Making the House (Apartment?) a Home

I really want to decorate our apartment. Not painting or anything permanent, but I want to start collecting things that I would like to have in a home one day. I'm a bit ADD when it comes to decorating, so I think I'm going to start by focusing on one room at a time. I am starting with the living room, since that is where we spend the most time. While in Georgia this weekend, I cashed in some of the credit I had from returned wedding gifts at a local store and purchased this set of paintings to hang above our couch (sorry for the crappy iPhone picture)!



I got a good deal on these! $69 for the set! I also bought a cute little frame to hang in our 1/2 bath downstairs. That's pretty much the only fully-decorated room in the apartment :) I should post pictures!

I will post more pictures once we hang them. We will need to buy new throw pillows, I'm thinking maybe blue and brown. I also think I can tie-in a couple of the bright green accents I already have in the room.

I also want J to refinish the coffee table & side table we bought off craigslist now that it is cooler out. They have a slight cherry finish to them and I'd rather they be an espresso color. I also hate our Walmart, pressed-wood, black TV stand and would like to find a nicer one, along with a better couch and loveseat/ chair. I've always said "I don't want to waste money fixing up a temporary situation," but now I'm changing my tune. I've decided I'll start buying things I like now, regardless of how well they "go" in our apartment, knowing I'll love them in the future!

We have spot of wall between our two windows in the living room, above our (broken) loveseat, where I would like to hang a wood-framed mirror. All the mirrors I am finding online are $100+! Time to hit up Craigslist, TJMaxx and Tuesday Morning.

I look for ideas on Pinterest, but I get so over whelmed! Many of the ideas I like aren't applicable to our living situation (or budget!) right now.

Help me out! Where do you go for home decorating ideas?

Wedding Wednesday: The Proposal

Part of me wishes I had blogged throughout the wedding planning process. What a neat way to record a time that at one moment seemed to be dragging by and at another flying by with lightening speed! However, I never could make myself sit down and do it. So I'm doing it now, looking back on the 14 months I spent planning the day I dreamed about since I was a little girl!

What better place to start than the beginning?

We started talking about getting married back in the summer of 2009 and we shopping for rings. I made it very clear that he shouldn't buy a ring until he was ready. I knew I was going to spend the rest of my life with him, so I didn't feel the need to say "I need the rock by X or I'm gone!" While I didn't tell him what I was thinking, I was guessing he would ask sometime in the spring or early summer of 2010.

February 27, 2010 was a really pretty, unseasonably(55 or so) warm day. JR and I had a date planned. It is something we try to do each month and this one was our make-up Valentine's Day date because neither one of us like the idea of battling the Feb.14 crowds and waiting four hours at a restaurant we could go to any other day with no wait!

At the time, he lived in an apartment out in suburbs while I lived closer to my job downtown. We were spending the weekend at his place and had plans to go to Bonefish Grill, one of our favorites for special occasions that wasn't too far from his place. He told me all weekend he wanted to go downtown to The Peabody since it was such a pretty day and and I'd received my DSLR for Christmas and could practice taking pictures with it down there. I thought it was odd he wanted to drive 30 minutes in the opposite direction of our destination, but whatever. It was date night!

We made it downtown and into the lobby of the hotel...and saw Charles Barkley. That was exciting. I entertained myself taking pictures of the ducks in the fountain, all the while J was trying to get me up to the roof. He finally convinced me to step away from the ducks and we went up to the rooftop for a view of downtown Memphis. He found a spot away from some crowds, told me he loved me and then he proposed!

After celebrating, we immediately called our friends and family. He called his parents and sent a mass text to his friends. I spent a half hour calling my family and then all of my close friends. We had champagne to celebrate and then went off to dinner!

That's our proposal story! Sweet but not extravagant, it was one of the best days ever!