my basement arcade

Here is one very cool feature in my house that I didn't really post about too much because the dark room didn't match my social media aesthetic 🤣 I LOVE arcade games and the whole vibe of an arcade makes me feel like I'm back in the '90s again! I wanted this to feel as retro and classic as possible - I even had a little mp3 player that had an "arcade background noise" file on it that I'd play on a loop with an '80s and '90s music soundtrack accompanying it on my phone. I wanted it to be as immersive as possible whenever I came down here to play!



For Christmas in 2023 Arrietty got her own little pool table to go in the arcade! Mostly I would just see her sitting on it and not playing with the toys but she's a very lazy cat lol.



My dad got me the Pac-Man desktop game for Christmas during lockdown and I got the Asteroids one to match once I was putting the arcade together. They're just sitting on cheap kitchen shelves that I covered in black poster board to give the illusion of a full-size game.



This is actually the second version of the arcade - my basement flooded in April 2024 and I had to empty everything out so it could be remediated. I was so lucky I was able to save this carpeting. It's just two area rugs (these are the ones I bought) that I hand-stitched together to make a giant rug, but I had spent so much time on it! Before this I had curtains hanging up in front of the walls but after the flooding I decided to paint the cinder blocks dark purple and I hand painted a fun design on top. I made a dark purple curtain to hide the basement window, and added a neon tube light around the perimeter (by the way, Gorilla Glue construction adhesive sticks to cinder blocks if you're curious how I was able to hang anything up here!



One of my favorite things about the arcade was the poster display. I wanted posters that reminded me of going to the multiplex when I was a kid. I got all of these from movieposters.com and they were so inexpensive (I think most of them were like $3.99 because they're not popular films!)



I wish I had taken a close-up photo of my Prizes area because I thought it was so cool!! I would actually hand out tickets to my friends and family so they could redeem them for prizes later. I had all of the bins marked with different ticket amounts, with some big-ticket prizes hanging up like inflatable guitars and teddy bears! 



One thing I've noticed while gathering photos for these blog posts is that I really did not take nearly as many pictures of my house as I wish I had. It's probably because I was just too busy enjoying living there -- but in retrospect I wish I had filmed more of my projects when I was designing all of the rooms and I wish I had taken more photos when it was done! Sometimes I have dreams that I'm back there and dream-me will think "oh, I should take some pictures while I'm here!" 🤣 But then, alas, I wake up!

my bedroom at my house

It's hard to believe that pretty soon it'll be two whole years since the last time I slept in this bedroom. I loved it SO MUCH!! I always dreamed about having one of those '70s rooms that looked like a floral pattern threw up on every surface. I'm obsessed with that style so much and I am so glad I got to do it!! 



Before I even moved into my house I had the upstairs floors redone with this light pink wall-to-wall carpeting. LITERALLY a dream come true for me. I also had all the ceilings painted light pink, so between those two things every room had a bit of a pinkish glow to it. It was so pretty!



I had a set of drawers in one closet and Arrietty's litter box in the other. Me and my brother built this custom piece of furniture that made it look like a matching set of drawers, with a cutout for Arrietty to go in and out. The back had two legs with wheels so I could roll the facade out and access the litter box. One of many little projects that I was so proud of in this home!

I also had a bit of a "sleep" theme to the artwork in my bedroom which was so fun!



As someone with GI issues, I cannot tell you how excited I was about finally having a bathroom connected to my bedroom. It was one of the main things I was excited about when I moved in!! I designed a custom tile pattern for the floor in my master bath and then cut out a matching floral pattern in vinyl on my cricut to make my own "wallpaper." 

I always had to slightly close the door at night though because the mirror faced the bed and it weirded me out lol! I always feel so spooked by mirrors at night!



For my night stands I made custom Good Nite decals inspired by the Drexel Plus One furniture from the '70s. I took a photo of my table and imported it into Procreate. Then I drew my design over the photo to make sure it would fit perfectly before printing it out on my cricut. 

I also used the two shelving units on either side of my bed to display my ceramic cat collection. One of the things that I loved the most about having a whole house to myself was the amount of room I had that was strictly for displaying pretty things. Right now I'm back with my parents for a while and when I move out in a few months I'm planning to get a studio apartment. I don't really see a future where I'll have this kind of room again, and I really loved it while it lasted! I'm obviously a "more is more" kind of person and I just loved having room for all of my thinggggggggs!



I had one giant daisy rug (I got it like 6 years ago so I don't remember where... maybe pottery barn kids?) and some bathroom mats to create some visual interest on the floor. I wanted this room to look fun and busy and kitschy and this definitely helped accomplish that!



When the bathroom door was closed at night I had more of that fun floral pattern on display! 



This dresser used to be at the foot of my bed before I moved into my house and it fit perfectly on this wall under my tv. I used it to display my collection of lady dishes. It made me so happy seeing them all together this way! 



I've been trying to figure out how to make my own head shaped hangers for years to no avail, but in the meantime these vintage ones are prized possessions that I've had hanging up in my various bedrooms for over 10 years now. I just think they are so cool!!



I really lucked out that Society6 wasn't curating their platform yet when I designed this room, because I was able to completely cover every surface in one pattern thanks to all of their product options (blanket, pillowcases, wallpaper, curtains, tapestry fabric, so many things!!) About a year ago they removed a ton of artists from their platform. I was selected to stay on, but then they recently implemented a limit on designs, where items that haven't reached a certain threshold of monthly sales are automatically removed, so I ended up with one single item in my shop. 🫠 I'm still working on trying to find an alternative because having this ability to completely customize my interiors was one of the most exciting developments in my *whole life!* and I definitely would not have been able to make this room happen without it.  

Mini kitchen DIY/tour

As I mentioned two posts back, I had an uncomfortable living situation for most of 2020 and a byproduct of that ordeal was that I did not have access to the kitchen in my house. It's a long story, but suffice to say I spent most of 2020 buying processed foods that you could eat out of a box and ordering way more McDonald's lunches and dinners than I should ever admit lol. By September I just felt so unhealthy that I decided to build a makeshift kitchen in my room so that I could start cooking my own meals, store frozen vegetables, and generally just eat normal again.

I haven't left the house since March so this whole area was constructed by meticulously measuring the space in my room and double-checking online measurements before ordering all of the necessary pieces for delivery. And it all fit and worked absolutely perfectly! In late November I was able to start using the real kitchen in my house again, but I still use this regularly and I'm so glad that for September, October, and November I was able to get healthy again.

I thought I'd share this for two reasons - first of all, I am super proud of how this turned out! I didn't just make the best of a bad situation, I made it cute too! :) And also when I first decided to do this I researched to see if anyone else had done something similar and I couldn't find anything! So I thought, perhaps if someone out there has a little studio apartment or office that could use a cute tiny kitchen, maybe my experience will come in handy for you!





Since I have wall-to-wall (ugly.. ugh!) carpet and didn't want the refrigerator resting on a carpeted floor I built a small tiled floor using a chair mat and peel-and-stick tiles. I actually do not recommend this particular method since the weight of the furniture has warped the floor a bit. If you're doing this I would recommend building a plywood base first, since it would be more sturdy than the chair mat was.



This gives you a little better view of the whole layout. The "wall" behind my kitchen is actually a piece of beadboard that my brother cut to size for me with a circular saw. I have a curtain hanging on the other side that faces my bedroom. The curtain has been there for years but with the kitchen appliances there I didn't want the cords bumping up against fabric so I decided to build my own wall! 



Here's a brief summary of what I did and where I got everything:

1. The refrigerator is a 3.2 cubic foot mini fridge from Home Depot. I picked this because of the color (obviously) but also because it has way more freezer space than most mini fridges, and I really wanted to be able to store a lot of frozen vegetables and smoothie materials.

2. The microwave is from Amazon. Not the best microwave and it usually needs a minute added on to every cook time but it does the job and it's pretty enough :)

3. The microwave shelf is also from Amazon. It comes with thin clear plastic protectors that you can put on the shelves but they weren't sturdy enough so I painted some cork board pink and cut it to size instead.

4. The toaster is from Amazon. I obviously tend to purchase things because they look pretty but this is also a really nice toaster.

5. The ice cream artwork is from Everyday is a Holiday (two of my favorite artists so please check them out even if you aren't in need of an ice cream plaque!) 

6. The white scalloped shelves on my wall are actually these plastic shelves from Amazon that I painted white with chalk paint (it adheres better to plastic) and faced with laser cut scalloped wood that I cut myself. The pink shelves are these narrower plastic shelves from Amazon, painted white and then faced with scalloped wood that I cut and painted pink.

7. I got my electric kettle from Amazon. Unfortunately they don't have the pink one listed anymore there but the brand is ASCOT. I love this kettle so much that even though I have access to the stovetop in my kitchen again I still keep making my tea this way.

8. I got the table from Wayfair. This table turned out to be the most perfect makeshift kitchen I could have hoped for! The side has shelving so I could store snacks and ingredients for cooking, it's the perfect height for a countertop, and the mini fridge fits under the tabletop *perfectly* with a little room to spare for a tray that I use to store cooking utensils. My brother drilled a hole near the back of the tabletop so that I could drop cords down as needed. When I'm not using it, the hole is covered up by the Coca Cola straw dispenser :)

9. The tray on top of the fridge is from Amazon. It fits like a glove and it has handles so it's easy for me to pull it out without looking whenever I need something. It's kind of like a little makeshift utensil drawer!

10. My cute spice jars with the pink lids are no longer available but I'm going to link to them just in case they miraculously come back in stock someday. 

11. My towel rack is from Amazon. I also bought some S-hooks separately so I could hang my measuring cups on the towel bar.

12. All of my canisters are these. I painted them (on the outside only, obviously) and then I designed custom labels and cut them out of vinyl on my Cricut.

13. My kitchen cart is no longer available in mint, it seems, but it's the absolute perfect size to go right next to the fridge and under the table (and at least it still seems to be available in pink!) 

14. I got these containers for the shelving on the side of my table. While I was using the kitchen every day I had these pushed to one side and used the extra space on the side of the container to store rice, pasta, etc. but now I whittled down my supplies and can keep it a little more tidy. It was very difficult finding containers I liked that fit *almost* perfectly into this weird narrow shelf space but these worked great!

15. Some links to various kitchen stuff: my blender, pink daisy trivets, pink kitchen utensils, pink measuring cups, pink knives, scissors and cutting board set I also used a peel-and-stick towel hanger on the front of the table. The one I purchased isn't available anymore but it's just a basic circular hanger. The oven mitts were purchased during my last trip to Hollywood but I can't remember the name of the store, sorry!

16. The peel-and-stick tiles I used for my floor were from Amazon. I liked these because they had four squares per tile so the black-and-white pattern would show up even though I was doing this in such a tiny space. 

17. Finally, my Instant Pot. This thing was a LIFE. SAVER. I was able to cook healthy meals for myself without access to a real kitchen. On the saute function I could make a scrambled egg for breakfast and with the pressure cook function I could make pasta fagioli for dinner. I even bought some pans to make baked goods in the instant pot like cornbread and cake on my birthday! I used this springform pan, this fluted pan, and this sling to lower them and raise them from the pot. 

18. For good measure, here are a few of my favorite recipes that I made with my instant pot - 

Orange chicken

Swedish meatballs with noodles (I used turkey meatballs)

Stuffed pepper soup (my favorite! I used ground chicken)

Chicken fried rice

And that's about it! Honestly this worked out for the best because this was an area of my room that I was always unsure what to do with. I've never been happy with it and it didn't show up in my photos all that often because I never felt like it looked right. So this little kitchen is a bit of a glow up for that corner of my room lol! Here's a before/after!

ps. Do you like the pink and brown purses hanging on the back of my door? I sure hope so!! More on those soon!! :D

Before/After daisy bookshelf

I just got this vintage wicker bookshelf last week and I'm so happy with how my paint job turned out! I painted the shelf light pink and then I painted the daisies off-white with yellow centers. It was a much more time-intensive job than I anticipated, taking about 4 hours total, but it was so worth it! Here is a before and after shot to show what a difference a little paint can make!



The shelf had originally been painted dark green, and then somebody spray painted it a light cream color on top. But they didn't do a great job, with lots of the dark green seeping through. The cream color was also yellowing from age, and even though I wiped it down it still looked really dirty. I think it would have looked so pretty natural, without any paint at all, but I wouldn't even know where to begin to get it to look like that. I absolutely love how it turned out, though! And I'm so glad that I painted the daisies white and yellow instead of slathering the whole shelf in pink paint. It adds more visual interest and makes the piece look more unique, I think!

I bought this piece used (obviously, haha) but someone on ebay has shorter 3-shelf versions of this shelf brand new, right here. I actually bought one of the little ones and I'm debating whether or not I'll paint it to match. Hmm..

room tour - my office

My office ends up in the background of a lot of pictures, so it's nothing really "new" to share, but it's almost a completely different room from the one I shared during my last room tour in 2014. I always feel more at home when I've completely filled up every inch of my space with things both functional and decorative (and oftentimes both.) This is way more cluttered than it was two years ago, but I've never felt more at home.



I live in a long open room that I divided into a work area and bedroom, but the defining lines are definitely blurred quite a bit. I keep most of my books in my studio (although because my bookcase is so deep [13"] I'm able to use every single shelf for craft supply storage behind my books!) and I keep a lot of work supplies tucked away under my bed or over my closet.

My workspace is also where I have most of my decorative trinkets. The purple display case pictured above contains my collection of The Office bobble head dolls (I have every one of them!), my bookshelf is home to my collection of Funko Pop Vinyl dolls and I use the top of my shelving unit to display things like snow globes, travel souvenirs and action figures.



I actually can't remember when I decided to switch from a regular desk to a floor desk, but it might be my favorite decision I've ever made for my workspace. I used to get horrible back-aches from sitting in my chair all day, and this has made all the difference. I never get back-aches anymore, my legs fall asleep less often and I'm much more flexible than I used to be. I can spring up and down from my sitting position way easier than when I first transitioned to this desk. I feel like I get more exercise here, too, since I'm constantly getting up and down to work on orders.

And obviously a huge perk of this setup is that Arrietty usually curls herself up next to me on the floor while I'm working. That's reason enough to love my desk, haha!



I recently handed-down my old imac to my brother, who is helping me with my business now (I'll be sharing more details about that on my art blog very soon!) so I set up my laptop to watch movies or tv shows while I'm working.

This table is actually a tv bench from Ikea! The little shelf in the middle is absolutely perfect for keeping my tablet away from curious furry paws. The shelf behind the table is an Ikea Kallax that I painted to match my table so that they look like one single unit.



Whenever I post photos of my office on instagram my number one question is "what's in all those tiny drawers?" I use these little drawers to store brooches, patches, button-making supplies and earrings. They're almost all filled up again, so I might need to invest in one more unit! Now I just have to decide what color to paint it! :)



Sources for some things:

Purple rug - Amazon
Little drawer units - Amazon
L'Avventura poster - Criterion
Blue filing cabinets - Ikea (came red, spray painted blue)
Bride of Frankenstein poster - Movie Poster Shop
Ice cream lamp - Perpetual Kid
Pizza slice wall hanging - Everyday is a Holiday
Blerg balloon letters - Urban Outfitters (old)
Giant black movie lamp - Ikea
Green vintage-looking fan - Amazon
Brain artwork - DIY tutorial
Green and wood console - Urban Outfitters (old)
Cat-shaped cat door - my shop
Green scalloped bowl - Target (old)

sneak peek

I'm not quite ready to do a full room tour yet but here are some sneak peeks at my favorite little areas of my room! I'm really happy with how everything is coming along. Honestly I was pretty underwhelmed by how I decorated my apartment (except the kitchen, I loved that room) and every once in a while I'd stare longingly at photos of my old bedroom. But this feels perfect. It's weird how much your surroundings can influence your mood, but I'm just so much happier in this space.

christmas in july

I'm having a little christmas in july sale in my flapper doodle shop (50% off any order over $20 if you're interested! Just use code christmasinjuly) Anyway! I was looking for a Christmas-y photo to use on instagram to mention the sale and I stumbled on a bunch of pictures that I took for a Christmas apartment tour last December! I can't believe I never got around to posting these! I wasn't 100% smitten with how I decorated my apartment (kitchen excluded - loved that!) but I really liked how I decorated for the holidays :)

So, this is half a year late but it's Christmas in July so maybe it's right on time? :) Here are some snapshots from my apartment last winter! I think my absolute favorite decoration is the little hat-and-scarf set I put on my Dwight bobblehead. It was actually a wine bottle decoration that I got at the craft store, but it's a perfect fit for the bobblehead! :D