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