my first car

I bought my first car today! Actually, I just bought my car from my dad. But still it's my first big purchase like that. Hopefully soon we can get it all transferred over to my name. That'll be the last thing that I have financially tied to my parents. Kinda crazy. Sometimes I realize that I'm almost 30, which is definitely in the adult zone; but having spent so much of my life in school, relying on others for everything, I feel like I'm just dipping my toes into the adult world. Tim's been so great with all that. He's walked me through a lot of it and only minimally gotten frustrated with my cautious/nervous feet dragging. We've been planning for home ownership in the near future. That's really exciting to me. I've never gone to look at houses like that and chosen where I'm going to live. It was either chosen for me or situations arose that were convenient and agreeable choices. So this is really the first time that we'll be choosing together where we will settle down and start our family; where I can plant my garden in the ground; where we'll be stuck with the craziness of figuring out what to do when it's 100+ degrees outside and the AC just broke. We like the area we are in, and while it's not far away from our friends or family it's out of the way enough that no one ever comes over... we always go to them. And that's fine, but it'd be nice to be able to have people over to hang out and kareoke and cook out every once in a while. So lots of stressful and exciting stuff coming up!

Also, our precious nephew Keating James has arrived!! He's seriously adorable. His mommy and daddy are holding up well, albeit a little on the sleep deprived side. Wish they lived closer so I could cuddle him every day!! Tim's other sister is due soon, so we've got another little nephew to snuggle with coming up! So excited!

Keating on the blanket I made him for some of his pro pics. I know. Adorable.

I'm a proud Titi!

Puppies are doing well.... They were tearing through the house earlier chasing and playing. They're so funny sometimes. Definitely like siblings. They have their moments where they cuddle and play and get along great, and then there are times when they don't want to share toys and push each other out of the way for attention. So cute. I got Ripley a bed today to try and get her to sleep on it at night. She did great on it during the day, but as soon as she say Voltron jump onto our bed, she jumped up, too. We've tried getting Voltron to sleep on a dog bed, but he never quite got the hang of it. Once he slept on the floor in front of it for a bit, but that's the closest he ever really got. Hopefully we can figure this out, because 2 dogs and 2 people in 1 bed do not make for the most comfortable sleep.

Piecing the quilt together has come along. I've gotten 3.5 rows worth of blocks done out of 7. In no rush still, but it's hard to not get too excited and want to spend all night sewing when you see it coming together like that! Going through at least 2 spools of thread each week... I should probably buy it in bulk at this point. Ha. I also took a break from the quilt for a few days to sew some curtains for my nephew who is due in August - Tyler. That was fun! I enjoyed making our curtains earlier this year, and took a  few extra steps for these to make them even more "professional" looking. I lined them an all. They look great, and I can't wait to see them hung up! I've also done a few miscellaneous crafty things lately in preparation for a bridal shower next weekend for one of my besties! More to come on that afterward! :)

Detail shots of the top and bottom, including the lining, and a shot of the first panel I completed.

Finished curtains hanging in Tyler's nursery!

Just thought I'd update on the recent goings on. Until next time.

One Year Later

A year ago today, I walked down the aisle to my love; my life; my husband. I don't even know what to write about it, honestly. I just smile. He makes my heart smile. Tonight, we celebrated with family. My parents and Tim's mom (Tim's dad is out of town) came over. We had dinner (even used our fine china), ate some cake (so so yummy), and watched our wedding video. It was the perfect evening. We took a long weekend a couple of weeks ago to Asheville, NC as a mini anniversary vacation. It was kind of cold and rainy all weekend, but it was exactly what we needed - restful! It was really nice to sleep in, walk around, and just spend lots of time together.

I do love that I've mostly kept up with the blog. It's really neat to be able to look back through the posts and see the big moments in our first year as a married couple. So here are a few pictures of our anniversary celebration!

at Lucy and Kurt's wedding

Anniversary friendship bracelets

cutting the cake!

Half the cake left... Pleasantly surprised at how good it tasted!

I had this pin on my wedding bouquet. It's currently pinned to the bouquet my Mom-in-love made me for my bridal portraits which I use as a centerpiece on our dining room table.

Family picture!

Meet the Newest Quinlan: Ripley!

Saturday morning, Tim and I tool Voltron to Petsmart to get groomed. It just so happened that the Augusta-Richmond County Animal Services was having their weekly adoption drive there. We've been talking about getting another dog for a while now. Voltron has grown up with other dogs, and we both really want him to have someone to play with. So we decided to start looking for a dog that fit us.

In front of the store they had multiple pens filled with super cute lab puppies - all crazy adorable, but would grow into dogs bigger than we were looking for. Inside they had an aisle of dogs in crates. Most of them were medium sized puppies... And then there was Ripley. She is about 2 years old, a beagle mix. She was brought to the shelter as a stray. We walked her around the store and she was very calm and sweet, stayed right by our sides the whole time. She fit all our criteria and was super cute as well! So, I picked out a pink collar and leash, Tim filled out some paper work, and off we went home!

Later, when I brought Voltron home after picking him up from getting all dolled up, the meeting didn't go quite how we had hoped. Both dogs didn't really know what to make of each other. They sniffed each other, followed each other around, and pushed each other out of the way when vying for attention. Today, they were more interactive with each other, but Voltron definitely has "new baby" syndrome. They're starting to get used to each other - how they play, the noises they make in response to different things, etc. Ripley kinda talks in her sleep which really confuses Voltron and Voltron makes a small growling noise when playing tug-of-war which Ripley doesn't understand. But bit by bit they're getting to know each other and getting closer. Here's hoping they'll be running around the yard playing together soon!!!!