Work Space Inspiration

Since I have been living a nomadic lifestlye for the past 3 months, I haven't been able to do much designing, decorating, or DIY. I am going NUTS! I can't even buy any house things since our stuff is currently sitting in crates in Japan and we can't take much else over there. This is a big deal since I actually like shopping for house stuff more than I like shopping for clothes! I walk through Homegoods and Tj Maxx and get on pinterest and feel such a need to decorate something and then get sad when I realize I can't. I can't wait until we are settled in again so I can unleash my urge to decorate. 

Until then, I will just pin ideas I have and stay far away from home decor shops. Lately I've been loving cute little home offices. I usually do my work in bed or on the couch, but I think it would be so nice to have a little work space to sit on the computer and to organize papers and junk. I am sure any office space we have in the near future will be small, but I have seen so many inspiring images of small workspaces I know I could make it work. 

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You should go look at the rest of this cute apartment. It is GORGEOUS!

I just love how clean and fresh these workspaces are. I love all of the white with pops of color here and there. I think a workspace should be somewhere you enjoy and want to be. It should feel comfortable and organized and reflect who you are. 

When I saw this last little office space, I fell in love with the brass lamp. I have done some research and have found that these little brass things are quite expensive. That doesn't stop me of dreaming of my perfect little work space with my perfect little brass lamp. 

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This West Elm one is more doable at $99, but just not as pretty

What kind of work space do you dream of? Do you have one item you drool over? Do you love brass task lamps as much as I do?

Until Next Time,

New Blog Design + Weekend

As you can see, I have a beautiful new blog design thanks to Marquis over at Simply Clarke. I figured I will be posting almost daily as we get closer to our move to Okinawa. I wanted a beautiful and organized space so everyone can enjoy keeping up with our adventures. Look for more posts about health, food, fashion, and PCSing (permanent change of station). Once we are in Okinawa, we will be posting about our daily life on the island. 

Many of you follow along via facebook. That is great, but I will be posting updates less often on facebook. In order to keep up with new posts, follow the blog! You can go to the sidebar where it says "followers" and either follow on bloglovin', Join This Site, or subscribe via email. I would love to know who is following along our journey with us. You can also follow Bell Bliss via twitter, instagram, or pinterest. Thanks!

Anyway, here is a quick snapshot of my weekend

1. My mom and I made Turkey Quinoa burgers with Greek Salad. The burgers were SO good. It was the perfect healthy meal. You can get the recipe for the burgers here. I kind of made up the Greek salad recipe and it turned out great so maybe I will post it on here soon. 

2. Saturday was rainy so my mom and I decided to head to the outlet mall. I of course, found stuff at my favorite store, J. Crew. I also splurged and got a new purse, something I never do. 

3. Saturday we went to the movies and saw Paranoia. It was a pretty good movie and Liam Hemsworth wasn't too bad to look at. I also sported my new sneakers. Yes, I finally made a decision (see this post on my sneaker dilemma). I got these at Target for $12! I know white will get dirty, but I really couldn't pass up the deal. Thanks for the tip, Sam!

4. Sunday we took our usual drive to the beach. It was super high tide, so it was kind of a difficult walk through the sticks and bushes, but the beach is always a great place to be. I would say I was going to miss the beach, but I am moving to a tropical island. 

5. I leave Charleston at the end of this week, so I started packing. This is pretty much all I have lived off of for the past 3 months. I am ready to be reunited with all of my stuff and not live out of a suitcase!

I can't believe this is my last week in Charleston. You can bet I will make every minute count! 

Until next time,

The Headboard

I am not quite sure why it has taken so long to write this post, but it's been a long time coming. When we moved into our first apartment as newlyweds, I decided I really wanted a headboard. Of course, me being me, I wanted to find something second hand and fix it up rather than buying something new. Yes, to save money, but also because I really enjoy projects. I was a frequent visitor of the Habitat for Humanity Restore in Lexington, and on one of my visits I found a headboard for $10. It was just a plain, wooden headboard, but it was in great shape and could easily be painted. I bought it and somehow thought I could load it into my small SUV all by myself. Sometimes my independence gets the best of me. I broke off one of the legs in my attempt to get it in the car. I figured Jake's stepdad, Dan, would be able to fix it, so I brought it over to him.

A week later, he tells me he can build me a better headboard and wanted to know if there was anything in particular that I liked. It just so happened I had just pinned this on my pinterest.

I followed the picture to a blog where I discovered  ana-white.com. If you haven't visited this site, you are missing out. She has TONS of detailed plans for furniture as well as posts from people who have used her plans. I found complete directions, including woodcuts, for the headboard on this site. I sent it straight to Dan, who was excited to see the plan and happened to have enough wood for the project. He did such a good job! It looked exactly like the plan and it didn't even take him long to make. We are so lucky to have Dan who can make us awesome things! 

The next issue was the finish. I, surprisingly, decided I didn't want to paint it. The natural wood was so pretty that I just couldn't cover it up. I decided I wanted to stain it, but I wanted a grey stain. I thought this would be very simple, as Lowes had a few options for grey stains. I picked one out and went home to try it. One word...BLUE. Every single grey stain I tried looked blue. Not only did it look blue, the stain looked like a paint, rather than a stain. Blue was definitely not what I was going for. I wanted it to look slightly rustic/weathered, so I decided to try a new route instead of store bought stain. I found a recipe online that called for apple cider vinegar and steel wool soaked together for 48 hours. After lots of trial and error, I am so happy with how it turned out.

This is the headboard with 2 coats of the apple cider vinegar/steel wool mixture. I then applied two coats of polyurethane. 

Here is the headboard in our room. How great does it look?? The thing I like most is that it is so versatile and can go with lots of different colors of furniture or decor. I also like how it looks like a different color depending on the light. Sometimes it looks grey, other times it looks brown, and from time to time it looks green/blue. It is a piece that I think we will have for years to come. 

Our bedroom is my favorite part of our apartment. It is not huge, but if feels spacious because it opens up into the sunroom. When we moved to Virginia, we also bought a new mattress. I can't even describe to you how amazing it is to have a good quality mattress. It is embarrassing to admit, but with a headboard, somewhat matching furniture, and a nice mattress, I finally feel like a real adult. 

Here is the other wall of our bedroom (opposite of the bed), and then that's about it for the room. You can kind of see the opening to the sunroom in this picture. I like the simplicity. It feels comfortable and relaxing and I love going to bed at the end of the day in this room. At some point, maybe at our next location, I will hang more pictures or decorations. One day I would also like to add a chair/bench and possibly a vanity.

Until next time,

J and M

Gallery Wall

I decided that I really like gallery walls. It is a great way to fill up a large wall and to display tons of great photos. So I headed out to Ikea and loaded up on frames. If you are looking for cheap frames, Ikea is the place for you. I got 8 frames of all sizes for around $60. I looked through all of my pictures and found my favorite ones. I loaded them onto CVS.com and had them printed in the sizes I needed. Disclaimer for Ikea frames... they are from Sweden so they are not American picture sizes. I then looked for inspiration via pinterest.

Then, I got an awesome black and gold B from Hobby Lobby for $9.99. This might be my favorite part of the entire wall!

This is where I got stuck, for a long time. I laid out all of my frames about 10 times, trying to decided how I wanted them. I also contemplated not even hanging them up since we won't be in the apartment for very long. 

That's when I was inspired to make this. And I am proud to say, I was not "pinterest" inspired for this one. It was all from my own brain, and from luck. 

I thought the quote was fitting for our lifestyle. At some point, I might put up a tutorial. It turned out so well and was actually very easy.

This is where I decided that it was time to just do it, hang up the gallery wall.

So I read lots of different tutorials, and came up with my own method. Honestly, it is sooo much easier than people make it out to be. It took about an hour and only a little help from my cute husband.

First, lay out all of your frames on the ground, exactly how you want them. Play around a little bit to find the best layout. Take a picture, just in case it gets messed up.

Measure the distance apart each frame is from one another. It doesn't have to be exact.

Grab the largest frame and put it on the wall where you think it looks best. You can measure, but I honestly just eyeballed it. I had Jake hold the frame while I leveled(thanks Iphone app!) and then put a piece of tape along the top, keeping it leveled. I then took the frame down and measure out each side of the frame with a piece of tape and put them on the wall. I then picked  another frame and measured how far the top and side were from the first frame and made marks. I held the second frame up the the marks, leveled, and taped it off. I repeated this for all of the frames.

Weird picture, but you get the idea. Entire gallery wall taped on the wall.

Measure where the nail holder is on each of the frames and then mark it on the wall. Put in a nail and hang them up.

That's all there is too it! 

The most important tip: It doesn't have to be perfect! This was hard for me to come to terms with, but once I did, I was so much happier.

I am so happy with the way it turned out. It's not perfect by any means but it really makes the place feel like home. I have decided that no matter where we go and no matter the amount of effort, I will hang up pictures. Pictures really make a home more cozy and spices things up. 

Until next time,

J and M