I have not forgotten about my blog.

I have, however, had the busiest few weeks of my life.

First of all, there was our event Taste of Fort Collins.  Yeah-- my company owns it now, which means I spent a weekend dehydrated in the Colorado sun.  But I got to meet The Wombats and film a Spin the Bottle video with them, which was pretty much a dream come true:



(The first time, the bottle lands on me. OMG)

Then-- as you know-- I moved into my new place.  And holy geez, do I love it.

If you've been following this blog, you've had to deal with several blog posts about furniture, paint colors, artwork, kitchen essentials, and more.  You've had to deal with me whining about my roommates, making lists to pass the months, and more.

But now I'm here. I'm actually here.

And it's so amazing.  I will say that it's got its perks-- having an old apartment means old outlets and weak a/c that I can't use (because of the old outlets) but it also means Monday night movie nights, staying up late singing along to Spotify in my living room, and cooking....so much cooking.

I'm going to do a more detailed blog posts with pictures of my place, but it's not exactly done yet.  With all the craziness going on, I still haven't hung everything up on the walls or organized much, so...that's coming.

Until then...;)

Updating Something Dumb and Old

'Dumb and old' is exactly what I'd describe this hutch before I painted it.  It was something an old roommate bought at a garage sale for $20-- it was an old, scratched oaky color with dull bronze handles, and we used it because we just needed something cheap and simple to hold up our TV.

After a year of dealing with its ugliness, another roommate and I painted it white and tried to distress it-- but we had no idea how to distress it.  The paint peeled and looked gross and we kind of just...dealt with how bad it looked.  Again.

Now, I'm moving into a new place all on my own. The hutch seems like it has so much useful space, so I'd hate to just throw it out or donate it when it could be such a good addition to my new home.

SO....I painted it!

I went through a lot of color options, including sage green, but eventually I realized how many freaking colors I have (or will have) in my kitchen (which is where I want to put it).  Whatever color I painted it needed to go with all of these colors...which includes two shades of green.  So sage was out.

I ended up going with white.  My dad encouraged me to go with enamel paint, since that's usually the best for furniture.  I was able to paint in the sunshine while listening to Aziz Ansari's Dangerously Delicious album and it was the best time ever.

This is how the hutch turned out:

But that wasn't enough to complete the vision.  

So I went to Hobby Lobby and realized they have a DOPE drawer pull collection.  So I bought a bunch!

Loved this pink-- it looked really French, especially next to the black and white checkered one. 

I almost grabbed a cow's head style knob, but it was a tad too country for me.  I needed something a little bit cheekier...hence, the dog.  That other knob served to tie in all the colors I'll have in my kitchen together really well while also toning down the overly French vibe since I want it to feel really eclectic. 

Hey, Dog. 

This-- I couldn't turn it down.  It is the best of all the knobs, it's such a cool color, and it's bigger than the rest so it really stands out on the dresser. 

And finally, this gorgeous gold one to make everything modern and a little more updated. 

I LOVE DIY projects and this one was no exception.  For one last update on this, I want to put something on the top of it-- when we put our TV on this so long ago, we were too impatient, didn't wait for the paint to dry, and scratched up the top.  Now, it's all lumpy, even after I sanded it down before I painted it (I'm obviously not good at sanding).  I want to put glass over the top, or maybe marble tile (if I can afford it).  We'll see what happens!

Let me know if you have any questions and please share your DIY experiences in the comments!

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?

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!!

Frustrated.

It's been one of those weeks that makes it really, really hard to wait for my lease to be up to move out.

One of my roommates told our old roommate-- the one who moved out early and screwed us all over by messing up our leases-- that she'd watch her dogs for her.  For a week.  Right after I just moved a shit-ton of new furniture into the house.

It's hard to be so mad about this because a part of me goes, "Madi. You freaking idiot.  It's stuff."  After talking it over with a coworker, though, I realized that I'm single and I'm about to move into my own place.  Because of this, my stuff is kind of a big deal to me-- it sort of defines my new life moving forward.  The couch is going to be my first couch all to myself.  My new TV is the TV I'll be watching on Saturday nights when I have my friends over.  My new rug is the first big piece of furniture I've ever had to drop big money on-- money I've worked so hard to earn.

It sounds really shallow and sometimes I tell myself that at least I have a roof over my head in the first place, and that's true.   I do deserve to be happy, though, and living here just doesn't do that for me anymore.

I'm chomping at the bit to leave this house and move into my new place, but I just have to wait.  Wait, wait, wait, and work.

Hidden Pictures in My Office Computer

I've had a very exciting few days.

First of all, the guy that lives in my apartment now sent me pictures of the living room so that I can start planning furniture.  IT'S JUST HOW I REMEMBER IT.  MAYBE CUTER.

Second of all....well, this part's not very exciting.

I was rifling through my stuff that I saved on my office computer and actually found quite a few interesting things.  This is funny considering that I've now been at this specific job for almost exactly a year, and I've been working in this building for a little bit longer than that.  Over that year, I've saved some pretty weird stuff.

Yeah.  That one's very relevant...

This whole slew of pictures actually super represents my time at Townsquare Media so far, so I wanted to share them all.  LET'S GO!

This was my first-ever Greeley Stampede, where I took pictures on top of an RV to get the best shot.  I'll do anything for the perfect shot....

Here's one of my Halloween costumes from last year.  Can you guess?

We wanted to support the Broncos at the Super Bowl with a fun group shot this year, and Susan (who took the picture) loved the fact that the big ice block looked like the mountain range.

A group shot at my first-ever awards show, the CBAs, a few weeks ago.  I'm clearly having a ball (or had too much wine?).  There's also a better shot of my dress down below.

Here's one we took today-- and they almost didn't let me be in it since I'm normally behind the camera.  Hey, my hair looked good and I wore my Ireland t-shirt-- I want in!!

And then, you know.  There's this.

Happy almost one year, me!

Pink Kitchen.

Yesterday was a pretty crazy day.  My work was involved in Fort Collins' annual St. Paddy's Day Parade in Old Town and I got to walk alongside the float taking pictures!

Oh. Did I mention our float featured local band Slow Caves and was basically an all-around badass experience?

About to shred the Fort Collins St Patrick's Day Parade as Ferris Bueller, Cam, Ed Rooney and the Garage Attendant on the @943thex float. #saveferris #twistandshout #slowcaves

A photo posted by Slow Caves (@slowcaves) on Mar 12, 2016 at 9:01am PST

Afterwards, the Shelb-ster and I decided we didn't want to hang around and be bored all day, and since she moved into the same building as me (just a little earlier than I'm planning on being in there) and we're both looking for vintage, character-filled pieces for our homes, we headed to the flea market.

 There were so many swoon-inducing pieces.  I didn't entirely know what I was looking for when I first went in there, but of course, everything that caught my eye was pink.

The pink phone I grabbed right away.  I saw a little girl carrying around a desktop phone that looked similar and got SO jealous, so we made it our mission to find another phone just for me.  And we did! I can't wait to hang this up in my kitchen.

The fish was such a last minute purchase...but honestly, come on.  It's so cute.  That'll go in my kitchen, too, and while it is a cookie jar, maybe I'll pop takeout menus or tea bags or something else in there-- haven't decided yet. 

Now, I realize I'm headed towards having a pink kitchen.  The kettle I have is light blue, though, and the kitchen chairs I want to use are white, so I really have to figure out this whole color scheme thing before I actually move in. 

Any ideas for me?

DIY Tiffany Blue End Table!

So, for a long time, I'd been saving my money to buy this adorable light blue end table at Ikea:

It's $50, however, which is kind of a big deal for a broke college kid like myself.  Nevertheless, I was planning on buckling down and buying it for my brand-new room.  

My sister, of course, convinced me otherwise.  Like I said, $50 is steep!!  Instead, the sister and I ransacked Goodwill, and I had a breakthrough- why not buy a cheap end table and spray paint it instead?

So that's exactly what I did.  For $15, I bought a gem of an end table that was a gross brown color (the color of my youth) and the sis and I bought the Aqua blue spray paint at Home Depot.  

This is a terrible picture, but you can see the sanded-down monstrosity in the lower right corner: 

Sanding something down first is really important, if you didn't know that already- it helps the paint stick to smooth surfaces and is essential for making sure it lasts a long time.  I do small circles, and make sure to have a glove on- it really wears on your fingers.  

Hamming it up, as per usual: 

And voila: the final product!

It goes so perfectly in my room, and with the $15 price of the table, the $4 I spent on the spray paint, and the free chrome paint I found in my dad's garage and used for the handle, I saved over $30!

Self-five.  Comment if you have any questions or any similar experiences to share!

Catch you on the flip side, 

Madi

Hello, my name is Madi....

And I am insanely bad at blogging.  Insanely, insanely, insanely.  But hey- at least I'm blogging now; at least I haven't left you behind completely!

It's been a good few weeks.  I know it's been more than that since I last posted, but I'm not about to summarize my collection of months for you- I don't have that kind of time, and you don't have the energy to care (lezbi honest, people).

I'm getting ready to move.  It's been an adventure living alone and now it'll be an adventure living with three girls.  I'm excited to see how I adapt and change and hopefully grow in a good way.  Sometimes I feel like living alone has made me grow in a bad way: I've got more anxiety about things, more impatience....you get the gist.  But I'm really, really, glad I did it at the same time.

I'm working for a new website now, and you should check it out.  It's called CollegeRecipes.com.  You didn't know I could cook?  Neither did I.  I'm still figuring it out.

I'm writing a whole lot more, which is good.  I feel more like myself when I do that.

I've seen some amazing films.  I wish I could remember which ones they were.

I'm very lucky right now, and I want to blog more, and I'm going to do that.  Finally, it's just what you've been waiting for- a wordy blog about a college student with a little too much on her plate.  Unique, right?

Here's a recent picture of me:

Hey, look, it's my face!!

Check out the 'my vlog' tab for all my new videos- I've got a few that include a few special new experiences.  One of which was getting a new tattoo- awwww yeah.  

See you soon!

It's going to be a good year.

So, 2012 was a nice year.  I'll let you in on some of the things that went down. 

1.  I got asked out on a real, legitimate date for the first time.  

2.  I moved into my very first apartment...

3.  And set off my fire alarm three times in one month. 

4.  My family moved to Colorado...

5.  I had my SECOND white Christmas (that would have sounded so much better to say first, but I remembered at the last minute Texas 2009)

6.  I...saw amazing movies?  I don't really remember anything else that I did that was amazing in 2012.  I'm sure I'll think of a ton of things after I publish this post.  

What are your favorite moments from the past year?

OH WAIT I JUST REMEMBERED: this was a really, really, REALLY fantastic moment for me: 

OHMEGERD

Happy New Year's, fools.