The Holidays are upon us

Every year I say we are going to get a head start on our Christmas shopping, but then I realize it's the second week of November and that I'm not going to get a head start after all. But I've done much better this year than years prior so, I can be a little proud of myself. [ I mean, us ;) ]

This year we decided to make Christmas simple. It shouldn't be about racking our brains until the very last minute to buy everyone something that may or may not be that special. So, most of our gifts this year will be handmade (by someone else or by me) and definitely enjoyable, I think, by everyone. I've already ordered all the gifts for the ladies in the family, and have received some of it. I love the first part so much that it'll be hard giving it away :) I can't tell what it is yet because my family reads this, but I will tell that I ordered said gifts from Etsy.

The men's gifts on the other hand, are not handmade, (it's hard to find useful, affordable handmade things for men that they'll ACTUALLY use and enjoy). But they are still awesome. Decided based on personal experience too. We think if they really use their gift, they will love them.

So anyway, the handmade gifts are not only going to save us a little money, (we still have to mail everything!) but I think that they're some of the nicest things yet and I wouldn't mind getting them myself!

After Christmas, I will post some more info on the gifts that we decided on. Until then, happy (a little early) holidays!

Got my hair cut today!

I was going to take a 'before' picture before I went to the salon, but I forgot, so I took this one in the waiting area with my iPhone. It's a little dark, but it shows how long my hair was getting. So...

BEFORE: 

...and

AFTER:

Despite how it looks, I didn't get my hair colored or anything, it's just the second one was taken by the sunny window. This looks like those before/after pictures on TV where the person looks all sad and tired in the first photo, and all happy in the second one. I wasn't sad in the first one, but I am happy with my new haircut! :) Thanks, Martele!

fun with Yearbookyourself.com

Me in 1990. I think I look a lot like my mom did in 1990 :)

Me in 1968. Hmm, me with dark hair.

Me in 1966. One of my favorites.

Me in 1964. Another favorite. The glasses are awesome.

Me in 1960.

Me in 1984. I'm pretty happy that I wasn't old enough during this, to do that to my hair. :)

Go have fun! You can try every other year from 1950 to 2000.

Yearbookyourself.com

Fall Cleaning

Since we decided we weren't moving right away when our lease ends on October 31st, I've begun to give the apartment a really good cleaning. Lat week I worked on the kitchen, although it needs to be done again. On Wednesday I started with the bedroom: vacuumed the lampshades, dusted and washed the bed side tables, vacuumed the carpet and even got in that stubborn area that butts up against the trim and while I was at it, I changed the sheets and duvet, took off the mattress cover and washed it. Sorted all the junk that was piling up on our bed side tables, books, magazines, coffee cups, etc. Thursday I cleaned up our entry way swept/mopped the linoleum, put away needless clutter, etc. I still have a whole lot to do. 

I found some awesome things at goodwill yesterday. A couple brand new, still wrapped shadowboxes with a decorative key in them from IKEA, $0.99 each. 

A framed replica of an antique map of Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland, with pieces of Pennsylvania and New Jersey near the edges. It's in a really nice wood frame, professionally framed too, only $3.99. 

A vintage jar that I want to use to make a moss terrarium like madebymavis makes, here in the C-bus area, actually. I just can afford to spend the extra money on her beautiful works of art. I'm just gonna have to settle for a DIY one. So the jar was $0.99, now I just have to figure out where to get the moss. The moss mostly takes care of itself, that's why it's the perfect plant for me. We also need a little bit more of the outside, here in this dimly lit, window-starved apartment.

A cute little blue dish that looks like a flower for my night stand. I wanted something to put my earrings, necklaces, hair things, and such in when I go to sleep. It's such a pretty blue, $0.49.

Last, but not least. A set of 4 old office stamps. I'm not sure how old they are, but they're that vintage green and actually have metal on them, so they can't be too new. I'm going to try to figure it out, but either way, they were a steal at $0.49 each. They say "Paid, Copy, Entered, and Billed." I wasn't 100% sure they would work, they weren't covered, they are self-inking so I wasn't sure if the old ink would be dried up or not, and they were a little dirty, but I wanted to try anyway. I took them home, ran them under really hot water so that I could hopefully get the most cleaning effect out of the least possible amount of water. Lucky me, it worked! The hot water cleaned them, and they stamp perfectly on their own. 

So all-in-all, my Goodwill trip yesterday was a success, and I found some things that will help me spruce up our apartment.

Apartments and such.

Well, after using our whole weekend up on searching for the perfect apartment ... or just an average apartment, we have decided that the best thing for us right now is to go month to month in our current apartment. Today was the deadline for that decision, and we both feel good about it. It's not what we thought we wanted, but I think it's a relief. Now we can decide what to do when we're ready. It's actually nice to not be in a real lease anymore. We paid our final 1-year lease rent today. 

Apartment Hunting

Well, we spent basically all weekend looking for a new apartment. It's funny. We really don't like ours all that much, but compared to what we've seen in the last couple days, ours looks great. We may end up having to go month-to-month in our current place while we seek out our dream apartment. It just seems like this apartment hunting thing should get easier over time. I think it just keeps getting harder.

What I want in an apartment. (100th blog post!)

I've been looking for apartments online probably since 5 months after we moved into our current one. I am so unimpressed with all the apartment complex apartments around here. If we have to live in another complex, I'd be happier with a townhouse. We're both sick of living on the 3rd floor, although it's the quietest, bringing groceries up here is miserable. There's an elevator in our building, only one, and it's on the complete opposite side of the building and works only half of the time, so getting in it is quite a risk.

So, I wanted to list out what I want, and I'm sure Ryan wants in our new apartment, which really needs to be found within the next 30-40 days. We give our complex our 30 day notice in 25 days.

What we need:

We can get by with a 1 bedroom, 1 bath apartment. It has to allow pets and have central heat and air. We have had the smallest kitchen ever for the last 10-11 months so I will have to say that a kitchen that we feel comfortable cooking in is a requirement. 

What we want:

We would love to have something with more character than the ever so popular 90's built complexes with dark oak kitchens and beige carpeting. It would be nice to find an older updated place with wood flooring and a fireplace that works. Maybe a half-double with an upstairs. We also want to have a deck or patio so that we can have a grill. A fenced-in yard for Daisy would be great. New appliances, 2 bathrooms, and lots of natural light are among the other things that would make us happy. It also has to be in our price range. Is that so much to ask for? :)

Hope to find it soon.