Moving Announcements

I decided to buy our change of address announcements rather than make them myself. I didn't think I would have the time or energy to make my own. After looking at several online options, I choose Paper Culture. I thought they had the best options. The fact that they plant a tree for every order and have free  rounded corners made them more attractive.
For our (Tai and me) announcements, I chose the Moving Box announcements.

Clearly not our info

For Dad's announcements, I chose the Bird House Relocation announcement.

I also ordered mailing labels for Tai and me. I found Paper Culture easy to work with. Their delivery was quick. Overall I was very happy with their service and would use them again.

Full disclosure: Paper Culture did not ask me to write this post. I paid for my purchases from Paper Culture. Just a happy customer, sharing my experience. 

Obsession: Glass Bowls

Lately I've been buying glass bowls. I have a thing for bowls anyway but lately it's just been glass. I've maxed out my bowl shelf when I bought this nesting bowl set. I might not have more space but I still want more glass bowls. As soon as I figure out how to make more space (we don't need plates right?), these are some I'd like.

Source: williams-sonoma.com via Linda on Pinterest

Source: target.com via Linda on Pinterest

Source: potterybarn.com via Linda on Pinterest

Source: potterybarn.com via Linda on Pinterest

Don't even get me started on shallow white bowls. I'm in love with those too.

The Love List

♥Insanity
♥PB&J shakes from Emerald City Smoothies

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♥Peanut butter in my oatmeal
♥Oysters

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♥Burgers
♥Spending the whole day at home with Tai

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♥Flannel sheets
♥Puppies

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♥Pinterest
♥Trying new recipes

What's on your love list?

A King Sized Upgrade

Tai and I have been talking forever about getting a new bed. I loved my old bed (a Sleep Comfort bed) but Tai didn't like. Plus we really wanted to upgrade to a king sized bed. A queen was a tad too small. Last week things got worse. Tai couldn't get comfortable in our old bed and when I went to pump it up, I discovered the power cord had come loose from the main control box! Our bed had lived a nice long life-10 years. So it was time to get a new bed! Which we bought this weekend!
Here it is airing out. We opted to get a memory foam bed (from Mattress Depot):

I wasn't sure I was going to like the memory foam but I'm a convert. So comfortable!
Here it is all ready for the night:

I need to move our "art". It's all off center now.
I'm so excited about our big purchase! Once I buy another dresser our bedroom will be complete and I can show off the whole room.

Did you enter my $50 CSN Giveaway? Go to this post to enter!

Pendant Lighting & A Giveaway!

I was contacted by our friends at CSN stores to host another fantastic giveaway. As we know CSN sells everything from cookware to furniture, but today we're going to talk about their fabulous lighting collection. I took a look at their pendant lighting selection and fell in love these:

 I would put this in a bedroom but would also look great in a hallway.

 Wouldn't this be cute in a child's room?

 I think this one would be great in a dining room. I love the polished silver.

I just love the blue. I think I'd put this one in a bathroom.

So to enter to win a $50 gift certificate to CSN stores, just comment on this post (and don't forget to leave me a way to contact you such as an email) by 5pm PST on March 14th. Good luck!

Organization Is Key

Have you ever packed up a box of clothes, shoes, etc with the intention that you'll look through it later? Have you moved and later found a box of clothes you forgot about? I "find" clothes all the time. Oh look I forgot that I had 6 teal tshirts and oops, I just bought 3 more! Oh I have a pair of silver sandals and I bought another pair. Forgetting what I own and buying more than I need is the biggest problem I have with my closet. One reason is that I can't always see what I have. And one place I was completely failing was with my shoes.
In our old place we had a tiny closet to put all our shoes. It was too small put a shoe rack or any other sort of shoe organizer in there. In fact it was the same closet we stored our luggage in. Finding stuff in there was a chore. So glad we don't live there anymore. But our new place has tons of space. Plenty of places to put shoe racks and get our shoes organized. I first experimented with these shoe racks.  Not a bad product but not made for lazy folks like myself. I would toss my shoes toward the rack and everything would fall. If I tried to make them fit shoes fell. It was a mess, so after a lot of searching I decided on these:

Four of them held all of Tai's and my shoes. His are the top right section. I swear I thought he had more shoes than that.
I love it cause I can see what I have. No more searching for the right shoes in the dark. No more stumbling over a pile of shoes by the door. Ah, I'm so happy that I can see all our shoes at once!

Found: Bookshelf For the Entryway

Once we got moved in there were some pieces I needed in order to make everything work in our new place. I still am looking for some things but I can cross "something for the entryway" off the list.
Over the weekend I went to Goodwill to drop off two bags of clothing (yes, more room in the closet!). Since I was there I stopped in to see if they had anything worth picking up. I have a weakness for the Goodwill so I limit my access to it. But since I had dropped off so much I figured I could look. There was an overflow of furniture in the front area where I found a perfect bookshelf for $10. It was just the right size (give or take an inch) for the entryway. See:

I had been open to a table or something with drawers but I'm so glad to have found a bookshelf. Our other bookshelf was over flowing, but now we have a little room to breathe!

Spring Has Sprung

It was a beautiful weekend in the PNW. I took the opportunity to take some pictures of the pretty flowers growing in our patio area. Planted courtesy of the previous tenants.

There's also an azalea bush out there too. I can't wait for that to start blooming. Now to get some patio furniture so we can enjoy it!

Bathroom Remodel

Over the weekend, I went over to Dad's to help him with some yard work. While I was there we started talking about his main bathroom. He's been wanting to remodel it for a while. Dad's the DIY type and has all the new fixtures (sink, cabinets, tub) but he lacks the strength to do it. Since I tend to be over zealous, I offered to help gut and remodel the bathroom. Yeah I know next to nothing about plumbing. I think I've seen The Old House a few too many times! But I'm fascinated with the idea of learning and creating something.Here are some pictures to show you what I'd love to do with his bathroom:

HGTV.com

HGTV.com

Zimbio.com
If I do go through it with, Dad will be without water for a few days. So he'd have to stay with us or at a hotel til it was all done. Kind of scary. I'd really like to try my hand at remodeling but it's a big commitment. Think I am over my head?

Love-Storage

In honor of Valentine's Day, I am dedicating each day to things I love. I'm totally in love with storage right now. I'm still organizing the new place and am constantly looking for ideas.

 From PBteen.com. Love the colors!

I love wicker baskets. From BHG.com

I wish my linen closet was so tidy! From BHG.com

This is what I want for our shoes. From BHG.com

 

Swoon. I want this closet. From RealSimple.com

 

I want a closet with a door like this. All of ours are folding doors.  From BHG.com

Paper Storage

When I went to Ikea last weekend I was planning on buying these:

These were going to fix my paper (both important documents and scrapbook/craft paper) problems. But they didn't have them and I cannot buy them online. Damn you, Ikea. Now I have to go back. Damn :)

Sucess At Ikea

So I've been at a standstill with the unpacking and organizing of our place. We have so much more space but I didn't have enough storage space-shelves and such. I met a friend over the weekend at Ikea to see what I found. And I found something for the dining room to get some more storage.
I can't believe it but I'm going to show you the before picture!

I had fun in Picnik.

 

I bought this lovely wire rack in the as is section of Ikea (my favorite part of Ikea). I've freed up so much space in the kitchen by getting all that stuff out. All those pantry items were taking up valuable counter space.
There's still crap in the dining room but it feels a little more organized. I also bought this lamp but haven't put it together. I'm thinking I'll put it in the living room.

Giveaway Time!

Recently I was contacted by the folks at CSN stores about a giveaway opportunity. Their stores are varied. Everything from living room and dining room furniture to sofas to home decor. They offered me the opportunity to give away this beautiful wall art:

It measures 27.5" H x 42" W x 2.875" D. I think it has endless possibilities. Plus it's multicolors would go with many different decors. It can be hung as it in the picture or rotated to be horizontal.

This giveaway is open to US residents.
To enter, leave a comment on this post, telling me as this year comes to a close, what's your favorite memory of 2009? And leave me an email address for me to contact you!

Giveaway will close 1/4/2010 at 5pm PST.  Good luck!

Tree Dressing

When I took out my ornaments to dress our tree, I discovered we were seriously lacking in ornaments. I had only kept those I really liked and let Dad take the others to the Goodwill. We didn't have family heirloom ornaments. Mom liked to buy different things and she would most do one color. She liked white and gold for a very long time. And she had a thing for birds for a while.
Our tree isn't very big but I need a few more ornaments before I feel like it's dressed and ready for it's blog debut. I choose some ornaments to show you what I'll be out looking for this week:

Untitled by honeylin on Polyvore.com

Items in this set:
Amazon.com: Swarovski Crystal Christmas Ornament, Annual Edition 2008:..., $75
Amazon.com: Gorham Sterling Silver Snowflake Ornament - 1984: Home &..., $140
Amazon.com: Silver Maple Leaf with Swarovski Crystal Ornament -..., $90
Sterling Collectibles: 2009 Snowflake 40th Edition, Sterling,OUT OF...
Brite 4-8"Silver Giantdomeshaped Ornaments : Target, $26

Like my mother, I like to go for one or two colors too. I think silver is a great color for the holidays so I'm trying to stick to silver ornaments. In fact most of our current ornaments are silver. I'm hoping to find a few holiday sales this week and get things on the cheap!

Shoe Racks

At our old place I kept our shoes in an over the door show holder like this one:

But we only have 2 doors in our new place besides the front door. And neither seem to be best door to use.

We received these as wedding presents. I was very excited to put them together but they don't seem to hold anything and our shoes quickly became a mess.

I bought these a few years ago from Ikea, but I couldn't get my big shoes into them without quashing them.

 I think this might be the next thing I'll try. We won't need the space under the bed for anything else. Anyone try an under the bed shoe storage?

Pictures of Our New Place

We're still in the process of putting things away but I wanted to share some photos of when we first moved in.

Here's the kitchen. I'm so excited about my pantry and spice rack in the door! I know I'll get a great deal of use from that!

Here are some terrible photos of the empty living room. The couch went up against the left wall and our huge television went against the right wall.

 

I'm so excited about our ceiling fan in the dining room. I've never had a ceiling fan but always wanted one. 

 

 A washer and dryer in our unit! I haven't had a washer and dryer in the place I lived in since I lived with my folks. It's so nice and I'm enjoying the convenience.

Pictures of our huge bedroom. The pictures don't do it justice. We have so much room. Our bedroom furniture fit in there (bed, dresser, sweater chest) with half the room empty. I want to put a recliner in there!

This is the master bath. At the end of the "hall" is the toilet and shower.

And a "guest" bath near the front door! Two bathrooms. I'm so lucky.

An our own outdoor patio. This is was really a selling point for me. This is totally private. There is no need for someone to walk by or through our patio area. It's all ours to the fence. It's the length of the entire apartment! I know we'll enjoy grilling out there in the summer time!
As we decorate I'll show you my progress. Right now it's a jumble of boxes. I don't know where to put things!

Lovely Lamps

Along with additional space we'll also get a few more dark places. In the winter our current apartment gets a little dark. We have plenty of table lamps but I'm thinking of adding a few more floor lamps.

lamps by honeylin on Polyvore.com

Items in this set:
Target.com lamp, $170
Target.com lamp, $80
Ikea.com lamp, $50
Ikea.com lamp, $40
Ikea.com lamp, 19 SGD

I love the first one. Maybe in the bedroom. I love the octopus lamps too. I was thinking of at least 3 for the living room. Maybe you all will be able to tell me better when you see pics.

Good With The Bad

In case you don't follow me on twitter, you missed that I got an iPhone this week!It arrived on Tuesday and I was so excited to get it up and running. While I was waiting for it to charge, I busied myself around the house. I went to the bathroom to clean up when I heard a drip. I assumed Tai didn't turn off the bathtub faucet all the way so I checked. But nope it was firmly turned off but the drip continued so I looked up and saw:
In case you can't see it there is a bulge and a small crack with water dripping out. I immediately headed over to the manger's for them to get this fixed. As of right now we have a hole where the crack was. There's a pipe leaking in the apartment above us so hopefully this will all get fixed soon!

Totally Creepy Soaps

I was talking to a friend over the weekend and she mentioned how she wanted to buy this soap:
Creepy baby hand soap. Ew. She also said she wanted to make a hand dish to hold the soap in. A little too much hand things in her bathroom.
So what other creepy soap products are out there.How about soap that grows fur? And a tiny mouse embedded in the soap as a reward when you finish the bar. Bizarre.
How about soap shaped like a pair of cowboy boots? Looks too much like chocolate. I might try to eat that.Soap in the shape of peanuts? I don't know why these don't really look like peanuts to me.
For me soap should be in a bar or liquid. I'm closed minded that way :)