Living Room

After being in our house for a month now we are starting to get things organized and planing out what we want to do in each room. We are going to start the the living room first because we feel it will make the biggest impact. Its current state is dark and dated. But our challenge is coordinating it with the mural in the dinning room. Although we went back and forth on keep the mural, for now its staying. Thankfully there are lots of colors in it we can pull out.

So some living room inspiration...

via

We are thinking lighten everything up, brick included. Paneling and mantle white, brick light gray, walls a soft mint/teal blue. I'm so excited and cant wait to get started...now if only our weekends could settle down a little so we can make some time! Oh well:)

Camping Weekend

Happy Monday!! This past weekend my husband and I went to our annual camping trip with my aunts, uncles and cousins. Its always a blast every year. We have somehow made it a tradition to wear superhero shirts the first day. The little cousins love it. Here are a few I took while there. More are on my instagram so check them out:) 

New Look

Have you noticed a new look here on the blog? I hope so! There is still a little more tweaking to do but yes Noelle Austin is changing it up:) There will be some other changes coming soon too. I couldn't be more excited! So hold on to your seats and check back often.

Happy Friday:)

Packing Light

As you may know by now I went on vacation a few weeks ago. You can read about it here and here. We were gone for almost a week and a half! As you can imagine that can be a lot to pack but I wanted to be minimal. Make the most out of each option. So I made a plan. I packed enough that would create 10 or so outfits. Some dressier than others. Plus I also wanted to get not only 10 days worth of outfits for me but 10 days for Jesse all in 1 medium/large suitcase. Here is how it went down.

That's it! That's all I took. Not pictured was flip-flops, dressy sandal, small accessories like earrings, belt and a hat.

Vacation Pt.2

In vacation pt. 1 I left off at the end of our Tennessee trip. After a few fun days in Tennessee though it was time for some ocean wave and sunshine. We headed to Kiawah Island for the remainder of our trip. It was absolutely beautiful there! Although it was muggy the beach was great compared to others on the east coast. While there we took several day trips to Charleston and Savannah. Both gorgeous cities with tons of history but I do have to say Charleston is my favorite. Here are some photos of our week in Kiawah.

HGTV Dream Home anyone? 

And if that wasn't stalker enough try Tara Lipinski's house right on the beach.

We ate a Lady and Sons with Paula. It was very good :)

Our total fail at a sunrise. The last morning we finally got our butts out of bed just to see this! Boo storms. Thankfully my sister in law got some killer shots a few days before us.

Vacation Pt. 1

Our vacation was nice and long. It all started Wednesday July 3 right after work. We met at my in-laws house and off we were. My mother-in-law made us the cutest boxed dinner complete with yummy fudge! Our first stop was a quick hotel stay that night. After a not too shabby continental breakfast we were off to Gatlinburg TN! 

We arrived there around lunch time and was on a mission to find a yummy stop to eat...Bubba Gump! Then we were able to check into our cabin for the next few days. It was cute and cozy. Although it was rainy in Tennessee it was so nice to snuggle up in that cabin with a good book. 

The two night we were there we went and saw shows. The first night was a fun Opry filled with dancing, magic tricks and tigers! The second night the family went to the Dixie Stampede which had amazing food and was a great show as well.

Overall I loved Tennessee. I've never been there before but loved it! We had not internet those few days too so it was very relaxing as well.

Stay tuned to part 2!

PS: Happy Birthday to my little sister:) Love you girl!

Updates on the House

Although we haven't done a ton of updates we did do a few. The same night we got the keys to the house we changed all the looks to the doors. For privacy and piece of mind. The very next day after we move Jesse replace the upstairs toilet. It was broken and took 5 gallons every time it flushed. He did a great job and now we have a high efficiency 1 flush/2 flush system. To spare you looking at our before and after toilet here is a before and after of our new locks. It just goes to show little changes make big differences.

Now we didn't just have one door to replace the locks we had 3. Thankfully my husband and dad made it look like a breeze. 

House Tour!

First off I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! I know Jesse and I had a great day off. Like promised I have a house tour. These are all before pictures and plan to go more in depth of what we want to do to each room in future post. 

Fun facts

• 3 level split
• roughly 1500 sq-ft
• 4 bedrooms (1 on the lower level 3 on the upper level
• 2 full bath
• Wood burning fireplace

Front Room/Entryway 

Dinning Room

Lower Level/Family Room

Bedroom on lower level/Jesse's Office

Laundry Room/Full Bath

Full bath on upper level

Master

Bedroom/Craft room

Bedroom/Future Nursery

Upper hallway looking down to entryway

After Moving Tips

I am rounding out my series of moving/packing tips today with some after moving tips. You can find the previous tips here and here. Our overall move went very smoothly. We got 99% of our belongings moved in on the first day. I'd say that's success.

To Change

• Your address. Its important to change your address with the post office. You can actually do this ahead of time on the website. Its super easy!
• Billing address. Don't forget just because you changed your address with the post office that your are good to go. That will only forward mail for a short time. So change your address with the credit cards, phone, etc. 

To Unpack

• The necessities. When we first moved I wanted to unpack everything. But that's not possible so we concentrated on unpacking the master, bath and kitchen. From there we just slowly opened a couple boxes at a time

To Be Grateful

• Your new shelter. With all the craziness on moving day it easy to get lost in it all but step back and take it all in. Be grateful that God provided you with a wonderful shelter. Thank the ones who helped and always remember your house is not a trophy for how much you can afford but a gracious gift from God. 

Hebrews 13:2 

Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

Sneak Peek

Want to sneak peeks of our new house? Well today is your lucky day! There will be a full house tour this Friday. You may have already seen a sneak peek if your follow my sister. She posted last week about how entertaining the mural in my dinning room was. We talked about painting over it but have decided for now to leave it up. Here are a few shots we got before all of the stuff was moved in.

We cant wait to show you the whole house as well as updates we want to do to it. Hope you all had a great weekend. Happy Monday!