It's Official! We are Homeowners!

So guys, it's official, we own a house! Last Thursday, we signed lots of papers (I got LOTS of practice with my signature; still trips me up!), met the sellers and were handed the keys. I never in a million years thought we would own a home as early into our lifetime and marriage than now, let alone in the expensive and competitive area we currently live in. We are incredibly grateful and lucky to be homeowners at 23 and 24. I just also have to say how proud I am to be married to Ryan. He handled all of the details, made sure we were both well educated to make good decisions and let me pin things while he handled the nitty gritty details.

Can I just add how cute my husband looks??!

Now, we wait! And pack. We'll be moving in Easter weekend. I'm already finding with the little packing we've done that we have a lot of stuff. It all hides in the kitchen cabinets and drawers, people! We've had several sweet friends offer to help us move and are attempting to move sans moving truck. I have a feeling this will be the last time we do that. I'm anxious to get into the house, start painting and really making it ours. And you know, put my Pinterest board into action! The house doesn't need a ton of work, but there are some minor changes we'd like to make that I think will have big impact!

And while we're still talking about big news and change, just yesterday I put my two weeks in at my current job. For someone who doesn't like change, a lot of change is happening! The job that I almost took around this time last year held onto my name and passed it along to another smaller accounting firm who was looking for someone in marketing. They reached out to me on LinkedIn and over the past month, I've been talking and interviewing with the firm to see if it would be a good fit. After a lot of careful prayer and thought, I decided it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. The best perk is that my commute will essentially stay the same (instead of doubling). Oh and they're right down the road from a Potbelly. Just saying. I'm excited for the fresh start and what's ahead! I see many-a grilled chicken and cheddar with mushroom sandwiches in my future!

Thank you to all of the family and friends who were our prayer warriors, advice-givers and sometimes just a listening ear through the homebuying AND new job process! We feel so supported and loved and couldn't imagine going through life without the awesome support system we have. I can't say enough how blessed we truly feel and how moved we are to see the Lord orchestrating the big and small pieces in our lives.

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The Travel Bug

One of our favorite things to do now that we're married is traveling to places we've never been to before, just the two of us. We haven't wasted any time doing some traveling here and there in the Fall and Winter. We've been to New York City, Charleston and Boston within the past three months. But I'm still feeling the travel bug! It's bad when you've just bought a house and don't have the budget for places like Europe or St. Lucia. Sigh.

Doing what we do best: Eating

I have to say, one of my favorites and most memorable trips so far was this year's Valentines Day. Ryan pulled the best Valentine's ever and booked a hotel in DC at the Dupont Circle Hotel for the weekend. He's a keeper! Even though it's practically our backyard, we had so much fun really exploring the city we live in just outside of. As per usual, our whole itinerary revolved on where we were eating. It's proof you don't have to go very far to really "travel". We got to (finally) visit Eastern Market. I've heard so many of our friends rave about this place and now I know why! There are so many adorable vendors and eclectic things people are selling. Of course, now that we're gearing up to move, I'm always looking for fun things we can hang on the walls. We found the "Map Guy" and bought a map from the 1800s of the Amalfi Coast, one of our favorite spots from our honeymoon. I'm excited to hang it up! I already can't wait to go back during the Summer when there are even more vendors/fun things to see! If you ever come up and visit us, we will definitely be taking you to Eastern Market!

On a side-note/house update: We finally have an official move-in date! We'll be moving in at the end of March. So since today officially marks March 1st, we get to say we're moving in THIS month! We're so pumped!

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Virginia is for Lovers: DIY String Art

Sometimes Pinterest seems like a sea of endless possibilities when it comes to DIY. When I was planning our wedding, I got severely overwhelmed by the amount of tiny details I could DIY. Sure, I loved the look and the level of personalization but the problem was, I didn't want to actually have to do it. It would have been too time consuming to actually make 21 table numbers in string art. Which is what I initially wanted to do for one of the many projects. I quickly scaled back a lot of things, and even completely nixing some of them. When Pinterest turns you into to a perfectionist-driven bridal breakdown mess, it's time to reevaluate what you're doing.

Now that wedding planning is behind me, I'm tackling some of the projects I didn't get to do on a smaller scale and all home decor-style. I think homemade and personal art always looks 10x better because it really defines your house. I always wanted one of those dark wood string art pictures of Virginia to hang since we met, fell in love and live in Virginia. Sure, I could've bought one off of Etsy for $35+. But really, this was so easy to do, and super therapeutic to make (not to mention did NOT cost $35 to make)! I used a combination of tutorials from different pins and decided there's no real wrong way to do it. 

Supplies: 

-8 x 10 wood canvas (I got this one from Michaels), but really you could use any piece of wood lying around

-1 package of 11/16" linoleum nails (I did have to go Home Depot for these babies, it was worth it) You could use any nail that has a large enough head to keep the string from slipping and where the nail is short and stubby. I had about half of the nails left over.

-Wood stain (I used some leftover wedding stain)

-2+ bundles of embroidery floss in any color you like. It depends on how big your outline is, but I always ere on the side of having too much in case I underestimate.

After staining the wood canvas and letting it dry for a day, I was ready to start nailing. I Googled "outlines of Virginia", found one I liked, and printed it out. That simple. I contemplated for forever whether or not I should attempt to include the peninsulas. The nails would've been too close together and it would've looked like a mess so I decided to stick with the basic outline--aka skipping the peninsulas. I placed my outline right over top of my wood canvas and started nailing away. The tighter (closer together) you make your nails the more accurate the outline will be. This is especially important for complicated outline states (like Virginia). For states like Colorado, South Dakota, Utah, etc. I'm sure you could be a little more liberal with your spacing.

After lots of nailing, I ripped the paper outline off of the wood canvas. Then the fun part-- stringing the floss. I used the random method so that I could get the best coverage. You just simply need to knot the string to your first nail (you can cut the excess if it's too long). I went through about 1 and a half bundles of embroidery floss until it was completely covered.

And voila! I stuck a sawtooth hanger in the back so that we can eventually hang it in our new house! And now I'm wishing we lived in 5 other states so that I could create a collection. I just may do an Italy version to represent our honeymoon since we loved it so much. But that boot looks mighty intimidating!

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Confessions of a Non-Cooker

I would love to be one of those women. You know, the women who think baking is therapeutic, who can stray away from exact measurements and a recipe, who were taught by their grandmother and mother to cook from scratch. Yes, that was not me. Sometimes I feel like I missed something. Like I missed the "cooking" gene that is ingrained in many women and wives. I wondered if it would just magically sprout when I got married, but alas I still dread that question "so what's for dinner?".

Ryan and I will both admit that even before we got married, we ate out a lot. And unfortunately, if we're being honest here, that habit has carried on over into our marriage. So here we are 6 months into marriage, with a significant portion of our budget going towards food...more specifically restaurants and we're about to buy a house that has some serious money-saving implications. Something's gotta give.

Several factors have prevented me from being able to whip up meals like it's nothing:

• It seriously stresses me out. Typically, after I get back from work the last thing I want to do is spend an hour slaving over a stove for a meal we won't be able to finish. 
• I had very little go-to recipes. I haven't been cooking long enough to have a good number of tried and true recipes.
• My husband is the pickiest eater I know. Which makes narrowing down recipes even harder. So I may love mushrooms but choosing a meal that's got mushrooms even in the sauce isn't worth it because he won't eat it. 
• I never have everything I need on-hand. I usually go to the grocery store once a week but if I haven't thought ahead of time what I'm making, I likely won't have everything on-hand and I end up going back to the grocery store for 2-3 items.

So all that to say, I got desperate. I asked around to a couple of friends who have used meal planning services to get their recommendations and settled on one that I thought met our needs. So yes, I'm paying for a service to send me an email every week telling me what to cook. Granted, I change out almost every suggested meal due to my picky eater, it's still been a great motivator (so far) to actually plan a week's worth of meals. Six O'Clock Scramble explains recipes in beginner language and also gives you different ways to cook the recipes. We love slow cooking so for some of the recipes, we opt for the slow cooking option. It also tells you the things you can chop/cook/portion ahead of time. Now, I haven't been using this for that long at all, so I can't say that I've found my love for cooking. But for those who need the kick in the pants, meal planning is a great option. There's a Groupon for the Scramble too, which I definitely used! 

So here's to a week of NO eating out! This is a big deal to us! And to honing in on my inner cook...I'm still not convinced it exists. Tonight, I'm slowcooking beef and broccoli teriyaki! 

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Saying Hello to Homeownership

So we've (kind of) kept our house hunting on the downlow. Mostly because we weren't sure if we would come out with anything when we first started. It even took me a few weeks into the process to realize we were getting serious. We've been actively searching for a home for about 2 months now. It alllll started with a casual unintended peak at Trulia and finding what I thought was our dream home in our price range. We quickly found a realtor, applied and qualified for a loan and went to look at the house that weekend. We quickly came down from our cloud and realized through our realtor what a terrible decision it would've been to have bought that "flipped" house. There were visible cut corners and even externally we could tell they were hiding some major issues.

Nonetheless, we had opened the pandora's box that was house hunting. We quickly realized how un-fun the house hunting process was when you're limited to a lower budget for the area, increasing demand/competition and a shrinking inventory. The housing market in NOVA has quickly become a seller's market rather than a buyer's market. Houses get scooped up in days, we saw it time and time again. And we were having no luck finding a place that met all of our major needs.

After again, coming out of my cloud, we realized we had to move our house search further outside of Fairfax. We had a few criteria must-haves while we were looking:

• It had to be close to our church: We want our house to be used for ministry purposes and to be an option for hosting church functions, small groups, Christmas parties, etc at our house. Currently, our church has few options where more than 10 people can show up and not have parking issues. We want our home to be open and used for Kingdom work.
• It had to be close to move-in ready. Obviously, this eliminated a lot of the properties we saw that were closer in--like almost all of them. The comparison to what our money could buy closer in was simply not worth it once we saw what we could get 15 minutes (without traffic) out. Granted we'll have a slightly longer commute, but that was really the only con. 
• It had to be detached. I personally was on the fence with this one...I would've moved into a townhouse if it meant we could be closer in and it didn't look like 1970s had thrown up all over it. But Ryan on the otherhand, would not settle for a townhouse or condo. He wanted a yard. I could've cared less about a yard. I think it's because deep down he sees a dog in our future. I eventually came around and besides, who really wants to share walls with people and have to constantly worry about your sound system having too much bass? Right, Ryan?? ;)

I was also picky about a lot of random things that I originally didn't think were a big deal. For example, I hated any house with those old rectangular 70s small windows, I automatically loved any room that had recessed lighting, I actually wanted a fireplace, and if the bathrooms were horrendous it was a no go. All of that to say that last Sunday, we randomly decided to attend an open house advertised on Zillow out in Centreville. We went and fell in love with it. It met every single one of our needs. So we went home, signed all the necessary documents and put in our offer on a house that had been on the market for 3 days. Ryan made me wait until we went through inspection before I could announce anything, but I can now say that on our 6 month anniversary our offer was accepted and we are officially BUYING A HOUSE and will be homeowners! We are thrilled and excited and we are praising the Lord for his sweet provision!

So without further ado, say hello to the new Shaughnessy household:

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Christmas Recap

Is it just me or did the past few weeks FLY by! It's always when you're off work, does the week just seem to go so much faster. We had a busy first married Christmas! It was the perfect balance of rest, family, adventure and busyness for us. I felt well rested and almost ready to go back to work (I mean who ever feels fully ready to go back to work?)

We started off our week by heading to Charleston, SC for a mini weekend getaway at a place we've always wanted to explore. We left Saturday morning in the thick of Christmas traffic and after about 8.5 hours we finally made it! Now, I planned this trip as a Christmas present for Ryan. I booked the hotel. I figured out what we would do. I researched where we could eat. I booked the Inn at Middleton Place which was a sprawling southern plantation and not to mention totally out of my normal scope of hotels. I always say that I'm not an inn or B&B type person, but after reading some mixed reviews and looking at pictures I just decided to go for it. We got there late at night, got lost because the place was so big, checked in and set our bags down. As soon as Ryan opened the door I thought to myself, "Oh dear, what have I done." It was nothing like the pictures, but I decided to stick it out because Ryan loved it. Let's just say that after that one night and even into the morning there were so many things that I didn't like about this place that I couldn't imagine staying another night. So I did what I hate doing...I pulled my high maintenance card. The Inn was literally sucking my joy out of the trip. And this is how great Ryan is. He didn't care that he loved the place, or that this was as close to camping as I'll ever get, he just wanted to do whatever it took to make me happy. And that included checking into a tried-and-true Marriott.

We loved Charleston! It was everything we expected it to be--southern, classy yet still had a hometown feel. We just explored the city, ate at some amazing places, did a little shopping at some stores and the Old City Market and ended our day with a carriage tour of the old city. One day, we would still love to find ourselves there. We even made the mistake of pulling up our Zillow app and seeing how "cheap" the houses were. I'm in love with the double porch and ceiling fans! We drove by a couple that we'd scoop up in a heartbeat...if we were down there. Someday!

We headed by to good 'ole Virginia and kicked off Christmas at my parent's house. We spent Christmas morning there, drove up to Northern VA and had Christmas at Ryan's parent's house, headed into DC for Christmas dinner at Carmines, went to see Ryan's brother and sister-in-law for Christmas dessert and THEN went home. It was the longest day ever, but we were so glad to see all our family all in one day. We didn't have a chance to do Christmas just the two of us until about 11:00 p.m. that night. Next year, that will be different! We put lots of miles on our poor CRV traveling all over the East Coast, but we loved it and it was memorable.

We ended our break by watching Melissa and Joe get hitched. I had to give my first (and hopefully last) ever MOH speech, but I'm thankful I had to do it with Rachel. Now, I didn't really cry at my own wedding. I think so much was going on and I was so worried about the clouds opening up. We got to watch their first look and I bawled my eyes out. Didn't even see it coming. And when she was coming down the aisle? There went the tears again! It was such a joy to watch one of my best friends finally find the guy, her soulmate, her husband. It was a whirlwind of a day for sure, but I'm so glad they're finally married!!

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Peppermint-Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Every time there's a church event that involves bringing food, I've noticed that I try extra hard to bake/cook something new and from scratch. It's like I'm tricking people into thinking "Shannon knows how to cook". We're having our Harvest Christmas party tonight and due to my new last name, we fell under the dessert umbrella.

Several months ago, I bought a Martha Stewart Living Groupon subscription which also got me a free subscription to Everyday Food (which sadly they're discontinuing!). I've already grabbed so many great recipes from this little digest! It's full of hints and baking tips that are actually helpful for a basic cooker/baker like me. So when I saw a Christmas cookie section this month, I knew I had to make one for our church party. I settled on the Peppermint-Chocolate Sugar Cookie--mostly because how festive they looked and who doesn't like peppermint? Plus I got to use my trusty mixer!

• Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted (just a note, I didn't sift, I wasn't patient enough and it was fine!)
• 3-5 tablespoons heavy cream
• 12 round peppermint candies, crushed, for decorating (I used more)
• *Makes 2 dozen*

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, using a mixer, beat butter, granulated sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract on medium-high until pale and fluffy, 3 minutes. Beat in egg, then flour mixture on low. Stir in chocolate chips.
2. Roll dough into 1 1/2-inch balls and place, 2 inches apart, on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until edges are lightly golden, about 12 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to racks and let cool completely.
3. Stir together confectioners' sugar and enough cream to make a spreadable glaze (if you like a strong mint flavor, stir in up to 1/4 teaspoon extract). Spread a thin layer of glaze on top of each cookie and sprinkle with candies (I used my Martha chopper!). Let dry completely on racks.

And here's what mine looked like:

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