I'm so excited to finally sit down and share some apartment updates with you all. If you guys missed out, Christian and I moved! We moved out of Charlotte about two weeks ago and have been slowly making Winston-Salem our home. Things have been a little hectic with moving, work, exploring a new city and some unexpected car troubles. It's been a complete 180 from our super sedintary and redundant lifestyle we've been living this past year but in the best way possible.
Between trying to balance working full time and unpacking our apartment is slowly coming together one box at a time. One thing I couldn't wait for when moving into our space was getting started on decorating! Since I had lived with Christian and his brother for the past year I didn't really get much of a say in how the space looked so it's been fun getting to pick out some new pieces and make this space reflect both Christian and mine's personalities.
With that being said, I'm so excited to be partnering with Desenio in today's blog post! Desenio is an online retailer offering a large selection of poasters, prints and picture frames.
I had mentioned many times before, but Christian and I have drastically different decor styles. Christian loves more minaml designs and leans towards more black and white while I love bold statement pieces and color. Despite us having drastically different styles we were able to find prints we both loved on Desenio. We had so much fun scrolling through all of the different categories but their fashion and kitchen prints are some of my favorites.
Food and drinks are our love languages and we wanted to pick out some prints for our kitchen and bar cart. Mojitos are my drink of choice and I love this simple recipe print. I think it would look great framed on our bar cart and we'll always have the recipe on hand to recreate this refreshing summer drink! Going with the recipe theme, Christian picked outt his cute black and white ramen noodle print that would be a great additio to our kithchen space.
One of the very first corners of the apartment we set up was our little coffee corner. With lifting and moving boxes all day we needed to make sure we had our little caffine station ready to go. This little coffee poster was actually the first piece we picked out from the site and think that it goes with the space so well. I can't wait to finalize this space with some cute trays and coffee stirs!
Our apartment is pretty neutral and pretty much the only space where I am able to make "girly" is my side of the office so you bet I am incorporating alll the pinks and florals that I can. This french fry poaster immediately caught my eye and I KNEW I had to have it. I've actually be planning my office decor around this print because I love it so much. I mean, is that not the most Amy print you've ever seen? To go with the infamous french fry poaster I found this exploading champagne poster which reminds me of cotton candy.
I'm thinking of making this little corner my content creation corner so you all may be seeing more of these prints in the future!
The last space in our apartment we've yet to really set up is our living room. Due to some shipping delays our couch still won't be in for another month even though we ordered it back in February! It's been a bit of bummer but it's also been nice ot have some extra room to work with when unpacking.
Until our couch comes in, here's a little mock up of our living room design! We pretty much have everything except for the star of our show, lol. When shopping for art prints for our above our couch I wanted something to tie in all of the colors of our living room and something abstract. These abstract wave posters were exactly what I was looking for! I love how they tie our living room together and gives our space a bit of a modern look.
Where are your favorie places to shop for artwork for your home? Let me know in the comments down below! Be sure to follow me on Instagram for more apartment updates and on YouTube where I've been vlogging our entire move! I hope you all have a wonderful day and as always, thank you for reading!
I'm so excited to finally share where Christian got into medical school at! I also thought it would be fun to share his journey and how he got here. I'm so incredibly proud of him and all of the hard work he has done to get here. Going into the cycle, Christian thought he'd be lucky to get into one medical school and would go there even if it meant moving several states away. He never thought that he would have five to choose from, including his top two choices!
After a very long application cycle consisting of long nights studying for the MCAT, applying for schools, virtual interviews, and playing the painful game of waiting, we are SO happy to announce that Christian has committed to going to Wake Forest School of Medicine this fall!
I always knew the journey to medical school wasn't easy, but after seeing Christian go through the process firsthand, I have a whole new appreciation for those who dedicate their life to medicine. The application process is not only mentally straining, but financially as well. I remember most of our conversations for the second half of 2020 primarily consisted of interview prep questions and the pros and cons of each school. Through all of this, it's been so rewarding to see how hard Christian has worked for this despite all of the obstacles that he had to overcome, especially through the pandemic. If you've ever met Christian, you know that being a doctor has been a dream of his ever since he was 12 and it's amazing to see him get one step closer to making that dream a reality.
I had mentioned back in March that we were moving, and that after hearing back from all of the schools Christian interviewed at, he's made a decision on where he wants to go to school. So why did it take us so long to announce? We had originally planned to announce Christian's acceptance in early April, but as financial aid and scholarships were being given out, we decided to hold off and evaluate all of his options.
Going into this application cycle, Christian had always had his heart set on Chapel Hill for medical school. He'd express that was his dream school, but that with his stats, it was a reach school for him. So he went into the application cycle with the mindset of he'll go to any school that would give him an acceptance (I had always known he had what it took to get into UNC, but that's another story, lol). A North Carolina school had always been his top choice so he could be close to family, but we also both went in knowing there was a high possibility of moving to a different state. September rolled around and Christian got his first interview invite, and then the following week, another. We were ecstatic and quickly started interview prep for him.
In midst of helping Christian perfect his answers and be prepared for all the possible scenarios, the thought of what he was actually going to wear for the interview had completely slipped our minds. It wasn't until the weekend before his interview that we went out to the mall to try to find the right suit that would make him stand out, but still look polished and professional. It took us a solid hour to decide on what tie he was going to wear!
Because of the pandemic, all of the interviews were virtual. At the time, I was still working at my old job and would go into the office a few times a week. To help ease Christian's nerves and prevent me from eavesdropping during his interview I decided for his interview days I'd go into the office an hour early.
Two weeks after his first two interviews Christian got his first acceptance! We were both so happy and it meant he was for sure going to school this fall. Shortly after he received a phone call and got his second acceptance for a school that, at the time, was his top choice between the two. Even though it was pretty early in the application cycle we had made a trip out to KYCOM in Kentucky, Christian's top choice at the time to tour the medical school. As we booked our hotel and scheduled our tour date for KYCOM, Christian got another interview invite to Campbell, his first North Carolina school.
We couldn't be more excited that there was now a possibility of staying in North Carolina, but Christian still didn't want to get his hopes up too high (again, I always knew he'd kill any interview he was given, lol). KYCOM was still on the table and we had made the six-hour drive to scope out the school. I even shared on my Instagram that we had made a quick trip out, but didn't disclose too much information on why!
After we had toured the school and town, Christian was set on this being the school he'd attend this fall, between his two acceptances at the time. Later that night he opened up an interview invite to Chapel Hill! We were both in shock and couldn't believe the words we were reading. While we were still running on the high of the Chapel Hill interview invite, Christian received an invite to interview at Wake Forest. Over the next three weeks, Christian had three medical school interviews lined up at three North Carolina schools and we couldn't believe it.
The second half of November was filled with interview prep, setting up a make-shift studio for Christian's headshot, and perfecting his background for his interview. It was a whirlwind, to say the least. His last interview was the first week of December and from there we had to play the painful waiting game. Both of us had stalked the SDN forum religiously to see if there were any news of waves of rejections or acceptances coming out anytime soon.
One month later Christian had found out he had gotten into Campbell. He was officially going to be able to stay in North Carolina! As the trend of this application cycle seemed to be, while we were riding off the high that Christian now had the option to stay in North Carolina, he received his Wake Forest acceptance letter. We were both ecstatic and since Wake was his second choice at the time, this had meant his application cycle was over.
We were thrilled and were now anxiously waiting for the Chapel Hill decision. The decision for Chapel Hill took a lot longer than the other schools Christian interviewed at and the longer it took for the letters to come out, the more he started to get worried. By now he had started to look more into Wake Forest and started to really fall in love with the curriculum, what the school stood for, and all the resources that were available for him. He said if Chapel Hill didn't accept him he'd be happy to attend Wake.
And then, he got the call.
"are delighted to offer you a place in the class entering the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in July 2021." We screamed, we hugged, we danced, we were SO happy! All of his years of hard work and determination had paid off, he had gotten into his dream school.
So why did he end up choosing Wake Forest?
You'd think that after all of this hard work and finally getting into this number one pick, it would be a no-brainer to choose Chapel Hill, right? Shortly after the acceptance Christian started doing more research on the two schools just to ensure he was making the right choice. Christian's dream had always been to go into surgery and although Chapel Hill is an amazing school, it was better suited for primary care. After making several pros and cons lists and researching the two schools, he found out Wake had better opportunities for those who want to get into more competitive specialties, such as surgery.
After going through this long application cycle, Christian actually had a hard time accepting that he enjoyed the interview process of Wake Forest more. We decided to make a trip out to Winston-Salem to tour the school and town and both fell in love with the area. Another big deciding factor between the schools was the cost of attendance. There was a major price difference and he was waiting to hear back on financial aid and scholarships to help make his decision.
It was a really tough decision for him going back and forth between the two schools, but ultimately it came down to his gut telling him that Wake was the best choice for him. It's been a crazy whirlwind and I'm so happy to finally be able to share the news with you all! Back in January we actually toured an apartment just to see what our options were in Wake and ended up falling in love. We signed in February as a gamble knowing that there was still a chance that Chapel Hill was on the table, but we didn't want to risk losing this apartment. In hindsight, it worked out well in terms of the apartment because after Christian submitted his commitment to enroll to Wake, we quickly found out his fellow classmates are having a hard time finding a place to live as most of the two-bedroom apartments are occupied now.
I wanted to document Christian's journey to medical school as a way for him to look back and see how far he's come. Check the video down below on his journey and his parent's adorable reactions to him getting into school!
Thank you all so so much for taking the time to read this post and we're so excited to share this journey with you all! I've been vlogging all of the behind-the-scenes of our apartment hunt, move and am excited to finally have them posted on my YouTube channel for you all. Thank you all again, and be on the lookout for more moving content!
The countdown to our move is ON! We are about a month away from moving out of Charlotte and our current place is looking more like a warehouse as the days go on. In the midst of packing up our life up in boxes, we've also been trying to scope out some new furniture pieces for our new place. As exciting as decorating a new space is, the price of buying everything can add up pretty quick.
Today I'm sharing some of my favorite home decor finds that I've come across through our furniture hunt. Most of these items will be less than $100 and on my wishlist for our new place!
I'd say the biggest challenge with finding pieces for our new place is that Christian and I have drastically different decor styles. I love bold statement pieces with a lot of personality and Christian is more of a minimalist and into darker more industrial pieces. Although Christian and I live together now, we haven't really gotten a chance to experience decorating and furnishing a place together since most of the items in our current space are his brother's. (read more on our current living situation here!). Despite all the head butts with trying to decide on a color pallet, coffee table (IYKYK), and how much art we're going to hang on the wall, we're both super excited to start this next chapter of living together on our own.
Now, the color pallet. If I had it my way, the apartment would be bright whites, lighter woods, gold, and touches of blush pink. We managed to compromise with a more neutral pallet of black, brown, and a bit of gold. I have been really into the strong contrast look of matte black pieces lately so it worked out well.
TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Home Goods have always been my favorites for shopping for affordable home decor. In the past, I have mainly gone for small decorative pieces and throw pillows for the home, but have been coming across some great furniture pieces lately! We've been going back and forth on whether we want a bar cart or bar cabinet for our space and it's looking more like a bar cart may be the better choice due to space. I came across this bar cart online and love how simple it is and it goes well with our brown wood/black /neutral color pallet.
Really, what doesn't Amazon have? Similar to TJ Maxx, I haven't really shopped much furniture-wise on Amazon but have been hearing so much on YouTube and from fellow bloggers that there are some pretty solid finds on there if you spend some time looking. We don't have space for a dining area in our new space but if we did then I can totally see us picking up these beautiful wishbone chairs. These chairs are a dupe for a more higher-end designer and for $179 for 2 I think it's a great price.
During work or pretty much any free time I have I have been watching a ton of apartment tour videos on YouTube to get some ideas for our space. I have been seeing the Umbra Sticks Multi-Hook Rack in several videos and knew I wanted something similar in our space. Essentially it's a normal hook rack where you can hang your umbrella, jacket, or keys at an entryway and you have the option to pull down the hooks to hang things or push them back when you're not using them. It looks a little more decorative than command hooks and something that would be perfect for us since we don't have space for an entryway table. I came across this wooden wall hook on Amazon with a similar concept and think it fits our space a lot better!
To be completely honest, if I could pick one store to completely furnish our home it would have to be Target. The few pieces of furniture that we've picked up so far are from Target and I keep finding myself checking their website daily for new arrivals. All of the pieces I've come across on Target fit our aesthetic so well and at a great price too. A few of my favorite lines at Target include Project 62, Opalhouse, and their Studio McGee collaboration.
I have been really into more natural materials lately and recently picked up this adorable tulip basket for our bedroom. It is from their Pillowfort line which is marketed for children's bedroom, but I couldn't help but fall in love with it. I think this piece will be perfect for extra pillows or even my ever-growing plushie collection.
If you've been following along on Instagram stories or on YouTube then you may know about the drama we've had with finding a coffee table. A quick recap, when we first started looking for living room furniture we decided we really want a lift-top coffee table. Since I work from home full time, Christian will be in school we figured we want to create a variety of different spaces we can work/study from. Also, like I had mentioned, we don't have space for a full dining table and the only eating area we have is at the bar in the kitchen. We figured with a lift-top coffee table we could have the option to eat in the living room in front of the tv if we wanted to.
After we've decided a lift-top coffee table was the move for us we quickly realized how expensive these tables are. The average price for a lift-top coffee table is around $250 - $500. Throw that on top trying to find one that will fit our color pallet, lifts up high enough to get over Christian's legs, fit the couch we had already purchased, AND in our budget... it was more stressful than trying to find a place to live. lol.
I was scrolling through the Target website one day and came across a lift-top coffee table from their Project 62 line. It wasn't the exact color we wanted in our color pallet, but the price point was so good and the right size we decided to rework our color pallet just to accommodate it. Once we finally decided to purchase the table... it was sold out.
*cue internal screams*
At that point, we figured the arguments and stress of finding a very specific coffee table weren't worth it and decided to move on from our lift-top coffee table idea. Until I got a notification from Target two weeks later. The coffee table we wanted was in stock, in the color we wanted and you bet I snatched it up within seconds of receiving the email which looking back lucky I did because it was sold out a couple hours later.
I know it sounds so silly to be stressed over a piece of furniture, but y'all I have never been so happy to receive a coffee table in my entire life. She's beautiful and I can't wait to see her in our new home.
WHEW.
Didn't think I'd ever write a whole section in a blog post on coffee table drama, but first time for everything, right? Anywho. I hope you all enjoy this post and were able to find some home decor finds for your place! Let me know down below where you like to shop for home decor and if you enjoy more home content please let me know down below! I'm so excited to take you all along in our moving journey and as always, thank you for reading!
It's hard to believe that spring is finally here. I feel like this past winter has been a long one and I'm so happy to finally have some warm weather here in the Carolinas. Now that the vaccines are rolling out it's starting to look like we may actually get to socialize a bit during the second half of the year! Christian and I actually got our second dose of the COVID vaccine yesterday and I couldn't be more excited.
With the possibility of being able to safely go out to eat at restaurants or even meet up with friends and family on the horizon, I can't help but get excited for the opportunity to get dressed up for an occasion other than being in front of a video camera or getting some bread from the grocery store.
One trend/color you can catch me sporting this season is sage green. I have been seeing this color pop up quite a bit over the past couple of months and I can't help but be drawn to it. Like most people, I love pastels for spring, but green has never been a color I gravitated towards. There is something so soothing and comforting about the color sage green that I think is why I'm so drawn to it this season. This color is the perfect pop to any outfit but still neutral enough where you can still be paired with bolder shades if you want.
This smock peplum top was the first sage green piece added to my closet and it certainly won't be my last. Not going to lie, this piece is a bit out of my comfort zone with the smock detailing at the bust and the squared neckline. Highlighting my shoulders is something I tend to avoid, but the fun puffed sleeves on this top were enough to convince me to try it out - and I'm so glad I did! I paired this top with my favorite light wash skinny jeans and some nude heels making it the perfect outfit to grab some brunch, explore the city or even enjoy a picnic in the park.
Check out some of my favorite sage green picks:
Are you loving sage green for spring as well? Let me know in the comments down below! I hope you all enjoyed the post and as always, thank you for reading!
Sooooo things have been a little quieter around here since the new year started and thought it's time to let you all in on what's been going on! Grab a snack and some fine friends, it's gonna be a long update.
If you have been following me on Instagram for the past two months or so you may have heard me say something along the lines of "sorry I've been a bit MIA lately I have been tending to some things in my personal life...." Which I know can be SO annoying hearing it over and over and I've gone back and forth on whether I wanted to let you all know what I've been up to but I wanted to play it safe in case things fell through, I jinxed myself, etc. etc. etc.
SO, the "thing in my personal life" that's been taking up most of my attention these past few months has been...
WE'RE MOVING!(and I got a new job 😬)
It's been a busy few months trying to balance it all let me tell ya.
If you don't know, my boyfriend Christian has been applying to medical school for the past year and after a very long application cycle, he has heard back from five schools! A few (dozen) pros and cons lists later he finally has a school he's committing to. I'm so incredibly proud of him and all of his hard work this past year and a half.
While Christian was busy trying to figure out which school he's going to sell his soul away to... I mean attend ya girl has been busy sending out my resume to anyone who would give me the time of day. Before I dive more into my job hunting fiasco, I do want to preface me moving with Christian when he went off to med school was never our plan. When Christian and I first started dating he was studying for the MCAT, I had just moved back to Charlotte for work and we both knew long-distance was eventually going to be in our future with him going off to school. I have always been firm in my stance of never wanting to follow a boy unless we were at least engaged. (Don't you all start suspecting anything, unless... 👀👀👀)
Well, as we learned from 2020 things don't always go as plan.
It was about a year and a half into my previous job when I decided I wanted to start looking for a new role elsewhere. I was brand manager for a wholesale diamond company and although I really enjoyed my job and loved getting to play with diamond rings all day, I felt stagnant. My position no longer challenged me and I wanted a role that focused more on what I was interested in which was social media / digital marketing. And so began my routine of spending hours scrolling through Indeed and LinkedIn for any position that I would be qualified for.
Guys, job hunting is hard. Job hunting during a pandemic? That's a whole different ball game. More companies are opening positions for remote work and even though that means you have more companies to add to your list to apply to, that also means you have more people you have to compete with. When I first announced that I finally landed my first big girl job after college I mentioned that it took me over 8 months and 200 job applications to land my job and I was scared going into the hunt again that it'd be going through the same thing all over again.
While I was filling out applications I also had to come up with a game plan for my living situation. Due to the pandemic, I have been living with Christian and his brother since my lease ended in June (more on there here) and I had to figure out where I would live when Christian went off to school. I didn't have any potential roommates lined up and the thought of me paying half of my monthly income for a one-bedroom apartment wasn't ideal for me. So my options were either to find a job that paid more or move with Christian... or both.
We started to explore the possibility of me moving with Christian when he went off to school and after a lot of thought, we decided to keep the option open. After Christian got into both of his top two schools it helped give us an idea of what city he was going to move to and I was now able to search for positions that were in Charlotte, remote, or the city he would be attending school.
Over the past few months, my days consisted of working my 9 -5, tweaking my resume, filling out job applications, phone interviews, apartment hunting for places in both Charlotte and different city (which was a hurtle itself, let me TELL YA), and trying to keep up with The Daily Amy. Job hunting and finding an apartment are already stressful as is, doing them together was another beast. I was never big on manifesting, creating vision boards, or anything of that sense, but after a couple months of dead ends, I figured why the heck not.
Y'ALL.
Call it coincidence, voodoo magic, the universe looking after you, or whatever, but I'm not kidding when I say a week after I made my vision board and starting focusing my energy trying to manifest what I had put on it to come to life things started to fall into place.
Several phone calls and a couple tears later I'm SO happy to announce that I have accepted a position as a Digital Marketing Specialist for a luxury furniture company! Last week was my first week working in my new position and I can tell I am going to enjoy my new position a lot... and it's remote!
Oh, and remember my whole living situation? In January Christian and I toured an apartment we LOVED, but the particular unit we were looking at had very limited availability, already had a lot of people interested in it, and we were waitlisted on it. After I accepted my new position, we heard back from the apartment complex and we signed on the place last week!
I also finally ovaried up and got my booty to the doctor's for some blood work and everything came back normal. THANK GOD. Again, maybe another story for another day, lol.
So, there you have it, that's what I have been up to behind the scenes! I am now trying to get adjusted to my new full-time position, balancing doing freelancing on the side and planning a move. It's been a little overwhelming, but also so exciting and I am so happy I finally get to have you all in the loop and take you with us!
Also, don't worry I will announce where we'll be moving to soon. (;
Want to catch up on what I have been up to the last week? I vlogged my last week working my previous position as a brand manager on my YouTube channel!
WHEW. If you've made it this far thank you SO much for taking the time to read! I am so excited to start share moving content with you all! Leave your guess below to where you think we're moving to! As always, thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful day!
