DIY Saturday: Towel Storage in Bathroom

Apartment living is rough, but even rougher when you downsize from a 1,000sqft apartment to a 600~ish sq feet... What do I do with all of my things?!

I have a huge laundry room that can be closed off that has been doubling as my shoe storage, toilet paper storage, cleaning supplies storage and my towel storage. Know that moment when you hop in the shower and you realize you forgot to bring in your towel in the bathroom? Yep. Me.

I realized I needed a better solution to this, and T helped!

I ventured out to Pinterest for a solution, and I've always been attracted to those cute storage crates in the bathroom hanging on the wall--so we decided this one would work. Off we were to Target!

We found the woven crate for around $11 on sale, not too shabby, and we had a bunch of screws laying around the apartment (not literally, man, I have a cat).

This entire process took maybe 10 minutes, mostly because T and I were fighting over how high to put it over the weirdly put towel rack (we have two....what).


We simply drilled four holes at all the corners of the basket inside, and it was sturdy enough already. Currently I have around 8 towels chilling inside and on the top of the basket, it doesn't feel like it's ready to fall down. Don't even ask why I have 8 towels, though.

I'm so in love with this idea, I want to include more of those wicker baskets around my future house, maybe in my laundry room some day!

Bam. Knocked that one out.

EXACT wicker basket: here
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Bling. Out.

Almost every girl dreams of having an actual diamond on her finger to show off.

The same night T and I got engaged, I asked him all the questions I could think of--how did you think of the proposal? How did you get it to work? Did you go ring shopping? How did you know this ring shape was exactly what I wanted?

And then... Is it diamond?

"No, it's not."

Oh. What is it?

 "Some lab grown gemstone, it was in the link you sent to Gina who sent to Fiona who sent to me...I assumed you didn't want a diamond."

Oh. I might have not exactly looked closely at that. (By the way, literally EXACTLY how he got his hands on my dream ring--thanks to Gina and Fiona!)

"I'm sorry, do you want to replace it? I can find a diamond ring for you if you don't like it."

No, it's fine.

 Honestly? So many thoughts were swirling in my head. Was I even worth the price of a diamond? Why didn't he try to get me a diamond ring? But before I started freaking out, I went all Google on this ring.

Moissanite.
"Possessing fire, brilliance, and luster far greater than that of a diamond, Moissanite sparkles unlike any other gemstone on earth. Composed of carbon and silicon, Moissanite is also one of the hardest and toughest known elements on earth, making it extremely resistant to scratching, chipping and breaking. Its durability and incomparable beauty make it an ideal center stone for an engagement ring or jewelry gift." MoissaniteCo
Wait, brilliance and sparkle? I started getting really excited about how more shiny this gemstone is compared to diamonds. Bonus? Resistant to scratching, chipping and breaking--a HUGE plus to this clumsy signer girl (I bang my hands on surfaces a little too often while signing).

I started reading up on Moissanite while sitting next to T, and I started spewing details about the gemstone to him.

"So, are you okay with it?"

Are you kidding me?! I'm totally in love with it. I never knew something like this existed!

 To this day, I love how my ring sparkles in the light--I see the reflection of the stone in my car often while driving. I got another surprise when I handed my ring in for re-sizing a couple of days after this conversation...the smaller stones around the big Moissanite were diamonds!

Cool. I got the best of both worlds with this ring (click through to the picture of the ring)!

In a way, this ring is like our relationship, I'm the sparkly one and T is the quiet one (but he's SO lovable). We're both pretty damn tough when it comes to things. We also might have or might have not been lab grown (we're looking at you mom and dad)...

Now, when you're judging someone for not having a huge diamond rock, double check! Moissanite might be a better alternative for you, and it's fairly cheaper too. AND IT IS GORGEOUS!

Bling. Out.
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2016

This is the reason why I never start a new year's resolution...

Something always comes up, people from out of the state visit and there's just way too much things to do when you're off holiday break.

At the end of the year, T and I decided that we wanted to start eating healthier (aka eating less junk food and making the slow transition to healthier ingredients in our home cooked meals) and eating at home more often...that was broken the first week of January due to out of state guests, but we never made it our official new years' resolution--because honestly, the phrase itself is already making me want to break it.

I've made SO many resolutions over the years and I've failed the first few minutes of the new year. A friend said I should be nicer, and five minutes after midnight, I accidentally insulted someone. See how this isn't working for me? I always tell myself that my resolutions to work out more and be more self-conscious about what I'm putting in my body will be IT this year, it never is the year to do so.

We're dedicating our eating healthier habits to ourselves and to our wedding (before you become the 174,298,757th person to ask, we're still undecided on the date). We want to fit in our dresses--I mean, I want to fit in my dress and he wants to fit in his suit.

The "new years' resolution" stresses me out so much that I just usually abandon the whole concept with it. Last year, we vowed not to eat at McDonald's for a whole year, see, this became a fun challenge because it wasn't called a resolution but a challenge for ourselves. This became a competition to see who succumbed to McDonald's first--we've both come close to giving in to our fries and McFlurries cravings, but we did it. We're still going strong on not having a single fry or a nugget from McDonald's for over a year and half now.

So many people beat themselves up for not keeping their resolutions, and in the end they start feeling bad and going against their own resolutions. I have a solution for you...

Stop calling it a resolution.

Start calling it a personal challenge, because each day you hurdle that personal challenge, you feel REALLY GOOD. A personal challenge could be something specific or a very general challenge you could do each day. This could be exercise or could be something you shouldn't eat until the weekends.

"Today... I didn't think about McDonald's savory fries. YOU GO SARA JANE!"

This year we're thinking somewhere of those lines, "You didn't have five pieces of pizza EACH today, YOU GO SARA AND TAYLOR!" or "We didn't spend ~$40 on meals today, but we had an amazing home cooked meal, YOU GO SARA AND TAYLOR!"

Personal challenges sound so much more fun, doesn't it? It sounds less stressful than a resolution.

It's a challenge everyday, but we're both enjoying it. Of course, we indulge ourselves in some treats and eating out here and there--but we're looking forward to the rest of the year!

Next personal challenges?

Getting my butt to the gym and setting a personal goal of jogging minutes per day. I'm up to three minutes of continuous running! (Dude. I don't run. This is a personal achievement, now pat me on the shoulder!)

Drinking a WHOLE less sodas, and treat myself with an occasional soda. This would be the toughest personal challenge I'll attempt, but here goes!
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My favorite Christmas memory

My favorite Christmas memory, ironically, did not start out all that good.

It started on the day I found out that Santa Claus was not real, and Santa Claus was my parents.
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If being a mom means you're a woman...what happens when you don't want to have children? What are you?

When I was first writing this, it was in tune to this prompt topic that I stole from Gina: "When you were a kid, did you want to have the same job or a different job than your parents when you grew up?" But it became so much more than that.
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Gratitude

There can only be so much you can be thankful before you sound like you're faking at being thankful for things. But honestly, every year we forget to be thankful of everything and everybody in our lives and when Thanksgiving comes around, we're reminded of them. I'm guilty of this too.
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You know, South America. It's like America, but South!

Adventure is out there, indeed!

Of course, when I share that we got engaged, people are going to ask about THE STORY of the proposal.

The past weekend was such a blur, but it was an incredible, memorable and priceless blur.
Photo: Toby Fitch//Toby Fitch Studios
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