Some fabulous things to report! I have finally photographed my apartment and now everyone can see my progress with it!

First of all, my newest addition, meet Penelope!

I found this BRAND NEW mixer at Target for 1/2 of the usual price. Truly one of my best finds ever.

Next I found this hand container for all my nail polish to keep it upright. 

You would not believe how long I've been looking for something exactly like this and I got this one for $3!

Random other thing – those of you who really know me know that I am obsessed with the show Gilmore Girls. I was super excited when a character from that show own an Emmy this year for his work on the HBO film Game Change.

Now, on to the apartment!

Here is storage central, a combination of a storage tower and the wire rack I bought at Costco  earlier this summer. I'm storing food on the rack (haphazardly as you can see) and crafting supplies in the drawers. 

My record player has found a new home in my old suitcase. 

So precious.

Here is my, slightly filthy, living room. I'm working on organizing all the stuff 

behind the chairs but it's hard with just one closet.

My DVDs! Yay! I found a place for all of them (or most, as you will see).

Speaking of which, here are the rest of them! I have all my DVD series over here. 

I also put together those crates (and stained them, see previous post) that contain my VHS tapes (for 2 for $1 at Goodwill why not by Jungle 2 Jungle).

My deck needs work. I have to find a system of using all that cord to make my temporary drying lines. Otherwise though it's very awesome for storage and early morning coffee.

Here are my awesome bathroom decorations. I framed Gray's Anatomy pages for the walls. Pretty nice, huh.

I

My fancy soap dish and lavender on the counter.

My thrifted crystal stand with my precious jewels.

My trusty comb holder – and me creepin' in the background.

More bathroom decorations!

The wall I'm almost finished decorating in my living room. Most of the images I framed except some of the flowers and the old guy who has been seen in all of my homes :)

 My incoming table when you enter the apartment has some weird dried plants, a lamp, and my scentsy thing! It also has Sid, my balsa wood dinosaur.

Those racks allll came from the dollar store!

This one too!

More later, but for now I hope this gives a good idea of how awesome my apartment is going to be!

Things are, at last, coming together for my little apartment. I have invested in some appliances (more on that later) and a vacuum to suck up the amazing amount of dust and debris left behind from moving. I have a decorated living room and bathroom and work on the bedroom is commencing today. I think that with another few weeks I'll be ready to host guests for dinner or tea! Yay!

Today I'm going to relax, knit, clean and perhaps plot my world domination via apartment organization.

I'll be cleaning up the entire apartment today, something I've decided to spend my Sunday's doing, so perhaps when I have finished I can post some images of my lovely little dwelling's progress.

I had my first frightening - living on your own is not the best idea - moment tonight when I almost fell on my head in the shower. I don't actually know if I would have fallen on my head or even if it would have caused damage but regardless it was scary. I over-conditioned my hair and all the run-off created quite the slippery situation.

I think I need to get Life Alert – ask my sister, Goob, about how important it is for people living on their own to have it.

The moving in has been done for quite some time and the living alone has been going on for over a month now (woah!). I suppose it's high time I get everything out of boxes and deal with all of my junk. It's hard to spend time unpacking and organizing when I can now make food and sit on a chair without boxes and stuff impeding that from happening. In any event I need to get things together here soon or I'm just really pathetic. And I need to take pictures!

Speaking of pictures, I took some really cool pictures with my phone when I was out on Orcas Island with my family over the weekend (hah! I bet you thought I'd add some, but I didn't!). I did seven loads of laundry at the house we rented because laundry in my apartment is $2.25 a LOAD and I am not going to support that highway robbery. Now all the clothes/towels/sheets I accumulated over the past month and a half are clean! Now I won't have to do laundry until Halloween.

On that note I leave you, dear reader, with what I'm going to be for Halloween this year:

Now I just need to learn how to whistle and buy a blonde wig.

It's been almost a month since I took the plunge into alone-living. I have absolutely LOVED it 99.9% of the time. But when I'm putting up a shower curtain, or I shake a martini too hard and throw it all over my kitchen, or I make waaaay too much food I wish there was someone else here to at least witness it.

Last night was the first time I thought I was going to wake up with some psycho knife-wielding man standing over my bed. It seems like that was bound to happen and I fell asleep eventually so I guess it's okay to have those thoughts every now and then. I can't remember if I mentioned it before or not but I chose to change the locks on my apartment since my management company doesn't do it automatically (DUMB!). It cost me $70 but the peace of mind it's given me has been well worth it.

This upcoming week will be a short one, I have the day off today from work and it's my first paid holiday ever. I'm going to brave the 50% sales at the thrift stores to find some more apartment items before watching some serious movies before I go back to the grind tomorrow. Friday I meet up with my family on Orcas Island which is very exciting. Despite being able to see the San Juan Islands for the last four years I've never been out to them so I'm pretty excited. And seeing Your Sister's Sister definitely made me want to trek out there.

Wish me luck on the sales! I neglected to realize that putting up all of my art in my living room would leave nothing for my bedroom so half my apartment looks homey and the rest looks like a mental ward.

I'm so burnt out on cleaning and unpacking and doing dishes and unpacking and driving and driving and driving in a three mile circle from my old house to my new apartment.

I am, at last, finished moving things. But I'm far from finished unpacking/organizing/agonizing.

This morning I went to make breakfast and realized I hadn't cleaned up after my last pickling session (I'm really into pickles) and I have dishes on top of dishes to do.

Anyway, I'm exhausted and have spent the morning watching T.V. and working on a college survival guide for my sister.

Now it's all about this:



And perhaps I'll bring myself to unpack my final boxes today, or not.

Update! I have officially and 100% moved out of my house. I can't believe I lived there so long and accumulated so much junk over the years. I moved probably 85% of it to my apartment and already I'm starting to comb through and get rid of things. I've made a ton of trips to Goodwill and Value Village to drop stuff off which leads to purchasing things and the cycle just never ends.

I'm trying to be more conscious about what I bring into this new space and make sure that it's utilitarian and will last.

For instance, I bought this table:

I got it for $15 and the chair for $4 because it's a good size, it's made of wood, it has four legs and it was cheap! The top is solid wood which is more than I can say for the other tables I was looking at from Target, Ikea, etc. which were $60 at least and particle board covered in vinyl.

I've been *ahem* obtaining lavender from around town and stuffing vases/chairs with it to freshen up the apartment which has an odd odor I can't stand.

I reused a bathroom rack to put canned items and bulk foods on. 

It fits perfectly in the corner by my fridge and that was better than throwing it away.

All of the racks seen in my cupboard are from the Dollar Store! Incredible! They are cheap, yes, but it lets me store things like this instead of stacked which makes them harder to access. 

It also helps because my dish drying rack is incredibly tiny and it's nice to put plates back in the cupboard.

More of my new apartment to come. I keep stuffing it with things and then trying to re-organize them to make them disappear from sight but that has slowed down as I have filled underneath my bed and all of my totes and whatnot in the living room. I'm going to end up like Carrie on Sex and the City and have sweaters in my stove. Well maybe not, but I will have Halloween decorations in the cabinet above my fridge.

Just a quick update before I run away again.

I finally got internet in my apartment (which took a grand total of 27 minutes to call and find out I just had to physically move my modem to my apartment...) which hopefully will mean more blogging, yay!

Thanks to everyone who apparently reads this, I see my "views" count tick upwards but I never hear from anyone so I just continue writing and hope that someday someone will comment or mention liking something.

It's been two weeks since I got the keys to my very own apartment and these 14 days have been filled with ups and downs. I can definitely say moving is harder than I imagined and definitely more stressful than I would like to admit. I would label myself as an independent young woman and it was horribly difficult to ask for help from people but I did and I was glad that I finally caved and stared bribing people to help me. With the help of my friends about 98% of my stuff is here and the rest is probably going to be donated to Goodwill or thrown away. I think that moving has been great for me, a hoarder, to go through all of my things and decide whether or not it was worth moving my collection of soggy sidewalk chalk or not. I did keep two giant t.v.s, a lot of cookery that I probably will never use and some other knick-knacks but I figure someday they will come in handy. I'm also working very hard to figure out storage in this new abode; my old house had basically unlimited storage between closets, cubbies and a giant shed so having one closet (UGH) and a deck makes things difficult.

I will have more photos to post as I continue to organize and decorate. I moved my sewing machine, I just need something to put it on to get started on some of my drape projects and fix my bathroom curtain. In the meantime I'm scouring Goodwill and Value Village to find a dining room table and chairs and a couch. Now, when I find that couch let's hope it shrinks or can fold or deflate to fit into the back of my car otherwise I'm in real trouble.

Moving is almost complete. Today I did this:

I got my keys! The fun has begun.

I picked them up earlier this week and started the moving process. Since I work full-time (yay!) I don't have a lot of time during the week to move things. Therefore this weekend is going to be moving pandemonium.

The apartment is not all I want it to be, in my haste to look at this unit I neglected to notice that unlike the downstairs unit it only has one closet instead of two. I'm pissed, I have waaaay too much stuff to fit into one closet. Now I have to get uber creative in order to maximize what little storage I do have and perhaps create some more areas. I have thought about purchasing some wire or plastic shelving to put into the corner of the living/dining area but it would just be so ugly and out in the open. I'm hoping that by utilizing bins and shelves in the one closet I can avoid exposing all my junk.

Being an adult is hard, and being an adult with two places of residence and roommates and bills and Netflix is even harder. I'm trying not to stress out about getting everything moved since I have until August 30th to be completely out of my house. That day will creep up on me, that I am sure of.

For now I am budgeting (more on that in a minute) and trying to figure out how to move everything in my car without going insane.

Tutorial on sea canvases!

I have finished my canvases and now I have a very simple tutorial on how to do them:

Supplies needed:

- Brushes

- Canvases, I got mine in packs of two on sale at a craft store

- Paint (I used latex exterior paint) either in one color or multiple 

depending on what you'd like the finished product to look like

- Pencils & erasers

- Bucket with water for brush washing

- Rag/paper towel to clean up drips

- Cardboard/drop cloth to work on

Directions

• Figure out what you want to silhouette, I chose to do the background in color but you could do it the opposite way
• Find images online to use for the figures
• Either a.) freehand the outline LIGHTLY in pencil from the image or b.) print the image, cut it out and trace it LIGHTLY onto the canvas
• At this stage it should look something like this:

This is Ed, the lobster.

• Now just paint around the outline, carefully
• Apply coats as needed, I used exterior latex paint so it only took two coats, less intense paint might need more.
• Work quickly and smoothly to ensure nice crispy lines - clean off brush frequently 
• Be sure to let coats dry before applying more

Tad-ah! My finished products:

 Ed!

 Tabitha, the octopus

 Lilly, who is hard to see but is a beautiful jellyfish.

Finally, Earl, the seapony. 

The only thing I would have done differently is using a dark drawing pencil which made keeping track of the lines easy but I couldn't erase the whole outline from Earl or Lilly which is not super noticeable but it annoys me.

Good luck! Send me your results!

DIY Part Two

Today was a beautiful hot day here which is extremely rare. I spent most of the day outside under my porch painting and crafting. Here are some pictures of what I did and I will update with more once everything dries/I finish everything up.

Here are some embroidery hoops I bought that I put pictures from books in. 

I buy  random books with nice scenery at thrift stores for cheap and 

then do things like this with them.

The final shots of my stained crates. 

They await to be assembled and placed in my new apartment.

My workspace of sorts. 

That giant piece of cardboard is so handy.

The hoops that need something in them still.

Hard to see but that's the outline of a lobster I painted. 

More photos to come of all the cool paintings I did yesterday!

The beginning of my summer DIY projects! I'm huge on DIY and hope to keep cranking out projects until my apartment is beautiful.

The first few photo are my tables and crates prior to painting/staining. I got all the paint from samples of blues that were kind of donated to me. I chose a reddish purple stain and because I'm an idiot and didn't shake the can one of the crates which is unpictured is waaaay darker than the ones shown I'm going to have to stain the others to match - oh well, I've learned a valuable lesson about wood staining.

The crates are going to be turned into a bookshelf. The small tables will be bedside tables and the larger will be the main coffee table. Yay decorating!

Just received a call that I was approved for the apartment I looked at! I feel like a real live adult now.

My brain is swimming with crafty ideas and I'm excited to not only start fresh but on my own. I think this will be a great step forward for me and I'm really excited.

On a more depressing note I have to leave the house I've called home for over three years. Mostly this means I have a ton of stuff to get rid of in a quick time frame which stinks.

Apartment hunting continues. I have one pretty much selected but I have to view the actual unit before I can put down a deposit on it. There is someone living in the unit making viewing it difficult. I'm having nightmares that there is a large hole or burned part of the carpet under a couch or something I won't see until I actually move in.

The real estate company I'm working with I'm sure is getting annoyed with my constant calling and pestering but since I've only worked with a couple who privately owns the house I rent I have a lot of questions! Where can I park my scooter? When can I move in? When do I need to pay everything? Why? Why? Am I approved yet? Why?

In the meantime I wait for news back and I plot decorating ideas.

Thus far my Ikea wishlist is four PDF pages long and will cost me $417 but who's counting anyway -- right?

Mostly I want my own space to craft and nap and do all the fun things I love. I'm still deciding if I really need two enormous televisions in a one bedroom unit or if that's just something I want. Keeping me absolutely ridiculously heavy T.V. might be easier than trying to get rid of it in its current condition but it's going to take a crane to move into the second floor units I've been looking at.

Wish me luck, I'm off to visit what might be the apartment.

Turned in an application for an apartment today! I'm more than super excited to live by myself after 22 years of living with others. I can do all my super secret alone behaviors all the time! But mostly I'm excited to be able to grow and learn more about myself without other people around to depend on.

Attempting to become a "real adult" has proved more difficult than I imagined it would.

My new job is fabulous, I'm settling into a new routine and trying to force myself into a normal sleep schedule.

On other fronts I'm becoming a tad frantic.

I need to find an apartment before August 30th. I have some wants and needs for specifications, a price range, etc. but finding affordable housing is hard. Being a real adult in the sense that I will get to live all by myself will be wonderful but getting there has turned out to be quite the process. I have emailed probably half a dozen landlords/real estate companies about different apartments and houses for rent and have always gotten bad results. If something is posted on craigslist at 10:30 it seems strange that in an email at 2:30 the unit already has someone in it. Regardless I think I've found something that will work - it meets most of my specifications and it's cheap which is more than I can say about the rest of the places I've been in love with. A co-worker from my old job (hi Georgia!) would be my neighbor in the building and it would be fun to know someone in close proximity. I think I will sacrifice location for price and in-unit laundry for limited number of units and multiple laundry facilities.

Now, another challenge has presented itself that I haven't had to apply for an apartment before. I live in a house that is privately owned and let's just say the landlords are rather loose and fancy-free with their lease agreements/tenant arrangements. It's been a fine arrangement for me but now I'm freaked out about applying for a REAL apartment. I also will probably have to overlap this rent with the other and run into some issues there.

We shall see!

For now I'm researching how to make furniture out of pallets and old grandma things for cheap.

Exciting news! I have accepted a position! I'm an actual, full-fledged, adult type now. I'm now also looking for an apartment, considering new phone options, and perhaps looking into getting a kitten or something.

I feel fabulous and excited to start my adult-type life.

More updates to come as I navigate apartment hunting and all that.

I think today's interview went well - it was a very different company than anything I've ever worked for but it's an exciting company.

I have one tomorrow on the books for the company I interviewed for twice over the weekend and then I don't know where things are headed, hopefully towards employment.

For now I'm exhausted from all the getting dressed and driving and waiting and talking and waiting and talking. I'm going to watch Charlie Rose do a tribute to the wonderful and inspiring Nora Ephron.

Interview today went well. I have another interview on Tuesday with the company which is exciting. I'm getting nervous about all these interviews back to back messing with my mind.

I have the interview tomorrow afternoon that I need to prep for. I spent some time organizing my clothes this afternoon so I have that out of the way. It seems like finding a blazer this time of year is unheard of. I only have one grey one and it's hard to find one at a decent price IN MY SIZE around here.

Apparently people don't wear blazers in the summer? What if we have four job interviews in four days? What then!

I have decided the two questions that are super important to me at this point are whether or not my pb&j family will have a place at my desk/cubicle/area and if I can have control over my nail color. Other than that I'm getting used to having really cool and complete introductions to companies as part of the interviewing process.

The more I think about my post last night the more I worry that I will have to give up some of the fun things I wear/do in order to be a real adult type.

I wear weird bows in my hair, I have a striped blazer that resembles Beetlejuice, I used to have my septum pierced (I still do, technically, I just don't really wear it), the list goes on.

Sometimes my hair looks like this:

Sometimes when it rains I wear my dinosaur raincoat:

 Sometimes I wear my kitten sweater to work; what's wrong with that?

I'm just concerned I will lose my ability to be me and have to be office drone #12. Hopefully my first job will fulfill all my hopes and dreams of being freeform and fancy and I will be able to wear kitten sweaters on occasion or dinosaur jackets.

I have an interview at 3 so I'm going to go run around the lake to release some of my energy but I'm still concerned with the state of my outfits.

How did that interview go you might ask? Splendidly, that's how. I think I will now set the record for most interviews in a row, over a weekend, with least amount of notice.

1. 7 minutes notice - today
2. 12 hours notice - I have another interview tomorrow afternoon
3. Two days notice - the interview I have Monday I'm not going to cancel

Wowie wow wow

This is really putting my styling/nail painting/hair curling skills to the test. I recently invested in some hot rollers and now I'm going to be one of those women hot rollering while sipping tea and doing my neutral looking make-up simultaneously.

But seriously, I paint my nails fuschia, I have unnaturally black hair, I like a nice winged liner - I need to figure out this whole work appropriate/not business real quick.

Day 21!

I am officially three weeks graduated - yay!

In other exciting news I am moving forward with not one but two job opportunities. I have an interview Monday with a fancy pants company that sells organic food stuffs and I had a quick and spontaneous interview today with another company.

What will I do if both give me some sort of offer you ask? I have no idea is the answer. The interview I had today was extremely thought-provoking and interesting but you never know until you get there what's going to be the best fit.

In the meantime I'm trying to find outfits for all these things and keep my nails/hair looking half decent. I definitely DID NOT look up to snuff this morning at my interview because it was a interview of much haste not preparation and no one was too concerned about my appearance (okay that's a lie, I was). I need to get some polaroids going of my best professional attire so I can throw things together in a hustle, and yes, I mean polaroids - hasn't anyone seen Clueless?

Anyway, I must go so I can clean up my room and organize my closet.

Day 19 and feelin' fresh!

I got an email back from the law firm and didn't get an interview yesterday - not too bummed about it but it's kind of upsetting I can't even get a foot in the door anywhere.

In other news, I've started having a delicious fruit smoothie for breakfast, as seen above. This morning was frozen honeydew and mango (instead of ice), strawberries, cantaloupe and a smidgen of Greek yogurt. I'm hoping this will boost my early day energy so I can finish projects and jobs I've started. I need to get a blender, however, because I've been using a knock-off magic bullet and it doesn't like to blend the frozen fruit chunks.

Embarrassingly I haven't finished my thank cards from my graduation party so I need to keep going on that.

Day 18!

I got an email from something I applied for saying I hadn't sent any attachments with my original email - doh! But at least I had a almost human contact with something I applied for. Whew. I'm now wondering if I'll get an interview because they are taking place this afternoon.

I went on another lonnnng walk this morning complete with snakes and slugs. I grabbed a few rocks in each hand and did some walking/old lady walking aerobics as I was going along. I think I can get into this. And I feel INSANE.

I went on a long walk around a local lake today to clear my head and get some much needed exercise. It's been really easy to fall into getting up, searching the web for jobs, sending in some job applications and otherwise moping around the rest of the day. I have to work pretty hard to get out of bed and get moving but today I conquered my mind and bad attitude and got some fresh air. I feel better, clearer, and more invigorated overall. I made a delicious pasta dish for dinner with kale, avocado, pesto, tomatoes, and a fried egg. I'm hoping I can continue to improve my life while I'm in this waiting period so I don't go crazy and become obese.

Woof!

It's been a little while. I'm trying to stay active, motivated, and engaged in things even though it seems pretty disparaging at this point. I graduated 17 days ago and still nothing. I've applied for upwards of 30 positions now I think and I'll keep going as long as I have to. I haven't gotten into applying for weird temp jobs or dog walking quite yet but I guess that's the next logical step for me to take.

Yesterday I was feeling particularly blue so I went to the local thrift store and got some cool stuff. I got a mug for my boyfriend, an American Eagle skirt for $1.29, and some cool Japanese tea mugs for $1.29 a piece. I also went to the fabric store and got some small amounts of fabric and made headband things and some adorable hair bows. I wish I could just craft my way out of unemployment. I've looked into doing an etsy but I don't know that I have enough stuff/skills to do something like that.

I wish I could make a living reading books, lake swimming, drinking tea, making crafty things, and watching movies. If I could I'd be one happy clam.

In other news I really want this swimsuit:

It's $90 or else I'd be all over it. It's from Black Milk Clothing which seems really cool. Maybe I'll start making my own this summer for something to do with all this free time.