Birthdays and Decor Inpirations

Yesterday was my husband's birthday! We went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant last night, just us three. But today my family will join us to eat at an Indian buffet for lunch, can't wait! Indian definitely became my favorite  cuisine over the years, influenced by my husband but also because it's just so delicious to me. So many different styles of Indian food. Differs from North to South India, vegetarian, non-vegetarian, with their yummy snacks and desserts too.

Kavi's 4th birthday is on Wednesday! I can't believe he'll be 4 years old! We are having a birthday party for him the following Saturday. Cars (Disney) theme, his request!

And a favorite "pin" of the day on pinterest. I don't plan to paint our mantel yellow but already had planned to incorporate these colors, plus one or two more colors, in the living room and our bedroom. So I repinned this from Angela, and it first originated from a studio decorated here and toured here before being mentioned on decor8blog. Amazing how these pins get around!

Source: bklynbrideonline.com via Angela on Pinterest

The painting

Since a few people mentioned loving the painting, I wanted to talk about it! I love it too! And guess what? I got it through a trade with a talented friend. Since I had a sewing machine, and she had this lovely painting, we traded. My help to sew up bolster covers and regular pillow covers for this beautiful 2'x3' painting. We had to mail our items to each other and I was so excited when I received this, in a very large flat packaged box.

My friend Laura has two shops on Etsy. This work was unique as she had originally painted it for her own house. I admired it from the beginning. I eventually asked if she thought of scanning it to sell prints of on Etsy in her shop. That's when she said I could just have it, the original one, in the trade!

I received it at our rental house and put it up there before Christmas. But at this house, it's perfect in between the door and window, which open out onto trees as well! I had no idea how perfect it'd be when we decided to trade, since we didn't look at this house yet!

It has received compliments by all who see it! I had the pleasure of meeting Laura before I moved to Alabama.
(Sorry I was only able to use cell phone photos!)

If you'd like to check our her work, visit her on Etsy here:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/laurahussein
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lilwordtoldme

Or on facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/Laura.Hussein.Studios

A tornado scare

We had our first experience of hearing tornado sirens and having to go to the basement, only a week after moving in!

We knew there would be bad weather coming in the middle of the night last night/this morning.  I went to bed after watching some of The Weather Channel and it was already late, after midnight. It took me awhile to fall asleep and I felt a little anxious even though it wasn't stormy yet.I kept imagining us huddled in the basement. Eventually I fell asleep.

At around 3:45 am I woke up to the distant sound of tornado sirens. First I wasn't sure if I was really hearing them, but it was them. Not very loud though. I woke up my husband asking if he heard them too. Then they ended a minute later. My heart was already racing and I went to the living room to put on the Weather Channel again and read my phone's weather app warning. They said there was a tornado warning for our area, and they said specific areas very close to here! I saw the radar and that it wasn't right here but could be coming soon. I knew it meant we had to make our first scary tornado related decision to go to the basement. I got my husband up and he got Kavi, after I had used the bathroom. We grabbed a coat each, I grabbed some water, my wedding rings, my purse, a small crank flashlight and our phones and we went down to the basement a little before 4 a.m. Kavi was a little nervous and wondering what we were doing but he didn't freak out thankfully. We had a spare twin mattress down there and we sat on it in the safest corner. Our basement is only partially underground.

At around 4:10 a.m. the weather got stormy with some gusty wind and hard rain, but it didn't sound like a tornado just bad weather. Our lights flickered on and off, that part kind of freaked me out, and finally went out. So we were in our dark basement, Kavi told us to turn the light back on, we said we can't(hehe) and just used the light from our phones. Kavi ended up falling asleep on the mattress while the lights were off.

A little after that it sounded like the worst had passed but we stayed put since they extended the warming for the county until 5:15a.m. I was able to get online with 3G and post on FB and my phone didn't work well for texting. A friend texted us and I was able to tell her and others on FB that we were okay! The power came on sometime after 4:30 and we went back upstairs around 5:10a.m. when they had canceled our warnings. By that time I had read updates about the weather that said a large tornado was tracked very near our area. We couldn't believe it. It could have been 1-2 miles away at certain points. It missed us. I must admit tornadoes are one of my big fears. And now I feel like I am having to face it! But we plan to make our basement even more secure in one section. It was a crazy night/morning. Finally around 7a.m. I fell back asleep to catch up on rest, until around 10:30. I saw pictures after waking up of damaged houses in neighborhoods I have seen, not very far from here. Wow.

After a crazy morning and a very tired feeling day, I made some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for a treat for all of us! Tonight will be a peaceful weather night.

Fireplace on a cozy Saturday

 Yesterday(Saturday), my family drove down from their town to hang out with us during the day and evening. It turned out to be such a cozy day! It rained the first part of the day and stayed cloudy the rest of the day. It wasn't very cold, but as the evening came it got chilly enough for us to try out our fireplace! We would have tried it no matter what though.

My sister brought some firewood from their home that they had for their outside fire pit. We are very inexperienced with fireplaces, as you can imagine with growing up in Florida. So this is so new for us. Since we recently had the house inspection before buying this house, we knew the fireplace was fine to use. My sister was the one who worked to start the fire, with some crumpled newspaper over the wood, and after a little bit, the fire was crackling away. My mom made giddy giggles, and we all felt happy. We felt like we were at a vacation home. (Because having a working fireplace is still such a new feeling to most of us! Something we dreamed of in the past.)

My sis also picked up marshmallows, chocolate bars 

and graham crackers to make S'mores!! 

Marshmallows roasting below. 

My S'more

Lights off to feel even more cozy. 

I shared one of these pictures on facebook and said how happy it made me to have a lit fireplace yesterday! And then I also added this: 

"And in case my happiness bothers anyone lol, don't worry I am sure I could complain 

about a few things too, but I AM happy right now!! And it feels good. When we used to say 

bye to family and drive home to FL or they drove home to AL, I always had a dark cloud 

hanging over me even when I felt stronger. That is GONE now."

It's very true. Even when I was having a happy time in Florida, I'd end up having some days of feeling lonely or bored. I'd feel a nagging feeling all the time that just wasn't good. I would pray and get through it. Then we moved to AL and I felt so much happier.  But in the rental house, I knew it wasn't our permanent home. I knew we had to find a house to buy and that added a little stress since we had just moved all our belongings. Finding a house and buying it went faster than expected. But we found a home that we really liked, and was in a great price range. We had to act! So we did, and now we are here getting settled in. And I like this house so much, and the area. Even though we are now 45 minutes from my family instead of 2 minutes, I don't at all feel that nagging Florida dread I used to feel when I drove home from visiting them. I feel joy, peace, and excitement for exploring another area. I am sure it's harder for them right now in a way, because they aren't busy with setting up a new house like I am. But we will all get used to it and it will feel very normal soon. I am praying this joy stays in me, because I don't want to go back to feeling what I used to when we were so far away. I feel relieved right now. :)

Sunset

Last Sunday evening as we moved boxes into the house from the moving truck, there was a beautiful sunset. I snapped many pictures because the coloring kept changing. From pink and purple to teal and orange and back to pinks and purples!

Moved...again!

We moved into the house we bought! We closed on Friday and moved Sunday. Things went faster than expected! I'll be busy setting up this house, calling for new service set ups and so on. It was exhausting for us and for our wonderful helpers! But it was less horrible than the FL to AL packing/moving. Moving twice in three months! Not recommended. ;)

I REALLY like our house and property around it. I'll post more pictures soon.

I'll be around....:)

Home Decor Inspiration

Since we are moving again soon into our new place, I am looking over my pins on pinterest and adding here and there. I have to use what I already have and make it work, and then slowly add newer items if need be.

Some ideas I love:

Source: livecreatingyourself.com via Becky on Pinterest

Source: everyday-lovely.blogspot.com via Christina on Pinterest

Source: houseandhome.com via Christina on Pinterest

Source: adelightfulblog.blogspot.com via Christina on Pinterest

Source: stadshem.se via Christina on Pinterest

Source: livandjeff.blogspot.com via Christina on Pinterest

A cold, and a house!

I came down with a cold last week and thought I felt better, until yesterday. I started getting dizzy on and off, then I slept horribly last night due to Mucinex D which made me toss and turn. I didn't know it wasn't good to take before bedtime! I think it helped my dizziness/congestion, but gave me sleep problems in exchange! And weird dreams.

Today I woke up tired but feeling better. Or so I thought. We met up with a family friend for their birthday lunch and as I sat there eating, I felt worse and worse again, like my head was spinning. Big-time dizzy. We decided I should finally go to the doctor. My mom drove me because I felt too dizzy to drive. They took my blood (just to check it out, not bad to have an annual check on it) and took an xray of my sinuses. It showed some "cloudiness" in my cheek sinuses. So I got a prescription for a z-pack. As I suspected, I had a sinus infection that was messing with my head, making me dizzy. My husband is out getting my rx filled and hopefully I will really truly feel normal soon!

AND big news. We may be moving into the house we are buying very soon. Like maybe even on Sunday?! I can hardly think about it at the moment because I'm tired. Our closing might happen on Friday. If I feel totally better by then, we may start moving stuff over the weekend. I am excited but freaked out since I don't feel prepared to move *again*. But enough of my whining, it's sure to be another part of the adventure of living in Alabama! Right now we are minutes from my parents, less than a mile. We will instead be 45 minutes away. So that is sad but we are all reminding ourselves that it's MUCH better than the ten hours between here and Florida. My husband will have a much better commute to his downtown Birmingham job and that's important. I will be close to a Target and lots of other fun shops, so that's nice also.

Here's where we hope to call "home" soon:

 I think I'll wait to share more pictures after the closing, just to make sure it's really ours!

Fashion inspiration

Curvy girl fashion inspiration! From some of the blogs I've followed in the past months, and a new one.

Source: frocksandfroufrou.com via Christina on Pinterest

Source: girlwithcurves.tumblr.com via Stacey on Pinterest

Source: jugglingchic.tumblr.com via Christina on Pinterest