We'll keep movin' on, we're movin' up, keep movin' on

On Friday, I moved.

I loved my apartment - it was all mine and I loved it. I put a lot of work into (and even more that I never wrote about.) It looked like me. And even though my neighbors were less than desirable and it was pretty small, I'll miss it.

I've been moving things slowly over the past few weeks, but last week, my brother and I loaded the rest into a van and stuffed my Jeep to the gills with the rest of my stuff.

I dropped some off at my parents and moved the rest into my new place.

Living on my own was one of the best experiences I've had - I didn't have to worry about being woken up, or waking anyone up; I could clean and do laundry when I pleased. But most of all, I supported myself - I was on my own. No one to help with bills, no one to make me do things, just me. I learned a lot about myself over the year I lived there and I am over the moon grateful for the opportunity.

I went back to finish up and it looked so small. For some reason, when my furniture and books, and clothes and shelves were in there, it looked much bigger than it actually was. Maybe it was all the personality I put into it spilling out.

I moved to a new town, in a new county. And I'm no longer by myself.

But I'm so very much looking forward to sharing my space with two of my favorite people.

I'm writing again, these letters to you.

Dear blogging, I missed you. I think our break has been good, but I'm ready to give it another go. Whatdya say?

Dear blogging friends, I missed you, too. Hope you're ready for an intense game of catch up!

Dear Jimmy, I'm excited. Really, really excited. I hope you share even half of that-if you do, I think we're in pretty good shape. 

Dear Apartment, I'll miss you-we had some good times. You weren't the biggest of spaces, but you were mine. Because of you, I'll always be able to say I lived completely my own :-)

Dear Crackheads Underneath Me, I won't miss you at all. But thanks for being occasionally entertaining...when you weren't waking me up in the middle of the night screaming.

All is quiet on New Year's Day.

Whew- what a year! I'm sure lots of people feel the same way, but I seriously cannot believe that 2011 is over. It's been a heck of a year...

I moved into my own apartment and have been having lots of fun decorating it

I saw some football....

and lots of baseball.

I even got my first baseball!

I saw lots of concerts.
Some with friends

some with family

and even by myself


I took a vacation

and worked alot.


And then, somewhere along the way, I fell in love with blogging. I've had this blog for a little over two years and I'm just starting to get into it. And this is exactly one of the reasons-so I can look back. My year was really full this year-lots of memories and good times and times that I felt so loved and blessed I honestly thought my heart would burst. Without being able to blog about it, I wouldn't be able to look back and appreciate just how amazing my life is. And I know it's only going to get better.

There's been a lot of change and growth in 2011, and I'm a little sad to see it go. But I absolutely cannot wait to see what 2012 has in store for me!

Source: sarahearn.blogspot.com via Martha on Pinterest

HAPPY NEW YEAR, YA'LL!

Ain't no colour paint gonna cover the stains.

My new apartment has basically been a construction zone for the past week and a half while I've been painting. What I thought would be a one day/8ish hour project ended up taking me over a week to complete.

It started with me spackling the holes....

It seriously looked like whoever was there before me just sprayed the room with a pellet gun.

then I was able to start priming...


and even though my mom warned me that I'd probably have to do two coats of primer to completely cover the old, dark, dry paneling, I decided to try it with just one...


but since I was able to paint one.whole.wall. before realizing admitting to myself that I needed a second coat of primer, I was also able to decide that I wasn't in love with the color. I wanted a more mustard-y yellow and this was, as my mom put it, "school bus yellow".

So I put another coat of primer on the other three walls and chose another shade of yellow for the accent wall.

The splotch is the new color, in comparison to the old.

The last step was to paint the other three walls.


It kinda looks blue, but it's actually a *really* light grey (It's Valspar Grey Mist). I wanted it to be darker, but the room is so small I knew I needed to use light colors to make the room seem bigger. The yellow is Valspar Bugle Call, in case you were curious.

Since I still want some darker grey, I'm going to paint a 6-12" stripe around the room on the grey walls, about two feet from the ceiling. I'm hoping that will bring out the grey tones in the light grey and satisfy my need for dark grey haha

All in all, I'm pretty happy with it. And I'm super proud that I did it all by myself! Every roll of the roller and stroke of the brush was done by yours truly. What I was not expecting however, was how dang sore I would be after it was all done!

Manual labor is hard work, ya'll.

So now I'm standing here alone. I'm learning how to live life on my own.

Sweat dripping, I take a deep breath. I look around in amazement. I am wonderfully, blissfully alone. Smile from ear to ear, I finally relax

This post is in response to a prompt at Write on Edge.
"This week’s assignment was simple: write a story of your choice. The catch? Write it as a tweet. Use only 140 characters – including spaces."

(P.S. I typed this into Twitter to make sure I abided by the character limit, and this is 140 on the dot. But can I just say that the last sentence not having a period is killing me!?!?! haha)

Shower me with your love.

Happy Wednesday everyone! It's time to link up with Jaime at this kind of love for What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Since I'm still on a high from moving into my new apartment, I'm going to do some things I'm loving about being on my own!

I'm loving decorating! My friend is coming over to help me paint this week, and I'm so excited!

This is one of my inspiration pictures. Grey + yellow = love.

I'm loving being able to wake up early/go to bed early and not waking anyone up, or being woken up myself!

I'm loving being able to work out/do yoga, without worrying about anyone finding me in awkward positions haha

Awkward.

I'm loving being able to sit in silence if I want! So peaceful!

I'm loving enternally grateful for my friends and family who helped me move, paint and get the new place ready, my co-workers who kept me grounded, made me laugh and supported me when I was stressed out and my god who put this opportunity in my life and in my heart! I'm so blessed!

I was a skeptic at first, but these miracles work.

About a year ago, I took a class at work that was focused on "Personal Visioning". We were asked to write a few pages about where we wanted to be in one year, 3 years, 5 years.

One of my main goals was to be living in my own apartment within the year.

It's not exactly new...

and it's not very big.

But, it's all
mine.

The past two weeks have been a few of the most stressful weeks I can remember in the recent past, but when I laid in bed on Friday night, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

I have a lot of work to do, putting things away, building things, making things, painting, but for now I'm just basking in the glow of being completely on my own.

And I really could not be any more at peace about it.

Lord, I'm sorry to question your wisdom, but my faith has been wavering. Won't you show me a sign, let me know that you're listening?

I'm going to be honest right now, I'm stressed. Like "I want to pull my hair out, can't eat, am on the verge of tears and if you look at me wrong, I just might punch you in the face" stressed.

I'm still pretty excited about moving, but if I'm being 100% real right now, I'm nervous too. I'm nervous to be on my own, I'm nervous about the bills, I'm nervous about what it will look like. Even though I'm excited for all the same things, it's still a pretty big change that will obvioiusly take some adjusting. Even the actual act of packing and moving is stressful right now, and I know that when I'm finally in my new place, it will all be worth it, but for right now, I'm a little nervous.

On top of that my current roommate is not making this easy, so I'm uncomfortable even being in my current place long enough to pack. I think I'm just gonna grab a Coke (or five) and power through it tonight and hopefully get most of it done and bring it over to my parents to stay there until I actually move. I'm calling my new land lord tomorrow to see if there is any way I can move this week instead of next, and my wonderful friend and parents and brother have all volunteered their services to help me move. I am so so so lucky blessed to have such amazing people in my life who love me enough to help me.

Even though all of that is stressful on it's own, there's more, because one stressful situation is never enough, right!?!?! I went to the doctor on Friday, fully expecting to have my blood drawn and for the end result to be a gluten intolerance/celiac diagnosis. Which could still be on it's way, but there's some other issues that my doctor is worried about which will involve me getting some more tests and an outpatient procedure in the next week or two. I don't know if I've just got too much going on besides that to be worried (and I am worried), but I just feel like I should be more worried. Either way, some crossed fingers and prayers would definitely be appreciated right now.

Which brings me to my last point, I've been struggling with feeling disconnected from God. I know he's still there and I still go through the motions of praying because I know this is only a blip in our relationship, but it's frustrating. Usually, I'm all about the gratitude and loving and feeling God's presence in my life (which I have another post about soon) but right now, I'm just feeling kind of blah.

The funny thing is I have enough faith to know that on the other side of this valley, my relationship will be strong and my faith will be more than renewed. But I don't want to have to go through it, I just want it now! Has anyone else ever felt like that? haha

I know it's all just temporary and I'm sure I'll feel infinitely better when the moving process is done, but right now, it's just kinda hard. And I feel like such a whiner writing about this or even thinking about it because in all reality, my life is amazing-more amazing than I could ever have thought, and I'm so incredibly blessed. But I guess "sometimes it's not all puppy dogs and rainbows", as a friend of mine told me.

I'm not the only one who feels like this sometimes, right?

Love, for better or worse, I still will choose you first.

I'm linking up with Jaime at this kind of love for another What I'm Loving Wednesday!


I'm loving JV and my Tigers. Seriously, the game he threw on Sunday was so intense. And my Tigers looked good. I know Guillen posed running out of the box, but heading down the stretch I want my boys to have some swagger.

I'm loving making plans with friends! I just bought tickets to a concert in the beginning of September and I'm trying to get tickets to see the Lions first preseason game.

I'm loving my phone! I got the Droid Incredible 2 last week and it's the best! Do any of ya'll have Droids? Any good app suggestions?

I'm loving the rain-I'd rather it not be raining, but at least it breaks up the ridiculous heat wave we've been having! Us Michiganders aren't used to this!

I'm loving that I only have two weeks till I move! I have soooo much work to do but I'm so exicted!

What are you loving today?

Movin' on up, to the east side, to a deluxe apartment in the sky.

I did it. I finally entered the 21st century.

I got a smart phone.

A droid to be exact.
Earlier this week, on whim I went the Verizon store, just to "price things out" and of course, walked out with a phone, which I should have known would happen-when do I ever just "price things out"? Never, that's when.

I ended up being not to happy with it and returned and went to flirt with the cute guy who sold it to me later that week and I'm officially in love with my phone.

It's the perfect size and super easy to use, even though I'm still trying to figure it out haha

But because I spent a bajillion dollars on it, I'm not on a spending freeze for a while because...

I'M MOVING!

I'm actually still going to be in the same town and only about a mile from where I live right now but I'm getting my own place which I'm super stoked about!

It's a studio/efficiency so I'll be buying a loft to put my bed up on and since it's in a historic (ie old) building, I'll be buying an air conditioner to get me through the rest of the summer. My mom and I are going to paint, and the guy who owns it is buffing all the hardwood floors before I move in so it will be nice and clean.

I'm officially moving on the 19th so the next few weeks will be filled with packing, painting, building, DIY-ing, and then there's the actual part of moving lol but I'm super excited and cannot wait to be in my new place!

Everybody hit the ground. I think I might have missed my calling.

It's been a few weeks...A lot has gone on that I wanted to write about (like spending a whole day shopping with my mom and not arguing or going to see the Tigers *lose again* with my brother) but I never got around to writing about it all. Always wanted to but I guess I get sidetracked too easily :-)

I've been on a few dates-neither of them really worked out. I'm not too worried about it, I suppose. I'm starting to miss the "idea" of a boyfriend, more than I am my ex so I think that's a good sign. Although there's still days, which sucks more than I imagined, but for whatever reason I'm supposed to be feeling these feelings and all I can do is walk through them. Thank God I have friends to carry me and help me because I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it without them. I spent pretty much the whole drive out to my friend E$'s house crying my eyes out, but as soon as I get there, of course she put a smile on my face and it completely changed my day.

The apartment/house is coming along nicely. Everything I bought looks a-dor-able together! I'm making the lampshade tonight/tomorrow and I'm so excited to see what it looks like all finished! Aside from all the small stuff to go in the room, I bought a mattress. I'm officially an adult now! No one else seems to think it was that big of a deal, but I seriously had a panic attack haha

Good news-Dad got a job! Yay!

Bad news-I have a muscle spasm in my neck, which my dad seems to think is caused by stress. No bueno.

I suppose that's all. It's going to be a busy week or two. Moving, painting, need to figure stuff out with school (I'm a horrible procrastinator!). Semester hasn't even started and I'm already ready for it to be done :-)

Put down your sword and crown. Come lay with me on the ground.

First things first-I found a place to live! Yay! My aunt happened to know someone looking for a roommate, so I went and checked it out. I really wasn't planning on anything coming from it because I was pretty adamant about getting a one bed room and being on my own. But the place was just so cute and the girl was so sweet, I fell in love. It's a little 3 bedroom ranch over on the east side of town-fenced in yard, garage, cute little kitchen and basement. It's really adorable. Plus, she's letting me paint which is pretty awesome. So I'm moving middle of August, luckily most of my stuff is still in boxes :-P

I want to have an "adult" bedroom. No more of this college-dorm room-nothing matches BS. I have a comforter set that I really like-it's kind of Indian themed with a henna pattern in like burnt orange and gold-ish colors so I think I'm going to get some shade of yellow to put on the wall. I got some shelves and a H-U-G-E mirror that are all in a really deep browns...so that's what I'm going with. Hopefully it'll all come together!

I went on a little shopping spree last week-oops! But how could I not when Old Navy was having a crazy sale on jeans! I got three pairs for $7.50 each, plus a white trench coat for $12! Amazing!

Then, silly me went to DSW. And told myself I wasn't going to buy anything. Cause that's totally possible, right?

Apparently not.

They look kind of plain in the picture...in person they look a lot taller. I think they are like 5.5 inches...maybe even 6. But they only cost me $12. The little yellow stickers at DSW are my best friends.

Then on the way out the door, I see these.

With another pretty little yellow sticker, meaning these cost a whooping $9.

I swoop them up, and literally run out of the door before I can buy more shoes.

Unfortunately, that only lasted about 24 hours, until I went back and bought them in brown too :-)

I did buy some stuff for my new place, which I am rationalizing as "investments". New shoe organizer, some shelves, etc. But I'm really loving the wall decals I grabbed from Jo-Ann Fabrics.

This is one of them (Not exactly, but same basic idea).
The kit I got came with the chandelier and some butterflies to put around it, which are cute, but wouldn't really go with everything else in the room. So I bought some cute little birds with a metallic damask print, which is my absolute fave. I'm pretty stoked to put it all together!

Also, I made a little pit stop a little shop we have around here.


You've never heard of it, have you?
Nah, didn't think so :-)

Every time I go in there I see all these super cool light fixtures and I always want them but never get them. Well, I found one in the As-is section (i.e. clearance) and had to buy it.

It looks kinda weird here, but it's a wreath basically, with little LED lights. And the one I bought is black. I can't wait to put it over my bed.

They also had these super long (I'm talking like 8 ft.) mirrors in there. 2 for $10. I didn't get them but I'm seriously kicking myself about it. Me and my mom are supposed to go shopping this week, so hopefully they are still there. I don't really know what I'd do with them...but I want them haha

My dad has a second interview this week so *cross your fingers*. Other than that, I'm dreading going back to school. Tomorrow is August 1st... Um WHAT! Where did my summer go?!?

Now does anyone know the name Gabriel Prosser? My conscience says he's the one that history missed.

Went on a first date earlier this week. Blah-I dislike first dates, especially ones like this. He seemed really sweet and nice and I was even over looking the fact that he was young (not young exactly, but my age, which is young for me). He was late...And not just five minutes late. No, late by like almost 40 minutes late. And we went to Qdoba, which, while delicious, isn't exactly first date material in my book. On top of that, he didn't even offer to pay! I would have actually overlooked all of that, but I wasn't really attracted to him (too short :-/ ), so it was kind of an all around bust. C'est le vie, right?

After we got done, I had some time to kill before meeting up with one my friends so I went to my favorite store, AKA Target. And just what do I find but these beauties...

I LOVE THEM!

I needed a new pair of wedges and for $13, I couldn't say no! Plus they are like 4.5 inches, and I love me some (artificial) height.

So then I walk into work the next morning to a nice little surprise on my desk.

What's that you say? You don't see anything special about this plain black shoe box? Well don't they always say "It's what's on the inside that counts?"

Well it's totally true!

GAH! How effing cute are those! A woman I work with brought them in for me because they didn't fit her. So she gave them to me. For free. Um...these shoes cost $400 (I only know that because the price tag is still on them!) I have no idea what I'm going to wear them with, but trust and believe I will find something and it will be FABULOUS!

Been apartment hunting a little bit this week, to no avail. I'm putting a halt on it for a week or so, so that I can settle down and relax and let things happen, instead of me getting all controlling and messing things up.

The concert on Thursday was amazing. Although my ears just stopped ringing yesterday and my body is still a little sore from the pit-I'm getting old ya'll! (Yes, I totally just said that and I'm only 22-kill me now lol) Tim Barry and The Whigs were the opening acts, both of which were pretty sweet. Hoping they come back to town soon-would love to see any/all of them again.

She said if heaven's hypothetical, and if the cigs keep you warm, Then how's she supposed to think about how it's gonna move in the morning?

The ex and I were supposed to take a mini-vacation this coming weekend that is, obviously, not happening any more. And, actually, I wasn't all that upset because if we had gone on the vacation, I'd be missing these guys in concert.

They're called The Gaslight Anthem and they are kind rockabilly/punk/rock with a little hint of Springsteen thrown in for good measure. (I'm not sure if you can tell, but the one all the way on the left, the bassist...is gorgeous. The last time I saw them, I was front row...right in front of him. For almost three hours. I almost died I was so happy. Mmmm...yummy)

So due to the canceled trip, I'm able to go the concert I've been dieing to go to, which is pretty awesome, and I've been literally begging everyone I know to go with me, because it's in downtown Detroit and my parents don't want me going alone (understandably, I suppose). I'm even buying who ever ends up coming with me their ticket. I'm like, for reals desperate.

So today, I'm minding my own business, checking out tickets and what do I see? A new band has been added to the line up. But not just anybody...oh no.. it's these guys...

The Hold Steady!!!! AHHH!!! I've been dieing to see them live for years, but they always seem to pass by Detroit when they tour. Not nearly as swoon-worthy, but the lead singers voice is to. die. for. I love their lyrics. Drinking, drugs and this lovely juxtaposition of anger/reverence towards Catholicism.

"I've had kisses that made Judas seem sincere"
Think about that one for a minute.

Or maybe...

"They say you don't have a problem

until you start to do it alone.

They say you don't have a problem

until you start bringing it home.

They say you don't have a problem

until you start sleeping alone."

Um...that's my life. In that song.

So things are looking up, I guess. I'm seeing a few apartments this week. Not really expecting anything to come from it, but it's kind of fun to look :-)

Also, I got tickets to see the Tigers on August 6th. Now, I just need to find a cute guy to bring with me hehe