Agreeable gray

Have you ever stared at paint swatches all day? Let me tell you... it's not all that fun. I think I stared at paint swatches for an entire week before deciding on a color for my main living area. Picking a color was a challenge since my living room, kitchen, and dining room are all connected, so I wanted to pick the same color for the entire area. I had to choose a color that would look good with the hardwood floors & doors, the lighter wood cabinets in the kitchen, the black granite & my black leather furniture (hand me downs from my mom which I'm not a huge fan of... but they're comfy). The point is, there was a lot of things this paint had to match! So I knew I wanted something neutral, and after some online inspiration I decided that I wanted to go for gray. There are soooo many grays to choose from- cool grays, warm grays, grays with blue undertones, green undertones, red undertones... I didn't know what the heck I was doing. But eventually I settled on "Agreeable Gray", by Sherwin Williams. I mean... it's agreeable, right? Theres no way I could go wrong with that. 

Agreeable Gray is on the far left, second row. I couldn't decide between basically all of the colors on that row. I got input from two of my friends, who both chose Agreeable Gray, so I went with it.

Here is the living room before I moved in, with the previous homeowner's furniture still in it. As you can see, the walls were that cool blue color. I wasn't having it. 

And here is the living room with my furniture... in Agreeable Gray! Originally I thought I wanted to go with a gray & yellow throw pillow scheme, but I eventually nixed that idea since I realized I had absolutely no yellow decor and too much money would have to be spent to get it looking pretty. As I mentioned earlier, the black leather furniture is definitely not my choice. The furniture is "hand me downs" from my mom & stepdad. Although the black leather isn't what I would have chosen, it's a nice set of furniture and it's really comfy. I also have a lot of other things to buy before I can think about getting a new set for my living room, so for now, I'm making it work. The throw pillows in this picture as well as the white throw were all purchased at HomeGoods. 

 This is what I decided on instead! This is much cozier and much more my style. Also, the fact that there are so many different colors makes it a lot easier to decorate instead of having to focus on just buying yellow & gray. I love the elephant pillow. I'm basing my whole living room decor off of this pillow, it has so many colors in it and I love the whimsical, exotic feel that it has. All of these pillows and the throw are from Pier 1 imports, and were significantly more expensive than the ones from HomeGoods... but I decided that since I spend a lot of time in this room, it was worth spending some money on some nice pillows. Also, if and when I decided to get a new living room set, I will probably go with a white or tan couch, and since these pillows are so colorful they will still work on a light sofa :)

Isn't Agreeable Gray so... agreeable?

 Had to buy a matching pillow for the armchair, too! The one in front is the matching one I bought from Pier 1, and the teal beaded pillow at the back I had from before. I think I stole it from my mom at one point... thanks mom! 

My new favorite pillow!

Master progress

Here are a few before and afters of the master bedroom & bathroom. I got rid of the cold blue color the previous homeowner had and opted for "Kilim Beige" by Sherwin Williams, a very safe neutral color- and one of their top selling paint colors. Let me tell you... picking a paint color was NOT an easy task for me. I'm very indecisive. 

I even had trouble deciding which shade I should choose. But eventually, Kilim Beige won me over. It was a safe option. I'm boring, I know. This was the color I decided on for the master bedroom & bathroom. Originally, I thought I wanted to do the master bathroom in the lighter shade, but it was just easier (and probably cheaper) to pick one color, and I'm very happy with the way the color came out in both rooms.

The lighting in this picture isn't very good to see the "before" color, but you can definitely see it in the following picture of the bathroom. 

Part of our contract was that the buyer left all of the window treatments- which was good in some cases (like above, in the bedroom, where he left the bamboo blinds) and HORRIBLE in other cases. I seriously could not stand these blinds!! They drove me crazy. They were so old-fashioned and dingey looking. I couldn't wait to get rid of them...

Post paint job, with an added headboard, nightstands, lamps, and a nice bench for the end of the bed! The headboard and I bought from wayfair, which is a great site for furniture by the way! I saw so many beds and headboards similar to this one at expensive furniture stores, and I got this one for a third of the price (or less!) than what those places were selling them for. Also, another frugal tip- I have a cheap bed frame that I got from Mattress Firm (it was like $80), and with the fancy headboard & bench, it looks like a nice bed! The nightstands are from Kirkland's (the outlet), the lamps are from Marshalls/HomeGoods, and the bedding I got on sale from Pottery Barn around Christmastime last year. Oh, and the curtains are from Target! All very budget friendly.

This picture shows different lighting (which always makes the paint look different), and it shows the mirror that I added above the headboard. The mirror is from Target and cost around $40. I love the way my bedroom is turning out! So serene & neutral. 

Also, from the Kirkland's outlet, is this vanity/console table that matches my nighstands. My mom bought me the nightstands and the vanity as a housewarming gift... Thanks mom :) I got the "count your blessings" sign when I was in college, and I *think* it was from Hobby Lobby, which is a great place for discounted decor & picture frames!

And now on to the bathroom!

That is so much better... some may think it doesn't have as much "character" as the original decor choices... ahem... ugly brown blinds.... but I am in love with my neutral bathroom. The blinds were a bit of a splurge from Bed Bath & Beyond (they weren't necessarily cheap, but they weren't crazy expensive either). Also, since I have a nice glass shower (which is just to the right of the vanity) there is no need for a shower curtain! Yay for saving money.

What do you prefer... "character"... or nice and neutral? I think the choice is obvious ;) So that's my progress so far on the master bed & bath. Obviously there is still some work to be done on the decor side, but some major improvements have been made!

Walk-in closet

One of the features that I love in my home is the walk-in closet in the master bedroom. Since the closet wasn't pictured in the previous post, I'll share it with you here. 

For the first time in my life I can hang all of my clothes! This was taken before it was painted... The whole house was painted the same color (minus the purple guest bathroom), this flat, blue/green color. It was extremely cold and I didn't like the idea of having the same color in my kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. It was weird. So I had it painted a neutral beige color. And here it is after that paint job. 

That's better! And Eeyore got a crown :)

This is what's goin' on in the back of my closet. A little purse display + heels and special shoes. As you can see I actually have hanging space that I'm not even using!

This is a shoe wheel my aunt got me. I never thought I would have space for it.. but check it out.. PLENTY of space! Love my closet! And I'm a little bit of an organizing freak, I love the container store and I'm always looking for good ideas for storage. It's just such a nice feeling to have enough space for all of your stuff... no clutter!

Before

These are the "before" pictures of my place. These are the pictures that were posted in the MLS when the house was for sale, so the previous owner's furniture is still in these pictures. Obviously when I moved in, the rooms were empty... well, I say "empty" lightly. The place was pretty trashed when I moved in, but I'll get to that later. 

Welcome to my humble abode! Unit 9. To the left you get a peek of a staircase, there is one unit above me, so the door on the outside is shared by both of us. 

The front door is on the left. The previous homeowner didn't do much with this space, I'm using it as a dining area. 

This is what's on the other side of the front door. The living area. The living/dining/kitchen areas are all open to each other/connected. 

The kitchen! Which is wonderfully updated. The only downside is the fridge, which is the only appliance that is not stainless steel. But I can live with it. I'll replace it in the future.

The spacious master bedroom. I fell in love with the hardwood floors in every room. 

The master bathroom. Those window treatments were AWFUL, but there is a big jacuzzi tub, a double vanity, and a separate shower! 

The guest bathroom, which also features a double vanity and has a shower not pictured here. There were also no original pictures of the guest room/office space, but I will post pictures of them with my stuff.

This is what I see when I open my front door. A precious courtyard.

This is outside the front gate of the complex. The big, beautiful tree... that's a park in my front yard :)

Another shot of the park.

My first home

I'm a very lucky girl. As a college graduation gift, my dad agreed to give me a down payment for my first home, and I agreed to handle the monthly mortgage payments. As a student who studied finance in college, I knew what I was getting myself into in that respect, but no matter how much you study real estate finance nothing can prepare you for the roller coaster ride that is being a homeowner for the first time in your life. I'm twenty-two years old, and I live by myself, so it was kind of a lot to take on.

My dad and I, embarking on another journey together.

Buying a home is not an easy task. I started my hunt for the perfect place back in November, and I thought I had found the perfect one bedroom, one bathroom townhouse in midtown (just outside of downtown) Houston. It was modern, had new fixtures everywhere, it was on the second floor of a 4-story building, and it was in an extremely desirable location. I got my pre-approval from the bank, the owners accepted our offer, and all seemed like it was going in the right direction! Unfortunately, complications with the mortgage and the building the condo was located in ended up killing the deal in March. It was crushing... I had invested months of my time and energy in trying to buy this place and it ended up not working out. However, I believe in God's plan, and that everything happens for a reason, and I knew I would end up finding another place that would work better for me.

A few weeks after the first deal fell through, I called up my realtor and we continued the search for the perfect townhouse/condo. We saw a lot of lemons, I'm not gonna lie. We looked at a lot of very old-fashioned places that had not been updated since their original build in the 50's, 60's, or 70's! We saw some very ugly places to be honest. It was very difficult to find what I wanted, in the right location, with the budget my dad had set for me. Finally we came across a gem. Located in a small complex with only 14 units, we found the most charming little place with a courtyard outside, directly across from a nice park, in the right location, AND it was two bedroom and two bathroom! A much better deal than the first place I had put an offer on. This place was beautiful from the moment I walked in. The building is a "historic landmark" originally built in 1927, however the townhomes were updated in 1999. It had so much more character than the original place I was interested in. Every room had gorgeous hardwood floors, minus the bathrooms which were tiled. Both bathrooms included a double vanity and a shower, and the master bath had a jacuzzi tub! There was a large walk in closet in the master, and the kitchen was beautifully updated with black granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. This was the one! I put an offer on it the day we found it, it was quickly accepted, and so the waiting game began. What seemed like endless communications with the bank, title company, and my realtor finally ended successfully! I had a place to call my home! I was over the moon excited, and I couldn't wait to get out of my tiny studio rental with awful parking. My new home boasted two covered parking spots... all mine :)

Home sweet home.

Life as an intern

So I know I haven't updated in a while, as lately I haven't been on any exciting international trips or thrown any parties. I have however started my internship at an accounting firm. It's an audit internship, so I've been assigned two different clients for which I will be doing financial statement audits. My first client is located in San Antonio, so this past week I stayed in a hotel in San Antonio in order to work on that client. It was definitely an interesting experience.

However, having to drive to SA did have its perks. For one, I got to meet up with my boyfriend who I hadn't seen in 3 weeks! He's still in school in San Marcos, and I am now working in Houston so it's hard to coordinate our schedules and see each other, even on weekends as he works in a museum so usually works on the weekends, whereas I work long hours during the week.

I arrived Sunday night so he came and met me in San Antonio. We walked around La Cantera, a very nice shopping mall which was close to the hotel I stayed in. I bought some tops from Ann Taylor & Banana Republic, then we were both hungry so we went to dinner. I have an app on my phone called HappyCow, which shows you all of the vegan & vegetarian-friendly restaurants in your nearby area so I used the app to find a great pizza place that made vegan-friendly pizza with Daiya cheese. The place is called Fralo's Art of Pizza, and although we were in San Antonio it actually says it's in Leon Springs, TX. It's a nice place right off the feeder with indoor & outdoor seating. We chose outdoor as it was a lovely evening and there was live music outside.

We started off by ordering a bottle of Starborough, a New Zealand sauvignon blanc.
I decided on the vegan pizza with daiya mozarella, topped with zuchinni, spinach, mushrooms, and fresh garlic.
Sean opted for a very non-vegan pizza which consisted of double cheese (I believe parmesan & provologne?) with Italian sausage and green peppers.

We were both very happy with our orders.

And also very happy to see each other.
All in all it was a great night out.

The next morning I started work at my first client.
The work consisted of going through endless excel spreadsheets & data... I worked on auditing the cash & capital assets of the company. That's all I'm going to say about that.

Living in a hotel for a week was a slight adjustment as well since I'm very used to preparing all my own meals. I went to Whole Foods on the first night and bought myself a good selection of fruit, veg, bread, snacks and spreads to keep in the fridge. I ate cold oatmeal with a banana most mornings, ate lunch out everyday with my team, and for dinner ate the veggies I had bought from WF.

One of my latest obsessions/new toys is this loose leaf tea maker I purchased online from thenecessiteas.com. I also bought some of her homemade loose leaf teas (a black tea called Mint Chocolate Chip & a green tea called Cinnamon Bear). I must admit I went to Teavana later in the week and bought four, yes FOUR more flavors of loose leaf tea because that is how much I am loving it. I've used my loose leaf tea maker every day several times a day since it arrived. It's a wonderful thing.

In the picture is a rooibos tea called Zingiber Ginger Coconut from Teavana. I also purchased a two herbal teas: Caramel Almond Amaretti and Honeybush Vanilla. And a white tea called Youthberry. All delicious.
There's two ways of making the tea in it. I'm not going to bother trying to explain all of it, if you really want to know the details you can watch the video here. The tea infuser has 3 parts: the lid, the infuser/strainer in the middle, and the glass container on bottom which is actually a layer of glass with a layer of plastic over it, so you don't even feel the heat of the tea when you're carrying it. Excellent design.

It also features a cool very zen-like design on the top of the lid. I'm very happy with this purchase. It was about $25 I believe and like I said, I've used it several times a day every day since I got it in the mail. It's already paid for itself.

I left San Antonio last night and am back in Houston for three nights, I go back to SA again on Sunday to work on the same client again next week.
Like I said though, driving has its perks as our mileage reimbursement is more than generous.

I took this picture of the sunrise on my last morning in San Antonio over loop 1604. It was of course much more amazing in person, but I wanted to capture it.

So I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'll leave you with one final thing which my boyfriend picked up for me in San Marcos and gave me when we met up.... very exciting... drum roll please...

My diploma from Texas State University!
Double major in Accounting & Finance!
Yipee. Nice to have the actual piece of paper.

That's all for today folks.

Champagne Reception

Yesterday afternoon we held a champagne reception at my mum's house in Houston to celebrate my graduation and the start of my career in audit. It was a nice party, the guests consisted mainly of my mum's friends and there were a few families that came that I have known for years so it was nice to see everyone and catch up. 

I wish I had taken pictures of the food spread, but I wasn't the photographer (as you can tell, since I'm in every picture...) We had a completely vegan reception as it wasn't a meal, just hors d'oeuvres and little finger foods to nibble on. We quite a lot of Mediterranean food from a restaurant & market that I love called Phoenicia Deli. From there we bought several different types of dolma (stuffed grape leaves), hummus, babaganouj, roasted red pepper dip, sweet almond thins, olives, and pita bread. We also had a raw organic vegetable tray with cauliflower, cucumber, celery, carrots and bell peppers. We made a tomato, basil & balsamic bruschetta that was served hot, as well as an artichoke, red roasted red pepper, caper & lemon bruschetta that was served cold- both on rustic French bread from Foody's Gourmet market. Then we made 2 different pizzas- one was caramelized onion, fig, and arugula with a balsamic & brown sugar glaze, and the other was a radicchio and truffle oil pizza. We bought a vegan cookies 'n' cream cake from Whole Foods which was amazing, and also had a bowl of berries, some date & almond rolls, dark chocolate squares, and dinner mints in the sweet section.

YUM! Everyone loved it. And like I said it was completely vegan. 

Oh.. and I can't forget.. there was champagne flowing all day of course. 

Here I am with Tina, one of my mum's good friends who she lived in Nigeria with. Tina is very kind and generous, and actually at one point she pulled me aside and told me how proud she was of me, etc etc and she actually started crying. Wow. Guess I did something right.

My stepdad, Mike, and me.

Phil and me. Phil has known me since I was in diapers. I love him and his wife, they are so kind, thoughtful and generous. Truly a wonderful family to have in my life. 

Here my mum is presenting me with the vegan cookies 'n' cream cake as everyone was singing "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow"... how embarrassing. But sweet. 

Andy and me. Apparently his wife was there when I was born... which means he might have been as well but honestly I don't remember.

Woody, myself, and his wife Shelley. Friends of my mum's from the tennis club.

Maddie, Angela, and me. Angela is Phil's daughter, and I've known her for what seems like forever. She used to babysit me, and I remember the first time I ever saw the movie Clueless was at her house. Maddie is one of Angela's two beautiful daughters. 

Okay this is horrible but I forgot the girl on the left's name. I just remember she came from Australia and is staying with the girl to her right, Emily, for six weeks. Emily's mum is next to her, and then in the pink is my grandma Betty who I like to call Queen B.

This is Diego, who I have also known since we were very young. We grew up together all around the world with our dads both working in the oil service industry. Now he's a chemist who tests things in a lab. I'm also good friends with his sister, Laura, who is also a vegan and sadly couldn't be there to enjoy the feast as she was working at the hospital. I did send her brother home with a little plate for her, complete with a slice of that amazing cake.

Maddie, Phil, Angela, Dawn & Kathey. The grandparents, the mother, and the two grandchildren. This family has been in my life for a long time as well, and we also lived in Malaysia with them many years ago. Phil & Kathey are truly two of the kindest people I know.

My friend Chris came for some free bubbly. I've known him since I was about sixteen. He looks like Santa Claus now.

And here I am with a group from the party. Really I just wanted to showcase my shoes with this picture.

All in all, it was a success! And everyone seemed to enjoy the vegan spread and of course the champers. CHEERS!