fall is so fabulous.

so, after an entire week of thinking about how wonderful fall is, i then open my e-mail to find this pleasant surprise...

yep, 50% off of halloween decor at world market... so, i of course head over to see what i can find... and honestly, i couldn't find anything that i liked! so sad. in the header there was a cute little owl and pumpkin, but that isn't even for this season. so sad.

such a friendly looking owl, yet no where to be found.

so, i headed over to potterybarn, my home away from home... and i sure found some fun purchases things that i wish i could buy there!

decorative owl with lights - find it here

pumpkin candles (available in white or orange) - find them here

rustic metal pumpkin - find it here

and just because i have a decorating bug, i went over to target, because let's be honest- while potterybarn is fab.u.lous, i just cannot always (or ever, as the case may be) afford it.

nito vine pumpkin - find it here

mini spooky wreaths - find them here

thanks for letting me share my disease... i hope that you find something festive to decorate your home with! i also love fall decorations that aren't specifically halloween, that way i at least feel like i've gotten more use out of them!

what is your favorite way to decorate for fall?

just a thought.

top two tuesday.

top 2 tuesday- favorite fall decorating/party ideas.

{one} a festively carved pumpkin... a necessary part of any fall decor. i just love these- they look so beautiful when they are lit!

find the DIY here- thanks martha stewart for making my owl on a tree seem not so exciting...

{two} a fun seasonal wreath... i love the way a door looks with a wreath on it... check out this one from martha stewart- her ideas are so wonderful!

find the instructions here- this one looks so simple and you could change the candy based on your color scheme!

just because i can't pick only two things... one more fun idea!

{three} unique indoor decorations... tin-can jack-o-lanterns!

find them here.

link up and share your fall ideas- i just can't get enough of them! i love, love, love this season!

just a thought.

miscellany monday.

linking up for my favorite start to the week! trying to keep things interesting and random, as always... click below to link up!

[one] white v-necks. if i could spend my life in comfy-cozy white v-necks, i would. they are so comfortable to throw on and they come in a pack of five, which means that they are great for painting and doing projects that you don't mind getting messy in because they come with tons of spares! 

[please excuse the man who is in this picture... i couldn't find one of just a shirt!] 

 [photo credit]

[two] kilz primer. is difficult impossible to get off... i can't stand it. you use it one day and then you spend 2 or 3 trying to get it off! however, it is the best... so i guess i shouldn't complain.

[three] refinishing. yes, since "two" is about kilz, i have done some refinishing and refurbishing of my furniture- it is looking great! i can't wait to post some pictures later this week!

[four] the bachelorette [again]. i'm sorry friends- i just can't help it... i feel the need to keep those of you who miss the show [or don't watch it... shame on you] updated... let's just say that tonight it is going to be intense... [or so abc would like us to think]... either way, i cannot wait. 8pm, abc- see you there. who do you think will leave this week?

[five] cruise. i have never been on a cruise... i really want to go on one. they look so glamorous [confession: i just had to sing the song in order to spell that g-l-a-m-o-r-ous] however, i am just a bit worried that i would get sea sick and then be miserable for the entire trip... if i go on a cruise i will pray that i don't have an issue with that.

[six] karaoke. i want to sing karaoke really bad... so fun... or at least, in my mind it would be fun- maybe if people started "booing" me it wouldn't be so fun... but, since in my mind people are friendly, karaoke seems quite enjoyable.

[seven] happy birthday to me. tomorrow is my birthday... here are some pictures from last year's birthday...

[top left: me and aunt eloise- my great aunt, i love this woman... if i ever have a daughter i want to name her mary eloise after her- don't steal it. top right: me and sean pre-movie (harry potter) and supper (rb's seafood-delicious) bottom right: my scrumptious cake i designed (not decorated, simply designed) bottom left: me eating the scrumptious cake... it was really good!]

[eight] button up. i now have a button... grab it! i made it last week after i found a helpful "how to" and got it up in no time... so fun!

[nine] pretty paperie. natalie over at the busy budgeting mama has a fabulous new etsy shop for personalized paper products [like the alliteration!?] and things that will make your next party fabulous! it is called pretty paperie... go check it out! make sure to visit her blog because she has a giveaway going on for some fabulous paper products, you don't want to miss it!

happy monday! don't forget to link up and spread the miscellany! 

just a thought.

miscellany monday.

[one] roller coasters. i love them. they are so much fun and i haven't ridden one in a couple of years- i hope that will change this year! the first roller coaster i ever rode was at carrowinds and it was called "top gun" i was scared to pieces before i got on, cried the whole time, and then, once it was over i asked to go on it again. loved them ever since.

[two] real life song and dance. i would love it if at some point in my life a giant room could all do the same song and dance- i just think it would be amazing. after seeing slum dog millionaire i declared that i was going to make a dvd of the ending song and mail it to my friends for us to do at my wedding... i don't think that will happen- but you never know!

[three] ebay. since i have been finding some crazy good deals on ebay, i know like to check it all the time (not really all the time... but fairly frequently) as of right now i have ten kitchen aid mixers that i'm "watching"... i am hoping to get a good deal for mother (don't worry- this isn't going to spoil her surprise, she doesn't read my blog... she doesn't really understand how it works- bless her) and possibly one for me too!

[four] the bachelorette. i know that i have confessed my love for the show before, but i feel so guilty about it that i am going to do it again... i almost refer to the show as "having plans"... don't worry- it isn't really that bad... but it is almost an issue. i just can't help it... and this week is going to be intense... i have a date with abc at 8pm tonight- don't judge.

[five] makeover. i have some bookcases, an end table, and a kitchen table that all need some lovin' and a makeover... i am thinking about tackling that task this week before i nanny from 12-5:30- but we shall see.

[six] boone hall. this weekend sean and i went to boone hall plantation for our one year date- expect a post with some pictures this week!

[seven] redesign. i've redesigned my blog... still doesn't have everything that i want... i'm trying to figure out a button situation- but what do you think?

[eight] ebates. have you ever heard of ebates? it is this fabulous deal where you create an account through this company and then you get a small percentage of your money back when you shop at certain stores... check it out here!

that's all for now- have a happy monday!

just a thought.

fabulous finds friday.

ashley over at 6 inches of ribbon has a great link party going on and i love being part of it! last week i couldn't participate because i was out of town without my camera to upload the pictures of my finds! so, this week i'm going to make up for it by having a few "fabulous finds"!

{1} my first find[s] are some silver picture frames from marshalls... the original plan was to buy the ones from potterybarn because they are simple and cute, however- their price tag was all sorts of crazy- luckily marshalls saved the day and we were able to get some at a fraction of the price!

all of these frames were between $4.99 and $7.99- such a deal, considering the ones at potterybarn started at $14!

{2} second find[s] are some wonderful black picture frames to do a photo wall along the stairwell- i haven't hung them yet, but i've got them in frames- still searching for more pictures and frames to add to the wall. once again- these are from marshalls (i promise i shop other places, however my mother is a huge fan of marshalls- that's actually an understatement!)

these frames all ranged from $5.99 to $12.99- such fabulous prices!

{3} my third find is actually part of my birthday present (my birthday isn't until the end of july, but i will explain!). a while back i saw this purse in a local store that i loved, but the price was almost $300... and that is just not part of my budget, so i decided that i would just look around when shopping and see if i liked anything as much as or more than the original find- i never found anything that came close... so i just decided not to worry about it, i have a straw bag that i could carry for the rest of the summer until something better comes along.

meanwhile, my mother found a purse at dillards that she thought i might like so she got it and wrapped it up as a birthday present- then, just while browsing through ebay i found the original purse for $80! i wasn't going to buy it but i just casually mentioned it to my mother and she said that if i really liked it i should buy it (so out of character for me to spend any money on something, but i decided to take the plunge and do it) then i found out about the other purse she bought me (of which i couldn't stand) so mother returned the other purse and ended up saving money because the ebay purse was cheaper! wow... that took a whole lot of explaining!

[side bar: i still think that $80 is expensive, but the last purse that i bought was my junior year of high school from china town in new york... it is falling apart and i actually stapled the inside lining so that it would stay together!]

there it is! i love it because it is green (my favorite) and also neutral, so it goes with everything!

that's all for today! make sure to go and check out ashley's blog!

just a thought.

follow the Son.

when i was a little kid i would draw all the time. i just couldn't get enough of it. this isn't a joke- i would always color in my coloring books, paint, draw on my driveway with chalk, and even had my own easel (it was legit). we also used to go to the pottery places and paint- last week i went to the place that i had my 10th birthday party and painted a bowl, it turned out pretty close to how i wanted, which was pretty exciting.

i love sunflowers for a lot of reasons, but one reason i love them is because hungary is has sunflowers all over different fields and they remind me of hungary- at any rate- i decided that i wanted to paint a sunflower bowl and the wrote "follow the Son" on the inside. get it? "follow the Son", a bit of a play on words since sunflowers actually follow the sun. the idea came for a piece of artwork in this same theme a long time ago, actually when i was in hungary on a missions trip (i've been twice- in 2007 and in 2008). i was just thinking that i would like to "be like a sunflower" because they are always following the sun and how in all things i need to follow the Son in order to keep my life together and keep my path straight.

take a look at my bowl:

 the sides are an "lime-olive green":

trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

-proverbs 3: 5-6

 then Jesus said to his disciples, "if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. for whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it."

- matthew 16: 24-25 

i find both of those verses encouraging and challenging- something to make sure that we are doing each and every day!

and now to take a detour and extreme sidebar:

i'm pretty sure that my love for drawing was started because of this man:

although he looks a little creepy, pappy was a childhood staple in my house. i would watch it every time that i knew that it would be on tv- my parents were thrilled, not only because i would turn it up really loud, gather all my art supplies around me, and ignore them while i tried to create a masterpiece, but because the theme song was insanely ridiculous (but now when i look back at it i love it even more). take this opportunity to watch it here.

now looking at pappy he actually looks a lot like my old piano teacher- interesting. do you have any fun crafts as of recently? i love a good craft time (and have a craft box that i have in college- don't judge- it is just tons of paint and a few canvases, nothing fancy). i'd love to know some crafting secrets!

just a thought.

steal of a deal.

i've never been much of a "yard-saler" however i'm trying to become one while i'm furnishing my apartment. the whole idea of waking up at the crack of dawn to go and drive around looking for things didn't really interest me, however, i've grown on the idea. my first round of shopping didn't go very well, but attempted for round two and boy did i hit the mother-load! i was looking for bookshelves, a kitchen table, bunk beds, end tables and other things that might be useful for storage. well, i found bookshelves (2 matching sets for $40), a kitchen table ($20), and an end table ($5), which is a grand total of $65- thank-you very much! let me just say that these pieces are of the highest quality and just need to be painted to make them look like new!

on top of those great prices i am going to use my desk from when i was little (free) and just re-paint it so that it looks fresh and received a red couch from family friends (free), this apartment on a budget is going famously well! i do need to find bunk-beds, so if anyone knows of a good place to get bunk beds that an adult could use (as silly as that sounds) let me know! i also need to find some chairs to go with my kitchen table- either going to do 4 different chairs or 2 sets of different chairs, just depends on what i can find and for how cheap i can get it! also- in reference to my miscellany monday post about how i love cooking supplies: i bought some more today- they were all on sale and i really did need them know how to use all of them, so it wasn't a wasted purchase!

now here is the deal- i need to figure out what colors to paint things- i don't want to paint everything the same color, but i would like them to "go"... so help a sister out and give me some advice!

on a different note: i have been thinking about my relationship with Christ a lot lately and realizing that God is so providential and puts people in your life at the exact moment that they are supposed to be there- so encouraging. i'm so thankful and blessed to have such a great group of women surrounding me and so glad that i am able to get advice from them- such a wellspring of encouragement- and i love it.

just a thought.

decorating dilemma.

this past weekend i went to maegan and jordan's wedding- it was such a great day- here are just a few of my pictures- the wedding was held at magnolia manor in westminster, south carolina.

there aren't a lot of pictures- but these are just a few! it was such a special day and i am so glad that i was able to share it with them!

in other news- i have been trying to figure out some decorating ideas for my apartment- i have a fun orange and white shower curtain from potterybarn that i bought on super sale a long, long time ago but just had to have it and now i need things to go with it- it is a classy curtain so i wanted something classy that i could use for a while with it. i found this lovely set of bathroom goods from potterybarn (way too expensive but i just couldn't help myself) and i wanted to get it- luckily i have been trying to shop around because that is just more than this college kid can afford and i read some reviews that said it rusted after a few days... that's right- days not months or after several uses... my hopes and dreams of my bathroom have crashed and burned... it is a good thing that i went to marshall's today and found some bathroom stuff that i really liked- now i just need to make the trip back and buy it! here is what i wanted to get:

isn't it festive? i think that it would have looked great in the bathroom... i wasn't going to buy all of that- mostly because that would be ridiculously expensive... and also because that would have been too much for me- but i liked the overall look of things. i think i'm going to stick with the heavy glass soap and 2 canisters from marshall's- a whole lot cheaper and will look just as clean and classy.

i'm trying to find some cheap furniture for my apartment that i can either refinish or paint a new color in order to make it functional for my life. i have a big problem with buying pieces that i don't think i'll be able to use in my "real-life" or "adult-life" as i like to call it, just because i'll be graduating in just 3 semesters (which is crazy).

on monday afternoon i helped my friend rachel anne (pictured above) decorate her new apartment! we lined all of the shelves and cabinets with some festive contact paper and then hung some pictures on her wall to make it feel more at home- i think that it turned out pretty well! (please excuse the horrible quality... this is from my phone)



oh man- this post is much longer than previously planned... starting my position at the church today! i'm so excited and encouraged to be working with the children's ministry this summer- it is such a great place to be!

just a thought.