BOOK CLUB // FEBRUARY
We finally picked a book for February book club! Last month, Courtney told you all about #SSHEARTBOOKCLUB and today we start! Take it away Courtney...
Hello lovelies!!
I'm super excited to read our first S.S. Heart Bookclub book! This is one I have been looking forward to. A little mystery, a little history and of course a little love story! Laura and I thought it would be good for February and Valentine's Day is just around the corner!
The book we have chosen is, The Girl You Left Behind by JoJo Moyes.
The book is about two women, in two different centuries who fight for what they love! One woman is the feature in a painting that is gifted to the second a century later. As the recipient of this painting tries to discover "the girl in the paintings" history, she is tested in what she truly believes in.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts as we read along together!
- Courtney
We hope that you would join us in this...because come on, a two person book club is laaaaaame. So please be our friend and read this book and we'll be back to discuss it at the end of the month!!!!
xoxo,
s.s.♥︎.
OUR HOME // SUITE (BEFORE & AFTER
I'm kicking myself here. You know when you get an awesome hair cut and you wish you had taken a photo right before because you wanted to show the world (aka instagram) how transformed you look?? It happens to me ALL THE TIME...or twice a year when I get my hair cut. lols. (I did just get 8 inches off and forgot to take a before photo! Insert hand to forehead emoticon girl)
Well that's what has happened with our dear suite. No before photos...SO TRAGIC....but JUST KIDDING.....I checked the MLS listing...yahoooo there are photos!!!
When we were looking for houses we needed to find one with a suite. This one miraculously had 3 bedrooms upstairs and a 1 bedroom suite. We were STOKED. Our first plan of attack on the house was making the walls in the main living area smooth (worst job ever.) and then refinishing the hardwood floors. After those two were done, our plan was to GET THE SUITE DONZO. We wanted to get a renter in ASAP and start making some $$$.
We ended up putting a lot more work into the suite than I thought we would have. Before we moved in it was pretty ghetto. Old stained carpets, ugly stained vinyl in the kitchen and bathroom, gross paint on the walls, nasty vanity in the bathroom....you get the gist right?
So James went to work on it. He patched and painted the whole thing, installed new flooring throughout, put in new baseboard, installed light fixtures, put in a new vanity, installed new bathroom flooring and a new toilet and my brother in law did a ton of electrical work (thanks Mike!!!)- fan in the bathroom, new baseboard heater, new electrical plates (which make a WORLD of difference) and I'm sure there is more stuff I'm forgetting!!
James had the brilliant idea of turning the one bedroom suite into a bachelor. That way we don't lose our whole basement and can have a student in that spare bedroom. HELLO GENIUS!
So we did some working and turned it into a bachelor! What do ya think???
WORLD OF DIFFERENCE HEY??? We'd love to transform that kitchen but hey, you can only do so much in your rental. How beautiful is that flooring? I'm loving how wide the planks are.
So the suite is done and our new tenant is moving in February 1st...what a WHIRLWIND!
We have a few more renos upstairs but right now I'm trying to focus on unpacking and organizing the place...which sounds a lot more fun than it is..ha
Happy Wednesday friends!
s.s.♥︎.
SUNDAY STILL // 9
Your love is devoted like a ring of solid gold
Like a vow that is tested like a covenant of old
Your love is enduring through the winter rain
And beyond the horizon with mercy for today
-Ever Be, Bethel Music
Happy Sunday,
xo.
s.s.♥︎.
OUR HOME // DINING ROOM (BEFORE)
Time for another house post!!! Today, we're chatting the dining room. Oh the dining room. This room is an important one for me. When we were looking we had to say no to soooo many houses because of their lack of a dining room. I just can't do an eat in kitchen.
I love people and I love food and the combination of people and food gets this heart a sparkling! Dinner parties are my jam (remember when I had 15 family members over for Thanksgiving?) So obviously, a dining space was very critical!!
The open living/dining concept really won me over in this house.
p.s. how awesome is that credenza china cabinet? So wish they left us that and not the junky desk to the left...
And there's a sneak peek into our kitchen! We will be getting some MAJOR work done later in the year.
Again, I'm so thankful for the huge window in the dining room...(yay for light for recipe post photos!!) And the dining room is actually pretty large. We moved our piano and our big table in and it still feels roomy. We also hung curtains tonight...booyah.
So what I'm hoping to do in the dining room is bring in some plants like the inspiring photo up top! Lighting is also a HUUUUUGGGEEE thing aka that fan has got to go.
Now here's what's inspiring me....
We have a table, chairs and a beautiful bench that our friend, Benson made us. But we need to paint some chairs...I'm loving that pink chair above.
We're on the hunt for an awesome chandelier/pendant and potentially a rug. How awesome are those rose gold pendants?
Here's a photo I took of the dining space mid renos....
WHAT A DIFFERENCE WHITE PAINT MAKES HEEEEEEYYYY!!!!!
So there you have it, the dining room before and inspiration.
Incase you missed it...
Happy Friday!
xo,
s.s.♥︎.
BUDGETING 101 + DEBT ATTACK PLAN
So on Monday I shared with you why I started budgeting and how it got me outta debt and today I will share with you how exactly I got started on that budgeting. But I just wanted to give you a little disclaimer...I'm NO financial expert. I'm just a girl who was in a fickle and instead of continuing to bury my head in the sand, I surrendered my finances to Jesus, stopped overspending, worked my butt off and got out of debt.
I came across this verse a couple weeks back and it so has to do with my one word for the year (which I'm going to be sharing next week!!!) but this is why I'm being so open about my financial history.....
"He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us." -2 Corinthians 1 MSG
God set me free from financial stress and shame and I want to do what I can to come alongside you!
So now on to the practical...
As I mentioned on Monday, my friend pointed me to Dave Ramsey. I heavily creeped his website and made a plan from his tips and wealth of knowledge. Here was what I took to heart.
- Be accountable to every single dollar you make AKA you should know where every single dollar of your income goes to.
- Make a budget and stick to it no matter what!
When it comes to paying off debt on credit cards, attack the card with the lowest balance first and pay the minimum payment on the higher one. Once your lower balance card is paid off, put all efforts into paying off the other one.
The thing I really loved about Dave Ramsey's advice is the whole being accountable to every dollar that you make. How often is it that we get our monthly statement and we're all like ughhhh, where did my money go??!!?
He has a free budget calculator that helps you work out your budget. Below is a screenshot of an example of someone who makes 3000/month.
James and I use a different budgeting system which I will share on the next budgeting post but this one definitely helped me out as a single girl.
Every time I got paid I would enter it into this budget calculator and then adjust the tabs as to what were my expenses for the next two weeks. I recorded how much I had allotted for each category into a mini moleskine and I carried that moleskine everywhere with me.
If I had any left over dollars, I would use it to pay off the credit card that I was attacking (ie. if I only used $80 for food and had allotted $100, I would make an extra credit card payment of $20). The whole point was to know where every single dollar was going. If I wanted to buy something but I didn't have enough in the category, I would figure out if I could move the money over from a different category (ie. say I wanted 10 more dollars for personal spending...I'd look through my categories and see if I could take it from something like gas $).
It was an intense method but it worked for me! What I like about budgeting is, it sets boundaries on where you're spending your money. It doesn't mean you can never buy shoes again, it means you can if you properly plan. If I wanted to buy something more expensive I would withdrawal my clothing money for that period and put it aside until the next period when I could combine it with my next month's clothing budget.
I followed this rigidly for 10 months and after the 10 months I was completely DEBT FREE! If you have any questions, let me know! Again, I'm no financial expert but I will try my best to answer your questions!
And for those of you who are asleep....tomorrow I'm sharing the plans for my dining room so get pumped!!!
stay gold,
s.s.♥︎.