Little Things That Make Me Smile...

The new way we're staying organized through wedding planning, theater productions, work, being sick, and any other craziness that comes our way. PLUS, a cute little reminder of Valentine's Day on the 14th. :)

A new lamp (Walmart, $39.99) that creates a little reading corner in the living room.

Adding a romantic touch to the bedroom with a new piece of artwork (Target, $16.99).

One of my favorite combos: Champagne and Marachino cherries. I love how they look like little balloons in the glass when they flip over!

Bedroom bliss

Taking a quick break from wedding planning, work, and preparing some stuff for tax season (I swear, everything happens at once, doesn't it?). Half a tuna sandwich and a home brewed cup of coffee should work for a little pick-me-up!

I wanted to show off the newest addition to my apartment - new bedding! It's been GREAT to fall into at the end of these long days lately!

 Steve and I unexpectedly found these sheets at the Bridal Show last weekend. They were $55! Unheard of for a 1500 thread count! We couldn't pass it up. Check out www.pmdesignercollection.com if you'd like to pick some up yourself!

 Duvet cover and pillow shams (from IKEA, $39.99) that I'd been wanting forever (yay for Christmas money)! I love the Colonial-style floral pattern. We're hoping to achieve sort of a romantic/old Hollywood look for the bedroom. I've already added a couple black and white framed photos of Marylin Monroe. We'd like to continue that trend with people like James Dean, Frank Sinatra, Clint Eastwood (some of Steve's choices), and some other female actresses of the time, like Audrey Hepburn. I think it will be a gradual process of adding/finding art, but so worthwhile! I am also thinking of painting the room a periwinkle color.

 I love the buttons that keep the pillow shams closed!

This morning. Comfy! One of the candles my sister bought me for Christmas (on my nightstand) matches perfectly!

How would you build your ideal bed?

Season's Greetings

Happy December! I couldn't think of a more perfect day to head to Target (where I had some birthday gift cards to spend!) and get some holiday accents for the apartment. We still need to get a tree and decorate it, but it is definitely feeling a bit more festive in here. It felt nice to trade my regular flowers for poinsettias and spring colored pillows, etc. for richer pieces and cozy textures.

 It's easy to make an affordable holiday center piece for your table! I came up with this totally on the fly this afternoon. I bought this silver, square tray for just $1.99 at Target, and filled it with little items I already had: Christmas balls, cinnamon sticks, a fake poinsettia flower that had fallen off a bouquet, and one un-eaten candy cane from last year. I received these two "Seasons Greetings" cards in the mail as samples, along with a card catalog from The Gallery Collection. I saved them, thinking they might be useful for decorating, and I'm glad I did!

This candle is so pretty, I almost don't want to light it....or take it out of the cute wrapping! Target, $5.99 (candle only. I already had the stand).

 Switched out my spring-like bird pillow in favor of this green one, which I used to have on the bed.

 Vases are now filled with red and white.

 I finally found a wintery pillow that I really liked! Target, $14.99

More poinsettias (Target, $3.99) on the mantel, along with some great retro portrait books a friend gave me for my birthday.

 I've had this clock for years, but I love it even more around Christmas time.

What are you doing to make your space a more festive place?? 

Tonight, I am going with Steve to his company Christmas party. I feel like a real adult! ;)

The blahs

Look! She has my mirror. :)

It's definitely been a busy few days. I'm trying to get back on a normal sleep schedule (messed up again from this past weekend), which sooo did not happen this morning, as I just could not bring myself to get out of bed at a decent hour. I've been doing my best to push through the daytime groggy-ness to get my extra long to-do list checked off this week. I'm also toying with the idea of actually getting back on my work out routine again. Ha. My horrible eating needs to stop, too. It's gotten a bit out of control lately. Time to get back on track! I know I'll feel better and more energized when I do.
On top of everything else, Facebook has decided to go crazy with it's new layout, and I'm finding it almost unusable right now. It's disorienting...and things are disorienting enough in my life at the moment, thanks! Grr.

Hope you're getting through this week relatively unscathed! ;)

Pick me ups

"Just-a-little-too-far-for-comfort-from-the-weekend-Wednesday" seems like a perfect day to focus on my favorite things to get me through a long work day, when I just can't seem to find the energy or motivation to get anything done.

 A bright new manicure.
I am loving this coral color, "blazed" from Wet n' Wild. I haven't bought any nail polish by them since I was about 17 years old, because it always seemed to chip after just a day or two. This was the exact color I was looking for, so I gave it a try any way. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it stays looking great for 3-4 days, and decent-looking (a.k.a. chips you can get away with) for about 5 days. Yay!

Wearing something fun to "the office".
Ok, so I work from home. But either way, some days it's fun to wear something that makes you feel good, even if you aren't going out. And if you do go to an office everyday, and you tend to wear the same, drab business wear, spice it up a bit! The easiest way is to add some color! You'll feel a little happiness every time you remember how cute you look today. :)

4pm coffee + dark chocolate .
Ok, so I ate my three dark chocolate Hershey's Kisses before I snagged a photo, but I promise you, they were there. They are a great little snack to keep around, and a somewhat healthy alternative to get your chocolate fix. The other day, I was really dragging and not feeling good at about 4pm. With two and a half hours to go until my boyfriend got home, more work to finish, and knowing I had some going-out plans ahead of me that night, I needed a boost. I brewed some coffee, curled up in my "girl-throne" (a.k.a. my big arm chair) for a few minutes and enjoyed my little luxurious snack before getting back on task, feeling much better.

A new atmosphere.
We recently got this great canvas of the Flat Iron building in New York City for the living room (IKEA, $149). It's HUGE, and I'm so glad to have that big wall finally filled with some art. It adds even more of a vintage/urban feel to the place, and I love the way the black and white goes with our green accent wall. We've only had it about a week, so it's definitely providing a pick-me-up everyday to be working in what feels like a brand new room. If you work in an office, try adding something new to decorate your work space! If you work from home as well, see if you can find a cute little piece of art, a flower vase, a new throw blanket for your sofa...whatever! Just a little accent piece to brighten your place and add a touch of "new-ness" can make you a bit more happy to be working in the same space day after day.


What special things do you use to get you through the work week??

Bedroom: Before and After

I tackled the challenge of totally cleaning out and organizing my bedroom recently. It's been taking me a while to decide what I want to do with the room, decorating-wise, but I knew having it de-cluttered would probably help with some inspiration and make the space more livable in the meantime! It was actually very therapeutic to go through every drawer and come across so many mementos from my past. I'm a really sentimental person, so I don't like to throw much away. I was proud of how much I actually decided to let go of though, and the rest (which, admittedly, was still a lot) went into the large keepsake boxes in my closet. My boyfriend actually has a full nightstand drawer to himself now!

So, the goal was really to clean out or store things I don't use often and make the things I do use more accessible and organized. In addition to that, I finally moved my big, long work table into the guest room, which I had used as my desk back when I used to do packaging/distribution tasks as part of my job. Since then, it more accurately became a place to dump junk that I didn't know what else to do with. Not cute. There really wasn't space for it in my room anyway, but I didn't have anywhere else to put it until recently. In its place, we put a TV table that we obtained for free (we are going to line it with fabric to cover the clinical-looking legs) and a small filing cabinet - perfect for organizing all the important papers that were cluttering up my desk!

The room looks so much more open and clean. I'm really happy with it. Here are some before and after shots:

 An eyesore of a work table (with inventory boxes from work underneath! Ack.), and the clutter 

made its way over to my dresser as well.

My dresser is now just that: a dresser. And no more squeezing furniture where it doesn't really fit!

 This tray used to be over on the desk that belongs to my bedroom set, filled with dust and random stuff I never even used. I cleaned it all out and used it to organize the beauty products and jewelry that used to be strewn all over my dresser. It works perfectly, and there's even a place to hold my sunglasses.

 My actual bedroom desk can now be used as a desk. I hope to find some more attractive things to fill the shelves, as we begin re-decorating the room. 

 I do like the area where I have notebooks, journals, and small keepsake boxes, plus my place card from a wedding

reception I attended a couple years ago.

I got this accent pillow from Target a few months ago with the intention of putting it on the sofa. Steve and I decided it looked much better on the bed. The cream and brown bedding, while sort of calming, will 

definitely be going away when we re-decorate.

Just over the last few days, I think Steve and I have settled on an absolutely gorgeous idea for how we want to decorate the bedroom. I'm really excited about it. It probably wont be done for a couple months, but I'll be sure to post about it as soon as it's photograph-worthy!

So, what do you think? Have you tackled any crazy organizing jobs lately? I need all the stay-organized tips I can get. Hope your Friday goes by quick and you have a fabulous weekend! xx

Project Paint

This past weekend, we finally got around to painting the accent wall in the living room, which we'd been talking about forever.
When Steve first mentioned the idea (yes, I have a boyfriend who actually gives a care about how the apartment looks and even comes up with fun ideas), I immediately pictured a calming, yet strong, dusty blue color. We picked up color samples one night and spent a good amount of time holding them up to the wall, looking at them in the day time and night time, and discussing which shades we liked best. It became clear pretty quickly, that with all the other blue we had in the room by this time, that a blue wall was just not the way to go. I've never wanted the room to look too matchy-matchy, and we really wanted this accent wall to be a true accent. A paint epiphany hit me. "Um. You know...I think we need to go green", I said, with a slight lump in my throat, as Steve had expressed his dislike of certain greens the other night while we were picking out blue paint cards. To my surprise, he agreed! A few nights later, we went and added some green color samples to our collection of paint cards, most of them being sort of a bright, minty green. After much calculating and discussion (and a few glasses of wine), we settled on "First Green Season" by Colorplace.

Since I'm one of the most clumsy people that ever lived, I was pretty ok with letting Steve do most of the work. My one attempt at helping turned into me smearing paint onto the edge of the adjoining wall (which was not to be painted). Oops. I gave up at that point. Thank goodness for water-based paint. ;) Steve did such a great job, and it was only later that he confessed how nervous he was that he was going to mess something up.

Dawson spent most of the afternoon crying (even with a treat in his mouth), because he was blocked from the living room with chairs. Haha.

The finished product:

 I highly suggest that you go pick up this white, "Fresh Cotton" scented candle (the one that's lit) from Walmart (only $3.00!) before Summer is over. It smells amazing, and it's not too sweet or too strong. We love it!

 I don't think I ever showed off my new bird pillow from Target, and this is my brand new summer fedora (Sasha, on sale for $6.99). Love!!

Ok, so what do you think of our new paint job? Even if you think it's hideous, I'd love to hear your opinions! Our next step is to finally get some art up on that wall. I can't wait!

Home, Sweet Home

How was your weekend?
Mine was non-stop, but super fun; a LOT of time spent outside (I have the sunburn to prove it, even though I tried to be diligent about applying sunscreen!). Saturday my boyfriend and I spent the day at the pool with some friends, and plenty of frozen drinks. Sunday I had a film shoot all day (yes, also outside...in 106 degree heat). My boyfriend tagged along to help with equipment, etc., and also decided to play personal assistant to me. Can't complain! It was a fun shoot, despite the less-than-ideal weather. But, I suppose 106 degrees is still better than 26, which I encountered during a few overnight film shoots last year!
We returned home pretty drained, and it felt amazing to just cuddle together and chill out in front of the TV until crashing at only 11:00pm! It especially feels nice to come home to a newly decorated apartment (it's really starting to feel like a real home!), and I am finally getting around to posting the photos of our latest decorating endeavors. Be sure to check out some "before" photos, which I posted a couple months ago: here!

 (My dog decided to be a model for this photo shoot. He loves his new room.)
So, as you'll notice from my last post with photos of my apartment, we've added quite a bit! Most of it was added gradually, but I wanted to wait until I had a decent amount done before blogging about it...otherwise I'd be posting about every little, new pillow, and it'd get a bit boring after a while. So anyway, here are the basic additions from the above two photos:

- New entertainment center from IKEA (It happened to be a discontinued item, so we got it for only $99!) and flatscreen TV (Steve's favorite addition. Honestly, it's the nicest piece of technology I've ever had, so I'm pretty thrilled myself). The TV is mounted onto the backing of the entertainment center - looks pretty sleek!

- Other things to mention are: the new couch cover and pillows for the sofa, and an area rug from IKEA ($20, folks! Amazing deal!)

- We already have a plan to buy a huge canvas of the New York City skyline  for over the sofa, we're just saving up a little extra cash first. I'll be sure to put photos up when we get it. I know it will really be a finishing touch on the room. While we've gone ahead and added some artwork on other walls, it'll make a huge difference when that big, empty wall is filled.

 

I'd been wanting to get an armchair for forever! A friend of mine sold me this chair and ottomon at his moving sale for...get ready...$35! I added the furry, white throw and a black pillow. I was so happy to be adding this piece into the room, but I did not anticipate how incredibly comfy the chair would be! It's my new throne. :)

You can't see it too well in this photo, but next to the chair, we added a small side table (from IKEA, once again). It's an adorable, colonial looking piece in sort of a dusty blue color:

 The inside is so cute with it's yellow stripes, and I loving having a little extra storage. I added some random things to the top. I love saving pretty bottles to use for decoration.

Here's some of the new artwork. We picked up the local music posters from a little store downtown, which I thought was a nice "Austin" touch. I ordered the posters over the TV online. I really wanted some sort of vintage movie poster (The Philadelphia Story had a great look, and you can't really beat Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, and Katharine Hepburn all in one film!). I've been seeing the "Keep Calm Carry On" posters a lot lately (British posters that were put up during World War II), and I really love the idea. The message still relates today - even if it's just to help me get through the work day. ;)

I also wanted to show our little "makeshift" guest room, which we put together super quick when we found out we were going to be having a house guest for a couple weeks. We bought the bed and the tall, shaded lamp in the corner (love it) from IKEA. I actually found this little dresser left out by the dumpster a couple months ago (Hey, I'm not ashamed! It's amazing the great stuff you can find for free). It was in great shape, so we took it in. It used to be in the living room as a side table by the sofa, but with the new chair, we just didn't have room for something so big. It was perfect to move into this room for a nightstand/dresser. The horse painting used to be over the fireplace in the living room. I was happy to move it somewhere different, and it provides a little color in this otherwise undecorated room. It also happened to match well with the comforter we decided to use on the bed. 

At some point, we'll probably be doing a makeover on this room. We haven't really decided what we want it to look like yet. It will also become a home office for me, as well as a guest room. But for a quick set up, I think we did pretty well and it looks quite cozy! It's nice to have it be a real room now, rather than my former-roommate's still-empty bedroom.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on my place! Any ideas for me? I'd also love to hear what sort of decorating you've done with your place!

Have a great week!