here comes the (first) bride

We are on the countdown to the first family wedding of the year.  Katie and Chuck are getting hitched on Saturday, and my week is packed full of stuff (not all wedding related, but packed nonetheless).  I'll get off work this morning and maybe catch a few hours of Zzzs, and then I need to go buy shoes to go with my bridesmaids dress.  I just have to find some pump or strappy, nude or silver shoes. That can't be hard, right?  I was thinking about wearing the shoes I have for my future sister-in-law's wedding, but I would hate to get them dirty right before needing to wear them in her wedding. And although the color is nude, they have kinda a pink tone to them.  Check them out!  I love them. They are so cute.

On Thursday afternoon, my mom, Katie, Emily and I are going to get mani-pedis :)   That should be fun!  Then Friday morning begins all the wedding festivities.  The bridesmaids luncheon is at the Botanical Gardens, then rehearsal out at Matthew Manor Friday evening followed by the rehearsal dinner at the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.  Greg hooked them up renting out the hall of fame since he was working there at the time Katie and Chuck were looking for venues.  Then Saturday is the big day!!  I'm really excited, and nervous at the same time.  The last time I was in a wedding I'm pretty sure I was 12.  So, I'm a little nervous about standing in front of all those people, and especially about making a speech at the rehearsal dinner.  I haven't been officially asked to do that, but I think it's pretty much expected.  Not that I wouldn't do it, it just gives me butterflies even now thinking about standing up and talking into a microphone! haha

It'll all be fun!  Annnnnd.....the exciting part is once we get through this weekend, I can focus 100% on our wedding planning!!  Well, maybe not 100%....we still have the whole housing/renting/moving situtaion to focus on too.  But, at least I can push forward and hopefully get some planning help from my mom now :)   So far all the planning has been done by myself or Greg.  I've felt bad asking my mom for help since Katie's wedding has been 1st priority.  But, our turn is almost here!  I can't wait  :)

operation bathroom demo

Greg and I have been talking about some renovations we want to make in his house in the near future (some prior to getting hitched, some to work on after we're both living together).  One of those was re-doing/fixing up both bathrooms in his house.  He has two full bathrooms...although I hate to call them fulls because they are the size of a tiny hall bath. But, nonetheless, they have all the amenities of a full bath.  They both need new sinks and toilets, and could probably use some tub resurfacing, along with a fresh coat of paint.  Well, about 2 weeks ago, Greg was in his bathroom and started pulling wallpaper off the wall.  Two weeks later....I get this picture sent to my phone.

This was a few days ago, on Friday.  That lovely floral wallpaper was under the top layer he started pulling off.  Lovely huh?  Can you imagine that covering the walls of this tiny little bathroom? It gives me a headache just thinking about it.  Another wall was lavender underneath, and that big hole above the sink had a medicine cabinet.

So of course on Saturday morning, we have to go pick out paint so he can get that done before installing a new sink and toilet.  Luckily I had been researching some bathroom renovations at work Wednesday and Thursday night, but I had no idea we were putting this all into action over the weekend. So, off to Lowe's we head, and I decided to go with a simple neutral paint color (since I hadn't really had THAT much time to think about it). It's called Antique White by Olympic, and it's one of those paint and primer in one kinds.  Although it's called white, it's actually a creamy tan color, and I thought with white trim and white sink and toilet it would look very clean and hopefully make the room seem bigger.  Here's some of my inspiration...

We priced out some sinks and toilets, but decided we wanted to check out the Habitat for Humanity store called ReStore in Irondale. Building contractors donate left over building supplies (including anything from flooring to windows, appliances, lighting, cabinets...they have quite a lot actually).  It's all pretty cheap, but it's hit or miss on what you'll find.  Some stuff also gets donated from individuals doing home renovations, so not everything is new.  ANYWAYS, we decided to take the risk and go with a new toilet from ReStore, which only cost us $85.  I'm sure it's not a high-efficiency water saver or anything, but for $85 it was worth a shot.  Lowe's has some reasonably priced square pedestal sinks that I like, so we'll probably go back there for that. And I would love to add some beadboard to the bathroom. I just love a good ole' cottage home :) But that will probably get added later.

So, as of Saturday evening we were down to the drywall. Greg re-spackled the walls (with some help from his good friend!), and the sink and toilet were completely removed.

On Sunday Greg sanded the walls and painted. It still ended up taking 2 coats of paint, so I can't vouch if the paint-and-primer-in-one is a flop or not, but my guess is even if we had done primer, we probably would have done 2 coats of color too. Does anyone really just do one coat of paint?  Greg also got the new toilet installed.  Still not sink yet.  We realized the sqaure sinks at Lowe's were too big, so although I would really love to find a square one, we may have to go round simply due to the oh. so. TINY. space! Then all that's left is finding a medicine cabinet, and hanging all the hardware back on the walls.  I bought some oil rubbed bronze hardware, but I'm thinking the brushed nickle color scheme might look better.  Although Greg found a dark wood medicine cabinet he likes, so who knows...bronze may win after all.  I'll be sure to update you on that big decision ;)  And final renovation photos will come soon!

Rewind...

Ok, so I got back from 4th of July weekend and went straight into my 3 nights in a row of work.  And then tonight was Greg's sister and her fiance's wedding shower. So, needless to say, I'm a little behind on posting some 4th of July pics.  So, let's rewind a little bit and I'll tell you all about it :)

We headed to the lake to stay at Greg's parents house at Lake Oconee in GA. The whole Boggs clan was there for the weekend....kids and dogs too! We spent the weekend going to the club pool (which has a big slide that Evey LOVES!).  She started out riding down the slide with her floaties on sitting in someone's lap, but after a few trips, she eventually was riding down by herself without floaties and someone would just catch her at the bottom. And, let me just tell you, even for me...that slide is FAST!  She loves it though. That's all we did at the pool pretty much was rotate through taking her down the slide.

Here goes Evey and Bubba (aka: Greg)

 Evey (riding solo, but still with floaties) and her mama

 And then of course totally by herself, no floaties.  She's not even 3 yrs. old yet! This girl is fearless.

When we weren't on slide duty, the rest of us just hung out in the pool with little Bennett.  Surprisingly, the pool wasn't too terribly crowded.

Here's the rest of the Elkins crew (minus Evey, who guess what?...is on the slide)

We also spent a lot of time hanging out at the house, lounging around, eating good food, and watching fireworks (which shoot off from the Ritz Carlton on the lake, but we can see from the Boggs' home back porch).  And you can't celebrate 4th of July without eating ice cream at some point   :)

 "You have some, Gigi?"  This girl loves some ice cream :)

It was a great holiday weekend.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend any of it with my family, but we've got Katie's wedding weekend coming up, so there will be lots of family time in the near future!! I'm so excited!