Ballin’ on a budget.

January 25th, 2015

Over the past few years I’ve struggled in investing financially and emotionally into home furnishings. Perhaps, and thankfully, it was my inner-self warning that I had frequent and long-distance moves in my future. However, now that I have found my happy place, I’ve decided to invest in my surroundings.

As bachelorette’s we all have a pimped out daydream of what we’d love to do with our homes. If we all had it our way, our pad’s would be drenched in Pinterest-inspired and (always) well-executed DIY projects that would make your friends drool. Yep. They’d be green with envy for your interior.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve definitely put in your time pinning these projects, but when it comes down to it you haven’t been ready to invest… or the project looks to hard or time-consuming… or you’re certain it would turn out to be a big fat Pinterest fail. Well, we’re putting a stop to that. I’m here to be your DIY Pinterest Bachelorette Pad martyr. I need to get my place glammed up for my super fabulous year ahead.

We don’t all have Real Housewives of Beverly Hills budgets to get the job done, so, Pinterest. Game on.

Today I took on one of my first projects. I’ve been needing a tall chest of drawers for my bedroom since storage for my ever-growing wardrobe has busted the seams of my closets. I can’t seem to find a chest of drawers at a furniture store that fits my style standards AND my budget.

I found this chest of drawers at my local Salvation Army for $59.98. Now, buyer beware: as I passed the “all sales are final” sign and swiped my credit card, the lady at the counter tells me that their entire store is 50% off every Wednesday. “Oh. You mean I could have purchased this for $30 in 4 days? Awesome.”

Salvation Army $59.98

 

Now, let’s talk vision and details. Last year, I splurged on bright pink sheets. THIS is my inspiration for this dresser. This is my chance to tie the sheets into my color scheme. So I stopped by Home Depot and dropped a cool $33.97 on this stuff (minus the hammer and drill, which I already had at home):

Home Depot supplies

 

To get started on the rehab, I removed the drawers from the dresser and the hardware from the drawers. Then I gave all of the pieces a light sanding with the sandpaper sponge I had purchased.

 

 

I started painting with a spray can primer in white. I wanted my pink to end up being light and bright. If you’re wanting a darker finish, feel free to use a black primer underneath. This was SUPER fast and easy to use. I probably passed over the each piece twice with the spray to coat it thoroughly enough.

Primer: check.

Now, the project comes down to some good old fashioned painting. Two coats did the job for covering this piece, and it took me about an hour to get it covered.

Sassy Pink

Once I felt like the pieces had dried enough, 45 minutes to an hour, I added the original hardware back to the drawers. I had originally wanted to do some new, sassy drawer pulls, but I ended up deciding the original pulls were swanky enough.

back together

 

 

And that’s about it. Once the drawers were put back into the dresser, I was left with a pretty glammed up piece for my bedroom. This project was extremely easy to pull off both on effort and time.

Finished Chest

 

Don’t be intimidated to pimp your bedroom a bit.

I look forward to Pinterest’s next challenge.

Look back at it.

January 25th, 2015

Well. The struggle certainly must have been real. My apologies to anyone (if there, in fact, were a few out there) that was interested in reading my blog. As it does, life got crazy after my first post.

“But how crazy could your life have gotten to fire up a blog that you’ve been dying to start writing and then drop it like it’s hotter than a promiscuous woman in church right after the first post?” <– (That’s you, my imaginary and colorful reader.)

To answer your question: very crazy. I resigned from my job in August, took a career opportunity on the other side of the United States, and moved my entire life to a suburb of NYC. Then, in November, I decided it wasn’t right for me so I moved right back to the West Coast where I feel pretty certain I belong.

As I am finally settling back into the stability of my life in Phoenix and the career that I love, I find myself reflecting on a few questions surrounding the whirlwind that was the second half of 2014.

What the hell got into me to move my entire life to NYC? There was a very shiny prize being waved in front of me, and, when I was honest with myself, I felt a little stagnant. Loved my job, but knew it inside and out. Loved my friends and social scene, but at our age everyone (seemingly, besides me) is finding their forever and settling down… these are lifelong friends we’re talking about, so I knew it wasn’t goodbye. And my dating life… we won’t get into details, but it needed a new direction. So there I was, ready for an adventure. I made the decision to carpe this diem because the opportunity was laid out in front of me, and I knew I couldn’t live with myself if I forewent a new, and potentially better, life because I was comfortable. Nothing is permanent. No regrets. 

Why didn’t I like it in my new surroundings? Since I’ve been back, this is the most common question I’ve been asked by friends and colleagues. I have had such wanderlust for travel in both work and life, I actually found it quite easy to slip into my new life in the City. Great area. Great apartment. Great friends were minutes away. But sometimes you have to just be quiet and listen to yourself. When I laid in bed at night, I knew in my heart that it wasn’t my long-term home. I moved there for that potentially better life, and, don’t get me wrong, it was a good life. But it wasn’t better. 

Was it a rash decision to move back so quickly? I think it’s important to mention that, although the timing seemed hurried, the decision to trace my steps back to the Wild West was not taken lightly. I believe that quick decisions about big life things are often wrong decisions based on that moment’s emotions. It’s rare that HUGE life decisions need to be made in the time they give you to answer on Jeopardy. When things feel off or your inner voice is telling you “this isn’t what I signed up for,” definitely listen, but do yourself a favor and really take the time to let the emotional moment pass. Think it through. When I started feeling the itch to correct the path I had chosen, I gave myself a time frame to work with. After the timer was up and I wasn’t feeling differently, I made the decision to get back to my long-term happy. If you know for a fact that you’re not in the right place in life, why put off the corrective action. Make the moves to get back to happy. 

Was this all just a waste of time and money? Absolutely not. I do not feel an ounce of regret for the path I took to NYC and back. In the end, I will rest at night knowing that I did not waste an opportunity. I have love for the new people I met and dear friends I got to spend time with on the adventure. Appreciation for the work experience and professional growth. Most of all, I rest easy knowing that my life here is my “potentially better life.”

So, here I am. Back at it.

Kiss my sAss.

The struggle is real.

July 3rd, 2014

We can’t change it. Let’s all just laugh about it.

It’s true. Whether you’re struggling to climb that corporate ladder, struggling to meet a man, struggling to rid yourself of a man, struggling to lose weight, struggling to gain weight (if this is your struggle, I’d advise you to remain anonymous), or just plain struggling, you can rest assured that all my single ladies are experiencing something very similar. Nothing is or ever will be easy. It’s ok though. I prefer it this way. If everything were easy, my best friends and I would have nothing to laugh or cry about. Life would be boring.

I have dreamed about writing this blog for a while now. Well, dream is a strong word. Schemed. I have schemed about this blog for a very long time. After spilling my guts to my best friends on multiple occasions either about a hot Tinder date followed by a very shameful walk of shame (don’t judge me about the Tinder thing… if you’re single you’ve done it… and if you’re single and you haven’t, you’re missing out) OR crying on their shoulders about a dumb boy (18+ ofcourse, they usually act underage so “boy” is the appropes term), I recognized a pattern. These conversations usually end in laughter and a lesson that we’ll carry onto the next struggle. I realized two things: (1) my friends and I cannot be the only ones having these amazing/embarrasing/fantastic/emotional/hilarious life experiences, and (2) this shit is too funny and educational to keep in our circle. Come on, now. We’re not selfish girls.

So here we are. We’re writing a blog called Kiss My Sassy. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts, comments, questions, or general sass. Let’s learn from each other. Let’s laugh at each other. If the world doesn’t like what we’re doing, well, they can just “kiss my sAss”!

Kiss My Sassy