honeymoon

the hardest part about a honeymoon: leaving. especially when you're staying at a five star resort on the lush, tropical island of kauai, hawaii. not to mention, shamefully, blake and i will forever be jurassic park snobs. there is no coincidence that we just so happened to honeymoon on the island in which the movie was shot... no coincidence, i tell ya. we were freaks about finding a sign, a benchmark...anything that referenced the movie. no luck. but, just touring the island, it looks like one big JP backdrop! yeah-ya!

it was beautiful, straight out of a postcard. perfect. relaxing. and just what we needed. though somewhat surreal - still. i ask him out loud occasionally, "did we really just get back from hawaii?" a little over a month after the wedding, i'm finally deciding to upload some highlight from our vacay. be jealous, it was "fabulous" {all credit for the word "fabulous" goes to Ina Garten herself}

hope you enjoy our better late than never pictures :)



{dinner at the kauai grill inside the st. regis}





{view from our room..ridiculous!}




{hideaway beach, a short walk away from the resort}



{yup.. we sure did}

{laying out at the resort}

it has begun - the packing...oh and the living and adapting to change

i have an immediate association with the word "horrible"- it's "packing". and i am d-e-t-e-r-m-i-n-e-d to kill it once and for all. we're pulling out of town for good july 23rd, so i started the dreaded packing process... oh, a mere two nights ago. call me motivated, productive, organized, on-top-of things, a go getter... whatever. i'm just glad to get started now, though it pains me terribly to see my little home being put into boxes slowly, but surely.

oh sometimes i feel that i'm so over this transitional period and am ready to be settled and unpacked completely right about now, but i'm continually learning many new things, not just about myself, but about b, especially.. and it is making this process a bit more pleasant. when you live with someone who is your "opposite" (granted we do have many similarities) you start learning how to either do things better or differently or just not at all to establish a home that's compatible for both people. for example, both b and i are productive people. our timelines are just completely opposite. neither one is bad. either way we still accomplish the tasks at hand, one just sooner than the other. both of our opposite tendencies tend to stress the other out, why? because "different" is a hard thing to get used to. when you live alone, you have a tendency to do things the same way, always. then all of a sudden, another being gets thrown in the mix, and it all gets tangled up and you start having to learn how to adapt to change! i love it... seriously, being married to my best friend is awesome. i wouldn't trade it for the single life again, that's for sure.

the life lessons i'm learning amidst the packing process are so valuable to our daily routine in marriage...i may just find that i enjoy packing more, now, than ever before, turning that word association from "horrible" to "educational". praise. the. Lord. 

{all photos via design to inspire}

CO - COZY

since we established a place of residence once we move to Fort Collins, I've already begun the exciting task of nesting. not that i can actually start the nesting process, but, it's never to early to start planning! as a designer, I love a good challenge. Whether it's in the office trying to make an entire building meet a budget, or in the comforts of my own home, nothing appeals to me more than working with what you've got to work with and no more! Let the fun being!

so, this home that we'll be renting after we move in July, is an adorable 2 bedroom 2 bath, two story home that's a measley 1,000 sq ft. of livable space. The upstairs is just a bedroom and a bathroom, that B and I have already claimed as the master, though after seeing pictures, there's really nothing "master" about it! though small, it is absolutely precious, cozy, quaint, updated, and has hardwood floors- Praise Jesus... having a dog, nothing else will do! so, my nesting challenge is getting creative with the small space we'll be given- and how to effectively create habitable spaces that are pleasant and appealing both functionally as well as aesthetically! I'm still waiting to find out if we can paint. and hopefully we can! a little paint job can go a long long way. since settling on our home, i've been researching small interior spaces, and finding what makes them appear both visually appealing and functionally successful. so excited to make our new home cozy!

sharing some of my inspiration-

  

{kind of in love with all the modern crammed in one space}



{via apartment therapy}

hope restored

First off, let me start by officially saying, Blake and I are moving to Fort Collins, Colorado at the end of July. We're excited, thrilled, nervous, and scared (mostly that would be me) all at the same time. Since getting hitched 26 days ago, mentally preparing for our move has been somewhat stressful. I, being the least adventurous in the family, have been in a long struggle with the Lord as to really how willing I am to completely trust Him for our provision. Yet, in moments of great doubt, the Lord always manages to show up, and disprove my slightly hesitant heart.
As soon as we confirmed we were in fact moving, I wasted no time and immediately started the house hunting process. We're a complicated family, that is, only when you include our spoiled puppy dog- Tallulah. She's so high maintenance it's unbelievable. But, looking back on this process, if she wasn't the way she is, we probably would've settled on a place sooner, just to get that task off our list, and on to less stressful things. Blake and I both had a 'wish list' of what our new home would offer. Knowing that we probably wouldn't get everything on our wish lists, our excitement looking for a home, quickly faded into a big struggle. No one really wanted to help out the newly-wed, out-of-towners looking for anything other than an apartment. That is, until two weeks ago, after months of searching.. we found a landlord renting a home in the charming area (on my wish list) of Old Town, right in the heart of the city. We called the landlord to find out more information about the place, only to be informed we were third from the top of the list, and more than likely, one of the two ahead of us would probably rent the place, since they "really loved it". He would know for certain by Tuesday (at this point in time, we'd have to anxiously wait through the weekend), and if we didn't hear from him by Tuesday, the place was taken.
Feeling completely discouraged and letdown, again, we couldn't get our hopes up. Although, it was hard not to, just looking at the super cute pictures of this newly renovated little home. It fit us perfectly. I was especially in awe with the granite countertops and updated kitchen. Oh, how I've longed for a pleasant place for cooking! Yet, even though odds were against us, something in my spirit felt prompted to pray- and not just once, or twice, but constantly, all day-into the weekend and into Tuesday. Something in my spirit felt prompted to claim Christ is bigger than the whole situation, and it didn't matter if two people were ahead of us on some list... if the home was meant for us, it would be. That's that. The weekend went by super slow- but full of good moments spent in solitude with the Lord. My not so dependant upon the Lord heart was moving into a place of total dependency- even though we hadn't heard from the landlord. And even in the unknown, I was filled with an overwhelming sense of peace, yet, Tuesday was slighly unbearable, and I probably looked at my phone at least a hundred times awaiting to see if a 970 area code would show up on the screen... and sure enough, around 3:30 tuesday afternoon it did! I couldn't contain my excitement when I heard the landlord's voice on the other end of my "hello". The place was available, and though the two people were still ahead of us, somehow, the Lord granted us favor in the eyes of this landlord. He liked us. Our "young professional status" and Blake's job seemed to appeal to him- though we were 3rd in the list of phone calls, we were his "favorite" probable tenants.
As of two days ago, we mailed in our deposit to secure the home as ours. And we are ecstatic! Looking back on this journey the last two weeks, I can honestly say because of it, walls of doubt and hopelessness have been stripped from my heart. Literally stripped! I can see the Lord relentlessly working ahead of us, on our behalf, and solidifying things before we even step into them! My fears and hesitancy in moving are completely gone! I'm thrilled to get out there and make Colorado our home. This journey was just a tiny glimpse of even greater things the Lord has in store for us in Fort Collins. It's been a good start to our transition already- He's refining me, and stirring up this adventureous side in me that I knew was in there somewhere! Praise the Lord!

artist inspired

i seriously love when i stumble upon something or someone that i instantly get inspired by. while oogling over {oncewed.com} and their many lovely postings, i discovered the world of michelle armas. seriously an artist after my own heart- full of color and diversity. these are painting i'd never get tired of...ever! i'm inspired to paint boldly.. or rather, just jump into painting again, thanks to michelle. she's given me a lot of ideas on how to work with and use a layering technique to encorporate such a richness in color! my living room walls will thank me soon enough. go check out her stuff.. she's a pretty talented lady! and i guarentee, before you realize it, you'll get sucked into reading her entire blog!

just a few examples of her work.

reliving the blissful blur

consider me back in the blogging world...wedding: check. honeymoon: check.

i'm officially now a couple things: officially a misses and officially a larson. both of which are pretty spectacular, if you ask me. i absolutely love being married. falling asleep and waking up to my best friend is something i will never get tired of- call me crazy, but my little happy family squeezing into our ever so small queen size bed {and yes, its pretty too small for us} is just more than perfect. 

people will tell you {and trust me i NOW believe them} that on your wedding day everything is a blur. i am finding myself still trying to process the whole event- even the honeymoon! it's all a blissful blur, really... so incredibly blissful. one thing i know of for certain is that i wouldn't have changed one thing about our wedding. the hard work that we put into making it special was well worth it! i'll say it again, the labor we put into making the day perfect WAS WORTH IT. i am no longer regretting poofing paper flowers at 1am the day of the wedding.

i'm still emotionally overwhelmed by the amount of help and effort b and i had leading up to our wedding day! i'm so thankful for all our friends and family who slaved with us in making it fabulous. love each and everyone of them so much- without them, none of it could've happened.

with all this being said, you can't relive the day without basking over lots of pictures, so, i'll leave you with a handful of them taken by matt's wife meghan. her photos are stunning! i hope you enjoy!



loved his face when he saw me



it's hard to pick a favorite! what an amazing God-given day we had! b and i are absolutely blessed! looking back and seeing how the Lord blessed this day and answered our prayers over the event in ways we couldn't have even planned, is making this transition into our upcoming season of life so much easier- filling us with encouragement and confidence in His plan for our lives!