of friends over the first weekend in july - we played ping pong, tapped out a little half keg, snacked on fruit skewers and chicken taquitoes and our friends were kind enough to stock our bar with several bottles of vodka and wine! they do know us afterall. and while i fully intended to use my nikon to take pictures of the party (since it's part of my to-do list), it just didn't work out that way. between baking more rounds of tostaditas and taquitoes and making sure my cat wasn't having a heart attack (he's skiddish), my iphone was just so much more convenient. so here are a few snapshots of the day:

 

 

 

 

 

then a few days after the party, the husband & i took a day off of work to go to krause springs with our friends john & jamie. but since i made the goal specifically to "enjoy austin" during the week, we also attempted to make a stop for early morning bbq (that's the best kind of bbq) at franklin bbq (named the best bbq in america by bon appetit! no big deal), but decided that time spent at krause springs was more important than the 2+ hours we would've spent in line at franklin...so we headed to kerbey lane, which counts just as much since it's an austin staple. 

after we had very full biscuit bloated bellies, we headed to krause springs and it was every bit as beautiful and fun as we were hoping it would be. we kept extending our time ("we'll leave at 3! okay, we'll leave at 4. maybe we should leave at 5??") because we all wanted to live there permanently.

 

 

 

 

 

 

here's what's left on my summer to-do list:

1. host a summer party

2. go to hamilton pool

3. take a day off work during the week to enjoy austin

4. use my nikon more

5. finally check off goal #5: bake my own sourdough bread

6. read 4 books between now & the time we leave for europe

7. plant some succulents and/or create terrariums

8. keep up the yoga routine i have so far



backyard goodness

it was almost exactly one year ago that the husband & i finished working on our backyard at our previous house and it's strange to think about the fact that we've moved on to fix up the backyard in our forever home. and by strange, i do of course mean wonderful.

we try to spend lots of time outside and love hosting parties so i'm itching to get started on creating an environment like we had before. except this time around, we have about 6 times the space to fill up - that can be good and bad.

we found our last backyard chandelier in warrenton last year but unfortunately had no luck finding one during this year's trip. so we've been watching craigslist for a spray paint-able gem & are dusting off our packed up lanterns and seat cushions.

these are some images that have been inspiring me to get some lights strung, a pergola built & some sangria in the backyard:

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8

news!!!!!

yes, friends. the time has come. i can finally, finally start working on one of my very favorite goals from my 30before30 list. the one that seemed so unattainable just a few months ago:

#13 - decorate our "forever" home to reflect both my husband & i perfectly.

this past saturday, we put in an offer on a home that we were completely swooning over. a home that we freely called our "forever" home from the second we walked in. we both pretended that we'd be okay with it if for some reason something fell through and the house didn't become ours, but...we both knew we were lying. i would've hidden in a corner and done the silent cry for at least 30 minutes every day for the rest of my life. it's kind of like trying on wedding dresses - when you know you've found the one, you know. we weren't even in the house for 15 minutes with our friend/realtor before we were all saying things like, "this is where we'll set up bocce ball!" or, "kids could be making cookies or working on projects here while we're cooking!" - that one was said by my husband. (insert googly eyes here)

so, yes. on sunday night the offer got accepted and we are beyond elated and paperwork has been signed & sent, and then signed some more, and then some more on top of that & it seems never ending. but that is completely fine with us, because we can now do things like start shopping for a grey sectional, taking measurements for rugs and art, and i finally have an excuse to buy the rest of the penguin classics that i'm missing. (you've seen those, yes? if not, go take a peek. i promsie you'll want them immediately.)
we fully expected to have to do some sort of renovation work when we started house hunting, but the stars aligned in our favor and somehow the owner of this home did everything we would do, without us having to actually deal with the difficult parts of renovations. i knew i believed in karma for a reason!

here are a few pictures of the house...there will be lots more to come when we do finally move in (closing date is set for valentine's day as of now...tres romantic) - so please forgive me if i go a little overboard these next few weeks with house posts...i'm a little overwhelmed with excitement!