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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Colorful Kitchen


I'm always trying to find ways to find ways to inject color into our kitchen (as evidenced by our new tile) so any little bit helps. Here's a round-up of some of my favorites, from Etsy of course, that may have already made an appearance in my house - I couldn't help myself!




Monday, July 30, 2012

Weekend, recap


I'm still recovering from such a fun weekend; we ate some delicious food, opened some hilarious presents, and toasted more than a couple of times to being a bachelorette! I am so incredibly thankful for all of the women who came to celebrate with me and cannot wait to see you all again very soon. We have 68 days until the big day!!

Friday, July 27, 2012

Bachelorette Party!


Wedding festivities officially kick off this Saturday with my bachelorette party! I am so excited to hang out with my favorite girls, drink some champagne, and toast to singledom (only 71 more days!). Enjoy!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Vietnam


These breathtaking pictures of Vietnam (courtesy of National Geographic) make me so excited to travel there! Huynh and I have a standing date to go there soon - neither of us have ever been even though he still has family that lives there. The best time to travel there is December - February and while not official, I can see that happening in 2014 (hint, hint). An absolutely stunning country!


  

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Borderlicious

Huynh and I are always looking for little ways that we can update our little abode while saving our precious pennies for our upcoming nuptials. I love that this will always be our first house but that's not to say that I love everything about this house in the 'burbs. Case in point: the kitchen tile.

It's hard to tell from these pictures but the tile is actually not white; it's more of a light cream color bordered with a tile that has a continuous scroll with vines wrapped throughout. For some reason, this screams 80s to me though the house was built in the 2000s.



Last weekend, while Huynh was at a bachelor party, I got out a set of trusty tile removers (i.e. a flat head screwdriver and a mallet), cranked up the radio, and went to town. With tile shrapnel flying at you, you will want eye protection as well - learn from me.


And, after a couple of hours went from this:


To this:


It was messy, dusty, required a lot of clean up but I knew it was going to be well worth it. As you can tell, we decided to not take out the main back splash tile - part the enormity of the project (that tile wraps around the kitchen where the border is only on this section of the kitchen) and part the desire to have nothing to do with cutting tile. Once I got all of the tile off the wall, off the counter, and out of the kitchen, I cleaned up a bit and kept trucking ahead.



Fast forward a few hours (and days) our back splash started to resemble a back splash again (sorry, these pictures were taken at night). I had gone to a local tile shop who recommended putting up the tile with liquid nails to save money on having to buy a large container of adhesive and only needing such a small amount but that failed epically. By this point it was Tuesday, Huynh was home, and I was frustrated with the oven still being in the center of the kitchen. Huynh had made the trip to Home Depot to buy grout and came home with a life saver - the grout he bought was also an adhesive. We were able to make use of the grout and put up all the tile in one night and still had half of the grout/adhesive left. The next night, we grouted - and ran out of grout. Another day and another trip to Home Depot, we had finally finished!




It took some elbow grease to get the tile spotless and free from grout haze but considering it was our first tile job, I think it turned out great! The mosaic we chose has some browns, blues, and reds to pull in the slate floors, cabinets, and walls. It all compliments each other so well - and I actually enjoy cleaning it. From start to finish, it took us all week to complete but in real time: two hours to demo, two hours to tile (plus 24 hour dry time) and two hours to grout (plus another 24 hour dry time); total: 6 hours of hands on work for a much welcome update.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Weekend, recap

{saturday "brunch"}

Though our weekend to-do list still remains incomplete with a staggering twelve things left, we were still extremely productive with what we did end up finishing (including tiling the kitchen with pictures coming tomorrow!). Happy Monday.

{nom nom nom nom}

{need. have to have.}

{such a handsome devil}

Friday, July 20, 2012

Friday


I have a wicked case of wedding brain. We have 78 days until the big "I do's" (super handy having a count down on our site) and I cannot seem to wrap my mind around our to-do list. News flash: it's never ending. Keeping me sane is the end promise of being forever married to the man of my dreams and all of a sudden, the DIY and headaches seem well worth it.

P.S. I want this print too. Over and out.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Salt Pig


Since we've been busy with the kitchen, I've been window shopping for some new accessories. While a salt pig may not be your cup of tea, the idea of having salt at my finger tips while cooking makes me go weak in the knees. Besides, it's red! You really can't go wrong.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Weekend, recap


With Huynh at a bachelor party this weekend, I relished my alone time by reading Emily's new book from cover to cover, painting my toe nails, and watching Heartburn along with old episodes of Ally McBeal. It was glorious and wildly unproductive aside from ripping out the tile in the kitchen subsequently putting our house in total disarray. Ooops.

{bye, bye, old tile}

{restaurant sign up!}

{beer with dear friends}

{summer squash plant taking over the garden}

Friday, July 13, 2012

Friday, I Think


Where in the h-e-double-hockey-sticks did this week go? With Huynh gone to a bachelor party this weekend - for his best man nonetheless - I will be home with an epic to do list and a slew of chick flicks to watch. I mean, An Affair to Remember isn't going to watch itself! Have a good one.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Obviously


Huynh's fortune from last night was so apropos that I almost feel like it was intended for me.

Duh. 

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Love Language


My love language hands down is Quality Time verging on obsessive. From the quiz, "nothing says 'I love you,' like full, undivided attention. Being there for this type of person is critical, but really being there - with the TV off, fork and knife down, and all the chores and tasks on standby - makes your significant other feel truly special and loved." I could not have explained it any better! I was feeling especially disconnected yesterday so Huynh did what he does best and took me out on a good old fashioned date to Perry's to enjoy the four for $4 special. It was divine ("it", of course, being the pork chop). Yum.

Oh, the quality time wasn't too shabby either ;).

Monday, July 9, 2012

Weekend, recap






Sorry I've been M.I.A.! My ghost writer has done an excellent job keeping this blog of ours up to date and while work is still crazy busy, I am hoping to be back to regularly scheduled posting! We had such a good, laid back weekend that paved the way for wedding progress, napping, and some delicious ribs. Nothing can beat that. Happy Monday!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

And So It Begins...

The procrastinators in us have now reached the point where all of our wedding DIYs are sitting in our office or in our living room floor.  We haven't hosted any shindigs at our house in a while for this very reason, lack of entertaining room.

{etsy}



Yesterday we had a little bit of time to burn between visiting family and exciting games of bowling, so Huynh started on our letters.  We used the the adhesive spray that you can get from any Home Depot or craft store like Michael's and the moss and letters were ordered from Hobby Lobby.  

After 40 minutes of sitting on the living room floor, cutting moss, and sticky green mossed fingers, Huynh called it quits... for the day.  I'll switch off and work on the "H" since he worked on my initial!  We're hoping that when done, we can hang them on the front of the reception venue doors with 3" purple ribbons.  You'll see the end results in a couple of months!!

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Patience


I'm not a patient person (you don't say!) which is counterbalanced by Huynh's extreme patience in every situation regardless of the time, place, the other people involved, how much sleep he got the night before, or even if he's had coffee, which he doesn't even drink. He's working on me to become more patient - and funny, when I'm knee deep in an impatient moment, he will kindly and lovingly say "be patient" and just like that, I calm down... unless, of course, the other party really was acting a fool ha!. That being said, when I saw this sign on my way to my dress fitting (eek!) yesterday, I nearly swerved off the road and made a bee line for the parking lot so I could snap a quick pic. And I thought Whole Earth only provided me with North Face jackets...

In other news, I'm going to try my hand at calligraphy. I realize that I have a lot on my plate but I need some creative focus outlet more than drawing red, green, and blue on my P&IDs (completely understandable if you have no idea what I am talking about which furthers my point). I have a couple of feelers out there for kits and hope to get started soon! Thankfully, there's no deadline in place but there is limited space in my so-called "craft room" that has turned into "wedding central" so whatever I find best be small and portable. I'm sure it's out there.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Weekend, recap


We had quite the eventful weekend, though it was one of our shorter "weekends". My DRESS arrived early so I was able to pick it up, still hidden from Huynh's eyes. YAY!! Also, parents from both sides were able to meet this weekend. Mimi brought along her MOB dress as well as the flower girl dresses. Of course they are all beautiful and our flowers girls will be stinkin' adorable!  

Ah back to the parents... I would say it all went very smoothly. We squeezed 11+ people onto our formal dining table for 6! Many thanks to all the other siblings and relatives that attended - nothing but plenty of laughter, steak, cauliflower, grilled vegetables, and good ole 4th of July Cherry Pie.  Homemade Cherry Pie, with the assistance of Mimi, was a big hit, should have made more.

And since Huynh's parents were in town, we thought we'd kill two birds and finish the vietnamese invitations.




Saturday evening, we attended one of Huynh's cousin's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and many congratulations to Cambo and Trang! We had a lot of fun and I was able to meet a lot of Huynh's family from out of town. The last picture (track lighting installed) pertains to a project that Huynh has been working on and will be revealed soon enough. Stay tuned!

How was your weekend?