Put it in the Otto--Man!

We are so excited about our new little addition...our coffee tables! Yes it is plural. J and I decided to try something a little different and we are enjoying it. One of my favorite stores Tar-jet, (Question: Who doesn't love Target?) has been having lots of wicker on the market lately. After eyeing two small, wicker ottomans for nearly three weeks, we gave in and bought them. Here is our living room before.

We were are really happy with our little home. We like to think it is warm and inviting, but we had nothing in the middle of our living room and it always felt awkward. Here is our living room after! We are pleased...

J and I both feel that this fills the room and gives us a place to put our games, lots of our crafting supplies and of course J's favorite movie blanket and my Snuggie! But, we still want your opinion! I am one of those people who will love something that J and I come up with not matter how ugly it is. So an honest opinion will help! Plus we kept the tags and the receipt so, if this completely doesn't work for you we could consider returning it. But, before you say you hate it there is a bonus! We could use these for end tables or other storage in the future...which is a bonus J and I love. Please give us your opinions! Happy weekend everyone!

Question: What's on your table?

One obsession J and I share is coffee table books. We love looking at them and studying random facts and looking at funky pictures. I have spent hours in Barnes and Noble scanning different books that are interesting, intriguing and humorous. J and I have a stack of books on our make-shift coffee table (pics coming soon, I need some opinions) and when we are bored we always find something interesting that we didn't know before. So I'd like to say "Thank you" to our coffee table books. Thank you.As I am typing this Josh and I are talking about our desire to grow our coffee table book collection. As you can see here our collection is small and actually one of our books happens to be my favorite Real Simple magazine. Side note: I adore Real Simple magazine! Coolest ideas for organizing and decorating. Love it!This is one we are interested in and actually I remember my mom having this book when I was a kid. Dennis Kitchen searched the US for the smallest towns and compiled them to make Our Smallest Towns: Big Falls, Blue Eye, Bonanza & Beyond. J is really interested in one book that showed the development of one small town into a larger town over 30 years, but we couldn't remember it's title. While we were thinking I remembered this book and thought it could be a good substitute, plus I wanted to share it!

One of my guilty pleasures...I always go in and look at the newest Post Secret released and laugh at some of the funny and weird things people write. There are some pretty appalling things turned into and published in Post Secret, which could make this book not so coffee table friendly. Post Secret is defiantly rated PG-13, so if you are interested in checking it out some of the material is pretty rough.Still, it was written by real people with real issues and submitted it anonymously...keep that in mind.

I love...LOVE...Annie Leibovitz's photography. She's phenomenal, you've probably seen her work in Vanity Fair. She is well known for the controversial pictures of Demi Moore while she was pregnant and most recently Miley Cyrus. This book brings all of her photography from her childhood and present career into one place. I swear on my life...every time...I'm serious...every time I am in Barnes and Noble I sit on the ground by the photography section and look at all the beautiful images she has produced through the years. Side note: She has images of The Rolling Stones (the early years) Bob Dylan and Andy Warhol just hanging out and The Queen, yes...as in...God Save The Queen.

What about you guys? What coffee table books do you like or inspire you? Please share!

Spring has Sprung!

Well sort of. J and I spent the weekend routing on his NCAA bracket and screaming over the Kansas loss! But, unlike some parts of the nation that had a nice first day of spring we were stuck with freezing temperatures and a nice white dust of snow on the ground. Kind of a depressing way to start spring. Today, on the other hand, was filled with sun, a tiny bit of warmth and a ride with the windows down, which was exciting! With all the springiness just around the corner; (psss...and my favorite holiday is in two weeks!) I couldn't wait to make a spring mood board, excitement comes in small packages, I guess. 1. These are some fabric swatches I found courtesy of mydeco.com! Terry Fabrics CO. located in the UK distributes these fabrics to lots of local fabric stores in the U.S. Which makes these springy patterns a little bit more accessible over on this side of the pond.
2. This is my favorite spring find! As we all know I love glass and candles so these little bubbles are perfect for me! John Lewis made these adorable hanging votives also found via mydeco.com!
3. For some reason I didn't photo shop a 3 in...silly me...so moving on to #4!
4. I couldn't resist, this really doesn't have a lot to do with interior design, but I adore this umbrella! I've wanted a bubble umbrella for sometime and I had to share! Also, designed by John Lewis this umbrella also comes in variety of nifty colors!
5. Isn't this the coolest beach chair you've ever seen? I thought so. I love the color and I adore the style. Maybe it could hang out on a porch or a deck and while sitting you could imagine you were sitting on the beach? Maybe. (Also by John Lewis)
6. How many times do I have to say it? I don't know...but I love glass!! I love it! To make matters worse I love this piece! I can picture it with some long stem Hydrangeas right now. (Glass piece by Heals)
7. Last but not least, curtains. Wouldn't these curtains brighten up any room? Especially for spring? Not to mention for two panels the price isn't too terrible!
For anyone that is interested, I make my moodboards via mydeco.com (if I haven't mentioned that enough already!) Feel free to swing on over and check it out if your interested in creating your own!
What about you guys? What are some of your favorite spring pieces you've seen out there? What are some of your favorite spring things in general? I'd love to know!! Have a good day everyone!

It's Offical!

We are married! Our certificate arrived about a week ago and we were nothing less than thrilled! I am officially in the process of changing my name...well officially starting tomorrow I'm officially in the process. We had a blast opening up our license and taking a good look at it, we even took pictures! I told J that our marriage license is totally blog worthy!When our certificate arrived we did a good look over to make sure everything was in order. Joshua Lee Blackman, check. Kelsey Rhea Scroggins, check. Graham Todd Hale, check. Magnolia, check. Arkansas, check. Columbia County, check. January 9, 20---wait...what? The lady filling out our certificate must have still been living in 2009 because it had clearly been marked out with a terrible white out job. Josh and I died laughing! Now, our little wedding license is a little weird just like us.

Since it is official and I am now a Blackman somethings might be changing around the blogosphere so stay tuned! I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Side note: Pray for little Edy Rose she got her 2 month shots today! I know she was so tough!

Big Reveal: Our Living Room!

My good friend and partner in all things goofy, Hayley has been posting comments with exclamation marks (!) about seeing our little Living room as a whole. Well missy and the rest of the blogging world, with out further wait here is our living room

It's not much, but it is ours. I love what we have done with it. Our little DIY end table, our cheap-o art, our wedding pics, candles galore, comfy pillows, a warm throw blanket and a couple of touches that make it perfectly, J&K. It's not much and believe me we need all the help we can get so if you see anything that you think could be altered please feel free to comment! Also, we are adding color, when we can. Maybe a green throw pillow or maybe a yellow rug...we will see!

Side note: I do notice the lamp cords....argh...I hate them, but I have no way to hide them. If any one has any tips I'd love to hear them!

Announcement: This Sunday, March 14...Josh will be 24! Yes...his birthday is the mathematical pie, get it? 3.14...get it? I always have thought that was cool...anywho, I just wanted for J to have a Happy B-day Blog! So here are the top 10 attributes that I love about Yoshie.

1. I do most of the cleaning which is fine by me, I love it. But, I hate two things...emptying the trash and the dishwasher. We do not have a dishwasher so it only cuts my "I hate to do this" list back to one. J always empties the trash for me and I appreciate it so much! I just feel like ecoli is just jumping onto my skin when I walk to the dumpster. Thank you Josh!

2. He sings too! Even though he would hate to admit it Josh sings his thoughts. For example, he forgot his backpack the other day and had to come back and get it. He came and sang, "I forgot my back pack, I've got hurry, got my back pack now, off to work, ok I'm gone" hahahahahaha!

3. He will changes lyrics of songs to say Kelsey. It's really funny, for example, There's an old Marvin Gaye song called "Gotta Give it Up". It's basically about partying to much and giving it up to settle down, but it has the best beat. Anywho, there's one part where Marvin sings "Taste of Hooooooooooney" and Josh always says "Taste of Keeeelllllseeey" that's only one there is plenty more and I love it!

4. Instead of telling me he loves me, Josh often says "Your such a nerd" dork or weird-o, I love those little terms of endearment he feeds me!

5. Josh can pop and lock (I guess that's how you would say it) his butt better than any dancer I've ever seen! He also does this funny thing with his legs...I can't explain it but it is hilarious.

6. One of my favorite childhood stories about Josh is when he was throwing a ball in his grandmother's house and she asked him to stop because he would break her fine china. Josh thought she said (sorry if this is graphic) vagina and was so embarrassed. hahahahaha!

7. He tries to encourage me in my Wii attempts. I love to play Wii but my age is like 80 and I'm terrible. But, after a strike out or a 40-luv loss, he always says you're getting better!

8. He talks to our fish, Calypso. "Good morning little guy!" I heard him say that today!

9. He lets me scare him. I'll hide behind the door when he comes in, behind the bar or in the closet and then I'll fly out like a mad woman and scare the crap out of him! He always laughs and says "What are you doing?".

10. He let's me call him names like: J, Yoshua, Yoshie, Joshua, Hosh, Joshulia, Josh-o Washington (He calls me Kels-o Washington) and so on.

Bottom Line, January 9, 2010 was the best day of my life. I married a dude who balances his maturity with my immaturity, secretly sings, has dances offs, calls me out, lifts me up, will sing our favorite SNL skit theme song with me all the time (Ohhhhhhhhhhweeeeeeeeeee, What up wit that? What up wit that?) most of all he pushes me to the throne of grace that I might experience my Savior in every possible way, to love people as He loved and be an image of Christ. He always says..."It's what we are called to be." I don't even think he realizes he says that a lot. I'm thankful for you Josh, your my best friends.

This picture was taken after a week of camp and on our first date to Rainforest Cafe, I knew he was the one after this night...if I'm lyin' I'm dyin. Happy Birthday!!! I LOVE YOU!!! Don't leave...or...I'll find you!!! Inside joke. Happy Weekend everyone!

Floatin'

Our newly wedded bliss is still rollin' and even more so since our wedding pictures arrived! Last week, J and I were so thrilled to hang our new floating shelves with a few pics of the wedding sitting a-top them. I headed out, list in hand, in search of...you guessed it...votives! A long with frames and a vase. We needed these to give our living room just a little extra bit of fun and pop. After heading to Kohl's (gift card) , Wally World and Hob Lob I had everything needed for our new addition to our Living Room.

When J got home we hopped at the chance to get everything hung and in place. Before he hung them I wanted to see how everything was going to be placed on the shelves and so I had it all laid out against our couch so he could get a good look.Price Check:

1. Picture Frames: $3.00 a piece! We went super cheap! In fact, the lady at Wal-Mart tried to tell me they were $4.00 dollars and she sent someone to check and they came back as $3.00. Total $12.37 for frames

2. Vase: Wal-Mart has this new line of housewares out called RH Designs. This vase was from that line and was only $10.00. Cheap! O yea!

3. Votives: The taller hurricane was actually part of a gift card from Kohl's along with the candle. We used rice as a filler as we always do, cheap, cheap, cheap. The two votives were for sale for .75 cents at Wally World and saved us a whole .20 cents from our usual .95 cent purchase!

4. Paper and Pictures: For our 2 8x10 wedding pics, J and I used a coupon we received from our photographer and saved a bundle. Then we used paper from Hob Lob to fill the other two frames, this is also known as cheap art.

After our general moving and shifting of objects J hung our shelves and we are so please with the outcome!

As you can see, the hurricane we purchased with our Kohl's gift card didn't make the cut. Sadly it was way to heavy for the lower shelf so we had to make and executive decision. Sorry Hurricane.

What do you guys think? You know we are always eager to hear of any advice or changes you think could be made! Please feel free to share ideas! Thanks!

NEWS!!

My sister, Leslie over at Our Joy...His Glory sent me my first award! I'm so excited! Thanks Leslie! The rules for this award are as follows:

1. Post the award. Pretty easy right?

2. Thank and mention the person who gave you the award! Thanks Les!!!

3. Pass the award onto seven blogger whom you think embody the spirit Kreative Blogger Award. Skip to the bottom...

4. Name seven things about yourself that others do not know.

5. Don't forget to notify the seven other bloggers about their award and post a link to their blog. Done.

Ok so here it goes...7 things you don't know about me:

1. I am a Pandora addict. I have close to 75 stations and I listen to them all sporadically. But, the one I listen to the most is my Walt Disney Family station. Whenever I'm alone you can guarantee that it is on. When I think about it Disney is the reason for most of the obsessions I have had in my life. My year and a half obsession with wanting to be a Native American defiantly came from Pocahontas. Why I want my life to be a musical is a direct result of most Disney flicks being filled with song that expresses every aspect of life. For example when I'm cleaning I'm usually doing something like this "When I scrub, scrub, scrub the tub, tub, tub. I hope it doesn't make my hub,hub, hub, fall and bust his bum, bum, bum." It's completely normal behavior to me.

2. Speaking of musicals...My junior year of college my roommates and I had an on-going musical between the three of us called Singspiration. Where we would sing about everything, a lot of times we would incorporate our best opera style voice or the tunes of cheesy Christian songs from our childhood. For example, once my roomie Ethina and I sang about our day to the tune of "Testify to Love" a cheesy 90's Christian song.

E:"How was your day, today"

K: "Mine was fine and how was yours"

E: "It kinda sucked that test was harder and now I've got work"

Right about here our friend Neill would jump in and say "Testify,Testify"

K: "Well with every dish you take think of the money you will make"

E: "So I can stay and go to college, Oh for goodness sake..."

I miss Singsperation.

3. I love carbonated water! I think I get it from my mom she used to drink it all the time when I was growing up. I especially love the bottles that it comes in...pretty green glass bottles! S.Pellegrino is my favorite, in fact I'm having a glass right now.

4. For many years my favorite color has been mint green. I think it is just a refreshing color. But the past few months I have been leaning towards gray. I know...I know...but gray is so...blah. Well, I absolutely love it! I love it so much that J and I talked about putting it in one of our children's names. (WE ARE NOT HAVING CHILDREN FOR A LONG TIME. Just wanted to make that clear) We really like Norah Gray Blackman...it's got gumption! Side note: "she's got gumption" is a favorite line from a favorite movie.

5. I am a candy addict. I am juvenile about it too. It's easier for me to tell you what candy I don't like as appose to telling you what candy I do like. I am really not a fan of sour candies, but I love Lemonheads. Peach-O-Rings and Gummy Bears are a must. Any food-shaped marshmallow candy grosses me out, i.e. a hamburger shaped marshmallow with lettuce, tomato, patty and bun. I wouldn't say I have an all time favorite candy because I genuinly just love the stuff.

6. I am a married, twenty-three year old Nickelodeon fan. I still love the shows from when I was growing up, they were so entertaining. Clarissa Explains it All, Pete and Pete, AHHHH! Real Monsters, Hey Arnold ("Move it Football Head!"), Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Doug (cue theme song now.), Legends of the Hidden Temple, What Would You Do (Josh was slimmed once! How cool is that?)...the list could go on and on. Sometimes I'll look up the show on the Internet and watch a couple of clips. Good memories.

7. My favorite game is Scrabble. I want to download it on my iPod Touch but it is 4.95 and I could almost go by the game and play it physically for that much money. Don't play me. I'll get a triple word score right in your face. I'm serious. Side note: If you ever wanna play please let me know! I'd love to play! haha!

I want to pass the award on to: Lauren over at Over The Rainbow, Brittney Miller over at Areteestic, Amanda at Mitchell Memories (what do ya know Amanda? Your a new blogger and you already have an award!) Ashley at Everyday Blessings, My bestie Hayley at No Whining, My other bestie Brookie at Mike & Brooke and even though I don't know her name, I find here very inpiring so check her out at notebookdoodles. That is all.

Our day in a few pictures!

A few days ago J and I finally got to order some of our wonderful wedding pictures! We were so pumped and couldn't wait. After a series of eliminations we finally picked out 6 pictures that we could use our $100 dollar coupon for!About 3 days later the pictures showed up! J and I were ecstatic! I quickly ripped open the box and began placing the pictures in frames through out our house! I was so excited to see our day lived out in our home, it made our marriage seem even more real to me!Here is J (lookin' very handsome!) and his party! These guys were great! At the rehearsal dinner they asked my permission to play a prank on J during the ceremony, to cool. It was so kind of them to think of me! Honestly, I wouldn't have cared if a mule walked into our ceremony, but the fact that they took my feelings into consideration was so kind! Thanks guys!Here are my girlies! Can you believe how pretty they are? I know. My friends are pretty snazzy! My sister at our wedding was very...VERY preggers! I am so thankful that she was able to stand up beside J and I and share in our day! Also, all of my girls had to travel, 3 of them outside of the state...awesome! You guys are my besties and I love you! Now I look at you, all in one place everyday!