Vintage Glam: Apartment Living Room

Before:

 

 

This is what our apartment looked like when we first moved in. It was cold, white, and boring. Definitely no reflection of our taste.

After:

 

 

 

I've been collecting these gold antique mirrors and frames for quite a while now and its exactly what i wanted to center my design around. The walls were painted in a sort of robins egg meets Tiffany blue.

 

 





Summer Boho

 

Vest: American Eagle
Dress: TJ Maxx
Neckalce: Forever 21
Boots: Forever 21

 

Falling Behind....

So these past couple months of summer have been so BUSY! My boyfriend and I moved into our first apartment together and we have busily been decorating and unpacking that. The most time consuming thing of all I would have to say is our new kitten MiMi. She's naughty and always getting into something and whenever i use my computer she thinks she needs to lie on the keyboard!...Needless to say I have not been a very good blogger lately but now its time to catch up again!

This is MiMi, our lilac point siamese kitten!



Monogram For My Love...

So on August 1st my lovely boyfriend and I will be moving into our first apartment together. I've been feverishly been trying to think of good ways to decorate our place and this is what I thought of to hang in our dining room. Here's how to make your own monogrammed wall hanging...

Start with an old pallet and pull as many boards from the pallet as you think you will need, depending on the size you prefer...

Next, arrange the boards in the order you prefer. (I wanted mine to have some gaps in the middle for a shabby chic kind of look.) Take two other boards and  screw them into the back of your pallet boards to hold them together...

Add a couple screws but do not screw them in all the way. Then wrap strong wire around the screws so that you can hang your masterpiece on the wall.

Don't let your cat distract you. This is a step I forgot myself...

Anyways, paint your monogram or whatever you wish onto your "canvas". I just used white acrylic paint, which I watered down a lot first so that I could fix any mistakes if need be. It took me a few coats to make my letters really stand out.

And tada! You now have your own monogrammed wall hanging! I will upload more photos of mine once it is sitting pretty in our new dining room.

Pretty in the City

Dress: Forever 21
Denim Vest: American Eagle Outfitters
Shoes: American Eagle Outfitters

Earrings: H&M

Here's an outfit I wore earlier this week on a date to a cute little Italian Cafe and the museum. I paired a lace and mustard colored dress with a denim jacket and indian-esque sandals. I used blue gem-like earrings and a plain belt to accessorize the entire outfit.

Across the Globe



Top: H&M
Shorts: Forever 21
Shoes: Charlotte Russe

Top: Old Navy
Skirt: TJ Maxx

Top: TJ Maxx
Shorts: Pac Sun

I recently got home from the best trip of my life! I spent two weeks in Italy and Greece traveling all the way from Rome to Athens. We visited The Pope, The Sisteen Chapel, Sorrento, the island of Capri, and the Acropolis of Athens. If you ever get an opportuniy to visit Italy, DO IT. I had the time of my life and I'm already trying to plan a trip back.



High Low

Top: Charlotte Russe
Skirt: TJ Maxx
Shoes: Steve Madden

So I've been busily trying to finish up my final projects for school AND I leave for Italy soon! whoohoo! Today I finally got a break from it all and traded in my work clothes for something bright and spring-ey.

A Nest for Mother

My mom likes birdcages and I like to design so this year for mother's day I did a small remodel on her living room. Fresh paint, new pillows, happy Mother!

Before/After: Dresser Remodel

Before

During the remodel process, after sanding.

After!

This beautiful dresser is why I've been MIA for the past few days. I spent all day yesterday sanding this (along with multiple other things) and then today painting and adding my brand new drawer pulls.

Punch of Color

I always feel like I'm breaking some unspoken rule when I blog twice in one day...like I'm not supposed to do it. Realistically I'm just being productive but you know, just feels funny.

Anyways, I had a pretty great day today. I got to work on some DIY projects that I've been wanting to do for such a long time now. My main project today was reupholstering the chair above. I got the chair at a yard sale about 3 years ago and it was not the most lovely thing I've ever seen. It was finished in white leather and had light colored wood arms. Thankfully I gave this thing new life with a punch of color and a coat of paint.  

The sofa of my dreams



Vintage tufted back; rolled arm; chartreuse sofa: $50.00!

Maybe it was a little irresponsible of me to purchase this large chartreuse sofa today but I just could not help myself. From the day I started using pinterest I would always talk about how much I wanted a sofa like this so when I stumbled upon this is my local consignment shop today I was so excited! (Even more excited when I saw that the price was listed at a steal of $50.00!!!)

So this is my new baby. I will probably never part from this gorgeous vintage sofa and I can promise you that you will be seeing more of this...

White Out

Shoes: Guess

Jewelry: Forever 21
           Pac Sun

Skirt: Forever 21
Top: Love Culture
Necklace: Forever 21

     Today's *outfit challenge is called "white out". I paired my favorite white lace skirt with a white button up blouse. My makeup (not pictured) featured hot pink lips to top off the whole outfit!


* Check out the blog prettyshinysparkly to find your own style blog challenges.

Sequins

Sweater: Forever 21
Button Up: Pac Sun

   While searching for some inspiration these past couple of days I came across a great blog called Pretty Shiny Sparkly. The blogger, Kristina, came up with this great idea where she posts fashion challenges every so often ( Bloggers Do it Better; Note the badge on the sidebar). Unfortunatley for me I was a little behind the bunch but I decided to do all of the old challenges anyway. So here's the first mission completed....Sequins.

* Please excuse the wild hair...Not feeling good always equals a lazy day.

What's Old is New.

   With today being Sunday (lazy Sunday at that), I spent most of my morning in my pajamas with my hair in an unattractive messy bun. After doing some spring cleaning and browsing a few other blogs I felt inspired to mix up some of my old clothing that I had essentially forgotten about. Here's my favorite look that I came up with...

Pink sweater: TJ Maxx

Tank: Charlotte Russe

Skirt: Victoria's Secret Pink

Necklace: American Eagle

Spring Has Arrived!

Here's my Spring inspired outfit of the day!

Lace skirt from Forever 21

Shoes by Steve Madden

Shoes by Steve Madden

Top from Forever 21

Out with the old, In with the new!

       Thankfully where I'm from we've been blessed with some beautiful weather. No more snow! This inspired me to clean out all the chunky sweaters from my closet and replace them with my stash of swimsuits, shorts, and tank tops. Check out the great storage totes I use to store my winter clothing in...



Bye bye chunky sweaters!

I got these large fabric storage totes from Ikea. They are perfect to store seasonal clothing in!

Busy Busy!

Hello everyone,
I'm sorry to say that I have nothing fun to post today, final projects are taking over my life right about now! However, I do plan to dedicate this Thursday to working on some fun projects so stay tuned! Until then I will leave you with this cute picture of my cat....

Red Carpet Gel Nails: At Home Pedicure

      So often I find myself saying how much I want to get my nails done and how I want to be pampered, but when my $40 pedicure chips I always feel a sense of buyers remorse. Luckily I discovered a great affordable product that has saved me so much money! I got my Red Carpet Manicure: Gel Polish Pro Kit at Ulta for about $50. With only a few steps you have a long lasting, high shine mani/pedi at low cost:

This is what the light looks like.

There are about five different steps.

And there you have it! Long lasting nail color just in time for Spring!

(Shoes by Guess)

Toss Pillow Combinations: How To

Today I'm going to show you a few ways to spice up the look of your sofa with throw pillows. Personally, I have a lot of throw pillows and they are an easy way to add a pop of color and texture to a room. Here's what I threw together...

Before:

A boring sofa that adds nothing to the space.

After:

Interesting pillow combinations that add color and texture to the space.

(Bohemian Floral pillows from Bed Bath & Beyond; Cheetah pillow from Ikea)

(Blue pillow from Target)

(Sequined pillow from TJ Maxx; Gray damask pillow from Target; Gray and Seafoam pillows handmade by myself)

(Yellow Floral pillow from Target; Blue velvet pillow from Target)

( Red pillows from Target; Bohemian Floral pillows from Bed Bath & Beyond)

And there they are! A few different combinations of toss pillows that can drastically change the look of your room. Which combinations do you like best?