Friday Favorites: The Great Gatsby Wedding

I’m back! I have missed you all but I needed the time away to get into my new house. (Home tour coming soon!) Now that I have free time again, it is time to get back into blogging.

Last night Chris and I went and saw The Great Gatsby.

It was wonderful! The costumes! The characters! Oh it was love at first sight! The whole time during the movie I kept thinking, OMG this would be the best wedding theme for someone! So for today’s Friday Favorites let me show you all of my favorite things for a Great Gatsby themed wedding.

Table Designs

The Cake 

The Ring

The Dress

The Bridesmaids

The Look

The Groom and Groomsmen

See what did I tell you? Perfect wedding theme! Heres to being able to use it some day down the road. Cheers!

Friday Favorites: All Things Furniture

Hello Ladies,

My name is Kate and I used to be a blogger. We have one very stressed out belle over here. We are now in the final countdown of our moving day (4 days til the truck comes!) and we are in scramble mode. We are trying to buy all of the things we need for the house so all we have to do is unload and organize.  Chris has been in and out of Columbia for work these past couple of weeks so I have been doing a lot of the stuff on my own. Add work to the mix and I am at my wits end.

So today’s friday favorites is going to be the last post until our move, but don’t fret though I have already planned on home tours galore. In the spirit of the big move this weeks favorites are all about furniture (basically its a show and tell of what I have bought haha). 

sofa and accent pillows  

end tables and coffee table

our king! sized bed

 love seat but we bought it in the brown accent chair

I Did It!

Guess what ladies…. I did it! I finally paid off ALL of my credit card debt! I AM COMPLETELY DEBT FREE!

Oh my goodness, you have no ideas how good it feels to know I do not have debt hanging over my head anymore.  I had a good amount of debt, but I did not have as much as some people my age have. Now that I am debt free I can relax a little. It will be so nice taking the $200.00 a month that I was spending on credit card bills and put it in savings or towards another purchase. Ah I just feel so free now!

But, with freedom comes great responsibility (wait thats not the spiderman quote is it?) I have to be careful not to fall back into debt. I am going to be taking extra measures keep the debt away. I am trying to get back into couponing and I am trying to read more on articles that offer advice on saving money. So far these websites are my favorite places to find money saving literature. ( You should rush on over and check them out!)

Southern Savers

All You

Money Saving Moms

I hope you find these sites as awesome as I do. Until next time… Happy Saving!

Confession Session

Ok girls time for a little confession session. I have been suffering with a MAJOR case of writers block lately. Frankly work and the huge stress of moving is doing nothing for my creative mind. (why would it) But I was reading a couple of confession posts over at Don’t Quote The Raven and that gave me the awesome idea.

-I Confess… I wish I was a couponer, not the crazy hoarder kind but the saves the 50% on groceries each week kind. I have tried to teach myself how to do it, but after an hour or so my ADD kicks in hard core.

 

-I Confess…I am addicted to Diet Coke, and SVU, and Ben and Jerry’s…seriously I have a problem.

 

-I Confess…that I love my dog more than a person should. Chris and I have fights daily about Molly sleeping in the bed or him punishing her for getting in the trash. I love her she is my angel.

-I Confess…I rather have fur children than real ones.

-I Confess…I am DEATHLY afraid of doctors, needles, and bold, like to the point I give myself panic attacks.

 

-I Confess…Despite my fear of needles and blood I really want a tattoo. I want my mom’s initials (CDB) tattooed on my left wrist. I am trying to talk myself into getting it done on Sept 11 this year. (10 years since my mom passed)

 

-I Confess…Sometimes I find my life to boring to write about.

 

-I Confess…I have an alcohol allergy…yet I still drink…sometimes heavily.

-I Confess…I own WAY to many Bath and Body Works Products.

-I Confess… I wish my hair was longer and thicker, but what woman doesn’t huh?

 

Now I have laid my confessions on the table. What do you have to confess?

Friday Favorites: Candles

Hello Lovelies,

So for today’s Friday Favorites I want to tell you all about my favorite obsession: candles. If I am sitting at home I always have some kind of candle burning (especially when I am getting ready in the morning). I just love the smell of candles, they can mask any bad smell and make the room so pleasant. My favorite brands are the Target Soy based candles and the Bath and Body Works 3 wick candles.

Bath and Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar

Bath and Body Works Twilight Woods

Target Sugar Blossom

Target Red Velvet Cake

Bath and Body Works Poolside

Bath and Body Works Mahogany Teakwood

Bath and Body Works Lavender Vanilla

What are your favorite scents? Drop me a comment and let me know!

March Favorites

This past month was a pretty crazy month. Work was busy, house hunting was stressful and trying to keep up with everything was like trying to keep up with a fast moving train. But I did remember to factor in some me time, and during that me time I managed to fall in love with a couple of things.

Revlon Color Stay Whipped Foundation

Target’s Red Velvet Cake Soy Blend Candle

Mossimo Supply Co Juniors V Neck T Shirt

Apple MacBook Pro

Maybelline Color Whispers Lipsticks

Maybelline Color Tattoo Eyeshadows

Pantene Pro-V 2 Minute Moisture Hair Masque Deep Conditioner

Moving Pains

Blemished Belle Confessions

So while I am BEYOND excited for the new house I have also discovered a down side to this little arrangement. MOVING! I hate it. I hate the packing, I hate the purging, I just can’t stand it. This is the third time I have had to do a major move and it is already the death of me. That being said I have come up with some packing tips that stemmed from errors from my last moves.

Pack boxes by the room. 

It makes sense to pack similar items in the same box right? Right! If you pack bathroom stuff with your kitchen stuff then it will confuse you when you are unpacking the boxes.

Label the boxes. 

If you don’t label your boxes then you have no idea what is inside when you arrive at your new house. So label the boxes with the items inside and what room that they belong in. While your at it label multiple sides so that if the box gets turned you still know whats inside.

Start packing well ahead of time

Don’t wait until a couple of days before you move to start packing (I know this from experience). If you know that you are not going to use something go ahead and pack it. Also be honest with yourself. Now is not the time for I may use this or I might need this. No if maybe/might is in your answer go ahead and pack it.

Blemished Belle Confessions

Pack one room at a time. 

I am the queen of add issues, so I know how you might want to try to pack multiple rooms at once. Just don’t do it. It will confuse the hell out of you and make your house look like a tornado hit it. (Not to mention piss off your roommates/family)  If you cant focus on the task till completion then do it in small chunks. Work in it for an hour then take a break for 2o minutes. I like to use my break time to write or play with my dog.

Blemished Belle Confessions

Less is more

Use this time as a way to clean out your closets and drawers. If you haven’t used/worn it in a year, time to get rid of it! (I had 4 trash bags to donate!) If you do this far enough in advance you have time for a yard sale to make extra cash for your move.

Blemished Belle Confessions

Save space

Use soft items to pad the boxes (towels, pillows, t shirts etc) It saves space and save you money on bubble wrap.

Do you have any moving tips? Leave me a comment if you do!

Big Announcement

Well hello there lovelies. It’s been a while. It has been a hectic time for me both personally and in my career, but now that I am back I have an announcement to make….drumroll please…. The Blemished Belle is moving! It is official (lease signed and deposit paid ) Chris and I couldn’t be more excited. Our house is a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom with a fenced in backyard and a ton of closet space. It is 4 minutes (we timed it) to my parents and 10 minutes to work.

our new home

 

With the new house comes a ton of decorating (hallelujah) and while Chris and I have a ton of stuff, none of it goes together so we are going to have to figure out a way to make it match.

I am most worried about our living room so I have been scoping out ideas online. These are my favorites so far.

my favorite

love the white on white

the pattern curtains are a must have

totally will purchase that bookcase

My Life In Ruins

*Disclaimer: this is a very text heavy post, so if photos are more your style check out one of my other posts*

Hello, my name is Kate and I suck at life. Well not all aspects of life just the goal setting kind. I wrote a previous post about a month ago explaining how I needed to get my shit together and set some goals for the month of march. You know what? NOTHING got accomplished, absolutely nothing. It’s not like I don’t have any motivation to do it, it is just I have absolutely no self control. I know I need to get my finances in order and I know I need to loose weight, but no matter how hard I try I just can’t keep up with it. I will do great for a couple of days then, fall off the band wagon.

My finances for example. I had planned on paying off 2 of my credit cards and only keeping one. Well after I paid off one of them I just let the debit pile up on the other 2. I am ashamed to say that I am $2400.00 in debt. Its horrible. I hope on taking it down to $1500.00 by my birthday, but who knows with me.

My weight I have made absolutely no progress with this, in fact I gained a couple of pounds. I around 210lb (maybe if I put it out there then I will actually change it.) I bought a yoga mat and joined a gym. I do great for 1 day then I start eating crap again or I just say “I don’t feel like going to the gym today” and the whole flow gets thrown off.

So as I sit in the back private room at work, I decided to make a promise to myself. I am going to get my shit together. I need to set smaller goals and long term goals. I can’t just say I am going to cut out my debt or loose 50lbs I need to make them into more bit sized chunks.

 Debt Schedule

Pay off 300 debt by April 15th

Pay off 200 by May 15th

Pay off 200 by June 15th

Pay off 200 by July 15th

 

Weight Loss Schedule 

Loose 5lbs by April 15th

Loose 10lbs by May 15th

Loose 15lbs by June 1

Loose 20lbs by June 15

Loose 25lbs by July 1

Loose 30lbs by July 15

 

I hope that I can keep myself more accountable and y’all can help me, positive comments always make my day

Friday Favorites: Say Yes to the Dress Bridesmaids.

*Disclaimer: this was supposed to go up yesterday but Quaker Steak and Lube was calling my name instead*

As with most women, I love all things wedding related. I love the dresses, the table designs, and the flowers. I think it just comes with being a girl. For my last day of my mini hiatus from work I spent most of my afternoon watching Say Yes To The Dress: Bridesmaids.

While I watched about 15 episodes and I managed to learn 2 things. A I will be traveling to Atlanta to shop for my future wedding and bridesmaid dresses and B I have discovered what I like and don’t like. So in honor of my love for all things wedding here are my favorites from the show.