At this stage in the game...

most of my posts will be here: http://christiejones.tumblr.com/

moving on

dining room

kitchen deck

our sunny kitchen

living room! gorgeous hardwood floors

 Some of you may have hear our woes of the "first apartment." We have been married almost 6 months (CRAZY!) and we lived in a 2 bedroom apartment. We loved it however...the neighbors, maintenance, and overall vibe was not as friendly as we are.
We have stories upon stories that we can share (and probably will) with you about what it was like living on Willis Avenue. Our lease was coming to an end and our pastor bought a two-family gorgeous home. We decided it was time to move and so we are renting out 1/2 of the house with our good friend (and one of our groomsmen) Steve who also just moved to Syracuse. It was a bit of a rough move with me working full time and Ian working mostly weekends. To make it even more interesting it was Memorial Day weekend and Syracuse had record high temperatures. I also experienced some health problems so we were pretty stressed by the time we had to move. Needless to say we weren't the best packers. We threw everything into our new place and spent the night at our good friends new house (they moved the same weekend!). We are now in the house and we love it! For now here are some photos of the beginning. I'll update soon with the progress.

On a side note tomorrow is Ian's 23rd birthday (cough baby cough). It is crazy to me that 1 year ago we got engaged on his birthday! It was/still is one of the best days I've ever had in my life. I can't wait to celebrate him and us tomorrow (and every day...cheesy, gosh sorry about this!).

dining room...filled with everything we own

ian at the sink

believe it or not this is only 1/3 of our hallway!

paint peels right off!

love our dining room...a bit cluttered though

our 1/2 bath off of the dining room

original wood moldings

that fan has got to go!

view from the living room

couch

built in bookshelf! perfect for our flat-screen!

housewife 101

I lived in a house full of amazing chefs...why would I ever want to cook?
Since December I found that I've been missing out something completely enjoyable! Ian and I love to cook! We make homemade pizza, guacamole (more on that later), and this week we became grill masters!
We made:
homemade sweet potato fries
breaded eggplant and zucchini
grilled eggplant and zucchini
and steak marinated in the good ole Dinosaur BBQ.

sweet potato prep!

breaded and ready to go!

grill, baby, grill!

delicious

the star of the show!

florida

 Our honeymoon was amazing. We seriously had the best time! We went to Jacksonville, Florida. We walked everywhere, visited the beach, and most of all spent quality time with each other.
I'll soon post pictures from the reception, and updates about our lives. I thought that these two pictures would kick it off!

behind the scenes on my wedding jewelry!

my beautiful necklace

I wanted to tie my nautical wedding theme into my jewelry and luckily I knew exactly who to go to!
See a post on Variya's blog about my custom jewelry:
http://variyajewelry.blogspot.com/2011/05/our-latest-beautiful-bride.html
More behind the scenes coming soon!

2011!

I started 2010 out believing it would be the best year of my life. All I can say is 2010 totally blew me away. It the most heart-wrenching, soul-searching, life-changing/altering year of my life. It wasn't static. The ups were the highest ups I've ever felt. The lows were completely devastating. I'm not going to recap everything here because some of the experiences were so extremely personal that I don't think this is the proper place for them. However, I will highlight the most life-changing events.

I began a relationship with Ian and he is now my husband as of December 19, 2010 (you can view our photos here http://www.lesjonesphotography.com/jones/slideshow). Sidenote: Ian's dad photographed the entire day and created that slideshow. The pictures are absolutely beautiful.

"2nd bedroom aka music room!"

Ian lured me off of Long Island and we both moved to Syracuse. We are involved in a church plant (http://www.axiomchurchny.com) and we are extremely blessed/excited to be a part of what God is doing in this city. I never in a million years thought I would live "upstate" (a dispute that I am still having a hard time giving up...apparently Syracuse is NOT "upstate" but I believe differently). We are renting a 2 bedroom apartment in Tipp Hill and we love it.

I am adapting to the snow, new city, new marriage, our apartment, and I am still searching for a job. I'm extremely excited for what 2011 brings.

vows

I wrote out my vows to Ian today. On Sunday we are getting married. I am so extremely blessed to be with such an amazing man. I started crying while I wrote them and found myself thanking God for bringing him into my life. I don't think I've "arrived." I don't think I ever will "arrive" however today I couldn't do anything else but thank God for answering my prayers. I always hoped for, wished for, prayed for "him." Today I was able to truly say and see one of the deepest desires of my heart be answered.

Friday morning I'm moving to Syracuse. I never thought I would subject myself to 3 feet of snow and here I am...my room is all packed. I wouldn't move for anyone else. As scared as I am I know that Ian is who I've been looking for and Syracuse (although it WILL NOT be easy) is where the both of us need to be. I'm so excited to begin our lives together and experience the story that we live out together. I'm excited to be a wife (hopefully I'll be good at it...the cooking is a whole different story). Once I'm settled in I plan on updating this more often. So stay tuned!