Home sweet apartment!

As promised, please allow me to show you around my new place! Well. Parts of it. Obviously I'm not gonna show you like...the bathrooms, or the guest room/office, which is currently a cat shantytown (by which I mean it's full of half-empty boxes). But parts of it look pretty legit! Almost like actual functional grown-ups live here! Let's look, and I shall regale you with tales along the way. Also a quick disclaimer: these are all cellphone pictures, because I didn't think to pack my camera. Worst. Blogger. Ever. 

Living room! So, this was the hardest to pull together. We started out with no living room furniture at all, so we had to shop around for a couch, coffee table, and entertainment center thingy, then wait for it all to get delivered. We ended up getting everything from Rooms to Go. The entertainment center came first because it was a floor model, so it came from the store rather than having to come from a warehouse. You'd think that would mean it was faster and easier to get, and you'd be right if they hadn't first brought us the wrong one. It worked out eventually though, so I won't complain too much. 

I'm obviously really fond of all the furniture we got (or else I wouldn't have picked it),  but the entertainment center is probably my favorite part. I just think it's super interesting and stylish, plus it's nice solid wood, so it'll last for ages. And since it was the floor model, it was an attractively discounted price. The bookcase is just a simple Room Essentials brand one from Target (there's another one just like it, but shorter, in the bedroom). The small table by the door (from Ikea several years back) is just temporary--at some point I'd like to replace it with something more decorative, maybe a little art deco number of some sort. For now it's a good place to keep sunglasses and things that get misplaced on the way in or out the door, like wallets and phones.

The chairs are, again, and surprising no one that is at all familiar with my Target addiction, from Target. They're lightly padded and are actually surprisingly comfortable, especially considering how affordable they were. If you're wondering why the table from by the front door is over there hiding behind the table, it's because the day I took this was the day our couch was being delivered, so I scooched it out of the way. That table, by the by, is actually a source of great pride. It cost us a whopping fifteen dollars. Yeah, I said it. FIFTEEN DOLLARS. Of course, it started out life looking like this:

I mean, it was assembled. I'm just not great at forethought and didn't think to take a picture of its starting point until I'd already gotten it disassembled to get it home from Goodwill. You can see it started out with some uninspiring laminate on the tabletop and plain wooden legs (feet? I feel like the legs are actually the brass part, which would logically make the wood parts the feet, but...then aren't the little balancer thingies also called feet? Or are those toes? Someone help me, table anatomy is not my strongsuit). But I really liked the unusual silhouette, and I had a vision for what it could be. A bit of sanding, some primer, and two coats of shiny black lacquer later, and it's a sassy little beast. 

 

Speaking of sassy beasts: bonus cat picture! It kind of vaguely shows off our lovely wooded view (we got an apartment on the back of the building, so our balcony is relatively private and quiet), so it's sort of on topic. Mostly I just like to give the people what they want, and what the people want is cat pictures. I assume. 

Here's the rest of the kitchen. The island is movable, but it's really useful where it is, providing valuable prep space, so it's most likely going to continue living there. The walls by the table desperately need some sort of art or shelves or SOMETHING, anything to make them less bare, but as you can imagine, decorating the walls is lower on the priority list. So for now, let's just pretend it's a minimalist statement.  

And of course, the most important part of any domicile: a nice comfy bed. One of the things I was most excited for about this apartment was the fact that the rooms are surprisingly huge: big enough for this king sized monster. I know the picture doesn't show much detail, but the bed frame is from Ikea and has four gimongous drawers underneath for bonus storage. Our closet is respectably sized, but we also have a lot of stuff, so extra storage is always welcome. The mattress was a gamble, since I bought it online without having tested it out at all. The reason I made this leap of faith? It was only around $300. For a king size, 8 inch memory foam mattress. With free shipping, even! That's a steal. I got it through Sears, whose return policy on mattresses gives you 60 days to return or exchange if it turns out to be hideously uncomfortable. Luckily it's a damn DREAM to sleep on, so we didn't have to worry about that. The duvet is a linen/cotton blend set from Target that I got on clearance for half off, and the sheets are the Pure Beech Jersey set in black, which I got from Bed Bath and Beyond and used a 20% off coupon on. I tell you this because I am a long-time evangelical when it comes to these sheets. They're well under a hundred dollars, even in king size, come in some fun colors, and are easily the softest sheets I've ever touched. I've had several sets over the years, and I recommend them every chance I get. Seriously, go feel the sample at BB&B if you're in the market for sheets.

And now, after detailing the glory that is that bed....I think I'll go crawl into it for the night. 

Curiouser and curiouser...

    So the theme for Evie's nursery is... Alice in Wonderland! Jen and Jason figured that she should get a similarly literary nursery to keep the bookish theme going from one nursery to the next, and Jen has always loved Alice in Wonderland, so it was a natural choice for them. But they wanted to keep it classic, not Disney, and ended up with a very classy, subtle take on what could be a crazy over-the-top theme. Let's peruse! 

     My mom made these curtains from scratch when shopping around didn't turn up any inspiring options. The Alice in Wonderland clock on the wall was ordered online, but it doesn't actually keep time, so I don't think I'd recommend wherever it was bought from even if I knew. 

     Jen's had this old chair since college, and the pillow is hand-made, again by my very talented mom, from a fabric panel and leftover scraps from the curtains. The baby blanket on the back of the chair was crocheted by Amanda, because GOD WHY IS EVERYONE I KNOW SO DAMN TALENTED, and the rug is from Target.

     More amazing custom things! My parents collaborated on this tea party chandelier. It was originally just your standard builder-installed light fixture, but my mom painted it green, added some crystal trip to the top, and hunted around various thrift stores for teacups and saucers, then my dad drilled holes in them so they could be attached to the lamp. 

     Are you getting tired of "oh, it's custom" yet? My dad made that picture frame after we saw one in a store that was similarly shaped but cost well over a hundred dollars. 

     I guess technically this isn't directly thematic, but it was cute and Jen liked it when she saw it at Hobby Lobby (can you tell we like to shop there for home stuff?), so once it was painted the room's main colors, up it went. 

     Finally, this cute little detail. This lightswitch cover is from Etsy, and it's just a tiny little thing that adds a ton of personality.

     I don't know the names of the paint colors in this room, but the walls are a creamy warm beige and the ceiling is a classic baby pink that reflects softly onto the walls in a really dreamy way! 

Harry Potter Nursery II: Now in 3D!

     Ok so it's not actually in 3D, I just like to make my post titles sound like summer blockbusters sometimes. But let's be honest, 3D blog posts would just give you a headache anyway. The reason this gets a sequel title is because Jen and Jason moved a few months ago, so the nursery situation underwent some shaking up. It's mostly the same elements, with a few new things thrown in for fun. The biggest difference is that this room is so. much. bigger. than the old one. Let's have a look around, shall we?

 

     Hello, friend! This is the same owl light and bird cage from the previous house. The cage is from Hobby Lobby, nobody remembers where the owl lamp is from because our heads are filled with air dead flies and bits of fluff (obscure Harry Potter reference: engage!). 

     The wall art is custom, made by my best friend Stephen because he's at that level of talented where you want to hate him for it but then you're like "ehhh, he's a good kid." 

     This is new! They're a bunch of Harry Potter character illustrations from Etsy, framed in deliberately mismatched frame styles to visually reference the paintings in the staircase at Hogwarts. 

     And over here is the old-timey style trunk, which is also from Hobby Lobby, and an ornately framed Ikea mirror. 

     The wall color in this room was color-matched to Benjamin Moore's Woodlawn Blue. In the old nursery they didn't want the walls to be too blue because it would look like a boy's room, but that's the other exciting thing about their new house: the twins each get their own nurseries now! I'll be showing you Evie's on Wednesday, and it went in an entirely different decor direction...

Quick Fixes: Annie get your glue-gun.

     You know how sometimes you'll just be going about your day when you notice something...off? Just a tiny little thing that isn't quite right about your house or your life or whatever, and you think, "Oh well, it's not that big of a deal," but then you can't get it out of your head and suddenly it's been like a month and you've been slowly simmering up a nice rage stew that's about to boil over because OKAY SERIOUSLY LET'S JUST FIX THE DAMN THING. You know that feeling, right? Well, this bedskirt was one of those things for me.

     Do you see it? Do you see what was worming it's way through my brain, slowly driving me to madness? It's one of those bedskirts that just has elastic at the top, so you can wrap it around your boxspring instead of putting it between the boxspring and the mattress. Which is a cool idea and all, but my bed has a little tray thing with slats across, so I can't use it that way. So I thought it would work just fine if I wrapped it around the wooden frame on the long side of the bed, then tucked it inside at the foot of the bed, so it hangs inside the frame, unimpeded by slats. Genius! Except not! Because that meant it slipped all over the place and was never hanging right. So I added some velcro dots to the skirt and the frame, and they worked for about a minute before the adhesive on the velcro dots gave out. SOOOO I took the hot glue gun to it and attached them more...permanently (MUAHAHAHA. I dunno. Felt right). Now they hold the bedskirt in place and at the right height and all that good jazzy stuff. But then. BUT THEN.

     The corners. The corners didn't lay right because they're switching from outside the frame to inside on one continuous piece of fabric, if that makes sense (does it? It can be so hard to step outside my own brain sometimes). SOSOSO. The solution here was just a simple slit at the corners to allow the bedskirt to switch over from outside to inside the frame more... seamlessly. And if you're wondering why I set that up like it was a pun, it's because it's totally a pun. I didn't do any seams. (Ba dum tssss). Instead I took the glue gun to it again, just folding a tiny bit over on each cut edge and gluing in a little hem to keep them from fraying/avoid ugly raw edges.

     Are you ready to see the infinitesimally small difference that had a huge impact on my sanity? Ok, here we go. Ta-daaaa.

     I feel like this really shouldn't be so gratifying to me, because normal people probably wouldn't even notice it (I mean, I'm guessing. I don't actually know any normal people, I don't think), but like I said. It was one of those THINGS.

A Fun Fact About Me...

     ...I am never, ever content. Well, when it comes to my decor, anyway. I always have to be adding, changing, rearranging something. I don't know why. I'd blame it on astrology but I'm a Cancer, the crab, and all that says about me is that I'm a sensitive recluse (accurate) who tastes delicious in butter (?). Anyway, so remember how juuuust the other day I talked about switching out my bedding? Yeah, I bought another new set.

     See, it turns out I really missed my old sheets, but I couldn't just put them back on because they were legitimately overdue for replacement -- just too worn and dingy to carry on. I had kind of taken them for granted until I bought the microfiber ones, which were soft, but not oh-my-god-I-will-rub-my-feet-on-this-for-ten-minutes-before-going-to-sleep-each-night soft. 

     The other thing that was driving me nuts was that since the microfiber fitted sheet didn't have elastic all the way around, it came off CONSTANTLY. I have a stupidly deep mattress (because I insist on keeping a 3-inch memory foam topper on it -- no regrets, it's amazing), so maybe on a normal sized mattress it would be fine, but with all the tossing and turning I do when I'm having a random night terror about neon pink and yellow scarabs crawling up the wall (I don't know man, I don't even know) it popped off every single night and bunched up everywhere. 

     So I bought a set of the kind I used to have, in a pretty blue color. These sheets are elasticized all the way around, and they're also a lot stretchier, so the annoying bunching problem is solved. 

     And I know you can't tell from looking at them, because they just look like any old sheets, but HOLY FREAKING GOD THEY ARE SO SOFT. And I don't bestow that caps-lock-iness lightly, because I have the sensitive skin of a Victorian noblewoman and I'm really persnickety about my tactile sensations. I'm that person that goes through stores touching every single pillow and blanket and sweater and either "ooooh!"ing or recoiling in horror. Fear me, germophobes, for I have touched textiles all up and down the eastern seaboard. I'm really good about washing my hands though, so there's that. 

     Um. Right, back to the point! These sheets that I'm so in love with are the Pure Beech Jersey Knit Sheets. I got mine from Bed Bath & Beyond, where queen size in light blue ran $69.99 at first, but came down to around $55 with a coupon. That's pretty spendy for me, but I haven't even had the slightest anxiety about spending money on these, because getting into bed every night since I got them has been a serious treat, and I wake up in the morning feeling like a freaking butterfly emerging out of my silky-ass cocoon. I wanted to give everyone a heads up  that I believe they are discontinuing a sort of artichoke green color and a deep pink grapefruit-y color, since they aren't listed on the website anymore and in store they had those colors marked down to $9.99! NINE NINETY NINE. Amanda bought a set of the dark pink ones just because she didn't want to lose money on that deal. Point being if either of those colors tickle your fancy and you want the nicest sheets your face could possibly drool on, go check out your BB&B and see if you can find them, cause that's a hell of a deal. 

     Actually, my searching their website for that link up there led me to discover they also have something called the "Ultimate Luxury" sheet set from the same brand, so that's probably the nicest sheets your face could possibly drool on, but they're considerably more expensive. Not gonna lie though, I actually winced and groaned aloud at the thought of how amazing they probably are. I think I might have a real problem with sheets. My Gatsby would just throw a bunch of breathable organic-fiber sheets around and I would sob and say "They're such beautiful sheets. It makes me sad because I've never seen such beautiful sheets." 

Quick Fixes: SHELF Life. Does this pun even make sense?

     The space behind my glider has been needing something to spice it up for a while. I thought putting something there would anchor the chair and make it seem less like it was floating out in the middle of the room (it has to be pretty far away from the wall because those Viking spear things on top hit the wall if it's too close). So I figured, "why not a shelf?" That way I could do something functional with that space and add plants! I love house plants. 

     I picked up this shelf for twenty bucks at Target -- honestly, I could have found a cheaper shelf if I wanted to, but this one was there in front of me and I like to think of a thing then have it in front of me the same day, so I just got it. It worked out well because this shelf happens to match the footboard of my bed really well. Yeah, the one I walk into all the time. Hopefully I won't injure myself on this shelf. It would be hard, since it's behind a chair, but who knows. I do excel at hurting myself in stupid ways. 

     Then I got these two cute plants to go on top and make it all spring-y and delightful. The first little guy I picked up because hey, it's cute and it was only 2.50. The other, I don't even know how much it cost. I just saw it and went "YES, YOU ARE COMING HOME WITH ME" because look at it, it's so cool! It looks like green tortellinis! I named him Mr. Tortelton. Obviously. 

     Then I happened upon those two little clear star-shaped candle holders in the top picture at Goodwill for ridiculously cheap (I think about 2.50 for both?). I dunno why, since I don't even have any candles to put in them (yet), but they spoke to me. So I brought them home to live on the shelf too! 

     I think it was a really good way to make that weird little space seem more intentional, and it brought Mr. Tortelton into my life, so I'm pleased as punch! 

Quick Fixes: Bedding Swap!

     I don't know what's come over me, but I'm definitely in a mood for quick fixes these days (spoiler alert: Monday's post is another one). It's like that need for instant gratification my generation is so known for finally caught up to me. 

     Today's quick fix is probably the number one easiest way to update a room and give it a new feel without having to actually...you know, work or anything. Switching out the bedding! I decided I wanted new sheets because my bamboo sheets, though super soft, were looking really grody and worn through, and the cream color looked especially off-putting against the white of practically everything else in my room. I also decided I wanted a new comforter, because I do this thing every once in a while where I convince myself I am a quilt person, and I do want to be, because quilts are lovely and have a lot of personality, but when you get right down to it I'm a comforter person. I always end up missing the plushness of a comforter. I find it...comforting. Go figure. And as someone who has the shaky, easily rattled disposition of a chihuahua, I need all the comforting I can get. But enough chit-chat! Let's look at pictures! 

Oooh, somebody got her grubby little paws on the Orton filter to make it look extra dreamy...

     The comforter set was actually a pretty easy choice, because I'd just convinced Jen to get this style, so I knew exactly where to find one. I guess I thought it was a really really great idea, so I copped it for myself too. I got it at Stein-Mart for a cool sixty bucks, which I thought was pretty reasonable since it's queen sized and came with two shams and a bedskirt (that I did not use because it was kind of tragic-looking, but still, it counts for something). 

     Then I picked out these navy blue and white polka-dotted sheets. I went with that pattern partly because I wanted to bring back some of the blue that I used to have in my room, which kind of got phased out a bit over time as I added more white and pink, and partly because there weren't too many options that would have matched and I figured "hey, I've never said no to navy and white polka dots before, why start now?" They're microfiber, so they're reeeeeeeeeally soft, and they were only twenty dollars. Since they were so cheap they do have that annoying thing on the fitted sheet where there's only elastic at each corner, not all the way around, but for the price I won't complain too much. 

     So my cloud-bed grows ever more literal in its design. I'm pleased with how fluffy and light it is, and it does brighten the room a good deal in comparison to my old quilt, which had gray and yellow in the design that kind of made it look like it was always dirty, even though it wasn't. The only weird thing is that since the air in the house is so dry the comforter makes a truly RIDICULOUS amount of static. I can run my hands along it at night and it lights up like it has actual bulbs in it. Naturally this means that the first night I slept under it I spent half an hour frantically googling "very staticky blanket fire hazard spontaneous combustion," but apparently it'll be fine once it's not so dry and I'm only at risk for spontaneous combustion if I'm an extremely heavy drinker or live in coal-mining country and go to bed covered in coal dust. So unfortunately my dreams of being a coal-miner are now out of reach, but other than that, yes, pleased as punch! 


     

Quick Fix: Stealing some Spring...

     Like most people, I've had just about enough cold weather for this year, thankyouverymuch, so whilst strolling through the store the other day, a little glimpse of things to come caught my eye: bulbs! Like, plant bulbs, not light bulbs. We all know I don't have the best track record with those. So I picked up a box of what is supposed to turn into this...

     ... but which for now looks like this...

     Sad trombone sound. I gussied it up as much as I could with lace and ribbon, but there's no getting around the fact that right now it's just a jar of dirt. A fancily dressed jar of dirt, but a jar of dirt nonetheless. But let's pretend it's a grand metaphor for my blossoming hopes and dreams and the slow but sure return of warmer weather or something, ok? Ok. Cool. Glad we got that sorted. 

     Anyway, I know it's kind of a stretch to call this a quick fix, but it will be pretty quick in the grand scheme of things, because bulbs can grow pretty fast indoors. I'll let you know when I start seeing progress! Or if it turns out to be a dud, but I'm hoping that's not the case. 

It's curtains for you, my pretty!

     I dunno, sometimes I like to indulge my inner weird-guy-with-a-curly-moustache-tying-someone-to-a-train-track. Whatevs. 

     But to get to my point, now that we've got the puns and wordplay portion of the day out of the way, I finally found new curtains! You may recall me whining about how I couldn't find any I liked anywhere on the whole internet. Well, I finally did! I ended up going with one of the first options I looked at: the Ikea Ritva curtains in white. They're a nice medium weight (so, thick enough to block a little cold, but thin enough to not block much light) with a faux-linen texture, and they came in a nice, super-long 96" option that only ran me about fifty dollars. Total. For both windows. Yeah, that's a bargain. I wanted extra long curtains so they could be hung extra high and be the height of the room. Home decorate-y types always say that makes your rooms look taller and grander, and damn if they weren't right. Granted, part of the effect comes from the curtains being white (vs. the dark blue I had before), which will obviously make the room feel more open than a dark color. But it makes quite a difference to the feel of the room; it feels bigger, more grand, and brighter. But enough blathering, let's look at pictures at different times of day because I was overly-enthusiastic and, as a result, perhaps a bit over-thorough!

     Here's the morning (complete with cat-butt) shot, where you can see what I mean about how these curtains still let in lots of light. 

     Here's a late-ish afternoon picture, mostly just because this is my favorite time of day to be in my room. It's all cozy-feeling and warmly lit and delightful and I like to take my naps this time of day. What, I'm secretly a granny, ok? 

     And here's just after sunset, when I think the tallifying effect of the longer curtains is most noticeable in person. 

     Regardless of time of day, I'm really happy with how a simple curtain-swap changed the whole feeling of the room. I seriously spent at least ten minutes the night they went up just staring at them and smiling to myself in satisfaction. Is that weird? Nah, right? It's fine. It'll be fine. 

No thank you, I don't have a house. I'm just here to looky-loo.

     Yesterday we went to the Home and Garden show in Richmond! Obviously I don't have a place of my own to buy windows and countertops and junk for, but my parents always like to look at new ideas for their house, and Jen and Jason are looking at moving, so they'll likely be doing some upgrading soon as well. Me and Amanda just went along to look at pretty kitchens and pick which doorknobs we like best and so on. I snapped a few hasty cell-phone pictures so if nothing else, I can prove I was there. Never know when you'll need an alibi! Just kidding, I don't know what I took that to a dark place. Anyway, check it out. 

     This was a booth for a company that refinishes countertops, bathtubs, sinks and the like. As Jen put it when she spotted this demo, "Oooh, that's compelling." 

     I was quite smitten with this little corner. Those glass-front cabinets, the lighted inside, even the blue mason jars and teapots they had grouped up top; I wanted this corner to be in my pretend house.

     

     A nice display of some hardscaping. That fountain is what I'd put in my yard if I woke up and realized I was a fancy noble lady or something. 

     One of my favorite parts, because I have low standards for what I consider a good time: looking at this big ol' wall of drawer pulls and picking favorites. I liked the antiqued floral-y ones in the bottom right rectangle, but check out the RHINESTONE handles in the top left. Can you even imagine having those in your kitchen? All the little spaces would be crusted with bread dough and peanut butter within a week if I was around. But they sure are pretty for...people who don't cook in their kitchens, I guess?

Anyway, it was super fun to look at stuff and dream about what I'll do with my own house some day. They also give out free candy at like half the booths, so double win for the day!

Friday Favorites: TV Binge Edition!

     I guess I kind of gave away the nature of one of this week's favorites right in the title, but so it goes. Let's do this! I present to you this week's favorites. 

SHOW I'VE BEEN WATCHING OBSESSIVELY

     I started watching Elementary this week because Jen has told me several times over several months that I'd really like it. I knew she was probably right, given that I'll watch any show that's a variation on a Sherlock Holmes theme (except the Mentalist, because the lead in that looks too much like Gilderoy Lockhart and for that reason alone I simply can't deal), and that if she likes it I probably will too because we're basically the same Lego minifig, just wearing two different snap-on hairs. But I have to be in a certain mood to start a new show, so it took me a long time to get around to it. Part of that is it has to be when I know I have a few days free, because I cannot be trusted to start a new show without binge-watching every season in a span of days. I can't help it; I do the same thing with books. Put it off for months and months, then read an entire trilogy in a few days. Anyway, I'm enjoying that this version of the Sherlock theme is less depressing than the BBC version (which I do love, but come on, my heart still hurts), and that Watson isn't such a sad-sack (again, I love Watson. I do. But it's nice to have a version where Watson isn't quite as much of a tragic puppy). 

FOOD I SUDDENLY REMEMBERED IS REALLY FREAKING DELICIOUS

     Lindt white chocolate truffles (I'll pause here while you imagine the sound of a choir of angels parting the clouds on a dreary day, because I don't know how to spell that sound. I picked up a bag of these the other day because I just thought "Oh, haven't had one of these in a while!" and OH MY GOD IT ISN'T EVEN FAIR HOW GOOD THESE ARE. Granted I'm biased, because white chocolate has always been my favorite chocolate (yes, I know technically it's not even real chocolate. Whatever, don't tell me who to be). But what I really want is the one this guy is whipping up with a maniacal look on his face on the back of the package. You know, the one the size of my FIST?

IMPROMPTU ROOM SWITCH-UP THAT I THOUGHT I'D HATE BUT DIDN'T

      Yeah, so... I have a glowing headboard now. See, the other day I was sitting around, being Pinterest in human form, and decided I wanted to incorporate the whole "white string lights behind a sheer fabric" thing that I see everywhere online, lookin' all pretty and junk. I grabbed some lights from the attic and my summertime sheer curtains, then set about holding them up and laying them out in different configurations waiting for inspiration to strike. It occurred to me that a sheer, lit-up headboard could be kind of cool. So I strung the lights on, then started having doubts. It was looking a little...dorm-room-esque? But once I threw the curtain on there and turned on the lights, I decided I actually really like it. It gives a nice ambient glow that's enough to, say, plug in my phone or see the buttons on the tv remote by, but it's not quite so bright as to prevent me from getting sleepy, like a reading lamp can be. Obviously I unplug it before I go to sleep at night, because it is too bright to sleep in, but it's nice for that wind-down time before I'm ready to get serious about sleeping. The lights are the LED kind that are designed to stay cool so you don't burn your house down with a Christmas tree, so I'm not worried about any fire hazardry there. As for that curtain, it's literally just tossed on there right now, so if I decide to keep this set-up I'll figure out some way to make it look more polished. Right now though, it's just a fun little change. I may keep it, I may not, but I'm enjoying it right now. 

Oops, I did it again.

     Rearranged my bedroom furniture, that is. And ok, it wasn't really an oops. I meant to do it. Anything for a Brit-Brit reference though. 

     This time around, the rearranging bug struck for practical reasons rather than a random whim. See, as much as I loved having my bed by the window where I could enjoy a breeze when the weather was good and sit there looking out at the field across the way like a Jane Austen character...it was freaking FREEZING. Not as bad as in my old apartment or anything (no curtains visibly blowing in the wind from the closed window), but noticeably, uncomfortably cold. Especially with all these polar vortexes (vorteces? It's late, I'm so tired) we keep having to deal with, it was just too much. I don't handle cold too well; I already have a slight blue cast at all times from my veins trying to say hello through my ghostly pallor, I don't need cold temperatures to accentuate that. 

     So I decided I'd move my bed back to the opposite (interior!) wall. The added bonus is that without a window there I can line the whole wall there with pillows for a daybed-type feel, which I have a strange fondness for. I dunno, I like to feel cozy and snug. I'm the weirdo that used to like to hang out under my desk as a child, so at least I've stopped doing that. But if I can completely encircle two of the four sides of my bed with squishy pillows, hells yeah I'm gonna. Anyway, enough jibber-jabber, here's some pictures!

     It doesn't even look like it's that far from the window, but it's actually a good...seven feet (I just got up and laid down in the floor to use my height as a guesstimation measure. Only the highest standards of accuracy shall be used in my reporting, thank you) away now and OH MY GOD IT'S SO MUCH WARMER. It's not even that my windows are drafty or anything, really, I think it's just that it's been colder than a dementor's nipple these past few weeks and it's seeping in everywhere like walls and windows and physical barriers of all sorts ain't even a thing.  

     Just for funsies, here's a different angle: this is what I see when I wake up in the morning, delightful glaring sunlight and all. That sounded like sarcasm, but wasn't. I genuinely enjoy waking up to the sun being like "HEY GIRL I'M HERE WHATCHU DOIN TODAY, I LIKE THEM JIMJAMS." Yeah, me and the sun get along great as long as I stay indoors. 

      Once I had moved my wreath from the interior wall to over the rocking chair between the windows, I had a big blank space over my bed that I felt needed to be filled with whimsy and delight. So I combed through the folder on my computer of pictures that make me happy and printed out my favorites on my mom's little photo-printer doojig, then arranged them (read: struggled in vain to lay them out on the floor in some sort of moderately pleasing pattern until Amanda got too disgusted by how pitiful I am and said "Stop, let me help you) nicely and stuck 'em on the wall. Originally I was using double sided tape, but it was failing miserably at actually adhering to anything, so I switched to little loops of regular tape on the back, elementary school art-show style. I was worried it would make the pictures stick out too much from the wall, but they actually sit surprisingly flat. Yay happy surprises!  

     There were a couple little odd gaps that I filled with glittery heart stickers (what up inner middle-schooler), but there are still a couple places I'd like to fill out a bit at some point. The beauty is that if I get tired of any of the pictures I can always swap them out to keep it fresh, or expand outwards if I feel so inclined. 

     So that's the state of my room this very minute. I'd like to say I'll stick with it for good, but I can't be tied down like that. I have to change things up every once in a while to keep from getting bored -- or for actual practical reasons, on occasion! 

Oooh, look at this completely unnecessary skill I learned this weekend!

     Bonus points: not only is it totally unnecessary, it's hysterically time-consuming! Like, twenty minute chunks of my life, ske-plosh, down the drain. Don't get me wrong, the end results are super pretty and impressive. It's just that in hindsight I realize there are probably more exciting ways I could have spent my Friday afternoon. Oh well, now I can whip this out at parties to impress people with my papercraft wizardry. Check it! I present to you: wrapping paper sea-urchin-type pointy spike bows!

     They're so, so pretty in person. Way more of a statement than any old squashed little bow you dug out of your attic five minutes before the party. I used this tutorial here, so I won't go into detail on how I made them, since that blog does a really good job of explaining it. The only thing I did differently was use hot glue instead of Elmer's, because I do not have the patience to hold eight hundred little cones of paper together while they dry. Once I'd gotten the hang of it and switched to hot glue, they took about twenty minutes each from start to finish. So I wouldn't recommend planning your whole wrapping scheme around one of these on every present (unless you're just feeling like a few hours of something crazy tedious would mellow you out -- no judgment, you do you), but if you need a real show-stopper for one present, then yeah, definitely give it a shot. They're not hard to assemble once you get into a groove. So hey, why not? 

Friday Fail

     Because I know we all like to laugh together (you are laughing with me, right?) at our failures sometimes, I thought I'd kick off the weekend with a classic tale of "this was a way better idea in my head." 

     Whilst I was digging around in the attic for Christmas decorating supplies that weren't already earmarked for another location of the house, I came across a set of big plastic lighted snowflakes. Oooh, I thought, those would look so pretty in my closet window! See, the window in my closet is the kind that's round on top and right in the center of the house from the outside, so it would look really nice to have something lit up in there. So I dragged them downstairs and asked around about whether they had a predetermined place. Nope, they were free for my designs! So, with my mom's help, I got them hung up in the window using a combination of tape, command hooks, and yarn. From inside, they looked so pretty! Then I went outside...

Sorry for the picture quality, I can't hold my hands steady enough to take a better night shot, and I don't have my life together enough to use a tripod. 

     Light-up blobs! They were totally indistinct clusters of lights. It kind of looked like maybe I had started to hang lights in some other configuration, but they were too badly tangled so I left them that way. I had to admit defeat on that one. So I took them down, and I've been brainstorming what to put there instead. I have an idea involving a rope light, a wreath, and some string lights, but we'll see where it ends up. 

     Enjoy your weekend, everyone -- hopefully it will be failure-free for you! 

The Christmas-ification, Part II

     I told you I wasn't done adding holiday spirit to my room yet. Apparently my method is "more lights, more sparkle!" until everything feels appropriately cheerful but still doesn't involve too much stuff (mostly because I don't want to have to put a million things away after Christmas, because that's depressing). 

MORE LIGHTS

     I needed to add some more lights because the room was a little lopsided -- all the lights and all the blue on one side, and all the pink and...lack of lights? on the other. So I wrapped another strand of blue lights up with some sheer shiny ribbon and blue tinsel to create a garland to drape over my desk, and added a short strand of white lights to my mini-tree (because obviously the tree needed lights. This is a fact). 

     Ahhh yes. That's the cozy glow I was looking for. 

MORE SPARKLE

     First I did a simple switch-out of the decorations on my wreath, re-using the white flowers that were on it before and adding a few festive bits and bobs to give it a frosty winter look. 

     I have a weird affinity for things like those little silver glittery grass-like sprigs because they remind me of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. That's the only part of that story that really stuck with me, actually. I couldn't care less about the sneaking out to dance with cute princes or whatever, but I always loved the trees with silver and gold leaves.

     The final addition to my room came in the form of a box of 12 glittery blue snowflakes (I feel like there's a clever segue to be made here based on the number twelve, but I can't find it, so...just pretend I'm cleverer than I am). I sat in the floor with these in my lap for a good long while, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with them, until finally inspiration struck. Ten minutes and a bit of tape later...

     I love this so much! The snowflakes tucked geometrically into the polka dots remind me of a Nordic sweater somehow. It also vaguely reminded me for a dark second of how in the nineties everyone had horrible wallpaper borders all over their houses. Why was that a thing? Bleh. 

     Anyway, with the snowflakes up and the lights a-glowing, this room is really starting to feel cheerful and festive! I'll have to enjoy it while I can, because Christmas is coming up way faster than it has any right to. Or maybe that's just me getting older and inheriting the grand tradition of insisting that time goes by too quickly. 

It's beginning to look a ... little...like Christmas?

     I started the Christmasification of my room yesterday! I started out light with a couple of little changes here and there (mostly because I don't have many decorations that match yet -- I want to hit up the pink candy-themed Christmas section at Hobby Lobby), but it's enough to get my holiday spirit going. Have a look at some of the changes I made!

     First up, I swapped the roses above my windows for some silver, white, and blue tinsel, plus some blue string lights ($2.50 at Target!).

     The blue lights are really pretty in the dark, too. 

     Then on the other side of the room, I added a mini Christmas tree! I've had my eye on this little white tree with iridescent pink bits for a while, and it was the last one on the shelves at Target today, so I figured I'd go ahead and get it before it was gone. 

 

     I also stuck a sprig of wintry-looking berries (?) in the vase on the left and wrapped some extra tinsel around the bottom of the storage box there, just cause. The pink unicorn isn't actually holiday-specific, I'm just really into unicorns, and it kinda makes sense there. 

     The last little change I made was to wrap some silver garland around my wall mirror and stick a few bows on the corner, just so I'd have a little extra holiday-ness right before I go out the door. 

     I dunno what that face is, don't even ask. 

     Anyway, so that's what I've been up to, but I'm just gearing up in my quest to make everything cheerful and cozy!