Office Reveal

I am so excited to finally share my newly decorated office! I wish I had a before picture of this room when we bought our house.  It was clearly at one time a young girls room, with pink wallpaper, along with striped wallpaper on another wall, and I can't forget the duck border!  The previous owners were in the process of redoing the room, the flooring was nonexistent, only the subfloor boards were present, and they had started removing the wallpaper, but hadn't done much.  It was the room in the house that needed the most love, we quickly put new flooring in and finished removing the wallpaper and painted the room (with the help of my lovely mom) but it remained empty for awhile.  That is until my husband brought this home for me! 

I had been talking about wanting this type of desk for about a week or so, when he took it upon himself to look for one at our local university surplus store, and bring it home, I was so excited and quickly got to work on it.  After a lot of sanding, priming, staining and painting (the top) applying a top coat and replacing the handles it finally became the desk I had envisioned, and I absolutely love it!  The chair started out as the same color as the desk, by that point I was kind of over the whole sanding process, so I simply primed it, painted it and then applied several top coat.  All in all, the project cost around $75 (Desk-$25, Chair-$25, Handles-$12, Paint-$15, I already had the top coat from another project)  I actually enjoy going in this room now, and it definitely motivates me to do school work!  I finished the office a little over a month ago, right before my new term at WGU was scheduled to begin, I needed a space that enabled me to study and really be able to concentrate and focus without any disruptions, and a place to take my proctored exams, and it couldn't be more perfect!  Since today is the last day of the first month of my new term, I decided it would be appropriate to share it.  I hope you like it as much as I do! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today is my husband and I's first Valentines Day together as husband and wife! And I'm pretty sure I have the sweetest hubby in the world! =) Yesterday he surprised me with a beautiful blue orchid that's almost as tall as I am! Okay, I may be exaggerating a little, but it does come up to my waist.  And a gorgeous potted pink oriental lily (It will be exceptionally gorgeous when it opens up) and a WIFE card! My very first wife card ever, with the most simple, yet sweetest message.  He used to say I'm hard to surprise...psh, that must have just been an excuse because he's been doing a pretty good job of it lately.  And it seems that he has been paying close attention, I've had my eye on an orchid for a long time, and lilies are my favorite flower! I also prefer potted flowers over bouquets. Don't get me wrong, I love bouquets...A little too much, I keep them way longer than I should because it's hard for me to throw them away...That's probably why I still have petals from the very first bouquet he ever got me (for Valentines day, if I remember correctly, stored away safely in the safe.  And why I didn't want real flowers at our wedding (with an exception to our palm trees!...But that's now a flower) Maybe he got sick of looking at wilted flowers for weeks at a time in the past, what ever the reason, good plan baby, I'll try my hardest to keep these alive! I couldn't ask for a better husband to spend my life with, through everything he is the one person I can ALWAYS rely on to bring a smile to my face, he is a real man who knows how to treat and take care of his lady, but is also not afraid to be sweet and affectionate at times, he is a genuinely great guy and I know I can always count on him, he really is simply amazing, and I sure am very lucky to be his wife! 

Now, I just have to share a picture of my flowers! I'll be sure to post another one of the lily when it opens up. 

   I'm going to leave you with a few of my favorite quotes that seem appropriate on Valentines Day!
 

“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” 
– Robert A. Heinlein

“I love you, not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.” 
– Roy Croft

“In the arithmetic of love, one plus one equals everything, and two minus one equals nothing.”
–

Mignon McLaughlin

WGU Refer a Friend / Application Cost Reducer

In honor of officially passing my first course for my current term at WGU today, I would like to assist others who are interested in furthering their education at WGU! For the next week I will provide a referral to my subscribers who are interested in attending WGU, but are a little turned off by the $65 application fee.  What this referral does, is give you a $40 discount, making your application fee only $25!  

You are eligible for this referral if:
     -You Subscribe to my blog (if you don't, you can subscribe now :))
     -You have not attended or applied to WGU in the past
     -You are willing to provide me with your first and last name and e-mail address (I submit the referral directly to WGU, they will then send you an e-mail with instructions on how to apply using the referral)

To learn more about WGU please visit www.wgu.edu.

To express your interest you may leave a comment or e-mail me at sosouthernstyle@gmail.com

Please feel free to pass this on to your friends and family, or even pin the image below so others can take advantage of saving money, and pursuing their dreams of earning their degree!

I am in no way affiliated with WGU, I am simply a current student. When I applied someone graciously provided me with a referral, which caused my application fee to be waived=FREE! And I simply want to pay the favor forward, because I know how grateful I was.  Unfortunately, they have since changed that and no longer completely waive the fee, but you can't really complain about a $45 savings!

Guest Bathroom Makeover!

Our guest bathroom was one of those projects that kept getting put on the backburner. As ugly as it was, it was after all functional, and it wasn't terrible, just not my style at all. I finally recently completed its makeover-paint, a few Pieces of recycled wood, new towels and other decor items we got for Christmas, and I'm pretty satisfied with the way it turned out for little money and a days work.

Here's the before...

And here's the after...

Please ignore the bad quality of the photos. I took them on my phone, and though the walls look a little green in the after picture, they're actually a dark tan/light brown, I used Behr 'Etheopia' paint. I used wood from a recycled pallet to frame the mirror and add a shelf, gave it a couple thin coats of white paint, but not too much because I wanted to still be able to see some of the detail in the wood. I also gave the sink a faux-granite makeover!  I used craft paints that I purchased at Michaels, and a pack of sea sponges (also purchased at Michaels)as you can see in the before photo, the sink top was already white, but I sanded it, primed it...ok to be honest when I got ready to start on the project I grabbed my bucket of primer, and opened it up, only to find that it wasn't any good, to save a 45 minute trip into town I decided to use while ceiling paint I had on hand as a primer, after it dried I got busy sponging on my different colors of craft paint until I acheived the look I wanted, and then applied several coats of a polyacrylic.  All in all, I'm happy with the end result, In my opinion it's a pretty big improvement from the way it was before.  If you have any questions please feel free to post a comment and I'll be happy to answer them the best I can!