TIme flies

Time flies so quickly I can't believe it's already June! Today I am going to make stew (yum!) and clean/organize my apartment. Hopefully once that is finished I'll be able to take some photos! But I am still here and having a wonderful time, I really love my apartment and its location, my job is going wonderfully and I am excited it is summer!

Happy Saturday everyone!

Some pics of my apt

Since I've been completely MIA the past several weeks, I figured I should update. I'm all moved into my apartment! My mom, dad and brother kindly brought my furniture down and helped me move in which was a great help. I've done some decorating things but my apartment is currently a MESS. Once I get it all clean and most everything in its place I will take pictures, but here are a few:

Partial view of my tiny patio

My new cactus garden! Not sure yet where it'll fit into my design scheme, but its precious. I hope I don't kill it... the aloe vera my uncle dug up for me isn't doing so well... And supposedly you can't really kill aloe vera.

My tv and stereo!

Buying shares on the stock exchange next week...

I moved into my new apartment this weekend and there isn't much in it, that will be a story for another post as I move in furniture this coming weekend and decorate.... I also bought a plant and received one from my uncle for my new patio, yay!

Today as I was watching TV I saw a commercial for CSX. Now, I've been contemplating buying individual stocks for some time now, but I don't have thousands of dollars to play with. But after having dinnertime conversations with my uncle about stocks and funds he invests in and why, I have thought about what companies I might be interested investing in for the future. I've mentioned before how much I love ING Direct and they have Sharebuilder (which I may or may not love, we will see) which I decided to try out for buying stocks. I'm only doing a small amount of money (maybe enough for 2 or 3 shares so nothing too risky for either loss OR gains) but decided to invest in CSX. It's an international transportation company (with some fantastic advertising). I did some research and since I believe that energy is headed toward more renewable resources and energy efficiency anyway, this would be a good choice.

So I set it up and the purchase should be going through this week! Very exciting. And who knows, maybe I will like individual stocks and add that to my portfolio instead of doing solely mutual funds.

Happy Sunday!

Pretty Chandelier

(from Brocade Home)

A weekend full of decoration research fun...

My weekend consisted of driving to Round Rock to meet my mom(!), shopping without actually purchasing much, watching HGTV, drinking wine and eating chocolate... The one thing I actually bought was this lamp for my office! So excited, because I've been looking and looking and haven't run across anything I've really liked. I saw a similar lamp I liked that was rather expensive and I would have to order online, in various colors, and I wasn't sure if I'd want it at work. This one is just perfect, because its tiny and will look so cute on my desk :)

Watching HGTV and looking at decorating books and magazines reminded me again that I really love Craftsman style houses, like the one below. When I buy a house I would really love to have one! I can't wait 'til I can put in a garden and have a house of my own, but for now I am very excited about my apartment in San Antonio. I am really looking forward to moving in in a few weeks!

Office plants

I bought 2 new plants today for my office! I am quite excited about them, the first is an angel wing begonia... I love the way the leaves look like wings and end up all spotted like that. The colors are fantastic. It's officially a Cane Begonia and I believe it to be a B. Cracklin Rosie.

The second is this little pinkish plant that we think is a caladium. Now caladiums are elephant ears, so this is a miniture version. (EDIT: I discovered this is actually called Hypoestes phyllostachya, or Polka Dot plant). I am so excited about my plants! Next I want to put them in the same pot with a 3rd variety so I can have a nice little one pot garden at work.

The nursery we went to, Green Gate, is wonderful. It had so many beautiful plants and flowers, I am definitely going to come back to it when I get my own place and want some new plants. I want a citrus tree, some tea roses... you know, pretty things.

Hail

On my way to work yesterday morning, driving down I-10, I got walloped by hail. Now, my poor little car is all damaged and very unhappy. The guys at O'Reilly (where I went to get a do it yourself kit) said to just trade it in after I make a claim, that it probably won't even be worth it to me to get repaired. So sometime this weekend, if I have time, I'm going to have to get an estimate for my car and see about getting it repaired. Whether paintless dent removal (which may be expensive since there are SO many) or take it to a body shop, it seems it'll probably run around $750-2,000. I'm not even sure if its worth it. I wanted to keep the car for several more years, but that may not happen now.

This is so frustrating that it had to happen my first week on the job so I don't have the time, the money or the energy to deal with it. I wish I could chalk this one up to a stupid tax, but unfortunately its just an act of nature I had no control over.

(I wish this was an April Fool's joke, but unfortunately, it is not.)