Catching Up Back Home

So hey, it's been an absolutely crazy week back here in Indiana!! We've gotten to see soooo many people that we haven't in a while. We went swing dancing, celebrated my 21st birthday, got to visit with friends and both our families, and we got to go to my sister-in-law's wonderful wedding. It was absolutely lovely and she looked so beautiful! We got to dress up and go to the reception as well. The only downside at the reception for the most part was that it was in the country and I forgot to pack flip flops, so my heels sank in the mud at times. I had such a fun time there.

at the lovely reception

Also, my mother-in-law gave me her Singer sewing machine!! She's only used it a handful of times and thought that I could get better use out of it. That was so nice. She and I also went to a couple antique shops in town, and I got two full jars of buttons (one was a mason jar from 1858!) I also got to see my mom on Thursday and spend a lot of time with her. I really really enjoyed catching up with her. :) We head back to New Jersey in about 5 hours, so we have a lot to get done still haha. I'm not sure how everything will even fit in the car, but we'll make it work! :) Until next time! 

Love your face and such,

Sara♥

Ideas?? :)

So we've been living in our apartment for over a month and a half. That seems crazy to think about, but we love it! We've been getting things situated, but our poor bedroom was basically storage on one side for quite a while, and is now super boring and empty. Once we get that desk in there, it may be better. Our poor bed side also needs some help. It is just a little metal bed frame that we have some temporary boards under. Hopefully we get all this fixed up soon! I've been trying to get some ideas for a headboard that I could make for it as well, so it's not so sad looking. Here are a couple ideas, but I'm not sure yet!

We've been looking at a lot of different ideas, but just aren't set on one yet. I love all of these, especially the light up one (but I'm a cheapskate and can't imagine paying electricity for that all of the time haha.) I'm sure we will get it figured out soon :) If you have any ideas or have seen some headboards that you like (as well as some other bedroom decor) Please let me know on here! I'd love to hear from you for it. Thank you already!

Love your face and such,

Sara♥

A Couple of Simple Crafts

So it's been a few days since I've actually posted anything new (I mean, only a week, but I post stuff up a LOT usually...) Things have been kind of crazy with all my online classes and everything, but all is going well. There has been a lot of work, so I haven't had much time to do anything crafty, sorry. I've also been wanting to do a bigger project, like building a headboard for our bed, which takes a lot of supplies. I obviously don't keep most of that stuff on-hand. I did make these simple, quick crafts last night though.

This is just a little decoration that I made from scrapbooking stuff and stickers to hang on our fridge. Thought it was a nice, quaint design. I want to later on, make something else with our last name for maybe the stairway. So yeah, just something super simple here :)

This is another really simple, cute craft I found that you can do in like... 30 seconds basically. Yay for Pinterest. You just need a cute clear jar (I just love the Ball mason jars), vegetable oil, and your picture. Usually you want to go with a black and white photo or a very unsaturated picture. Once you have everything, make sure the picture is a proper fit for the jar, or trim it up. I used a standard 4x6 photo and just had to trim the top down a tiny bit. Place it so that it's curved against the front of your jar. Add all the oil (make sure you check how many ounces your jar is first!! you want the whole thing full. Mine took 24.) Put on the lid, and Boom. You're done with this craft. 

I added some vanilla scent cubes to it as well. I also added a little understated bow. I may change the color of it, not sure yet. So those are two simple things that you could do. Ours is sitting on our kitchen counter for now. 

Oh, by the way, this is the little sign that it sitting behind that (also, don't mind the paper crane on the right haha). We picked up this little guy on our honeymoon while shopping. Since Derek's in the military, we thought it was wonderful. So there you go! Until next time! :)

Love your face and such,

Sara♥

Thank You!

      Hey guys, just wanted to say thank you for reading my blog :) It's great to have friends message me or tell me that they like what I write for this. It really is wonderful to have such supportive people in my life, even if I'm living far from them right now. (Can't wait to come back in a couple weeks!) They've been just so kind and helpful, giving me tips here and there or giving me some more ideas of what I should do. So if you have any ideas for recipes or anything you would like to see, just let me know :)

     On another note, I just recently started doing some yoga here at the apartment. I throw on yoga music on Spotify and just kinda go for it. I'm just kind of doing whatever, so yeah. It will just be here until I'm brave enough to maybe go find somewhere to do this haha. Need to get the basics down first so I don't look silly if I do try to go somewhere else. So far I really like it though. If anyone has any tips, I'd really appreciate it!

     Online classes from USI are going really well for me too, even though there is a lot of busy work. It's definitely a lot different, but it's nice at the same time because I can do everything on my own schedule. That is definitely a plus since I'm mostly on night schedule because of Derek's work and everything. I really do miss everyone though. Hope all is going well! Just wanted to catch up! :)

Love your face and such,
Sara♥

Another Recipe :)

Oh, I love cooking so much :) We were pondering what to make for dinner earlier, and decided on honey chicken, corn, and mashed potatoes. Wanted that hearty meal like when we were back in Indiana with our families, I guess. Nothing wrong with that at all. :) I never like to do things the simple way, so I told Derek that I wanted to make mashed potatoes homemade, since we already had some whole potatoes. It had been forever since I'd done that and it sounded like fun. It's really basic to do, but I love using a recipe by Julia Child. Amazing chef right there. If any of you don't know who she is, definitely look into that. 

 Here's the link for the recipe :)
(makes about 5 or 6 servings)  

http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/homemade-mashed-potatoes

So I convinced my hubby to peel all the potatoes for me, then I peeled them. As they were boiling, I realized that I had no idea where I put the electric mixer. Silly me. That basically doubled our cooking time, but we had a really fun time taking turns mashing the potatoes and laughing at each other while doing that. We joke around way too much haha. They turned out to be pretty great, and we had them with honey barbecue chicken and whole kernel corn. Delicious. Have a try at the recipe. It's pretty straightforward.

:D

Love your face and such,
Sara♥

Around the Apartment

Hello :) So we've been keeping pretty busy with everything lately, so I haven't had a chance to show a couple things I've been doing around the apartment. I started online classes from my school back in Indiana this week, which has been kind of hectic, but I'd like to think it's in a good way.  Positive thinking, yeah? We're also watching a pretty adorable cat for some friends who are out of the state for a couple weeks. This cat is fantastic, but I swear he's like a ninja. So that's been fun as well. :)

So here are a couple of the little projects that have been going on recently. 

  

These were originally plain wood like on the right >>>

I just wanted to paint and make them a bit more fun.

We also can't paint our walls at our apartment, so I decided to put this together. I painted acrylic paint paper and cut it out for the trunk and leaves. It's not done yet, but it's fun to make so far.for the pictures, I just cut a tiny slit at the top and used some of the background and wove the ribbon through, then used a little metal fastener/brad for it. I think the photos were a nice little addition to it since it just looked a little bare otherwise. P.S. all the scrapbooking stuff and ribbon on this post is from that scrapbook score I made a while back :)

               

It's up in our living room, behind the TV area, leading to the bathroom and bedroom. It's looking pretty autumn like now, so we may do stuff each season for it. We're not sure yet. So yeah, that's what's going on here right now. :)

on our balcony :) 

love your faces and such,

Sara♥

Smoothies :)

So ever since my hubby's mom got me a Ninja blender, I've been obsessed with making smoothies. I just made peanut butter banana ones for us today, which turned out fantastic. They're almost like a dessert smoothie, but are really good for a thick breakfast on the go. Here are some of my favorites that I've made. (p.s. sorry for no pictures. We finished those smoothies so quickly!)


Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

1 banana
1/8 cup peanut butter (or more if you'd like)
1/2 cup milk (soy works really well)
2 tablespoons plain yogurt (optional)
2 tablespoons of honey


Banana Pineapple Smoothie 1 banana
1 cup pineapple juice (frozen)
1/2 cup fat free milk or plain yogurt
1 tablespoon of honey


Strawberry Raspberry Smoothie

1/2 cup strawberries (hulled)
1/2 cup raspberries 
1/4 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup plain yogurt (lowfat, natural)
4 ice cubes

Enjoy!

Also, What are some of your favorite smoothies? Comment and share them below. :) 

Love your face and such,
Sara♥

Quick Craft!

So hey, I know that I blog really frequently, but I just get excited to show what all is happening over here :) After our lovely day at the beach yesterday, we just relaxed the whole evening. Today however was the last bit of organizing whatever is left in boxes and putting the rest away. After our big cleaning frenzy at our apartment, I just kind of looked around at everything. This apartment has sooooo much space and potential for DIY! Sadly, we can't paint the walls, but that won't stop us from being creative.  I also had a few minutes after dinner to just do a quick makeover for a lampshade that was just so dull. It was for a cute little lamp that I got at a garage sale before moving, but it needed a little love. I just used a sharpie for it (couldn't find my fabric marker) and drew some quick designs such as Y for Young (our last name obviously) and a fleur de lis. Note that you should probably use a stencil of some sort if you're unsure. I just kind of live on the edge and go for it when making stuff.... not always the best approach, but it usually works for me :)

I should have centered the designs better, but one side of the lampshade was a little flat, so I drew on it versus the lamp looking a little funky shaped on the sides.

Boom. instantly more exciting. It's super simple, but made that bit of difference that we had hoped for.

Love your face and such,
Sara♥