Summer Bucket List 2014

Now that summer is more than halfway over I'm finally posting this Summer 2014 Bucket List I designed in June (I'm really on top of things). John and I filled it out and unfortunately we've been so busy we haven't accomplished many of the things on it -- but we still have a little while left.

I pinned it up on our bulletin board so we'd look at it and remember to do the things on the list.

We used the "Go" column for trips/activities that would take more travel and planning. The "Make" column is for new food we wanted to try and projects we wanted to work on. And the "Do" column is for summer activities that aren't really difficult to plan. They're somewhat interchangeable so you could really fill them out however you'd like to.

I decided to share the file for this summer bucket list, so I took out the "Coles Family" on the little flag and left that blank. You could write your own family name in pen or with Photoshop. 

Click [HERE] to download the Summer Bucket List PDF.

Home Sweet Home

Yesterday after work I took some pictures of our apartment. Basically what I learned is that I can't take good indoor photos. Someone with more photography experience than me should give me some pointers.

The coffee table was a $15 DI find that I repainted. I love how it turned out, but it's really too small. I threw the "rug" (aka Mexican blanket we bought on our honeymoon) underneath it to try to balance everything out a little. For now it's okay, but John and I are working on building a new table out of pallets and casters. Cross your fingers it won't look weird.

My parents loaned us the painting above the couch. I really like it (it used to hang in my bedroom), but I think it's also a bit too small for the space and I'd like to incorporate a little more color. I'm thinking a gallery wall kind of like this:

Now if only the Ikea Ribba frames would go on sale . . .

We bought the little jaguar on our honeymoon at Chichen Itza. I don't know why, but for some reason I just really liked him.

The side table was a Ross find for $30. 

The fiddle leaf fig is probably my favorite part of the room. Every interior designer seems to use these now and they're not cheap. I knew that Ikea sold some little ones, but you can't order them online and Ikea Draper never had them. A few weeks ago, John and I dropped by and I just happened to spot one. I was so happy. I haven't killed it yet, but we'll see how things go.

John got these vases while he was on his mission in Guatemala. There's probably a better place to put them, but I'm not sure where that would be and I don't want them to just sit in the closet. I'm trying to make sure that John's things are included in our decor instead of just mine.

I'm proud of this little flower -- $5 at Target.

Notice the bottle on the counter in the background. That's John's venus fly trap. My sister saw it at the store and knew that he liked them, so she bought him one. It was a very cute surprise.

I have no idea what kind of plant this is, but it was a couple bucks at Ikea and it looks like a pineapple, so we couldn't pass it up. I should probably take it out of its plastic pot though instead of just sticking the whole thing in a ceramic pot.

My parents gave us the table as a wedding present. They got a great deal on it from RC Willey (we bought our couch there also). The "Come Thou Fount" print is by Lindsay Letters. I'm in love with everything she does. I should have purchased the largest size, but I bought it right after I finished college and moved back home, so it went in my bedroom on top of my desk and I didn't want a GIANT canvas sitting there. I don't really care if it's too small for the wall now . . . it still makes me happy.

I wanted to have somewhere to pin invitations/pictures/etc. so I made this cork board and attached it to the door (with command strips, because we don't want to make holes that we'll have to patch up before we move out). It would have been about a billion times easier if I could have just found a big, thick piece of cork, but I couldn't, so I had to use adhesive cork wallpaper and attach it to a big board of insulation stuff (no idea what it's actually called but I found it at Home Depot). Then I painted the edges of the board gold so they wouldn't look so much like foam. I also designed the Family Proclamation print in the frame on the wall.

These are my favorite little measuring cups (the Measuring Gaggle from Anthropologie). I just realized that I didn't get an actual shot of the entire kitchen, so I'll have to come back and add one in.

This is the bathroom . . . aka the room with the worst lighting in the entire apartment. It needed more color so I painted a spare canvas with green ombre stripes and little streaks of gold. It took all of 10 minutes and I secretly kind of like it. Obviously if we owned instead of rented, we'd try to change the wall color or add some cool tile or something instead of leaving everything so tan, but you work with what you have.

I found the vintage botanical prints online (they were free) and put them in dollar store frames. This section of the bathroom drives me crazy because the builder put the light switches so far in from the door that the towel rack has to be tiny and can't even fit two towels unless they're on top of each other. It is awesome.

This is our little hall table. I'm not going to show the bottom because it needs some work. The blue vase was made by my grandmom (who passed away before I was born). John and I had the silhouette made in Disneyland just before we got engaged, the letters are from Hobby Lobby (I spray painted them gold), I made the mirror using this tutorial, and the oil painting is something I did in high school. I'm not sure how I feel about this arrangement, but it works for now and it adds a lot of color, which I like.

We still want to add a few things--a bookcase with a painted back like this and a cowhide rug, just for starters--but we have enough now that the apartment feels like our home. I need to add some pictures of the deck (I'll try to take some that show the lights and lantern I hung) and I'll eventually photograph the bedroom (when we actually have furniture).

An Apartment Sneak Peek

Living in an apartment where you can't repaint the walls (so much tan!) or drill holes to hang curtains or have more than one main area to decorate is a little frustrating, but I actually love having a space to share with John. It needs work (like an real rug instead of a blanket, a bigger coffee table, larger art or pictures above the couch so it looks more balanced...), but I feel like we've been able to really dive into the process of making it feel like home on a limited budget. Plus John is now the assistant manager of the Down East in Draper and gets a discount (not a big one, but it's still a discount), so we might eventually be able to add in some nice pieces from there.

When I have some free time, I'll take more pictures of the family room, kitchen, and porch (which I decorated one night to surprise John). The bedroom will have to wait because we won't have a dresser or nightstands until August 8, so it looks like a clothing tornado hit the room. But you can see our new pillows and headboard at least (maybe next time I'll wait for better lighting and it'll look cream instead of tan. Low light + brown walls = not true-to-life coloring).