Greetings From Houston

I normally work Saturdays but a coworker asked me to switch and I gladly accepted. I wanted to go to the beach for the day but the forecast called for rain so we just slept in and took it easy. I recently got a new pear-shaped terrarium so we headed to our favorite plant shop, Buchanan's,  to find plants to fill it with. I left with a nice easy-to-care-for air plant. We happened to take a different route this time and stumbled upon this awesome Greetings From Houston mural. I have lived in Houston my entire life but it was still fun to pretend to be a tourist in my own city. 

We're Hitched!

We got married on Saturday May 3, 2014 and it was one of the happiest days of my life! It was an unconventional wedding, but I have always been an unconventional kind of gal who lives by my own rules. I have two versions of our special day.

The short version: Victor invited our closest friends and family over to our house for a surprise birthday party for me. The real surprise was that they were actually attending our wedding!

The long version: Growing up, I never pictured myself getting married and having a big wedding. I hate being the center of attention for anything so the thought of walking down an aisle with all eyes on me made me cringe. I always thought I would grow up to be a career focused woman, living on my own with a cute puppy companion, a decision I was completely happy with. My mom has been divorced twice, my older brother has been divorced, and most of my friends growing up also had divorced parents or had parents who seemed really unhappy. So you see, I didn't exactly have the most positive viewpoint on marriage. 

I'd had a couple serious type relationships before Victor and my views on marriage still hadn't changed. It was a totally different story though when Victor and I got together. It definitely was not love at first sight. I had known him for about two years before we even started dating and never once thought "I'm going to date that guy" much less think "I'm going to marry that guy". We started getting to know each other as friends then became a couple and within a few months, I really was thinking "I'm going to marry this guy one day". I guess what they say is true - "When you know, you know." I knew he was the one because I really could not picture my life without him in it. Sounds cliche but it's true. 

After about 4 years of dating, Victor proposed to me last May on a weekend getaway trip to Surfside Beach for my 24th birthday. After getting engaged, we weren't in a rush to plan a wedding and get married as soon as possible. I'm the girl who never even thought she would get married so being engaged was still a shock to me and I wanted to savor it for as long as I could. Months passed and people kept asking "So when's the big day?" and my answer would always be "Not sure but hopefully soon!". It was getting close to a year since getting engaged and I started to become a little antsy on finally sealing the deal. I liked being engaged but I didn't want to end up being that couple that stays engaged for 5 years! We started thinking about possible wedding locations and bouncing ideas back and forth but it all became so stressful! Wedding planning is no joke and costs so much money which we don't have. 

On Wednesday April 30, 2014, Victor surprised me by not going to work and taking us to the courthouse to get our marriage license instead. I was over the moon! This meant we were going to get married really soon. In my mind I thought we would end up eloping which I had no issues with. It would be waaay cheaper, less stressful, and it would be more about us and less about everyone else and the little details of weddings that didn't really matter. I mean who cares about floral arrangements and save-the-dates anyways? I mentioned I was unconventional right? Anyways, the lady issuing our license asked when we planned to get married. Victor seemed unprepared for the simple question and blurted out "This Saturday" I looked at him with big shocked eyes that said "Exsqueeze me?" I was shocked and  ecstatic.

I was full of questions the second we left the courthouse. It turns out, he had secretly invited all of our closest family and friends, even my best friend from middle school who he has never met, to our house Saturday night for what they thought would be a surprise birthday party for me. Even my brother who lives in California flew in. My birthday was on Monday May 5th so the timing was perfect. His plan was perfect. I'm surprised I didn't think of it myself. No one knew they were attending our wedding so no one was freaking out about last minute wedding preparations or worrying about buying a wedding gift, and it hardly cost us any money! However, I did go into panic mode about what I was going to wear. I didn't want to get married in just any ole dress hanging in my closest! I ended up finding a really cute dress at a small boutique close to home. I just happened to walk by the window, saw it, tried it on, and bought 15 minutes later. It had just the right amount of formal but casual look to it. I'll post a better picture of it another time. 

So Saturday comes around and everyone's waiting at our house to surprise me while Victor picks me up from work. YES, I went to work on my wedding day. I couldn't spoil the surprise! We get there and everyone yells "SURPRISE!" I look shocked because everyone I love is there and I start crying like the big softy that I am. I was just so overwhelmingly happy that everyone could be there to share our marriage, unbeknownst to them. I was also so happy that Victor knew exactly who I would've invited to our wedding. It showed just how well he knew me and confirmed that I had chosen the right one. Sadly not everyone could come, but that's what happens when you have other plans up your sleeve. 

The party goes on for about an hour until Victor tells everyone to gather in the backyard. He had found an ordained minister online and he had just arrived. I'm so freaking nervous at this point because no one knows yet what's about to happen except me, Victor, and two friends who drove from out of town. We had to get them to come somehow but  swore them to secrecy! So the minister comes around to the backyard with a microphone, small amp, his script, and a small light to see. By this time it's completely dark outside. Some people thought the guy was going to sing for us or that Victor was going to say some really sweet things to me. The man asks us to come forward. I whisper to Victor "OMG I'm so nervous, should we make an announcement?" but he just shooshes me. The man then goes on to say we are gathered here today to witness our marriage and just goes right into the whole shebang. By then everyone's realizing what's happening and I hear gasps and "OMG!" and some sniffling from tears. It was such an exhilarating moment. I was smiling and crying tears of joy the entire time. We celebrated the rest of the night.

Unfortunately, we did not have a professional photographer to capture it all, but I don't regret a single thing and I have the memories to last a lifetime. This was the best picture from that night thanks to one of my good friends from college. We do plan on taking proper pictures though to remember our first year of marriage. I'm planning on October which will mark our 5 year anniversary together. 

We plan on taking a real honeymoon in the future but for the rest of the weekend we went back to Surfside Beach and stayed in the exact same little beach front hotel from the year before where Victor proposed to me. This time we got the honeymoon suite :) Oh and we also took Maggie with us. The hotel was dog friendly so we had to take our fur baby with us!

This was the first time Maggie had been to the beach and you can tell from her face how much she hated the water! Victor had to carry her because she kept freaking out.

I couldn't be happier with how everything turned out and I'm looking forward to what the future holds for us. 

Maggie

When I was a kid, I begged for a dog but never got one until high school when I was old enough to care for it myself. Her name was Itchy (Itchy and Scratchy anyone?) and I had her for about 3 years before we had to give her away. I started taking college classes full time and working part time so I didn't have the time to give her the attention she deserved anymore. Ever since then, I have been waiting for the day that I could have a furry friend again. 

Now that we live in a house and I'm no longer in school, it seemed like the perfect time for us to finally get a dog. With both of us working full time, we decided we didn't want a puppy we would have to potty train, and this gave us a chance to adopt a dog that needed a new home. I had high hopes on getting a pug, dachshund, corgi, or boston terrier. This is where Victor and I had differences. He's more into greyhounds, whippets, or terriers. Basically any dog with with long limbs and long snouts, while I preferred the smooshed face, short leg ged variety. Regardless, we said we'd keep an open mind since we were adopting. 

Eventually, we found Maggie on PetFinder.com. Victor searched for "corgi" and found Maggie along the way. We decided to keep her name. I feel like it's the only name that fits her! She is a 1 1/2 year old corgi and miniature pinscher mix. I thought we should still keep looking, but for some reason Victor was dead set on getting this dog. I guess it was just love at first sight for him. He insisted that I at least meet her which I agreed to. This was totally a trick though because he knew I would fall in love with any dog I met. I'm a total softy and he knew exactly what he was doing!

We met her briefly on a Tuesday, offered to keep her that upcoming weekend to see if she meshed well with us, and then we just ended up keeping her permanently. Best decision ever! Having a dog has changed our lives for the better. Yes, it's more responsibility, but having a dog has fulfilled our lives more than I thought it ever could. I can't even imagine not having Maggie around now that we have her. We love her so much! One of my favorite things is watching Victor interact with her. Can you believe he spoils her more than me?! It's ridiculous but soo so sweet.

Luckily for us, she was already potty trained so we didn't have to worry about that. She has had some accidents, but is much better now that we have a routine going, and she does just fine while both of us are at work during the day. She gets really nervous around new people, but she'll warm up to you quick if you pet her a lot and give her a treat. She's a pretty laid back dog that mostly just likes to cuddle and beg for treats. She's kind of weird around other dogs though. She whimpers if she sees other dogs but goes nuts for squirrels. She doesn't bite but she'll growl under her breath if she doesn't like something. We went to the beach recently and discovered that she HATES water! She freaked out when we put her feet in the water and she kept trying to run away. We think she saw the ocean as one big bath. HAHA. She doesn't know too many tricks yet. So far, all she knows is "sit" and "stay", but we are working on "shake" at the moment. 

Be prepared to see lots more of Maggie around here because I am definitely one of those crazy dog moms now! You can't say I didn't warn you.

Home Sweet Home

I'm so excited to be living in a house now! Gone are the days of listening to neighbors stomp around late at night, sharing a laundry room with strangers, and having visitors steal my parking spot. We've been happily renting this house since November 2013. 

We weren't all that thrilled with the last apartment we lived in. It was in a great area (the museum district!) but the apartment itself felt small and needed a lot of major repairs that the landlord wasn't willing to fix. On top of that, they were going to raise the rent $200 if we wanted to renew our lease. We ended up there because our last apartment sorta kicked us out with one months notice so we needed to find a place to live FAST. They were tearing our building down to build new overpriced houses. It was a sad day to come home from work and find that notice taped to our front door.

Anyway, about 4 months before our lease ended, we both started browsing around for a new place. We agreed that we would only move if we found something better in the same price range we were already paying, otherwise we would just stay another year. We loved the area so much that we were willing to overlook the flaws. For months, we viewed apartment after apartment after apartment with no luck finding anything that we liked more, was a decent price, and still in the area we liked. We even paid the $75 application fee for one apartment, and got accepted, but ended up turning it down. 

We were about to give up but then Victor found a newly listed house for rent on HAR.com. We didn't like the area but it was a HOUSE and within our price range so we had to at least see it. There were several people coming and going to view the house so we didn't think we'd get it even if we applied but we applied anyway. We ended up getting a call 2 days later informing us that we got the house! Woo!

We asked the guy why they weren't asking for more for such a big house. It's two stories, has 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, backyard, living room, dining room, kitchen, laundry room, and two small rooms downstairs that could be used as a study or storage room. I mean that's a lot of square feet and we were only going to be paying $100 more per month than we would have at our two bedroom apartment! It turns out the neighborhood is really old and most of the neighbors are retired so it's not exactly an area high in demand and the house is really old. I think it was built in the 30's. The outside doesn't look so hot but the inside has been taken care of over the years. We decided we could sacrifice living in a not-so-hip area for a huge house! So far, it has been totally worth it. It's not walking distance to anywhere worth going to like our previous two apartments but it's still only a short driving distance (3-5 minutes) to places we want to go. Not bad!

Our house felt empty when we first moved in but we've been having fun slowly filling it and decorating it. I'm trying not to go too crazy though since we are only renting and don't know how big our next place will be. Fingers crossed we don't ever have to move to a tiny apartment ever again! 

In case you were wondering, about 85% of our furniture is from IKEA.

Hello

Hello out there! If you are reading this, high five and two thumbs up to you! My last post was almost a whole year ago so it would've been safe to assume that I quit blogging. I would apologize for my year long blogging hiatus, but it was totally on purpose. I stopped blogging because I lacked inspiration , my interests were changing, and just plain laziness. 

When I first started this blog, I mostly liked sharing outfits and occasional snapshots into my personal life. Anything else just felt like it wasn't blog worthy. There's so many great blogs out there to follow. There's DIY, personal style, lifestyle, food, beauty, fitness, and so much more. While I love reading and following these kinds of blogs, I didn't feel like I fit into any of these categories. Well now I'm back and I've decided I just want this blog to be a place where I can post anything and everything I feel like sharing without feeling the need to fit into any one category. I want to be able to document my life, share whatever interests me at the moment and maybe share an outfit post here and there. Cool? Cool.

In the past year, 3 major things have happened to me and Victor in this order:

- We moved into a house (only renting but still!)

- We adopted a dog named Maggie

- We got married!

I'll be posting about these three things in separate posts so stay tuned. Thanks for sticking around! 

Saturday

As a native Texan, I'd just like to say that IT'S HOT AS HAIL YALL! It's gotten to the point where all I want to do is hide inside with the comfort of the air conditioner. The only time you can actually enjoy being outside is in the evening when it begins to cool down and that is exactly what we did on Saturday. We got to the beach just in time to enjoy the sunset and left once it got too dark to see anything. 

So let's talk about my swimsuit. It's my favorite! I like it so much that I have it in two different colors, black and red. You can't see the whole thing on me because I'm shy, but the top is the best part anyway. It even looks cute worn as a top. Just throw on a skirt or shorts and you have yourself an outfit perfect for summer! I bought it online from Walmart, can you believe it?! They sell the exact same retro style swimsuit on other websites, like ModCloth.com, for wayyyyy more, but the one from Walmart is just as cute, is good quality, and only a fraction of the price. FYI, it comes in several different colors AND it's on sale right now. Just click the link below. 

Swimsuit: Walmart
Skirt: Urban Outfitters
Sandals: Buffalo Exchange

365 Project: June

Whew! June flew by in the blink of an eye! My last week of June was spent  along the coast of California with my love and it has been the best vacation I've ever taken thus far. Looking at the pictures really makes me wish I was still there, but the fun is over and now it's time to get back to real life and start looking for a job *sigh*. I'll probably make another post about our trip with more pictures that weren't posted here or on my Instagram. For now, you can check out the rest of my 365 project from my Flickr account and see my past favorites here.

Got my StickyGrams in the mail and I really like them! Looking forward to getting more.

Bought a new lens for my camera and now it's my new favorite. Haven't taken it off my camera since I got it!

He doesn't like having his picture taken so this is actually the first picture I've ever managed to take of him genuinely smiling and I love it <3

This kitty kinda belongs to everyone that lives in my building and he is such a sweetie

Had fun experimenting with long exposure photography and I can't wait to try it out again. I'm thinking fireworks on 4th of July will be my next venture.

Checked out the new James Turrell exhibit at the fine arts museum. Had fun playing with light and shadows.

One morning we woke up to find another one of the apartment kitties peeking into our living room from outside. Our unit is above a storage unit/garage space so were wondering how it even managed to climb onto our windowsill. He/she was not very happy with me taking its picture!

Did a fun photo shoot with my friend Megan. Isn't she a beaut?!

Crave Cupcakes celebrated their 5th anniversary and were giving away free mini cupcakes! I managed to snag one before they were all gone.

We were going nonstop on our first day in California. In just the first day alone, we managed to see Long Beach, Venice Beach, The Getty Center, Santa Monica, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Rodeo Drive, Sunset Boulevard, Beverly Hills, and the Hollywood sign up from Mulholland Drive. This is the view of Los Angeles from the Getty Center. It was amazing! I wish we had more time to explore because there is just sooo much to see.

On our second day in California, we visited Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, and ended the day by walking on board the Queen Mary! If you are/were ever a Titanic fan then this is a must see because this sister ship is identical to the real Titanic! This was taken as we watched the surfers in Huntington Beach.

We rented a car and took a road trip up to San Francisco on the Pacific Coast Highway. It was the most scenic drive ever! We stopped halfway in Pismo Beach to take a break from driving. It was so beautiful there!

Of course I had to take a mandatory Golden Gate Bridge picture when we arrived in San Francisco. What a beautiful city!