The Office Transformation: The New Wall Color!

As I said before, We have been fixing up our office room :) And now I'll show you the BEFORE color and the AFTER color.

Here is the before color:

Here is Jose putting paste on the walls to cover up the holes that the nails made when the huge mirror was on that wall [yup it took up that WHOLE white part of the wall]. And it was there when we moved in, we did NOT put that up!

We of course had to prime the walls first and Jose had some fun with that:

And now the bright and cheery after! Along with the desk moved from the front corner to the back corner. The color is Summer Splash from Olympic.


By the way, we used Olympic's Environmentally Friendly Paint and I loved it! It didn't have even HALF as strong an odor as normal paint does and it took really well, only 2 coats of paint! I seriously recommend it. We also used their Environmentally friendly primer and it was great too!

There it is! The lovely new office color. Doesn't it look better all ready? More AFTER pictures soon! :)

Easy D.I.Y. - Magazine Files

I did a very, very simple little D.I.Y. the other day in preparation for our new little office :) My only tools were the wonderful Rustoleum Universal Spray Paint in Gloss Pure White and a face mask :)

I have had these 2 magazine files for years and used them for ALL my magazines [you will see soon] but I didn't think they would fit anymore with the style of our new office so instead of going out and buying new ones, I spray painted them white!

The black before:

The lovely white after:

And the 2 magazine files together!

I will show you exactly how they turned out in the office soon enough :)

The Office Transformation: The Before

We have been very busy the past two days doing our office room over and I am SO happy with the way it is turning out. But it's not done yet! So I thought I'd put on some pictures of the gloomy, ugly, messy before to show you what we were dealing with and why this HAD to be fixed! I'm not proud of these pictures but I can't wait to post the afters :)

Here is the treadmill we had [which we sold yesterday for 100 bucks! We bought it for 400! A STEAL!] It was on the left hand side of the room when you walked in [with a poster hanging on the wall from a concert Jose's band played at]. And Jose always threw his clothes on it! Grr...

That big white hole on that wall in the picture above actually had a mirror on it but we removed the mirror, and here is the mirror waiting patiently to be put outside

And this is a very dark picture but next to our desk sat Jose's 3 guitar cases [one of them was empty!] We now found a proper place for the guitars :) Upstairs on display next to our big dvd rack

And our VERY messy computer desk... thats going to be my project tomorrow :)


Again a very dark [and blurry] picture but this little box sitting in the right far corner is our broken guitar hero drums. What a waste! 7 plays was the most we got out of it! And they will not return Jose's emails so we haven't gotten a new one :(


And our lovely one curtain... count em, one! I don't know lol don't ask!

And last but not least under that window, behind the treadmill, was where I stuffed my exercise equipment. Now I use these things more than that treadmill so now they are tucked away in the bedroom closet and when I need em, I just pull them out!

Thank you for bearing with me and my horrible office room. :) The afters are coming soon. I'll show you some teasers soon :)

My Little Riddle <3

A couple months ago I blogged about how we were going to get a dog! Well we did get him the second week of July maybe but I never really showed any pictures so I'm just going to show you real quick who has been hogging all my time :)

the cat has just entered the room...

Such a well behaved little boy . . . and very photogenic!

Apartment Love <3

So it looks like we will be staying in our apartment a little while longer. Yes, the verdict is in. I didn't straight out ask my grandfather for money and he didn't offer it again like he did the last time so I just said "oh well". And it's fine because when we got the apartment, we thought This will be where we live for however long until we buy a house. And now when we actually go look at a house [and who knows? maybe we'll do it again in a couple months] we can actually look and won't feel rushed. :)


But for now I can't take what I am surrounded by, especially in this office. Which is what I have decided to redo! Everything else can wait but this is just insane. This room has been a mess since the moment we moved in! I got it all planned out too :) I've seen a bunch of these things on a ton of different blogs with clothes, beauty, weddings, house stuff. And these are such good ideas so I did it! Mine is really inspired by YoungHouseLove and I am in no way trying to compete with them or start a clientelel like them I just did it because it's easier for me to explain to Jose what I envision :) and than also to check it all off as I go along with my project. So here is my little inspired "mood board".

Yes it will be a very clean office room :) Now I couldn't put it in because my images just weren't working but I also want to put [and just LOVE] these document boxes from the container store on my desk. I always loved them and it'll go good in green and yellow with my new blue walls :) And it will be the perfect solution to all my clutter on my desk! I can NOT wait!

I showed Jose and he loved everything about it, he even mentioned rearranging the desk that we have to another part of the room and than said what we should do with the bookshelf and the seating. Yay! And we all ready have a piece of the room ready for demolish :)

More on that later!

But because of this I have FINALLY figured out what my blog will seriously be about.

My Apartment :)

And what we are doing to make it more "us" and make do with what we have. You know, no big changes. No knocking down walls or replacing cabinets or any big projects. Just doing what we can do to make it more us. And now that Jose and I are on the same page I'm sure it'll be much more enjoyable!

Love That Apartment - Carrie Bradshaw

Carrie Bradshaw is basically my idol! Always has been too :) I love Sex and the City and have been a die hard fan since the 2nd season! And was deeply upset when they decided to "leave the party early" as Sarah Jessica Parker always said! Still do this day I always watch it :) And something I cant get enough of is the movie as well! I hated the idea that they were making it into a movie [and am FURIOUS they are pushing it by doing a second one] but it did grow on me and I always love watching these ladies... even though in the movie, it still doesn't seem like the same characters that were on the show. I dunno!

Last Christmas Jose seriously suprised me with the Sex and the City: The Wedding Collection DVD! I did not even say Ooh I want that! So I loved it! :)

Of course the day the movie was released on DVD I went out and bought myself a copy :)

And 4 years ago I spent the best 200 bucks ever on the entire series collection :)


And lately when I watch the movie, I can't get enough of Carries new apartment! They didn't show enough of it and I can't seem to find pictures of it on the internet but I did find these goodies and can oogle at this room all day!

photos courtesy of CasaSugar :)


How about you guys? Do you have a thing for Sex and the City? If not, what are some of your favorite TV/movie bedrooms? :)

I think I'll do another post about Carries old bedroom since that one was adorable!

Stuck in an Apartment Rut!

I am dying to do a million things to our lovely little apartment and can't! Why not? Because I have no clue what we are doing!

A couple posts back I mentioned how Jose's mom offered to put a down payment down for us to buy a 2 family house with his brother and his wife. Well, we went searching and looking and touring and NOTHING! Absolutely nothing. When it boiled down to it we realized... they have their taste, we have our taste. They have certain things they are looking for in a house, we have certain things we are looking for in a house. They want a newer house, we don't mind a fixer upper [at all!]. So Jose told his mom his concerns... how he [we] didn't really think this idea was going to go anywhere. Than she had another idea. She would split the money she would have given us all as an entire down payment and give Jose half of it and his brother half of it to go and find our own houses.

Jose didn't want to talk to his brother about it until he spoke with his mom face to face but the thought of us buying our own house has been stuck in our heads ever since. Hmm... our own house? We loved the idea, and whether or not his brother and his wife did they would most likely take the money either way and put it into a savings for their own house one day. But we couldn't afford the other half of the down payment all on our own. Than I remembered!

My grandfather, who has really taken on the "father figure" role in my life since my dad passed away 5 years ago, told me a couple months ago [before us moving out again was even a thought in our mind] that we "had to buy a house!" "now was the time!" "houses are cheap!" But we simply thought that was crazy. Than he threw in "I'll help you with the down payment."

And now his words are ringing in my ears again. Would he be willing to give us the second half of the downpayment? Ultimately now this all boils down to him. I'm going to have the big chat with him on Saturday and see what he will do. If he says no, than we will keep living in our apartment for now. If he says yes, it's time to go house hunting!

Which brings me to why I'm stuck in a rut... I have such a fever to change things in our apartment right now but I don't know if I will or not because until I talk to my grandpa, I won't know if we will move! Ay! Saturday needs to come quick... and grandpa needs to know if he helps us, he will get a HUGE christmas [thank you] gift. And my insides are telling me he will.

I'm just dying to change the carpet in our living room! I'm kinda tired of it... it sucks because we haven't even been living in our apartment for a year but we were in such a rush before to buy things and fill it and make it look cozy that now we are regretting it. Here is our living room now:

And we found this adorable rug at JCpenny for 150! [On sale too!] We both love it :)

And while we're at it. That wall color has GOT to go! I hated it after 5 months of living here! And I have decided it is being replaced by the lovely Oatbran from Valspar.

But the room I'm aching to redo is our computer/music/gym room. Ugh what a mess! The wall color has got to go from this disgusting dark blue [which is much darker than this flash shows]

To this cheery Valspar Summer Splash.

It's going to be accented with yellow and white curtains, yellow and green folders and boxes on the computer desk [from container store, all ready picked out!], and white bookcases and a white day bed or futon down the road.

BUT! None of that will happen until Saturday!! Ugh! Keep your fingers crossed for me!! :) Let's hope my grandpa loves me as much as I think he does [and he said he did!]

How To: Save Some Extra Cash

Jose and I have been spending alot of money lately - especially me on unnecessary things [such as my MAC purchases and my recent trip to Bliss with my best girl friend]. And now it has come to bite us in the ass. Yup we must officially start watching our lira! [italian for money]

The fall is coming and we have ALOT going on in the fall.. such as both our birthdays, our anniversary and halloween. Halloween and Christmas are my absolute favorite holidays [hence The Nightmare Before Christmas now being my favorite disney movie ever] and I can't decide which one I go nuts over more... I'm pretty sure it's Christmas but I feel like I decorate way more over the top for Halloween. And I want to be able to buy some more decorations for Halloween this year, as well as fall since its our favorite season. And we both work for CVS and both put out the fall decor in our stores and got CRAZY excited! We wanted to buy all the cute fall decor all ready...

BUT! We are extremely tight on money. So we have to cut back a little bit and let the money seriously only go to what it needs to [bill, gas and groceries - which we are fair about and cover every other week. This week is mine] We have set out some rules for ourselves and the more I think about it, we've been pretty good with some of them all ready! And some we need to get back on track with. So here is my little HOW TO SAVE SOME EXTRA CASH [more for myself]

1. Stay In More - For the most part Jose and I have got this part down. Other than some friends birthdays' we haven't really gone out too much this summer on weekends which is really good. And although we saw more movies this summer than we have in the past couple months [maybe like 4 lol] we haven't even gone out to do that too much. Only the movies we have been dying to see all year long [like Harry Potter!] But lately we have been noticing the ON DEMAND button on our remote and watching some free movies off cinemax and HBO on demand. The other day we watched ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS which we suprisingly liked alot (and I LOVED alvin and the chipmunks when I was little) and this morning we watched THE ROCKER (which was ok).

2. Eat Out Less - This is a big problem lately, for some reason. And more than anyone, this hurts Jose's wallet since he always insists on paying when we go out. So he said for an entire month we must try to only eat at home. Ay! It's not too hard all ready. Yesterday we made a big breakfast and a nice yummy dinner and were full! This morning so far, bowls of cereal :) and we have a TON of cereal! So I think we'll be okay

3. No Window Shopping! - My problem... because it is never just window shopping. I always end up buying something. And I seriously can not.

4. Walk the Dog - We can do things when we get home from work and do it free and still feel like we did something fun - without spending money! And how do we do that? Walk the dog! We can take our puppy for walks around the town, which we still have to do and really discover, or drive to a different town and go walking around there! Its a fun way to check out new places, do something for the day and still save money. That way we don't feel so BORING.

5. Work More - Simple. Why Work More? Because you get that extra money and even overtime pay which means KA-CHING! Work is not the most fun thing in the world, especially when you're in the same CVS all the time. Luckily I work at 3 different ones so I'm always with new people and different atmospheres [not all CVS's are made the same!]

So there are some 5 simple steps I must tell myself everyday! I MUST! Maybe you've been spending extra money and could take some of my steps. Or not. Either way, I've got to! :)

MAC Makeup Art... Yum!

I am a sucker for all things MAC. So when my best friend Esther told me her friend Lisa [who works for MAC] invited her to an event they were holding I was like "Yup! I'm there!" The event was showing off the upcoming fall collections and you could buy anything you wanted. The upcoming fall collections are the MAC Makeup Art Cosmetics Collection as seen by Richard Phillips, Maira Kalman, and Marilyn Minter.

We walked up to the MAC store to find a line going outside of the store! The event was PACKED! We have been to MAC events before but this was insane! They were passing out yummy hors devours and red wine, white wine and sparkling water. It was crazy. We were waiting outside for about a half hour before we actually got inside and looked at the collections. Needless to say, all of them were gorgeous but the one collection that called to me was Maira Kalman (illustrator) for MAC. Her collection POPPED! and I am all about the popping.

So I bought some pieces... couldn't go nuts cos I couldn't even be buying these pieces! These eyeshadows and eye liners were gorgeous, I couldn't say no.

Star Power:

Maira’s Magic:

Obviously Orange:


Colour Matters:


I have all ready worn all of them and am in love :) and am going back for Haunting! To get an extensive look at this collection and the other fall collections, head over to Temptalia which is seriously the best site out there for beauty! Especially MAC :)

Yearbook Yourself... Right Now!

You have to go to YearbookYourself.com right this minute! If you haven't all ready! lol

Today I walked past my computer room to see my boyfriend hysterically laughing at the computer screen. I walked in and looked at the screen to see this looking back at me:

This is my boyfriend! Generated to look like his yearbook photo was actually from the 50s [he was born in 1982!] lol I could not stop laughing and had to jump on this website and have some fun. It is Yearbook Yourself and you have to try it! It is hysterical and I could not stop laughing. lol Here are some of my favorite pictures.

This is me in the 70s... very Diana Keaton/Annie Hall don't you think? I LOVE this look lol

And in the 50s :)


The late 50s lol

Oh this one is too funny... I think the late 80s. lol

Kelly Kapowski baby!

This one is just weird looking lol

This one said it was YEAR 2000... And I swear, that IS my yearbook photo! lol How sad! I am a typical "2000s" yearbook photo!

Rush over to that site and have a laugh! lol

Limonata Vases :)

I love my mom :) she is always thinking of me and buying little things for me, even though I don't live home anymore. Like the other day when I stopped over her house after she went food shopping and she presented me with a lovely 6 pack of San Pellegrino Limonata. Sparkling Lemon water, yum! Well it was a bit sour but I still liked it!

The little bottles they came in were so cute, I couldn't throw them away! So I went with her to Sam's club, bought a big bouquet of mixed flowers for 20 bucks and voila! A new purpose for my adorable little pellegrino bottles. Here's one bottle on my kitchen counter:

And some more on my cookbooks in the kitchen [actually J's cookbooks :)]


Voila! Some new vases! For what? 10 bucks for 6? Nice score ma!

Fall Is Coming!!

It has begun to get a little breezy here in Jersey and today especially, feels like a nice October Day. Fall is my absolute favorite season [doesn't fall feel more like the "new year" than January does?] But apple and cinnamon candles, leaves turning gorgeous reds, oranges and yellows on trees, pumpkins! Ugh fall is just so beautiful :)

I love everything about more but I love nothing more than doing some new fall clothes shopping! I'm always getting the urge to buy new boots, new sweaters, new everything! So I've been scooping around some sites and found some goodies I might be snagging up for fall!

Every fall I say "I WILL DRESS A BIT PREPPY". My boyfriend has argyle sweaters before I do! But when I found this one from Old Navy I knew I had to have it! I will not let this one slip through my fingers!

Whether its summer, spring, fall or even winter I still love to wear dresses. And this dress from Old Navy is perfect for fall. With some boots and a blazer... its the perfect outfit to go pumpkin picking with! lol

No matter what time of year it is I am ALWAYS cold. The heat is always on on my side of my boyfriends car :) So when fall comes around I want nothing more than a ton of new sweatshirts and zip up hoodies. And over the years through my research and many purchases I have found that seriously American Eagle makes THE BEST hoodies and sweatshirts! Sooo warm, so comfy. All the hoodies and sweatshirts I own are from there! And this one is calling my name:

These boots are to die for! And of course where else will you find them? Piperlime!

What's your favorite season and what is it that calls to your senses when that season rolls around? And what are some things you're looking forward to in the fall? Let me know!