Movin' Out (Aja's Song)

     Ah, it is Monday, the bane of Garfield’s existence and the one day of the week that always arrives too soon and lasts forever! After an exhausting weekend spent moving all of my stuff out of my old apartment, this Monday morning finds me dragging and sleepy. I’m almost a cup of coffee down and still my eyelids feel heavy and unforgiving. Perhaps I will venture to Einstein Bros during my lunch break because God only knows how sleepy I will grow with a full belly.

     As I just mentioned, this weekend called for a lot of time a patience to get me all moved out. Friday evening, mom, dad, Maggie, and I hauled up in the Prius and hit the road for Gainesville. I’m noticing that as I get older, riding in the car for a few hours with my parents becomes less and less of a pain and more enjoyable. Maybe it’s because I’ve perfected the art of tuning out and falling asleep at any given moment. So on to the Gator Nation we drove and when we arrived, we met my boyfriend James for dinner at T.G.I. Fridays- most appropriate since it was Friday. Feeling thoroughly replete afterwards, James and I decided to lay low and stay in. Well really, I just fell asleep almost immediately and James hung out with his friends in the living room.

     Saturday morning we all got a fairly early start on the apartment clean-out. (My parents may beg to differ but I think 11 am is a fairly early start for a weekend.) Box by box we loaded up and out. We ended up with way more full boxes than I ever would have foreseen in a million years. Luckily, my friend Danielle allowed me to store them in her room in the unit down the hall from me. I pray she does not venture to Gainesville on a whim in the next week and a half because she would KILL me if she saw how much we managed to squeeze in there! We pretty much got everything out of the apartment by Saturday evening and managed to spend our down time wrapped up in various shows on HGTV- what else?!

By the end of the day, James and I felt pretty exhausted but managed to perk up after a great sushi bowl dinner and the prospect of an SAE party a few blocks away. As it turned out, the party was a great way to begin the night, but I can’t help but feel old now around all the budding freshmen. I noticed short shorts and cute tops are quite the trend amongst the freshmen- a dead giveaway. Not one girl I knew that has spent at least a year in college had on shorts.

     After the party we hit the usual bars and actually stayed until closing. On our way back, we were ambushed by some, as my dad calls them, “friendly” people, clearly just looking for a fight. Easily one of the most terrifying moments of my sheltered little life. A car full of kids just stopped in the middle of the street and came after my friends throwing punches and yelling threats I couldn’t really understand. For some reason in my drunken stupor it made sense for me to start apologizing. I kept yelling “sorry I tripped! Please stop I didn’t mean to!” I never tripped and I have no idea why I felt the urge to say this. After I begged the guys to stop fighting, this girl jumped out of the car and started coming at me in a rage. I am yet to understand what in the world I did to upset her but for whatever reason she felt the need to try and beat me to a pulp. Luckily the guys I was with would never, ever allow that to happen so I am fine! It was so extremely bizarre. Needless to say after that affair, we called the police and returned home.

     The next day was spent repainting the entire apartment whilst recounting the previous night’s events to mom, dad, and Brita. We all agree Gainesville has some strange, angry people. Repainting pretty much took all day as we ran out of paint and drove to two different stores to find the right stuff. We repacked the car and left with about twice as much as we had arrived with. Maggie and I enjoyed a little photo shoot, some Zaxby’s, and a nice nap squished together in the back seat! All in all, quite an eventful weekend and I can hardly wait to get back to Gville!

Blue Skies or Sunny Days?

       After months and months of planning and searching for furniture, the stress of finally having to decide and buy was starting to get to me. Excessive hours spent browsing with nothing to show for it rendered me quite irritable lately. But not for long!

       Now that we have actually begun to purchase various items, I’m starting to picture the final product, and thus am growing more and more excited by the day. Last night, mom and dad made their way to Ikea (I know it’s cheap but hey I’m in COLLEGE) and managed to get a great couch for a steal! After perusing the “as-is” section, my dad pointed out a couch that he thought looked very similar to the couch they drove there to buy. Turns out, it was the exact same couch! On top of the couch, we’ve acquired a pseudo-modern tv stand, some glass lamp bases with black barrel shades, and a dining room table with 4 chairs.

       Today, I’ve spent some time searching for cute throw pillows for the couch. I can’t quite decide on an accent color to go with the black and white we have everywhere else. Part of me loves the thought of a bright, sunny yellow and then part of me thinks an aqua blue might look great. I suppose it all comes down to whether or not I can find a great rug to coordinate at a modest price. What do you think?    

Affordably Adorable

After an exhausting yet thrilling weekend, Monday morning has found me slightly sluggish yet in a much happier place than did Friday. The much anticipated Harry Potter premiere left me feeling depressed the following day. Not even the prospect of furniture shopping over the weekend could lift my spirits, although I awoke on Saturday a totally new person.

In fewer than 3 weeks, I will be schlepping a boat load of furniture up to Gainesville for my first ever move into an unfurnished apartment. I have spent countless hours searching the internet for inspiration and steals with which to furnish the new place. Unfortunately, all of my “inspiration” is far from a steal. What can I say, I have expensive taste.

Anyone who has spent even 10 minutes with me in the past 3 months knows how much I’ve put into making this new condo a place I’ll be proud of. Mom and I have visited almost every furniture store in the Bay area looking for “just the thing” to make it a place to call home. Because this past weekend was the last I can spend in Tampa this summer, we worked really hard to cram all our shopping into a mere two days. Needless to say, that wasn’t possible. But we did manage to knock a few “biggies” out of the way without sacrificing style or budget.

My advice for the wallet conscious when it comes to designing a place you’ll want to show off- pick your battles! Everyone has a “hot button”. Don’t compromise on the one or two things that really make you happy just to save a buck. For example, I love light blue and coral pink together. For months now, mom and I have searched and searched for inexpensive bedding with these colors. We would find a coral bed skirt here and a light blue throw there, but when you put it all together, it would have simply looked like, well to put it bluntly, like shit. Finally we found our “just the thing” we had been looking for! But at a price… So what did we do? We splurged a bit and bought the duvet and shams, but kept it at that. With our 20% off coupon at BB&B, it was totally affordable. Now had we purchased every little throw pillow in the set, we would have spent a small fortune, but we managed to walk out of there feeling great about spending and styling my new room! Not to mention, I think it’s better to only buy a few items from a set to avoid the whole bed-in-a-bag look.

To go along with the new bedding, I obviously needed a bed. I decided to go with an upholstered headboard in off-white twill from Ballard Designs (pictured below). This will be a timeless piece I can use for years to come.

The remainder of our bedroom/bathroom hunting included a shower curtain to match the duvet and a vintage looking nightstand. I’m in the process of collecting some mix-matched frames to adorn the wall around my bed to give it a more thrown-together feel. Since I already own a great dresser, all I need to do for that is find some fun knobs that match those on the nightstand to tie it all together nicely!

I’ll save the living room chatter for another day considering we haven’t actually purchased the couch yet!

That’s all for now!