C.'s All Moved In

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We had a lovely time helping my sister move into her very first apartment getting her ready for her junior year of college (yikes – I can’t believe she’s already a junior!).

Friday evening M. and I enjoyed a leisurely dinner, came home, watched a little TV and then headed off to bed so that we’d be up early the next morning for our drive to VA to help my sister, mom and dad with the moving-in & setting up process.

C. and her great friend Kari are living in an adorable apartment right near campus, but there were some things about the apartment that we wanted to change around. Plus, it would be very unlike my mom to not want to do some special decorating...and there were some really adorable things that she had put together for C.'s room and apartment.

While my mom visited me in DC (the week M. was taking the bar exam) we actually stopped by a Goodwill to look at furniture and pick up anything that was worth refurbishing. We ended up walking out with an adorable side table (which fits perfectly next to C.'s bed) and two mirrors. C. wanted her room to have a very simple color palette so she picked one of the Martha Stewart combinations and went with it. She repainted the side table a really pretty, calming shade of blue and then the mirror was actually painted a shade of yellow. C. also had a great "furniture find" of her own. She had one blank wall and didn't really want to have a desk in her room (instead she has a little laptop table that she'll use for her homework and studying) so she ended up buying a mantle (only $50) which she placed on the wall. It was amazing and I was pretty jealous! She ended up taking one of the big mirrors we bought at Goodwill (for $10) and placed it in the opening for the "fire place". It looks great and serves as a perfect ledge to display some adorable picture frames and other room accessories! I didn't take a picture of the mantle (who know's why!?!?), but you can kind of see it in the picture of my sister and I to the left.

As for the room changes, for example, C. really wanted to cover up the ceiling tiles – you know, those gross type of tiles you see in office buildings?! Well, my mom and C. decided to buy some muslin fabric to cover them up – and it was certainly a process at first (we were using a hammer and nails because they forgot the staple gun), but once we got the hang of it (and also once Dad went and bought a staple gun) it was a breeze! The finished “fabric” ceiling looked amazing and we even made it look like it had a bit of a “swag” by stapling the fabric at the center of the room. In order to hide the staples in the center, I made some little “fabric” flowers and just attached them at the center points using some heavy duty duct tape. It was a fun project that all of the gals (my mom, sister and I) worked on while the guys did the heavy lifting and a few other projects around the place.

My dad and M brought the couch up, the TV stand, and C.’s mattress which wasn’t any easy feat considering all of the steps they had to climb to reach C.’s apartment. My sister also “antiqued” some old shutters that were hanging out in my parent’s attic and M. and my dad hung them on the sides of the window in the living room behind the couch! It looked super cute and I wish I would’ve taken an “after” picture so that you could see the effect!

After an afternoon of moving furniture, hammering nails and arranging C.’s apartment it was time to relax! My mom brought out a great bottle of wine and a few snacks and we sat in the little living room and enjoyed each other’s company catching up on my parent’s very recent trip to Spain and other summer happenings. We met up with one of C.’s friend’s family and enjoyed a fabulous dinner together! I so enjoyed getting to know the S’s and learning about Mrs. S’s three beautiful daughters! It was actually C.’s friend’s 19th Birthday so I made sure to snap a few photos so that there would be some memories of her special day!

We ended up driving back to DC that evening and didn’t get home until about 2:30 in the morning. Needless to say, we slept in yesterday morning and the entire day was pretty lazy….well at least, I was pretty lazy! As if I hadn’t slept enough, I ended up going to sleep around 10:30..I think maybe it was the wine from the night before that had gotten to me. M. stayed up though (I woke up a few times) and did some cleaning in the apartment. I woke up to a beautifully spic and span place this morning…aside from my little corner on the couch where I had some projects laid out.

Back at work today, but it’ll be a short week considering it’s our last week of getting out at 3pm everyday and we have a half day on Friday for the Labor Day weekend holiday.

To work I go! Enjoy your Monday!