IKEA partners with Amazon in 2018

Raise your hand if you love IKEA as much as I do. Affordable furniture that is well designed and (mostly) reliable. The only problem is that the majority of us do not have access to IKEA stores, and only certain products can be shipped at an incredibly high shipping price. 

Thanks to my daily update on Apartment Therapy, I learned that IKEA has announced they are going to start partnering with Amazon in the coming year. What does that mean for Prime members? FREE shipping on IKEA products. Right to your doorstep. 

The news is just TOO good not to share. 

Want to read more? 

Head over to Apartment Therapy. 

debt free and thirty

Last month I logged into my Barclay card account and made the biggest payment I have made yet. EIGHT thousand dollars. I held my breath and transferred the money over from my savings to my credit card. I never thought I would have debt, and then I never imagined I'd be in a place where I could pay off all of my debt at once. But, did I make the best decision? 

I immediately regretted my decision after I pushed the "send" button on my computer screen. My new camera was now paid off.. my computer was now paid off.. all of my incurred debt from the divorce, moving, traveling... all. paid off. Why did I regret that decision? I knew I wouldn't be getting paid again for another month, I only had $500 left in my bank account to last me the remainder of the month.. and I hadn't been budgeting well lately. 

Has anyone ever told you how good it feels to pay off all of your debt? SO GOOD. 

No matter how good it felt,  the following month of my life was a bit of an explosion in terms of my finances. Bills came in that I was not expecting. My credit card expired so I could no longer put daily items on it to pay off when invoices are paid.. causing me to overdraft my bank account. My phone fell in a tub of lemonade and died, so I was without a phone for 3 weeks.. you get the picture. My health insurance company (hi Humana) called me ( as I was walking into the doctor's office) to tell me they were not going to pay for my appointment with Dr. Francomano in Baltimore.  Unforeseen circumstances knocked me off my rocker in a big way. 

Over the past 30 days I have been elated (I PAID OFF MY DEBT! WHAA!!!! ALL BY MYSELF!!), embarrassed (trying to check out at the grocery store and having your debit card rejected as well as over-drafting TWICE on my bank account), stressed wondering when my clients would pay their invoices, and proud of myself for being able to do whatever I want with my finances from here forward. 

From it all I have learned one big lesson : I have got to start budgeting better. Being a freelancer makes your income somewhat unpredictable. My calendar is blank for August and September, meaning I need to make the money I have right now last me all summer long. If I can pay off my debt in 6 months, then I can make my finances stretch the summer months. I am going to start researching different ways to help me make my budgeting system better.. I must budget for my personal finances AND my business, and I am working with my sister to re-work the marketing for my business. I am taking steps to make sure a month like last month doesn't happen again. I am going to set financial goals, start saving for those goals and I am going to try to trim the fat off of my spending. 

Here's to living debt free for the following thirty years, and learning how to be smart with the money I make. It's going to be a fun ride. 

Three Hundred Square Foot Jade Cottage Tiny Home In Savannah, Georgia

If you know me at all, you know I have had a little bit of an obsession with tiny house living since I discovered it was a possibility over 9 years ago. Since then I have lived in almost every form of home: ranch, loft, rentals, fixer-uppers and I even bought a house! 

It seemed like a really far-off possibility until I left my marriage and needed an affordable and safe place to live in Savannah while I re-grouped my life. After almost giving up home I'd be able to find a place I could afford, this little cottage was listed on Craigslist and I immediately bit.. six months later, and I am still calling this little cottage home with waverly, dakota and nova-luna. 

The photos were taken in February, and things have been arranged-and-rearranged since then, but they are basically the same. I have spent a lot of time and energy sculpting my space into a space that is easy to clean, easy to arrange, requires little thought about cleaning, and one that makes me feel happy and alive. The products and art that I have chosen aren't by chance, and have been chosen based upon their affordability.. mostly I have just gotten rid of a lot of things I don't need and have kept the things that enhance my life. 

As Marie Kondo says, only the things that "spark joy" remain.  Shall we tour? 

The cottage has been thoughtfully laid out and is one of the most space efficient tiny spaces I've ever been inside! When you walk in the front door you are met with the the entirety of the cottage (minus the laundry/bathroom/closet), but the kitchen is directly in front of you. We will start there:

The art on the kitchen walls is by my talented friend Allie Lehman. The fridge is littered with client letters, Christmas cards, developed film and far away friends. 

There is a small stovetop with a little oven underneath that suits me perfectly. All of the drawers have been organized following Marie Kondo's Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up  , which I will be sharing lots more of soon!

Tunes are kept playing in the cottage thanks to my free record player I scored in Nashville from Third Man Records , and I keep local magazines like Savannah and South for guests to read while I cook. 

If you look further down the wall that houses the fridge and record player, you'll find a couch I made from a score on craigslist + cushions I upholstered and found at thrift stores and ikea. The wall above the couch is littered with art from Emily Jeffords, Britt Bass, Teil Duncan, Hillary Butler, KATE Waddell, my sister and myself. 

The art above my bed was a sweet gift from Linen and Leaf , the macramé prayer flags over my bed are a gift from Be With Heart  , the small yellow and white weaving is from Hazel and Scout, and the other various things in my home are most likely finds from thrift stores, from Ikea, made by myself and/or gifts from friends! 

5 Things I Learned During My Week (s) Without A Phone

It was one of those days. You know, where nothing seems to go right and it always rains when you walk out the door. On the way from Carrboro to Savannah Nova-Luna bolted from the back of my little honda element to the front passenger's seat. On her way she dug her claws in an extra-large cup from Chick-Fil-A  filled with lemonade. The hole in the cup made the lemonade spill all throughout my center cup holder. What once held cups for my  trip soon held a big pool of lemonade. 

Several hours later, after getting off the phone with my mom and forgetting to clip back the bottom charger port on my life-proof (NOT) case, my phone silently slipped off my lap and into the moat of lemonade. Thus ruining my refurbished replacement (from dropping my i phone in the dog's water bowl) i phone. With my cell-phone-replacement-funds fresh out of cash, I find myself without a cell phone. 

Now, i phone texts still show up on my computer, so I am not cut of completely.. but it's enough to cause a pretty big shift in my day-to-day existence. I've learned a lot while I have been withoutmy always handy GPS, social media stalking, bank account status, music playing device.. lucky for you I've narrowed it down to Five takeaways for you:

1. social media can wait: 

The first and foremost nugget of truth I am keeping in my pocket from this period is this " social media can wait". I have already cut out facebook, no longer use snap chat or twitter, and prefer to keep my attention turned towards instagram. You cannot use instagram without a phone. 

I realized that I am normally checking in on intagram when:

• i am bored
• i am in a boring conversation
• i am overwhelmed and exhausted
• i feel awkward
• i feel like i'm missing out
• i get stressed that i am not booking work
• any other situations where I want to occupy my brain with something other than the present 

On average, I'd say instagram normally takes up an average of 1-2 hours a day of my attention and focus. Since not having my phone, I have checked into instagram twice on my computer, and only stayed on it long enough to check my messages. I don't miss it. I don't even know if I ever get any leads/traffic/bookings from instagram. 

I am now questioning whether or not I want to get back into the instagram game when I get a new phone?

2. turn off and tune in: 

Last Sunday, I was at dinner with my parents and I realized I was super annoyed with my dad because he kept checking in on his phone. After I stepped back from the situation, I realized that I would have (and often do) done the same thing my dad did.

When there's a void in conversation and we start to get awkward, what do we do? check our phones.

When you are at a stoplight, what do you do? Check your phone for new leads, new likes, new e mails.. 

When I look around the room at dinner, parties or public places I realize how thankful I am that I dropped my phone in lemonade and am re-training myself to turn off my phone and attention to my phone and tun in to what is going on around me. People are actually really interesting! 

3. your brain still works:

This is quite possibly the most alarming piece I am taking away from this whole phone fast.. my brain works really well. I can get places on my own (without google maps), I can still do simple math (without my calculator), and I can come up with alternative ways of looking up informationinstead of googling every question I have. 

4. cut out the noise: 

Sometimes we just need a break from the constant bombardment of texts, instagram likes, twitter tweets, e mails in your inbox, and voicemails from doctor offices. 

Without my phone I haven't had the opportunity to bring more noise (by way of sound/media/advertisement etc) into my day-to-day. My mind seems clearer since I'm not distracted by communicating with the people that aren't around me.. My thought processing is better, and my ideas are clearer. I would also like to think I am more present in conversations now. 

5. just because it says life-proof, doesn't mean it actually IS life proof. aka take care of your stuff: 

"This is why we can't have nice things" is a phrase I am constantly saying out loud to myself when I break something. I have always been a bargain shopper, but have started allowing for a splurge on something if it is a product that will last me a LONG time and will pay off in the long run. 

This leads me to my point: when you have  nice things, treat them well. Don't let them drop on the ground, don't assume that since it's in a case it's impenetrable by outside forces, and batteries are made to last a while so charge them accordingly. 

I have an e mail out to Huaweh about their new Mate 9, and am saving up money for another replacement.. but in the meantime I am going to enjoy being unreachable, inspired and entirely present in my life. Who knows, I may just end up getting a flip phone and/or a land line!