March Madness!

Hi Readers!

I was out at Clockwork this Saturday for my friend Laura's birthday, and she asked how my blog was going. First of all, thank you Laura for actually reading my blog! That made me happy. But it also made me realize that I haven't posted in over a month. Shame on me. I thought it was about time to sit down and write, so here we go!

I've been working on a number of projects around the house lately, but the most exciting has been revamping the dining room. The builder of our home decided to paint it a really sad shade of green which I've never been a fan of. Here's what it looked like before:

Initially I thought wallpaper would be really cool, and I knew I wanted to do something in navy after seeing this picture on Houzz:

I looked at all kinds of wallpaper, but I wasn't having any luck finding what I really wanted. That's when I settled on just painting the walls. So after spending what seemed like the whole day at Home Depot, I found the perfect color. Royal Navy by Valspar to be exact. But I couldn't let go of the wallpaper idea for some reason. I really wanted it to be somewhere in the room. Maybe just on 1 wall? Then it hit me. I could put it on the ceiling! No one was really on board with my idea. Everyone thought I was weird, but when does that ever stop me? In the end there was a lot of wasted wallpaper (it took 7 rolls just to get the pattern to line up!) and it did take a lot of time and effort, but I absolutely love the finished product.

Here's how it turned out:

All that's left to do is have some draperies made and find some pictures for either side of the buffet. I think this might be my favorite room in the house now! Too bad it's only used twice a year. Special thanks to Arun, Evan, Dustin, and Lauren for helping Raj and I move the dining table and take down the chandelier. 

In other news, Raj and I attended a Rebecca Minkoff event at Saks on Sunday. There was champagne, a nail bar, a DJ, and lots of other fun stuff. We spent a few hours going around the store with Jaimon, a personal shopper who we met a few weeks ago. He's so sweet, super stylish, and absolutely adorable. Like, I seriously want to be best friends with him. Is that weird? Anyway, we got to talking and he offered us tickets to the ballet. His partner Marcelo plays the part of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (obvi) and since Raj & I have never seen a ballet before we decided to go. And I'm so glad we did! It was amazing. All of the Carolina Ballet dancers are extremely talented, not to mention incredibly athletic. I mean, you can see every muscle through those tights! It was a fun experience and I would definitely go again.

Speaking of muscles, I'm still going to Orange Theory! This is probably the longest I've ever committed to a workout regimen. It feels great to be able to run and not be completely out of breath. Go me!

So is everyone's basketball bracket as busted as mine? I mean, Stanford...really?! Good for them though. I guess that's why they call it March Madness. Or maybe it's because everyone gets so mad when their team loses. I know I was pretty upset to see the Wolfpack go down that way. Oh well, there's always next year.

That's all I have for now. I'll try not to let another month go by without posting. Come back soon to see some pictures of our outside deck that we've finally finished furnishing! Until then, take care.

xoxo,
Reema

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hi Readers!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Valentine's Day so far. My Valentine has promised to make me dinner tonight, so I'm very interested to see how that goes. In the 7+ years that we've been together Raj has only cooked for me once. Not that I'm complaining. I actually prefer being the chef in our household. I'm a lot better at it ;)

In my last post I mentioned that I started a decorating project, and now that I'm finished I wanted to share the pictures with you. I decided to create a gallery wall for the staircase leading to our basement. I have very little experience hanging pictures, but after seeing all of the beautiful gallery walls on Houzz (aka the best home design website ever) I was dying to try it.

Here's what the stairwell looked like before:

It was naked and desperate for attention, like a 2 cent hooker. But after a trip to Michaels and Home Goods, I was able to give it a little face lift. Because I'm a novice blogger, I forgot to take the "during" pictures. So unfortunately, there's not a build up of excitement to the final reveal. I'll remember to take them next time I'm doing a project. I was just proud I was able to hang everything myself, and I only dropped one frame while doing it. Raj still hasn't noticed the dent in the hardwood from that yet, and I'm hoping he never does.

Anyway, 3 hours later it looked like this:

It's definitely a little eclectic, but I love that look. This is the first wall you see when you come into the house through the garage, and I'm glad it doesn't look so bare anymore. What do y'all think??

Yesterday Raj decided not to go into work because of the awful weather, so we spent most of the day hanging up a light fixture. The builder of our home installed a ridiculous number of ceiling fans and we finally decided to buy new light fixtures to replace some of them. Since we were stuck in the house all day (our attempt to get up the icy driveway failed), I thought it would be fun to try hanging one ourselves. It turns out, it wasn't that much fun. Luckily Lauren and Dustin were out getting lunch and we convinced them not only to bring us Wendy's, but also to help us with our half finished project. Thanks again guys! We finally got the pendant light up, but we didn't cut the chain short enough. So now it looks like it could hit someone in the head, but hey, at least it's still hanging on the ceiling (for now). The handyman is coming next week to install the rest of the lights, so I'll just get him to raise it a little. Lesson learned: some things are better left to the professionals.

After the lighting fiasco we all decided to go sledding down the giant hill in our backyard. Of course we don't own a sled because we live in North Carolina, so we used plastic storage bin lids instead (or as Raj refers to them - giant tupperware). They actually worked pretty well. I took a few pictures before my hands got numb.

Raj was brave and went first

Dustin thoroughly enjoyed himself

Lauren too!

 

I got all the way to the treeline and almost had a Sonny Bono moment

So that was our snow day. It was fun while it lasted, but I'm over this cold weather now. Spring can't get here soon enough!


Apparently I'm in charge of dessert tonight, so I'm off to the store to get supplies. I hope everyone out there gets to spend today with someone they love <3

xoxo,
Reema

Meatless Mondays and Tuesdays with Stephanie

Hi Readers!

A few weeks ago my friend Megan introduced me to Orange Theory Fitness. It's a 60 minute interval workout routine that involves using a treadmill, rowing machine, suspension straps, and free weights, all while being hooked up to a heart rate monitor. I took a class with her and ended up liking it, so I signed up for a membership. I even convinced my friend Lauren to join too. I thought we could motivate each other to continue going, because let's face it - when it comes to exercise, I'm a quitter. The 3 of us met up for a class last night. After our sweaty session we decided to have salads for dinner. I figured while I was on this new health kick I'd try out "meatless Mondays". I'm a vegetarian most days without even realizing it, so I can't imagine it being too difficult. It felt good to workout and eat healthy. Hopefully it will last! We are signed up for our next class tomorrow, and I'm actually pretty excited. I'd love to know how all of my readers out there stay motivated to be healthy! Your comments can be my inspiration for next week :)

Today I met up with Stephanie for our weekly coffee date (thanks again Michelle for playing matchmaker!). Last week she introduced me to Jubala Village Coffee, and my life has not been the same since. If you live in this area and haven't been, go now! You'll be so glad you did. I had a raspberries and cream latte and a pimento cheese biscuit (which was very well deserved after eating grass all day yesterday). Stephanie is a fellow stay-at-home who just moved here from Charlotte. She's an avid Yelp reviewer and wants to write a blog about it. I think it's a fabulous idea!

I started working on a home decorating project that I'll be done with tomorrow, so check back soon for pictures of the transformation! Until then, stay warm. I think I just saw a snowflake :(

xoxo,
Reema

  

My Inaugural Blog Post

Hi Readers!

This is my attempt at blogging. Come back often to read about my daily adventures as a housewife. It's a tough job, and I'm glad I get to do it :)

For my first post I wanted to share some adorable pictures of my niece. My theory is that no one can resist cute baby pictures and maybe after seeing them you'll be compelled to visit my blog again. But more importantly, she's just the cutest thing I've ever seen and I will use any excuse to show her off to people. These were taken by Jeff Massey, the amazing photographer who took our most recent Christmas card photo. If anyone is looking for a family photographer in the Raleigh area, I would highly recommend him.

And now presenting Miss. Maya!

These were taken when she was 2 weeks old. She celebrated her 1 month birthday on February 7th and she's changed so much already. I'll have the pleasure of babysitting her once a week after her mom and dad go back to work. Wish me luck!

So that was my first blog post....ever. Actually, it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. I hope everyone has a fantastic Sunday Funday!

xoxo -
Reema