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    LifeStyle, Our Home

    We Bought A HOUSE…

    missyonmadison, missyonmadison blog, melissa tierney, we bought a house, new home owner, buying a house in california, buying a house during the pandemic, home buying 101, tips to home buying, first time home buyers, buying a house in LA,

     🔑 It’s OFFICIAL! We are HOMEOWNERS 🔑

    I may have been a little MIA the last couple of months but I promise I have a good reason…we bought our very first house! My fiance and I were supposed to be getting married this month but COVID had other plans so we pivoted our plans and took this as the chance to find our dream home! Some may think it’s crazy to go house hunting in a pandemic with an uncertain economy and an unemployment rate that was increasing by the day (much better now that the vaccine is out) but something the pandemic brought was super low mortgage rates, something unseen in a very long time!

    With this influx of super low interest rates combined with limited inventory on the market, home buying became one intense process. You would see a house one day and need to make an offer within 24 hours competing with multiple offers well over ask to get the house you want. We began house hunting and it instantly became a stressful process but we knew now was the time to buy, at least for us as our current place was up for another year renewal and we no longer wanted to loose money renting vs investing in the equity of a home.

    After weeks of searching we found our dream home and when I say I knew it was the one I mean it. We walked in and I loved the wide, open, light and airy feel…I loved the neighborhood (walking distance from an award winning elementary school for when we start a family) and it had my dream white kitchen. It was love at first sight for me and after seeing the lovely neighborhood and hearing even from the neighbors who have lived here for 20+ years what a great community it is, my fiance was convinced as well.

    The bidding war began, we came in with a firm offer well over ask and mint credit and were selected! We moved in last month and the renovations and decorating began.

    That brings us to where I’m at now…well I’m typing this blog post from my gorgeous new office…designed exactly how I envisioned and I couldn’t be more thrilled. From my shoe and bag display to having areas to display my favorite Disney merch, to enough space to create content and run my marketing agency, this office is truly what I’ve dreamed of!

    Now the fun stuff begins…from redesigning our landscaping to buying furniture to setting up the guest rooms + more, everyday is a new journey and we are constantly learning new things when it comes to being homeowners. Month one we thought our water heater was broken (spoiler it wasn’t), we tried discovering why our tub plumbing wasn’t working (after multiple plumbers we realized it was a minor fix) and we are still getting to know our neighbors, HOA and so much more.

    My tips for first time home buyers in the current climate – 

     *Be Pre-Approved so when you find a house you want you can go for it ASAP (with low interest rates, the real estate market is on fire)

    *Have your budget in mind + don’t feel pressured to go over. My fiance and I had a budget in mind and even though coming in over ask and making a high offer may be necessary to seal the deal on the house you want, really evaluate if the house is worth what’s being asked, it’s important to not over extend yourself – that’s what leads to housing crashes like the early 2000s.

    *Understand you may not check every box on your list. For example, I wanted a pool but the perfect house didn’t have one so we decided in a few years we will put one in ourselves because everything else checked the boxes on our list when it came to school district, location, house layout + more.

    *When you find the right house you will know. It can feel like a ton of pressure to commit to a house, especially if you are on the fence + tons of people are making offers, but don’t let that convince you to get a place you aren’t truly in love with…otherwise you will regret it.

    *Take things slow once you move in, I definitely didn’t follow this advice – the moment we moved in I was go, go, go wanting everything to be perfect which led to fights and anxiety so don’t pull a Missy + instead take things slow 🙂

    If you have questions about our home buying experience leave a comment + I’ll share more in the next post ♥

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    Disney, Wedding + Engagement

    Why We Postponed Our Disney Wedding…

    Demetrios Gown via Mon Amie Bridal

    Wedding Bells Are Ringing (or at least they will in 2022 for us)  👰🏼

    It took me a while to finally sit and write this post as every time I start thinking about my dream wedding, I get a little emotional. ICYMI – we got engaged in February 2020 right before COVID hit the US and while our engagement and proposal was something out of a fairytale…the events that followed were anything but. We had such a magical time at Disney Aulani getting engaged on the beach and right away we knew we wanted to plan our dream Disney Wedding at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL.

    Then we get home…we begin the wedding planning process and we begin chatting with our Disney Wedding consultant to plan our fairytale nuptials. While we were planning we were continuing to be optimistic hoping that ’14 days to slow the spread’ would be long forgotten by the time our May 2021 wedding rolled around but as weeks turned into months it became obvious that COVID wasn’t going anywhere and like many couples it was time to make a decision…do we postpone or do we continue on.

    The brings us to our decision…after carefully reviewing CDC guidelines and Walt Disney World guidelines we decided 2021 wasn’t our time to get married and instead made the tough decision to postpone till May 2022…so here’s some factors that contributed to our decision and some of our feelings…I figured this would be a cathartic exercise to express the sadness and frustration I (as well as so many other people have been feeling).

     

    General Concerns

    Before I dive into the Disney COVID guidelines which was a big factor in our decision to postpone our wedding it’s first important to note the overall feelings Mike and I had regarding continuing on with the wedding as planned.

    A big factor was that fully plan on having a big wedding with family members that vary in age and vary with health concerns…the last thing we want is for anyone to get sick at our wedding or feel a sense of obligation to attend even if they don’t feel comfortable being around crowds of people or traveling etc…we want everyone to feel happy and carefree, we don’t want a pandemic and nervous feelings clouding our day and everyone’s experience. Since our families are from the East Coast, everyone would pretty much need to board a plane or drive to Orlando for the wedding so we felt with the uncertainty in the world around COVID it still was too early to ask people to travel and leave the safety of their home for us, it felt selfish and not right.

    Another huge factor for us was cost…COVID has caused financial impacts on a lot of people, and out of concern for our guests we knew asking people to pay to travel and stay at a hotel while we still await the jobs market to recuperate wasn’t the right thing to do.

     

    Now to get to Disney Wedding Guidelines…which also greatly impacted our decision to postpone…

    I want to note we fully understand these guidelines are for overall guest safety and health, I think it’s great Disney Wedding’s are trying to find a way to still allow couples to have their Happily Ever After and plenty of couples are continuing to have their wedding at WDW with these guidelines…we just felt it wasn’t a fit for us and wanted to hold out for normalcy.

    Mask Requirement

    Currently everyone attending and participating in a Disney Wedding must wear a mask at all times except as the bride and groom walk dow the aisle and exchange vows…other than that masks are required for guests, photos, in between reception and cocktail hour etc. Personally if I am spending a ton of hair, makeup, my dream venue etc I want to have no aspect of COVID in my wedding memories, especially a mask, and since we both agreed this was not a memory we wanted in our photos, videos etc we knew we wanted to postpone until masks are fully gone and the world is back to normal (or as normal as we can hope).

    Guest Count

    Mike has a large family and we anticipate 100-150 guests, right now Disney for our venue was limiting guest count to 25 which simply wouldn’t work for us so that was a big factor as well. We are hoping once things become normal, the regular guest counts can resume.

    No Characters

    One of my favorite parts about Disney and once of the aspects I am most excited about for my Disney Wedding is having Mickey + Minnie at our reception! Unfortunately for overall health + safety guidelines character experiences are not available at your wedding as they don’t want guests hugging or touching the characters.

    So What’s Next?

    So here we are…we had sent out our Save The Dates, we had begun planning our big day, my dress is sitting in a warehouse waiting for me to walk down the aisle in it and we are sitting waiting for the world to go back to normal. Disney Weddings only allows you to book exactly one year from the date you want so unfortunately to book for May 2022 we need to wait till May 2021…sad to think our wedding would of been this year but we have to wait another year and a half…but I don’t think anyone could have predicted the world being this upside down and uncertain for this long…we sure didn’t, we waited till December to make the decision to postpone as we kept holding out hope.

    We feel sad but are optimistic things will brighten up soon. We just bought our first home so we will take this time we would’ve been wedding planning to instead renovate, design + make our house a home! We know there’s a lot going on in the world and our wedding being moved isn’t the most tragic thing to happen but we can’t help but feel a bit sad and helpless because we still don’t know what the future holds or when or if life will ever return to normal…praying for some magic + pixie dust in the future and our love goes out to brides and grooms to be encountering the same struggle as us…lots of tough decisions with what should be a happy time.

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    Beauty, Collaborations

    Maintaining My Hair With Hairdreams…

    ICYMI – for years now I’ve been wearing Hairdreams hair extensions to achieve my ‘dream hair’ (hehe) of long length and thick volume since my natural hair is pretty short and fine, not able to hold a decent style for more than an hour. I forever struggled with wanting that gorgeous Victoria’s Secret looking hair full of voluminous curls looking ready for anything, so that is why over the years I’ve been thrilled to use Hairdreams to give me the hair I’ve always longed for.

    To some, hair is hair, to me it’s everything…it makes me feel confident, beautiful, happy…it makes me feel like me! Even if I don’t do my makeup and just walk out the door with a messy bun of my thick extensions or leave my hair naturally wavy, I instantly feel good which in turn puts me in a happy mood. This may sound silly, but hey, everyone has something that makes themselves feel confident; and for me it happens to be my Hairdreams hair.

    So how did I manage to still have great hair days even while in lockdown in California for about a year now? Well, again, Hairdreams is to thank. Something I’ll never forget is my grandma in NY texting me about 3 months into lockdown restrictions, asking what I’m doing about not being able to get my hair done etc (she was struggling as well with not having someone to style her hair which also is something that makes her feel good). My response surprised her as it does for many others…I wasn’t worried about getting my hair done because thanks to Hairdreams I only ever get my hair done twice a year.

    Yup, you heard me right…these long locks last me about 6 months, and I have been able to stick to this cadence for the last few years now. Everyone seems so surprised to hear this, but unlike a lot of other extensions, Hairdreams are top-tier quality and with the right maintenance and care, it can last you a very long time. My stylist uses the Laserbeamer Nano to apply my extensions and I barely even have to come in for maintenance.

    So while everyone was feeling stir crazy needing a trim or color etc, my Hairdreams lasted me the first 6 months of quarantine and when California opened up for a short time in the summer I was able to swap out my extensions which I’ve been wearing ever since, even during the latest round of lockdowns.

    While how my hair looks is far from a top priority during the pandemic, it’s something that gives me a little bit of confidence and happiness while sitting at home social-distancing. It feels nice to look in the mirror and feel like myself even when the world around us feels so out of control. 

    Hairdreams helps make my everyday beauty routine easy. Instant, perfect hair each and every day without constant salon maintenance is something that has been extremely handy this past year. While the future is uncertain when it comes to an end to this pandemic, the one thing that I can be certain of is that my Hairdreams hair will last me while waiting for the time it’s safe for salons to reopen again.

    For more information on Hairdreams head over to their website!

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    Disney, Holiday Guides, Valentines Day

    Disney Valentine’s Day Guide…

    missyonmadison, missyonmadison blog, missyonmadiosn instagram, disney guide, disney merch 2021, disney vday, disney vday merch, disney valentines day merch, disney valentines day guide, disney valentine, disney valentine guide, disney gift ideas, valentines day gift guide, disney gift ideas for valentines day,

    ❤️ ALL YOU NEED IS A LITTLE MAGIC + LOVE ❤️

    Nothing I love more than some Disney Valentine’s Day Goodies…combining love + magic is what I am all about so naturally I had to put together a guide of all my favorite Disney goodies perfect for Valentine’s Day either for yourself or to gift others (because let’s be honest…who doesn’t love a little Disney magic)!

    APPAREL

    PLUSHES

    DECOR

    JEWELRY

    EXTRAS

    ❤️Happy Shopping❤️

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    Holiday Guides, Shopping Guides, Special Occasion Dress Guide, Valentines Day

    Valentine’s Day Gift Guide 2021…

    missyonmadison, missyonmadison blog, la blogger, vday gift guide, valentines day gift guide, 2021 vday gifts, 2021 valentines day gifts, 2021 valentines day gift ideas, gift ideas 2021, vday gift ideas,

    ❤️ LOVE IS IN THE AIR ❤️

    Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and that means time for finding the perfect gift for your loved ones. Whether you are looking for the perfect gift for your boo, your friend or your family, I rounded up some great gift options sure to spread the love to anyone you gift! Personally I love some of these gift ideas because they aren’t just the standard jewelry, candy etc…there’s some great tech goodies, scarves, shoes, games + more!

    GIFTS FOR ALL

     1. ONE || 2. TWO || 3. THREE || 4. FOUR || 5. FIVE || 6. SIX || 7. SEVEN || 8. EIGHT || 9. NINE || 10. TEN

    GIFTS FOR HER

     1. ONE || 2. TWO || 3. THREE || 4. FOUR || 5. FIVE || 6. SIX || 7. SEVEN || 8. EIGHT || 9. NINE || 10. TEN

    GIFTS FOR HIM

     1. ONE || 2. TWO || 3. THREE || 4. FOUR || 5. FIVE || 6. SIX || 7. SEVEN || 8. EIGHT || 9. NINE || 10. TEN || 11. ELEVEN

    ❤️Happy Shopping❤️

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