La Ti Dah

Flew home yesterday afternoon! My uncle drove me to the airport, and I dropped off my deposit check for my apartment on the way there. Things are progressing in a forward direction, y'all!! I'm so flipping excited for this apartment. It's going to the be cutest thing in the whole entire world. I found it Monday afternoon, after going apartment shopping Thursday also. This is a tough process. Much more tough than I anticipated. The cold hard reality of working sets in.....taxes and bills, and I realized my budget and range that I had to stay inside in regards to rent + utilities. And I'm wanting to live alone, so that increases my costs, as well as the fact I'm a single female and I want to be super duper safe. Needless to say, being safe, in a hip area AND on a budget are very hard to accomplish all in the same apartment. But I found my prized little space in a WONDERFUL area in Atlanta. I'll be right in Virginia Highlands (for those that are familiar) in an ADORABLE little studio apartment which is in an old 1920's mansion that has been converted into apartments. I love the area, I feel safe, and the building is old but immaculately kept. I'm not too far from my new office either...maybe 10-15 minutes depending on how backed up the street lights become in the mornings. The currant tenant doesn't official move until 12/31, but he may move out sooner, so hopefully I'll be in before Christmas. I'm sooooo excited to decorate! Since it's an old apartment, I'm going to keep with that and to a vintage-y ambiance. I'm painting my wooden coffee table white then sanding through in some spots to expose the wood's color. I'm gathering ideas from various Tumblrs, so if you see anything, send it my way! OR if you have any tips for decorating in a small space. It's a spacious studio, but a studio nonetheless.

Back to being home....so far so good. My mama picked me up from the airport and we went shopping and got lunch. She kept offering to buy me all this stuff - like makeup and other things. I'm pretty sure it's because she knows I'm going to be fairly poor in the next few months. But ahh...c'est la vie of a new career!
I did buy some RED lipstick. NARS Flamenco

I've never bought full-on RED lipstick, so I'm pretty excited about this purchase. So Sassy.
I just got some other makeup odds and ends. We also stopped in this place called "TEAVANA" which is like....a tea shop. They sell alllllllllll kinds of loose tea and tea cups and fancy tea makers and they can blend you pretty much anything you want. I got a small tin of a blended chai and white tea. My mother wants to go shopping FRIDAY which I cannot even believe. I think I'm going to get a grey plaid skirt from Banana and maybe a ruffled cardigan from JCrew. We'll see how far this parental generosity will stretch!

Oh, I bought that black wool bomber jacket from Express, and my parents bought me Project Runway Season 4 (the one with Christian Siriano) on DVD for my birthday. I recieved everything on my list except for the Blackberry. By God....soon enough I will have that damn Blackberry. Sadly though I think the dream of the Marc Jacobs Stam bag is going to have to be hung up for a little while. A cute apartment in a good neighborhood is definitely a suitable alternative, though n'est pas?

This morning I woke up and had some of my new tea, ate a bit of breakfast and went for a walk/run around the neighborhood. Neithor of my parents were home, so I had no way of getting a ride to the gym! Back in Atlanta, I had been working out on my aunt & uncle's treadmill, doing .10 mile running and .10 walking for a total of 30 minutes. I enjoy it mostly, so I tried to do the same thing around the neighborhood. Eh....working decently well, but it's cold and the cold air burned my lungs a little bit. Oh well....I got my body moving and worked up a sweat. I will probably do some yoga tonight.

I had dinner with my dad this afternoon...he came home early from work. So far being home is so wonderful! My parents are bragging on me to anyone who will listen. They're so proud that their daughter is finally employed!

I hope you all have an absolutely fabulous Thanksgiving...regardless of whether you eat turkey or not!!!



.