Halloween/Fall Decorating In Our New Home!

A little late, but I thought I'd share our Halloween decorations this year. I recently shared our fall touches, but I thought I'd share how we decorated outside. Not many new decorations, but still different because we have a new home! :) Here are our Fall/Halloween posts from the past. We were a little disappointed because we didn't get not ONE trick-or-treater! But we weren't surprised because our neighborhood isn't fully developed yet (there are lots of empty lots) and as far as we know there are only teenagers around. Either way, we enjoyed the evening by laying low and enjoying each other. Ronnie made his grandmother's chili and watched Halloween movies. Have to make to the BEST out of everything, right?! Happy Fall Y'all!

Our beautiful mum in full bloom! We love these every fall!

First Home Art

I recently discovered a new photo editing website called BeFunky. It's very much like Picnik, but has different editing options, like turning an image to a cartoon or even a painting! That's the feature I have been obsessed with. I have been wanting to frame some of my favorite pictures of our first home to display in our new home. And I decided to play with these pictures at this editing site and fell in love with the way it turned our home pictures into paintings. All I need is to save them, print them and frame them! That simple and very inexpensive. How classy do they look?

Fall 10' at the new W. Home!

Fall is upon us! And this means a lot to us because we have our birthdays and wedding anniversary coming up. I always get excited during this time of the year, of course! And one way I celebrate is by decorating our home with fall decorations. We got to it this weekend and so far I am liking the way our new home looks decorated. It makes a home a little warmer and festive and I am all for that. I'm also loving my Bath and Body Works fall scented candles filling the air with autumn goodness. Soon, we will add Halloween touches and I can't wait to share those. I hope these will inspire you to add some Fall touches to your home!

Our mantle is decorated with a fall leave garland and small pumpkins.

More pumpkins on our fireplace.

Our coffee table is decorated with glittery fall candles and another pumpkin! I picked up these at Home Goods this weekend. I love that store!

Ovens are decorated with fall inspired kitchen towels from the Martha Stewart collection at Macys.

Our kitchen table is decorated with this centerpiece of glittery pumpkins and gourds! I got these at Hobby Lobby. I love anything sparkly!

And finally, you are greeted at the front door with these cute fall touches.

Home Touches

I thought you'd like some show and tell. So, today I snapped a couple of "home touches" around here that I love. These are just some of the things that I think my our house "our home"....making this bigger house feel warmer like our first home. ;)

Family portraits. I miss my beautiful Tita more everyday. There she is holding my incredible papi.

I chose this color for my dining room and it definitely makes this huge empty room feel warmer. It's "Spud" by Martha Stewart. I love it and the crown moulding. We are still working on the furniture. One thing at a time....

Mr.'s pepper plant. He thought it was cool and the more I water it, the more I think so, too!

Mr. has his pepper plant and I have my cactus. I'm so intrigued by these. I guess we have exotic taste in plants.

I love, love my glass door. And you know how much I love sunflowers. Perfect combo.

My beautiful best friend, Janelle, gifted this for me as a housewarming present. It goes with my decor perfectly. She knows me well!

I snagged this fabulous Martha Stewart round rug at Home Goods at an excellent price. It lays in our half bath downstairs. I can't tell you how obsessed I am with rugs. But I think I can pick them out good.

We also painted the coffered ceiling in the family to give the house a warmer feel. I think we picked a great color. It's not as dark as "Spud", but it is still in the family. This one is "Coffee" that we got at Lowes.

Finally, here is mother of rugs in our home. I couldn't resist this rug when I saw it at Target. It just suited our new wood floors nicely and it matches our love seat pattern nicely. I had to have it. Mr. made it happen.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my little tour around our home. It really is beginning to feel like we actually live here. We will really feel it once we get started on the gardening and planting in the fall. Mr. and I really enjoy that!

blinds.

(look how anxious he was to get started..he didn't get out of his work clothes! ha!)

This is probably a very boring post, but I just had to brag on my hubby! He is NOT handy at all, and at times he tries...but he's mostly paranoid about messing up. So, we usually have to pay or bribe friends to help us with the handy stuff.

But not this time! For some reason he is determined to get all the blinds up in our new house. He did a trial run yesterday on the bathroom upstairs. I have to admit, I was begging him not to try (not that I don't think he can do it...I just didn't want to hear it if he messes up! Ha!) And to his surprise he did a fine job! ♥

Man, blinds are super expensive! Luckily we get a major discount because hubby works for a blind company. So, don't hesitate to contact us for a good deal...plus they are the #1 blind company. ;)


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preparing for house guests checklist

This Martha Stewart checklist for how to prepare for house guests always comes in very handy! One of my favorite tips is to add a few special touches to the room, like water bottles and fresh flowers for the guests. I also make sure to let the guests know where to find more TP and other necessities. And lastly, I try to make sure to have some sort itinerary in mind to entertain them. Click here to get a copy for yourself. Do you make sure to go out of your way for your house guests? Are there any other tips you recommend?

one room down...3 more to go!

Feeling accomplished! I worked on the master bedroom yesterday and master closet/bathroom today. I washed all linens and ironed them. And I washed all of our clothes that was in drawers and folded and put them away. I had to do that because the clothes got a bad odor in them from the moving semi-truck. It was so tedious! But my new washer and dryer made it simple. Then came our master closet! Whoa! It was a disaster zone bc the movers put everything in there. I was a little nervous it would take me a long time. But I worked like a Trojan! Loving the results so far... ;)











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Feels like home...

A freshly tended and made bed is all you really need to make a house feel like a home!


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Making progress!

Well we are finally settling in! Feels like a long time coming...oh who am I kidding? It has been! I feel like I don't think about or shut up about anything else! But I shouldn't complain. Everything is coming together nicely!

Look at how much unpacking we did on the first day!


I was lucky to have my neighbor Julie come and help! She's so sweet! Her husband Dan works with Ronnie and we've known eachother since our time in NC. She and her husband moved to GA just like us. And they bought the house just 2 doors down! And it's great because she is Puerto Rican, so we have a lot in common. Anyways, we are so happy to be neighbors with them!

After a long first day of unpacking, we celebrated by going to an authentic German restaurant by the house. It was so good, and I think Ronnie and I didn't realize how tired we were and the beer really got to us! Ha!



We are really happy!!! Ha!


On the second day of unpacking, we put in shelves in the laundry/pantry area.



What do you think about this organization? So far so good right? I love this stuff!

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Patio Furniture!

I can't believe the time is almost here! This is the last week of the school year and I will be saying good-bye to my 5th graders and the school. It will be very sad, but I have to enjoy the time I have left and my friends there. It's a fantastic school and I will truly miss my team. They welcomed me with open arms and have taught me so much! I don't even know if I could ever repay them. But I know I've made life long friends in them.

Moving day is in 1 week and 1 day! I am NOT looking forward to the moving part, even though we have movers packing and unloading EVERYTHING for us. (We are VERY lucky!) What I am looking forward to is making our house into a home....decorating!

One thing I am most looking forward to is my new patio furniture! It's a house-warming gift from my mom and I am so excited to use it this summer. I found it at Home Depot and it's by Martha Stewart (no shocker there!) and it's from the "Palamos" Collection. But I thought I'd share it with you... I think it is sooooo pretty!

I will be using it for the first time this 4th of July when we will have house guests our friends "The Pico's" come visit us! YAY!

dear first nest . . .

dear first nest,

We were so lucky to find you, but didn't realize it until the previous owners accepted our offer. It happened quite fast actually. It almost was too good to be true. We were just starting out and we weren't even planning on becoming home owners so soon. But God wanted it that way and we made sure to take good care of you. We knew it wouldn't be easy, though, because you were miles away from what we always knew... but soon realized you were something truly special.

The first night we were with you it seemed like Christmas eve! I was filled with butterflies anxious to unwrap you and make you mine. We hit it off right away, although you were scary for a few nights after we moved in. What can I say? I'm a city girl and it was hard to deal with so many trees that surrounded you and foreign animals to me. (deers, bats, owls etc.) But pretty soon, I realized you were a good place to be and knew you would protect me from the really loud noises that grasshoppers were making at night (I was not used to such a symphony by nature.) Soon, I became a Carolina girl (or Carolina Cubanita like my dad likes to call me) ... and I loved it!

Ronnie was excited to mow your lawn at first. But soon realized that spending 3 hours every Saturday to maintain you was REALLY hard work. (We didn't realize how much work 1 acre of land you really were!) And get this? I even got into the action...soon I planted my first flowers, but quickly just decided I was better at telling Ronnie where to plant pretty new flowers and other plants! (I enjoyed decorating you inside more.)

Because of you, we were able have our first christmas and we decorated you inside and out so well. It deserved a "Southern Living" treatment, always. We worked hard to make you "sparkle" every Christmas.

We were able to experience all the beautiful seasons NC has to offer. My favorite was the Fall. I waited patiently for your trees to decorate you, so you could radiate in orange, yellows and reds.

Winter was my least favorite. But you knew how to keep me warm inside with your fireplace and cozy family room. And when the snow fell, we enjoyed just looking outside as it fell and your lawn became a HUGE white blanket. Each time it snowed we'd hurry outside in the morning and held a photo shoot in your honor. You looked the best during those mornings because you became even more still and there's something so peaceful after a good snow fall.

When Spring came, the azaleas outside would bloom in white and we knew Winter was soon the past. We would plan how to make you alive again with pretty new colors. During the summer, we'd love to drink wine on your front porch in our rocking chairs after a long hot day. Summer evenings in NC are magical.... there's something about the smell of boxwood and the sight of lightning bugs that would make us take walks and enjoy it!

I enjoyed making my first meals in your kitchen and when I got homesick I would try out those cuban recipes my grandmother gave me.

When family and friends would come you were most happy. You were a great place to throw bar-b-q's with your great back deck and hosting was a breeze with your quaintness of space.

I know our new home will bring many more firsts, but nothing can take away our memories with you. Our new home is a lot bigger, yes, but I will never forget the warmth of your spaces. You helped me become a good wife and have taught me a lot. I never knew how much NC would become a "home" and I owe it all to you. You always made us so happy and we are sad we couldn't spend more time with you. You'll always be #1 to us forever and always in our hearts.

Our Georgia Peach

Hey everyone!

I hope to merge my blog into this new domain name. I just haven't figured it out yet, and I hope I can do it. Moving takes so much work! I won't be using this new blog spot until I am officially moved into our new home in Georgia. Either way, please save it into your bookmarks.

New roots in Georgia. Still can't believe it!

-E

dining room

Work begins next week painting our grand dining room. It is currently painted with the color of the rest of the house ("Relaxed Khaki" by Sherwin Williams), but we picked out "Coffee" by Lowes. The color will be on the walls and the center of the tray ceiling. Sad thing though... we don't have furniture to put in there, yet! But I am not complaining. One day....

The dining room appears as soon as you walk into the home past the main entrance hallway. Take a sneak peek. I can't wait to fill this room with family and friends, laughing, smiling, eating, talking and lots of LOVING! (oh and furniture, of course! ha!)

iPhone pic below:

Clearer pics below: