Weekend Recap: Pack Attack

Hello Kiddos!

Sorry for the much belated posting.  Last week D and I were prepping for my family's arrival and yesterday I was just plain old recovering!

To be totally honest I had to get over the emotional hangover that is saying goodbye to your family as an adult.  Somehow this didn't seem as hard when I was clamoring to get back to Mizzou, but now watching them all get packed up and leaving on various airplanes and hitting the road makes me a little sad and wistful for the days when we were all in one city, or even one country.

Sappiness aside, this weekend was super fun, full of yummy meals, cuddles and even a little productivity. My parents got in Thursday night and we gave them the newest tour (complete with some temporary curtains D put up the night before - best hubs ever.)

nothing like installing curtains the night before your in-laws arrive. love you D!

We were up and at it early Friday AM for a trip to my FAVORITE STORE EVER - k. hall for their warehouse sale.  Several candles, soaps and other smelly treats later, me and Kath headed to pick out some new fabric for a few pillows, valances and cafe curtains for the house.  We revisited that awesome fabric house and I got some super cute blue and cream linen with a monotone peacock and floral print for the kitchen and this rich watercolory linen for pillows in the living room - I want to incorporate pops of mustardy/citriney yellow/gold to warm it up a bit. 

seriously taking pics of the living room soooon.  Just need to pull the

 trigger on a few more elements.

 

Without going totally schizophrenic on you, I also got some awesome black and white buffalo check for my office - can't wait to finish up the desk and get the valences made to show you all that!

 

The big purchase of the day was a sewing machine!

Kath already showed me a few tricks on this guy but I hope to be a pillow making machine in a few months.  This combined with my trusty staple gun (for custom cornices - duh) and I should have all my windows dawned by Christmas!

 

Friday night the twinies got in and there was a lot of cuddling this

the main mitchell diva, barkley.

 

by this.

 

First fire in the new house!

 

 

Saturday we took down a tree in the back yard with both sets of in laws - can you say domestic?  Before and after pics later this week! We also watched THE BEST MOVIE EVER  that night, outside by the fire on our projector.

 





Kath said it was "right up there with On Golden Pond" which is basically

cinematic greatness in our book and this was definitely the perfect outdoor fall movie.

 

Sunday we had the main event of the weekend - the Rams Packers game.  Being cheeseheads, I'm sure you can guess who we were rooting for.  If it's still not obvious, these clues may help:

 

mimosas + bloody marys

 

 

Big T tailgating in some fly Tory Burch Ray Bans curiosity of one of his daughters

 

We brought home a victory and topped off the gorgeous day with some steaks.  It was a jam packed weekend of fun and I was super sad to see them go but excited to reunite in a few short weeks for Thanksgiving.

 

What have ya'll been up to these past few days?

 

xoxo,

KC

This is the 366th day of my life...

This is the first day of my life.  That's the title of the song me and D danced to a year ago today.

It's a special song to us mostly because it was released right around the time D and I first met in 2005, actually right around the time that we first fell in love.  It's definitely a "different" wedding song, but I feel it really encapsulates everything we felt at the time, back in 2005, again in October of 2011 and still today.

 

Remember the time you drove all night
Just to meet me in the morning
And I thought it was strange you said everything changed
You felt as if you'd just woke up
And you said “this is the first day of my life
I’m glad I didn’t die before I met you
But now I don’t care I could go anywhere with you
And I’d probably be happy”

 

D and I have been together for almost 8 years now and experienced A LOT together, but I can honestly say that right around the time this song came out, I knew this was the man I'd marry. He is not only the love of my life, but my very best friend.  Someone who sees me and loves me and challenges me in a way that really does change everything.

 

Our wedding was a year ago today.  Detailed out here by the incredibly talented Donnell Probst! With the theme of you guessed it...The Newly Cornwells.

 

via donnell probst.

 

We had our small but heartfelt ceremony in a church by Forest Park and our reception at the Forest Park Golf Club.  The entire day was a whirlwind, as most weddings are, but in talking about it again this morning, we both recanted the exact same favorite memory.

 

The early evening ceremony was so emotional and totally blew me away more that I thought it ever would and the ladies at Cosmo did a killer job of executing everything I had planned, but my favorite part of the day was actually away from everything. Between the ceremony and the reception, the wedding party boarded a bus and drove around Forest Park, right around sunset, making sure the guests had plenty of time to get settle in before making our entrance.

 

At one point, with 3 bottles of champagne left, we made it to the top of Art Hill, a beautiful high point in Forest Park that overlooks the golf course and most of the park. With just the slightest hint of Fall in the air, the sun setting and the lights from the club house twinkling, it was the most perfect part of the night. 

Donnell did a wonderful job capturing the day, and all the emotions therein, but at the end of the day, this grainy iphone picture is one of my most prized pictures of the day. Surrounded by my 3 most favorite people in the world is exactly where I'd like to be any day of the week. Isn't it funny how that works out?

 

cameo by O's super reflective tennies!

 

 

at the end of a wonderful day, off to the hotel and then ITALY!

 

 

 

Happy 1st Anniversary, babes.


all my love,
kate.



Heading Home

When I was 17, a junior in high school, my father's job got transferred to the corporate office in Topeka, Kansas.  This meant that we'd have to leave the place we'd lived longest, Colleyville, Texas.  I was fortunate enough to have parents who not only supported me but enabled me, and my sisters, to stay in Texas to finish my senior year.

My dad traveled from our home in Colleyville to a temporary apartment in Topeka Monday mornings at 5am and returned back to our house on Glen Dale by 6 on Fridays.  It was hard going through the motions senior year knowing that after graduation that while I'd be leaving for college, I'd also not be coming back "home," but I'm sooo grateful I got to finish out my high school years with some of my best friends in a town that I still LOVE.

My parents have since moved twice, and have a second home in Toronto now with a similar situation to the above, but every time I get the chance to go back to Colleyville it's still a homecoming of sorts.  I know the roads, the stores, the RESTAURANTS - yum - like the back of my hand, and although some things have changed - hello strip mall across from high school - lots has stayed the same.

This weekend I'm headed to Colleyville, and actually Glen Dale Drive, for my best friend's wedding shower.  E moved into the house 5 houses down from mine in sixth grade.  We met when I tried to sell her family some wrapping paper for a Choir fundraiser.  I think they took pity and ordered a few rolls and quickly accepted me as one of their own. 

Over the years the Booths have been my second parents and siblings.  E and I would sit on top of our brick mailboxes and yell at each other as the other one walked home.  We played kick ball in the cul-de-sac with her four brothers and sisters and my two sisters. We held not so secret parties, went on silly car rides to Sonic and high school football games (it literally is a way of life in TX) and ate LOTS of fajitas.

I still miss Texas and E but she has also moved out with her now-fiance and we both have our own grown up lives that I'm pretty sure neither of us ever imagined during our awkward middle school years.  I'm excited to see a few old friends this weekend and enjoy all that Texas has to offer.  Here are a few things that remind me of "home"

need one of these. just need to figure out where to put it.

the 6 flags that flew over texas. duh.  i explain this to people all the time. 4 years of tx history baby!

so confused why this deliciousness still hasn't made it north of the mason dixon line

scary how true this is.

pretty sure i thought southbound 35 was written for me during the whole

Topeka/Colleyville show down

this was COMPLETELY baffling to me when i went to college.  my first car was a suburban, duh.

I'll be sure to take some pics of the shower! Have a fab weekend!

xoxo,

KC

Weekend Recap: Well Lived Life

Back in the saddle this Monday after a weekend that marked the transformation of a house into our home.  Not to get too corny on you (sidenote: the whole Corny thing now has new meaning, and increased use in our house what with being Newly Cornwells..) but last night D and I were watching the Olympics on our new tv in the living room (an Olympics purchase, duh!), and we both commented on how we finally felt settled for the first time in the eight weeks we've lived here. 

What with the constant travel this summer for work and fun, I think it was hard for us both to remember that this feeling would finally come - the constant to do lists with "MUST GET DONES" would subside and that we'd be left with a smaller, "should get done...eventually" list and a house we're proud to invite people to.

We were finally able to relish some of that sweet feeling with the Olympics party this past Friday.  We had lots of Americana going on all over the house - I scored most of our decks from the Hobby Lobby 4th of July sale for 80% off and supplemented with some Olympics printables.  Glow sticks, flags and hamburgers at the ready we watched the sometimes-baffling opening ceremonies with some key friends and fam.

chandelier decks in the dining room

official London Olympics posters at the front

mini flags EVERYWHERE

it took me awhile to hang this puppy

the kitchen decks complete with AMERICA sign found for 80% off, I'm already pumped for the 4th

It was so fun to share our plans and progress with family and was a great kick off to a weekend of Olympics watching and sun. 

We also got to hang out with our sweet nephew S, not once but twice this weekend!  He cheered on the US at our house on Friday and we got to babysit him Saturday and got a taste of babydom.  We learned that two year olds have expert hearing, and that we're super lucky to have the mix of carpet and hardwood in the house.  We also checked out the pool for the first time with S and found that the lazy river was a happy compromise for all three of us.

The weather was SOOO gorgeous on Saturday, it was like a crazy reprieve from all this insane heat and humidity.  The pool was perfect and surprisingly not crowded! That evening while enjoying a homemade watermelon margarita popsicle (recipe from here and SUPER delicious) we thought we'd see if we could push our luck with the good weather and entertaining luck from the night before and try to rile up a group to watch a movie outdoors.  We found some takers and fired up our projector and enjoyed the almost crisp air and the Jack Black/Owen Wilson/Steve Martin flick, The Big Year.  It was not what I was expecting but good none the less.

movie on the garage

We also set up this awesome chandelier my in laws got me for my birthday awhile back.  It was a fun pop of light hanging in the dress while we watched the movie.

it has 3 layers but we only filled 2 of them up.  lesson learned, need bigger, slower dripping candles

All in all, this weekend was AWESOME and for some reason totally unexpected.  I think we forgot how to enjoy ourselves for a bit there, which sounds completely crazy.  We'll keep forging on in our improvements and trial/error home ownership but we're definitely going in the right direction focusing on the things that truly make up a well lived life.

xoxo,

KC



Fill it Up!

So I've had this post scheduled for a long time and never got around to posting it.  Seems like a good segway now what with the recent before and afters.

My interior design philosophy to date has been based soley around making the pieces I've been handed down work.  Luckily my mother, to be hence force known as Kath, is quite the interior diva with impeccable taste and quite the history of home relocations (for Big T's job) and redecorating projects.  Big T being my father - for those who know him- his personality couldn't be described as anything other than Big.

It's interesting visiting all 3 (myself included) of Big T and Kath's kids' homes now as you can clearly see the influence of all the places we've lived to date.  I currently have the big red couches that graced our home in Lawrence, Kansas, made their way to my second college apartment and now my first home. My sisters have some of the Kansas furniture, a few pieces from our Texas home and some black buffalo check club chairs from their current house in Tennesee.  Sprinkled throughout there's dishes and silverware from Baltimore, New Jersey and I even their first crock pot they got as a wedding gift in Milwaukee.

Given the choice, I don't think red couches would be my personal first pick, nor would buffalo check top A & M's lists, but they've served us well and best of all - they were free!

Given that the new place is roughly 2.5x the size of our old rental home, we've got a lot of rooms to fill.  The red couches will make their way to our Den but we've already ordered some fun new furniture for the living room that I'm excited to share.  Whereas we were much more in the French Countryish camp, the look of the new house is much cleaner, more modern and more us.

Red Couches in their new home in the den.  Don't judge the floppy cushions and lack of coffee table.  On the replacement list already.

Building on the Silver Tinsel paint color and awesome new wood floors we restained we wanted to keep the more "transitional" flow rolling with some new furniture.  Enter my favorite furniture store EVER: Arhaus.  If you have not been to an Arhaus store or checked out their online store front, let me share the greatness!  http://www.arhaus.com/

We are always on the look out for beautiful pieces from this store but they can be quite pricey so you have to wait for a good sale.  We'd been watching this piece for a long time. The Holden Console Table.  It's also available at Crate and Barrel but a bit more expensive.

We knew we wanted this piece the second we saw it.  It's got a nice rusticy look but none of that weird fall-apart-on-you wood that you see in a lot of today's "reclaimed" pieces.  I don't know about you but I'm not into bugs and dust. And it's topped with a beautiful piece of bluish-greyish soapstone that ties in well with the paint color.

We ended up finding this exact piece for a little less at a local furniture store that had purchased a small "lot" of these tables - woowhoo!  We were actually there, looking for a new sofa and possible some arm chairs for the same room.

Phillips Furniture has been GREAT to work with and super affordable. Highy recommend a trip if you're in STL. We ended up getting a custom sofa in Porpoise (cue my excitement about picking a dolphin-esque color - we can discuss that obsession later) that's kind of a muddy grey/taupe color.  Much prettier than it sounds. 

Porpoise

It's kind of exciting because they let you choose the arms, cushion type (T shaped or straight) and skirt (or lack there of)  We went with straight arms, T shaped cushions and no skirt but no wood liner either, you'll just see 4 little wooden feet at the bottom.

We also picked  up two chairs that you can only describe as the tiniest seafoam lepoard print design. Yes, it sounds heinous but thankfully I, and the very few others that I've actually allowed in the still barren house, seem to like them.  Pictures of these bad boys to come. We're also keeping our glass and limewood coffee table for now, but may swap it out for something more fitting in the future.

Still need:

- shutters - I want big white ones for those 11 feet of windows!

- some sort of curtain, more likely as an accent on the sides than functional, given the shutters and maybe with some sort of complementary color that hasn't been used, thinking mustardy yellow or coral?

- huge rug - using the old one now, preferably graphic

- need some new lamps - something with color to spice up the space, and tie into the curtains?

-bookcases - I'd LOVE custom built in's much like Miss. Lindsey's over at fificheeck but we'll have to see what D says.  I'd also take two of these puppies from Arhaus in a heartbeat (it comes in a super light, almost limewood finish) right now we've got some older black ones that I'm repurposing

That's all I've got today from Canada.  More tomorrow on some bookcases in the living room, and the first phase of zhushing.

xoxo,

KC

Weekend Recap: Canada, eh?

Sorry for the radio silence around here.  We've been seriously working on building up our frequent flyer miles/points/whatever they call them now and hotel rewards lately.  In fact, D and I experienced a strange first the week before last, both ending up on a business trip in Boston at the same time.  It was strange seeing my husband in a different city, not on vacation, and only for a few fleeting hours.  Needless to say Emma is pretty peeved with us but happy to have gotten in some serious bonding time with my in-laws (who we COULD NOT live without at this chaotic juncture.)

As you can imagine, not a whole whole lot has been completed in the past week and a half with all this travel, but I do have some fun updates on what we've done to date to share this week. I know, I know, I've been promising pics and entries for a long time now but D sweetly uploaded all our before/after pics of the floors and paint last night.  The beauty of DSLR pics is only overshadowed by their size and difficulty to resize and compress on an old laptop.  (a replacement is on the list, but WAY far down I'm afraid)

Anyways!  We did take a quick jaunt to Canada this past week for some R&R with my family.  I know, this is VERY unAMERICAN of us, have no fear the irony is not lost on us, but my father works in Canada currently and we've never experienced the "Canadian Cottaging" lifestyle (this is a thing, look it up) so we decided to give it a go.

We stayed in a lovely log cabin, REAL logs that were roughly 1.5ft in diameter and a beautiful cedar looking stain (not sure if it was true cedar though, likely pine) on such a quiet lake. The closest town was called Rosseau, population 250 and was super charming.  Here's a pic I grabbed off Flickr of the adorable grocery we shopped at everyday.  We took some of our own, but they aren't uploaded yet for the above mentioned reasons.

I've been thinking about taking a large photo and creating my own triptych for a while now for one of the big walls in the dining room.  With such a bold color, I'm thinking a black and white photo would be beautiful but would need some high contrast in it to be visually appealing.  I'm kinda digging the blown out, grainy look of some of the canvases designers have been using lately in rooms, but I'm not sure that's in line with D's clean aesthetic.  May need to do some convincing...or compromising!  At any rate, I think the country grocery in Rosseau might be a nice fit especially with those gorgeous umbrellas and the Canadian flags red and white (obviously showing up dark gray and white in a B&W pic)

via Little Green Notebook

Speaking of which, right before we left for Canada I scooped up this beauty on super sale from Pottery Barn!  Cannot wait until she gets here end of July.  I'll be sure to post some picks once we install her on the patio with our teak table and chairs.

via Pottery Barn

Hope you all had a LOVELY 4th!

xoxo,

KC

A First Time For Everything...

This last year has been full of firsts, both for me and my *now* husband D. In the last 12 months, we've:
- Gotten Married (October 8, 2011!)
- Taken our first, big, out-of-the-country trip together (Italy!)
- Both been promoted (woohoo!)
- Taken our second, big, out-of-the-country trip together, which was also D's first ever beach vacation, yes, don't get me started... (Punta Cana!)
- Bought our first house

That last one has come with a whole 'nother batch of firsts. I cannot begin to count the DIY products, we've started, stopped, succeeded in and failed at already and it's only been a month.  It's also because of that inability to count, that I decided to start one more first: a blog!

With a smattering of supportive friends and family spanning the US (and even into Canada!) I hope this keeps everyone up to date on our house progress and serves as a bit of humor in your day, because it's clearly going to be a bumpy ride with painting parties, the mulch fairy and much more.

xoxo,
KC