L&S will close in a few months, so make sure to transition your subscriptions to Her Joyful Studio!

Jonathan and I really fell in love with this entertainment stand a few months ago. The only problem? It looked a tad drab. The color in person is awesome, it a beautiful brownish gray but something about it looked a little too Ikea for my taste.

What’s a girl on a budget supposed to do? Look around the blogosphere for ideas on how to dress up a simple stand that you already like. I didn’t want to paint, sand, stain, or anything too in-depth with this one. We both honestly liked it for the most part. I noticed that a lot of others have replaced the cheap-o knobs with nicer knobs from Anthropologie. I am not the type of person to spend $20 on a freakin’ drawer knob so I took another route: to Hobby Lobby I went! I was super lucky that day since all the home furnishing were 50% off. I say that with some tone of sarcasm my voice because The Hob Lob always seems to always be 50% off. One of the magical mysteries of my favorite craft store.

From far away you can’t see the knobs that well (you can see me pretty darn good in the reflection though; hello bad photographer), but there is a slight difference compared to the original above.

Get a tad closer and you can see the background is white with a floral and vine theme.

And one last closer shot shows you just how pretty and intricate they are. The knobs only set me back $2.49 each. So for its entirety this Ikea Hemnes Hack only set us back $7.47 (+tax).  They also happen to match some throw pillows we already have (more on that in a future post).

What does such a cheap refurb mean for these newly weds? Enough left in the bank to enjoy some Swedish meatballs and a couple of beers. Cheers to fine dining at Ikea!

Since the move I have been getting up almost 2.5 hours earlier to drop Jon off at the Metra and in turn getting to work 1/1.5 earlier. I have also been trying to train myself to be not so caffeine dependent. I probably could have timed this a lot better though. Yesterday seemed like the longest day and I questioned a few times if I am coming down with the flu just because it seemed not normal to be that tired. Then I realized that before I would usually have a morning large coffee with a shot of espresso and in the afternoon usually a medium with a shot or a 20 oz Red Bull. But since setting up our Keurig from the wedding shower I realized how much money I will save if I just have a cup or two of that a day. Yawn

I think it’s time to treat myself to a Starbucks once or twice a week. Which is great since my free coupon came in the mail yesterday! I earned it from using the Starbucks iPhone ap.  Trenta iced coffee here I come! (It won’t have a shot of espresso in it so I am still considering this a down grade of my old caffeine-hyped routine).

I also found blueberry Kind bars at Jewel. They were 4 for $5 which is still pricey but they taste delish and great to grab when I am running out of the door in the morning.

So although today is Tuesday, it’s shaping up better (or at least more coherent) then my Monday!

Doing anything special to get you through the week?  Also, anyone know where I can get Kind bars at a halfway decent price?