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.