When I got home from my business trip, Shawn and I spent an evening talking about what we want to use our extra bedroom for, what we need to store in it, etc.  After looking through catalogs and magazines together, I’ve come up with a mood board for our new guest bedroom/office:

Shawn was adamant about this being a “non-girly” space.  Which is okay with me, because he is kind enough to pretty much give me free reign throughout the rest of the house with my girlyness.  I am so grateful for that, because pink really makes me happy!  I do try to tone it down for him, and I always check to make sure he likes something before I commit to it, but it sure is nice that I don’t have to eliminate all florals and pink from my life.

Back to the office.  Shawn wanted a big hit of green, so we are going to paint the walls a muted green, possibly with pops of bright orange if I can convince him.  We need the room to hold our full size bed for guests.  We need to use the room as our office and a sewing area for me.  We also need to store items under the bed, in the closets, and wherever else possible…storage is at a premium with no basement or attic space, and I am determined to get this apartment in order…have a place for everything and everything in its place.  I want to start living that way, it is difficult to find things when you have clutter all over.

We chose the Urban Mandala duvet cover from CB2 because it really caught Shawn’s eye.  He was asking for something that would inspire his creativity when he walked in the room.  He is very interested in graffiti and graphic statements like that, so I can see why he was drawn to this duvet.  We chose the ASTRAKAN grey velvet bedspread from IKEA to use on the bed, because our animals love to curl up on the bed, so we are hoping to keep animal hair to a minimum on the nice white duvet.  Shawn loves these woven black lamps from IKEA, every time we go shopping there he stops and admires them for a moment, so I figured we could use them in the guest room.  I also placed wall-mounted reading lamps over the bed, because I think this bed will get the most use from me curling up on it to sort through my magazines for inspiration.  I would love to recline with a stack of magazines and tear pages for my inspiration binders!  (Oh yeah, and our guests will have a lamp to read by!)

We already have the white bedside tables on wheels, which we are currently using next to the sofa in our living room.  I’m on the hunt for tables to refurbish on craigslist, at thrift stores and garage sales, but haven’t found anything just right yet.  So as soon as we find the new ones for the living room, we can bring the white rolling ones in.  We also have the HEIMDAL bed from IKEA in a full size that we will be moving into the office as soon as we get a new bed.  We are interested in getting a king size bed, and I want to make a headboard for it, so stay tuned for my ideas on that.  I am looking really hard for that one great piece that will be my jumping point for my mood board for the master bedroom.  I have so many ideas swimming around, and I just need to make some mood boards to get everything down and figure out what we like best.

I keep getting sidetracked tonight!  Forgive my tangents, please…very unedited and raw post tonight!

We also already have the ANGA shelving system from IKEA.  It was discontinued and I got the $300 unit for $7.  A total steal if you ask me!!  Shawn wants to put some of his collections on display on that unit across from the bed in the office/guest room.  It may also be good if we ever want to put a small television in the room, but that  won’t be any time soon.

My one little shot of girlyness is the grey “waterfall” curtain from Urban Outfitters.  I fell in love with this curtain when I saw it on their website and I just had to work it in here.  It’s not overly girly, and thankfully Shawn likes it with the other elements in the room.  That’s good, because I’m obsessed with it!

As far as art, I like the idea of black and white photos of cities and buildings.  I am also hoping to find a big vintage sign to hang over the bed.  I think that would make the room….but I am not allowed to troll ebay for that just yet….

We are extremely tight on cash at the moment, so I won’t be executing this in its entirety for a little while, but I just had to share.  I am on the lookout for the things that I can afford to start putting the room together, but in the meantime, I’m just dreaming of this wonderful space!

I am struggling with my little furry friends tonight, Piper is wreaking havoc throughout the house, and Mr. Face is laying on the desk as I type with his paw on the caps lock key.  He keeps pressing it at random times, makes typing interesting!  Look out for a few posts from me in the coming days, I have a lot to share!

Tomorrow is another first for me, because we’ll be traveling to New Jersey with the company (I’ve never been!!)  A big group of us are going to check things out.

There are so many things I want to share with you all, but I have not had an opportunity to sit down and type anything or even take that many photos yet.  Soon, soon!!  Hope you are all doing well, my lovelies!!  I am late for bed now, but I will get back soon….

It’s slightly bittersweet, because I’m going to miss Shawn and Piper so much, because we are always absolutely inseparable on the weekends.  I’ve never spent a night away from Shawn, unless he was just too caught up with playing video games to come to bed!  Lucky for us, I get to come back for the week of Thanksgiving and the weeks of Christmas and New Years.  So we’ll make it work.  I have a couple of things up my sleeve, like video conferencing with him from my hotel room via Skype, sending photo and video texts from my new iPhone (!) and a couple of other tricks that I can’t share just yet.  And he’s asked for me to bring him back a cheesesteak on one of my trips home, so that should be fun to get through security, haha!

I can’t wait to share some of the cool sights and experiences of Philly with you guys.  It will be my first time in Philadelphia, and I’m planning on hopping over to NYC for a little visit or two while I’m there.

I have so much to do before I leave…from packing, to finding my winter gear, to preparing the apartment for my absence, to trying to make sure I have enough business casual clothes to get me through (I don’t.)  So I’m going to be shopping for some professional clothes, winter gear, and fun accessories on my first weekend up there.  (A little side note about me–I’ve never been in snow more than about 2 inches deep, so I’m hoping I get to experience some winter weather while I’m there!  I hate the cold, but I do love snow.)  I bought some suitcases the other day, and they should arrive mid-week.  Wanna take a peek at what I got?

Aren’t they fabulous??  They’re so me, and I love them.  I will feel much better when they arrive and I can start packing my bags.  I’m so afraid I’ll forget something, but I’m sure that’s bound to happen anyway.

So it’s a busy but very very exciting time around here!!  I have to mentally prep myself, and make sure I get enough sleep, rest, and eat right before I leave, because my body is notorious for rebelling when I have pushed it just a little too hard.  Stress and lack of sleep get to me, so I’m going to try my best to stay right on my normal schedule.

This is the thing (along with landing a day job with no weekends) that has made me feel most like a bona-fide adult.  What was it that made you feel like a real grown-up?  If yours was a business trip, where was your first business trip to?

So here’s how we looked at the party:

Shawn was a “gambler” from the 1920’s, complete with cap, bowtie, and vest.  He had a flask tucked into his vest pocket (seeing as how it was during prohibition) and a deck of cards that he was pulling out of his sleeves when he would ask someone to play a hand with him.  He won two awards by a landslide:  best performer and best costume.  He took his performance through in everything he did, and even put on a funny accent for the evening.  He kept bumbling his cards while trying to shuffle, since his character profile said he was a really bad gambler.  Everyone loved that he snuck his flask out to “spike” his drink while we were mingling with the other characters.

My character was described as a flamboyant flapper and a “modern woman” for the 1920’s.  She wanted to be a movie star, and was doing everything she could to get there.  So I took the flapper style to the extreme (or as much as I could in the limited amount of time I had to put the costume together.)  I wore dark eyeliner and eyeshadow with false eyelashes.  I wore bright red lipstick, a big, flashy headband with a huge feather fascinator pinned to the side of my head.  I also added a long string of pearls, art-deco inspired earrings, black satin gloves, and a sequined cigarette holder.  A tiered, sequined dress, thigh-high stockings, and t-strap high heels completed the look.  I also brought a champagne flute and a little bottle of champagne to play up the extravagant profile of the character a bit.  (Also, neither of us smoke, so we got some fake cigarettes at the Halloween shop for our costumes.)  Shawn and I spent a little while the night before the party watching videos on YouTube of flappers, gangsters, and other 1920’s types, and I put on a voice similar to Betty Boop’s, and I tried to be a little more flirty than normal.

As for my hair, as you can probably tell from previous photos, I have fairly long hair.  So to disguise that fact, I was planning on curling my hair tightly so it appeared to be cut in a bob, but I ran out of time, so I took some big roller pins (similar to extra-large bobby pins) and pinned my hair under at the nape of my neck.  The elastic headband was an extra layer of security, and helped everything stay put.

I’ll show you some more detailed photos of my costume, make-up, hair, and shoes after I dress up again for Halloween.

We had a great time at the party, and I definitely want to do this murder mystery mayhem again sometime very soon!  I’m going to post a full review and more photos of the murder mystery soon.  I hope you guys enjoy your Halloween festivities this year.  What do you have planned for Saturday night?

I am taking part, along with thousands of other bloggers from around the world.  This year’s action day is centered around the topic of Climate Change.  This is a topic that is truly close to my heart.  I am no superwoman, but we do our best to take care of our Mother Earth here in the Bach/Allen household.  For me, climate change is a HUGE scary issue, that worries me almost daily.  Scientists say it could raise sea levels enough to leave Manhattan underwater.  That’s scary stuff!  And if that weren’t bad enough, higher global temperatures could cause my beloved Pinot Noir to go bye-bye for good.  You see, the mild weather that produces the grapes for my delicious glass of red would be too warm, and would cause grape growers to have to turn to alternate means to produce Pinot Noir grapes.  This wine scenario is just one of the milder predictions out of millions of consequences if climate change turns up the thermostat on our planet.  If you’d like to see a (partial) list of 100 possible results of climate change, please see the list here at the Center for American Progress’s site.

We, like most people, can’t stop bulldozers from knocking down rainforests, or remove greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere.  We’re just a couple of regular people.  But we do everything we can to help combat climate change.  So I’d like to share a bit of what we do to help save the planet.

-Whenever possible, we use CFL bulbs.  You’ve probably heard of these, they consume 75% less energy than their incandescent counterparts, and last typically 10 times longer.  We save a ton of green on our electric bill because of our little lightbulbs.  They may cost a bit more up front, but they definitely pay for themselves in the long run!

-We recycle as much as we can here at home.  Our apartment complex only offers paper recycling, so we have a bin for that.  Then we have bins for cardboard, plastic, glass, aluminum, and styrofoam.  Thankfully, our local Whole Foods collects recycling and you don’t even have to sort it!  You just throw it all in the bin, and they take care of the rest.  We go about once a month to take our recycling, and it doesn’t hurt to stop in and get some delicious food while we’re at it.  We also recycle our batteries, old cell phones, lightbulbs, and tennis shoes by taking them to our local IKEA.  (You don’t have to twist my arm to go to IKEA!)

-We try to choose reusable items whenever possible:

A few months ago, we got 40 fabric napkins, and stopped using paper napkins for good.  It is super easy to just toss the white napkins in with our whites load once a week, and it’s easier on our wallets as well.

I slowly weaned Shawn off of using paper towels after washing his hands in the kitchen by always having a stack of fresh, dry towels in the kitchen.

When we were potty training our puppy Piper, we got a couple of big packs of white terrycloth shop towels and a bottle of Nature’s Miracle to clean up her messes instead of using paper towels every time.

We have an arsenal of reusable grocery bags that we fold up and keep in the trunk of my car for trips to the grocery store.

I keep a couple of small bags in my handbag at all times for trips to Target, trips to the hardware store, mall, or any light shopping.

-We try to use biodegradable whenever possible.  Piper’s doggy-doo bags are biodegradable.

-I *try* so hard to take short showers.  I’ve gotten them down to less than 10 minutes, which, coming from the girl who took 30 minute showers, this is amazing.  Always room for improvement, though!  Shawn is a former Marine, so he’s in and out in a flash.

-We wash our clothes in cold water and dry them on the shortest cycle possible.

-We try to always combine trips to save gas.

-We walk to the grocery store, convenience store, and some restaurants whenever possible.

-We only buy cleaning products that do not contain harsh chemicals and are safe for the planet.  (We’re still using up some of our old “polluting” cleaning products since we don’t want to pour them down the drain, but when they’re gone, we’ll replace them with non-polluting versions.)

-Any clothes that do not fit are donated to a local charity.  If we have something we cannot use, we post it on Craigslist, either for a modest sum, or for free.  Like Shawn’s unusable dirtbike tires and rims.  I rest much easier knowing a guy is refurbishing them to use on his bike, than imagining them rotting (or not so much) in a landfill somewhere.

-We chose our apartment based on its proximity to both of our jobs, and its access to public transit.  We can hop on a bus right in front of our apartment.

-I pack my lunches in a handy neoprene lunchbag.  I use Pyrex glass storage containers to put my tuna salad and leftover pasta in.  I’ve completely stopped buying Ziploc bags, and we just keep a few waxed paper storage bags around for handy snacking (but we should probably stop using those, too!)

These are a few of the things we do to help save our planet.  It turns out, most of these things save us money, too!  The best part is that we’ve set up our lives to make it easiest on ourselves to do the right thing, by putting recycling in easier reach than the garbage, keeping reusable bags in my trunk, and keeping a stack of fresh linens in the kitchen.  In that vein, I vow to do more.  Here are my pledges for the coming year:

I will do my best to buy local pre-owned furniture and refurbish it myself with low-VOC paints.

I will use low-VOC paints and other non-polluting chemicals whenever possible.

I will research non-polluting, natural or organic health and body care brands so we know that our shampoo and lotion isn’t killing poor innocent fish somewhere down the line.

I will do even more to recycle our waste here at home.

I will try very hard to start a worm composting system (something I’ve wanted to do on the back patio for a LONG time!)

I will finally start growing some of my own herbs and veggies on the patio…but hopefully our neighbors don’t help themselves to our harvest!

I will try to unplug anything we are not using to keep our appliances and electronics from sucking too much unneeded electricity.

And you know you can count on me to share all of these adventures and more, right?  What are you doing to help combat climate change?

This book was printed in 1978, and it is a real gem.  I thought I would just be picking it up to look it over, but I flip through this book all the time!  I love floorplans, and every time I see one, I study it for a long time, and try to imagine myself in the space.  I also imagine my furniture occupying the space.  This one has 200 floorplans in one book, which is pretty great for someone like me.  I’ve looked at all the floorplans in this book at length, and the one architect I kept finding intriguing was someone that went by “Avriel.”

I did some googling, and came up with Avriel Shull.  She was a female architect from Indiana who was very popular at the time for her mid-century modern designs.  This lady was a real revolutionary!  She had no college degree, and she started out designing stationary.  She soon turned to larger projects and designed her first house at the age of 23.  After designing an entire neighborhood of homes, she built them on her family’s land in Carmel, IN, even doing some of the work herself.  She brought mid-century modern to formerly traditional Indiana.  Unfortunately, that’s almost all I can find of Avriel’s biography.  I can find very few photos of her completed homes.  She was an amazing architect, though, as these plans show.

This one seems like any typical 70’s rancher, except when you notice the tremendous attention to detail Avriel showed here.  It’s obvious she spent some time thinking about how the family would use the home.  Generous closet space, and a giant (by most standards) laundry/mud room really set this apart from the typical ranch.

Here’s another of Avriel’s plans, with great access to the outdoors on both levels.  I don’t personally care for the angled floorplan, but she really makes it work by tucking closets and bathrooms into those otherwise awkward nooks.  Here she has another huge laundry room.  It’s very clear she was in tune to the needs of the modern family.

This design shows a great use of space.  We see that huge laundry room again, which you’ll notice is a trademark of hers.  Lots of closet space and a great layout make this one a really attractive floorplan.  This one and the two before it are almost typical plans, but then she tweaks it to throw in that little something extra to make you truly fall in love.

Ah, now we’re coming to one of my favorites.  This one is truly what I am looking for in a future home.  Look at that great connection to the outdoors.  A huge patio with a pool that occupies the whole side of the house with access at the rear as well for the garage and laundry/mud room.  A large sun deck on the upper level and a balcony make this ideal for enjoying a great climate.  One thing that my man would really love is that this home already has a “man cave” with a bar built in for the basement.  I see very little I would change about this floorplan, I love the central family room, gigantic laundry/mudroom.  I also love the studio space upstairs…I would definitely claim that for my own if this were our home.  The master suite is great with lots of storage space, and I think I would love a larger master bath, but other than that, I see no flaws with this home.

Here’s another amazing plan.  If I had to choose between these last two, I’m not sure I could do it!  This one has a first floor that is absolutely killer.  A library with wet bar, a HUUUGE master suite with large bathroom and (possibly) a ridiculous amount of closet space, but I’m sure I would love trying to fill it up!  A nice big eat-in kitchen with pantry, a dining area, large living room, and here is my favorite part of this plan….the SUNKEN PIT!!  Do you remember these?  I wasn’t around when they were popular, but I’ve been to friends houses that had them.  This is a living area that is a couple of steps down, but the room had one big wraparound sectional sofa that was built in.  This one even has a fireplace to make it extra cozy.  I can imagine that kind of room being used today as a TV room, just mount the plasma on the wall and the whole family can cuddle up for a movie.  Or you could add pop-up trundles under the sofas, send out the invites, and have a huge sleepover for your kids, where the whole room is a giant mattress.  I remember having big cousin sleepovers at family reunions, and it was amazing.  We would have loved a room like this to “sleep” in (or pretend to sleep until the parents got annoyed with the ruckus and told us to hush up and go to sleep.)

The second floor of this plan is not too shabby either, with the three bedrooms with lots of storage space, jack-and-jill bath, wraparound balcony, and a lounge that overlooks the dining room.  Yes, I have to admit that the drawings portray dated-looking homes, but that’s just the facade!  You could definitely work with a floorplan this great and change the outside to look less 70’s contemporary.  I almost like the last one the way it is, however.  It reminds me of The Brady Bunch, in the best possible way.

Have you fallen for Avriel as much as me?  Which one of these homes would you choose if you could?

That is, until I discovered a couple of months ago that there is a blog reader you can use!  For some reason, I’ve taken quite some time to get around to setting up my blog reader, but I’m taking tonight to do so.  I’m going to use the Google reader.  I’ve heard it’s very good.  Setting it up is easy enough, and it’s easy to read.  My only complaint is that it’s super boring to look at.  One of the main reasons I like going to my blogs is that they have wonderfully artistic backgrounds, and lots of engaging photos to keep it interesting.  So I can see me clicking through from the reader a lot, I’ll probably mostly use the reader to keep track of my favorites so I don’t have to remember so many websites.

While I’m adding sites to my reader, do you have any recommendations?  I’d love to discover some fun new blogs!  Please share.

p.s.- Please excuse the boring blog post for tonight…getting all those hundreds of blogs together was a full night’s work!  I’m still remembering more….

(I found these first few via Google images, and I am sorry that I didn’t collect the site info, because I feel bad that I cannot credit these first few images.)

I love this lovely lady’s make-up.  I’m thinking about doing something very similar to this when I dress up for the dinner.  Dark eyes, dark lips…very cute.  I wish I could find a hat as cool as this!  I love all the crystals.  I need to think of a way to make my hair look short like hers as well.  I think I’m going to curl it and pin it under so it looks like I have a short bob haircut.

I love this girl’s headband, and I want to make a similar one for my costume.  I am also on the lookout for a cigarette holder like this one.

Company of Theives

I love how the girl from this band has a 20’s vibe about her dressing in a relaxed, deconstructed sort of way.

Here’s another great image of 20’s hair and makeup.  Dark, short hair, dark, straight brows, and load on the eyeliner, shadow, and lipstick.

I believe I found this photo from a site that features weddings, and that this couple had a 20’s themed wedding.  I’m hoping to have my hair look very similar to hers.  And that headband is amazing, right?  This guy looks very dapper in his top hat.

I found this black dress on neheleniapatterns etsy site.  I love the simplicity of the dress.  It is sewn from a 1920’s pattern.  This would be a very nice dress for my costume (and it’s in my price range) but I’m trying to find a color other than black.

Then I found glamarita’s shop on etsy.  She has jersey flapper dresses in different colors.  They are definitely out of my price range, but I’m going to use her designs as my inspiration for my dress.  I’m going to make my own…I’m just looking for something that I can cut up in the right colors.  This is going to be so much fun!

Here’s another close-up of one of glamarita’s dresses.  Isn’t it perfect!?  I can’t wait to get started making mine.  The cool thing is that I can customize it for me, since I’m making my own.  Hopefully I can stop by the fabric store tomorrow to see what kind of fabric they have for the top.  I think that will be my starting point, and then I have to find some jersey, and a lot of it!

I can’t wait to put my dress on and twirl around!  It’ll be so much fun.  I’m also going to be a flapper for Halloween, so I can re-use my costume at least once, and I’m pretty sure that it’ll be so cool that I will want to wear it in years to come.

So what about you, what are you going to be for Halloween?  Are you doing anything fun & exciting this year?  Last year I got really sick and had to stay home from work, so I just rested on the sofa while Shawn passed out candy to Trick-or-treaters.  We’re going to make up for last year, that’s for sure!

p.s.-I’m thinking of dressing Piper as a banana or a chicken.  I think she’ll take off the costume immediately and chew it up, but it will be funny to get a few hilarious photos!