If you have been following me on Facebook, you know that we are in the process of moving. Moving is, in a word, sucky hard. The worst part of it is that moment when you are feeling good about the progress you have made, and then you go back to your old place and see all the other stuff you forgot, or need to still get.
But, the great part of moving is that you begin to have a new space to dream in. If your like me, you get rejunvinated and inspired by the new quirks that your apt has. My space is a tad oddly shaped so we had some trouble learning how to place everything to make it look good!
We spent last weekend with out internet (Gasp!). It is supposed to be coming today, so that will be great! Here are some preliminary pictures of our new 1 br!
Fiance, Kevin, is really excited to get painting! Can you tell??
We painted the bedroom Green and Blue, we need to get some pallets to tone down the blue and add my county rustic vibe that I am going for.
I, like so many others, am completely addicted to pinterest. As a hopeful refashioner and style enthusiast, my personal "My Style Pinboard" is full (828 pins and counting) of outfits that I would love to wear. My absolute favorite thing to do on pinterest is go to the everything section, and just pin away. But I think that there are a few trends on this site that I'd like to point out. So here are the INSERT NUMBER stages to life on pinterest.
Stage 1: Discovery
Pinterest is great. So many things to discover. You are going to learn so many things! Look at these common people who are just like me doing so many great things that will totally work!!!!
Look at what one pinner said! This is the BEST
You quickly forget all else but Pinterest. Kids? Life? Work? Whhaaaaaaaaat?? Justifying it quickly with how much you are learning! Shoot you will never have to spend money on silly stuff like clothes, food, lights or even decorating ever again!!!
Summary of this stage? LIFE IS FANTASTIC!
2. Joy, Optimism and Inspiration
Life is great. Who knew that there were so many people doing so many things. You will never ever throw a sub par house party. Your family will eat nothing but the most adorable and nutritious home cooked meals. You will have the cutest house, and you will have the best drinks to sip in a hot day. Oh your cold? Throw on that camel fur coat you made.
Guess who is getting a new jacket!
You realize you are standing on the edge of a great sea of unlimited knowledge of wonderfulness!!
Joy. So much wonderful Joy.
3. Being Completely Overwhelmed
Life on Pinterest is great. You see something you have to pin. How could you never have seen this before???? A lace wedding dress with an open back, no sleeves, jewels! They have a tiara with it!!! Why did you not think of that before???? now hmmm, where should you pin it? Does it belong on your "wedding dresses I would like to wear" board? Should we put it under "Lacy Dresses" maybe "vintage dresses"? As you scroll through your 185 pin boards you realize something. You have a problem. Where will you pin this, and how will you find it again?
You begin to realize that this soul sucking wonderful site is making you overwhelmed and confused. You need to get off...but then how will you keep up?
4. Stress
This is self explanitory. You begin to realize that your birthday party is not quite as fabulous as Martha Stewarts is....you might have to actually try out a few of these pins!
5. Trying it Out for Yourself
I mean honestly how hard can it be? The steps are in pictures and they are right there! It will totally work. I will be the life of the party!
Life will never be that magical wonderful place of Pinspiration that you hoped it would. And all your extremely crafty friends who nail pinterest projects on the first try are just stupid.
A year ago last April I did a Bucket List. You can see the original post here. I have decided to relook at my list and see what I have accomplished and what I have decided to add! 1. Live in another country for at least a year 2. Own my own business --Events By Mallory!!! 3. Publish at least ONE of the books I have started. 4. See a flash mob Finished this one!!! Thank you Eric and the boys of Dead off Center!! Follow them here:Facebook or @deadoffcenter 5. Be IN a flashmob (obvious reasons as to why this would be appealing to me) 6. Go rock climbing 7. Visit every state (I think I am 13 or 14 out of 50) 8. Write, record, and publish a rap Look on FB I have one. heard people want lyrics. I can post them! 9. Do 1 gig as a stand up comedian. 10. get 1K followers on Twitter 11. Get 10K page views on my blog 12. see all of the wonders of the world, both natural and man-made 13. road trip across America 14. back pack at least 1 European country 15. become completely debt free 16. Have an entourage 17. Be VIP at a party 18. Fly first class 19. Run a marathon 20. Go on an archaeological dig 21. Sky Dive 22. Scuba Dive 23. Go to every Continent
24. Stop spending money on new clothes, and try to refashion/thrift most of my purchases from here on out.
25. Go to Italy
I haven't done too much in this past year, I did pick up and move to another country and paid off a couple thousand in debt, so that's good. I am excited to see where this year will take me!
I had an awful pair of shorts that I never wear and a shirt that ripped in the shoulder. I decided to make something that I wear. I cut the fringe off my pants,
Then cut the bottom of my shirt and sewed it to the bottom of my shorts!
That question has plagued me since I was little. I have wanted to be so many things, but its hard to commit to one thing. Sure, there is no crime with switching careers through out your life, but I am having such a hard time finding one thing to pour my love into. I feel like a mess, I want to write, I want to plan events, I want to be a mom, I want to work from home, I want to try real estate, I want to work in DC, I want to travel, I want to even live abroad. There is so much that I feel like I can do, and want to try, but how do I know where to go?
I just get so impatient waiting for things. I mean I am being active, I am actively pursuing these things, but I feel like there is a bit of waiting to reap the benefits. I hope to be successful, and hope to grow in my career, but I feel like I have to start somewhere and grow.
My ultimate goal is to own an Event Planning business. As most of you know, I have been doing that on the side, but I am no where near being able to do that full time. But I am stuck, because I don't feel like I have the time or finances to actually expand and market it full time. So I need something to be a second love until I have the ability to make the leap. So what am I doing to figure out where I need to be?
I am starting to do some informational interviews. I am meeting with other professionals in jobs that I am interested in, and finding out if I think it would be right for me. I am really excited, I have my first meeting tonight with a Real Estate Agent. I hope that it opens my eyes to what the job is really like. I feel like that will be something that I can do and grow with and do while I develop an events career. I am excited to see if this venture will be something that I am interested in, and if it is, I will be excited to start the journey. If not, then I suppose I will find another professional and pick their brain.
Life is exciting and a total journey. I am loving my journey and loving the way my life is turning out! Wedding planning, jobs, DC, Summer, it's all happening and keeping me busy! Make sure you get out there and don't waste a day
"Live like no one else, so later, you can live like no one else." -Dave Ramsey
Debt absolutely, 100%, sucks. Like sucks so bad I want to punch it in the face and stomp on it while cussing it out. I hate it. Now I know most people do, I mean no one LIKES having debt. But I don't know howI could actually live with it. As a natural wanderer, I find not having the freedom to do what I want almost soul crushing. I just look at all these things that I want to do and realize me debt is what is keeping me from fulfilling that role.
One of the things that just really gets me is all the money I send to the banks. I have paid off 1 loan, but my MINIMUM monthly payment on my student loans....$756.21 That is what goes out of my pocket automatically for my student loans. BTWs I make $1055 a paycheck. Luckily I have a financially sound Fiance who lets me pay a lower portion of rent. So my rent and my loans are $1156. If I had to pay full rent in DC, I would not make enough money with a full time job to pay loans, rent, gas and food. Not to mention anything fun!
The hardest thing for me is my credit card. I finally had to cut it up. I didnt have the self control for my "emergency" card to be used outside of emergencies. I had to get rid of it. Which is scary for me. It was almost nice having that much money there if I needed it. Although it would not be nice to continually get my self into it.
I don't mean this to complain. Because I am working hard at getting out of debt, but I wonderfully got engaged! So now I am splitting my left over money after necessities, between a wedding fund and paying off that loan a little quicker. It is really tough. I always feel like I am not doing enough. But I am doing the best I can. My new date is still mid 2015, but that seems like a lifetime away.
I have so many things that I want to do. I want to write, I want to travel, want to live abroad, want to own my own business, want to have the freedom to build wealth. But I cannot do that with debt. That is why I am taking a stand and getting out.
Sorry for the rant. Today was pay day, I usually get both depressed and excited when payday comes. My whole check has been spent already, but I am that much closer to being completely out!
When I graduated school May of 2011, I had $57,676 in student loan debt. I was lucky that I found a job in Southern California that paid me about $30,000 a year. I lived on an extremely tight budget. Even if I hadn't have been saving to pay off debt, I wouldn't have had much extra. I tightened my budget and was able to pay roughly $100 extra on my loans.
Today, 1 year and 4 months later, I have paid of 9,520 of that student loan debt. This doesn't include not working and paying off about $2,000 in credit card debt. (I would pay a lot down and then would need it for something like a plane ticket home, or an oil change).
It is still crazy to think that here I am over a year later, and I have only paid off that much. My income did come up, I make a bit under $40,000 now. Cost of living is a little higher. But it feels great to have the ball rolling and to see some income. Its only going to go faster now. My projected pay off date is Fall 2015. But, I think I can do it sooner. I paid off my $3500 loan today. Tomorrow I start work on my next smallest, $6754.54.
When I do pay off my loan. I will be having a huge party that everyone is invited to. I don't care if we never have met, I want to celebrate the fact that I have become debt free and can begin to acquire wealth!
Thanks for everyone's encouraging words through out this time!
I hope that you all can be inspired or motivated to try this out for yourself and choose one small debt and decide to pay it off and get it out of your life.
So I have been having major depression about my apartment. It is totally safe and secure which is fantastic, but it is just dreary. So I am on a mission to do some totally cheap renovations to satisfy my craftiness and my need for a semi nice house!
So I had two tables that we had bought that were just plain and a little drab. One was purchased at Ikea and one at Target. I think that they were about $10 each. Here is what it looked like before. Plus a cat.
Then I bought these Gold Corners for them on Amazon...here is a link to them. They cost me just over $9 including shipping, but they come with 8 corners and all the screws for it! Our house is decorated in black gray and yellow, so I thought that the gold would be a great addition to it!
Then I added the gold corners. I found that the Corners didn't fit perfectly on my table, so they dont lay exactly flat on the sides of the tables. But I made sure that they laid as flat as possible on the top.
Here is what they looked like done! The whole project took about 20 mins, and cost me at the time less than $10! Just need to add some flowers on my side of the bed and I will be all set!
I would also like to add a huge shout out to Kevin, because there was a moment when I was about to chuck our screw driver at the wall from frustration with the tiny screws and he came and helped me whip it out!
Seriously, my role model. Before you judge me, or dismiss this idea hear me out.
Its no secret that there have been a lacking of beautiful strong women in the media. Most of them are jokes (Kim Kardashian I am looking at you) or they down play one side to be taken seriously (Read Tina Fey and Amy Pohler) Both of those women are beautiful! They are hilarious brilliant and gorgeous, but they both down play their looks for humor. (and both are super skinny!)
Here is what I love about Mindy:
1.She is hilarious, not in the oh yeah she is alright, but the sides aching hilarious. Did you know that she not only acted in the American version of "The Office" But she was a writer from basically the beginning. She wrote the episode where Michael Scott burns his foot on the George Foreman Grill.
Seriously. Comedic gold.
She wrote countless hilarious episodes, and now she has her own show the Mindy Project. It is so funny! She acts and writes for it. Its great! Watch a few episodes before you pass any judgement however, because, like The Office, it is one where knowing the characters makes it that much funnier.
2. She is not crass. Here's the thing. I love Chelsea Chandler. She is snarky and witty and just overall hilarious. But she has a potty mouth. And many female comedians do. I can easily name 10 funny male comedians that don't swear and are generally safe for the family. Female? Not many, and certainly not many funny ones. Tina and Amy come to mind. but many other female "comedians" get their laughs from making sex jokes. And call me sexist, but I don't think its funny. Dane Cook, stomping around on stage talking about awkward sex stuff is alright, I giggle a bit, but for some reason when a woman does it, I get uncomfortable. Mindy acts like a lady, she is poised and she is funny. Which I will say, Tina and Amy do as well.
3.She is beautiful! Mindy is real life beautiful. not size 0, long blonde hair, 6 ft tall beautiful, but an attainable beauty. She is someone that girls can actually aspire to be like. She is a wonderful dresser, has great hair, but she is admittedly awkward, and doesn't expect herself to be ultra Hollywood skinny. Which I love. She is not afraid to look her best, knowing that her looks won't take away from her humor. This is where she is different from Amy and Tina. They are hilarious, I would go pretty far to say that they are geniuses but they often portray themselves in roles that downplay their attractiveness. That is fine, but they are real women, who have made great achievements professionally, why can't they be the full package?
I really hope that more women step up like Mindy, and that real girls can be portrayed on the tv. Here is the problem, tv is a reflection of societies ideas and wants. Society is not a reflection of tv. Meaning this, if we are tired of seeing unrealistic portrayals of women, we have to start pursuing shows with the realistic women we love. If people stop watching a show, it goes off air. Popular shows get reproduced (makes sense why there are so many Law and Order spin offs)
I can honestly not believe that it is 2013. I have been in VA for 6 months (seriously?!) I feel like I just moved about a week ago!
People always ask me how I like it here I used to give out joyful exclamations of love for this swampy, wet place. But I quickly have changed my attitude to give more realistic ones. --don't get me wrong I do love being here, but there is a huge part of me that is not quite yet ready to commit to this place.
I absolutely love being with Kevin here. That is definitely the best part about DC. I love being in the same State as him, and able to see him when ever I want. That is something that I treasure so much, and I was able to see what life was like with out him for a long time. (Ok long might be a bit of a hyperbole it was only about a year, and I was lucky enough to see him about every 6 weeks but still it felt LONG) I think I was lucky to have this experience though because now when we are together all the time, 3 years later, we are still able to explore and find things to do, and go on adventures together because we haven't always been able to do that.
Secondly, I LOVE the type of people that I am meeting. There are so many young (23-35) professionals in the area, everyone has some really sweet jobs and most people are really open to talking to you, and listening to what you do and thinking how we can help each other. Its a really great time. Also there are a lot of entrepreneurial folks out here that give lots of encouragement to people like me and Kevin who are just starting businesses.
Thirdly I am so in love with the East Coast. There is something magical about knowing so many life changing things happened in the place you're standing. One thing that I love about moving is that you get to be a tourist! The hard thing is, people who are local don't really take advantage of all that their city offers because the magic is gone, in that they grew up there it can be a "big Whoop" moment. It has been so fun being here with Kevin and really exploring the city! We have found so many hidden gems all over this city, its incredible, and really makes me think what secrets Snohomish, Monroe and Seattle are hiding!
Also my cats. This is how they sleep. Can you see the desperation in Hayden's eyes?
However, all this to be said, I am not sold here forever. Thankfully, Kevin isn't either. Its too cold! I don't like snow, and just want to wear dresses all day. Also, its too hot in the summer! Maybe not too hot, just too much humidity. Its gross. But I suppose I cannot compare every place I live to the perfection of So Cal. (but really I can). I miss my friends spread all over the coast, and I miss my family as equally spread. I miss all the babies my cousins have, and I miss being part of their lives.
So whats next and when is this next taking place? I wish I knew! All I know, is that I am excited to be on this adventure with my best friend.
