You know what’s a really awkward topic sometimes? Money. You know what’s even more awkward sometimes? Being a young 20-something who actually has money. Eric and I do pretty well for ourselves. We have quite a bit of money in savings. Pay our credit cards almost in full every month and never miss a bill payment. We’ve also had help along the way.

Last night I was having dinner with some friends and they were talking about their student loan payments and how atrocious they are. I felt a little awkward because, well, I don’t have any student loans. I am incredibly lucky to have parents who put me through university so I wouldn’t have to bare the brunt of student loans for many years afterwards.

I know that very few people can call themselves this lucky and I am incredibly grateful to my parents for doing this for me. I also know a lot of people’s parents couldn’t do this for them, even if they wanted to. My parents could. It’s not like they broke the bank paying for my college tuition – they had the money to do it.

Anyways, sometimes I feel really awkward about this and I hate bringing it up. But when people wonder why I don’t have any student loans to pay it’s time to fess’ up and I must admit, it feels very spoiled-brat-ish to say “Oh, well, my parents paid for my schooling…”

So here I am, putting it out there to the world (or my blog readers. Ha!) and stating that my parents put me through college and no, I don’t have any student loans. I’ve hinted at it before, and maybe even mentioned it briefly once or twice, on the blog but I’ve never put it out there like this before because I’m always worried about the ‘spoiled-brat’ ‘wow must be nice’ kind of backlash I might get.

I should also add that my parents had absolutely NO influence over what I went to school for or where I went. They were wonderful in the fact that even though they backed me financially, I made my own decisions about where and what, and they respected that.

What’s a topic you feel awkward talking about?

**It’s the last day to enter my CSN Gift Card Giveaway.**

Last night Eric was being so productive with his head buried in his books doing homework. I was kind of at a loss; I mean, I didn’t have any homework or extra work to do last night. What to do? What to do? I ended up cleaning the apartment top to bottom, in case you were wondering

But, seriously, I felt really strange last night. Eric was working hard on homework and I felt very…. lost. I had nothing to do, I didn’t feel like getting back on the computer and doing freelance work and I had no pressing freelance work to do anyways.

So I tidied up the house and, well, basically twiddled my thumbs well I waited for it to be time for Hot Yoga.

I then went to one of the best Hot Yoga classes I’ve done in my life – so many vinayasa’s and warrior series – my legs were shaking. Then I came home, wrote this blog post, had a cup of tea and curled up in bed with Gossip Girl.

I am feeling this intense need in my life to organize! It started with rearranging the living room and updating our office space and then I spent $60 on the Erin Condren Life Planner (it was a bit of an impulse buy but I think it will help me organize and meal plan and plus it’s so freaking cute).

I just want my life to feel organized. But it doesn’t.

Maybe it’s not the fact that my life isn’t organized, but the fact that I don’t like not having a million things to do?

I know I just finished saying how I was done setting goals for awhile. I really do want to take it easy and enjoy the small things, which I suppose is what I did last night. I just need to find a balance in my life where rather then feel anxious on the days where I have nothing to do, I feel relaxed and rested.

This is my first September in SEVENTEEN YEARS where I’m not going back to school! I think it will just be an adjustment for me and maybe even take awhile to get used to.

What was it like the first year you didn’t go back to school? How did you adjust?

We spent all day yesterday shopping for a desk and at-home office supplies. Eric is starting school again next week and we needed room for him to work at a desk too. Since I spend the majority of my time at home on the computer – either freelancing or blogging – it was important that we had a desk big enough for both of us to work at.

I love this desk from Ikea but sadly the nearest one is a four hour drive away so this desk option was out for us. So, I was hoping to find something similar.

{Source}

My main inspiration is the home office of the interior design wizards behind Young House Love. I absolutely LOVE the look of their home office: So clean, streamlined and minimalist!

{Source}

Just to remind you, here’s what the “office space” in our teeny, tiny apartment recently looked like. Right before Eric moved back I did some reorganizing to took it from picture A to picture B below.

Most recently, we moved my beloved cube shelf into the kitchen to make room for a longer desk in our living room area.

And then today we searched and searched and searched for one long desk with no luck.

So we ended up purchasing two, short(ish) desks from Staples to push together. Then we Eric proceeded to spend about four hours assembling them. This is what we’re at right now:

I think the two desks look pretty good next to each other, don’t you? I’m glad we got two desks instead of one now because when we move out of this shoebox apartment, we can rearrange them anyway we see fit. For now, end-to-end is really the only option for arranging them.

We have a lot of stuff to put away still.

This is where you come in! I’m looking for design inspiration! Here are some set-ups that are inspiring me right now.

{Source}

{Source}

Obviously with some more manly colours

Anyways, I’d love some tips! I am not the most design savvy person.

Also, I thought it would be fun to feature other bloggers/freelance writers/crafters/designers work spaces on the blog next week. So if you’d like to participate just snap a picture of your at-home workspace and email it to me by Sunday night!

Finally, I’m 99% sure I am going to order this Erin Condren Life Planner despite the incredibly steep price for a planner. What can I say, the video sold me! Has anyone else used this planner? Is it as amazing as it looks? If not, do you have a planner you’d recommend?

If you can’t already tell I am on a MAJOR LIFE ORGANIZING SPREE right now