Decorating on a low budget!

Hello everyone, so today I just wanted to briefly talk about decorating and maximizing your bucks when on a low budget.

I like to describe my decorating style as vintage/industrial with a little bit of modern. I like things here and there and like to put it together and try it out!

So my husband and I are at this apartment, and well we can paint walls, but if we want to leave when our lease is up then we have to paint it back. So maybe no painting will happen, but that does not mean that I wont hang up art work. Either way I decided I should try and at least make this place look some what decent. A bunch of the furniture pieces I have were all hand me downs, or found at garage sales.

For example our huge couch we bought off a couple that was moving away.

Any who I like to play with shapes,sizes,textures and color and I love for a room to be well lit, can't stand to sit in a room and it feel gloomy. So I am going to post some pictures of my living room which I am still working on. I have an area rug that was given to us, that I need to clean and then put down, and I need to still hang up some art work, and pictures. Either way here is my working progress.

Angle one of living room: This was the best angle where I could get most of the living room.

Here I have what I believe was a laundry chest, I am as of now using it for a coffee table
Laundry chest: Garage sale: $10.00
Tray: Gift
Burlap curtain that I made, and am using for decoration for now: $7.00
Decoration balls: $7.00 for a bag of 10
Hurricane Glass Vase from Marshall's: $9.99
Ceramic art piece: I made it
Moss inside vase: left over from my wedding
Candle from Walmart: $5.00 

Two Trunks from a garage sale: $10.00
Fill able Lamp from Target: $15.00
Candle vase wire decor from Kirkland's: $7.00
Picture of my sister and I: Priceless
I am using an old picture frame as a tray

Accent pillows are a must!
Yellow pillows from Marshall's: 2 for $19.99
The beige pillow one that I had from college
Fill able Lamp + Shade from Target: $25.00
Art Piece from T.J. Maxx: $5.00
Side table: Gift

I plan on taking one of my trucks and adding some industrial looking wheels to it, to turn that into my coffee table. Either way so far for this look I have spent about $121.00 not counting the sofa.

I must say so far so good!

In celebration

Today marks the day my husband and I said our "I Do's"

So in celebration of this wonderful day I decided to blog about our love story, our love story is kind of a mess, but a good mess.

Ray and I met in June of 2009 in Holland Michigan, where we were at a youth convention.

We had mutual friends and that is how we met each other. I met him and honestly was not attracted, I even thought he was a little bit on the creepy side (poor dude). Everytime I would turn around that week, his face was like everywhere hahhaa, I crack up because he knows what I mean and those who know him, know his sense of humor. Either way we began to talk as friend and the last day when everyone was parting ways to go back home, he asked me for my phone number. My answer....

"NO I don't just give it out my phone number to guys" (ouch that kind of hurt him well to a guy's ego anyway). He then also told me that he and a bunch of friends were going to go out to eat that night if I wanted to come. I had told him I will see since I am with other people I can not just go. (Intimately I really wanted to go, because some good friends of mine were going to be there as well, and I would not be able to see them for a while, and also I kind of wanted to get to know this guy a little bit more.) I did not go, so I called up my friend and told her that we were not going to be able to go, and if she could tell Ray that I was sorry. Meanwhile I am thinking how I did want to get to know him more, and form a friendship with him. At this point I never intended to speak or see Ray again, or at least not until the next youth convention, and that is if he were to go. Ray was from Aurora, Illinois and me from Tennessee. When I got home that weekend I did something that I never thought I would do, because I am just not like that. I went onto myspace when that was the big social network, and looked him up. I sent him a friend request, and also messaged him my phone number. Side note, I was never the type of girl in high school to go up to guys and let them know I liked them, or even show the slightest bit of interest to the ones that I had crushes on. I am pretty sure the guys I had crushes on in high school never knew. Any way a little bit after I sent him my number I receive the phone call. I remember our first phone calls would last like 3 hours long. What could we possibly have talked about for that long?! Hahaha but let me say every time we spoke over the phone, the time felt like it flew by. So weeks went by and our long distance friendship got stronger and stronger. Then little by little I started to like this guy, mind you I had never had a boyfriend before this. "I have always had this idea that why would I get involved with someone that was not going to be there for the long run."(that is just me) So I started to like him, and I already knew that he kind of liked me, or he would have never asked me for my phone number. So in the month of July or September can not exactly remember I want to say more July because it was before the fall semester of college. That month I went to Illinois to go visit my good friends, and I told Ray that I was going to be over there, that maybe we could meet up. When I got there I was hanging out with my friends and then I get the call from him and see if we could meet up. So we did, we actually hung out a few times while I was there.

Then came the day, I was staying at my friends Shari's house that night and we decided we would go to Olive Garden and I asked Shari to go with me, because I felt weird going alone with Ray, I did not want it to feel awkward. So the three of us went. When we got back to her house more like her parents house. Ray tells me if he can talk to me that he wanted to tell me something, and I am like ok. Well time is ticking away and it is getting later and later, and he still has not told me what he was going to tell me. I tell him come on dude tell me, this is not my house I felt so embarrassed it was already like 1:00 a.m. So then finally he say's it. "I really like you and was wondering if we can try talking to each other more than just friends type of way." So I say in an awkward voice because I have never done this before and I was totally blushing at that moment "Yea I would like that, I like you too." So then he gets something out of his car and it is a gift that he already had gotten for me.

In October that year, I went back to Illinois, and Ray asked my parents if I could be his girlfriend and if they would give the approval for us to date (courtship). I thought that was like the sweetest thing ever. I then met his parents, and had dinner with them. It was nice so we were finally boyfriend and girlfriend. Let me just say the whole time this is going on, I had prayed and prayed about this relationship. God gave me all the thumbs up to go for it.

 Little did I know what was going to come next. In the year of 2011 in the month of February Ray decides that this long distance relationship was too much, and that he hated the fact that we could not be together like normal couples. So thing were ended right then. It was horrible because it was right before valentines day, and I was already planning something big for us to do. So then that did not work out. I was heart broken and was like why did this happen, if I knew he was the "One" we both had prayed and God had let us know that we were the one's for each other, we had received confirmation about our relationship. I am now like wait a min. why did Ray have to do this. Like I always say God has everything under control and He knows what he is doing. Ray still needed some growing up to do in the sense of the relationship, he still at the time did not know what he wanted. I kept on praying, because what God had for me no one could take away. In the month of June we once again met up, we actually had seen each other before that in I believe April. Either way this time Ray decided he wanted to talk to me privately he apologizes for everything that he did, and that he missed me. I then tell him, that if I am to go back into this relationship it has to be for real no more playing around. He definatley showed me he was for real when he surprised me in the month of September of 2011 and moved here to TN! One of the most memorable day's ever, and then in November...
He takes me to this overlook and dadadaaaa, I see him get on one knee, and he pulls out a little black box, and I hear the words...
"WILL YOU MARRY ME?"
This was more romantic then it sounds, but the post is getting long.
I was so giddy and excited truly such a wonderful moment in my life. Then on August 11,2012 Ray and I walked up in front of our family and friends and under the will of God and said our vows.
Every moment has been a blessing with this man. Yes we have our arguments, and there are day's where I would sometimes like to give up, but then I remember in the Good and bad till death do us part a vow we did to God and to ourselves. Then at the end of the day, it is always worth fighting for when you are with the one you love. My love is you Ray Efrain Nino.
You have totally been worth the wait.

 When we first met

Our Engagement

Our wedding

 

  Honey Moon

1 Year Anniversay



Post pregnancy weight loss journey, it's crazy!

So lately I have been like "oh my gosh how will I loose all this weight that I gained during my pregnancy?!" I gained about 26lbs. during this pregnancy, and before that with my first pregnancy I had also gained a bit of weight that I did not loose entirely before getting pregnant again. Any who let's just say a total weight gain of like 35lb. Now during my pregnancy I tried to be a fit pregnant mama but it was not always easy. I did work with kids so that helped and I would try and do some exercises with them all the time, but even I know that was not enough. The doctors and nurses say that I did good with the whole weight issue but to me i feel so not comfortable.  Before my six week appointment with the Doc. I actually started walking and having some light paced jogs, "I know, I know I should not have done that." Well needless to say the doctor told me I was fine at my check up. I'm sorry I just really wanted to start walking again and let me say it felt so good. Either way a few weeks ago, I tried on a pair of my favorite jeans and they would barely even go up! Uck it was like the worst feeling for me, because prior to all of this I had worked so hard to loose weight and I did loose it, but yea it took work. So now having this feeling of man my clothes don't fit, and I honestly don't want to use that as an excuse to buy new clothes.  So back to the part where I have been working out, I have started working out again. I try to walk at least 3/4 times a week and then I do some ab work and some weights. Yesterday July 31,2014 I tried those same pair of skinny jeans again, they went all the way up and buttoned. Now I still have a huge muffin top and would never wear these pants in public yet, no one needs their eyes tortured by that scene. However it made me so happy that they buttoned, where as before they would not even go passed my thighs! "Yippee" I literally came out of my room to the living room and started dancing and jumping up in down in front of my husband, he just looked at me like (go back to the room and stop acting so dumb (sarcastic voice)). I don't know about other ladies out there but this was a huge deal to me, it made me very proud of myself. I don't think men understand this concept. Now I am not trying to loose weight so I can be skinny, I am doing this to get back to my healthy weight and be fit and in shape. I want to feel comfortable in my own skin again. I am slowly getting there and it feels wonderful. Once I can I will post some before and after pictures. I already started taking them. If anyone who reads this wants to give me your opinion or some secrets on weight loss or good exercises please feel free to share with me.

Yours truly,
DREAL keeping it real