Stairmasters

I wanted to give a mini-tour of the lil' place we currently call home! When we came across this third floor unit (yes, I said THIRD and yes, that's a lot of stairs. 41 to be exact. everyday!), we just could not turn down the tall vaulted ceilings, spacious living room and balcony with the greatest view of the creek. It has been so fun creating our first home together and meshing all of our "his" and "hers" things to create "ours" things!

I will never forget the day that I decorated our second bedroom and we quickly discovered how different a guy and girl think about a bedroom. Justin moved into our apartment about a month before we got married and had begun to 'break it in.' The only items here were his college bedroom set, a TV and a few miscellaneous kitchen items...aka, total bachelor pad! I slowly began bringing some of my things over to start the decorating. It had to happen immediately, in my mind :). On this particular day, I brought over bedding from my apartment in Dallas and was going to set up the guest bedroom and bath. Justin was busy in the living room putting together some furniture and I'm sure some other type of project I put him up to (yep, the "honey-do" list had started already!). Meanwhile, I was a busy little bee putting bedding together, hangingthings on the walls, putting up curtains....you know, accessorizing and giving the rooms that much needed "feminine touch!" After the pillows were fluffed, the scentsy was turned on and I had put the final touch on the rooms, I ran into the living room and excitedly told him he had to come see the finished product!! Being the wonderful man he is, he followed me to the room and was excited to see what I had been working on. I first flung open the door to the bedroom and let me tell you how badly I wish I had a picture of his face from that moment. It was a face of total shock, confusion and fear that I will never forget! You could see that his ideas of a music room, a "man-cave," if you will, were suddenly bursting into flames before his very eyes and he didn't know what to do about it. It was a surreal moment for both of us.

Now, to understand why this moment was so defining for Justin, you need to know the before and after scenario of this room.

Before: Rustic, wooden and wrot-iron Texas-star branded furniture (which, I do love :)), adorned with a tan bedspread and two tan pillows.

After (photo below): Rustic, wooden and wrot iron Texas-star branded furniture adorned with a brown, Pottery Barn quilt, brown and gold tiger Euro shams, 3 small decorative round pillows in red, orange and brown, a decorative throw blanket, red curtains with bejewelled tiebacks, lamps, frames, a candles and a small vase with a gerber daisy on the nightstand.

While he explained to me that he really liked the bedding, curtains and other details I added to the room, he just could not handle one item and it had to go...stat! He walked over to the nightstand, picked up the small vase with the gerber daisy and told me that it wasn't workin' for him and would have to go somewhere else. Considering the fact that I had just completely taken over his bed with tiger pillows and jewels...I was ok with this and found a new home for the flower. :)

It really has been such a fun adventure learning to mesh our personal belongings and styles since living together. Justin truly is sooo wonderful and has allowed me to do so many girly things throughout the apartment and I am so thankful! We

always have a little project going here and I think that just about the time we get it all 'finished'...we'll move out :) Though apartment living has its pitfalls (parking and the unfortunate, CRANKY neighbor we have living below us :/), we have really loved this space, have never once felt 'cramped' and truly feel at home!

So, without further adieu....welcome to our first place!

Living room from the front door entrance.

Living, kitchen(ette!) and dining. We were rebellious with painting our green wall :)

Just a little 'nook' :)

So proud of Justin...he found our coffee table on Craigslist...such a shopper ;)

This is not a great shot of our view, but we love our balcony and can't wait to eat out here when it is cooler!!

Master bedroom

It's only appropriate to have a 60'' in your bedroom, right?! Haha.

We're too lazy to re-hang in the living, so we watch super-sized TV at night in bed!

Master bath

Previously mentioned guest room. Aka...Man Cave!

Where the musician keeps his toys :)

Guest bath

(The gerber daisy on that tray....is the one from the nightstand ;))

Though I want a WAY cuter font...this will have to do for now :)

Hello fellow bloggers!

Hope your Labor day weekend was full of labor-less activities and you enjoyed some relaxation & one last weekend of fun-in-the-sun :)!

Courtni and Justin, here, entering the intense, somewhat intimidating world of blogging today. I guess it really should be said that by "we," I mean me ("Cstar"), doing the blogging with the support, love and affirmation that is much needed from my loving husband ("Jgra"), but that's just a minor detail :)

So, I have wanted to blog for quite some time now and I guess today seemed like the day to take the plunge. For the moment, there is no extreme rhyme or reason to this blog...it's going to be as random as the thoughts in my head (scary!) Though, I feel confident as time goes on and my blogging skills become exceptionally refined, there will be some consistency and maybe even entertaining or helpful information you will benefit from and will keep you itching for more :)

I think it is only fitting to begin our blog by introducing who we are before sharing our journey through life with the "www". Yes, I am well aware of the fact that the only reader of this blog may, in fact, be our immediate family...and that is fine (we love y'all!). But in the chance that some reader out there doesn't know who we are and what "The Greshams" are all about...I'll catch you up to speed real quick.

Justin & I met at Texas A&M in '07 (whoop!) but it wasn't until after college that we connected and fell in love. Our relationship began with a distance between us: him living in good 'ole Austin, TX and me in Dallas. Six months of that and we just had to be together. I 'stole' him from his bachelor-living life in ATX and brought him to his home...DFW. Six months later, we were engaged at our first date spot and six months after that on 4/17/10, we officially became "The Greshams!" You might say that is a fairly fast-paced track, and it sort of was, but the age-old saying "You'll just know when they're the one," was true...and we couldn't wait to be roomies forever :)

Where are we now? Currently, we call a cozy, creek-side 2 bedroom apartment in Bedford home and both have jobs in Dallas (ew!). We love to work out, dance, spend time with friends & family, be outdoors, fish, laugh and go on adventures together. We are constantly getting ourselves into new hobbies (biking, photography, music, crafts) and just love making the most out of our days. We love to travel and explore new places and hope to visit places as far and wide as our time and $ will allow us to. We love Jesus and are undoubtedly grateful for HIS grace and mercies on us, everyday. He is the sole reason we live and we are thankful for every minute we can share the love and joy He has given us with others!

Next week will mark our 5 month-iversary (wow, time flies!!) and we couldn't be happier! I have always heard the first year of marriage is the toughest, but for us so far? We're just having an absolute blast and feel so, so blessed. Now, we will begin to share with you bloggers, a little bit of our adventures as newlyweds.....and even shenanigans (mostly due to Courtni...surprise, surprise! :) )

Enjoy the refreshing rain today and stay tuned for more to come from The Greshams!:)

-Court & Justin