Another year wiser

This past year has been a whirlwind. I took a minute today to sit down and think of everything that has changed for me in my 33rd year of life:

Charbeck.net

~I became a Registered Nurse

~I lost my beloved dog Jasco whom I had for 13 wonderful years

~I moved out of a 1700sq ft. house that I lived in for 9 years in Huntington Beach

~I moved into a 1000 sq ft. house in Sacramento down the street from my two beautiful nieces

~I job hunted like nobodies business!

~I faced a lot of rejection in my job hunting

~I got the job of my dreams (it just didn't look like what I thought I wanted)

~I moved into a 500 sq ft. apartment in Huntington Beach

~I made great new friends

~I caught up with great old friends

~I went to Napa for winetasting several times

~I rocked my niece to sleep at night

~I started this blog
~I sold most of the furniture that I had collected over the past 10 years.
~I realized that selling my furniture was a good thing because my style has changed and now I have a clean slate.
~I developed a new passion for cupcake decorating
~I am sure I am missing some major milestones with this list, but it's what came to me when I sat down at the computer. 

So, now I am off to work at the hospital and ring in my 34th year but I thought I'd leave you with a bit of my birthday wish list!

McCoy Designs

Hermes

Doggy Heaven

Jonathon Adler

 

Lamps Plus

Decisions

Seeing as Thanksgiving is a week away, Christmas will be here before we know it. I have been bombarded with Christmas decorations in every store I've been in this week. Didn't it used to be the stores would wait until after Thanksgiving to start selling holiday decor?  So here it is November 16th and I am trying to decide what kind of tree to get this year.

I have always had a real tree. I love everything about them. Picking them out at the tree lot, setting them up, decorating while drinking egg nog, etc. But this year I am torn... I live in a teeny tiny apartment, so I have to get a teeny tiny tree. Real teeny tiny trees aren't that fun, and I am kind of in love with the idea of a retro white tree. I feel like if I don't get a real tree I am somehow "cheating" on Christmas. But these pictures have been with me all year and I really want to have one of these trees to look at for the next month!

Maison21

I had a fun yet busy day yesterday. I had a nice long stretch of time off and I enjoyed it by doing design stuff! 
A new home store opened in the SOCO design center so my friend and I went to check it out. Here are some pics

Me with a giant Holiday wreath. Inspiration for my front door, only I'm going to do the super miniature version.

Next up we had a yummy lunch and then hit up Crate and Barrel and Z Gallerie. When I got home I was feeling all inspired so I jumped on Etsy.com and ordered this pillow from one of my favorite sellers Nena Von

Then I went out to dinner and a movie with friends and came home to organize my still completely unpacked apartment. Instead I surfed the web and found these lovely pics

Walker Zanger tile

Wallpaper from Ballard Designs

Fun gifts from Shopten25.com

Rookie Mistake

You know the old saying "measure twice, cut once" Well, I measured once, got excited, pulled out the drill and installed my new knob on my new nightstand.


And guess what? It's off by 3/4". Can you tell? I can, and it bugs me. I'm pretty easy going, but when it comes to design, I have serious OCD. Now every time I walk by, I look at that wonky knob and get frustrated.

I have thought about what options I have. I can try to fill the hole, paint and re-drill, however, the drawer is press board, so I am not sure that will work. Secondly, I could call the lovely 800 that came with the packaging and see if they can send me a new drawer front. Or I can just live with it, which is probably what will happen considering it only cost me $35.00

Next up, pillows. I've ordered the fabric and having it sent to my mom's house... hee hee! Guess what we will be doing for the Thanksgiving holiday? And then onto lampshades. The cone shades on my lamps just won't due. They are begging for these.