welcome home

Welcome to White Planes.





My perfect white kitchen that I am absolutely in love with. (Don't let the lighting fool you. The walls are also bright white.)



The upstairs landing.



Looking into our bedroom from our bathroom.



The light in our new house is amazing. The breeze coming off of the ocean is close to heavenly. The fact that we are the very first people to ever live in this house sweetens the entire deal! We can't get over the size (we also have a large living room, dining room, and a front sitting room) and I think in the last week I've walked almost 30 miles just inside the house alone. Up the stairs, down the stairs, in the garage, around the garage, out the back door, in the kitchen--it's been surreal. The kitchen has to be my most favorite room in the house right now. It's so pristine. I have a gorgeous window over the sink where I can enjoy the breeze and the sunshine that pours through it.



And of course, the mere fact that the kitchen is white is another reason I love it. My black and red accessories really pop.



Of course, me being the accident prone little creature I am, I didn't make it through moving day unscathed.



My near broken toe, courtesy of our bedroom dresser. DROP! Right on it.

We've been settling in bit by bit everyday. My brother helped us move, and he was even sweet enough to take me to a local antique mall. I went hoping to find a desk for our office, but walked out with a gorgeous new chair for it instead.



It only has the one flaw in the caning, but my step-mom assures me that you can buy rolls of caning to fix it. Worse case scenario, I cut it out and upholster the back instead. I'm working on the seat cushion this weekend--my dad was just up here with his jigsaw to cut out a nice base for the seat. Here it is currently.



Today, our first real day off, I'm embellishing my Ikea shelves--wait until you see them! They look SO much better than before! I'm painting the washing basin stand that my mother gave me (imagine my delight when I realized it broke down into pieces), and I'll be upholstering the seat cushion, or at least attempting to. Jason's off for the next two weeks (!!) so the house will come to order soon enough.

There's a lot in store for me on the homefront, but I'll save it for another day!

it's finally here!

Moving Day!


Well, moving weekend. We're mere hours away from getting our truck, but the Internet goes dark at 8:30. There's good news all around though...but I can't share it juuuuust yet. ;) I know, I'm such a tease! I hoping to have the Internet back up and running by Tuesday, but a lot will depend on how soon a new provider can set us up.

I'll see you in San Diego!

sinful vices

Do you have one of those decadent passions? One of those truly naughty, and even bad for you, temptations? Maybe it's buying a really expensive pair of shoes, even though you know you can't afford it. Maybe it's walking through an old bookshop, inhaling the fragrance of old texts. Maybe it's something as simple as smoking that forbidden cigarette that everyone thought you'd given up. For me, it's a large steaming mug of decaffeinated coffee and three day old Entenmanns glazed donuts. And yes, the donuts must be several days old. It gives the glaze a nice satisfying crunch and makes for a tasty donut when dipped into my coffee. Fortunately, for my hips and hind quarters, it's very rare when I get to enjoy these decadent treats together.

What are your sinful vices?

I'm appreciating these small delights more and more lately, as our days are filled with packing from morning 'til night. Aside from small breaks for meals and naps we stay busy. Most of the rooms in our house are packed, aside from our bedroom and the kitchen, but even those will begin seeing boxes this week. I can't believe by this time next Monday, Jason will be graduating and we'll be just mere hours away from hitting the road! I'm very ready to be done with this move and settled again.

stormy weather

We've spent most of our day inside today, taking pictures off the walls, packing up bric-a-brac, and emptying kitchen cupboards. Of course, the weather outside may have something to do with it as well...



Here's hoping some of that rain goes towards the Los Angeles fires.

c-r-a-z-y

Chaos. Utter chaos. I swear, I'll die a young death because of the military! The housing debacle we're caught up in is so mind boggling and stupid, I just want to grab everyone who works for them and choke them until they're blue in the face!

There's a huge mess with our moving. Our current housing office says we can live here until Camp Pendleton has a home for us. But Camp Pendleton says they won't know if they'll have a home for us until we check in. But if we check in there, it means checking out here! It's just a huge mess. Like the old "Who's on First?" gag, only this is much less funny. I can't roll my eyes far enough into the back of my head at the idiocy of it all.

But, there's always a silver lining on every dark cloud. And our cloud happens to have two silver linings: Oregon & San Francisco. My grandmother and I have been calling each other back and forth with a mad fervor coordinating flights, rides to and from the airport, hotel recommendations, the whole shebang! (And she says everyone up north is absolutely twitterpated that Jason and I are coming up!) She and my grandfather were trying to talking us into staying longer than the seven days we have planned and we were almost on the cusp of agreeing until we remembered San Francisco! A mere two days after we return home from Oregon, we'll fly right back up the coast for a few days!


(Fall in Oregon) Photo: Forbes Traveler

I'm getting so excited--this is the life I've always wanted to live. Jetting off to different cities, being so busy you feel like your head's going to explode, and being so exhausted you're absolutely giddy. The only part that sweetens the whole deal is the man I get to travel with. ♥ I know, sappy. Don't be jealous. :)


(Cool and nippy November in San Francisco) Photo: Brisbane Times

our calendar

Here's just a tiny peak at the things we have planned for the last half of the year:


September 11 - baseball game
September 12 - professional head shots
September 12 - Mom & Step-dad's 50th birthday party
September 13 - baseball game
September 28 - planned move date

October 10 - Highland Games
October 11 - Highland Games
October 24 - planned trip to Oregon
October 31 - planned return from Oregon

November 3 - leave for San Francisco
November 5 - return from San Francisco
November 17 - planned trip to Houston
November 19 - planned return from Houston
November 27 - free resort weekend
November 28 - free resort weekend

And somewhere in between all that I have a new household to put together, Jason will be acclimating himself to his new unit, we have the holidays, and whatever else may come up! And we haven't even scheduled the trip to Australia yet! I've always said I'd rather be busy than have nothing to do--perhaps I bit off more than I can chew?

looking forward

You know what I can't wait for?

Clouds. Mist. Drizzle. Rain. Believe me, I never thought I'd be someone who'd actually miss the cold. However, the past week here in the high desert has consistently hit triple digits--and I'm not just talking about a mere 101-degrees F. I'm talking 110. 115. We even had one day where is was a blistering 128-degrees F here! My skin literally felt as though it was burning under the three layers of sun screen I was wearing. I even had to give up a water aerobics class I started taking because an hour in the pool [under four layers of sun screen] was still producing a sun burn!

I'm already thinking of gray foggy morning runs on the beach, splashing through puddles in wellies, and opening my windows to let cool air into the house! Is it time to move yet?

big news

Jason received his orders yesterday...

...and we're moving...

...again.

But, we're moving down to the coast to one of the world's largest Marine Corps bases--Camp Pendleton! Happily, this is now a short [8 lane] freeway drive away from my family! From the east to the west, from the desert to the beach in less than a year!

image from mysandiegolife.com

At first we were shocked. Jason's instructor had hand picked him and four other Marines to stay here and teach. The monitor [the guy who issues orders] didn't choose any of the five to stay behind. He chose Marines that had actually failed some of their classes and, by Marine Corps standards, were anything but stellar and outstanding. So Jason was pretty upset by the news.

image from superfitness.com

However, as the day wore on we started to realize all the good things that were coming our way. One of the housing areas we may end up in has a very nice view of the ocean, and after seeing all this sand it will be a happy change! By the end of the week we should know which area of the base he'll be working on, and that will help us figure out where we'll land housing wise.

image from city-data.com

I feel like my short little Marine Corps life has come full circle. My very first Marine boyfriend was stationed at Camp Pendleton and I can remember driving around the base wide-eyed, wondering if it would ever be a lifestyle I'd know. After being [what feels like] around the country in just three short years, I feel like the Mother Ship is calling me home!

face lift

What is it about a new home that brings out the craftiness in you? I'm itching to start new DIY home decor projects, but my inner good-little-housewife tells me I should unpack before I start hauling out the big guns.

On my list of DIY projects: buying some candles and DIY-ing seasonal wraps [which I'll also put in my etsy shop] for our entry way cut out...

...some white sand to fill up my vase, which is looking kind of puny and sad...

...and all of my furniture repainting [some pieces were scuffed a little in the move and need some additional TLC]. But in the meantime, I was able to update some of our decor and cross a few things of my Home Completion list. Our new pillows from Cost Plus World Market sure did add a nice punch of color!

They came vacuumed packed, which I thought was really cool--talk about a space saver! Just cut 'em open and fluff 'em up!

We also found this gorgeous room divider for our abnormally long living room [30% off when we bought it, but now I think it's going for 50% off--doesn't it figure?]. Now it separates our sitting area from Jason's gaming area. I love it--it matches so perfectly with our coffee table and end table! Please don't mind the mess behind it. I was so excited to take the pictures I didn't think about--ahem!--straightening up first.

We've since hung pictures as well; most of which I took down because my living room looked real cluttered real fast. I'm now going to hang the bulk of them in the hallway as it allows for a more even spread.

Next thing on the list: making that metal and glass TV stand match with the rest of the furniture! I already have a plan of attack in mind for it thanks to my dear girls over on The Nest:

Paint the metal legs a nice tobacco brown to match with the rest of our furniture. Then, because it's a safe bet that paint will either not stick to the glass, or look bad once finished, I'm thinking about wallpapering the glass shelves instead! I've been scouting out [reasonably priced] linen or seagrass textured wallpapers as I think they will complement the dark brown rather nicely. If worse comes to worse and I can't find what I'm looking for, I can always fall back on poor man's wallpaper: contact paper!

If anyone else has some other good ideas for making it match, please share them!

out with the old, in with the new [house]

Jumping backwards, here's moving day[s].

I channeled my inner CSI for the big move, which took us all day Thursday, all day Friday, and until about noon on Saturday. Hubbs and I did the clean-up on Sunday, and mercifully, that only took us an hour.

We were so excited to see the inside of our house for the first time! Here's just a couple of shots. We're both loving our entry way, and just bought a table to sit against one of the walls [more on that later].

We've got a nice big dinning area.

Our bedroom has dual closets, which is a nice change from just "our sides" of a single closet.

This is one of my favorite rooms in the whole house--a storage room with floor to ceiling shelves. Jason has been teasing me that this should be my closet.

I sustained only a few injuries from the move: two broken nails, and this huge bruise.

And of course, being a true California girl, I ended up moving in flip flops! It was truly so hot [102 degrees F], that wearing closed toe shoes was almost unbearable.

We really do love our new house. It's bigger, the garage has kept our car about 20 degrees cooler than it's been all year, and I swear the house was built with sound proof materials. I can't hear a peep from outside.

We've given up some of the prettier aesthetics, like modern appliances, brand new cabinets, and pretty light fixtures, but I feel the less tangible things we're getting are so much better. We're now in a safe neighborhood where I'm not afraid to walk late at night. We've got ceiling fans instead of pretty lights, but they're so much more practical. Our cabinets are a little scratched, and the stove is old, but our kitchen is so bright and big, I have plenty of room for our dinning room set. Oh, and I've been running our air conditioner all day, and we don't have to pay a penny. So no more 85 degrees inside my house!

Oh, and the new table we bought for our entry way?

On clearance for $40 at Bed Bath & Beyond. They're fast becoming my new best friend.

moving day

Did you know Blogger has an auto-post option? It does! As I'm writing this blog, it's only Tuesday. Hubbs is at work and I'm killing time [getting ready to take a bath with my new summery potions]. But by the time you read this, we'll be hauling stuff back and forth to our new house!!

I thought I'd sit down and type out my hopes and ideas for the next instalment of our life here in the desert. These projects will bring me as close as humanly possible to completing our home [I say "as close as" because our tastes are always developing and there's always something we're adding or giving away].

Master bedroom:

- Build and upholster DIY headboard

- Paint dressers [yes, the new ones--I'll touch on that in another post]

- New sheets

Kitchen:

- Strip and repaint kitchen table

- Paint wall unit

- Replace mismatched dishes with matching ones [definitely going with white after I saw this beautiful kitchen, from The Adventures of Elizabeth--don't you love the jute drapes?]

Living room:

- Have couch cushions re-stuffed with foam [they're feather down right now, and a royal pain in the rear to keep fluffed]

- Buy new throw pillows [have my eye on these gorgeous ones from World Market--plus I have a 10% off coupon to spend before mid-June]

- Buy slipcovers for couches

- Find replacement for TV stand [it's glass and I'm terrified the TV is going to break it]

Office:

- Buy new desk

- Buy new office chair

- Buy a papasan chair [or double papasan chair!] for Netflix viewing

- Repaint book cases

Home gym:

- Buy Bowflex for Hubbs [he's been wanting one for almost a year now]

- Hang flat screen so I have something to watch will walking on the treadmill

Misc:

- Buy metal tubs for laundry room storage [like this gorgeous picture from decorology]

- Buy baskets for under coffee table storage

- Replace frames that I ruined in my first attempt at refurbishing by spray painting

i may not know art

...but I know what I like! Is my little sister an artist or what? This is one of two paintings she's done for me.

I'm such a rotten sister though, this has been sitting [unframed, unhung] for about three years now! Today while we were in Palm Springs we swung by Michael's looking for baskets [mistake--so expensive] and Hubbs reminded me we needed a frame for it. I chose this pretty tobacco brown color to play up those bright colors.

Bonus: the 16x20 was only $20, and we got a coupon for 40% the next time we're in there. We'll be buying a large frame for one of our wedding portraits!

This is the other she [Brittany] made for me. This one has hung proudly in all our homes--it's just on the ground now in anticipation of the move. It's an image of two dancers. The gray mass is a man holding his partner as she leans back. She did it honor of my years of dancing.

I'm hoping she can paint me a few more this summer. I'm also going to start trying to talk her into selling them on etsy. She's about to start graduate school and needs all the extra pocket money she can get! ;0)

our new home!

We got our new address yesterday for our house on base! I'm so excited--we move in next Thursday! I changed our address with the post office just this morning, so hopefully everything will be rerouted by the time we're out of the old place. This weekend we plan on running to Palm Springs to grab a few things [I have a Bed Bath & Beyond coupon], and drop off a few things [we have about six boxes of clothes and stuff for Goodwill]. I'm also hoping to run by the new house again because when we saw it yesterday, I only managed to get four pictures of it. The cleaning people were there and I felt kind of odd about peeking in. Can you imagine? Me putting the camera right up to the window and snapping away as the cleaning and repair crew are doing their inspections! Ha!

"Houston: we have grass." [Yay!]

All my grown-up life I wanted a screen door--now I have one!

The garage is one of the coolest features so far. One of the cons of living here in the apartment is the lack of storage space. The garage is built with that issue specifically in mind! The car goes in the little alcove and the rest is all storage space!

In related news, Hubbs was called to the instructor's desk the other day during class. He wanted to verify that Hubbs was requesting duty at our current base. When he said yes, his instructor asked if there was any specific reason. Hubbs told him: we just got a house on base, we like the area, our family is near by, and we're ready to settle down for a bit. The instructor's response? "Okay. That shouldn't be an issue." [?!] Do I dare hold onto that statement in hopes that we get to stay?

"and we need one?"

I had this thought after my sister said the now-infamous line about my bedroom looking like and HGTV before shot; I realized that I want to have my house under control and at least looking like an adult house before the end of the year. So our bedroom was priority numero uno. It's nearly completed with the exception of a couple of things:

- New sheets [white]
- New down-alternative comforter [white]
- Bed skirt
- Headboard
- Storage totes

I could probably add wall decor to that list, but I'm not going to worry about it too much.

We recently solved our issue of not having a bed frame. We bought a simple metal frame from Wal-Mart, which I am loving way more than I should! It has adjustable feet which was such a supreme bonus since I was going to buy risers to get some storage room. It's the perfect height for storage totes that we [read, I] bought during an organizational frenzy back in North Carolina. And since space will be an issue for the next 12 years or so, hideable storage is always handy. Anyhoo...

The bed skirt was the next big thing on my list. I grappled with the idea of just hiding the unsightly box spring with another loose sheet but my better judgement won out and I decided to start hunting. Dusty over at All Things G&D [swoon! ♥ this blog] has some amazing ideas for organization and she was the first person I turned to for advice while looking for my newest addition. She pointed me to the budget-friendly-and-yet-oh-so-stylish Bed Bath & Beyond where I found this:

They call them dust ruffles, but there was nothing ruffley about the bed skirt I wanted. I love its tailored look, how clean and simple it is. I was pleasantly surprised when the Wamsutta brand came up as $5 cheaper than the BB&B brand, and $15 less than the other tailored bed skirt they offered. Also at D's suggestion, I picked up some bed skirt pins to keep it place. At only $3 for a set of 12, they weren't exactly going to break the bank.

Excited with the new addition, I told Hubbs about the purchase.

Him [confused]: "What's a bed skirt?"

Me: "It hangs down to hide the underside of your bed."

Him: "And we need one?"

::sigh::

As for the other items, I know I want jersey knit sheets from Target. Have you slept in these yet? Oh they're like your softest most lived in tee-shirt--frankly they kick the crap out of "thread count" sheets any day of the week! Plus at only $20 for any size set, how can you not love that? The down-alternative comforter should be simple enough to find. Our last one I bought on Overstock.com, but it was an actual down comforter. I'm trying to get away from feathers. The headboard will be a DIY-project for sure, but I want to wait until after we settle into the new house [we move in two weeks!!]. And the storage totes will come from Lowes unless we make a trip to Home Depot and they surprise the heck out of me.

Edited: I can cross the comforter off my list! Overstock.com has come through once again! I found this gorgeous oversized comforter for only $45 with free shipping. And at the last minute I remembered to activate my eBates tracking ticket, so I earned money back as well. [Isn't this room so simple and heavenly? Love it!]

converted

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend--we sure did! We got to visit with my cousin and her two-and-a-half-month old twin girls (so scrumptious!) on Monday before heading back up the mountain. In a rare moment of him actually holding a baby, I snapped this adorable shot of Jason and Emily. Can we say baby fever?

We also had a wonderful brunch with my mother and step-dad on Sunday, where I (shamefully) became a giggling drunk after 2 glasses of mimosas (champagne and orange juice). My friends received this lovely text message on the way home:

I TIGHNK IM A LIJKL DRUNK. WE HAE MUMOSARS AT BRUNBH.

Let this be a lesson to never drink and dial. [hangs head shamefully] I went home and took a two hour nap afterwards! I also went shopping with my friend Katie in preparation for the upcoming Vegas trip--and had a lot of fun teaching her a few things about shopping and finding the right fit for things. I struck out finding something for myself, but Hubbs stopped by the outlet mall on the way home and I found a gorgeous shimmery gold top. But you'll have to wait for pictures from Las Vegas to see what it looks like!

Our two big ticket events were getting my wedding band (Friday), and visiting Ikea (Saturday). First off, the new band.

I'm absolutely in love with it! It looks like they were meant to be a set, even though they were made almost 80 years apart! You may notice the center stone is different as well. Turns out grandma's stone was just a little too big for my setting and was pushing the prongs out in a V shape. We decided rather than risk ruining the setting (and losing the stone) we'd replace it with a sapphire until we can afford a diamond to replace it. Having a colored stone definitely makes it look more vintage, but I want a clear stone--it looked so pretty with a diamond in it. We were also quite happy to discover that since we have a credit card with the jewelry company, we could take the ring home while still making layaway payments on it! Whoopie!

Next, Ikea. If you knew me a year ago you'd know that I hated Ikea. H-A-T-E-D hated. Not having one near us in North Carolina made shopping very frustrating as their website leaves a lot of room for want! But we badly needed night stands and I had seen a few tables online that weren't horribly expensive and might fit the bill for our bedroom. Plus I figured shopping in the actual store would be much better and give me a fair look at what they had to offer. So we toddled on down early Saturday morning. Hubbs was looking forward to it as he'd never seen an Ikea before. The whole trip took us about an hour and a half and we had the best time ever! I totally fell in love with this living room.

I love black and white--especially when the woods are mixed colors as well. If the room only had pops of red and blue it would have been perfect. The slip covered chairs and couch are to die for (a throw back love from my shabby chic days), and I've told DH that when we finally do replace the couches my mom passed down to us, this is what I want to do for a seating arrangement (no more love seats, arm chairs all the way!). This happened to be the display room where we found our new night stand tables as well--the mini-pedestals in the right hand corner. Aren't they cute? Bonus: they were only $20 a piece! We walked through every display soaking up the ideas and the perfectly accessorized rooms. I'm absolutely an Ikea girl now. Although some of their stuff is way more modern than I like, there are a number of things that have a very vintage feel to them as well. Like this desk we both fell in love with, with its working locks and skeleton keys.

We've also decided we have to have this wonderful chair, especially since its only a mere $60--not too shabby for an office chair!

Today we're doing laundry and a bit of housecleaning, preparing to pack up the house again for our next move. May 14 is going to come up on us very quickly, especially with the remaining activities we still have going on. Not mention Hubbs starts playing baseball with the Marines this week as well. At least I'll stay busy!