{ a home office under $500 }

Who doesn't love a good bargain? I know when I find exactly what I'm looking for on Craigslist, for a fraction of what I planned on spending, I am ecstatic. With the move coming up, I've been searching for the perfect sleeper sofa, a full-sized bed, a mid-century coffee table, and a small dining table and chairs on Craigslist, Ebay, and even sometimes Etsy. These are the first major furniture purchases I plan to make, since I don't feel a home is fully functional without them. Or maybe I'm just not fully functional in my home without them, who knows? After these are in place, I plan to find a nook to turn into an awesome little office area for Mark. He started his orientation today for his graduate program and is already talking about the projects he'll be working on. I think the dude needs one of everything I found below in order to make it through these next two years, don't you? The best part is, combined, everything here is under $500!

1. Vintage Desk Lamp // $25 // Etsy

2. Visit the Mountain Print // $49 // Fab

3. Magazine File // $9.99 // Ikea

4. Mid Century Desk // $100 // SF Craigslist

5. Vintage Books // $39.50 // Etsy

6. Retro Office Chair // $70 // Etsy

7. Kilim Area Rug // $120 // Ebay

8. Sleepy Hollow Pencil Cup // $16 // Anthropologie

{ h&m home }

Oh my gosh, you guys! Did you see H&M just released a line of home goods?! This could not have come at a more perfect time for me, since we move into our new place in nine days!

I've never been such a huge H&M fan. You know how it is, ladies, you take a size 4 dress into the dressing room and it's super tight. So you grab a size 6...still tight. So you try a size 8...STILL TIGHT! Next thing you know, you're buying a size 10, when normally, at any other store, you're a 4! It's just bizarre. And of course, you still fit comfortably in the extra small t-shirt. Sheesh, get your sizes right, H&M.

But hey, good news, a pillow doesn't have to fit over your hips! And you don't have to suck in to zip up a candle holder. I think we've finally won the battle here. Check out all of this H&M home goodness!

{ when mama visits }

Mark's mom came to visit us last weekend! Mark and I slept on our squeaky blow-up mattress and his mom slept in our tiny sublet bed. It was like a big slumber party for three nights! And we had the best time ever.

She treated us to lunch at Chez Panisse Cafe, something we definitely couldn't have afforded on our own without jobs. We ate salmon, perfectly baked inside a fig leaf, pizza with wild nettles, and fresh figs, pluots, and huckleberries for dessert. Mhmm, was it delicious.

We went the the Berkeley Botanical Garden and the Berkeley Rose Garden just to check out the pretty flowers. My gosh, I wish I was in charge of coming up with the names for roses. There are Garden Party roses, Summer Breeze roses, Madonna roses, Golden Showers roses (seriously). There are 3,000 rose bushes and over 250 varieties of roses! It was a dream!

It was so nice to have our mama come visit. We really wanted her to fall in love with the area so she'd consider moving here, and I think we succeeded! Even when we were exploring San Francisco, she said she wanted to go back to Berkeley. I think she understood what Mark and I see in this place.

And while we're on the topic of mothers-in-law, I'm just so happy I lucked out with mine. I think it's really important to feel like you're your in-laws' child, too, and I definitely feel that way with Mark's mom. She babies me just as much, if not more, than she babies Mark. She gives me unsolicited advice like any good mom would. She makes sure I'm eating enough, drinking enough water, and always knows that an Anthropologie gift card is much appreciated. We're just lucky kids.

{ spritzers & drinks }

Spritzer? I hardly know her.

Sorry, that may be an inside joke.

It may just not be a joke at all, actually. But, hey, I laughed.

Something you should know about me: I swear off drinking all the time. I swore it off just the other morning, actually. I'm the worst kind of drinker, in the sense that I mix things that shouldn't be mixed. Friday I spent the early afternoon hanging out in the Mission with a friend. We started out with lunch at Craftsman + Wolves. It was after noon, so the hip mustachioed gentleman ringing us up had no business judging us for drinking wine with our yummy sandwiches. Buy hey, that's just, like, my opinion, man.

After lunch, we shopped around, but inevitably found ourselves at another bar, Luna Park. We drank beer into the wee happy hours of the late afternoon, where we found ourselves the lucky recipients of not only 2-for-one drinks, but also of free fondue and Moscow Mules. Oh, Milton from Honduras, you sure do know how to treat a couple of ladies.

After that us girls needed some oysters, sushi, and sake, of course. On to the Castro we went!

We continued back at my friend's house with gin & soda, followed by a cherry from the most paint thinner tasting moonshine, topped off with teeny tiny little sips of said moonshine.

So, to recap - red wine, beer, vodka, sake, gin, moonshine. Well, well, well. I'm quite the dummy, it seems. I was feeling pretty okay until about 4am. I'm sure you can use your imagination about how my night went from there.

This long and ridiculous introduction to a post about fancy booze drinks took a turn I wasn't anticipating, but there you have it. I am an almost 30 year old lady, who still makes the classic high school party beverage error: mixin' booze that shouldn't be mixed. Well, guys, please let me introduce you to some boozy drinks that should be mixed!

Here is a round-up of the most delectable looking spritzers, champagne cocktails, and other various fizzy drinks I should love to sip on. Cheers!

1. Pomegranate and Ginger Spritzer: Drizzle & Dip

2. Blackberry Ginger Smash: Hungry Girl Por Vida

3. Ginger Basil Grapefruit Spritzer: Joylicious

4. The Remembrance Nectar: The Boys Club

5. Blood Orange Sangria: How Sweet It Is

6. Blackberry and Sage Spritzer: Joylicious

7. Watermelon Champagne Cocktail: The Glitter Guide

8. Fruity Boozy Ice Cream Float: Take a Megabite

{ style awhile // 02 }

I know Autumn is not here for most of you guys, but sure feels like Fall here in Northern California. The mornings are very considerate of your eyes and keep things foggy and gray until you wake up enough to want some sunshine. The days are pretty mild, never really quite reaching 70 degrees, but warm enough to just feel comfortable in whatever you're wearing. I've felt okay in a sleeveless dress and flats, and also fine in corduroys and Minnetonka boots. It's like this perfect magic weather that lets you wear what your heart desires every day. So, with that being said, I've put together my second Style Awhile installment. Here is my perfect Autumn outfit wishlist.

1. Cropped Hooded Anorak: Anthropologie

2. Floral Top with Contrasting Collar: Zara

3. Over-the-knee Ribbed Socks: Madewell

4. Mink Pink Honey on My Mind Skirt: ModCloth

5. Jack Rogers Hudson Bootie: Nordstrom 

{ 350 square feet of life }

I'm not going to say living in a tiny cramped space is necessarily bad, but I will admit it does have its downfalls.

Source: Decoholic

My mornings in this teeny tiny studio consist of me waking up, tiptoeing around my sleeping husband, making coffee, and sitting at the desk to quietly read blogs and write things until he wakes up. Luckily this husband is one of those nice ones who never gets mad when you drop your spoon in a clanging fashion or accidentally click on a website that plays loud music. He just laughs and falls back asleep. Not everyone is so lucky, I know this.

While admitting to the difficulties, I think I've discovered a few solutions to making it more manageable. So, what do I recommend to help alleviate some of the troublesome woe is me's of studio apartment living? Here are six tips to help make living in a studio apartment bearable.

#1. Make your bed every day.

Even the smallest bit of untidiness seems like a giant mess in a studio apartment, but by making your bed every morning, you'll keep your space from looking like a pigsty.

#2. Be over-organized.

Organization is key to keeping your sanity in a small space. Keep your desk chair pushed in, your dirty clothes in the laundry hamper where they belong, clean clothes immediately folded or hung up after washing, books on the bookshelf, shoes on the shoe rack, receipts in the receipt box. You get what I'm sayin'.

#3. Invest in some storage friendly furniture.

One of these over-the-toilet bathroom shelves would certainly come in handy for storing your toiletries, makeup, towels, wash cloths, cleaning supplies, and whatever else you can fit. I like the ones with the small cabinets as opposed to just the wire shelves so things look less cluttered. One of those ottomans that opens up so you can store extra blankets and things works well, too. Over-the-door organizers are a lifesaver, as well. You can use them to store your shoes, socks, scarves and hats.

#4. Store things out of plain sight wherever you can.

Under your bed is the best place to store things like shoes, extra bedding, ummm...actually anything that fits under there. Your oven, when you're not using it, of course, can double as a storage space for extra dishware. The luggage you have just chillin' in your closet is a great place to stow away off-season clothing.

#5. Don't overbuy.

Since you don't have a lot of space, it's not to your benefit to buy the huge pack of toilet paper or family-sized anything, really. Don't worry, you're probably saving hundreds of dollars on rent each month, you don't need to worry about how you're not saving 20 cents on the price per ounce.

#6. Get a few good wears out of your clothes before washing.

This is more a time and money saver tip, but chances are if you're living in a studio apartment, you're like us and are doing so because of budgetary reasons and not because you love using your bed as a dining room table. Anyway, I really scrutinize each piece of clothing as I undress each night. Does it really need to be washed? Is it dirty? Did I spill anything on it? Does it smell funky? If the answer is no to all four questions, I hang it right back up. No reason lugging it all the way to the laundromat if I don't really need to, right?

So there you have it. Six tips to making your teeny tiny space work for you! Now get out of that apartment and take a walk!

{ are we here to stay? }

Well, we made it! And I'm happy to report, it seems we're pretty much in love with this town. Our keys love it too, see?

We settled into our teeny tiny 350 square foot sublet on Friday morning, and are here to stay for the next six weeks. We figured it would be better to rent short term than jump into a one year lease in an unfamiliar neighborhood, city, and state. The neighborhood we're calling our temporary home is called Elmwood, which is considered South Berkeley. The apartment is oh so conveniently located between a super cute stretch of Berkeley restaurants, bars, and shops and a super cute stretch of Oakland restaurants, bars, and shops. We get the best of both worlds and its pretty awesome.

After enjoying a few too many of the Bay Area's delicious restaurants these past few days, we decided a quick trip to the grocery store was in order. That mini fridge was just begging to be stocked! So we walked (walked!) to Trader Joe's for our staples (cereal, almond milk, english muffins, eggs) then headed over to the produce market to pick up some grapes, avocados, and tomatoes. Then we wandered over to the butcher shop. We didn't buy anything there, but we could have! And then we hit up the bakery for some fresh bread. From there we could have gotten beer or wine from the liquor store, some ice cream from the creamery, some toothpaste from the pharmacy or dropped in on an impromptu yoga class. My point is, all of this stuff is within walking distance from our apartment! This is a big deal to me, guys. I've wanted to be able to do this my whole life!

Today we're off to look at an apartment that we might be able to call home for the next two years. I'll be so happy if that's the case because as soon as we settle down we can send for our puppy! I don't know about you, but my house never quite feels like home until I have tumbleweeds of dog hair in every corner.

Wish us luck!