A House Into a Home - Kitchen Essentials

Or....er....I guess an apartment into a home.

YES, yes, I am back on the subject of apartments and decor.  SURPRISED?  I'm not.  I've become so fascinated/obsessed with the idea of apartment decor that it's like my love of fashion has completely taken a backseat.

Home decor is interesting because walking into someone's house, you immediately get a feel for the kind of person someone is.  Homes are filled with pieces from your life, from your childhood, from before you were married, from your single days; they're full of rabble you may have found at thrift stores or garage sales, etc etc.  This is why I love to focus on home decor lately and, more importantly, I love the process that I've started of gathering items that either mean a lot to me that I want in my home, or pieces that I imagine I'll keep around for a long time.

I mean, I didn't really expect it to get that deep.  I just wanted to tell you about all the cool stuff I bought this weekend.

But, also-- yay for justifying spending money on all the things I spent money on.  It's for my NEW INDEPENDENT SINGLE APARTMENT LIFE, OKAY?

No, really.  It is.

SO ANYWAY.  My mom and I went crazy this weekend shopping for housewares, and there are still a bunch of things I haven't yet grabbed.  Some things need to wait until I'm actually in the apartment, right?  I have a month to go and I already have a ton of essentials, but I'm going to list my final wishlist at the bottom of this blog.

In this blog, I'll focus on the kitchen area-- I didn't stray much from that area this weekend.

1. Zak Pastel Confetti Nesting Bowls

"Made with 40% post-industrial recycled melamine, these bowls are eco-friendly and BPA free."
Everyone needs a good set of mixing bowls for popcorn, salads, baking, etc.  I've been obsessed with this kind of style for a while now and while shopping at Tuesday Morning, my mom found the neon colored set (linked above but not pictured), which didn't really go with my whole kitchen theme.  After digging around a bit, though, she found the pastel ones hidden away (pictured), which go PERFECTLY with everything I'm putting in my kitchen.  I love them.

2.  Rose gold colander

I can't remember the brand of the one I found, and the one shown above (from a Google image) is actually listed as a 'copper' colander.  Nevertheless, the one I bought at Tuesday Morning was very similar in looks but is not copper, it's rose gold. I almost reached for a green plastic colander but realized that something as simple as this hanging around my kitchen adds a lot of style and a lot of class, and ties together a whole feeling of authenticity.


3. A Kitchen Cart (that is not an island)

For anyone who's seen my new apartment (which, I'm now realizing, is no one that I know....anyway), they'll know that my place does not have room for a kitchen island.  It could, however, use some extra decor that doubles as portable storage, so my mom grabbed this kitchen cart for me at Homegoods.

The one pictured above isn't the one I got, but it's really similar.  How cute/useful is that???

4. A fun pitcher

I have linked to a similar pitcher up above, and the one pictured isn't exactly what I bought.  However, I did get a fish pitcher, it's white, and it's adorable.

Everyone should have fun with their dishware-- yeah, get those useful pieces you'll use every day, but get the fun stuff, too.  I've wanted a pitcher for a while since I imagine myself sitting a the table, refilling my glass of water with a pitcher rather than getting up every five minutes to refill at the fridge.  Or maybe I'm having a party, and my fish pitcher is filled with an iced cocktail mix.

Either way, this is a really fun, simple way to personalize your kitchen.

5. A really GOOD set of knives

I gotta give kudos to my mom again for finding this knife set for me-- well, a similar knife set.  Same knife block, same brand (Schmidt Brothers), but a much cheaper price range (mine were around $70) and a much more rugged feel  (mine are teak handles that don't  have those fancy metal tips at the end).  

My mom was concerned about how expensive they were, but I think it's so important to know that you have a really good, solid block of knives for cooking.  For me, knives are the crux of the kitchen-- you need them for everything you cook, after all.  These are visually striking so they'll look good in my kitchen and they're also amazing quality.  I'm so excited to use them. 

My final wishlist: 

1. A really cute set of drinking glasses (I love milk glass and jadeite, but these things so far have proven to be out of my price range)

2. Dishware/matching plates

3. A bamboo dish drying rack (because I don't have a dishwasher)

4. A matching set of dish towels

5. Better quality skillets/pans

What are your kitchen essentials?

A hard few days.

Being an adult is hard.

Let me rephrase that-- being a 22 year old woman in the workplace is extremely hard.

The reason I haven't blogged in so long is because I've been having a tough time at work.  Nothing too terrible, but issues with people respecting me-- people having trouble following my lead-- these are issues that have been plaguing me for the past few days.

I typed out two specific events in the past few days that have especially bothered me, but who knows who reads this blog? I ended up deleting the paragraphs, as you can see. There's always an issue with being public with your feelings and I constantly feel like I'm having to censor myself on my own blog.

Anyway, just in case, I'll leave the instances out.

But it's hard, really hard, to feel like even after a year in a workplace, no one listens to or respects you.  I blame my age, I try to assert myself, but what else can I do?

#frustrated.

Haley Reinhart at the Biergarten

Friday afternoon was a busy one for me...we had two company events scheduled at the same time.

First of all, one of our employees just hit their 25-year mark with Townsquare Media, so we had a little party to celebrate him.  Halfway through, me and a few coworkers headed over to the Budweiser Biergarten to set up for our Haley Reinhart show for 99.9 The Point.

She did amazing.  I don't usually like singer/songwriters-- I'm more of an alternative kind of girl-- but Haley blew me away.

Here are a few photos I took during the event!

Oh, man...I look pretty haggard in that last one.  I PROMISE I WAS PRESENTABLE. 

Happy Monday!

Apartment Wishlist: April

So, yeah.  I'm still thinking/obsessing/waiting not-so-patiently to move into my new place.   I feel like Pintrest is my new Facebook...and since I'm a social media manager, Pintrest shouldn't be my go-to anything.  But it is, and I love it, and I have so many 'home' boards, it's insane.

I also made a nearly 20-item-long wishlist on Amazon that encompasses all the new things I want for my new place-- dishware, cookware, furniture, and more.  Some of it is really expensive and unreasonable.  Some of it I need in my life, right now, "apartment isn't ready yet" be damned.

Here are a few things I love lately that I want in my new place-- and let me know what you like/don't like/what I'd be crazy to spend more than ten bucks on.

1. Leaf plates

Modcloth, $40

They're so cute.  Couldn't you see yourself eating paella on these? Or spaghetti? Or day-old thai food?? YUM. 

2.  A Roomba. 

Amazon, $299.99

I want a little robot to travel around me and clean up so I don't have to.  Case closed.

3. A baby elliptical. 

Brookstone, $119

AWWWW, it's a little baby elliptical. If I sit still for too long, my legs get restless and then I can't sleep and all that good stuff, so keeping active while also achieving supreme laziness sounds good to me. 

4. A light-up cactus. 

Etsy, $129.99

Because wouldn't this look cute on the wall over my couch?  Oh, you don't know what my couch looks like.  Well, it would. 

I have so many more things on my list, but for now I'll keep it to a minimum.  2 more months until I move into my new place-- it can't come soon enough!!

Photos from our show with New Beat Fund

On April 1, 2016 we had our first 'Edge of The X' show at The Artery in Downtown Fort Collins.

We had some trouble day-of...as in, The Artery double booked our show and we had to find out ways to work with an event that involved autistic children in the same space: very high-sensory kids sensitive to things like...oh, I don't know...loud rock music.

It was definitely a struggle for us, but we made it work and the pictures, at least, looked great.  I looove photography lately and I'm still learning a lot about it, but I love the times when I do get to utilize my skills and try a few things out.

Here are the photos below!

All photos by me.  ;)