Moving into my first apartment was fun because I had an entire apartment to myself to decorate any way I wanted. When it came to deciding where things went, I was able to have everything fit perfectly and easily to get to. Now fast forward to moving in with my boyfriend and we have a house with two apartments worth of stuff so it’s been a bit of a challenge to unpack and both find room for the stuff we need.
One thing I needed to find space for in the bedroom was my jewelry and makeup. We have a good size bedroom but we still had to get creative to arrange the furniture in the best place so we had room for our stuff. Once the dressers and bed were delivered, we sighed in relief because there was still a good amount of floor space and room for my vanity and our end tables. I thought it would be helpful to do a full post on how I store my most used items without taking over the entire bedroom. Thank goodness Jake doesn’t mind the color pink and most of the furniture besides his dresser is from my original bedroom.
Jewelry
I have a jewelry wall organizer that holds all of my necklaces perfectly so I just needed to find the perfect spot for it. Luckily, there is some wall space behind the bedroom door so i can be easy to get to it but doesn’t become an eye sore. While moving, I found another jewelry organizer in a storage bin that fits perfectly above it to hold my earrings and bracelets. I found that if I don’t see what I have, I forget all about it so I like having everything in one place so I can quickly look and grab something on my way out the door, literally!
I thought about investing in a big jewelry box or some piece of furniture, but we just don’t have the room for something like that. Now after a few months of having everything in one corner, it becomes so easy to see what I have since it’s all on display.
Makeup
I have so much makeup but I don’t like seeing it on display so I keep everything in my vanity. The items I use the most are on top of my vanity in a cute storage container and everything else is in my vanity drawers. I’m constantly surprised by how much this vanity can hold and it’s been a great investment piece!
I hope you found this post helpful and helps inspire you while finding storage solutions in your home!
Happy Fall Y’all! I honestly laughed when I got back to Philly after spending a few months in North Carolina because it was COLD here! After a summer in the South, I got used to 100 degree weather and most days it’s 60 degrees here in Philly. The change in weather is getting me excited for the change in seasons. Fall is going to look different for all of us. Right now, Jake and I are debating whether we will even go to a farm to do the usual pumpkin picking this year so I wanted to make a list of fun things to do this fall so we can celebrate in our own way where we feel safe. A lot of us were not expecting this pandemic to last long so I want to avoid getting into a slump and enjoy fall in a different way this year.
Get your planner out and make some plans now to make this fall special in its own way.
Buy Real and Fake Pumpkins
I hope to make my way to Trader Joe’s soon and get some real pumpkins soon! For now I am so happy I have accumulated some faux pumpkins so I can easily decorate without having to buy pumpkins every year. I found some amazing ones and put them in a blog post here.
Get Mums at Hardware Store
In the past I would buy mums at Home Depot or Lowes and this year I want to shop small. Shopping for fall mums and flowers is a great and easy way to support local businesses right now. We got flowers and soil at Rittenhouse Hardware in the spring and they had a great selection right down the street from us. Even though we don’t leave the house often, I want our front door to look welcoming for me because it’s such a fall tradition. It’s also going to encourage me to go outside and sweep our sidewalk to keep it clean which is a big task in a city!
Try New Coffee Shops
I want to make it a weekly treat to take a long walk and try new coffee shops around Philly. There are so many cute coffee shops in walking distance so I have a list of places to try in a note in my phone to try. It’s also an excuse to put on real pants and get a long walk in so it’s a win-win! I never imagined I would go this long without buying coffee and it’s nice to save money, but I miss sipping a hot coffee while I walk around the city admiring the sights.
Decorating My Home
I love decorating my home in the fall with cozy blankets and candles. With just a few small changes in my house, it gets me excited for the changing season. I like to get items that I can use year after year so I got some great faux flowers to use around the house. Target and Walmart have some great affordable options! And most importantly, you can’t forget about the fall hand towels! Our guest bath is super cute in the fall with some fall decor and fall themed hand towels…. for the guests we won’t have. Oh well!
Closet Swap for Fall
This year I am swapping out my summer clothes to my fall clothes differently. Usually my closet holds all of my work clothes and I rarely see my cozy fall clothes because they are jammed in a drawer. This year, I brought out all of my favorite fall clothes and put work clothes that are not being worn right now into storage. Clothes that I know I will not wear anytime soon are in labeled boxes in our basement so I can easily get to them if needed. My current wardrobe is t shirts and comfy clothes so I want those to be easily accessible so my office clothes are going to storage! It has definitely helped me really think about how much I have and how much goes unworn because there is no room for it.
VOTE!
Make a plan, register to vote and volunteer in any way that you can! You can go to VoteSaveAmerica.com to learn how to vote and how to get involved in your state.
Halloween Movies
Freeform has their Halloween movie lineup posted for October and I am so excited to light a fall candle, get cozy under a blanket and watch one at night! Jake and I are being more intentional with our time together so even though we are both home all the time, we are making plans to do things together. On Fridays, we have been ordering in and watching a movie together and now we can plan on watching Halloween movies together to get into the holiday spirit.
Long Walks
My goal is to go on a walk everyday to get some steps in, more specifically 10,000 steps. It’s a great excuse to also get some fresh air after being home all day. I got spoiled being in the South because I spent most of my day outside so I want to keep doing that. Jake and I plan on walking around the city or taking advantage of the hiking trails nearby on the weekends. I am so excited to enjoy this fall weather! For a while I dreaded going on errands because it’s a long walk to everything but I want to look at it as an excuse to get some air on a long walk.
Try New Recipes
Jake and I have been spending a lot of time in the kitchen making dinner together and we want to keep trying new recipes this fall. On our long walks we can go to Trader Joe’s and our grocery store to stock up on ingredients to make sure we have a stocked kitchen. We are still having our produce delivered through Giordano’s so we eat really healthy and have shifted to more clean eating instead of eating processed food. I’ve been spending a lot of time on Pinterest saving recipes and bought some new cookbooks to try new things. Bring out the crock pot because it’s chili season!
Get Dressed
And finally, as a promise to myself I want to get dressed everyday. It’s something I started to do this summer and not only did it help improve my mood and give me energy, but I was happy to wear my clothes. My closet has amazing clothes and a great fall wardrobe that should be worn, right? Get dressed everyday for yourself, I promise you won’t regret it!
Sitting on the couch right now watching Get Organized with The Home Edit on Netflix. I’ve been a big fan of Clean and Joanna for a few years now and the show is the right combination of motivation to get organizing and humor. This was our last week of staying quarantined so I’m excited to start going on daily walks and running errands again. Happy October! Feels like fall is here and September feels like it flew by taking away those last few warm days. Another month is passing and we are still living in a pandemic. I have always loved the traditions of fall but this year it’s going to be a little different… I’m waking up early and getting dressed every day to keep up my spirits. Our home is decorated for fall and we have plans to get some pumpkins and mums. Will you be decorating for fall or getting pumpkins this year?
Schitt’s Creek – finally making time to watch this show and I regret I didn’t watch it sooner!
Hart of Dixie – Jake and I like a good show to watch together so I rewatched while Jake saw it for the first time. It’s so good no matter how many times I watch!
The Spanish Princess – It’s part of a series on Starz about King Henry VIII that is educational and entertaining.
Veronica Mars – I spent last night crying a bit after binge watching the show because I wanted more episodes!
\
I’ve been using my Mrs. Meyer’s cleaning sprays to clean up the house every day and I love how they smell!
When we were at Costco I picked up Dawn Powerwash because I wanted to see how well it worked for cleaning. After cooking dinner one night I had to clean the stovetop and using the Dawn Powerwash is a game changer! On Tuesdays I like to tidy up so I sprayed some on the windowsills to clean up the dirt that accumulates and it was a game changer!
Ordered these shoes in brown because I love the ones I have in black from last year.
After missing the chance to get the striped Madewell cardigan that everyone had last year, I acted fast and got a great cardigan that looks just like it for a very affordable price!
I’ve been really into baking recently so I made chocolate chip muffin mix into a loaf so we could have an easy breakfast or treat at night. It’s delicious and so easy to make! A few days later we had some bananas going bad so Jake made banana bread with M&M’s and walnuts.
Fridays are our date night so we recently watched a movie and ordered M2O burger. Now that our two week quarantine is over, we went out to do a small grocery run on Thursday night and it was so nice to get a walk in.
One of the things I was excited about this summer was my parents laundry room. The laundry room was connected to the first floor bathroom but it wasn’t in the basement and there were new machines that didn’t destroy everything that went in like my machines at home. It made me love doing laundry because of the convenience and after my mom and I made a few updates, it became my favorite room!
The room didn’t need a big makeover and my mom has big plans to for the space down the line. We just wanted to make some small changes to spruce up the space until a bigger renovation. Since laundry is not always a fun task, I wanted to make the laundry room inviting and also practical.
My mom and I headed over to Hobby Lobby and picked out some decor and cute storage items. My mom has a vision to renovate the bathroom and laundry room in black and white tile and matching wallpaper so we wanted to get some storage to match that vision. To help prevent clutter, we got storage baskets for laundry items at Hobby Lobby. We wanted to keep it simple and most important functional! The shelves were already there so we were able to easily swap things out and add some decor that fit the room. We also picked out the cute sign and lamp from Hobby Lobby and we went around the house to find some other decor that matched. It took just some shopping and a little bit of time to transform this little laundry room into an inviting space.
I hope this post inspires you to spruce up a room in your home that is used a lot and may need some changes. It was a lot of fun to spruce up this space and make it a more inviting space.
Self-care is so important these days! This is why I like to spend a few minutes before bed washing my face and applying my evening skincare before bed. I’ve recently been trying new skincare products and looking into new brands I have not used before. The last few months I’ve been loving the Beekman 1802 Milk Drops at night because it is soothing and absorb into my skin very well. It’s quick and easy to apply before going to bed which is a skincare routine I really like! The Beekman1802 Milk Drops Probiotic Ceramide Serum is a lightweight probiotic milk serum that is packed with essential ceramides, squalane, hyaluronic acid, and plant enzymes. It is made with goat milk and packed with other essential ingredients to give you radiant skin. I love waking up in the morning because my face feels soft and looks healthy, most mornings I can go makeup-free because my face is glowing. In the morning after I wash my face, I apply some of the milk drops to get a dewy look.
I am embracing more make-up-free days since we are still staying safe at home and it’s been getting easier to do now that I am focusing more on skincare. I was so delighted when Beekman 1802 sent me a gorgeous package with products because it was a new brand to me and I’ve been loving it since day one! After trying the product and doing some research, I was happy to use a brand that is so passionate about their product, their skincare philosophy, and their story. I’m so excited to see this company made up of people who love their products and mission succeed at Ulta.
I’ve been focusing more and more on skincare the last few years to help my skin look good now and in years to come. I’m always trying new creams and tools to get results but then I saw everyone using facial oils. I haven’t used serums and oils as much because honestly I didn’t know where to even start. Facial oils can be expensive and sometimes buying the most expensive one will not work for your skin. We use oil serums in our hair and see immediate results so I wanted to get in the habit of using facial oils on my skin. I was excited when Botanics, a natural and organic skincare company that you can find at Ulta or Target, reached out to send me their Simply Calm Facial Oil.
One of the benefits of using oils is that their are so many on the market that you can pick and choose a facial oil that works best with your skin type and needs. Botanics Simply Calm Facial Oil is great for sensitive skin because it is natural and organic so there are no unnecessary ingredients in the formula. An added ingredient in the Simply Calm Facial Oil is cannabis sativa seed oil to help calm your skin and gets rid of redness while keeping it hydrated. Most products mask redness while this facial oil seeps into your skin to calm your angry skin with the cannabis sativa seed oil.
This summer, I used the Botanics Simply Calm Facial Oil in the morning and at night after I washed my face. Even after hours in the sun and layers of sunscreen, my face looked healthy and not irritated with product build up or sun exposure. This fall, I will keep using it daily to help my skin as the seasons change and we switch from AC to heat at home.
Most days I can go without the makeup because my face looks so good and a big part of that is adding a facial oil to my skincare routine. I’ll apply it to my face using the stopper on my forehead and cheeks before rubbing it in. Once my forehead and cheeks have product rubbed into them, I continue down to my neck and rub off the extra product on my hands there. Reminder to use your hands going up your neck never down while applying product to your face! The oil smells good and doesn’t feel heavy or greasy. At night I’ll wait a minute before I apply my night cream before I hop into bed. My face is dry by the time I walk to bed and don’t notice any stains on my sheets which was a worry for me at first. I’ve been loving this product and hope you do too!
Products were received complimentary from Botanics but as always, all opinions are my own.
Blonde Rosie Blog 