GALLERY WALL // DREAM TO REALITY

I've been in my new rental for almost a month now, and I've finally settled in a bit. You guys, I have a gallery wall. Finally. My love for these lovely features goes way back. To prove this conviction, let me show you exhibit A, B, C and D.

Now was the perfect time to implement my obsession. Particularly, because my current leasing agreement prohibits painting of any kind and my space, while full of natural light and consisting of ample closet space, was in desperate need of some de-institutionalization. Added bonus - frames are easily adhered to the wall via command strips! While I can't say my version is quite as elegant as the examples above, it makes me smile and truly makes my space feel warm and fuzzy. It isn't perfect, but that's the fun of a gallery wall. It can change as much as I want it to. White walls be gone! Oh, and ignore my untidy bed. Let's call that "cozy."

My gallery wall consists of:

- an old wooden tennis racket courtesy of my grandparents' garage. It has a broken string, which I     secretly love.
- a print of the beliefs of my sorority.  I love the language, and it does exemplify the way I want to live. - a photo of a bunch of the girls during homecoming last year.
- four graphic canvases, painted by yours truly in my spare time at home.
- a wall art key, given to me by a dear friend and role model.
- "SUN DAY" print, because sun day is fun day.
- "keys" key organizer, also given by a friend.
- a gaggle of black and white photos in semi-gloss black frames.
- a few of my favorite sayings, made into creative prints in my spare time.
- a black shadow box filled with a few bright photos and a couple emblems from a very special card I was given last year.
- one of the favorite photographs I have ever taken, from a lovely family excursion to San Diego. It's a blooming tree with bright textiles hanging from clotheslines in the buildings beyond.
- an "A" symbol, for the obvious reasons and also because a friend has a similarly designed symbol that we may or may not have created together summer-camp-style.
- a postcard from my travels to San Francisco and Northern California (still one of my favorite trips).
- a print of fashion from the 1800s to now. Whimsical and fun.
- a ribbon lined with decorative clothespins, strung across the top of my room showing photos of my friends and family.
- a black window-like frame of a few favorite black-and-whites.
- a brass hanging bar that I can't seem to convince the landlord to get rid of :) I'm embracing it.
- my absolute favorite thing, an envelope from the dear miss lib addressed to my old address (and one that will forever have a special place in my heart). It was just too pretty to discard!

It was a decently long process. Most of my frames were an assortment of colors, and I opted to paint them all a uniform color. I knew that quite a bit of my gallery would be unframed (canvases, keys, tennis rackets, key hangers, ribbons). I used Krylon semi-gloss black spray paint on every frame that wasn't already black. You can't really tell a difference between the already-black frames and the DIY-black frames so semi-gloss was the way to go! I'd use the spray paint again, actually I already have but that reveal is still to come.

I, for one, love my gallery wall. Just count the times I used the word "favorite" in that list. What do you think of my wall? Have you tackled any projects you've been obsessing about? Please share!

P.s. This is the first time I've shown you my new room! I'll eventually get to filling you in a bunch of other goodies here, like my nightstand situation, the elusive headboard that I mentioned way back when and of course, how I'm liking living here.

ADVENTURE // AN AFTERNOON

I hinted that I completed another task on my Future 101 list, and I'm here to share all about it.  My mom and I decided to spend an afternoon kayaking on the river.  We typically kayak on a sleepy creek near our house, but we opted for an adventurous 4 mile trek on the Black River through Holland.  It runs through my hometown, empties into Macatawa Bay, and feeds Lake Michigan.  We also passed a Holland landmark, Windmill Island.

You really can't beat that view.  The windmill was imported from the Netherlands way back when.  Not to shabby for a spontaneous kayaking adventure! Have you been on any unexpected adventures lately?

ADVENTURE // A LOVELY DAY

I had a whole day with nothing in particular on my agenda.  My family and friends were working and it felt like a little slice of the world was my oyster. I woke up late and threw a bow in my hair, accomplishing a goal of mine. Then, I made a pb&j to go and went to my favorite place on earth.

Eating lunch on car-top, beachside is the way to go.  I've spent many a summer night listening to music on top of my jeep in this parking lot.  This is my "happy place."  It's a little beach that most people don't think twice about.  I kind of love that.  The beach is spectacular and I had it all to myself the other day.

Since I was at the beach anyway, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to check another thing off my goals list - run down a sand dune.  If you have never ran full speed down a sand dune, you may not understand the awesomeness of this goal.  It almost feels like your flying, and always reminds me of my lakeside childhood.

START:

 
FINISH:

And after my beach time was over, I decided to do a little antiquing and thrifting in hopes of finally finding bookends.  After a few hours of no luck, I stumbled upon this place.

I was tempted to take home the vintage telephones, signage and license plates they had an abundance of.  At first, I felt a little disheartened.  Bookends tend to be both ugly and expensive.  I had almost given up, until I stumbled on a corner of nautical goodness and spotted this guy.

He doesn't have a match, so I got him for $12.  As you can tell, he isn't stay in his current condition for long. After a little sanding and a coat of black semi-gloss spray paint, he was good as new.  I'll be sure to point out the final product when I move him to his permanent location.

For those of you who have lost track, I ticked off five goals off of my list in one afternoon.  Not too shabby.

     - wear a bow in my hair
     - run down a sand dune
     - go antiquing
     - go thrifting
     - find/DIY/buy bookends

I've actually accomplished another goal since, but I'll save that story for another day. It's quite a good one.

THINGS // GOINGS ON

I've been at home a total of four incredibly rainy days so far.  I've already managed to squeeze in a few awesome things.  My days have been filled with lovely things like:

          a trip to my favorite local ice cream shop, Captain Sundae.  I'm a proud former employee! 

          a hilarious dinner with my parents at Sluggos, a favorite local pizza place. 

          shopping adventures, including a prom dress search for my sister. 

          a spontaneous trip to the dirt cheap movie theater, to see The Avengers (great!). 

          a church service, complete with seeing a few friendly faces from high school.  

          afternoon (and let's be real, morning) naps. 

          a short-but-sweet run towards the beach at sunset. 

          lots and lots of organizing, donating and sorting my things in preparation for the move. 

          finally backing up my computer and organizing keepsakes and important documents. 

          a couple crafty projects, and more in the works. 

If you care about those DIY projects....

BIRTHDAY // ON BEING KIND OF LEGAL

As I mentioned in this post, I'm officially 21 and have no fun birthdays left to look forward to.   Since celebrating in style was one of my goals, and another one of my goals was to share my accomplishments,  you lovely folks get to relive my birthday with me!

It actually was, for the most part, quite fun.  My birthday fell on Good Friday, the weekend of Easter.  Since so many friends were heading home for the weekend, it was decided that a Thursday night shindig must happen.

found thanks to the matchbook gals

So it did.  A group of about 8 of us - mostly girls from my sorority, but also my best friend and a few of my good guy friends - headed out to celebrate at a piano bar called Howl at exactly midnight on my birthday.  Actually, I got into the bar at around 11:57 so I was still a bit illegal (that's where the title of this post comes from).

After a short couple hours and a few drinks, it was time to head home.  I was still a good intern and went to work at 8 a.m. the next day.  My free starbucks drink was definitely motivation to roll out of bed!

My coworkers/the company treated me to a nice lunch.  Then, a couple of my non-21 friends took me out to dinner at one of my favorites - a local mexican place.  I ordered a margarita, of course. 

I think what I'm most excited about being of legal drinking age is funnily enough, not drinking.  I'm excited to get into the bars to see concerts!  Of course, I won't say no too a few cool drinks this summer.  My senior year house has the perfect summer backyard!

So that's the story of when I turned 21.  Feel free to mock me about piano dancing any ol' time.

THINGS // COLLECTOR'S ITEMS

This is the start of my own personal stationary collection.  So, these cards are my personal collector's items.  Hopefully, they'll help me get motivated to send a bunch of handwritten notes, and obviously they help me to fulfill my Future 101 goal to "start a stationary collection that fits me."

In reality, they are all from Target.  They are not letterpress, unfortunately.  They're designed by the fine people of Target, not by some local artist like I had hoped.  I like them all the same - and bonus! They were in my price range.  I think my favorites are the ones on the left.

I think I want to find/craft a box to put them in.  How fun would that be?

MISSION // BUY WACKY NAIL POLISH

Mission accomplished.  


Let me just preface this girly post by saying, I have never been a nail polish/lip gloss kind of girl.  I generally prefer treating myself to a coffee or two. We never painted each others nails at middle school sleepovers - we preferred watching any and all movies starring Channing Tatum.  (I still love you, Chan) 


Lately, I've felt a little more sure of myself when I'm walking around with painted tips.  There is just something about a fun color, although I still paint nails at a 9-year-old level.  I get it all over my skin like a loser, but I'm improving.  

I'm not this good though! Props.  

Ever since I gave into the Essie craze and snagged the orange-y red color, Geranium, I've been singing a different tune.  I even sprung for the nude-ish color, Case Study, to give myself a little studying motivation for my Public Relations Case Studies class last semester.  The motivation worked, by the way.  


That's why I decided to put, "buy a wacky shade of nail polish" on my Future 101 list.  I'm hoping that this bold (for me) color of nail polish will give me the guts and gusto to do a few things that are on the wacky side for me.  


I choose playdate.  Maybe I'll be able to check off another one of my list items off and 'Paint my nails without getting it on my fingers." when I get around to using it.  

TO DO LIST // FUTURE 101

I have a thang for to-do lists, but this one is a fun one!  I promise.

I'm writing to tell all of you about a project of mine. In the next who-knows-how-long, I'm going to accomplish (at least) 101 things.  I've christened this list a "Future 101" list.

I've seen 101 in 1001 lists flitting around the blogosphere and I love the idea of writing out exactly what you want to do in the next 3ish years.  The only problem is that I don't have the money to accomplish my list in 1001 days.  Rather than get ho-hum about that, I decided that I would give myself as much time as I needed to complete my goals.  Obviously, these are goals that I want to accomplish soonish and I'm keeping that in mind while being realistic.

My list encompasses a bunch of big things (hello, graduating and moving on?) but also little things (i.e. buying a weird shade of nail polish).  I tried to balance things out, so that I could feel like I'm accomplishing something even if it's a littler thing.

If you want to read all of the crazy shenanigans I'm going to get myself into, take a look at the complete list here.  I've made it a separate page on this ol' blog and I'll update you as I go!  

And just because a post isn't a true post without a picture...

P.s. I reserve the right to add, alter or otherwise do what I wish with this list :)  Things could change, my friends.