Well, hi there! No, I didn't fall off the face the earth. I'm sorry for the longer than usual blog break. My nails are finally starting to grow long enough where I feel comfortable taking photos, and overall I just needed a little break.

I'm off from work until Wednesday for Memorial Day, whoo! I have to work on some reviews to share with you guys. I will have the Zoya Island Fun, and Paradise Sun collection on the blog soon. I also have 6 new summer colors from SinfulColors to share with you as well. I will be super swatch busy this weekend!

I'm also excited because I finally have my own nail space! :-) I've never shared any posts about where I do my nails, because well, it was my dining room table. My very cluttered dining room table, lol. :-p I've wanted a table/desk to do my nails at for awhile. I've been eyeing this portable manicure table on Amazon for months. I watched the price drop from $100 down to $70, and I finally decided to order it. Free shipping! And- it arrived in 2 days! I set up my new space in the corner of our bedroom. My helmer fit perfectly beside it, the helmer is maybe inch to half an inch shorter than the table.
The best part about this table is there was absolutely no assembly required. I only had to take it out of the box, the storage bag, remove the foam and bubble wrap, and set it up. The table itself is sturdier and more well made then I expected. It has wheels so you can move it around, and it easily folds up to store again if you need too. It also has a small plastic drawer underneath that I am storing some nail necessities in.

There's also a wrist cushion- for doing someone else's nails, but I decided to put that in the corner of my table to keep things from falling down where the table curves against the corner of the wall, and it also works to prop up my Ottlite and other things. ;-)

I ordered myself an upholstered folding chair to go along with my table, but that hasn't arrived yet. The chair I ordered also had free shipping. I may get a more comfortable chair eventually, but this was all I could afford right now.

I'm super excited to finally have a permanent and functional place to do my nails, take swatch photos, or use my laptop to write blog posts. I'm also looking forward to getting back to blogging and sharing with you all again, I've definitely missed it. Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Thursday was my birthday, and one of my gifts this year was an Ikea Helmer! Coveted and utilized by almost every nail polish blogger in the blogging world. The Helmer is capable of holding 500-600 bottles of nail polish.

For my birthday my parents ordered me the Sterilite 3-Drawer Medium Cart's from Walmart, they come in a set of 2 for just $21. We picked site to store shipping which usually only takes one week... but due to shipping delays it took three weeks to arrive at our Walmart. My husband picked them up this week.

The drawers are 24 inches high, just a half inch taller than our night tables. They are made of sturdy plastic & have wheels. I only needed one of them at the moment for my nail polish, so we are using the other one to store dvds, etc in the living room. I also stopped at Dollar Tree and picked up 6 small storage trays to organize the inside of the drawers better. Now all of my polishes are stored upright instead of laying down. :-)



 

With our meager little tax refund, (after I paid Citibank back a good chunk of our refund... to thank them for letting us live while unemployment took it's good ol' time to get set up- while I was furloughed from work for 2 1/2 weeks earlier this year)... I had a little extra cash to spend. This isn't all we spent it on of course! But it was nice to get a few new things

I was able to get a new shower mat for our bath/shower and a new fabric Damask shower curtain. Yay! If you've looked at my other Home Improvement posts, you'll notice Damask plays a key role. Our decor theme around our apartment is Black, White and Aqua.

I also got a new purse for myself! In... Damask... lol. I really love it. It has little metal feet on the bottom, and the handles are sturdy, yet it's light weight. Now... if it will hold up to all the crap I carry in my purse, remains to be seen... lol. I've gotten a bunch of compliments on it already. The brand is Belvah.



And as you know I'm having a Zoya Spring Giveaway! The giveaway ends March 8th, so enter while you can! I'm giving away Zoya Neely & Zoya Blu from the new Spring 2013 collection and I'm throwing in a travel sized L'Occitane Verbena lotion too!

I got to try Zoya Blu out tonight. (I bought extras for the giveaway!) Here is Zoya Blu, with Zoya Pixie Dust NYX on my ring finger. Blu only needed 2 coats and 1 top coat of Seche Vite. NYX I did 3 coats.


(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a product when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)

Thank you Shannon for the tip! :-) My new area rug for under our coffee table! I love it. I went with the smaller $29.99 one. We have a Target right around the corner from our apartment and this was the last one. They also have a larger version for $69.99.



Also can't beat a cute, less than $2.00 clearance creamer cow! He's sitting on top of my microwave. :-)


 

I love picking up stuff for our apartment to decorate. I visited Pier 1 Imports this past Friday. I saw this Elephant Teapot on their website before and it was 20% off in the store. It was just $12. I'm using it more for decor than for drinking tea though, hehe. It's currently sitting on one of my living room tables. I love it!


I also got some new dishes from... Dollar Tree! I saw these on their website, (but not wanting to buy in bulk- 24 bowls would be a bit excessive...) My husband checked a few of the Dollar Trees around us and was able to find the plates & bowls. Can't seem to find the matching mugs at any of the stores near us, but oh well. They are really pretty dishes and only $1 each!


Another Pier 1 Imports find. They had these large turquoise plastic tumblers (23 oz.) for $6 each. I thought the color would go well with the above dishes. They are made with a heavy durable plastic.



Other things on my to do list:

• Find a cute kitchen mat for in front of the sink. 
• Find dining chair covers or cushions (white, black or aqua).  
• Keep bidding on vintage/antique salt & pepper shakers on ebay until I win a set, lol.

 

I never took pictures of the floral Target placemats I ordered. When they arrived, instead of being black & white... they turned out to be black and frosted clear; (That was not mentioned on Target's website) Clear did not work with our dark wood dining room table. The design did not show up well at all...

I didn't want to return them because I really liked the design, so I've been trying to find something to go underneath them. We finally found white contact paper at Dollar Tree. So I sat down and put contact paper onto the back of each placemat. (Was that ever tedious, lol!) Now the color is showing up how I wanted it to. Black & White. Plus the contact paper can be cleaned with soap & water. :-)

The lamps I ordered from Target arrived the other day. Only when I opened the box. Instead of two of the same exact lamp. I had two very different damask lampshades. One was smaller and more narrow, the other was like the picture on Target's website, bigger & rounder with gray around the damask pattern. They looked pretty stupid standing next to each other when I wanted two matching lamps.

I took the lamps to our Target to exchange, but they had to do them as a return. They gave me a Target giftcard with my refunded balance. Luckily they had the same lamps in stock so I was able to pick out two matching shades this time. And I did see that more narrow damask shade there. So to anyone buying two of these damask lamps online- just be aware you may get two different style shades and you may have to return them! (The model number for both of the lamps with different lampshades were exactly the same too!)






I got some really cute aqua & black & white baskets at Dollar Tree. I put them on our entertainment stand to organize things.


 I also found these really gorgeous turquoise pillows at Target. They weren't on sale, but I really loved them and there were just 2 left. I got both of them to put on our black & white chairs in the living room.


I looked all over Target's website. But apparently they aren't selling this pillow anymore. The turquoise damask is a velvet material. (The UPC is: 065153726 18x18).

I have an obsession with damask patterns. Especially white & black damask. I think it's elegant & regal. (My Tudor Dynasty obsession probably fuels that). 

I ordered damask patterned dishes from Target not that long ago. (I still want to order 1 more set of those when we have a little extra $$$).

I've had these damask lamps from Target on my wish list for awhile. They were originally $19.99, but they went on sale for $15.99 so I ordered two. :-) I'm not sure if we'll put them in the living room or our bedroom. We only have one table lamp in our bedroom at the moment.


As you can see from my Pinterest boards: Home Decor & Kitchen Decor. (I have pinned & notated items we own). We've got a black & white and aqua theme going on in our house. (See: Ikea loot post).

I also recently got these cute aqua owls on Etsy. They are in our living room.

I finally got down to Ikea in South Philadelphia, I've never been there before. It was pretty busy down there and bit picked over, but we picked up some decor for our apartment. :-)

(The Loot!) Almagrundet bathmat, turquoise $6.99 (Not online)

GODTA Bowls 7", turquoise $2.99

GODTA Bowl 10", turquoise $3.99

SOMRIG Vase, assorted colors $2.99 & Artificial Rose, $2.99, Assorted plants $1.99

Closer Look. :)

Artificial potted plant, House bamboo $3.99 & Plant pot, galvanized $0.79

Gestalta Artist $4.99 (No longer online)

5-piece cookware set, stainless steel $9.99 & STEKA Frying pan, dark blue $2.99

P.S. Bring a reusable bag with you! I didn't know so we had to pay $0.59 cents for a large Ikea bag during check out.