Our Apartment: Two Years Later

I cannot we have been living in our apartment for TWO YEARS! In all honesty I hoped that we would be in a house of our own by this point but with the wedding happening in about five months we will definitely be waiting until it's over to seriously look into house buying. That doesn't stop me from stalking Zillow and Realtor.Com on a daily basis to see what houses have been listed however. :)

So let's take a look at our apartment in it's current state. These pictures were taken yesterday when I was in the middle of cleaning our apartment. The laundry hadn't been completed, the recycling hadn't been taken this week, and it certainly doesn't look perfect. This is our real life and our apartment is not always perfect!

Let's get started...

Our bedroom hasn't changed a lot in the two years we've been here. We still use our Ikea furniture and have our Pier One headboard.

Not the nicest looking set up for our air conditioner- but we have our curtain held up by two office clips and some cardboard blocking off our window from the elements. We do have a new hamper in our room which has been very helpful with keeping Tim's clothes off the floor.

Our newest addition is a black and white print from our engagement shoot. I love this picture and picked a simple silver frame to hang it on the wall.

Ya'll know by now that I like things clean and organized....our second bedroom is a little bit of a hot mess right now. This room has a clean end in sight- after the wedding! It has become our wedding storage room and is absolutely insane right now.

Crazy right?! We have just been collecting so many items for our reception, gifts for people involved in the wedding and random items and they are all living in here for now.

Our kitchen has been pretty much the same for the last year...nothing too exciting in here!

Our living room now holds our entryway furniture as well which is new but besides that everything else is pretty much the same!

I have decorated the top of our entryway furniture with pictures from our engagement session. I also have our football from the session displayed with our save the date message on it. I love having these special pictures on display so I see them every day.

Our ladder shelf and our bookshelf are still pretty much the same!

We are still loving our couch- it is the place we come home and relax every day. I have plans to replace our coffee table when we move because it's definitely not the best quality but it's working for now! I also love our gallery wall- it's still one of my favorite walls in the apartment.

Our tv stand hasn't changed at all and I have my eye on a new one when we move into a house! I will keep this as a storage system but probably not in our living room.

 

Real life: My desk is a mess. I've had this desk since middle school so my future home dreams include a desk that doesn't have so much on display, where items can be tucked away to create a more organized look. At least I keep my jewelry armoire and my beauty product storage organized on either side of it!

Across from my desk is my teal table that Tim gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago. I also have some mirrors from Kohls above it. This area is pretty incomplete and is also where all our recycling sits until we are able to take it to the recycling center. 

Our bathroom is nothing too exciting and honestly hasn't changed at all in the last year.

I did add a little fake succulent on top of the toilet tank- just a little decor in a boring place!

So that's what our apartment is looking like now- hopefully next year at this time we will be in a house!

If you want to see our apartment when we first moved in click here and last years update click here.

Our Wedding: List Number Two

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Today I'm sharing the second installment of my wedding to do list. We have conquered everything on list number one and I'm feeling very accomplished! We have finished all the big items so now the list is longer but with less daunting tasks.

Let's get started...

• Order invitations
• Send invitations on August 1st
• Pick bridesmaid dresses done! and almost all the girls have ordered and their dresses have come in!
• Schedule dress fittings done! I go back to Alexandra's Bridal Boutique in September for my fittings.
• Pick hairpiece and jewelry done! During my try-on appointment my stylist helped me pick some beautiful earrings and an absolutely gorgeous hairpiece. So exciting!
• Work on flowers  Even better then done! I have ordered all the silk flower bouquets from afloral.com and they are sitting in my "wedding room" ready to go.
• Buy all things centerpieces (this is almost done- just need to purchase my weight in sand!
• Figure out cake Cake is ordered and paid for!
• Figure out ceremony decorations (if any)
• Plan honeymoon Thanks to my handsome fiancé this is already booked- next March we will be on a cruise to somewhere tropical. 
• Check in with Tim's dad about rehearsal dinner
• Order rehearsal dinner invites
• Plan day after brunch
• Tim's suit-- picked out but he is going at the end of the month to get fitted!
• Groomsmen suits-- all picked out they just need to get in the store to get sized!
• Bathroom kits for wedding
• Hair trial
• Makeup trial Done!
• Buy wedding rings
• Buy undergarments for dress
• Buy wedding shoes
• Buy bridesmaid/groomsmen gifts-- working on this!
• Make table numbers
• Make sand dollar place cards
• Buy stamps
• Buy gifts for parents
• Buy gifts for flower girls/ ring bearers
• Enjoy bridal shower and bachelorette party!

This list is going to take me right up to October! At that point I will be doing last minute items that are on list number three but pretty much everything should be done!

I'm sure I will think of many other things to add as the months go on but right now I'm feeling fairly prepared. We are just under five months out and I'm still chipping away at little things day after day.

What were the things you had on your wedding list at five months out? What was something that came up that you wish you had thought of? Please share in the comments section!

Life Lately: Busy Busy May!

There hasn't been much down time around here lately! We have been busy and filling our down time with lots of fun now that the weather isn't gross. We also are still checking items off our wedding to do list. I will be sharing list number two soon! People have been telling me lately not to get too stressed with the wedding and honestly other then worrying about money and how we will afford everything I don't feel stressed at all! We have just about five months until the wedding and I think we have a handle on everything. Just little things to do now :)

A couple of weeks ago I got the call that my wedding dress was in! I couldn't believe how fast it was- they told me it might not be in until August! My mom and I headed up there on a Saturday morning so I could try it on and then bring it home. 

It's now hanging in our second bedroom which I am referring to as "the wedding room" I will share pictures of what the room looks like after the wedding- there are just too many things in there that I don't want to share with the world until after the wedding. Also we have some gifts in there and you never know who is reading :)

Also during my dress appointment I picked out my hair piece and jewelry for the wedding. These will be shown at a later date as well :)

We've been getting Hello Fresh meals for the past few weeks and I have to tell you- they are delicious! I think it's totally worth the $60 we spend to get 6 meals. Every meal we've tried so far has been great and Tim is learning a ton of new recipes too.

I've been going to a lot of Tim's softball games and at a recent one I was able to hang out with my soon to be nephews as they played on the playground. They are such great kids!

On Saturday I got to hang out with all three of my flowers girls. This one won't even be a year old but she will be pulled in a wagon...fingers crossed!

I might be biased- but I think I have the cutest flower girls ever...

And the most amazing best friends!

Yesterday I spent mothers day with my mom, brother and other members of my moms side of the family. It was a really nice day and I always love hanging out with my mom!

I found two of these trays at HomeGoods yesterday afternoon which will hold our place cards. I am going to have sand dollars as our place card and they will be in here like a sand box. I think it will be really cute so I'm glad I found them!

What have you guys been up to lately?

April Empties

Sorry for being slightly delayed with my April empties- there's been a lot going on lately around here! It seems like from the beginning of spring until the end of fall it's non-stop craziness with everything going on. 

April wasn't a month where I finished a ton of items but I did finish quite a few household items.

I finished up five chapsticks in April. They were in the flavors candy cane, cake batter and sugar cookie. All were nice but cake batter is still my ultimate favorite.

I also finished an Urban Decay eyeshadow primer potion which is my favorite eyeshadow primer. I actually received a small sample sized one last time I was in Sephora so I will keep using it!

I am loving Tide laundry detergent and finished two containers of it in April. These small containers I pick up couponing go quickly! I also finished up a huge box of Bounce dryer sheets which are my favorite dryer sheets. I love the smell of these products!

I finished a full size Bath and Body Works Vanilla Bean Noel lotion. I'm not a huge fan of this scent but have a ton of it in my stockpile so I will still be using it until it's all gone. I'm glad that I finished one up! The small Bath and Body Works Be Enchanted lotion was one of my favorite scents and I would definitely repurchase it in the future. I also finished a full size Bath and Body Works Wild Madagascar Vanilla shower gel which I liked but didn't love.

Two hand soaps were completed in April. Both were pretty boring unfortunately- the Softsoap Antibacterial was boring but worked fine. The CVS Shea Butter was pretty gross and got a little clumpy and I definitely wouldn't purchase it again in the future.

I also finished a dish soap from Mrs Meyers in the mint scent. I did like this a lot and find that the Mrs. Meyers scents are amazing and the soap works well.

What products have you used up lately?

TipToe Through The Tulips

Last Thursday after work Tim and I headed up to Johnston, RI to visit a local tulip field called Wicked Tulips. Despite the rush hour traffic getting there it was a fairly quick trip and I finally was able to snap some pictures with my Canon Rebel! My mom had told me about this field last year so I had my heart set on going this year and Tim always aims to make me happy :)

One thing to know about Wicked Tulips is that they sell out VERY quickly! I signed up for their mailing list and received an email letting me know that tickets were on sale a day sooner then they were available to the public. Within that first day the entire first weekend was sold out and three of the four weekdays were sold out. They only open for a few weeks so if you are interested in going you better get your tickets online quickly!

I love the variety of flowers they have- there are so many different colors! They have two different sections of the tulip field. One is the show garden where you can see all the different types of tulips. They are marked with signs and it's a great place to take pictures! There are professional photographers who come here to take pictures too which would be a fantastic backdrop. 

Aren't these the most unique tulips?!

I personally love the pink tulips! I think they are gorgeous and photographer really nicely as well!

I was very excited to bring my Canon Rebel out for an adventure! This winter I didn't take my camera out very much so I'm ready to play with it a little more and learn how to shoot in manual. If anyone can give me any camera tips I would love to hear them!

Pretty Princess Tulips!

After taking pictures of tulips in the show garden we headed over to the next section where we were able to pick some to take home!

I decided to pick 10 to take home. Since they were $1 a stem that allowed me to have a nice bouquet but didn't involve me spending a fortune.

These tulips might be my absolute favorites from the entire field.

Since we went around 5:30 on a weeknight there were far less people then during the weekend. I would highly recommend going during the week if you can make it work with your schedule. We found there was plenty of room to take pictures and still plenty of flowers to choose from.

As I was setting up my camera to take self-timer picture a girl walking by offered to take a picture for us which was incredibly sweet. I love how this turned out with all the colorful tulips in the background! We returned the favor and took pictures of her and her family. 

Remember if you are in the area and interested in going to Wicked Tulips I would grab your tickets right away! You can check them out here. 

Have a great day everybody!

Sachuset Point Wildlife Refuge

One warm, sunny afternoon we took an adventure into Middletown to Sachuset Point Wildlife Refuge. Neither of us had ever heard of it before but stumbled upon it accidentally. If you are ever in the area this is an absolutely stunning walk to do. 

We chose to take the Ocean View Loop Trail so we had the opportunity to walk along the rock beach and stare out at the ocean.

My favorite person in the world by my favorite part of the earth- the ocean. I have always been obsessed with being by the water and I instantly feel calm when I smell the ocean. I heard someone on YouTube say that they didn't live "too far" from the beach, about two hours and I cringed. Two hours?! I couldn't stand it- I must be within fifteen minutes from the ocean to feel alive.

I wish I had brought my new tripod to take pictures instead of resorting to selfies- but what can you do?

I'm glad I had my comfy clothes on since we didn't intend on taking a walk. My jean jacket is from GAP from years ago. My Adidas shirt was purchased at Dicks a few weeks ago. The leggings are from LC Lauren Conrad via Kohls and my Nike Sneakers were also from Dicks during a sneaker sale last year and they are so comfy!

I can't wait to see green instead of brown- at least it's finally starting to feel like spring around here! Hopefully soon we will be seeing some color in the world again.

The different blue shades in the ocean were incredible on this particular day. I am always in awe by how gorgeous the ocean can look.

Are you inspired to visit Sachuset Point yet? I'm already ready to go back there for another walk. This path is very easy too- there are certainly areas where you can walk out onto the rocks and make your adventure a little more challenging but if you have trouble getting around sticking to the main path is very doable.

There were so many rocks here- usually the beaches in Rhode Island are sand but this particular one was all rocks. It reminded me of the rock beaches in the south of France quite honestly.

Overall it was the most gorgeous day to be out by the water and we will definitely be going back in the future!