November 26, 2011

Apartment Decorating

So I've been dating my boyfriend for 2 years long distance now and we're both talking long term future. We've been talking about what will happen after I graduate and move up there, he rents a room in his friend's house now but we both know that we can't live there long-term. So we've been having a house/apartment discussion recently. I want us to have OUR house where we can raise future children and have our home where I can paint the walls canary yellow if I want to! He argues that a home is super expensive and that with his job as a typist (that he's been at for 11 years) and my future teaching job really won't support us and a mortgage and kids. He was born and raised in the Bronx in an apartment so he really sees nothing wrong with it. His reasoning is pretty sound, an apartment IS cheaper and if something breaks we can call the landlord rather than having to pay to fix it ourselves. My main problem is how little an apartment is and I don't know how to decorate a place where you're not allowed to paint the walls or put nails in to hang up art work. So I've been looking all over the internet and at the most amazing Pinterest for design ideas for my future apartment. I haven't come up with much yet but I was thinking something like this out of a dresser:

This provides prettiness, seating, and storage all in one! Something required for an apartment yes? Here's another dresser revamp:

A bookcase, shelf, and storage all in one! I love books so I love this idea too! It allows me to show off books and use up wall space instead of floor space too! 

I also like this lampshade that may not vary according to house or apartment but I just think its beautiful and would look great with some awesome book pages. 

As another storage opportunity I love this idea of surrounding a sofa with small bookshelves so I don't have to have side tables on both sides taking up room! 

Have you realized I love books and bookshelves? Because here's another idea of using wall space and repurposing something! A ladder as a bookshelf lining the walls!

(all these pictures came either from my for the home or craft ideas at my pinterest account here.)

So what do you think of the house/apartment debate and my dreams of decorating an apartment? Are my dreams so far amazing or not so much? Any other ideas you have for decorating a great apartment? :)

November 25, 2011

Happy Late Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving all! We had a full house and surprise at home this year. My grandma laid out a full spread on the table this year too. We had macaroni and cheese (the good homemade kind not the box), mashed potatoes, green beans, deviled eggs, and then all the stuff they ate like the turkey, ham with pineapple, potato salad. For dessert we had banana pudding and homemade pecan pie! My aunt and sister made the pie with pecans that we picked as a family from a recipe in our Pioneer type cookbook. It was a good day and the surprise was my uncle came down to get my aunt and bring her back up to IL! They agreed to live apart for a while so they can both try to find jobs, him in IL and her here in SC. They've been apart for about 6 months and he just told her the night before Thanksgiving that he was coming down to get her. They ran into each other's arms when he got here and it was very sweet and jealousy inducing (LDR for 2 years now and I don't get to run into my person's arms. sad face.) But even with all the food and people it didn't feel like Thankgiving cause we didn't put the tree up! But last night my mom, sisters, and step-dad came over and we watched my grandma and sisters put the tree up and now it feels right. I have the Christmas spirit and I'm ready for shopping and presents and hot cocoa! This post has taken two days to write with everything going on but I still have a question for my readers?. When do you put the Christmas tree up? Is it Thanksgiving night or later in December? Drop me a comment! :)

November 17, 2011

Ickiness

A cold is going around campus and I felt so happy that while everyone else was having to drag themselves to class, I was feeling just fine. (I still had to drag myself to class but not because I was sick. :) ) But the happiness about non-sickness has faded. I've caught the cold. I know, I know, it's just a cold. Not pneumonia or leukemia or anything like that but I'm still pretty miserable right now. My nose is trying to run away from my face and if I had a box of tissues last night they would be demolished right now. Unfortunately, I didn't have a box of tissues last night or this morning so I've been using toilet paper and a dirty towel is now covered in my germs. I was planning on posting all this week but school has hit me in the face, I have 2 papers due today and an audition Saturday that quite literally decides my future, and now I'm sick and I want to just curl up in a ball of grossness on my bed right now and sleep. If I could breathe well enough TO sleep. I get very whiny and affectionate when I'm sick. I want hugs and pats and "it'll be ok"s and I don't understand why people wont give me hugs while I'm sick. Quite mean of them. So instead I'm laying here breathing my germs into poor Buster Brown and moaning about my life. So to sum it up, I'm miserable right now and I would like to post more next week when school isn't so RAWR! Dinoscary.

So we all know being sick is the most not-amazing thing ever so my question is, how do you react when you get sick? Do you want hugs and hot chocolate or do you want people to leave you alone to die? Leave me a comment letting me know! :)

November 7, 2011

My Dream Down-Home Southern Wedding

I'm not engaged. Not yet. I'm not supposed to be engaged for another 2 years or more. Yeah.... But I'm planning! I'm planning for that eventful day that I saw "I do." and one thing that's popped into my head is decorations. I'll probably end up tying the knot in New Jersey, where my boyfriend lives and where I'm supposed to be moving after graduation but I don't want to completely abandon all that is Southern and good when I move up there. When I think of my dream wedding now, I kinda think back to when I was 8, running around barefoot in the backyard, catching fireflies, and putting them in jars. So my dream wedding is outdoor with the reception happening around twilight with fireflies and mason jars! I can manage the time and outdoor location pretty well anywhere but the fireflies are another matter and so are the mason jars. So I asked myself how I was going to pull this off and looked around and found some pretty amazing ideas! Tell me what y'all think:
are these lanterns not some of the prettiest things you've ever seen?! They're on Etsy here. LOVE! I could just see these hanging in the trees above my reception!


and I love this simple yet beautiful and elegant line of different size mason jars with white candles! flicker without looking childish!



Can't you just see these hanging at the end of rows if I walk down the grass aisle as the sun goes down? I can! Find these lanterns at Etsy here.


I've even looked at mason jar invitations! There are no fireflies but the invitation is free. There's a free template for the invitation, RSVP card, and save the date card here. If you don't like the look of my mason jars then they have other templates too! 

I have lots more ideas around this theme, flowers setting in mason jars hanging in the trees, flowers in jars in the middle of the table with the table numbers on them, and possibly even drinking from them during the reception!

So, what do you think of my theme so far? My wedding is years away and there's always the possibility we'll change our minds but so far I'm feeling fireflies and mason jars. Fireflies and mason jars at weddings, amazing or not so much? Leave me a comment and tell me! :) 

November 4, 2011

Where Art Thou Giveaway?

Ok, before you get your hopes up too far, no this isn't a giveaway post of me saying enter here for my amazing giveaway! This is me saying enter at these places for their amazing giveaways. I can honestly say, I'm pretty much a giveaway slut. I love entering giveaways and I LOVE the thrill of getting the "Congratulations! You're a winner!" emails. I've won some really cool things in my giveaways: a set of stackable rings from an etsy seller, a bookbag, a craft box, and many books! My friends ask me all the time how I find all these giveaways, let alone win a small percentage of them. So I will share with you my favorite sites for giveaways, even though it seems like a bad idea to me. Ya know, helping the competition and all.

My favorite site for finding giveaways from Etsy sellers is: http://etsygiveaways.blogspot.com/  (you've heard of Etsy right?? I might end up posting about Etsy later too. I'm on there at least once a day.)
This site has multiple posts a day with the details of the giveaway and a direct link to the blog post. I hit this site at least once a day and I've won a couple giveaways that I found on this site.

Another fun way to find Etsy giveaways I've found is to go to Etsy's forums and in the search box search for "giveaways". You can sometimes find giveaways here that aren't posted on a site like etsygiveaways.

I should warn you though, while looking for Etsy giveaways you will probably find at least 20 things shops full of items you need to buy if you can't win them. Just a quick warning, Etsy if full of amazing sellers and items.

Another good place to look for giveaways that aren't always handmade is: http://bloggiveaways.blogspot.com/ The author of this blog usually posts a long list of of blogs and their giveaways every week day. I'll warn you about this blog though, some of the giveaways are NOT low entry.

I've also found through random giveaways some blogs that I follow with Google Friend Connect that hosts giveaways all the time! Those blogs you'll find with giveaway experience or you can always email or comment and ask for some of the big blogs I follow that hosts giveaways often.


So my readers, I think giveaways are pretty amazing, if slightly (ok completely) addicting. What do you think? Giveaways, amazing or not? Leave me a comment!

November 3, 2011

Dirty Little Secret with Zombies!


Dirty Little Secret is a weekly meme hosted by us at Under the Covers. Every Thursday we get to know other bloggers and our readers more intimately by asking them a question hoping to reveal their dirty little secrets.  We hope that you will all join us!

To participate in the meme all you need to do is:
1. Be a follower of Under the Covers.
2. Create a post in your blog taking the meme image (code above) and copy instructions. 
3. Answer the question we propose! This can be done in any way you like, post a video, write a post etc.
4. Then add your link below.

This weeks question: 
"Zombies are attacking your house! 
What do you grab first?"


This is actually a good question for me! I have thought of the zombie apocalypse a lot actually and I've even devised a plan for when this happens. The first thing I would grab is my car keys, then my papa's rifle, and finally my phone. My plan is to hit Walmart's sporting good section and stock up on weapon's, a tent, and everything I need to survive if I needed to hit the woods or somewhere to  escape the zombies. The next part of my plan is to hit headquarters of my library, which also happens to be right beside Lowes where I can find supplies to reinforce the library. From there I can pick off the zombies from the second floor windows, wait for my boyfriend and our families to join me, and try to live out the rest of our zombie apocalyptic lives! Of course, I probably won't survive to this point and if I do, the zombies will just surround the library and starve me out, but at least I'll die with some good reading material! Hahahahaha :) 



So what do you think of my zombie plan? Amazing or not so much? Leave me a comment with your opinion and your own zombie plan! 

Music on Blogs?

So I have this thing about giveaways.... I love them. I love entering them and winning them and being able to tell people "yeah, I won that in a giveaway." I especially love giveaway hops (more on those later) but when I enter the hops I usually have anywhere between 5 to 30 tabs going up at one time. And that's just the tabs that are devoted to that one hop. I also have Facebook going usually and possibly other giveaways up at the same time. So I'll be joyously hopping from blog to blog imagining myself winning when I'll realize something, there is music coming from my computer. Sometimes the music will come out alone or other times it will be garbled up in the music I'm playing myself. Then I realize that somewhere in all my tabs, there's a blog with music playing and I have to go through every tab looking for this mysterious source of music, and some blogs have that little music box hidden in the depths of their side bars. This is the not so amazing part to me, sometimes the music they play is just not in with my personal style. It is kind of amazing to hear some awesome new music from a new blog though.

On the whole though, I'd say music on blogs? Not that amazing. What do you think?? :)