Apartment Tour | Vanity

When T and I were buying furniture for the apartment I begged for a vanity. Not only have I always wanted one, but is it pretty and it's amazing to have one space where all of my beauty items are. And here's what I ended up with... 

 My entire set up! I ordered the vanity on Amazon for around $150, the makeup mirror is from Costco, and the 3 cube tower is from Target.

 (Please excuse the filthy mirror)

Here's a more detailed look at what I keep on the top. A magnified light up mirror, my everyday makeup  items (the storage cube was from The Container Store), makeup brushes, kleenexs, brush spotting cleanser, and a towel for wiping any excess off.

 

What I keep inside the tiny drawer: makeup brushes that I'm not currently using (as of now my Bare Minerals ones), brush shampoo, blotting sheets, Brush Guards, makeup wipes, and makeup qtips.

Next to the vanity I have a 3 cube tower that I store my less frequently used makeup items, my makeup case, and hair items.

 On the top shelf of the 3 cube tower is my larger eyeshadow palettes, most used makeup (storage drawers from The Container Store), some of my EOS collection, extra mini hand sanitizers, and a Beanie Baby T got for me on our six month dating anniversary!

 The first drawer is foundations, concealers, and setting powders.

 Next is blushes, bronzers, and highlighters.

 Then smaller eyeshadow palettes

 bareMinerals face products

 Eye products: shadows, mascaras, primers, and liners.

 And finally lip products!

Here is a closer view of my everyday items: Eye makeup remover (green lid) and qtips, favorite lip product & eye liner, current mascaras, tweezers, under eye concealer, hand sanitizer, concealer, BB creme, chapstick, primer, BeautyBlender, pencil sharpener, ELF Kabuki brush (my fave!), eyelash curler, and a sample of Urban Decay's setting spray.

Last but not least my brushes! I keep them in the traveling cups(?) that my bareMinerals brush set came with. I'll be using the Sigma ones once I order them!

Introducing Duke!

You may have seen a few pictures of my fur baby flood this little blog of mine lately, but I'm dedicating this entire post to him, a lot of his firsts, and a lot of pictures! :)

Before getting to that though I need to backtrack a little. One of the things my husband was looking forward to the most after getting married was getting a puppy. A Keeshond puppy to be exact.  He grew up with two Keeshonds and they were his best friends. They both passed away not long before I met him and ever since I met him all he did was talk about those dang dogs! You see, like I've said before, I've never had a pet in my entire life, so I've never really understood the bond between a person and their four legged friend. So from the getgo I was a little apprehensive, but I knew how badly he wanted one.

When we decided that he wouldn't be staying in the Army anymore we started looking for Keeshond breeders in Michigan and were surprised by what we found: only 3 breeders in the entire state! Apparently Keeshonds are not very popular dogs anymore. Out of the 3 we only "liked" one/she was the only one planning a litter for this past Fall so we stayed in contact with her.

Duke was born on October 4 to a litter of 3 boys and 2 girls. Our breeder sent out an email to everyone that had shown interest in getting a puppy and from there she interviewed three of our coworkers/family members! Isn't that crazy?! Haha she just wanted to make sure that he was going to a loving home. Once we "passed" our interview she started sending weekly emails with updates and pictures! We looked forward to those emails every week.

Once he turned 8 weeks old we could pick him up and bring him home! That day happened to be December 7th, my husbands 24th birthday! Talk about an amazing birthday present. And he's been apart of our family ever since. My grandparents and brother love him, my inlaws of course love him, and all of our friends think he's sooo adorable! Okay enough talking... now onto the pictures!

 

Such a cutie pie! He was around 11 or 12 weeks old here. He can already sit and lay down on command!

 The night we brought him home! He looked like a teddy bear!! I miss him being that fluffy and small :(

 His first snowfall! He LOVES playing in the snow and this is one of my favorite pictures of us :)

 Our first Christmas morning family picture!

 He's such a little ham!

 Hahaha! His first bath! He looks so different all wet. And miserable.

His first walk! Husband was not impressed that I was taking pictures haha

Raising a Child.. I Mean Puppy

If anyone ever tells you that raising a puppy is easy they're LYING! Seriously, it's like raising a darn kid. But with a face like that... none of this really matters.

• For the first few weeks they wake up every couple hours throughout the night and are up for the day at 6am
• You have to watch them 24/7 (when they're out of the crate) because they get into every single thing they're not supposed to and have no interest in their toys
• They pee all over the house for the first couple weeks and once they're potty trained they ask to go out every hour (pain in the butt when you don't have a yard)
• They bite your hands/back of your knees and your furniture
• You can't do homework/blog/read often because they bark/whine when you're not paying attention to them
• & the list goes onnnnn...

Now don't get me wrong I love my puppy and I'm never going to give him away, but I have been blindsided these past two months. I have never had a pet, other than a Betta fish, my entire life. I had NO idea how much work/patience/time/dedication he would require. I never thought I'd spend nights crying because the training we're trying just isn't working and I don't know what else to do. I never thought I'd long so badly to sleep in until 10am again.

Also, I now realize why our breeder wasn't happy when she found out that we live in an apartment!  And please take my advice- do not get a puppy if you live in one! These are the reasons why:

• No yard to roam in
• Which means that you have to take them out on a leash every time and pick up the poo every time
• You can't "let them bark it out" because you'll have your neighbors POUNDING on the walls/floors
• Very difficult to get the correct amount of exercise (especially in the winter where it snows). No exercise = very aggressive puppy. We can't take him for walks because the sidewalks aren't shoveled and it's 5 degrees outside. We've had to resort to walking him through our apartment building up and down the stairs numerous times a day
• He has to sleep in our room at night (big no-no when they're young), because again we can't let him bark it out

I wish that we would have thought about these things before we decided to get a puppy, because it would've been a lot easier to wait until we were living in a house.

However, I also never thought I'd love something (other than a human) so much. Keeshond's are known to be extremely intelligent dogs and believe me Duke really is. He tells us when he has to go outside, he sits on command, he lays, he's starting to come, and he's getting really good at walking on a leash. He's just too smart. He knows that asking to go outside means that he can eat the snow and play. He knows that biting behind my knees means that I'll give him attention. But he's just so.damn.adorable. Seriously.

I'm so happy that we decided to get a puppy before deciding to have a child because the best thing that has come from this is that we know for sure that we are not ready and that we will definitely be sticking to our five year (or more) plan!

If anyone has any recommendations (books, websites, YouTube videos) don't be afraid to send them my way!