before & after.

living in an extremely 'vintage' apartment surrounded by hand-me-down furniture, can really get a creative person down. so i decided that i wanted to spruce existing pieces up, and in the future, refurbish old inexpensive pieces i find online.

my first project?

an existing 80's tin trunk i found at an antique store three years ago. it was black, rusty, beat up and dented - and the paper inside was curling and falling apart.

i really love army green and thought the trunk would look great in that color - feminine yet tough at the same time. it took me days to decide on a fabric... but when i finally did, i was so excited.

the result? a cottage-chic storage chest :]

the kittens seem to like it - but do you?

right this second...

i am scarfing down my leftover blueberry granola pancakes. nomnomnom!

my mouse is clickclickclicking on all these creative walls and handmade things.

i am excited for my interview this afternoon, but even more excited to come home & finish my refurbishment project :D

i'm wishing it were closer to my birthday [may 28th!] so i can start posting numerous wishlists [that include THESE!]

i'm cracking up, watching the video below:

faith.

while leafing through some old fiction novels this morning, i stop at a high school favorite - a prayer for owen meany by john irving [one of the best authors of all time, in my opinion]. i quickly flip through the pages so i can smell that old musty book smell, and end up stopping at page 451.

"no, i'm not wrong - she's there, i know she's there!" i yelled at him.

"you absolutely know she's there - even though you can't see her?" he asked me. "YES!" i screamed.

"well, now you know how i feel about god", said owen meany. "i can't see him - but i absolutely know he is there!"

the past couple weeks i have been thinking about and questioning everything regarding god and religion. when i was little, i resented going to church. when i was in my teens, i resented god because it seemed he took away everyone i cared for. now in my twenties, i resent not knowing anything about... anything. therefore, i have started reading a lot about different beliefs and asking my friends and family about theirs, just so i can start the process of learning what and what not i believe in.

faith, on the other hand, is a little more tricky to learn about and believe in - especially for someone who doesn't have much faith in anything. how does someone get it? how do you know something exists, when there isn't much concrete proof? how do you believe the proof, in the first place? i am someone who needs to see to believe.

it's too bad owen meany himself couldn't jump out from beyond the pages, sit me down and explain his feelings and faith to me.

the alphabet.

etsy has taken over my life once again.

while perusing the site the other day, i came across the cutest picture of the alphabet. because i love letters and the idea of coloring them in yourself, i immediately wanted to buy it.

a. on the other hand thought it would be dumb to buy such a thing - do it yourself, he said!

so... i did :]

like?

my closet / day date

this weekend a. and i decided to get out of the house and have a lil' day date downtown taking pictures, eating food & admiring the green river. but as we were riding the el, we realized that we were a week late on the st. patrick's day festivities. so at the last minute, we decided to peruse the neighborhood of old town. and boy are we glad we did! it's now our new favorite neighborhood :]

we came across the cutest little shops. there was a great spice shop, a nicole miller that i wouldn't bring myself to in, and tons of restaurants. my favorite shops were pulp and ink [so in love with stationary], the fudge pot [umm hi chocolate shaped everything] and a lil' flower shop with three stories worth of flowers, wreaths, vases and more. for dinner we ate a new place called the flat top grille - it was like a mongolian bbq on steroids. SO yummy!

we didn't get too many pictures that day - but here are a few we snagged [don't judge my senior photo pose... i get nervous when my picture is being taken!].

jean blazer ~ ann taylor loft

sweater ~ h&m

jeans ~ kohls

boots ~ charlotte russe

scarf ~ target

cute boy ~ a. :]

something old and borrowed.

some of you know that i have a bachelor of arts in event planning. but did you also know that i have been obsessed with weddings ever since i was little? i could seriously look at wedding magazines, watch wedding shows & be on theknot.com all day long.

so when kate told me about her idea for this week's topic, i was enthralled!

*how would you feel is you found out your significant other bought your wedding ring through craigslist or ebay?*

if someone would have asked me that question a month ago, my exact words would have been 'umm hells no'. but having since found this website, my thoughts have changed. if you click on the link, you'll be able to see hundreds and thousands of pre owned wedding dresses - each categorized by size, designer, shape, price, etc. after looking at ten or twenty [how could i not!?] of them, i started to see a pattern. the majority of the previous owners didn't feel right about putting their dress in a box for decades to come - they wanted to share the beauty and the feeling they had when they wore it, with someone new.

this is how i see a wedding - something beautiful and unique, expressing each couple's style and love for each other. this is how i see an engagement ring, as well. it shouldn't matter how the marriage ended or why the ring ended up on ebay or craigslist, it should matter how the couple feels about the ring, and feels about the commitment to each other.

every ring and dress should be able to live a number of lives and give as much hope and beauty as possible to as many people as possible.

every ring and dress could be something borrowed AND something old <3

home.

home is a term that changes throughout the years.

when you are very young, home is comforting and safe. in your teens, home is restricting. when you are in college, home is a relaxing get-away. in your twenties, home is something that cannot seem to be obtained.

my friend kate said that her town is like a black hole. so is mine. but in all reality, all small towns are like black holes. no one ever leaves and when you try, you somehow get dragged back in.

my mother and i have moved around many times throughout my life, but the one place we always came back to was coloma, michigan. coloma is one of the smallest towns. it consists of six bars, one movie theater, three gas stations and hundreds of farms - as does every single town within a thirty mile radius. the closest 'big' city is kalamazoo, which is about forty minutes away. most of the people here are small minded, opinionated and gossipy. but those are things i got used to.

what i haven't gotten used to, however, are the memories that seem to haunt me every time i visit. the minute i walk into my room, i see jeremy. when i drive downtown, i think of high school and all the drama that came with it. right next door is my grandfather's grave. three doors down is my former best friends' home. it feels like every time i come around, i get ambushed by the past.

the older i get, the more i yearn for my own home.

a place i am in love with; a place i can redo, decorate and make my own; a place to grow.

a place to make new memories.

right this second...

i am sitting on my mother's new comfy burgundy couch, watching sex & the city on e! and listening to her make my favorite dessert [chocolate pudding/vanilla wafers/cool whip - yumo!].

i am still basking in the glory of a lil' spring shopping we did this afternoon. i'll be bringing these back to evanston :D

my heart is going out to all those affected in japan and hawaii.

i'm missing my two three lil' cuddle bugs so much.

my etsy addiction is getting overwhelming. i am obsessed with the vintage parlor shop and would love this and this :

aaaand right this second i am in the process of writing a blog about 'home' that i will post tomorrow - so stayed tuned :]