The Ones Who Live There

So, I realized that I have been having so much fun posting things I want to do to my house, I haven't really gone into the people who habitat it. So, let me take the time and introduce you to us:

Boyfriend and I had an unconvential start to our relationship, but we've helped each other grow and have stuck together through thick and thin. We have been with each other for 5 1/2 years, and really feel that we are just tapping the best times of our relationship.

When we met, we both lived in Utah. I was there for school, and he had just moved back from Hawaii. Due to some living complications, we ended up moving in with each other pretty quickly with some of our friends.

One of our roommates was a dog breeder, and we absolutely loved the mom, Honey. She was a honey brown colored Red Nose Pitbull. The dog she mated with was a blonde huge puppy like American Pitbull Titan.

One of the puppies had been owned by a few different family members and friends.

Aphrodite is one of the most caring, loving dogs we had ever met and we fell in love with her immediately, even before she was ours. We ended up pet sitting her often, and when her owner couldn't keep her anymore, we immediately took her in and gave her a permanent home. 

She is truly the goddess of love. Her favorite things in the world are cuddling and fetch. 

Before we had thought that we could have Dittie as our own, we had put a payment on a new puppy from the batch that Honey was going to have. So came along Spade.

When Spade was just a little puppy (like 1st picture status) we moved to California, aka, my home.

When we were in our first apartment out here, we, the obvious animal lovers we are, decided we needed a Kitten. So when our neighbors cat got pregnant and they were giving away kittens, we picked out Hendrix when he was only 2 hours old. He was such a cutie, and quickly was adopted by the girls as "their pet". Seriously, he thinks he's part dog. LOL!

It has been a wonderful journey, and boyfriend and I couldn't be happier with where we've ended up. We're excited that a new part of our journey together is just beginning too. 

Boyfriend has been offered a position in his company as an Jr. Engineer, and will be going back to school to for his engineering degree to continue to move up. 

As for me, I currently work as a Property Manager at a Real Estate Company. I plan on saving up to retake my test to get my Real Estate License, but that is to help my finances while I'm in school. I just started school again, after like 5 years or so. I'm going to pursue a passion that I've had since I was a child and have decided to study Ethology, which is the branch of Zoology that studies Animal Behavior. I've wanted to work with wild animals since I was a child, but kind of lost track of my dreams. I'm excited to be continuing with them. 

As you can see, we've approached very exciting times in our lives, and I'm excited to be announcing accomplishments that we have, apart from our new awesome place, that we can finally call home. 

~*Erin*~

$2 Art Gallery

My aunt really does have some cute ideas, especially for her kids. Both of them are pretty artistic, and she wanted to make something cute to hang their photos in the hall way. 

She found an old frame at a garage sale for $1. It had no glass and no backing, but it was huge! Using a staple gun, she added ribbon across the back and then glued scrapbook paper to clothespins. 

It is now a $2 art gallery for her girls and hangs in the hall between their bedrooms. 

She had seen a similar idea on pinterest using wire, and this worked out really well!!

Isn't that cute?

~*Erin*~

The New

Sunday was a pretty exciting day for us.

We hosted for the first time ever, a family dinner. My mother (who is amazing btw) was so excited, she brought me over some house warming presents.

I had told her that for the kitchen I wanted little pops of red, so she bought me this beautiful bowl, that I will probably fill with fruit. 

She also bought me this amazing table cloth and this basket. I'm not quite sure exactly what I'm going to do with the basket yet, but I love it and am excited to figure it out! Anyone have any suggestions? 

We also picked up our new bed! 

It was a house warming present from a friend of ours, who wasn't using it and was basically going to donate it or try to sell it anyways. 

Plus, remember that cute duvet I posted in my bedroom inspiration post? 

Well I'm getting it for my birthday next month!! Won't that look cute? 

Plus, since we have a new bed, we only thought it appropriate to buy our girls new beds as well, since we won't all fit on the queen. 

They love them. :-)

I'm really excited! Slowly but surely things are starting to come together. 

Here's a shot from my entrance way of how the front room is looking. Our first priority for the front room is to buy a chair to replace that awesome camp chair that boyfriend's been using as his gaming chair :-p. 

~*Erin*~

Inspiration- Living Room

Well, my living room is still looking pretty close to the same as this photo:

With the new addition of this on that far wall corner to the right of the blinds

We're not quite 100% certain on the direction we're going to go, but here's some inspiration and idea's that I have:

I basically am wanting the room to be soft, with more grey's, white's, teal's, blues, and soft natural greens/plants. I'm thinking I may also take the "furniture" direction more into browns and woods, rather than blacks. I'm not sure about the couch yet, boyfriend wants to keep the red, but I'm thinking more of a brown or grey or something. We may try out a cover or two to see what direction we'd like to take it. For now thought, I'm just trying to soften it up, not that I don't like the red, just not the direction I picture the house taking. :-)

And, as always, you can also check out more thoughts, ideas, and inspirations on my "new pad" pinterest, found here

~*Erin*~

Project and Inspirations- The Bedroom

Wow, I can't believe we've already been in our apartment for a month! 

For today's post, I thought I'd share with you some idea's I have for my least shared room, the bedroom. Color scheme: Grey and Yellow

I am determined to make this sign. It will absolutely be one of my projects. 

I'm also thinking that I may do kind of like a little bamboo themed table next to my window. I don't know yet though, just tossing around the idea. 

I'm so excited for our new bed to come so I can get started on doing things with the bedroom!

You can find links to all of these ideas off of my pinterest board, found here

~*Erin*~

Inspired Bathroom

I don't know about you, but I have a pretty awesome family! My lovely Aunt shared with me her most recent project, her girls Bathroom. 

I apologize for the lack of before photos, she didn't realize when doing the project that she'd be sharing photos and whatnot, but here's her story:

"My two girls share an upstairs bathroom. It is the standard construction installed vanity with ugly counter tops and horrible white tile flooring. So, when they were gone for two weeks my husband and I did a little 'mini makeover' to brighten it up a bit. 

A few years ago I had found a cute beach themed shower curtain dirt cheap at Ross, which I used as our starting point. We didn't want to spend much money, so we tried to use mostly things we had on hand. We painted with leftover paints that we combined into a pretty turquoise. 

The biggest issue in the bathroom was storage, there is always stuff all over the counters. To combat this, I purchased two 11 x 14 frames at the Dollar Store and painted them white." 

Quick Tip: When painting items like this, don't forget to put push pins in the bottom to suspend them while you are painting, it will keep the frame from sticking as it dries. 

"Once the frames dried, I added cork board to one and a left over piece of screen my husband painted to the other. It is a great way to keep all the earrings accessible and looking tidy. Underneath that, my husband slightly distressed a piece of board from the garage and added some knobs from Walmart ($2 for 4!) to round up all the necklaces and bracelets. 

Since neither of my kids know what a towel rack is used for I removed it out and added towel hooks instead. Believe it or not, the towels actually end up on the hooks and not the floor! To make it look good, my husband painted another piece of wood and added the BEACH letting in the same color we had used on the walls. I found orange 'beach' towels at WalMart for $3 each and an adorable hamper in the same orange at Marshalls ($12). 

I also have a nice big orange floor mat to cover up some of the white tile ($12 at Target). One of the better organizing ideas we used was to hang a shoe holder behind the door. This holds a manner of headbands, hair clips, body spray, lotion... you name it! I had the shoe holder in the garage for some reason, it is pretty heavy duty. I have had the plastic ones fall apart on me pretty quickly, but this one is very sturdy. 

All together I spent $42 and the bathroom is a lot nicer to be in and has honestly stayed much neater." 

Thank you Aunt Louise for sharing!!

She has a lot more projects coming up and has graciously agreed to share as they come up, so expect several more posts featuring her. 

~*Erin*~