Our Places

So a while back I took a bunch of photos of our place so I thought I'd give you a tour. There has been many changes since then which is another reason I'm showing you this. As I organize and clean up my home (going to school full time and working full time leaves little time for cleaning and a lot of clutter build up everywhere) I can take new pictures showing the changes! :)

Our bathroom is the only place that hasn't had any changes to it so far.. I mean, there isn't much to work with. It took me months to get everything in the bathroom unpacked because of the lack of storage. I will post something about the organization of that as well. 

Our living room has had some changes to its decor. If you have been following, you will know that bookcase is completely different. Have some little things added to the decor as well.

 The kitchen has very little change to it, just some organizational things that are of course hidden in the cupboards haha! I will post about those as well.

The bedroom has had major changes! Can't wait to share those, I'm really happy with it now - it looks less college dorm and more chic. Yes, Brandyn at first disagreed with some decor aspects I've added and I did listen at first but... a series of events ended up with us having purple in the bedroom! :)

 And... our closet. Sorry, our "walk-in" closet. You can't actually walk into it without being suffocated by clothes but you gotta work with what you got right? 

So anyways, I posted a bunch of times that I will post about something later because it holds me accountable to actually do it! haha There's been lots of changes that I can't wait to show, some for decor purposes and some for functional purposes that are not so pretty. And.. that is all :)

Influenster

Alright, so I've been a little M.I.A. for a while. I've been quite busy with stuff but that just means there will be some more blog posts coming up :)

One thing I wanted to share was this new community I've recently joined call Influenster. Basically you review products and if you are lucky get products sent to you to review. I'm really excited to be able to start so I will start with my first review - of the website.

When I got invited to Influenster (which I had to request, after I heard about it through a friend who adores it).. I admit I had a little trouble figuring out exactly what it was. It definitely is one of those things where you need to read every bit of this website. I'm still trying to figure it out myself but it is very user friendly and easy to access all the information you need.

One thing that I would think would be great for them to have is kind of a starters package type thing. Basically an online pamphlet that comes up to you right away in email or a pop-up to help better explain how you can get started and such.

If you want to check it out for yourself, visit here

Coffee Can Repurposing

In this day and age, we have countless amounts of electronic devices everywhere. We also have countless amounts of chargers and cord for these devices everywhere. I hate opening my drawers and seeing a big mess of wires everywhere so after seeing an idea on Pinterest a long time ago, I got to work on my next project.

I started with some wrapping paper from wallpaper, mod podge, and a coffee can

I washed and stripped the coffee can of it's paper and then placed it on the 

other side of my cutting board because I don't have a craft mat... easier clean up

I love this wrapping paper because it has grid lines on it. It's Hallmark Expressions. 

Made it so much easier for measuring and cutting.

So I measured out and cut the strip of paper

I applied the mod podge with my foundation brush --- don't be shocked it's all I had and I thoroughly cleaned it away! Anyway ... it worked. I didn't have a brush on me or a sponge.

Then, I applied the paper. I suggest you cut it a little bit bigger and then cut with an exacto knife. 

The mod podge was extremely sticky and it went on a little crooked. 

There you have it! A spot for all chargers hidden away but easy to find!

:)

Bookshelf Hack

I am excited to be finally sharing this project with you! This is my first real DIY project and I'm so happy with how it turned out. When Brandyn and I moved into our first apartment my Mom gave us this bookshelf for free. It was ugly but it was free and we needed something.

It almost looks better in the picture than it did in person....

So we took it apart and sanded it which was really important cause it was cheap shiny wood.

The person in home depot suggested that we use this spray paint primer. We actually ran out so when we went to get paint we bought another but then ran out of that again so we kind of just said eh .. Well if you get the behr paint. I can't speak for the other ones.. it wasn't needed.

 We used the color Refreshing Pool for the inside of the bookcase and just a plain white for the outside. I love it.

This was after the first coat but to be safe, especially since we didn't prime parts, we did a second one.

And the finished product :) I love love how it turned out and it is so great being able to walk in my apartment see it and think... we did that. It was also my first painting job so that was a big deal too :)

On a side note I also thought, hey if we end up having a baby boy someday we can put this in the nursery :)

Invitations

A couple of weeks ago, Wedding Paper Divas had a special where you can order 5 samples for free. So naturally I took advantage of that .. even though I really don't need to be buying invitations.


Well one day I wandered into Michael's looking for something completely different.. and I spotted a rack of Wedding Invitations for $9.99 each. Pardon?! Don't mind if I do...

Also conveniently .... I found a set that I liked and while not quite my colors.. it was close enough and there was also only two boxes left. Just the amount I needed!

Great. Then a couple weeks later my package from wedding paper divas came in. Uh-oh

They included a big color swatch of all their invites so I'm definitely keeping it because they have the exact color I want for my bridesmaids dresses on there. That will be helpful when I go into stores.

 1

 2

3

 4

5

The only one that I really don't like is number 2. I like them all but my favourite is 4 and once I saw it, I was kind of torn. So I basically decided to keep all the samples and then when the time comes to actually worry about invitations I will make the decision. I can always sell the ones I got at Michael's anyway - what's 20 bucks right? 

Then again... 20 bucks for invitations is a screaming deal and leaves a ton of space open for other things. Tough decisions haha . It's just paper Lauren... it's just paper... it will end up in people's garbage.... 

Q & A Interviews

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before.. I think in my very first post but I am currently in my final year of school; studying radio broadcasting. Right now we are rotating through jobs every week to get a feel for everything before we pick our focus in last semester.

For first week I did a feature called Making Contact. I did an interview with someone different everyday of the work week. I've posted them here for your enjoyment :)


Making Contact with Music Heals

Music Heals is a new charity based outside of Vancouver that helps raise awareness and support for Music Therapy.

Making Contact - Vancouver Fringe Festival

The Vancouver Fringe Festival is an annual festival that showcases theater talent.

Making Contact - Burnaby Rotary Club

I'm sure you've heard of Rotary International but if not they are a service club that helps local and international communities.

Making Contact - Danielle Spitters (Mortage Broker)

Making Contact - Investor's Group Consultant Renee Wilkins

I plan to post more of my feature work here in the future. Some features may be more interesting than others but yea... enjoy :)

Oregon, Day 5 and 6

Last post about the Oregon trip. It was really time to finish this off considering it's been a month since I got back from Oregon and I really have other things to share with you...

Day 5 started with us checking out of the hotel in Newport and getting some breakfast. There was another Pig'n'Pancake in this town so we went. I was not that impressed. While my sour dough pancakes were good... I would have thought there would be a lot more pancake choices to choose from considering the restaurant chain includes such food in the name. Also, the service, while better, was not stellar.

After we were done, we started on towards Portland where we would be spending our last day. We stopped in Albany to see the historic houses that were mentioned in my Mom's travel book but when we finally found it (the gps did not like the address), we were not impressed enough to go in. So we continued on.

On our way into Portland we stopped in this place called Tigard. I wanted to stop at DSW to look at wedding shoes and this was the one on the way. So we went in, I didn't find anything I liked not to mention in a white color because apparently the bridal selection is actually on the website. Well then... that doesn't work for me does it? I did pick up a nice coral colored guess purse which was really nice though so that was nice.

Next door to DSW was a bridal shop so we went in there. Just a note, bridal shoes in Canada are at least $100 and I knew they weren't as much in the USA so that is why we were looking. I found shoes that I loved. They only had one in my size and that was the sample one which was stretched out so they told me if I phoned later they would ship it to me. Score. I still have yet to phone them though...Need to wait for some money first.

We ate lunch at this pizza place in the same complex that all this was in which also had valet parking. That was interesting to me. Then we went back on the highway towards Portland. Our first stop in Portland was Powells City of Books.

I had never heard of this place before but man... if you like books and have never been here before, then you need to go. Lets just say... they had a map to guide you. Intriguing right? I picked up quite a few used wedding books.

 I got this one for $13.95 (orig 20). I picked it over another one because it does an actual budget breakdown and estimate on what each craft should cost

I love being organized and creating lists even if I don't follow them. I picked up this one used for $8.95 (orig would have been $16 if I bought in Canada) The person who owned it before had written in it a bit but I actually found it quite interesting to see what she was and wasn't doing for her wedding and there was a pleasant little note in the cover.

This looks extremely outdated on the cover hey? Published 1997.. I got this one for a whole 4 dollars and 50 cents! This one is full of any possible question you could ever have. I love it and trust me from what I've heard on wedding forums, the answers to the questions aren't out dated.

Now I haven't cracked this one open yet but I am definitely looking forward to it. I actually just noticed the "as seen on oprah" As I was posting this picture on here haha... I got this one for $7.50. 

My Mom also got a good haul too. There was way more in my basket but I had to put some back... After we left the bookstore, we made our way to check into the hotel. We stayed at the Inn at the Convention Center. This one was kind of .. how do I put it... It was on the lower end of the accomodation spectrum. The guy at reception was extremely nice and internet worked good but the room kind of stunk. It was fine though. My Mom and I walked down to the movie theater, watched a movie and then got up the next morning and packed our things. 

Day 6 was basically us making our way back home. We stopped at an outlet store on the way and dinner at the Olive Garden in Burlington, Washington but otherwise it was pretty direct. It was a good trip of sightseeing and now I can cross that off my list :)