Current Bedroom Tour

 Hello friends! 

I've recently been obsessed with making my bedroom look perfect. I still live with my parents at this moment in time, so my bedroom is all I have to decorate. 

I painted my own room in 2011 for the first time: dark blue walls and a British Flag on the big wall. I do admit, it was...strange because I'm American, but I loved everything British at that time. IT WAS A PHASE OKAY?! But it was actually a huge hit when people visited and it became who I was. "Megan with a British room". I worked so darn hard on it and I was all by myself doing it, so I loved when people thought it was cool. Also, shoutout to my parents for giving me artistic freedom for that. I didn't know how lucky I was until now!

Then I turned 26. I was so tired of the dark walls and it was just so not me anymore. I mean, One Direction will always be in my heart, but my flag wall had run it's course. I looked online and knew right away what I wanted:

WHITE WALLS! HOW POSH!

I decided on white semi gloss walls with pink and gold accents all around. And when I sound smart and say "white semi gloss", I really meant "I HAD NO IDEA WHAT PAINT TO CHOOSE SO I CHOSE THE ONE THAT WAS THE CHEAPEST."

I honestly had no idea what in the world I was doing (primer? We need primer?) and it took about 3 coats and 5 coats for the flag wall. By the end, I have given up and never wanted to be a painter ever again. Thank God for my friend Ashley who came and helped because I don't like ladders...so....I made Ashley paint the really high part with the ladder. LOVE YOU, ASHLEY!

I bought all new furniture, except for my dresser, and I made sure it was all white (with the occasional gold). All in all, I worked so hard on my new room. The painting on the walls isn't perfect, but I'm over that now because I am now trying my best to make my room look professional/posh/minimalist/comfy. 

Well, I've never been a minimalist, so I really shouldn't say that....

I can't explain it, but my bedroom is a piece of me and I take pride on making it look nice. 

So, I decided to let you guys see some pictures of my room (that I am, astonishingly, still working on). But people on Snapchat liked the bedroom pictures, so I thought I'd share them here, too! Just a PSA, my room is pretty small but I pack it a bit...so I'm not showing everything, just my favorite parts!

(My picture wall with a Twilight Eclipse picture, a Little Women quote, a mental health quote, and a Harry Styles collage made by my friend Ruaa!) (I also decorated my bookshelf for Easter, hence the garland)

(I had been looking high and low for a mirror tray and my friend Desiree found the PERFECT one for me! I added my Chanel lipstick, some gold rings, my engraved pocket mirror, and some tiny crystals with gold leaf on them)

(My favorite part of my room: my bookcases The small one under the mirror is my books I haven't read, the tall case is all the books I read and liked enough to keep. I love decorating my bookcase with friends' art, holiday decorations, and cards I get!)

(My bed/my reading nook. I have Harry Styles ALL over my room! The left picture was handmade for me, and I framed Harry's Vogue cover. I also framed the Lady Bird movie vinyl because I love that movie)

(My dresser, that I'm repainting white this spring, with my pink and gold assets. I have a thing for cool mirrors, so lots of mirrors in my room. Harry Styles is, once again, blessing us in this picture but in drawing form. NOT PICTURED: a vase with my hand-grown lavender and a sea shell from Maine that was painted with gold leaf. Those are cool.)

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I also have a writing desk that I am currently occupying where I keep most of my candles and paints, but I'm trying to organize it better, so no picture of that yet. Also, my room looks so big in these pictures? Trust me, I can't even workout in my room, it's so small! 

Can I put in here that I hate the pandemic and can't wait for friends to come over and gossip and dance in my room like old times? UGH.

Anyway, I hope you liked this random post of my favorite things in my room! 

Have a great day, guys!

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My New Room

I'm a hoarder. Kind of. Maybe? Probably. I keep a lot of things in my bedroom. I still live with my parents so my bedroom is all I have and I keep everything in there. It's not very big, no matter what pictures are shown of it. So my pack of STUFF just keeps piling up; on my ratty desk, on my floor, in the corners of my closet. I finally realized that I need a change and make everything different. Including painting my room and getting new furniture. My walls were painted (by only me) in 2012 and they were dark blue with a very bright British Flag on the accent wall. I did a pretty good job back then, but I remember absolutely nothing about doing it back then, so I was on my own...again. 

(This is a 'clean picture')

(You get the gist; I'm messy)

I wanted a more grown up room. More posh. I was known for my English room, but I feel like it wasn't ME anymore. I see all these girls on Instagram who have beautiful and simple rooms. I know I can never be a minimalist because of all my things and my love for hanging things on my walls, but I wanted to try. 

WHITE PAINT IT WAS! 

I had no idea what I was getting myself into...I really didn't.

Paint was so expensive that I paid over  $100 for 2 cans. I was shocked and kind of mad? AND THAT WAS JUST THE WHITE PRIMER! NOT THE PAINT! I got some tools like brushes and stuff that made my bank account cry a tiny bit. I brought the primer home and cleaned up my room and threw away SO much stuff. I went through my whole life it seemed like, throwing things out from middle school and putting so much in my "this needs to go in a garage sale" pile. It was as clean as I was going to get it. I pushed my bed and piled stuff onto it so I could paint a wall and had no idea where to start, so I went on taping the edges. Then I filled my tiny holes in my walls with white toothpaste (a Pinterest hack). DON'T DO IT! It left oil on my walls? I ended up using my dad's almost dried up spackle because it was better than the toothpaste "hack". 

(You can kind of see the oil spots in this picture)

I took a roller and slapped on some primer on my wall and told myself I couldn't go back now. Was I doing it right? Most likely not, but for one blue wall, it took 2 coats of primer because of the dark color. It was surreal to paint my flag wall because I couldn't undo it. A new time for me. I ended up sweating my butt off day after day, moving things around my room and painting my walls by myself. Friends wanted to help me paint, but my room was so small and I looked terrible that I told them I could do it myself. It took me a couple days to finish priming and I spent day to night in my room on my days off work getting paint all over my clothes. 

I went to the store to buy more paint and my money once again went down the drain...so sad. And then I painted one wall. And I was done. As in, I was fed up. 2 coats of white paint on one wall. I was aching and not having a good time anymore. The flag wall? A total of 5 coats! My arms felt like they were going to fall off and I didn't even THINK about painting the ceiling. It completely eluded my mind. So that was another thing to paint. 

My friend Ashley came over and helped me paint for a quick 2 days and it really helped. I thought it was never going to get done because I almost gave up. The worst part was that I kept ordering new furniture and had to keep the boxes they were in, in my room. Which took up so much more room. I was dumb.

But it got finished. Finally. FINALLY. It wasn't perfect in the least (especially the corners of the room) and the ceiling we DID give up on, so it looks like clouds instead of pure white. Which I kind of like. Ashley helped me build my furniture. And by 'helped', I mean she built it for me. Thanks, Ashley! I got a bed frame for the first time since I was young, an actual desk to put stuff on and a tall bookcase that I'm in love with. My color scheme is white, blush pink, and gold. I still have some finishing touches to do (repainting some other furniture and getting curtains) but I'm in love with my new room. 

In love. 

*After this last picture was taken, I DID get a white bed skirt. Thank the lord; it needed it*

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DIY Mood Board

An ad popped up on Facebook for an event near me: "Attend a mood/vision board party! Pay $10 and bring supplies!" I thought $10 was a little steep but they DID say they would have snacks...

For those of you who don't know what a mood board is, it's a piece of cardboard or other such things and you stick on pictures and magazine cut outs on it to make it look pretty. Things you enjoy, like pictures of flowers, or a sticker of a smiley face. It's a collage, pretty much. Super simple thing to do yet very fun. I ALSO found out that you can be online mood boards but that's less fun!

I decided not to attend the party because it WAS kinda far for me and I wasn't a fan of going to a thing like that alone. 

My friend Lexi reached out to me a couple days later saying that it would be a fun time if we got together, drank some wine, and had our own mood board-making "party". I said yes right away! So I invited her over on a cold and snowy night and had a great time talking and pasting pictures. I wanted to do a simple step-by-step for those who have no idea how to make a mood board. 

Here we go!

Step 1: Supplies. I already had a square cardboard piece from something but Lexi needed to buy a "base" for her pictures. She chose a push pin board, which is a really good size. Then you need magazines, glue, tape, scissors and whatever you have lying around! I had some embellishments in my room so I included those in the pile of supplies. You can go to a craft store or even Target to get stuff! 

* We added a bottle of wine to our supplies list. This is not needed ;)

Step 2: Start Cutting. After I glued on a pretty background to my cardboard, I started flipping through magazines like crazy. I cut out anything that caught my attention. Lexi had a couple ideas what she wanted to put on her board because she was smart and thought of what goals she would like to achieve before we started. I, however, just winged it. I didn't have too many things, minimalism at it's finest, but I had things I liked. I started to rearrange them on my board. 

Step 3: Glue. I took a glue stick (you want the stick kind of glue, the liquid will be bumpy and ruin the pictures) and started gluing my pictures on. Lexi bought a lot of cute tape to add to the board so I used tape along with the glue to make it pop. She also bought me stickers that I started adding, too.

Step 4: Admire your work. Different people take different times in creating art. Lexi took a while; I took 15 minutes. And both of them turned into things we liked. At first, I kept saying mine looked like a 6 year old made it but I actually think it's cute now! Lexi got way more creative than me and her's is AWESOME. 

(Lexi's final board)

(My final board)

I chose a Little Women picture from the new movie because that movie made a real connection with me, I chose the phrase "grateful to be alone" because I need to practice more of being alone AND being grateful in my life, and I chose stickers of England because I'm going there this year! 

Lexi and I had a great time chatting, drinking sweet wine, and being all around creative. You don't even need a friend with you to make a mood board; making one alone is also really fun. 

Now, get some magazines, some cardboard, and start gluing! 

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How to Roast Your Own Tea!

The other day my friend asked me about how I make my tea and I thought, "HEY! If he was interested in how I home make tea, maybe other people will be interested it too!" And it's super easy!

So here's a post with tips on how to roast your own tea! 

***DISCLAIMER: I roast my tea because I feel it gives more flavor and as my friend quoted: "it doesn't taste like grass water when it's roasted." It will be crumbly. You can probably make it less crumbly by putting it on the oven about 5 minutes less than I do.***

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1) I get my tea leaves from a plant nursery, plant them in pots at home, then they grow bigger! I get lemon balm, lavender, and mint. Those are my go-to tea plants. For this post, I'm going to stick with mint leaves (but my signature tea is lavender and mint mixed together. IT'S SO GOOD. Even my family thinks so!)

2) After your satisfied with the amount of leaves that have grown, pick a bunch of mint. And I do mean a bunch. They shrink up in the oven so you'll need a lot of leaves. 

3) Bring them inside and wash them in a strainer. Rinsing them with water is what I do. You can also fill a bowl with water and swirl the leaves around to wash them.

4) Preheat your oven to 200 degrees at this point

5) Next, bring out your baking pants (I just use cookie sheets because it doesn't matter what pans, honestly). Now, MAKE SURE YOU RIP THE MINT LEAVES IN HALF!!!! THAT'S WHAT BRINGS OUT THE FLAVOR!!! You can even smell it stronger when you rip it. So, rip the leaves in half and place them down on the cookie sheets, spread out. They can still be wet, that's perfectly fine.

6) Place them in the oven for 15 minutes. Then, wait for 15 minutes. Obviously ;) 

7) Take them out of the oven when it beeps. It will look like crispy, illegal contraband. Like, a lot, honestly. BUT THAT MEANS IT'S DONE!

8) Wait to it cools down, then what I do is put the crispy leaves in a bag, then crunch them. Don't crunch them down to a pulp, but crunch them just enough. 

9) What you can do next is dump the roasted leaves in a empty tea bag, seal it, then use it. Or if you read my disclaimer, you can roast for about 8 minutes instead, which doesn't make them as crispy, and you can put them on a strainer most likely (I've never tried a strainer). 

**My tea bag is a coffee filter which is stapled shut because I'm really cheap. But it works! Also, with roasted tea, you need to let it seep in your mug a little bit longer. It won't be crazy strong, but it's still so tasty!**

Let me know on my Facebook page if you enjoyed this! I love making my DIY tea so I really liked this post! :) 

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