Happy Friday!

Finally a slow day at the office - well its only 10am, but so far so good! I do have a ton of editing to catch up on though. I think Alexx and I are going to spend most of the weekend resting and doing home projects - ill let you know how much we actually get done! ha I have so many ideas for my house, but just never sure how to make them happen - its overwhelming!  Tuesday, is my State Fair Mini Sessions and I am SO excited - be watching for a sneak peek of those images next week :)

Oh and only 17 more days until my CRUISE! I haven't been to excited about it until this week - I guess I just haven't thought about it to much - but now I am READY!

Have a great weekend!

x0
Stephanie

Head Above Water

I was planning on saving this entry for another day, but it has been consuming my brain lately and then today I was reading up on my "Brave Girl" emails (I was a little behind) and the one from Friday just seemed to describe my feelings so well. Last night I sat on my back patio for almost an hour just thinking about the last several months and thanking God for all of his blessings. I can honestly say 2010 has been the first year in over 4 years that I feel like my head is above water. 2006 was the final year of my marriage and even though it was GREAT financially/work wise - it was very difficult marriage wise - my now ex husband had a severe gambling problem and it seemed that no matter how much money I made we never had enough. Every time I tried to question where the money was going it turned into a huge argument that I eventually just became numb to it all and didn't even ask - it wasn't until my divorce that I even realized how awful it was - when I was faced with the realization that the bills I was told he had been paying were never paid. Since then, I have spent the last several years feeling like I was drowning and trying every.single.day. to stay afloat. I was hurt with his affair and our nasty divorce, I was trying to recover from a drastic pay decrease (thanks to the economy) along with paying my bills, keeping my house, and desperately needing a newer car. I made a decision that 2010 was going to be my year - to work on myself, to work on my finances and to build on my dreams. I can honestly say the last several months I feel a little bit closer to that goal....

So as I was saying I received this email and wanted to share - I still have hurts and insecurities and fears beyond reason, but it does get easier. I could never thank God enough for the lessons he has taught me and continues to teach me. Hope you are encouraged by the words below as much as I was ;)


x0x0
Steph

October is finally here!

Can I just tell you how excited I am that Fall is finally here! I wait all year for October, November and December - now I just want it to go into slow motion from here until the end of the year ;)

Yesterday I was able to open all the windows and just use my screen door and it stayed plenty cool in my house (that is a BIG deal for Texas!ha) What is it about this weather that just gives me lots of energy?

The incredible State Fair of Texas is here! YEA!!! Sadly, my beloved Longhorns didnt win this weekend - but thats ok - we will come fighting next year! Next Tuesday I am hosting mini photo shoots at the fair - im so excited - I will post pics as soon as possible. If you would like to keep up with my other stuff then you can go to my photography blog: stephanie wilson photography

I hope to get lots of stuff caught up this week and then hopefully I can get back to blogging on a regular basis - plus I have a list a mile long of blogs I need to read! Miss yall!

Steph

Show Us Your Life: Master Bedroom

Its Friday (woot woot)! Today I am linking up with Kellys Korner (sorry im having to put her link like this - for some reason my link button is giving me issues today) http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/2010/09/show-us-your-life-master-bedrooms.html   - please go check out her blog for lots of other master bedroom links! I absolutely love looking at peoples homes - I enjoy seeing where they live and their design style. I get so excited at night when I'm driving and I can see into someones house! ha I promise I'm not a stalker! lol

 I really love my head board - I had looked and looked for something similar and could never find anything - but then I came across this outdoor folding wall hanging thing and I knew it would work perfect! So I had the headboard and footboard sawed off my bed to where it was just the base, hung the new screen on the wall and pushed my bed up against it and there you have a new headboard that I love!

You may notice in the picture above that I had a lamp on this table instead of this tree - the picture above was taken a few weeks ago - I now have this tree :) My mom made a bunch of these for my sisters wedding and I snagged one up right after the reception ha!

This is the view from my bathroom doorway - I would like to do something with that wall but not sure what - I am also not a huige fan of that bookcase. The door in the picture goes to my closet witch is the entire length of that wall! I would show a pic - but um its really messy...

This is across from my bed - to the right is my door. I LOVE this couch - its so comfy - This is where I do alot of reading. The collage of pictures is a work in progress - so far I have pictures of my grandpa's hands - there is something about peoples hands that I love. My grandpa's hands represent so many different things to me - I would eventually like to have a wall of photos that represent different people or things in my life that are extra special to me.

I thought I would throw in a pic of my master bathroom since it is attached to my bedroom - Its hard to tell because of the lighting but the walls are yellow, with lots of browns, deep reds and greens as accents colors.

Thanks for visiting - hope to see you again soon!

-Stephanie

Tour of Homes: My Living Room

Today I am linking up with Kelly's Korner for "Show us your life: Living Rooms" - I LOVE looking at other peoples homes and really enjoy getting different decorating ideas. So please head on over to Kelly's blog to see tons of other homes!

Please bare with me - I did not realize until today (when I was already at work) that today was the living room segment. I wanted to go ahead and post since I know next week will be crazy busy for me - so I had to use a picture I took several months ago.

My living room pretty much looks the exact same - except the white 3 shelf on the right of the fireplace is gone and has been replaced with a shabby chic green cabinet. I also did a dark stain glaze over the red fireplace - which you will see in the pics below. I love my living room - although it is a work in progress. I am currently hoping to (very soon) rip out the carpet and do a dark stained concrete instead and get a rug as well. I took the picture from my kitchen :)

Last night I put out some of my fall stuff and just happened to take a picture of my mantle. I still want to do a few things, and I have some pumpkins on the coffee table.

I promise to have lots of better, more detailed pictures for future "show us where you live posts" ha!

Thanks for stopping by :)

-Steph

Fall is right around the corner!

Happy Monday!

Just a quick post showing you these adorable pumpkins me and my sister made this weekend! We had so fun much making them and they were super easy - we made 8 of them and it cost a little over $20.00 for the entire project! I will be working on getting all my fall decor out this week and will post pics of the house once everything is up! Come on cooler weather!

xo

Steph

Labor Day Weekend (Part 2)

Sunday morning Zoey, Gizmo and I went to the park - it was so nice and peaceful - there were a few people out and about but it was still pretty quiet...the only bad thing is it was getting HOT quick! Gizzy even went down the slide a few times - I let Zoey walk him for awhile and as I was dozing resting my eyes for just a quick second Zoey took him down the slide - I noticed it as they were going down - I was about to stop it, but then Giz actually looked like he enjoyed it and then proceeded to go down 2 more times without Zoe - I tired to get a picture of it but he was way too fast. I'm sure people thought I was a lunatic trying to get pics of my dog child going down the slide...

That evening we went to my Aunt and Uncles house for my Grandmas (MawMaw) birthday! Sadly, not all of the family was able to make it, but we had a great time anyways. We had some good food, great laughs and of course, lots of card games ;)

Check out my mawmaw - seriously, isn't she just gorgeous? I hope I age like her - she's 75 people!

Here she is with her 3 kids- Danielle, Valerie (my mom) and Jody.

I don't think I could convey to people how much my mawmaw means to me...we have always had this unexplainable bond that I have never had with anyone else. I know this sounds weird but she is literally the person in my life that no matter how defeated or awful I feel just being in the same room as her makes me better....it gives me peace and comfort - like eating a big ole plate of comfort food - mawmaw is my comfort food! ha When I was little we lived right next door to her and my pawpaw and I would spend every single day with her. We would spend the day making mud pies, swimming and watching re-runs of woody woodpecker - or the "Joy of Painting" with Bob Ross - "happy little trees" bahahah. Once in school, we moved to Pennsylvania (my dads job transfer) and let me tell you every single night I would cry for mawmaw. My pawpaw wrote a poem one time and it in he made a joke about how when I moved "mawmaw almost died" - well the feeling was mutual! ha If you have been blessed with knowing this amazing woman consider yourself lucky - she is one of a kind.

I love this last picture its of my two favorite people in the world - they are just precious!

Happy Birthday MawMaw

x0

Steph