Budget

One of the things that's been on my mind is my finances.  Since the separation, I am not completely in control over my money and my cash flow.  I also moved back home in order to pay off some debt (credit card and car loan) and save some money.

I was hoping that this whole process would go faster, but I know that no matter what it just takes some time to get things paid off.  I hope that after I get the credit card paid off I can go to a cash based system and not put anything on a credit card (unless there is some major emergency.)  The thing is paying it off is a slow process...

Getting the idea of my budget has been a bit of a new experience for me.  I am very numbers oriented (hey, I was an accounting major for a whole year in college) so I didn't think it would be too challenging.  But it's more difficult than I realized.  I am struggling with figuring out how much to put into savings, how big a payment to make, how much of a balance to keep in checking, etc etc etc.

I know that it will all come with time... especially since there are some circumstances/timing that's been a bit out of my control. For instance... I have to get my plates renewed and personal property and Christmas spending.... just things that I can't really avoid right now.  Also, my paycheck will change at the beginning of the year since I will no longer be covering his health insurance.  That should increase my paycheck a bit.  So I think that once the new years comes around I'll have a better idea of a budget.

I also decided that instead of saving and paying off debt, that I will concentrate on paying off the debt.  The debt has interest associated with it.  The quicker I can get rid of interest bearing payments the less I will spend over time.  I'm saving a bit each paycheck (not much) but at least it's something.

The other thing that will come up is this stupid divorce.  I am dreading having to pay for it, and as I already mentioned, I don't really feel like I should have to pay for it at all.  I think he should have to incur that cost.  I feel like it's just such a waste of money...

I make a New Years resolution each year, and I'm hoping that this year I can come up with a good one that will address paying off debt and saving money.

I want to be able to move out on my own again.  While living at home hasn't been that bad, I know that I need to get out and do my own thing.  I want to for sure get the credit card and car paid off before moving out.  I would also like to get some savings going - especially since when I do move out it will cost money for somethings I'll need that I just don't have (some furniture, cleaning supplies, random things...) not to mention I won't be able to mooch off the food and supplies at home.  I know that will be an adjustment and I would really like to be able to have some savings going.  Ideally, I would find a roommate, but I'm feeling like that might not happen... not ruling anything out, but realistic about the chances of it actually happening.

I don't feel like I've been smart with money in the past.  Like when I moved home from college and got an apartment before I had a job.  This is the time for me to do things right and get set in a budget.  I think there's a way for me to get that all done... but I'll have to work for it.  It's not something that just happens over night which is frustrating.  But I am really looking forward to the day where I pay off my credit card... and then a couple of months later when I pay off my car.  Those will be some good feelings!

I just need to get through December first!

Arrangement - Need Your Help

In my last post I mentioned hanging up wedding photos.  It's true... it's almost been three years and I'm FINALLY hanging up wedding photos.  We got a collage frame for our last anniversary, so I used that.  I also picked out 3 pictures from our ceremony I loved and framed them.  I framed an 8 x 10 photo of our wedding party.  And finally the thorn in my side, a beautiful picture of Chad and I.  The reason it was a thorn in my side was it was formatted to be a 4x6 so when I expanded it to a 8x10 it cut pieces off.  Normally there would probably be some room for that, but this picture didn't have any room to be cut off.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do, and then I heard about a site -Mpix.  I was able to order a bigger size that didn't cut anything off.  Of course it was hard to find a matte for the frame, but luckily my friend Liz works in the framing department at Michael's and was able to cut me a custom matte.

So now here's where I need your help.  I have no idea how this arrangement to go.  The collage frame is the part that's make it difficult.  So, I played around with a few arrangements... and I need your opinion of which one you like the most.  Or, if you have a suggestion for something better I'm all ears!

For a reference, this is the wall the pictures will be going on.  This is next to the office door, and across from the previous photo arrangement.

And here is what I came up with

Arrangement #1

Arrangement #2

Arrangement #3

Arrangement #4

Arrangement #5

So those are the five choices... which do you like best?  Do you have a suggestion for a different arrangement?  Someone please help a sista out!!

Thought it may never happen

You may remember this post of yore.

 

That was back in March and at that point we had already been looking for the perfect coffee table for quite some time.  Now we're thisclose to August and we still have that old ugly coffee table in our living.  I'm serious, I'm ready to go Office Space on it...

 

You might remember from that post that we wanted a larger table (the space can handle it), darker wood and brushed nickel handles (to match the entertainment center), at least one drawer, no glass, and something on the taller side.

 

Also, word to the wise, if you're looking for a coffee table online, expand your search to cocktail tables, everything that interested us even just a wee bit is actually a cocktail table not a coffee table.

 

After looking at a bunch of different tables and numerous bricks and/or clicks stores we were having a hard time beleiving anything existed that we wanted!  In our many trips we decided we didn't want want of those tables that expand or move up.  We figure the more moving parts the more likely for things to break.  We also decided we didn't want anything with a soft top, like a giant ottoman or whatever.

 

Well, we finally found something!  It's so totally exciting.  It's a table that I actually saw a couple of months ago, but Chad and I never made it back to look at it (since it's a decsion we want to make together).  We pulled over our sales person and said we were interested in the coffee table.

 

He went back to his little computer and found out any details we might need.  He came back and told us he had some good news and some bad news.  The good news was he was able to get us a lower price.  Wow, that's great news, we were perfectly happy paying the listed price, $20-30 off is wonderful news.  So what's the bad news buddy?  Well... they don't currently have any in stock, but have two coming in the first week in August - one is already spoken for but the other could be ours.

 

So I pulled out my calendar and realized the first week in August is next week... next week!  That's not bad news at all!!  We waited like 5 months for our couch, one week is NOTHING... especially when you consider we've been looking for this dang coffee table forever!

 

So want to see what we decided on??

 

THIS one

 

I might be able to get the picture to insert later...

 

The picture makes the wood look a bit lighter than we want, however we saw it in real life and it's the color we want.  We love the shelf under the table top, I think it will be a perfect place to put our laptops and the four drawers are awesome.  This table isn't the one we dreamed about, however it's ends up being exactly what we want.

 

The next thing we'll need for that room is end tables.  The thing about our room is the end tables will have to be skinny since there's not much space on the sides of the couch.  Something else I learned... I might not want to look for end tables at all, but instead look for chairside or recliner tables.  They are smaller and would probably work better in our room.  Sometimes the hardest part is to figure out the name of what you're looking for.  So instead of looking for skinny end table I want to look for chairside tables.  Ah-ha... who knew they even existed. 

 

I'll be back to who you how it looks when it's in place.  And in case you're wondering we won't be having a bonfire with the old table... it will be going in our basement - probably the cat's food and water table.

Poor Apple Tree

If you live in the midwest you know that it has been quite the year for storms. It seems like every other day we are getting very strong storms in the St. Louis area with hail, winds, rain and even tornados... I've never been one to get all panic-y about storms, but after the tornado in Sunset Hills, the tornado that hit the airport and the horrible tornado that hit Joplin, MO I'm starting to get more and more nervous about these storms. It's gotten a little out of hand in my opinion.

I love storms, I love listening and watching them. I think the rain is relaxing and really all this rain hasn't really bummed me out, I've really been enjoying it! But geez... now I get all freaked out!

A crazy little strom rolled through in the wee hours on Saturday. You could hear how windy it was. Thankfully Chad was home and I asked him if we should worry about tornados... he said no, so it was easier to sleep. The lightening and thunder were crazy! We heard a loud bang and was pretty sure it knocked out our cable and internet... and I even made a comment to Chad how thankfully we still have the power, about a minute later another loud bang and suddenly no power... sad face!!

It started to get very hot in the house, we've already decided to keep the place a lot warmer this year to cut down on energy costs so it was already pretty warm. The rain cooled things off outside so we opened some windows in the house. That's when we spotted the tree... our apple tree blew over!!

Now this is very sad, and I love the trees in my yard, but honestly I'm not that surprised about this tree. It poor little branches already get so weighed down by the apples, and it sits on our hill it already had a good lean going on. Chad was going to try to ancher it more than we already had, but just never got around to it. So really, we aren't surprised by this... but it's still sad. I think we'll plan to plan another tree, but probably not for another year or two... maybe we'll let the ground recovery a bit.

Luckily the tree didn't hit the house or a car or anything... just the fence. We thought it might have bent the fence bar, but it looks like we lucked out there too. Chad started to cut it up yesterday, and hopefully we'll have it cleared out soon...

RIP Apple tree... we had some good memories... like discovering you were an apple tree, coming home to applesauce from our honeymoon and throwing apples to Rowdy like they were balls. I didn't get much use from you since I'm somewhat allergic to apples... but I'll miss you.

PS... look at all the other plants around the base... someone hasn't been doing a good job trimming... I'm not pointing any fingers...

Let's hope Third Time's a Charm

Embarrassing fact, but I am not good at keeping plants alive... it's true, I don't know what it is, but plants seem to die... the only plants that seem to thrive are the three I keep at work... not sure what that's about, but they are doing awesome!

Anyway... the last two years I've planted things and they would be dead before the end of summer. I think that I'm getting better, I don't think that anything survived from year one. Year two I was able to keep some things alive into the current year. My knockout rose is back in full bloom and the lily of the valley came back too, although didn't flower... one of them actually multiplied and I had 3 this year! The Rose of Sharons also came back!

This year I decided to do a couple of things differently. For one, I took notice that my front yard barely gets any sun in a day due to the two large trees. No more trying to get sun plants to grow out there! The second and best decision I made was to enlist the help of super awesome green thumbed mother of mine!

We first took a look at the yard and how many plants I would need. Next we headed out to buy some plants. We first headed to Haegele Nursery. This would not normally be a stop, however I bought a Groupon for this place ($15 for $30 worth of stuff). I had an idea of what I wanted going in, but then came across something new - Mr. Goldstrike Aucuba, which is dubbed 'shade-loving'... um can I say SCORE!!

We then headed to a small nursery at the corner of Lindbergh and Tesson Ferry. He was running a sale on Hosta plants, so I got 6 small plants for about $10... I actually need to go back and get about 6 more...

Our final stop was Home Depot where I got three more plants - hydrangea, foxglove and Wintercreeper Moonshadow.

My mom helped me get them into good homes in the ground by adding good soil and hummus. It will be a week on Saturday and I can already tell they are doing good. Some of the hostas are getting new leaves and the foxglove new flower buds are doing great. Wanna see some pictures??

Here's the Aucuba...
And the foxglove... kind of a weird angle but it's about to have a great bloom...
Here's the hydrangea... sadly my camera totally sucks so you can't really tell how pretty the flowers are, but they're currently a purpleish blue
Here's the wintercreeper
And finally the hostas

I can't wait to see all these plants growing!! Chad has promised to help me keep these plants watered. Our yard still needs a lot of work, but hopefully this is a step in the right direction.

Next year I'm planning on trying my hand at an edible garden in back... but if we keep doing a little bit each year in a few years hopefully we'll have a beautiful yard in front and back!

Fridge

We have a new appliance in our house... that's right folks, we now have a brand spankin' new refrigerator!! Look at this bad boy!!

It's a Kenmore 20 cubic feet, bottom freezer door, energy efficient, black, awesome refrigerator. About 4 or 5 months ago our fridge began to make an awful noise. It kind of sounded like someone using a hand drill in the next room. And it was only getting louder. It wasn't making that noise all the time, but it was making it often enough... We knew that at some point the old fridge was going to die... but we didn't have the money at the time.

My dad heard about our fridge and ended up helping us out. And last week Missouri was waiving state sales tax on all energy efficient appliances. (Oh how nice it would have been to also buy a new stove, dishwasher, and overhead microwave too... oh I can dream can't I??) So it was a pretty good week to look for a new fridge. And this guy was is what we found.

We were originally thinking that we wanted a stainless steel fridge, but what I didn't realize until we got to the store was exactly how much more stainless steel appliances were. We knew we absolutely did NOT want white and have you seen that awful color called bisque? It's like yucky off-white. I think that's what our fridge currently is. But now it's a black beauty! I think it won't show dirty like the old one... and black fits our kitchen better anyway.

I was also concerned that the new fridge wouldn't be magnetic. I really enjoy having things hung up on the fridge like invites or pictures... we even have our wedding invite still hanging up. But Chad tested it out when it came this afternoon and it's magnetic... holla!!

I'm so happy to have a brand new appliance... it's very exciting... maybe we'll get to replace some of those other appliances soon too!!

Coffee Table Woes

I've been on the topic of shopping a lot lately huh?

We need a new coffee table... I absolutely HATE our current coffee table. For one, it's got a huge discoloration in the center, and then it's got burn marks where someone knocked the carcoal off the hooka at one of parties. And one of the legs is about to fall off. This coffee table came back with Chad from Cuba. It was never a desirable table, but we used it until we were able to afford something we liked better. Awhile ago we replaced the couches and the entertainment center and the area rug. The coffee table is next and I am SO READY to see it go.

The problem is we cannot find something we want. Sure there are plenty of tables that would work, but the perfect table? It doesn't seem to exist. I don't think we're asking for anything too crazy. Here's what our ideal table would look like. It would be a fairly large table, I mean we have the space for it. The one I'm eyeballing (I'll show you soon) is 20" by 20". We do NOT want any glass. We want it to be dark work. Ideally it would have a shelf underneath and would have a drawer. We'd also like it to be on the taller side for a coffee table. I mean, that's not unreasonable right??

Here's the one from CSN Stores we've had our eye on:

See the dark wood finish, the drawers, the bottom shelf, the square? Swoon... the problem with this one is it's $460!!!! That just seems a little steep, no?

This past weekend Chad and I took to the streets of St. Louis and tried to find something else we liked. We ended up looking at Ashley, Weekends Only, SleepLand, and American. There are PLENTY of other stores we need to check out... but the sad fact remains... I don't think the ideal coffee table is out there in our price range. We did see a few at Ashley that would work very well, we may go back. There are plenty of other stores we should look at too... so the hunt isn't over yet, but I am sooo sooo ready to have that thing in my house and that fuglly table gone... banished to the basement.

After we find the coffee table we'll still need to find end tables which will be a whole other ordeal. We don't have much space to work with at the end of each of the ends of the couches... but those don't bother me nearly as much as that coffee table.

So here's to hoping that we find a table to we both love, that's dark woodand big with a shelf and drawer, and tall that's in our price range.... please and thank you.

things

Here's some things I was searching etsy for last night... somethings I may get for myself...

Last night we were watching Red and one of the girls was wearing a flower in her hair. Makes me want a flower hair pin... like one of these (click to take you to the listing):


I was also thinking about possible art for the bathroom... when searching for that, I came across some others that maybe I could paint or might look good in another room of the house.

I really like this one for another room of the house...
Or this one...
Wouldn't this look awesome in the bathroom??
I think this one would be great in the bathroom
I think this is adorable.
I think I could paint something similar to these two...

What to you think?

The Jaguar

I got a lot of really awesome Christmas gifts this year. Everyone was so so so so so so amazing and generous. I can't describe how blessed I am with such an amazing family. Christmas was really great this year... really really great.

But I just have to share this amazing gift I got. Back in November my mom and I saw this guy at the Antique Mall on Tesson Ferry. He was just so unique and strong. I had to have him, but he was out of my price range. Little did I know that later that same day mom my went back and bought him for me.

I'm still trying to figure out where he will live permanently in my house - but I'm going to find him a perfect place very soon.

But I need your help faithful blog readers. What should I name him? I want something majestic and strong. I really need your help!!

Here he is in all his teal glory.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I actually decorated for Christmas weeks ago - but I've been a bad blogger... maybe that will be my New Year's Resolution... anyway, we have all 6 of our Christmas decorations up. I did it all by myself - Chad did help me carry up the Christmas tree. We only have one new item this year and that's our wonderful, sparkly, gold wreath.
Isn't it pretty? Last year my totally awesome wonderful Grandma got me this adorable Santa lamp.
I also have this awesome snow globe Chad got me a few years ago. This is actually the picture I took when I got it. It changes color and glitters - so much fun.
And finally here's the centerpiece of our holiday decorations - the Christmas Tree.
Sadly there weren't any Christmas presents underneath it yet (there are a ton now) You also can't tell that it's lit, but it is I'll take another picture later to prove it. Here are some of my favorite ornaments this year (seems like it changes from year to year)

First my new ornament that I bought with on a work trip.
Yep, that's right, it's a robot!! Also above you can see our pickle. Do you have a pickle on your tree? If not you should!! Do you know the story behind the Christmas pickle? So go out and get one if you don't have one. I didn't realize that people didn't know about it.

Here's the one that catches my eye every time I look at the tree - maybe because it's a eye level when I'm sitting on the couch - either way it's a skiing penguin.
You can also see in that picture our new Mark McGuire ornament Chad's mom got us. Chad didn't want to hang it up, but I'm over the whole Mark McGuire steroid thing...

I love the color and the glitter pattern on this one -
And finally I love the colors and circle glitter on this one. I also have this one in pink. I also love the black small one with silver glitter lines. I have a few of those on the tree as well.
So there you have it, Christmas time at our humble abode. Stay tuned for better tree pictures and of all the presents (there might even be one under there for you!)

Merry Christmas!!

Home Improvements - Able to walk in the guest bedroom again

I can't believe I'm about to admit this to everyone... but our guest bedroom was AWFUL... seriously... you could open the door, but couldn't really walk past there.

We had a fair warning on the door...
This room has been the dumping ground for just about everything... don't believe me...

On my last AWS day, I started to tackle this beast of a room... and lucky for me Chad began to help. We ended up with about 6 garbage bags of clothes to donate.
And made other piles of 'like' items

After that we neatly put some stuff back in the room and other stuff when to the basement. The room is by NO means complete. I'd like to make this into a very pretty guest bedroom for all the guests we have (haha... more like the drunk-os spending the night.) But this major clean up/de-cluttering/getting rid of made this room so much more manageable. Want to see the after pictures?

How much better is it now? Like almost a million?? Stay tuned for more improvements to this room... oh one more thing about cleaning out this room... we found things we thought we had lost. I know for me, I found a brown cardigan I had looked every where for... and some tweezers I was wondering where they ended up... I felt so happy to get this started!!

Home Inprovements - Photographs

Down the front hallway I've always thought would be our photo collage wall... and we've finally started it. Awhile back I went through all the pictures I had on my computer and created a 'printable' folder. I waited patiently for Snapfish to run a special and finally they had one and I ordered away.

When we got married almost 2 years ago, we got some picture frames... that have sat in a room... gathering dust (go figure). When I got the pictures in the mail (I printed about 111 pictures) I pulled out the frames and Chad and I went through and picked our favorites. We didn't get all of our favorites up on the wall yet, but it's a start.

As I did with the living room wall I set all the frames out on the floor and picked the arrangement I liked best. But when we put it up on the wall it all changed (stupid intake vent...) but I liked the set up we came up with.

The tall frame has pictures of just Chad and me... mostly ones we took ourselves. The frame to the left of that is all of our pets. The frame directly to the right is just random pictures. (what I've found with those collage frames is finding enough pictures that are taken the "correct" way (horizontal or vertical... most of our pictures are taken horizontal.) The small frame was taken on our anniversary last year when we went to the ballgame. We brought our friend Sam and Liz - so we have a picture of Chad and Sam, Me and Liz and Chad and I. I'm excited to watch these pictures grow and grow.

Home Improvements - Living Room Wall

We added something else to our living room set up. As you may recall we have already hung art of two of our walls. I had some items to hang on our third wall (we still have one blank wall, but we'll figure that out at some point...)

I got the items out that I wanted to hang on that wall and played around with them on the floor. I first came up with this arrangement.
But I didn't like that it was horizontal, horizontal, vertical, vertical. So I moved it around and got to this, which I liked a lot.
The next step was getting someone manly to help me hang them up on the wall... this is where my awesome husband steps in. And voila - it looks awesome

And here's a close up/explanation of what's on the wall

This is a photo print I bought from an arts and crafts fair in Soulard earlier this summer.
Next is this lovely painting I bought from the same guy I got the photo print from... I really enjoyed a lot of his work.
All of the shelves we registered for when we got married and they have been sitting in the basement gathering dust. Finally got them on the walls!! On this shelf you can see above in a silver piggy bank that came from The Container Store. Below you can see what sits on the top... A Golem and The Holy Infant - both were purchased in Prague.
I bought this print while I was in New Orleans. I got it at a gift shop, so it's nothing special. I frame this print and the print above myself. I bought the frames from Hobby Lobby during a 50% off sale - when you shop at hobby lobby you should always wait for a sale, everything will go on sale about once a month and it's usually sales like this 50% off.
Above that on the shelf is another New Orleans find. It's a 3-legged pig that I got at a VooDoo shop... it's suppose to bring good luck.
On the big shelf I have some salt and pepper shakers. On one side it says 'before' and depicts a pretty couple on their wedding day. And when you flip them to the 'after' side you get an unkempt couple (sorry this picture is so dark!!)
And finally above that is another canvas - this one was painted by yours truly. It was my first try at oil painting, and while I'm not completely sure I was doing it correctly, I love how it turned out.
I'm hoping to continue to add to these shelves... maybe more art as well, but right now I'm really digging the flow of the wall. One of my ideas is whenever I go on vacation I'll pick up a small figurine like the ones from Prague and New Orleans... For all of my work trips I get a magnet that I keep at work.