Spice Up Your New Apartment

                Finally out of the dorms and you need to bring your own furniture? Don't fret! Garage sale, yard sale, even thrift store finds can be a huge score! Find that broken down dresser or the table with a little pit of a wobble, or finally that just plain ugly chair. If plain wood isn't your style your in luck! The best thing to do to spruce up your apartment is to find paint and go crazy! I know, I know, you probably can't paint the walls but that doesn't mean you can't bring color to your apartment with your furniture! It is easy to add a few screws to a broken piece on a dresser or tighten some screws in a table, but once your done comes the fun part!
                What color should I paint my furniture? Think of the comforter you have in your room. What colors are in it? Mine is floral, which has yellows, reds, baby blues, and whites. I am immediately drawn to the white so I went to the paint store and got some paint.

                 The best way to begin painting your furniture is to sand it down first. Get all of the rough spots sanded out, then you can use primer on it. Primer is necessary for your furniture to have a nice clean color. Then you can add your color. Give it about an hour between coats or until it is pretty dry. Do as many coats of paint as your would like!
                If you have a cushion on your chair there is no reason to stick the the old and scary fabric. Go to the fabric store and pick out something fun! Again I am a huge floral or chevron fan so I would probably gravitate to one of them but do what makes YOU happy. You will be the one seeing this furniture and living with it everyday. The fabric is the icing on top of the cake of your new furniture.
                Sometimes what you find at garage sales can truly be a treasure. I know I am a big HGTV fan as well as a Lara Spencer fan and she is definitely someone who has inspired my thrift store finds! I hope you can take my painting advice & brighten your apartment up with some pops of color!

What to Pack When Going on a Crappy Hotel Vacation

Well... If your anything like me being in one of those hotel rooms makes my skin itch. While I was sitting on the sandy, dusty couch I was thinking why the heck didn't I bring a few things on my trip which could have easily put me at ease.
1. Hand Lotion: In the bathrooms they have a soap bar for the shower, shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel... But what about when you want to wash your hands after going the bathroom? I grabbed the gross hand soap and scrubbed but nothing is like just regular hand soap.
2. My Own Pillow: Thankfully this one I remembered but I even felt gross sleeping on it knowing it was touching the bed sheets. Very uncomfortable feeling!
3. A Sleeping Bag: I wished so badly that I had one to sleep on the bed with. I hated the feeling of the sheets and of almost touching the wall. Like who were the people in this room before us? It is kind of scary!
4. Slippers: I am not the biggest fan of slippers nor do I wear them on a daily basis but walking around that hotel room I WISHED I had them waiting for me!
5. Aloe: When going to a beach for vacation make sure you pack some of this or your very sunburned bum will be very mad!

Needless to say, when packing for vacation think about staying in a bad hotel room... is it really that bad to over pack? Or is it better to be prepared!