Sunday 26 August 2012

Random Instagram

Instagram has become one of my favourite social networking tools. I absolutely love the ability to edit and be creative with photos directly from my phone. It's quick and easy and you get to share photos with friends while viewing photos your friends post. It's like telling stories with photographs! I have provided some examples of photos edited with Instagram! Please enjoy and if you share my love for Instagram add me @natoshaarsenault!

DIY Laundry Detergent

DIY Laundry Detergent
There are a number of DIY projects that I have wanted to accomplish for a while now, and it seems that new things get added to this list daily! However there is one project that I am super excited to try out ~ DIY Laundry Detergent. Out on the inter-web (internet and web combined ~ hehe), there are numerous ways people have made their own laundry detergent, all have promised products that are cheaper and clean just as well as expensive laundry detergent. So I am curious as to whether or not you other bloggers have tried DIY Laundry Detergent and how it turned out for you. I will be making my own laundry detergent shortly and will provide you with instructions, pictures and results of my own laundry detergent. Keep looking for the post, I promise it will include a vast amount of information regarding DIY Laundry Detergent. 

Being A Student Means Moving ALOT!

Being a student means moving a lot! In the four years that I attended University, I lived in three different places. I currently live somewhere new, but I thought I would share with you mine and Mike's first apartment.

Old Sewing Machine given to Me by my Grandma
Our first apartment was a SMALL one bedroom, however it was cozy and everything I felt we needed. Living in a big city means you get very little for your money, and being a student means you have very little money. Me and Mike only lived in the apartment for 8 months and I was so sad to leave (having put so much work into the apartment to try to make it feel like home). However I am thankful for the time we DID get to spend together in it.

Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures of the apartment, however I did take a few. You will notice a Christmas Tree in the one photo in the bedroom. This was only one of TWO trees I had set up in the apartment (can you tell I LOVE Christmas!)

The thing that I find the most interesting is the change in my decor from March of 2012 until now! You will see in later posts current photo's of my home (which I love just as much as this little apartment).

Bedroom
Burlap Initials
The bed spread was purchased from Home Sense (might I just add I LOVE Home Sense). It was a complete bed in a bag and was on sale! It was so warm and cozy, unfortunately our beagle has some separation anxiety and decided to chew holes all throughout this wonderful comforter :(. I have yet to find another that I love just as much, so for now I am covering up with and making my bed with a comforter full of holes (I hope I find one soon!).

 The burlap initials poster to the left are one of my favourite crafts I have done! It was so easy to complete and came out looking amazing. Although I
do not have photographs of the step by step instructions (as I completed this projected long before I ever considered blogging) I will tell you how I did it (Yes, it's that easy). I simply "borrowed" burlap from my Aunt, which she bought at a local craft store. I then found a font I liked on Microsoft Word and printed it out on white computer paper. After this I cut out the initials, traced them onto the burlap and then hand painted the letters with black acrylic paint. And voila! They were done, as easy as that!

One of the features I loved about our apartment was the ledges that existed over the windows. The ledge shown in the picture was in our bedroom. It was so boring and I knew it just had a tone of potential to become something interesting. Sooo ... I bought some frames and filled them with photographs (I love surrounding myself with family photos), bought wall talk from Dollarama and placed a whole bunch of frames, books and candles on the ledge. It really added character to the room and was such a unique way of utilizing the space.
Cute Ledge in Bedroom
 Breakfast Cabinet



Puppies Pictures in Kitchen
 The final picture shows a dresser which I painted a very fun, bright blue. This was placed in our very small dining room and was utilized as a "drink station". This station was mainly utilized by me, as Mike does not drink coffee or tea (absurd, I know)! The drawers were also great extra storage for items that could not fit into our kitchen storage.

The final photograph was taken in our kitchen. The kitchen did not have tile for a back splash and I really did not want to spend the time, money and effort using "tiled" wallpaper to create a back splash. So instead I used photographs of my dogs and my parents dogs and hung them on the wall. It turned out pretty well and I got to look at cute puppies every time I cooked!

Overall, our first apartment was a cozy, inviting space that we both enjoyed! However, like many things in life things had to change and we had to move out of our very SMALL but very CHARMING little apartment!

Well thanks for stopping by and listening to my rant about my tiny, cute first apartment.