I am exhausted. But I’m also contented.

I am going to die in this home because the mortgage process was a nightmare, and moving was not exactly my favorite thing, especially during a freakish heatwave. Those niggly things aside, my husband did a great job picking out our house (I was away on business the weekend he looked at it and put in an offer) — I love our home! I’m having a blast, challenging myself to shop smartly and employ budget decorating (so we can get more rooms done while spending less).

After living in a cramped cottage for two-and-a-half years, I’m embracing the spaciousness of our new home (it’s 3x the size of our last house) and enjoying Christmas-like moments as we open boxes that have been in storage for three years. I’m also excited to finally, truly merge households with my husband (it’s only taken us 5 1/2 years, but hey, better late than never, right?). We’re having fun furniture shopping together, so both of our tastes are reflected in our home.

Decorating is expensive, so I’ve found some great shortcuts that I’m more than happy to pass along.

The master bedroom is an entirely different beast, as I wanted an all-new bedroom. Our old furniture would go to the guest room, so we’d be starting from scratch. This is where Pinterest comes in incredibly handy, as I was able to shop and pin ideas to a dedicated board.

I wanted to create a new bedroom for my husband and myself, without breaking the bank, so I used my savvy shopping skills to get it done. First, if you don’t have a free Ebates account, stop and sign up NOW! Sign up using my Ebates referral link and you’ll get $10 to start your account balance!

Okay, now that you’ve started your Ebates account, you’re ready to shop! A handful of items I found for the master bedroom happened to be on the same site, Overstock.com. I wanted a clean, simple look with sharp lines, which is why I decided to go mid-century modern with the room.

Nightstand on the left is West Elm, purchased at great savings in their Lancaster outlet store, and duvet cover from IKEA “As Is” bin

Is it strange that I planned our bedroom around a…dresser (that we didn’t even own)? In fact, the dresser was the last piece I purchased! I fell in love with a patchwork dresser on Overstock, but it wasn’t as much of a necessity as the bed or the mattress (and is out of stock more often than it is in). With my first purchase at Overstock, I logged into Ebates to ensure that I got 2% back on my purchase, and then ordered the platform bed, two sets of sheets, and a Club O membership (5% back on purchases). My coupon paid for my Club O membership, I earned 5% back on that purchase AND I earned 2% of that purchase back on Ebates. Whew! Did you follow all of that?

We love our platform bed; incredibly easy to assemble and superior quality design. What’s even better is the company who makes it: eLuxurySupply.com. Their story is simple, and the company is veteran owned and operated out of Indiana. eLuxurySupply is a company that is now on our radar for future purchases, and should be on yours as well.

I can’t forget the mattress. We went from a Queen bed to a King, so we also needed to purchase a new mattress. After seeing all of the hype from Purple’s clever “egg test” advertising, I decided to shop for similar mattresses in the market. One way or another, I stumbled upon Ghostbed, probably through Facebook advertising, and chose them for several reasons; Ghostbed’s CEO is a veteran, and as such, he gives back to military members and veterans, even extending the military discount to family members of servicemen and women (a proud Air Force brat, I took advantage of the discount). Secondly, Ghostbed is 100% USA made. Admittedly, this wasn’t the main reason I chose them, but rather, an added bonus. The mattress is divine, by the way! Oh, and Ghostbed has an awesome referral program — through their Share the Love program, you can save $50 off of your mattress purchase (and I’ll receive $50 towards the purchase of a mattress from them)!

My next steal was this vintage chest of drawers ($85, found on Craigslist) and the antique mirror ($14 at an antique store + the cost of yellow paint). The mirror was a chance purchase, as we were driving on a back country road and happened to see an antique store going out of business; I nabbed the mirror for 50% off and we got an $800 coffee table for…$128!

My next purchase was for our living room, which isn’t yet finished — still have to order a sofa from Joybird — so I won’t go into much detail. Our living room is basically windows, lots and lots of windows. I purchased sheers (Ebates 6% back +  Kohl’s super sale + coupon + additional % off for using Kohl’s card + Kohl’s cash + Rewards) and curtain hardware; the curtain hardware I purchased through Overstock, again using Ebates to get 2% back, used a coupon and applied my Club O rewards from the previous purchase. I’m saving some serious money here, my friends — if you need tips, just shoot me an email!

I custom-ordered the drapes for our bedroom from a manufacturer overseas; not only was I able to find a unique print, I was able to have the drapes custom-made for just over $100. I used a birthday gift card to order the curtain hardware for the bedroom through Amazon, and as you can see in the above photo, my drapes were too heavy for the size/quality rod I purchased (I should have known better than to cut corners!), but the dip in the middle was solved by picking up additional brackets (we have two windows in the bedroom) from Home Depot, to anchor the middle of the rod.

Then came the final items — the patchwork dresser and our headboard. Again, I used coupons for these items (I ordered separately), again using Ebates, and applying my Club O rewards to the purchases. I won’t lie, it took me an entire day to assemble the dresser, but it was SO worth it!

Now that our master bedroom is complete, save for a few yellow nicknacks (and maybe a few macrame air plant holders), my focus is back to the living room (and eventually the master bathroom — I’ll just keep that door closed for now). We have sheers hung, I just need to have drapes made and order our sofa. My husband and I had a great time choosing the fabric and wood for our sofa, now I just need to be patient and wait for our Joybird sofa to arrived (October 2016 – the wait might kill me!). My sofa purchase is your reward, though — if you use my referral link, you can save 20% off of your first Joybird purchase!

I can’t wait to receive our bright and lively Liam sofa from Joybird!

What tricks do you have for decorating your home, without breaking the bank?

Fresh off the wave of Mother’s Day greetings, salutations and a slew of Facebook posts, I thought I’d share a little about why you saw no mention of Mother’s Day on my Facebook page. It’s simple, really, I’m just not that into greeting card holidays.

If you’re not familiar with what a greeting card holiday is, or more often known as a Hallmark holiday, the name is pretty self-explanatory. Here’s an explanation from Wikipedia:

“Hallmark Holiday” is a term used predominantly in the United States to describe a holiday that is perceived to exist primarily for commercial purposes, rather than to commemorate a traditionally or historically significant event. The name comes from Hallmark Cards, a privately owned American company, that benefits from such manufactured events through sales of greeting cards and other items. Holidays that have been referred to as “Hallmark Holidays” include Grandparents Day, Sweetest Day, Boss’s Day, and Secretary’s Day. Some people also consider St. Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day to be such days.

Sweetest Day is an interesting holiday, one I’d never even heard of until I attended college in Northwest Pennsylvania — yep, it’s totally a greeting card holiday.

Anyway, I just don’t feel the need to make a big deal out of many of these holidays because a.) they’re commercially driven, and b.) why don’t people celebrate others all year round? In fact, my husband and I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day, at my request (plus, our wedding anniversary is two weeks after V-Day).

I’m grateful that my husband shows his love for me year-round, and doesn’t need a special day or occasion to send me flowers — we work well this way. However, I do understand that for many women, and many of my girlfriends, Valentine’s Day is one of the only days a year that their significant other bestows flowers upon them, or goes out of his way to show how much he appreciates his wife or girlfriend. This makes me sad, because if you only do something once a year, the concept seems special or even foreign, instead of just being a natural occurrence in daily life. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had friends be disappointed with Valentine’s Day because their significant other’s ministrations did not meet their fantasy or expectations (or that they didn’t have a special someone to celebrate with). And then there’s the whole oversharing bit on social media, wherein my feed is populated with photos of bouquets and jewelry for the entire day.

Mother’s Day is an especially strange “holiday” because children should show their appreciation for their mother year-round, no? I don’t know about you, but I’d like more than one day a year. Perhaps the best part of greeting card holidays is that they often serve to enforce quality family time, in an age when people seem busier than ever. And really, the best part of my Mother’s Day was the fact that my husband did not work Mother’s Day for the first time (since I became a mother), and we spent the day hiking and enjoying each other’s company. That’s what it’s really all about, right?

So, my thoughts on greeting card holidays can pretty much be summed-up in one word: “meh”. Give me “just because” any day. How do you feel about Hallmark Holidays?

The past month has been an incredibly busy one for both myself and my family. Not only has my workload increased, but we’ve been busy making plans for the summer. Big plans.

We’re not planning a vacation, we’re planning a move! It’s all been hush-hush, waiting for pieces of the puzzle to fall into place, but I’m now able to share. My husband was offered a position in Baltimore, one that was too good to refuse. After years of working 12+ hour days, and often weekends, he’s been offered a position allowing him to work fewer hours, spend less time commuting and, most importantly, a quality of life.

While it was not an easy decision, my husband’s leaving his company of 10 years, being out of operations was a goal. For the past 4 years, I’ve been left alone with my son during Hurricane Sandy, severe storms, power outages and snow storms, as my husband set up camp at work to ensure that everything proceeded smoothly. Now, if a snow storm hits, my husband will be able to play in the snow with our son AND I won’t have to shovel the driveway by myself!

Fellow moms will understand this — the week my husband interviewed, I researched schools in the area where we’ll be moving and registered my little guy. Not only does my son need the stimulation and socialization provided by preschool, but I need those hours to get freelance work done. School spots fill quickly, as many of you well know, and he is currently on a waitlist for a 4-day program. I’m a little bummed because he was enrolled in a 5-day program here, and may now only be in a 3-day program, but I’ll figure out a way to make it work…so that I can work. Shoot, I may be back to 4am wakeups!

With schooling taken care of, housing was next. We spent several weeks researching areas to relocate, and looking at hundreds of homes for sale, so when the job offer finally came, we were ready! So ready, in fact, that my husband received his letter of offer on a Friday and I had arranged an appointment for him to look at one of the two homes we were considering on Saturday.

Friends, we are set to close on a beautiful home May 31…and I’ve never stepped foot inside! I was out of town conducting a writing workshop when my husband looked at the house. Having viewed around 40 photos of the home, I gave my husband the go ahead to submit an offer if he felt that it was the house for us. Here it is:

If all goes well, this will be OURS May 31! (My husband said that the perfect room for my office is the one where I’ve drawn the arrow – I can’t wait to check it out!)

Thank goodness for smartphones — I was able to sign legal documents while I was on the road and get the process started. When I got home I hit the ground running! I lost a day of work to scanning and submitting documents for our mortgage, and then dove into writing my first piece for an awesome new client — Net Nanny.

I’ve also been trying to unload all of my son’s baby items, which is not a task for the feint of heart. Honestly, local donation centers are getting some AMAZING clothing and gear donations! I’ve posted in online sale groups, Craigslist, and have been spending the last few days entering items into the system for my local consignment sale — Growing Express — which takes place this weekend.

This is basically my long-winded way of saying that the quiet around here and on my Facebook page is due to me being insanely busy planning, plotting and organizing, and will likely continue through our move. So, forgive me if you find typos and egregious errors in this post — I’m on deadline for a client and just wanted to publish an update…

I distinctly remember conversations with one of my “regulars” at the college bar I tended (I’ll call him Bill), and his words have remained with me throughout the years. I was twenty-one at the time and recall alumni coming into the bar for homecoming weekend, a weekend consisting of college friends partying from Friday through Sunday. Most of the alumni were in their late twenties and, egads, early thirties. They were drunk, they acted like jerks, and in my twenty-one-year-old mind, they were pathetically aged. I mean, who wants to relive their drunken college days?

Bill was a University administrator in his early 40s, and we often chatted about school and life during my bar shifts. On this occasion we were trading stories about the crazy alumni antics of the previous homecoming weekend, of which he was one (alumni, that is, not crazy). In a moment of seriousness, Bill turned to me and said, “You know, your 30s are better than your 40s, and your 40s are better than your 30s.”

I smiled and gave him an “Ummkay,” quite possibly accompanied by an eye roll. Bill went on the explain all of the ways life got better when we aged. Our thirties presented us with family, financial freedom and a greater sense of self, while our forties were filled with even greater career/family/financial satisfaction. I likely shook my head and carried on tending bar after that conversation, but Bill’s words resonated somewhere in my subconscious.

At the time of the conversation, I was putting myself through college by tending bar on weekends and doing clerical work in an insurance office during the week. When I wasn’t at work, I was at school (or doing schoolwork) and vice versa. I was in a state of continual motion, so the thought of reaching a state of stability, in both my career and finances, was a goal I had yet to achieve – I could only dream of working a 9-5!

When I turned thirty, I thought about what my twenties had held – ten years of transition, career-building and uncertainty. I had a Master’s degree under my belt, was in a stable job at the time (the best I’d had to date), so Bill’s words did make a great deal of sense. I was living in Baltimore, discovering more about myself, earning an income greater than I had expected, and enjoying a healthy social life with other single thirty-somethings in the city. I was beginning to plant geographical roots for the first time in my life (I’ve lost count of the number of times I moved in my twenties). Life was good and I couldn’t imagine it getting better, apart from rising up the corporate ladder.

I met my husband-to-be when I was 33 and he was almost ten years my senior. If I had any preconceived notions of how forty-somethings behaved, my then-boyfriend shattered every one of them. He was fun loving with a great sense of humor, in a solid career, and possessed a zeal for life. In essence, my husband shattered my idea of one’s 40s being boring, tired, stuffy and routine.

I turned 38 last summer, and the thought that I’m creeping closer to 40 crossed my mind without inducing any type of panic or triggering a mid-life crisis. I’m pretty happy where I’m at and am stoked to turn 40. The strangest thing is that I often feel like I’m still in my twenties, with my youthful attitude towards life and in my sense of humor — the only difference is the life experience I’ve amassed, which causes me to proceed through life with a bit more caution (parenthood will do it to you). At 38, I’ve reinvented myself and my career, successfully navigating through the identity crisis of motherhood. My husband and myself both love parenthood, and all of the ways it’s changed us, yet we still retain our youthfulness (some may call it immaturity).

While I’m not yet 40, I have a sneaky suspicion that Bill was onto something when he told me that my 40s would be better than my 30s. I won’t use the “fine wine” cliché, but I will say that I’m looking forward to entering the next decade in life. You know what I say? Bring. It. On.