Happy Halloween!

Trick or Treat, y'all!

L'Halloween (favorite French word ever!) is my 3rd favorite holiday, preceded only by #2 Thanksgiving and #1 CHRISTMAS! Today is the beginning of the countdown of the best two months of the year, every day getting better and better.

I don't have big plans; I'll just be chilling with Boone (he's going as Shadow from Homeward Bound), handing out candy, eating candy, and generally being cozy. Plus the potential for heavy drinking with friends. That's still up in the air.

Anyhoo, I promised y'all a month ago that I would have pumpkins on my stoop, and pumpkins are here...like a week and a half ago.

Boone was there too.

My mums are like two months in now, so it's not their most brilliant day, but I haven't killed them yet (Katie - 1, whomever would benefit from them dying - 0).

How far we've come.

55 Days Until Christmas!!!

Wedding Swag

On Sunday, I shared our joy at spending the weekend with our friends, Whitney and Corey, as they GOT MARRIED!!!

How awesome is that blush dress?!

One of the most unexpected and most appreciated things we picked up from the wedding was the loads of flowers we brought home after the big day. It's not often I get to have several bouquets of professionally arranged flowers (let alone for free), so when the bride said "take whatever you want, because anything left will be thrown away," I took as many as I could carry.

Even though we didn't get home until 1am and I could barely walk after 10+ hours in 4 inch heels, I couldn't wait to arrange them.

The smaller arrangements are just in small drinking glasses.

The big one I scooped up is a lovely addition to my fall centerpiece in the dining room.

Also, I'm responsible for drying the bride's bouquet while they are on their honeymoon. Wish me luck!

The Abbotts, est. 2014

This weekend has been an absolute blur.

We had the privilege of helping our friends, Whitney and Corey, celebrate their marriage at the beautiful Morning Glory Farms, located in Monroe, NC, just outside of Charlotte. Whitney, the most Type A personality I've ever met, outdid herself planning a celebration that felt timeless and trendy and undeniably them.

 source

Needless to say, we had a great time.

I couldn't get over the setting, the details, the attire. I can't wait to see the photos and I'm sure it won't take long before this wedding is trending on Pinterest. Since it was so beautiful and meant so much to us, I wanted to share a few pics before the all the real photos come out. This is like the grainy, long-lens photos published by tabloids weeks before the respectable news outlets release perfect portraits.

Yeah, that one's really blurry, but it's the best I have of the tent and they get better from here.

Promise.

Of course, by later in the night, the party was jumpin', jumpin'.

As I was in the wedding, I didn't get any shots of the ceremony (the one above is borrowed from Whit's aunt) and not as many as I would have liked of anything. If you want more, be sure to check out their hashtag #happilyeverabbott.

The One Year Housiversary Tour

 As promised, we're back to look at the inside. The mission over the past year has been to create an environment where we truly feel at home. As long-time apartment dwellers, it was easy to adopt the mindset that our home was a temporary arrangement. All the painting, filling of empty spaces, and general decorating has gone a long way towards accomplishing that goal. It's unbelievable that just a year ago this was all a completely sterile space.

By no means is this complete; I honestly feel like this is the bare minimum of decorating. Only one room has curtains. All the art and nick-knacks are spread thin. I feel like almost everything needs to be reworked. I recently visited a friend whose townhouse looks like it's out of a Pottery Barn catalog only one month after she moved in. Oh well. The second royal pregnancy won't keep up with itself.

No matter, this is where we live.

 

Can Boone be a dog-model already? I'm screening agents if anyone is interested...

The foyer looks almost the same as it did months ago. I've added a few more pictures and a coat rack (one of the steps to Boone getting his own room); those three empty frames will house the foyer art project I've been mulling over for a year and a half. Bet you thought I'd forgotten... :)

The dining room also hasn't changed much since the last time I shared it. I updated the centerpiece to be a more fall friendly but that's about it. I am rethinking the paint color; it might be time to go light, especially since my little iPhone can't. even.

Boone really likes watching the world go by out the dining room window.
 

We use the front and back doors pretty equally, so we've made the little space at the bottom of our stairs a make-shift mudroom since it's equidistant from both doors. I can't take off my boots by myself and this is the perfect place to rest while Pat takes them off for me. Just in time for boot weather.

For some reason, I don't share many pictures of our kitchen which is bananas since it's my favorite room in our house. Maybe it's because it's the hardest to clean. #lazylikethat

And here's the October kitchen chalkboard. I wasn't quite ready for Halloween, but I had to get rid of "a September to Remember." You know, since it's October.

The living room looks about the same as when I re-revealed it around the Super Bowl. I'm itching to get curtains up in here, but I'll need 8 panels...I'm currently waiting to win a multi-state powerball.

As much as we love our jute rugs, it's worth mentioning that they do not hold up well to giant Golden Retriever paws. Sure, we can tuck all the little picks back in, but I'm too busy watching Dance Moms to pay much attention to those little things.

Upstairs, in general, is hit or miss. The loft and office are particularly undone but liveable. The guestroom's concept is executed, but I still need art and a dresser. The master is in a constant state of progress. We seem to add something every few weeks, but it still only looks like a fraction of the room I envision.

(Pat's in charge of decorating this room.)

 

I am not particularly proud to share that pic.

While Leo will occassionally visit us downstairs, the upstairs is totally his domain.

 

The master also picked up the most random accessories. If you remember, that's one of the Christmas pillows and that throw just migrated up here one day. Those mirrors haven't been hung yet, and one of them has a cracked pane (made them an absolute steal).

And the master bath is the hardest room to photograph ever. Basically, it is still blue.

So that's that. Our house is officially one year old. I would love to think up some pithy conclusion, but I just recently started watching Game of Thrones and it's time to start the next episode.

Deuces.

Happy House-iversary!

Yep, we've officially lived here for a whole year.

Crazy, crazy, crazy. Other things that happened a year ago: the government was shut down, Obamacare was fudup, Putin was nominated for a Nobel, and apparently Disney on Ice was in Charlotte. Those things seem like they were forever ago, but my little house still feels so new. Most years in apartments, that lease term seemed like a death sentence that never drew closer. Home-ownership is an intangibly beautiful thing.

To commemorate, let's take a look at where we are on day 366. (If you need a refresher on where we started and where we've been, there are the links).

There's a lot of pictures here, so I'm breaking it up into inside and outside.

Today we'll do the outside and we'll stroll through the inside next time.

Holler for fall, y'all. Sure, autumnal decor is not official part of our year-long improvements, but I just want to look at it every chance I get.

 

That sign, from Garden Ridge At Home, was made with a little wire hanger to hang on a wall. I snipped that right off and used some floral wire to string it to our wreath to add a not-so-creepy Halloween spin.

Our plants are growing quite well, although some are growing more crooked than others. The hope remains that with mature plants we'll be able to rid ourselves of that "new construction feel" sooner rather than later.

Just like last year, our tree has turned red. However, this year, there is a fence, a grill, and some patio furniture in this picture. And a lot less mulch. We need to buy some mulch.

While these changes are a far cry from last year, it's nothing compared to the progress we've made inside over the past year. I really enjoyed digging through my old archives (specifically last October and November) to see how different everything looks. Like those 10 lbs. I didn't plan to gain, I hardly noticed the changes day-to-day, but looking back it's sooo obvious.

Addendum: I was mistaken, our move-in date was actually October 2nd, not October 3rd. Damn archives for obliging me to information accuracy. Still, happy belated birthday to my house-baby.