Will's Nursery!

It took us nearly 4 months into Will's life to do it, but we FINALLY finished Will's nursery! We had the furniture in there and assembled before Will arrived, but everything else was decorations, so they could wait. But by the time Will was 3 months old, he was fully sleeping at night in his room, so we felt like it was time to make the room his. 

For years I have known that my first babies nursery was somehow going to be Peter Pan themed. If we had a girl, it was going to be a Kensington Gardens (where JM Barrie wrote Peter Pan) theme with floral patterns and Peter Pan accents. But when I found I was having a boy, all I could picture in his nursery was Neverland! I didn't want it to be too heavily Disney, so I decided to add a lot of accents that gave reference to Peter Pan or favorite parts of the book!

On of my favorite parts of Will's room was all the natural light that his window allows. I also love that the window is low enough that I would be able to look out of it while I sat in the rocking chair with him during the day. I arranged the room so that his rocker was right next to the window.

When I was registering for his nursery, I wanted a lot of the furniture pieces to be versatile for every kids we might have, so I went with all white pieces and a neutral rocking chair. This crib is so simple and perfect!

Will's rocking chair was a Craigslist find and we got it for an incredible deal! It is seriously the most comfortable chair I have ever sat in and I adore getting to nurse and snuggle my baby in that chair!

When I started thinking about accents for the room, I stole a TON of ideas from Pinterest. This Neverland sign post was something I saw online and my in laws lovingly built and put together for me. Laurie arranged all the wood pieces and they used a post from the Chuppah Aaron and I got married under. Ashley did all the lettering and painting and it turned out PERFECT! Pat & Aaron screwed everything together and it is one of my favorite pieces of the room.

Will's changing table/dresser is a piece from IKEA that we found used on Craigslist. It was in great condition and we drove it through the rain across town to get it home! It is seriously the perfect changing table to so much storage. Aaron and I actually got the same piece in dark brown wood for our bedroom because we loved the storage it allowed.

The artwork above Will's changing table came together so beautifully! I painted a few of the pieces myself, including the feather painting in the middle. Another picture is actually a card from Will's shower. There are a couple of quotes from the Peter Pan book, the map of England was painted by Ashley and the top painting of the Pirate Ship sailing away from Neverland was actually painted by a dear friend Courtney and I am obsessed with it.

I think I had the most fun coming up with subtle homages to the Peter Pan story. Again, I didn't want pictures of Peter Pan everywhere or a huge Big Ben mural on the wall. I wanted to keep things subtle. I found the miniature pirate ship and the minature Big Ben on eBay. The Crocodile stuffed animal was a gift from Stacey Lynch for my shower. There is a jar of "pixie dust" on the top shelf and a canoe. There is also a stack of several editions of Peter Pan novels and picture books. On the bottom shelf next to the crocodile, is the ticking clock. There is also a stack of thimbles (or Kisses) and the set of blocks were made as decorations for my baby shower by Laurie from pictures taken from old disney's Peter Pan picture books. I LOVE these shelves.

Lastly there is a close up of the Neverland sign above Will's crib. This was a gift from Amy Wilt for my baby shower and I love it!

Overall I am in love with this room and love how dreamy it is to walk into. I can't wait till Will is old enough to read the story of Peter Pan and I can just imagine him playing lost boys hide out and sword fighting with his little siblings some day.

Australian Invasion: Phoebe & Liam's Visit Part 1...

I cannot believe it has already been almost 2 months since Phoebe and Liam stepped off the plane onto American soil!!!! I still can't believe they were here at all! It was such a whirlwind and before I knew it they were gone again and 2 months later it all still feels like a dream somehow!

In case some of you don't know who Phoebe is... read any of my posts from my 6 months in England, starting HERE... and then again any of my Australia posts, starting HERE...


The month of January in the Mertz home was entirely devoted to readying our abode for guests! Our first house guest! We needed of course to actually get furniture for the guest room, so weekend #1 was moving all my furniture from Elisabeth's house to our house... it was quite a task and we had awesome help!! Having my couches and my old bed and dresser and blankets in my new home made me feel more settled. Plus Phoebe and Liam would have a place to sleep :)

Weekend #2 was all about painting! We painted the guestroom and rearranged the furniture and then it was set.

Weekend #3 - THEY ARRIVED!!!!


I had the day off that Friday they arrived and so I spent the whole morning running around like a mad woman cleaning, doing laundry, grocery shopping and other errands. Then off to the airport for pick up! I was like a little kid pacing around the airport terminal waiting and waiting for their arrival... FINALLY they came through security and I ran faster than I thought I could! Phoebe and I stood screaming and slightly crying from joy in the middle of Sky Harbor terminal 4! Hugs for Liam too, of course!

(oh yeah, my hair is red...)

We grabbed their bags from baggage claim and drove home. One might expect upon first visiting Arizona that sun and heat would be their welcome... but not for them... instead Phoenix was rainy and chilly!! What?!

I am a terrible person because there are no picture for the first couple of days they were here... I think because it was so rainy and we ended up just laying around being lazy most of the time. To highlight the first couple of days:

- Got home and allowed them to unpack and shower. I had pre-made dinner, so I stuck it in the oven and we waiting for Aaron to get home from work.
- Gift exchanging! Phoebe and Liam brought gifts and decorations for our Australia Day party! Aaron and I also had a gift basket for them as well including Cactus Pear Jelly, and all other types of Southwest snacks and paraphernalia.
- Dinner and wine! Phoebe and Liam love wine and they introduced us to some pretty delicious stuff!
- The next morning it was super rainy, so we went to lunch nearby at Vovomeena and then took them to show them downtown in the rain... we did a bit of shopping and then back home to prepare for the Australia Day party that night!

The Australia Day Party!

So many people in my life were probably getting tired of hearing my endless Phoebe stories and might have started to believe she was a figment of my imagination (that isn't true, I have plenty of photo documentation). But none-the-less just a little over 24 hours after Phoebe and Liam arrived in the states we had a party to give all my friends the opportunity to say hi to the infamous PHOEBE!!! I will say here now that Liam also made a huge impression at the party. My brother, Tyler, noted that I built up Phoebe and she met all expectation, but I had seriously neglected to say how AWESOME Liam was. haha

The party was actually Phoebe and Liam's idea because that day (January 26th) happens to be Australia Day!! It marks the day when the first British Fleet landing in Sydney Harbor and when it was proclaimed as a British Colony. YAY Australia! It is kind of the equivalent of the 4th of July here in the States - Australian's usually BBQ and have lamingtons and pavlova and have picnics and party outside. Sadly for us, Arizona was rainy YET AGAIN, so the festivities were indoors. We did however have Lamingtons (brought all the way from Australia) and Pavlova (hand-made by yours truly). Some people came dressed in Australian garb - Tyler was Wolverine honoring Australian actor Hugh Jackman, Shawn was Daniel Johns from the Australian band Silverchair, and Nicole and the twins wore prison stripes in honor of Australians being convicts. haha.

Liam, Phoebe, me, and Aaron - I wore Australia Day colors - Green and Gold/yellow

Prison stripes!

My attempt at Australian Pavlova - is was a wreck, but tasted delicious!

Our Australia Day snacks - ANZAC biscuits, Lamingtons, TimTams, a Salad and S'mores treats (those are American), Shawn and Nicole brought pulled pork sandwiches and we had different jerkies of Emu, Crocodile, and Kangaroo.

Bundaburg Lemon Lime and Bitters and of course Vegemite

Hugh Jackman (Tyler) & Daniel Johns (Shawn)

Sarah brought a "gum" tree - like the song about the Kookaburra- winner for best Australia item!

Playing an Australia trivia game! I losing team had to take a tiny bite of Vegemite! It was disgusting!

It was such a fun night we had a BLAST!  So glad everyone got to meet them and understand how awesome they were!

Holly Jolly Christmas...

As I stated in a previous post, soon after the wedding, everyone started asking us about the holidays... even AT our wedding reception people were asking us what we had planned for Christmas... apparently it was going to be a big deal.

Lucky for us we have families that are awesome and understanding and accommodating and will to work with us on whatever worked best for US! I think that was important for me to remember through the process is that I couldn't please everyone and when it came down to it, I needed to protect my family first - meaning Aaron and I. I think the first thing we decided was that we wanted to spend Christmas morning just the two of us. We knew that when we had kids we would want to be a family during that time and so we firgured we would start this year and not risk the trouble of changing it later. So that was easy. What also made it a little easy was that my brother and sister-in-law decided that because they have 4 kids to haul around for the holidays that they would do one day with each family and not divide in the middle of the day. So they do Christmas Eve with my family and Aaron and I decided to do that too. So Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with the Mertz'.

The sad part was my younger brother... it was a really difficult realization that I wouldn't see him on Christmas Day. My older brother got married almost 9 years ago and despite the first couple of years where he and Nicole divided the holidays in the middle of the day, we have spent most of our Christmas Days just Tyler and I with my parents. We would stay up late talking and hanging out just him and I. This would be the first year I wouldn't see Tyler on Christmas Day! Luckily my new in-laws had the wonderful idea of inviting Tyler along for a Christmas Day evening event! We decided we would go see a movie and Tyler would come with us! Super fun :)

So here are some pictures of the lovely Holiday!

First stop the Thompsons! We woke up and went over to my parents for gift opening, breakfast, and some park time! I mainly got pictures of the present opening, but it was a lovely day at the park too so in your mind's eye imagine the sun shining, boys playing basketball and the the little girls sliding down both park slides over and over again.

Mr Mertz & I

The girls opened their gifts first so they wouldn't have to be bored with our present opening. They got the mother load of gifts! A Barbie House from Uncle Tyler, PJs and baby dolls from my parents...

Emolyn got a chalk board from Uncle Aaron and I! And Elsie got a piggy-bank filled with money... she had asked specifically for "money dolla's"

The theme of gift giving this year was Charity! We decided last year after I bought my whole family charity based gifts that we would start a gift exchange this year and only give gifts that gave back as well! Some highlights:

- Shawn got my mom a ring with dried forget-me-nots in it (like a locket, but a ring). It was for an alzheimer's foundation! She cried and cried of course because he dad pass away from Alzheimer's a few years ago right before Christmas.
- Nicole got Tyler a Tshirt made out of recycled plastic bottles - seriously it sounds weird, but it is the most comfortable shirt ever! She also got him headphones that also went to giving hearing to people who are deaf from ear injuries!
- I gave Shawn a To Write Love on her Arms shirt... and Nicole ended up getting him the same one. haha

Jonah & Nathan are now not the only twins in the family!

Emolyn and Elsie quickly took to the chalkboard!

Tyler had to work on Christmas Eve, so he left at 12p. After Shawn and Nicole left with the kiddos to put them to bed at home, my parents, Aaron and I went over to see Tyler and take him dinner, then Aaron and I went home for the night!


Next morning was our first ever lil' Mertz family Christmas!!!! I was looking forward to sleeping in a bit, but my husband was an excited boy and woke me up early too excited to wait any longer to give me my presents! We sat in front of the Christmas tree and gave each other our first Christmas gifts as husband and wife!

We did good this year! Aaron got me the entire Harry Potter BlueRay set! He also got me PJs and tons of snacks in my stocking!! I got him a keurig and a watch along with a wallet and legos and other fun treats in his stocking!

After we finished gift opening, we got dressed and ready and headed over to his parents house :) Three sets of gifts! I like this married business on Christmas :)

Me, Aaron, Ashley, and Jess!

So many fun gifts - Manicure/Pedicure gift certificate, jewelry from Ashley from her trip to Ghana, Christmas decorations, and much much more! We spent the rest of the day hanging out at the house and then we headed over to Aaron's grandma's house with the Mertz extended family. Such a big family!!!

Tyler met us there to go to the Christmas Day late night movie! We were planning to see Les Miserables, but when we got to the theater it was already sold out :( Instead we decided to see the last Twilight movie - Breaking Dawn 2. Jess was gonna kill us for making him sit through it! haha! The rest of us loved it and by "loved it" I mean it was beyond awesome, but so fun to laugh through!

All in all a great Christmas!

Christmas time is here...

Alright, lets get this going! Christmas is next!

Aaron and I returned home from Mexico on a Saturday, late at night, so Sunday was a full day free to get into the Christmas spirit! It is difficult to go from the tropical temperatures and sandy beaches of Mexico to a rainy wintery December day in Phoenix... but I was ready. It was breaking my heart to not fully deck our little home with Christmas decor and holiday spells!

So we woke up Sunday morning and first stop was breakfast and Christmas Tree hunting!

We had breakfast near our house at the always delicious Vovomeena! If you have not eaten here in Phoenix, check it out! Their biscuits and bacon are my favorite!

After breakfast we headed straight over to Home Depot & Lowes to check out their selection. I have not had a real Christmas Tree at Christmas since I was very young. My family got a fake tree when I was about 5 years old, and ever since then we have had the fake tree. Aaron's family grew up with real trees... and while there are pros and cons to both, I was excited most have my house smell like a Christmas Tree!

We finally settled on this little beauty!

We got it home and started decorating! We had decorated my parents' Christmas tree before we left for Mexico and Aaron had marveled at how my dad could string Christmas lights on a tree like no one else. Believing it was a genetic gift and that I had the same talent my nature, he entrusted me to light our tree!

Aaron and I had quite a fun time getting out all our holiday stuff and combining it! I had two strands of lights that blinked and twinkled and he had 2 strands that shone without blinking... so we put all four on the tree!

In the back of the above picture, you can see the fireplace decor... brand new stockings from Target (Aaron's was red and mine is white). My mom had given me flannel stuffed letters for my birthday (A & M) and so we tied them to the stockings. On the mantel you can also see my beginning collection of Christmas Trees. My sister in law Nicole has an AMAZING collection and I hope to one day have some like hers with all different colors.

The tree took an afternoon of ornament decorating and then the following night we made a popcorn and cranberry garland to wrap around it and it was done :) I have never made a popcorn & cranberry garland and it was super fun! Maybe a new tradition?
And what holiday movie did we watch as we decorated our tree? The Avengers... ok not Christmasy, but still AWESOME!

The finished product!

Christmas time is officially here!


My family also gets together before Christmas to decorate Christmas cookies!! We had a facebook contest this year about who's cookie was best:

From top left: 1.)Shawn's "The Cruncher" (basically frosting and every sprinkle that can fit on the frosting and topped with more frosting; 2.) Tyler's "The Patriot Mitten"; 3.) My "Sparkly Candy Cane"; 4.) Aaron's "contrast Candy Cane". - Seriously the Mertz family did not bring our "A" game... aside from the awesome photo bomb by Aaron.

In reality the decorating was more for Emolyn and she was SO in the zone! She would decorate and eat all her creations with delight. Elsie on the other hand didn't understand why we needed to waste time putting the frosting on the cookie with style and so she would just throw some frosting on and chow down.
Fine family fun indeed :)

The weekend before Christmas Elisabeth and I went on our traditional Christmas lights tour! It is a self guided tour,  where we get neighborhood information off the web for our city and then drive around with warm drinks and Christmas music and look at lights.

This house was intense! so many lights!

While we were looking at the house above and taking pictures like the one below, a cop showed up at the house...  he rolled down his window and asked us if it was our house... feeling a bit nervous, Elisabeth and I said no. The cop then just looks at the house and says "its awesome! My partner and I are just driving around looking at lights." He then proceeds to talk about all the neighborhoods that have the best lights... nice to know our policemen are using their time wisely!

There were some pretty stellar neighborhoods this year. Some had movies showing in their drive way with seating, a popcorn machine, and hot drinks. Some houses had photo opportunities set up in their yard for visitors... like the one below.

Elisabeth and I made a promise a couple years ago that regardless of whether we were married or had kids, we would still carry on this tradition with each other with just the two of us... I love my time with Elisabeth!



Another Holiday tradition that was started this year was the "Kids Of Rice Night" or KORN as we affectionally started calling it. My parents for years have taken us to "Rice Night" which was started by friends of theirs - Steve and Grace. The premise of the night is for each couple or person to bring a holiday dish that they grew up eating at Christmas. The rice that gave the party its name, is slow cooked sweet rice with butter and cinnamon/sugar on top. My mom would always make Swedish Meatballs and other people would bring wonderful delicious food for the night and it was great! But this year Shawn and Nicole decided to start a party for all of us kids to use to go to Rice Night... so we gathered at Shawn and Nicole's house and brought food, ate Baja Fresh tacos and hung out! We joked about doing it again next year but trying to incorporate KORN stuff into it... no idea how this might play out, but I am excited for the tradition to keep going!

picture taken my Amy Lynch

The last thing we did to celebrate Christmas before the big day was take Emolyn ice skating!!!! This was actually Aaron's idea because he would see the Downtown Phoenix skating rink every day and thought it would be fun to take Emolyn. When we told Em what we were doing she very sweetly tells me, "Aunt Miranda, I think I know how to skate already." - haha... we'll see.

We took her to lunch at Chelsea's Kitchen across the rink and let Emolyn order herself what she wanted. She was so delighted that she got to order herself. After lunch we walked over and got our skates and got on the ice. You could tell from the moment Emolyn stood up in her skates that this was not what she had expected, but she was FANTASTIC! She was so brave and while we took a lot of breaks, she was willing to continue to get out on the ice and try it again. We mainly just stuck by the gates to the sitting area going back and forth while she held mine and Aaron's hand. Aaron and I also got to take turns getting out on the ice the 2 of us and speed around the rink. It was a blast!
The day finished with Emolyn and us at home with hot chocolate and a movie and then back to Emolyn's house. Definitely a fun memory for the 3 of us!

Next post... CHRISTMAS!

Wedded Bliss Part 2...

After Disneyland one would assume that life would start getting back to normal... not for us, though! Not 2 weeks after our mini Honeymoon was Thanksgiving. Our first married holiday. When we picked the date for our wedding, we were so excited that we would be able to spend the holidays together, we did not fully think through the strategic planning that would go along with family holidays as newly weds. It seemed that everyone we spoke to after the wedding no longer asked about wedding details. Instead, they asked if we had figured out the holidays yet... as if everyone know it was going to be stressful.

Luckily Thanksgiving was a breeze!! We spent the morning with The Mertz's for breakfast, we had full thanksgiving dinner with my family and cousins, and then we went home! Aaron went shopping for black friday late at night and I went to bed because I had work in the morning. But overall an excellent day of family and good food!

Here is the Thompson family Thanksgiving!

Sadly we didn't get pictures with the Mertz's that day.

Our first order of business was to start getting our house in order. I wanted to try to get our Master Bedroom painted and arranged first because where you sleep is the most important room in the house... maybe that isn't true, but it was definitely an easier room to tackle than the living room or bathroom. All it needed was a new coat of paint and the furniture moved in!

Aaron's parents did all the painting for the room the day after Thanksgiving while I was at work... this also happened to be my birthday - awesome. I came home though to a beautifully painted room! After a couple days of letting the paint fumes air out, we moved the furniture in! We also set up my little Christmas Tree in the corner to have a little Christmas in our home!

Back to my birthday - it was blissfully low key. I am a big person with my birthday and want something special to celebrate it. It might be because it is so close to Thanksgiving and other things seem to overshadow it, but I am very protective of my birthday. However this year, I just wanted to go out to dinner with my husband and watch a movie. With a wedding and Disneyland Trip, I felt like I had been celebrated enough. Aaron took me to the Arrogant Butcher downtown and I had a steak... the most delicious steak EVER! Then we went home and watched a movie.
The next night, my family came over for dinner and Elisabeth joined us. That was a fun time of celebration! Good food too... I made Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana and my mom brought my traditional birthday cake - an ice cream cake with an oreo crust, cookies and creme ice cream middle and chocolate syrup on top. Good food and family and my new husband... what more could a girl ask for :)

Wedded Bliss Part 1...

DON'T WORRY!!! I will not be breaking down each week of marriage by week, but the first week of marriage was particularly eventful, so I wanted to share a few fun details about our first week of wedded bliss.

Lets start with our awesome wedding night hotel!!! I am a travel agent in an international programs office (no, I can't help you plan you vacation to the Bahamas, or find you hotels in Southern California for cheap... I work in an international programs office, so unless you are studying abroad with one of the universities we work with, I can't do much for you...), and every so often I find some pretty sweet agent discounts. It is rare and most of the time I can find an equally go deal for the general public on Trip Advisor or Kayak. I wanted to take a chance for our wedding night accommodations and low and behold, I found it!! Note: I have checked a couple times since November and have not found this deal at all since!

Aaron and I got to stay at the Royal Palms hotel for the night for 85% off!!!!

The Royal Palm hotel is one of the fanciest hotels in Arizona, nestled at the base of the iconic Camelback Mt. It boasts to be the most romantic hotel in the Valley. So gorgeous! What a treat! It was such a sweet gift for us and something we never expected. With the low cost, Aaron's parents paid for it as a gift.

So as Aaron and I drove away from our wedding, we drove to the Royal Palm hotel, gave our car keys and baggage to the valet and walked into the lobby. It has been a dream of mine to walk into a public place with my wedding dress... to have people stop and stare and know that we just got married. I think it is because I love when a see a bride and groom at a hotel or Disneyland or around town taking their wedding pictures... it just makes me so happy to know this is a magical day for them. So walking through the Royal Palm lobby was everything I wanted. People congratulated us and asked us how the party was. So fun!

We got to our room, which was an upgrade from what we booked. They put us in a private room in the back of the property. Very secluded and romantic. The back patio opened up to have the most gorgeous view of Camelback (however, we couldn't see it till morning).

"Have you met my wife, Miranda Mertz?" - Aaron posted this on facebook just moments after we arrived at the hotel

Just moments after getting to the hotel room, there was a knock at the door and Carl (our booking agent) had sent over a platter of chocolate and fruit with champagne!

Thanks Carl!

There was a fireplace in the room too... and although it was probably 67 degrees outside at the time, we turned the AC up to make the room chilly, so we could use the fireplace - hey, we aren't paying the power bill :)

The next morning we woke up early and ordered room service to eat on the patio. It was such a yummy breakfast and after a week or pre-wedding nerves, my appetite was coming back and I was starving! We walked out onto the patio and this is what we saw...

Seriously Phoenix! With all it's heat and desert and brownness... there are moments when we get a glimpse of majesty and beauty! Good job Camelback Mountain! Way to look awesome for my first day as Mrs. Mertz!

We requested late check out, so after an early breakfast, some relaxing and a nap, we left in the late afternoon to head home. Both of us were so ready to be at OUR HOUSE! To go home for the first time TOGETHER to the SAME PLACE! After living 45 minutes away from each other for our entire dating relationship, this was a definite highlight so far of being married!

When we walked it another joyful sight met us...

GIFTS!!!!

All our lovely wedding gifts filling our guest room to the brim! We immediately opened all of them! Just the two of us... husband and wife... opening the beautiful things people gave us for our new home! It was so much fun to be in our house, with Aaron... my husband ;)


We had monday off of work and so we spent the morning around the house and then Aaron and I went to pick up Carla from Elisabeth's house (my old house) and bring her back to spend the afternoon with us before her flight back to London. We ended up taking her to Chelsea's Kitchen at Sky Harbor Airport for dinner (I love that the airport opened up some awesome restaurants!)

So hard to say goodbye!! She was here for a whole week and kept me sane leading up to the wedding. What a blessing it was to have her with us in all the celebrating :) Love her so much!



The next day Aaron and I went back to work... and then things got interesting! Aaron went home early on Tuesday with a horrible cold... and by Wednesday night I also was righteously ill! Seriously I have never felt that miserable in a long time... chills, aches, weakness, fever, runny nose - the worst cold! I was glad to have a companion to be sick with, but I was sad we were both so miserably awful. We also had our Disneyland weekend honeymoon scheduled for that Friday through Sunday and I was so worried I wouldn't be better in time. I went to bed praying my fever would break during the night and finally at 5:30a my fever broke and I was so thankful! Disneyland plans were not be thwarted!

In the words of my brother Shawn, "Disneyland IS the cure."

Darkroom...

I want a dark room really bad now...

Saw a movie last night where the girl was a film photographer and she would develop her pictures and had all these different types of cameras and only shot in film. I loved it!!! I have a film camera that I love and wish I had more opportunity to take pictures with. I need to carry it arround with me more.
Anyway, I wish I had a dark room so I could develop my own film. That would be so much fun! I took a photography class in high school where I got to develop my own film. It was so great. My favorite was when I had to work during lunch or after school and had the dark room all to myself. It was so peaceful, such a methodical and flowing process. I miss it.

So what do I need to make my own dark room???... aside from money...

- Photo enlarger
- Photo paper
- Red light
- Chemicals
- A physical dark room... I could use my bathroom since it doesn't have a window, but I would need to set up and tear down all the time, which is too much work.

Tea Time...

One thing I would like to have in the new kitchen when I move is a tea station... well actually I would be content to just have a tea pot and cool mugs to drink tea out of... none of them have to match, I just want the perfect mugs.

I have a night off tonight :) No homework, no errands, nothing. I honored my free night with a cup of tea! Nicole made me this amazing tea syrup that I am still using in my tea. It is seriously delicious! The whole ritual of the evening was quite lovely! Drinking tea in my room with some girl scout cookies, starting the packing process and watching TV on my computer.

The packing process is coming along quite well, in that it is hardly coming along at all. I basically got out already packed boxes, went through them and added some more stuff to each one. It doesn't really look like much of a difference yet, but it is a process.

I'm moving!!

Very excited to announce that I will be moving to Gilbert, Arizona at the end of this month! My dear friend Elisabeth has bought and house and Me, her, and her sister, Nina will be living there together! I am so excited for this new season.
One thing I am looking forward to, aside from living with two AMAZING women, is nesting and decorating! I really want this house to feel like a home, and so I am taking the time to dream about decorations and things that will make is comfy and inviting. Elisabeth and I spend all day at work emailing back and forth about ideas.

One thing I am planning on is buying a new bed! I have had the same bed since I was 2 years old, and side from 2009 (when I lived in Europe and my parents guest room) I have slept in that bed. It was my Aunt Patty's bed until she passed away at 18 years old and when I came around years later, I was given her bedroom furniture. But as I move into a new house, I think it is time to store is and preserve it for when my daughter can sleep in it one day.
I want an iron bed frame and headboard. I'll just share some of my photo inspirations for my new room :)

LOVE the maps on the wall! I'll just have one on mine

This picture makes me thing of travel

I REALLY want a branch hanging above my bed

I want to do something like this above my bed

I also am very excited to be able to get some of my old home stuff out of storage in my parents' backyard shed and use it again! My couch, kitchen stuff, framed pictures, book shelves, etc.