A year after graduation

Well it's official it has been a year since I graduated and I am still working at the same place before graduation. I have been trying to see the skill set I have learned from this job, but it is hard to know I worked hard at school and am now only working part time. It is interesting the emotions you feel from constantly working on something to having a ton of free time. I have definitely enjoyed relaxing but know it's about time I throw myself out into the real world. Instead of feeling stagnant I want to have something exciting to look forward to. I do want to look into real estate and accounting but I need to find something else to do so I am not stuck at the same job I have had for the past 2 and a half years.

A month of updates? Not quite

Get ready for a long post since it's been so long since I have posted!
So lately I have been watching a lot of home shows which just makes me excited to go house hunting. We are a long ways away from buying our first home but i definitely enjoy watching home shows and looking at homes for sale. I have always been a well rounded person and always interested in many different things. I usually have multiple projects going all at once. Most of these projects have to do with design or style in some way.
Current Projects
Wedding Blurb Book! Yes I love blurb i have used blurb and mypublisher to create my own photo books. Blurb is by far my favorite although i did get an almost free mypublisher book with one of their coupons. Please alllow me to go off on a tangent since i will do this a lot....Growing up I was a huge scrapbook fan but of course times change and people end up having less time to work on scrapbooks. I have 3 scrapbooks that I am still "working on" I actually doubt I will ever finish them....well maybe if I end up pregnant and stuck on bed rest! So with the beauty of publishing your own book or scrapbook you do not have to pay for all of your photo's to be printed and than for the cost of all of the scrapbook things. Let me tell you the price you pay for the published book is a decent price considering you are still able to work on the book. If there was one complaint for Blurb is that it is better to use if you are looking for a professional type book. If you are looking for a book that has stamps than you should try out mypublisher.
Knitting a baby blanket: I am in the process of knitting a blanket for my hubby's coworker. Of course I found out about the baby shower and decided to knit the blanket a week before the baby shower. The baby shower came and went and I still am not done but thankfully the baby wont be here for a couple months. Hopefully I can finish the blanket soon. A little background info on me I learned how to knit last christmas and taught myself how to do the pearl stitch.
The Guest Room: That's a given considering we still have boxes that need to be gone through. We were fortunate to have my bestie and cousin come and visit which forced us unpack/go through about 10 boxes and somewhat set up the guest room for guests. We only had about 2 days to get everything done and it was amazing the progress that we got done. I unfortunately only snapped a few pics of the cleaning process but to give you all an idea there were boxes lining the wall on the right side about two boxes wide.
I ended up spending the final hours before they arrived hanging up the curtains and adding a few final touches to make them feel more at home.
I read a few tips when it came to decorating a guest room. A few suggestions included getting rid of the personal touches. When decorating a guest room think of what you like about hotel rooms. I made sure the sheets were clean, placed extra pillows and blankets in the room just in case, and hooked up the alarm clock so the guests would know what the time.
There are still plenty that we want to do with the guest room, but for now that project is being put on hold. I am planning on taking the boxes of yard sale stuff out of our place so that will provide some more storage for us.
Fashion: I had been taking a break from the fashion scene for awhile since I was burned out from it after spending six years studying I need a break. So I have been slowly working my way back into the fashion industry. Although I am definitely ready for a new style to emerge since we have seen every decade over the past few years and the years of anything goes is getting old. Over two decades of the same thing and a visit back to the 80's and 70's.
I love the colors for Fall 2011 that were released from Pantone. I am looking forward to finding some pumps in nougat and a cute top in the deep teal. On top of all of these big projects it's also the end of September which means it's time to start decorating for fall. We were very fortunate to have a mild summer up until the first couple of weeks in September. It didn't get warmer than 95 degrees here and I am still hoping that summer wont be over but the clouds are back so I really should get started with decorating for fall. I will be looking for some halloween projects to work on the next couple of weeks and post what I create.

Mastering the Bedroom

When you get married you have blend styles so that you can have a room that makes you both happy. We already had the bedding so it was simple with deciding on the color scheme for our bedroom. We painted three walls gray and one wall purple. We still are in need of a bed frame and we are also looking into getting a new mattress. We are saving for both a frame and mattress. Hopefully we wont have too much longer until we can get these, we are looking at a frame from Ikea that is just like the one I already have in the guest room. The canvases I painted myself so that we would have art that would match the comforter. We have since bought two matching lamps on sale from Target, so that the lamp in the photo can be put back into the guest room. There is still some cleaning that needs to be done and A is sleeping so maybe I will get some more photos of the master tomorrow.
I have always been blessed to have been taught some sense of design I thank my favorite aunt. Who also changes her homes so much that she gets rid of amazing things like the star mirror above. When she gets rid of stuff that she knows I love she offers them to me for my favorite yard sale price of a hug. Yes we were that kind of family, but when decorating your home it makes it a lot cheaper.

Dining for two

The dining room problem with curtains was easily remedied when A and I went shopping at our favorite store Tar-jay. They were even picked out by A and go with the blue green color scheme we have for the living room and dining room. It is amazing how simple it is to change the feel of a room by adding curtains. I think the next thing for the dining room is a rug but we are very picky when it comes to rugs and it may take us awhile for us to find it. Now if only we could actually eat meals at the dining room table!

Hall for the Ages

Growing up we always had a wall of family photos so after A and I got married I decided to do the same in our new apartment. As with my aunts home, my apartment will never be finished. There are so many projects that need to be worked on that it will never be completely finished.I am looking for more art to hang on the wall. Hopefully with something with metal to match some of the other art in the rest of the home. I had many goals in decorating this apartment I wanted a cohesive and homey look, but also a look that could grow as our moods change or in the future when our family may grow.

The hallway is one of my favorite parts of the apartment because it creates and entry way when you walk in. Not only does it create an entry way but many people decide to decorate a hallway with photos, when I visit other homes I am constantly look at the photos that they display. Photos that are displayed can show us how much a person has changed to different adventures they may go on. It is a slight insight to their lives. A hallway was unquestionably missing at our old apartment and the flow of the room definitely suffered. Thank goodness we decided to move when we did!!

New apartment

Ignore the moving mess but here is a pic of the new kitchen. More to come later once it has been organized and the to do list has been completed.

Kitchen To-Do List
Organize cabinets
Remove folding door
Hang curtain

Dining Room To-Do List
Hang Curtains on the windows
Make a cover to hide appliances
Set table

The Living room is still a work in progress although we got it painted before moving all of the furniture. My goal for tomorrow is to finish the entertainment center and get everything unpacked and organized. I will eventually hang up a beautiful frame with wedding photo's on the other wall above the couch. We would love to get an area rug eventually but we have other things on our purchase list that take precedence.

Moving for the organizationally challenged

We have been very busy with all the wedding stuff and we are definitely looking forward to being able to slow down. On top of working, planning a wedding and getting everything finalized we have also included packing to that list. Yes after all that work of making our apartment perfect we are moving to a different apartment that will provide more projects and decorating of course, along with the hassle of packing and moving. I am currently attempting to get rid of a lot of stuff but I am not very good at that!! For those of you who are the same as me the best method I have found is to have seperate boxes labeled with goodwill, yardsale(for those having one), unpack first, and not as important. This allows you to get rid of things and for questionable things you can have in the unpack later boxes. The second important thing is to ask yourself will I use this in the next three months or have i used this in the last three months. If the answer is no than you should definitely get rid of it. I know I know things such as winter coats, outdoors equipment, and other things that you use during different seasons is different and you can not get away with asking yourself those questions. Holiday decorations are one example of things you don't have to question, of course a good question to ask yourself is did you display this last holiday or did it stay in the box? Another big thing people have difficulties throwing out are souvenirs, yes I have difficulties with that as well. Currently I have two heating blankets that I have not used and I am fairly certain that one does not work(I am not 100% sure). I should plus them both in and wait for them to heat up and decide which one to get rid of or maybe get rid of both of them since I never use them. I am often amazed at how much stuff i have accumulated especially since I don't remember buying a lot of it, I get a lot of gifts that are unique, and happen to rarely get rid of things. Organization is definitely something I will need to work on in our new apartment. While I was always taught that everything should have a place and you should keep it in that place I was not good at executing the method. Currently I am sitting in my guest room looking at all of the things that have yet to be boxed up, there are only 3 full boxes and two partial boxes filled to be taken to the new apartment. Oh and of course a garbage bag filled with the down comforter and the sheets, a blanket and quilt for the guest bed in a plastic container. I have done quite a bit, although it doesn't seem like it. However, I have managed to take 8 boxes of yardsale stuff and two bags of clothes to my moms to store for the yardsale. I also have a box here that is either goodwill or yardsale. Life tends to be less cluttered if you have fewer possessions. A difficult thing to live by when your ocd cleanliness only comes out when you don't want to do other things. Moving difficulties have postponed our moving to wednesday which i find ok since then i can attempt to make gluten free cupcakes for my loving future hubby's birthday.
I have been picking out paint colors and can't wait to paint on Wednesday or Thursday. I will be sure to take pictures at least eventually and hopefully have some before and after shots. Well until then audios.

Guess What I did .....

I decided to be awesome and since I was unable to find an animal print soap dispenser I decided to make one myself. Step one find stencils from a craft store. Step two figure out which animal print to use. Step three was the tough one which was figuring out which paint would actually stick on the dollar store soap dispenser i purchased. did I choose this cheetah print or the zebra print below?
Zebra print of course it goes with my Africa themed bathroom!!! I know you are jealous

Here is a hint for everyone, using stenciling paint or a stamp pad does not work I finally stuck with some leftover black gouache paint that I had purchased for school so my total cost was a dollar for an awesome zebra print soap dispenser.
I decided to pair a red vase with my zebra print soap dispenser and it looks Vonderful especially with the wooden roses that my love got me for various holidays, he doesn't like to buy real flowers because they die. He also got me a glass rose and for those who do not know me I have a glass obsession.
I have to show a pic of the African animal pics that originally hung above the toilet but has now been moved to the wall opposite of the sink in order to make room for Dun Duh Duh DAAAA!! My African Animal Heads oh they are amazing and completely tie the room together. Below is a shot of the whole bathroom. See you can make apartment bathrooms look together all you need is a few nicely placed decorations.

Don't you just love the coconut bank I put in there....not really african it was from Hawaii but ya know they are both warm places and it is a coconut monkey and according to my love who had a monkey for a pet it works in there. Well that is all for me today I am off to research some area rugs and photos to put up in my living room. Till next time pinkies up and stay classy.

A few of my favorite things

Out of sheer boredom, and due to the fact that I have the flu( which absolutely sucks) I decided to share with all of you my most recent purchase and some of my favorite things to decorate an apartment with. Yep you guessed it the African animal masks which after much debate, and the fact that there was only one for the price I wanted to pay I chose to only buy one instead of two. After reading the reviews I learned that you can separate the masks so that they don't have to be hung as is. I can't wait for them to arrive on Thursday so that i can hang them in the bathroom!!! Hooray you may also be saying but what happened to your no spending month? I decided that now that I have learned that it is possible to not spend money I will purchase the few things that I have wanted too get for the past few weeks and then go back to not spending any money except on food and gas!! Oh it helps that my loving fiance got promoted and a raise. Now if you are a little stretched on money it is wise to do some arts and crafts with things you have around your own home. I don't know about the rest of you but I have a lot of supplies from being in school. I was even able to paint a canvas that matched my bedspread which was purchased from Target!! I used paints that I had to buy for a color theory class. If you get bored easily from being cooped up inside during the winter it is smart to stock up on canvas' and paint when things are on sale so that you can create new paintings when you have time. Another thing to work on would be to knit or crochet something. I am currently working on a blanket for my bedroom and my next project will be learning how to create flowers.
For Future use:
Cast on 5 sts.
Small petals
1st row Kfb, k4. 6 sts.
2nd row P4, pfb, p1. 7 sts.
3rd row K7.
4th row P7.
5th row K1, k2tog, k4. 6 sts.
6th row P3, p2tog, p1. 5 sts.
Repeat 1st–6th rows 3 times. Do not break yarn.
Medium petals
1st and 3rd rows Kfb, k to end.
2nd and 4th rows P to last 2 sts, pfb, p1.
5th and 7th rows K9.
6th and 8th rows P9.
9th and 11th rows K1, k2tog, k to end.
10th and 12th rows P to last 3 sts, p2tog, p1. 5 sts.
Repeat 1st–12th rows twice. Do not break yarn.
Large petals
1st, 3rd, and 5th rows Kfb, k to end.
2nd, 4th, and 6th rows P to last 2 sts, pfb, p1.
7th, 9th, and 11th rows K11.
8th, 10th, and 12th rows P11.
13th, 15th, and 17th rows K1, k2tog, k to end.
14th, 16th, and 18th rows P to last 3 sts, p2tog, p1. 5 sts.
Repeat 1st–18th rows twice. Fasten off.
Finishing
Press. With reverse St st to outside, roll up loosely from the cast-on end. Lightly stitch the straight edges together to form a flat base, and then push up center. Gather and stitch outside edge at base. Turn back petals and steam if necessary.

Well I suppose that is enough for now I am going to continue knitting my blanket and once it is complete I will show you all what it looks like on my bed!

Apartment Bathrooms Yuck!!

Apartment bathrooms are generally very drab and there is not much that you can do to make it better since you can not change the flooring, sink, counter top or tiling. When decorating an apartment bathroom it is best to find a fun and colorful shower curtain, and matching towels and rugs. Moving in with your fiance usually means that you have two of a lot of items, this is not always a good thing. Lucky for me my shower curtain was in a lot better shape and my fiance liked my shower curtain better then his own. Trust me it was for the best!! Thankfully all of our towels are the same colors of brown and tan. If you stick with neutrals you are able to spend less by just purchasing a shower curtain which i think only cost around $10 from Target, my favorite store.


I decided to add my bubble bath and lotion that my living fiance got me for Valentines day on top the the toilet, along with a couple candles. I will definitely be finding some art to hang in the bathroom above the toilet because there is something missing. There is not much to do in this tiny space especially since most of it can not be changed. You can at least make it feel a loved. Each room even your bathroom should feel loved!!
And don't forget to clean, clean, clean it makes it look much better!! Don't you just love the counters they have flecks of gold in them.....you are lucky you wont see the floors they are awful.

Our half bath downstairs is much closer to completion because I painted and it is the bathroom visitors actually see. The red and black colors were simple to come up with for my fiance so we painted the wall red and found some black hand towels and rug. We were in luck and found them on sale at Target. See I wasn't kidding about loving Target. I decided that I wanted to have an African theme for the half bathroom and found some amazing pieces on Amazon. In three days I will purchase two sets of the animal masks so that I can hang them on the painted wall, across from the mirror.
Please Ignore the mess from cleaning out the vacuum filter!! I plan on adding something to ledge of the toilet maybe we will go antiquing and we will find some animal book ends that we can re-purpose.
As for my corner shelf, it did not have a place in our apartment and on the verge of being given away, it was so nice I decided to place it in the bathroom so that we can place important things like toilet paper and febreez for easy access for our guests. One I get the African Animal Masks I will post pics of the completed bathroom.

Dining room Revisted

I had taken these photos of my dining room awhile ago but took a long time to actually upload them. If I could change the lamp in the dining room I would....actually I would change all of the light fixtures because they are just awful throughout the entire apartment. I am looking forward to moving and finally owning our own house so that we can begin to fix it up. The best thing you can do when purchasing furniture is purchase pieces that you will be happy with and coordinate with the rest of your furniture. So far the wall is very cluttered and I am looking for something to replace some of the stuff on the wall....maybe a picture of the Eiffel tower....hmmmm I will have to look into more options. I could always paint a canvas to put on the wall.Once we get our new plates that we registered for I will actually set place settings but for now I will continue to use my cupcake dessert plates.
I decided to go back to my awesome centerpiece which was compliments of a seattle florist. I love the paris tin and the feathers mixed in with the now dry flowers. They go with my place mats that I purchased on sale. The candles I purchased during Halloween and the holders are cupcake wrappers from Bella Cupcake Couture which I got for free and re purposed.
Cost Breakdown for the Dining Room
Table: $200
Place mats: $15
Candles: $6
Dessert Plates: Free
Centerpiece: Free

We spent a total of $221 and re purposed a few other things. We could definitely use a rug in the dining room which may be on our list of things to purchase.

Valentines decorations

After reading some tips on how to save money which includes not spending any money on anything other then what you absolutely need aka food, rent electricity etc. I have decided that i will compile a list of projects that I would love to work on once we move since I can't go out and buy anything right now. I was reading the blog Our Seven Dwarfs and found this amazing valentines decoration. I will definitely have to make this during the winter next year. I love the different valentines decorations because I don't have any out right now and I don't have supplies to make any. For the time being I can just look. To purchase list: crepe paper to make tissue rosettes as seen on the idea room, wooden hearts, paint and rub on letters, and felt and a heart shaped wreath
I will take pictures of my finished dining room later

Redecorating the apartment

It is amazing what the flu will do to a person, especially someone who doesn't enjoy just sitting still. The result of course is a day filled with reading blogs, catching up on a few of my favorite TV shows and of course watching home improvement shows. I stumbled across a wonderful blog called young house love and have become inspired to rearrange my apartment and maybe get rid of a few things. The future hubby and I are currently looking to pack up and relocate five hours away from where we live now but for the time being ( well until we find new jobs and a place to live) we are staying in our townhouse apartment. We have been here almost two years and while it feels a tad homey I still want to make a few changes. The one room I am happy with is the kitchen, just don't get me started on the storage....deep cupboards do not make organizing easy!! The colors we have in our kitchen match the dishes we registered for at macys. I have yet to mention my love for Fiestaware, it has been my favorite and I have wanted some forever but due to the steep price tags I have yet to invest in any of their pieces.


Our favorite colours are lemongrass and peacock.

I am starting to get off topic now back to the kitchen. One thing I dislike is white walls they are so boring to me so after a year of enduring the white walls I took a school break to paint the kitchen ( and extra bathroom but that we will save for a different day). I know I know that is what everyone does while on a break.


Alright so the first pic is the boring side of our kitchen with my awesome blue kitchenaid mixer basically what our entire kitchen looked like until I painted it blurple and a color that looks very close to lemongrass in my opinion. I still need to put up curtains on the window or at least a valance but for now it works. My favorite piece is the cupcake chalkboard that was made by the amazing brother of mine it matches the colors in my kitchen perfectly! Also notice the awful cupboards that make it difficult to store everything and also the lack of counter space. I really can not wait until we can buy our own house to update. It has almost been a year since i worked on the kitchen and we have had tons of mini projects to tackle. The dining room has gone through some major changes especially ever since I graduated from college. The acquisition of the table and the removal of my ginormous L-shaped desk are the biggest changes this room has gone through. I think my plan for tomorrow is to go back to using my original place mats and centerpiece because it had a much better fit to the room. Even the lantern in the corner looked as if it belonged there.


Currently the dining room has way too many colours and it has been bothering me but since I purchased the place mats from Ikea I didn't want to waste money by not using them. Hmm maybe i will clean them up and see if i can return them since the color scheme doesn't match what i intended.








In case you had not noticed I absolutely love cupcakes and I obtained these wonderful Rosanna plates at the end of my internship with an event planning company. If the dining room had a theme I would say it was cupcakes. The centerpieces i believe were purchased from pottery barn, on sale of course!! I love them but need to find a place for them in my apartment. As my mom is constantly saying I need to purge and get rid of more things from my apartment.

I must say that when the future hubby and I moved in together I had more things then he. Especially when it comes to clothing but you will see more of that later if we get that far. I will definitely need to start watching episodes of hoarding if I am going to get rid of more things. It is amazing what that show can do for you. With my plans of changing the dining room tomorrow and possibly getting rid of more things, and of course going and meeting the future sis-in-law I definitely need to get to bed.