Goodbye Apartment 103

This past weekend I decided to pack everything up and move it to storage. My friend Dan and Corey helped me move. Sadly on Saturday it poured rain when we started loading all the furniture onto the truck. It was supposed to be 80 degrees and sunny, but that didn't happen!

We made the best of it and just dried my furniture off once we put it in the storage unit. My apartment is empty and clean. Now I just have to hope they rent it before May 15th so that I don't have to pay to break my lease. I am so ready to go to California, but Cody may have found me a cheaper place to rent. We are waiting to find out about that. I plan to only stay in Ohio another week. Can't wait to see Cody!!!!

Here is a video of the rain on Saturday!

What the heck have I been doing?

Destroying my apartment.

I apologize for the lack of "decorating and design" posts. I am so busy spending my last days in Ohio with family and friends. I have been packing and planning. I hope to be in California Easter weekend or the weekend after. Money is the only thing holding me back at this point. Cody is just waiting for me to get there! I can't wait to drive across the country! I am super excited about it. (minus the gas prices! ouch.) I hope April is a great month for me. The motivation to be with my husband keeps me going. Love is Great.

NEW SHOWER CURTAIN

While in Texas I stopped in a Target near the Air Force base. I finally found a green shower curtain that was perfect! I love the pattern and color. It was just what I wanted! I can't find the shower curtain on the Target website, so I am glad I bought it.


Also, I have been going through my closets and finding things that I am not using anymore. I have also raided my dressers for clothes I don't wear. I almost have a full car load of stuff to take to Goodwill. It makes me happy to think of someone else enjoying an item that I just have packed away in a box!

Possible Photo Collage Wall

A few months ago I posted about my Living Room Wall. I had all these ideas and all this stuff I wanted to buy! Then I realized I have a lot of pictures frames I hadn't used anywhere in the apartment. I love photo collage walls and came up with this layout...

I can't decide if I like it enough to put the holes in the wall! LOL Keep in mind the photos would be different that are in the frames in the photo above. I love my yellow frames! They are just $1.00 frames spray painted yellow. Here is the photo of the wall with nothing on it, What do you think? I could just buy one poster and hang it and be done! I still like the idea of putting picture ledges on the wall instead of the collage. Then I have to buy more stuff and I am really trying to avoid that!

My BILLY Bookcase Decorated

Here is the BILLY Bookcase with all my stuff on it. I am very happy with the way it turned out. I bought a few new things from IKEA to put on the bookcase. I put our Vinylmation figurines on the bookcase! I think they look really cute. I am so glad I bought this limited addition BILLY bookcase! The design of the bookcase is full of quotes about friendship and LOVE. Very fitting for Cody & I.




New IKEA items

SALONG white vase
FARM Vase
Pink NYTTJA Picture Frames

{ Word of advise about IKEA products: There are many items that are on the IKEA website that are not even at my store for sale anymore. Always check the online stock or call the store to see if they have the item you want before driving hours to shop at an IKEA. }

Detailed Bookcase Arrangement

I love my bookcase in my living room so much, that I wanted to take detailed pictures of each shelf opening. I love arranging bookcases and shelves!






Click {HERE} to see photos of the bookcase

Pink Tree at Apartment 103

Yesterday I put up my small pink tree in the apartment. Cody just took pictures. He really doesn't enjoy putting up the tree. Especially when it is pink. hehehe




The past few years my tree has been red, green and silver. I decided to add hot pink ornaments this year. It goes well with all the pink in the apartment! Here is a photo of Cody & me before we went to Thanksgiving dinner at my Grandmas house. We are counting the days till he leaves for basic training. We are going to try to make the best of our last month together! I sure am going to miss him...

My Living Room Wall

Every day that I sit and watch TV on my couch I stare at the blank wall above the television. It drives me crazy. I love LACK shelves from IKEA. I am not sure if I want to hang one or two on the wall. I also considered just hanging a few picture ledges.



Here is some of the things I have already to display and some things I would like to get...





I think the UNG DRILL picture frame would add a great POP of color when painted a shade of hot pink! I may just buy 1 LACK shelf and see how that looks in the apartment before planning the rest. Here is some inspiration photos...

This picture ledge wall is by Ana from Ana White.com . She actually made them herself! Learn how she did it {HERE}

Apartment 103 - The Bedroom {for now}

Before we moved into the apartment I had planned to paint the walls with the Chervon Pattern in white and hot pink. After realizing it would take way to much time, I decided against it. I do not plan on painting. I do not want to have to paint apartment back next year. I still have a lot of small finishing touches to do through out the room.

Apartment 103 - The Bedroom {sneak peek}

Here is a photo of my bedroom in the apartment...


I really would like to paint! I just hate the thought of worrying about painting the walls back. I will be moving across the country, maybe even out of the country! I will have enough do next year! We'll see....

New Desk from IKEA

My new MICKE Desk from IKEA.



I need to get a chair. I am not liking the whole orange & black color scheme. It is all I have right now and it works. I will get a new office chair later.

Painting Alice

I finally decided on something to paint on the canvas that hangs over my couch. I found this image of Alice in Wonderland and thought it would be fun to attempt to paint it myself. I will change the colors a bit so that it matches the apartment better.


I just started late last night. I used a projector to put most of the image on the canvas. I will go back and free hand all the small details. I spent about $13 on acrylic paints from Hobby Lobby.



I wanted to prime the canvas, but realized I didn't have any primer. It just means more coats of paint! Oh well. Hopefully I stick with it, this is going to be very time consuming. I just think the finished product will be wonderful. I smile every time I see Alice and it reminds me of Disney World. Did I mention we are going again in December?? We can't wait!!




Alice in Wonderland Image source {HERE}

New Bookcase Arrangement

When I posted pictures of the apartment the other day I had mentioned that I was not happy with the arrangement of my dining room bookcase. I spent sometime the other day digging out different photos & items. Here is what I came up with...





The old arrangement wasn't horrible, I just wasn't happy with it. I felt it was to busy. I think now everything goes better together.



Here is the shelf that you can't really see...



Do you think I should paint the bookcase? I like it better white now that I changed the arrangement. I really am seeing pink walls in the apartment!!! I want to live here a month or so before I decide. I just hate the thought of having to paint it back. :(



I now have a bowl of Hello Kitties on my table. lol I had to put them somewhere!!

Introducing Apartment 103

What a weekend it has been. Last Wednesday was our move in date to our new apartment. {Apartment 103} The apartment is a HUGE downsize for us! Going from a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, IKEA kitchen, 2 car garage and full basement house.....to a 742 square foot apartment - WOW!!! Moving day itself was fun. A friend and my uncle helped Cody & I move. I had really gotten rid of a lot of stuff. They all teased me all day about all my "bookcases" and furniture. They did not see how I was going to manage to put everything into a 1 bedroom apartment. I kept telling them to trust me.


{Boxes at the house before we loaded the moving truck}

I had a layout of the apartment that I had been studying for 2 months! I was well prepared. What I wasn't prepared for was all the unpacking. With the apartment being so small, once everything was in it there really wasn't any room to walk! The first few days were very stressful. Tripping on each other and everything. We kept losing our car keys and shoes. I just had to make myself focus and do one room at a time.

The one thing I forgot to do was bring my camera with me! I wanted to take photos of the apartment EMPTY. Sadly I didn't get to do that. So, I have pictures with just a bunch of stuff and boxes. Here is a photo of the hallway taken from the living room....



The hallway was blocked with boxes for the first 2 days. We would just walk around into the dining room and go through kitchen when we needed to get to the other rooms. In the picture above you can see my MALM dressing table that I had in my bedroom at our house. I actually did give that away. We ended up really not needing it. It wasn't functional enough for me to justify losing a whole wall in my bedroom for it. We also gave away our treadmill that is in that photo. I had high hopes of running on it a lot while Cody went to boot camp! Again, I couldn't justify losing space in the walk in closet for it. Those were the only 2 things that we didn't keep.

As far as decorating the apartment, this is a lot different then anything I have done before. When we purchased our house I bought all new stuff and had a design plan for each room. The apartment is just a combination of all the things I have collected over the years and the things I felt were worth keeping. As I unpacked the last few days I basically decorated the rooms as I went. I have not decided if I am going to paint or not. Now that I am here and my stuff is in the apartment I would love to paint it all a light shade of pink. With all that said here are pictures of the apartment as it looks today! We'll start with a photo taken from the entryway looking into the living room...





I plan to change my painting that is over the sofa. It reminds me to much of the house and I really don't want a lot of black & white in the apartment. Basically I decorated the room with Cody in mind. Okay, not all the pink and girly decor, but I have a lot of photos of us together and my love print on display. We are going to be apart for 8 months and I want to feel like he is still there. {Even if its just the 50 thousand pictures I have of us plastered everywhere!!} I love my bookcase from IKEA! I displayed my favorite vases, Marilyn Monroe books and photos of Cody & I in the bookcase. It took me almost 2 hours to arrange everything in a way I finally liked...


End table & Billy Bookcase display

Here is a picture from the corner by the bookcases looking into the front entryway...


Another shot from the bookcase corner, looking at my "office" wall...


As you can see I am using a end table as my desk. I will be purchasing a desk in the next few days. Unfortunately the desk I had wouldn't work on this wall. Below is a photo of the wall we put the TV on. It is directly across from the couch. We may hang our wedding picture above the TV. {Again, another photo of Cody & I! lol}


Lets move onto the Dining Room Area. I found a place for my vintage pink cabinet! I placed it in front of the window because I wanted my plants to get a lot of light.




Cody hates my pink cabinet, but now is happy that I kept it! Since storage is limited in the kitchen the cabinet is giving us extra space! It is functional and decorative! Woo-Hoo!


I ended up not using my vintage round table in the dining room. It took up way to much space. It will be put in storage for now.



Above is my $20 bookcase from an antique mall. I am not really happy with the way I have things displayed. I plan to redo it. I kinda just threw everything on the bookcase. I think the bookcase would be pretty painted pink or yellow. We'll see!


Here is a photo looking into the kitchen from the dining room...


I did not intend to have a "Hello Kitty" kitchen, but the kitchen ended up being a perfect place to display my hello kitty collection...


I used vintage vases to hold my teabags and the pink canister holds doggie treats!


That is the tour for today! I will share pictures of the bathroom & bedroom another day! I am still working on unpacking stuff in the bedroom.