Skulls!

OMG I am in LOVE! I logged on to Etsy and decided to search the keyword "skulls" and holy awesomeness!


I just wet myself from these:

I want this pillow:

And this sign:

And these buttons: How cute would these be cute in the middle of a flower or bow!

This purse:

And these mugs:

I think I'm going to give in and buy the Pirate sign and put that above our doorway (or maybe on a shelf), the buttons, and the zombie pin up girl light switch. I think that'll go in my vanity area. I had to!! I seriously couldn't resist.

Okay, Amber. Step away from Etsy.... slowly... step... away...

Product Rave

I'm not a huge fan of drug store products when it comes to hair or makeup. Sorry, it's just the hairstylist/makeup artist in me. However, I was reading Bryn's blog ( see links - love this blog ), and she talked about Aussie's DEEEEP conditioner. I found the Deeeep 3 Minute Miracle while I was at Target today and decided to buy it.







Let me tell you I NEED a miracle for my hair right now. It's so dry. Mainly due to recently going blonde and bleaching the crap out of my hair. And the Arizona sun isn't helping. It is a dry heat, and every summer it makes my hair dry.

To my surprise, I liked it! My hair feels soft, not like straw. So if you are coming down with the dry hair syndrome I suggest picking some of this stuff up.

House Update: We have a house!

So this is not new news to most, but it's new news to my blog. We finally found a house! After the dissappointment of the other house (see the feck you, countrywide post), we kept looking until we found another house that liked. Well, one that we can make our own, anyway. We'll call these the "Before" pictures, because this house needs some cosmetic work.

The house is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house. It was built 1979, and is 1876 Sq. Ft. The lot is over 7500 sq. ft., and it has a pool, and an RV gate for our boat. No HOA! Brian and I (especially Brian) loves the older homes. He is a handyman and wants a home he can make his own, not one that looks the same as all the neighbors. This house has a lot of potential. I can't wait to get in and make it purty!

Here's the guest bathroom, nothing special.
Plans: for now, paint, new fixtures, medicine cabinet, etc.


View from dining room into living room.
Plans: First off, we are removing ALL the nasty blue carpet and replacing it with wood. We'll paint, etc.


RV gate/side of house.
Plans: not much, but removing the basketball hoop. We have no need for that.


Dining Room:
Plans : new light fixture/chandelier (although I have to say that's pretty vintage - literally), remove that gaudy mirror and paint, of course.


Master Bedroom:
It's a pretty large room. I don't know exactly what the plans are yet, but we're definitely replacing the carpet and probably the dog too. ;P


Pool:
Plans: not much, I'll probably plant some flowers or something back there.


Backyard:
Plans: possibly new porch (Brian's a porch building master), make the grass pretty, plant flower/flower bed. Please excuse the green pool. this is a recent picture. The house has been vacant for some time, but the picture above is proof that it is in good condition, plus we'll know for sure after inspections.



Family Room:
Plans: Not too sure yet. Replace the ceiling fan, buy new furniture, paint.


Kitchen:
Immediate Plans: New appliances, new light, paint, new countertops, maybe paint the cabinets if we can.


Front of House:
Plans: PAINT! Question - why do old people love the color mauve so much?
We'll also remove that "banana tree", that's what hubby calls it anyway. There's a flower bed that has rocks in it, that I will plant flowers in. Other that that, we like the desert landscaping.
The brick is red brick with white and greenish bricks placed here and there. I love the red brick, but what color would go well with it? Something neutral... Hmmm?




So there you have it! This is our new home! COE is July 1st! Our lease at our rental isn't up until the end of July which is nice because then we will move in slowly. Get all the painting and carpet removed, install the wood floors. It'll also be perfect because then we can hit up all the 4th of July sales for our appliances. Yippee!

She's Crafty!

Not really, but I inspire to be. haha I want to learn how to sew, knit, scrapbook... For now all I know how to do is use a glue gun. I'm pretty handy with it, I must say. Here are some hair bows I love to make with ribbon.

Summer is here!

Well, besides this past weekend when it was 70 and rainy (love that though), the hot AZ sun is here! And you know what that means? Swim season!

Okay so this is my first Gizmo post. You'll see a lot of these. Gizmo is my Shih Tzu/Lhasa Apso mix. He is my baby. I may be a little too obsessed with him, but that's because I love him. No real babies for now, so I have my bubbers.

Gizmo LOVES to swim! Seriously. You'd think he was a retriever, not a little dog. When he sees a pool, a pond, a lake, a creek... He runs and JUMPS right in! One of his favorite things in the world is swimming at Grandma's house. As soon as we pull up to my mother-in-law's house, and he sees we're there, he bolts out of the car, and runs straight to the backyard, grabs his favorite toy and jumps into the pool! He's crazy! I can't wait till July comes and we have our own pool to swim in. It's going to be hard to keep in out of the pool. Thank goodness it has a gate.

Here are some pictures from a couple weekends ago.

Meet Sierra!

My sister-in-law had her 3rd beautiful baby girl this past Wednesday (5.21.08). Her name is Sierra Lynne. So cute!

I'm thinking it's going to be our job to have the boys in this family. ;)

Feck you, Countrywide!

So I haven't posted, I'm horrible at updating this thing. Not a huge blogger...

Anyhooters, We put an offer in on a house. A house that we LOVE. Out of all the houses we have looked at this is the only one that has truley felt like it could be our home. Great neighborhood (where Brian grew up), huge lot, RV gate, pebbletec pool.... everything we're looking for. I don't have a picture(wish I did) because there's only one picture of the outside on the website our realtor sends us of our listings. I suppose I could post that one, but I guess I'm too lazy to go find it.

So last Friday we signed the contract. We thought we were putting a back-offer in on it because there was another offer already waiting for the bank to respond... Well, come to find out, they back out! Yay for us! Apparently the bank didn't accept their offer, but we had hope because our offer was "a little higher".

That was the good news... today we got bad news.... We got this email from our realtor:


Hi Amber,The listing agent is definitely on top of things. Sounds like the bank wants more than the offer. I sent a letter explaining our market with other properties currently for sale, properties that recently sold and properties with trustee sale pending dates (due to go to foreclosure) comparables to the listing agent who forwarded it on to the bank. Hopefully that will help.Let me know if you have any questions.Otherwise I will be in touch when I know more

And she forwarded this email from the listing agent:

Thanks for your help and enthusiasm. It’s refreshing to find an agent who knows how this process works and is willing to help getting this transaction put together. We submitted all the info on your list in our package. We are dealing with the same mitigator as before. So far, the only response we are getting from her is “the offer is too low”. We are working on getting her to give us a counter offer. She told me long ago (when we made the 1st offer) that she would give me a counter offer, but has never followed through with it.Since then, they changed their process and they will not allow us to talk to the mitigator. Again today, the clerk in the work-out dept. is requesting that she give us a counter offer. I also emailed her and asked for the same.I’ll let Mike (my associate) know that you offered to help, he has been dealing with the bank on this transaction. He may give you a call to get you involved.Thx,

This is kind of what I feared, but why are they being assholes about it? Just send us a counter offer and let us think if it's somethign we can afford for Christ's sake!

UGH. Sorry. That was really long, but had to get it off my chest.