Looking Ahead to Valentine's Day

I know it seems like Valentine's Day is far, far away, but in reality, it is just around the corner.  I typically don't get into Valentine's Day.  I have a few reasons. 1. I don't have a "valentine." 2. I hate red & pink together. 3. I do not care for the heart shape. Just not my thing. I'm very girly but i'm not a girly girl in that way.  I typically like to gloss right over Valentine's Day and skip to Mardi Gras (Mardi Gras > Valentine's Day in more ways than I can count), but this year I think it might be fun to plan something in non-celebration of Valentine's instead.


I think it would be super fun to have a Valentine's Day gathering with friends- single or not- either the weekend before or on Valentine's Day (a Tuesday this year).  I would theme everything in bright candy colors and include balloons, cocktails and sweets!  You could always asks guests to contribute to potluck dishes if you are on a budget. 


Here are some great ideas floating around on pinterest for Valentine's Day.  

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Source: wanelo.com via Katelyn on Pinterest

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Live life to the fullest & enjoy any excuse to celebrate friendships that are dear to you! 

Is It Really That Time... Already?

Is it just me, or are people buzzing about Christmas way earlier this year?  I feel like an old fuddy duddy saying this, but when I was a kid, I really thought the Christmas rush didn't start until after Thanksgiving.  Maybe I am just more aware now.

At any rate, I recently started putting together a list of what I need to buy for Christmas in an attempt to start buying now and buy gifts gradually.  This will be really helpful for my bank account, I hope. It will also give me more time to find things I really like for people.  As much as I hate spending the money, I do enjoy the process of finding gifts for others (and hey, for myself!) and I'm told by a lot of people that I have great taste, so hopefully they like what I pick.  Of course, there are the standard hard-to-buy-for people on my list.  I have just learned to coax such people into telling me about SOMETHING that they want! Anything! 

This Christmas, I'm really going to make it a focus of mine to buy gifts from small businesses as much as possible- through etsy and through online websites.  It is so easy to support small businesses from wherever you are these days! 

I am definitely noticing some trends in potential holiday gifts.  There have been some wonderful DIY ideas floating around on pinterest.  Everything from jolly rancher-infused vodka to homemade hand and foot sugar and salt scrubs.  In the past, I've gone for homemade baked goodies as gifts for people and I still may do that this year.  

Otherwise, I'm really feeling monogramed gifts this Christmas.  I'm sure I'll post some ideas about what's on my list when I figure that out!  I'm trying to make more effective use of pinterest as a tool by "pinning" great gift ideas that I find online so I don't lose track of them. 

Are you ready for the season yet? 

Oh yes- and for posterity's sake, congratulations to my newly engaged best friend, Miss Courtney!  I'm sure her wedding happenings will be well documented on this blog... eventually! 

Making Plans

Update: I don't know what's up with the embed feature on pinterest.  When I wrote this post and scheduled it, everything looked perfect. When I saw it this morning, everything had gone haywire.  I fixed the order of the pictures, but I'm not sure if the embed feature is working at all- my apologies.  If anyone is interested in where something came from (you'd be able to find that through pinterest if the feature was working properly!!) just let me know and I'm more than happy to share. It is also making my spaceing really spastic which is driving me crazy, but oh well.  My non-html savvy self can only do so much!

I wrote a previous post about wanting to make some changes to the "bedroom" in my apartment.  (Since I live in a studio, it is more like a bedroom area than an actual bedroom.)  Since that post, I've made some progress & decisions about the direction I want to go in.  As I said before, I am trying to be a little more intentional about decorating in this go-round.  When I first decorated my place, I was in such a hurry to get it all done that I didn't give a ton of thought to things.  I'm still very happy with the result, but I just wanted to try something different this time around to see how it goes. 


So, here's where I am so far:


First of all, I decided to use the lamp I posted about yesterday as my color inspiration. 

You can follow this embedded feature to a website that has some wonderful color palette inspirations! This is the closest I could find to what I'm thinking of, but I think I want something a little softer overall.  





I also ordered this bedding set from Rue La La.  It (still!) hasn't arrived, so I'm not 100% committed to it, but I think it is a great starting point and will add a modern element to the "design."  Instead of accenting with coral, I will be accenting with purple tones and a hint of green.





I also ordered the quilt in the picture below for the bed in the lilac color.  (I found it on ebay for a deep discount!) 





I know I want to keep the rest of the bed simple with neutral sheets in a beige or linen tone, or perhaps an extremely subtle pattern.  I'm planning to scout out some sheet sources and add those to my Christmas wish list since I know the sheets can definitely wait a while. By the way: do you have a favorite type or brand of sheets? My favorites came with a "bed in a bag" so of course I cannot find similar ones. 


In terms of the pillows, the bedspread has two matching shams.  I didn't order matching Euro shams for the quilt, but I think I may try to scout some out on ebay so the bed stays streamlined. Since I want to accent the bed with a big lumbar or bolster pillow, I think three main fabrics (four counting sheets) will be plenty!  Speaking of accent fabrics, here is the one I'm currently leaning towards:





So what are your thoughts on my plans? Crazy? Boring? Somewhere in the middle? 

I Like My Blog How I Like My Blog

When I read this post by Jenn last week, I was jumping up and down in my mind saying, "yes!!! that is exactly how I feel too!!" Here's what Jenn had to say that was so well put I can't even try to put it in my own words:

Sometimes the pressure to write something great keeps me from writing at all. After doing this blogging thing for more than 3 years, I sometimes feel like I should have evolved into this skilled writer, perfectly parlaying my thoughts and feelings into beautiful words that tug at the heart strings of anyone who reads it and makes everyone want to be my best friend.

And then I get shoved off my high horse for being so pretentious and I remember it’s a blog. It doesn’t have to be anything spectacular. It’s supposed to be fun and a sort of Room of Requirement for me – whatever I need it to be at a a given time, it is.

I absolutely love this for so many reasons.  I started blogging for me and I will continue blogging for me.  I'm so happy it has allowed me to connect with others, but if I get too caught up in blogging what people expect me to blog about, I can literally feel the genuine-ness slipping away. And that's no good for me or for the people who read this blog.  Sometimes you might think what I write about it super boring, and sometimes it might be.  But writing this blog is supposed to be cathartic for me. And if the only people who enjoy reading it are my best friends, that's okay sometimes.  If other people enjoy it too, that's just the icing on the cake. [Yum, cake.] 

Anywho, I say all of this to preface the extremely random post that will follow. 

• I don't think there are many greater feelings in the world than going to sleep with a clean kitchen and waking up to a clean kitchen.  Brings me so much joy to have a fresh start in the morning.  And I can sleep with a dirty kitchen (some people cannot) but only if I am extremely tired. 
• I am totally back on the smoothie train and I'm not sure why I ever got off because this smoothie I'm drinking is deee-lish. I started using frozen fruit instead of fresh fruit (cheaper now that berries are going out of season- at least I think it's cheaper...) and let me just say- YUM.  I love fresh berries but the frozen berries make the smoothie so. cold. without watering the smoothie down with ice.  I'm totally down with that.

• If I don't have my gmail open in the left-most tab of my safari window, I will open another tab because I think it isn't open.  Old habits die hard.
• I'm not sure if it is great or awful that Whole Foods- my most-frequented grocery store- does not sell velveeta. Sometimes there is nothing better on gameday than some velveeta queso. I'm pretty sure there's also little out there worse for your body, so maybe it's not the worst thing. 
• Speaking of velveeta, I recently tried this recipe for cheese dip. I left out the bacon because I didn't have any on hand and didn't want to buy any, but yum-o! The addition of the worcestershire really kicked up the flavor.

via pinterest

• Although I'm not sure that Columbus Day is a holiday that makes a ton of sense, I am very glad I had the day off from work.  I had to write a paper that was due that night and it was so nice to be able to do that without having to work through both Saturday & Sunday- especially since I was working on other papers and projects on those days. The to-do list of a grad student never ends. I know we all feel like that sometimes.
• Speaking of grad school, I'm about to start on my paper about a Congressional hearing and my background noise of choice is season 6 of The West Wing. I know I am such a cliché right now and I couldn't be happier about that. I like what I like. 

Inspiration Images

So about a month ago, Eliza (who was sleeping in my bed at the time) got sick.  Let's just say my comforter was ruined.  I felt more bad for her because she was so sick than mad about the comforter.  But, since then- she's been sleeping on the floor.  It was a long time coming anyway and I really needed to break the habit of her sleeping in the bed. 

Anyway, even before the incident I was thinking of upgrading my bedding.  Now I have the perfect excuse! 


One thing about redoing my bedding is that I want to be a little more intentional about it than I have been in decorating my apartment in the past. I love the way my apartment turned out, but I want to try out redoing my bedding with using more inspiration images and having more of a "plan."  In the past, I've gone with coordinated bedding from Pottery Barn or other stores like that.  And I'm not ruling that out this time either, but I think I want to mix it up a little bit.  Here are some of my inspirations...

via pinterest

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By the way, three of these images are of rooms designed by Sarah Richardson, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite designers.   I love how she can make rooms look formal and casual and personal at the same time. 


I'm still having trouble deciding exactly what I want to do, but I for sure love looking at these pictures! 

My Weekend

I'm sharing some of my most recent favorite pins from pinterest in this post for a little eye candy!

Source: room-galleries.myhomeideas.com via Katelyn on Pinterest

This weekend has been surprisingly fabulous.  Saturday morning started early, as I woke up and rushed to get my laundry in the washing machines.  I wanted to make sure that if we lost power, I at least had some clean clothes to sit around in!  

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After I got the laundry done on Saturday, I cleaned my entire apartment- including vacuuming, dusting, mopping, and cleaning the bathroom from top to bottom. It feels so nice to be typing this in my nice and clean apartment!  

While I waited out the storm, I got to relax and hang out around the apartment.  Let me say that the storm was a great excuse to do nothing! I think we all needed that!

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Today, I went to brunch with a friend and then laid out by the pool for a bit.  It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day.  It was great to sit by the pool and soak up the sun!

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The fall semester of school starts up again tomorrow and this is a great way to start it off.