Living Room & Balcony - Fall Edition

Welcome to Fall Y'all!

Although this fall hasn't been the same without Olive, we have been trying to enjoy the beautiful creation around us! Fall is my favorite time of year and I love how it welcomes in the holiday seasons. Growing up, my mom always decorated for the holiday season. We never did anything big for Halloween, but we always had such fun fall decor that I loved! Since we have been married, I am trying to slowly collect holiday decor within our budget and add to it over the years. 

Here is a glimpse of our living room and balcony with our fall decor!

 I love fall colors and mixing texture in decorations! 1 silver tray + 1 fall candle + mums + a mini pumpkin = perfect coffee table decor. I also saved all our pine cones from last fall and mixed them in with all our new decor this year. 

This type of set up works well for a coffee table because it is pretty to look whether you are facing the couch or sitting on it! 

This is on our end table/shelf in the corner by the couch. I simply filled a mason jar with mini pine cones and added dried berries to a vase...both which we used last year. I finished off the look with a larger fall candle (Bath & Body Works sale 2 for 20!).

This is our buffet looking into the living room from our dining room. I used a candle holder we already had and paired it with two pumpkins on a leaf place mat. The twig pumpkin came from the dollar bins at Target and the place mat is reused from last year (Bed Bath & Beyond). My big "splurge" here was the table runner from World Market...but it will be used often throughout the year!

The last touches in the living room were these three mini wreaths above our balcony door. These little squares window panes were just asking for something and the wreaths were the perfect size! I kept them simple by just hanging them with left over fabric from the table runner I made. 

Moving out to the balcony, I added a few pieces of fall to our table outside. The tray was from a thrift store that I spray painted and we already had the lantern. Adding a pumpkin and pine cones finished off the fall look!

Hope you enjoyed taking a peek at our cozy fall home! Can't wait to share more of our fall decor this year!

Rick & Kirsten - Maternity Preview

Here is a sneak peak of my first maternity shoot!

Rick and Kirsten were so fun to work with and I loved capturing their playful interactions! Plus, you can't find a better backdrop than fall in Colorado!

 

Stay tuned for the rest of this lovely maternity shoot!

Hoping for Homeward Bound

Most of you know our recent news of Olive being lost. However, somehow it feels wrong to continue posts as if everything is the same. She has now been missing for over a week and we are heartbroken.

Today would have marked a year since we adopted her. We were so excited and had planned to celebrate her "birthday." We know that God can work miracles and are praying that He brings her back to us. 

 

Even though she isn't with us, we still wanted to celebrate her and the time we spent loving on her! 

 Sept. 25, 2011 - Bringing her to home for the first time!

Her first trip with me to Wash Park! (Sept. 2011)

 This is one of my favorite pictures! Matt was taking a picture of my new snow boots and Olive just had to be in the picture as always! :) (Oct. 2011)

 Another favorite with Matt...If we were on the floor, that was always an invitation to her! (Oct. 2011)

 Olive's first camping trip!  (Mar. 2012)

 Olive's first friend, Duke! They loved playing in the river together. (Mar. 2012)

     Olive was always exhausted after our big adventures! (Aug. 2012)

 Our first camping adventure in the living room. Even at home she had to be right in the tent with us! :) (Sept 2012)

 This is Olive sitting on our balcony chair watching for Matt to come home from work! Once she would see him, she would run inside and down the stairs to greet him! Such a daddy's girl!

 This is where Olive and I would sit every day when Matt left after his lunch break. We would sit and watch him leave and then run up to the balcony to say goodbye and watch him drive away...every time.

For all those reasons and more, we love and miss our baby. Although, even though it hurts, we are trying to see God at work in the midst of this hard time. Over and over, we have been asking God to show us what He is trying to teach us. Through this, we are learning more about one another and growing closer together. We are learning how each other expresses sadness and grief....learning how to comfort each other and how to better respond when we are hurting. We also are experiencing closeness grow between Matt and I. As each of us have moments of weakness and breaking down, we rely on the other to encourage and pick us up. Finally, we have been claiming the truth that God works all things to the good of those who love the Lord.

So, Happy Birthday Olive! We love you and can't wait until you are home again!

If you have any suggestions on finding her, we are all ears! Here is what we have already done or been doing - We have checked shelters, petharbor.com, craiglist (checked ads and posted ad as lost), spread info on facebook, registered her lost with Home Again (microchip company) which sent alerts to shelters and vets of her missing, posted flyers all over the area, our apartment and old apartment, went door-to-door in neighborhood talking to people and leaving flyers 3 blocks long on 7 streets wide where she was lost, and passed out flyers in nearby parks. We have even looked up possibly hiring a bloodhound to track her, but CO doesn't have trained bloodhounds for tracking pets (some other states do). 

So please, let us know any other ideas! Also, please be in prayer for us and for Olive's return.

A View of Our Home - Favorites!

Hello Again!

This will be the last post of our home tour series...for now! Maybe sometime in the future y'all will get to see our bedroom, but for now, it is very much a work in progress! 

Anyways, here is a glimpse at the favorite spaces!

 This is our home! I love having an exterior door even though we are in an apartment! It just feels more like a real home. This wreath is our summer one, but will be switched out for our fall one very soon! So excited! 

 We also have a lovely door mat! This one is what we use throughout the year, but then we also have a Fall and Christmas one to come!

 Moving into our place, we come to my next favorite! This is our "entryway." It's only big enough for one small bench, but I think it's pretty great for an apartment...especially in Colorado. Now we have a place to store all those snowy boots without touching the carpet! :)

 The best part about our entryway is this little heater to the left! It helps dry wet boots and warm the tile floor when you come down in the morning. Yes, it's amazing! And so is our cute little Olive...she just had to be in the picture! :)

 Here we have a DIY shelf with knobs for hanging Olive's leash, harness and collar. On top, the basket holds keys so we don't loose them!

On the way up the stairs we have a little gallery wall of wedding photos. I hope to add more to this collection in the future! 

My next favorite is back upstairs and our wonderful, built-in buffet! I love this because it stores EVERYTHING! The drawers are filled with napkins, placemats, household tools, and small art supplies. In the lower cabinets I have everything from my sewing machine and stash of fabric to my paint bin and extra canvases! PLUS, this is the PERFECT place to set out finger foods and goodies when we host parties! LOVE IT!---Oh, and the runner is from our honeymoon in Belize. :)

The last unique feature of our place is this awesome built-in shelf and desk in our bedroom. This has been so wonderful since I'm in grad school! Now all my textbooks, binders, and printer can be stashed in the room instead of our living room. 

Also, this was the perfect place to display our beautifully framed diplomas (Thank you Matt and Julie Cavanaugh!) and our fun little trophies from college! 

Thanks for checking out our favorites. :) Can't wait to share our Fall decorations soon! The weather is already changing in Colorado and soon the leaves will be too...Another one of my favorites!

 

What's New with the Cavanaugh's!

It's been a while since I have given y'all an update, so before the holiday season begins, here's what's new with us!

Matt is still working hard and continuing to be a valued employee of Discount Tire. He is looking forward to doing sales this winter and hopefully saving his hands from freezing outside like last year! Since he is such a hard worker, his boss picked him to do a Drive & Learn. Basically that means he got paid for a day of racing BMWs to test different tires. Yep, he LOVED it! :) And, he so deserved it!

He also recently sold his Jeep. Last September he bought it up here for commute to and from work. He originally bought it for 2,000 and put some work into making it more reliable. Overall it was a good vehicle for the past year and almost always met our needs. However, with the nature of Discount Tire,he could be transferred to a further store within days notice. With that, Matt needed something a bit more reliable and with better gas mileage. So he listed his Jeep for sale and researched old Toyota 4 Runners. What's more reliable than a Toyota? Really? Thankfully, that same week, he sold the Jeep for asking price (with profit)and purchased a reliable 4 runner at a great deal! 

 

(Sold Jeep - It didn't look this good when he bought it!)

 (New Toyota!)

I am so thankful for a husband that doesn't mind buying beat up vehicles and can turn them into a profit! That's real talent! Not to mention, he saves us so much money by sacrificing and not demanding a brand new sports car. I really can't be thankful enough for him!

As for me, I am starting my 3rd semester in the Counseling program at Denver Seminary. Although, it feels like my 4th since I took summer courses and practicum. Seeing clients this summer was definitely a growing experience and a highlight of my program so far. I was able to experience counseling with a wide variety of clients and really enjoyed working with them all. However, through counseling a couple, I realized that I am very drawn towards marriage counseling. So I will be pursuing an internship next summer where I can specialize in couple and marriage counseling! Then I will hopefully graduate Dec 13 and start my supervised work towards a license.

I also am continuing my nanny job this year with the now 6 year old boy. I have been so blessed by his family and their generosity to us. While some nannies really struggle to find a good fit with a family, God provided the perfect one on the first try! I am looking forward to this year with them and thankful I can contribute to our financial needs as well.

While we both miss our friends and family back home, we have been blessed with friends and a church family here. We have really plugged in with our young marrieds class and are enjoying the new friendships we are creating. This fall, I will be a part of a bible study with the ladies in our group and also helping coordinate some fun events! We both will be participating in a marriage mentorship program at the church as well. We look forward to continuing the accountability and discipleship we had in Texas during our engagement (Thanks to the Hammond's and Hickman's!). 

 

(Just love those crossed-eyes!)

Finally, Olive is a very content little girl and sleeps most of the day on her recliner. She also has finally gone on a hiking adventure with us and seems to need more exercise. However, she is very smart and would walk fast in the sunny spots on the trail, but go at a snails pace in the shade! We also finally have her completely kennel trained. Yay! Now we are still working on her anxiety around strangers, bikes, other dogs and anything else that freaks her out. :) Nevertheless, she brings a lot of joy to our lives in so many ways and we are thankful we adopted her!   

To all our friends and family back home...across the U.S. and across seas...we miss you all and appreciate the prayers and support while we are here!

A View of Our Home - The Dining Space

As we are continuing the tour of our apartment, we move to the dining space. I call it a "space" instead of "room" because our apartment has a very open concept. There are not actually any walls around the dining space, which makes things interesting to decorate! 

I also am super excited to show you these pictures because we recently made some changes and upgrades to the space!

 Here is what our space used to look like! We were thankful to get this table set free from my sister and brother-in-law! They used it in their apartments for a few years and then passed it onto us when we got married. For the past year, it has served us well! However, we used and abused that table and outgrew it. 

Here is the new space! Last week, Matt surprised me by taking me to the store to pick out a new table! :) He's wonderful, right?! It was a "Happy-end-of-Summer-classes" and "You-made-it-through-counseling-clients" gift.

We picked out this table because it fit well in our space and is expandable. The really cool thing about it is, the extra leaf is a "butterfly" leaf, which means it folds down back into the table! So there is no need to store it somewhere else! How cool right?!?

We decided to only buy the table from American Furniture Warehouse (Only in CO) and not the matching chairs. I always liked the idea of mix and matching tables and chairs. Plus, I knew we could find some for a good deal at a thrift store and make them our own!(Plus, we are Seminary students and even our upgrades are within budget!)And guess what....We found the chairs the next day at the thrift store for only 3.99 each!!! Yes, that's right, we got all four chairs for 16 bucks and they were in great condition!

 Here is what they looked like when we bought them. So of course they got a face lift with some paint and new fabric. 

Here is the finished product! I got my inspiration from the blog, sweet something design and love how they turned out! I bought the fabric from Joann's 20% off and love how the muted green flows with the green accents in the space. 

For decor, I chose a table runner (From World Market - On sale too) with a white base to tie in the chairs and lots of colors from our apartment. Since this space is not its own room, we needed something to flow with everything going on already. This runner has green (Painting and chairs), red (kitchen accent), yellow (Kitchen accent, paintings and runner on buffet), and teal (accent in living space and throughout). 

 Here is a close up of the gorgeous runner! I topped it off with a simple rod iron candle holder since the pattern was too pretty to compete with. Here you can also see the open concept of our apartment more. The stairs come up on the left and the kitchen bar is to the right. 

 In the corner there was space for a convenient shelf to store books and bins for important things (And one for gloves and hats - super important as a Coloradan!). On top, we have a basket for mail, which used to accumulate all over our apartment. The past few weeks I have really worked on getting organized though. So now there is one spot where we can track of all important incoming mail. 

 This wall was also the only one that could possibly be considered a "dining room" wall. So I took advantage of the space and hung up some favorite artwork and our family tree, which was a wedding present (From the Hammonds, thanks!). 



 

The rest of this space shares the half wall with the staircase. There wasn't much to work with, but I decided to use a pair of colorful candlesticks (a gift from my mom) and a framed engagement picture!

Well, that is it for our updated dining space! If you ever come over for dinner, now we can actually fit food on the table with 4 people! We are such grown-ups. :) 

Looking forward to my next post, which will show our favorite features of our space! :) Then, onto a holiday edition with fall decorations around the corner!!!! 

A View of Our Home! - Our Kitchen

The next part of our home tour is my favorite space, the kitchen! I love spending time cooking and our colorful kitchen makes it even more enjoyable!

Here is the view into our kitchen right when you walk up our stairs! We love the layout, wood flooring, and bar area - The red bar stools were free too! Discount Tire was throwing them out, so Matt was able to bring them home instead and they work great...can't complain with free stools!

The main colors are red and yellow, which bring a lot of color to an apartment kitchen that we can't change. We are very happy with this open concept compared to our closed off kitchen in the last apartment!

We really love all the extra counter-top space and cabinets we have with this elbow layout! We have plenty of room for our appliances to be kept out and ready for use! Plus, my yellow kitchen aid mixer is too cute to put away! 

We also really enjoy our updated matching white appliances! Definitely a step up from our 70's cream appliances and short fridge in our last place. :)

Love having the space to store certain produce that are ideal for room temperature! And I love this little container of drawers that my mom gave us! Adds so much color! 

Here are our fun yellow canisters that hold all kinds of teas. The white utensil holder is decorative and came from goodwill for 5.00!

 

This kitchen also has tall ceilings, which allows for above cabinet decorating...which I have always wanted to do!

This is my favorite part of the cabinet decor! I like the combo of the basket, painting and red tea pot, with the colorful suns. 

Here is our lovely double sink, which I love! We didn't have one in the old apartment, so now I take advantage of soaking dishes when I need to! Then we have the dishwasher and extra counter space for drying pots and pans.

 These last pictures are off our coffee bar. In order to save counter space in our last apartment, we bought this kitchen stand for the coffee maker. When we moved, we decided that we liked the set up and this corner was the perfect spot. Since it's next to the bar area, I will consider it as part of the kitchen! 

 I love our red coffee maker and the yellow espresso set! The white canisters also hold coffee grounds and filters. In the fall, I will convert this to be a hot coco bar when guest come over! :)



 
This stand provides great storage space for coffee, espresso maker, and a basket of kitchen towels. It also conveniently hides some of Matt's tools that he needs more accessible! 


Well that's our red and yellow kitchen! Be looking for my next post of our dining space! I'm super excited about it because of my newest DIY project that I can't wait to share!