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Jen A. Miller Consulting

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  • Apartment Decorating on a Real-Life Budget

    Apartment Decorating on a Real-Life Budget

    Sara Bodle Takes our Homes From Drab to Fab on a Single Girl Budget

    Apartment Decorating on a Budget

    Last week I moved into yet another new apartment—a painful process, yes, but also a great way to get a fresh start. Moving is the the opportune time to clean out the old and redefine your space with new home decor.

    For help turning my new apartment into a place I can truly call home, I reached out to Sara Bodle—one of my best college girlfriends—for a few tips. Here she clues TSD in on her apartment decorating advice for making our homes fabulous on budgets we can actually afford.

    Read on to get her advice for transforming your own place from drab to fab!

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  • Should I Live Alone?

    Should I Live Alone?

    The Pros and Cons of Going Solo

    Photo courtesy of Christina Marie Riley @ Flickr
    Photo courtesy of Christina Marie Riley @ Flickr
    The end of September marks the end of my last few weeks in my apartment. I currently live with three other girls, all single, all blonde, all from Michigan. As life would have it, we are all simultaneously reaching turning points in our lives that are splitting us on different paths. Realizing this was happening, we understood that it was time for us to say goodbye to our apartment and our life together as roommates.
    With the month ahead of me I am tasked with figuring out what my next living situation will be. To this point I have never lived alone, having bounced from my parents’ house to a college dorm, from a sorority house, to post-grad roommates. I’ve started to wonder, is it time to get a place of my own? Am I ready to face an empty apartment that won’t be filled with effortless social interaction?

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  • Simple Ways to be a Thoughtful Single Girl

    Simple Ways to be a Thoughtful Single Girl

    Part 1 of 2: Staying close with friends and family when you’ve moved away

    card store

    Two years ago I decided to move Los Angeles, 2,000 miles away from my home in Cincinnati. The final decision was driven by a job, but there was also something deeper that had lured me out to the west coast. Without ever having traveled there, I knew it was where I wanted to be.
    From that perspective, heading to California should have been an easy choice. Weighed against my earnestness to move, however, was the difficult decision to deliberately move away from friends and family. For them, the thought of me leaving was nearly heartbreaking. Though I desperately wanted to leave Cincinnati, in some ways it felt selfish to do something that was so much about what I needed instead of what those closest to me wanted.
    In the end, I made that difficult decision to pack my bags and head west. As single girls we can be pretty independent, yet we have to remember that we do not reach our destinations on our own but with the support of those who love us. When I settled into L.A., I wanted to make sure my friends and family knew my departure did not mean I left them behind. Though I freed myself to live my own life, I needed to find ways they would know I was still thinking of them. It’s been two years since I made my big move, and I’ve come up with a few tricks.
    Read on for my tips for Simple Ways to Be a Thoughtful Single Girl.
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