I'm moving to substack!

I am very excited about blogging regularly again, but I feel like it's time for me to move over to a platform that's more user-friendly for both authors and their readers. The mobile view of Blogger sites makes the photos so tiny, and it erases all of the customization and identity of the blog. And lately even when I view my blog on my desktop the load times are horrible. I also don't think people really use Blogger as a following platform anymore, so unless you have my site bookmarked or follow a direct link I post on social, I'm not sure how anyone is seeing my posts? And finally (but probably most importantly!) I format my posts using the HTML view on Blogger, and when I was formatting my last few posts it was a nightmare. It kept adding code that I didn't want and the code I added wasn't always reflected when I went back into the composing view. It's been so frustrating trying to post here and I want it to be fun! Even in compose view now when I hit "enter" it adds multiple lines. It's so annoying! I'm sure even after I publish this, once I view it live on my blog there are going to be weird spaces everywhere that I'll have to come back and try to fix 🫠

I've thought about the different options and decided to go with Substack, primarily because it was so incredibly easy to import my entire Scathingly Brilliant archive. It's already there, it literally took *minutes.* I follow several people on Substack and I love that I get their posts directly in my email inbox, so that was also a huge plus!

I'm in the process of manually adding tags to all of my posts so they can be sorted by outfits, room tours, DIY posts, recipes, etc. and I'm already done with 2013 forward. (Of course 2011-2012 were my most prolific blogging years so I have a lot of work ahead of me lol!) I added links to those categories in the navigation bar on my homepage.

Everything I've ever posted so far is free, and as of right now I don't have any plans to put content behind a paywall (I also have a patreon and I feel like that's where paywalled content will continue to live.) I do, however, have comments turned off for free members, so a paid subscription is required to comment. I turned comments off on this blog back in 2014 after I was exhausted by how many trolls I kept getting, and this seemed like a happy medium between turning them off entirely or letting everything through. Of course if anyone wants to support the substack it would be greatly appreciated, but it isn't necessary to access any of the posts :)

To join me over on Substack, click here! I hope to see you there!! 💕

xo Kate 

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.  

pajama state of mind

I was at Kohl's recently and noticed how many fun pajamas they have with lots of bright colors and cute patterns! And it got me thinking about how those sorts of clothes are often relegated to the bedroom and people rarely wear such bold, lively items out of the house. And THEN it got me thinking that you could easily incorporate pajamas into your outfits, especially tops since they're essentially the same as a classic button down shirt (and often with prettier peter pan collars instead of the standard pointy ones!)

 

All this to say, I am wearing a pajama shirt in this outfit and I think it looks FANTASTIC. 

 

I also painted my eyeglass frames on a whim last night! They're Pair glasses (the kind where you can swap out the tops for different colors. not sponsored, nothing ever is lol) so it was easy to paint without worrying I'd ruin the glass. I used nail polish and little tiny sponges to blend everything together and I'm obsessed with how they came out! I've really been in a phase where I just want to wear ALL of the colors ALL of the time and these glasses are definitely helping me to accomplish that lol!

shirt - ban.do

sweater vest - j.crew

pants - athleta

neck tie - fat cat fancy

glasses - pair eyewear (Otis frame)

hi there!

Today I took outfit photos - the old fashioned set-up-my-tripod-and-run-back-and-forth-to-the-camera-between-each-shot kind! I haven't done this since 2021 according to my ootd folder on my computer, and that is just bonkers! I've done some mirror selfies and a handful of outfit videos for instagram reels but I can't believe this thing that was a part of my daily life for so long was just totally missing for 5 years!

I miss blogging and doing outfit posts. I guess it's all part of that 2016 nostalgia that's been trending online lately. I miss the static image version of social media and the era when those photos were accompanied by text with an unrestricted word count. Sometimes I find myself penning blog-style captions on instagram and coming up against the character limit way too fast. It doesn't help that I write all my captions in texts to myself on my computer and then copy and paste them into instagram on my phone - I'm always like 1,000 characters over at that point and have to trim it down 😂

But anyway, I feel so incredibly OVER all of it. The algorithms and countless posts about which types of media are trending. Do a carousel, NOT a static image! Make sure your first sentence is a HOOK. Everybody has the attention span of a gnat so do everything you possibly can to get them to watch YOU for 10 seconds. Your best time to post is at 7:55pm. If you post in the morning nobody will see it! Use this trending audio or else people will keep scrolling. I just don't want to participate in any of that anymore. 

I want to post my old fashioned outfit pictures and static images and long blog posts that I can come back to and read 10 years from now. I'm constantly searching my blog as if it's a digital archive of my life. Recipes, life events, where did I get that dress that I loved so much? What did I write about Arrietty the week that I brought her home? I really hate that most of that digital life archive has lived on sites like instagram and twitter for the past 5 years instead of here, because it's not searchable and it doesn't feel like my own little home. It's an online parking space, not a house. I want to live here again!

I recently got over a really bad GI flare and was living in pajamas and sweatpants, so Valentine's Day seemed like the perfect impetus for finally getting dolled up again and sharing some photos here! I feel like whenever I go through these health episodes I always come out on the other side looking forward to three things: getting dressed up, going to the grocery store, and eating pizza. So far I've done two out of the three (still giving myself another week or so of being back to normal before I take a chance on pizza!) As much as I *hate* how miserable I feel while it's happening, I'm always left with a new zest for life and appreciation for little things like leaving the house, going to the movies, waking up from an uninterrupted night of sleep, and wearing things that make me feel more human. 

I'm notoriously bad at sticking to things and chances are this will be my last blog post until next February when I re-read this and feel incredibly disappointed in my ability to follow through on literally anything. But hopefully not! Hopefully this will be one of many entries in my digital life archive this year. Hope to see you around, and Happy Valentine's day!!

Dress - Lazy Oaf

Shirt - GAP

Belt - h&m

Earrings - Blush Daisy

Necklace - Blush Daisy

My apartment bedroom

After I moved out of my house I moved into an apartment, and I'm currently using the master bedroom as a bedroom/closet/office hybrid. My bed is pushed up against the wall, and the headboard serves as a divider between the bedroom and the office, with felt daisy garland strands hanging from the ceiling to add a little extra separation between the two spaces.





The bedding and wall tapestry are both from my society6 shop. The tapestry felt like a great way to separate this section as its own little room since the rest of the space is just painted plain pink. 





In my old bedroom in my house all of the artwork was sleep-themed, and I kept a few of my favorites on display here as well! The "literally nothing" poster print is from The Motivated Type, the "Less drama" print is from Hollie Startup, the "Worries can't reach me" print is from A Soft Wrongness, and the "Tired all the time" poster print is from Exquisite Paradox.

The giant poster of the sleeping woman is actually a vintage ad for bed sheets that I bought on ebay and scanned so I could blow it up to 30" x 40"! I'm SO thrilled with how it came out. The ad already had a bit of a halftone pattern, so it upscaled beautifully and it just looks so perfect hanging above my bed. I uploaded the file to my google drive, if you want you can download it here.

I don't have room for a nightstand, so I decided to hang a floating shelf and use that instead! It actually works great - I was a little worried at first that I was going to constantly bump my head on it, but I don't actually end up sleeping anywhere near the edge of it - so far so good! I also have a discreet ipad holder on the underside of the shelf. I love reading on my kindle app in bed and using one of those remote page turners so I can be extra cozy laying on my side, all bundled up in my blankets!

The bedroom in my house (which I'll be sharing soon!) was an all-time vintage inspired kitschy dream room and I'll never be able to compete with that, but I am pretty darn pleased with how my little bedroom nook looks in my new apartment. And it's so, so comfy! I'm not exaggerating when I say that my favorite part of every day is getting into this bed and cuddling with Arrietty before I go to sleep. It's a perfect cozy oasis!

my home cinema!

For a little while, I lived the dream! As an obsessive cinephile there was nothing I wanted more in my house than my own little home theater. Not just to watch movies (duh!) but also to finally have a home for my massive collection of movie posters that I had been hoarding and collecting for decades. This will sound so silly but there were times when I didn't even watch a movie, I just stood in the theater and looked around at it. I was just so happy to have it, so grateful that life led me to a place where I could devote a room in my home to my love of the movies. Even if this only lasted a little over a year, I will look back fondly on this room, the memories I made in here, and the warm fuzzy celluloid feelings it gave me.

Now, first let's take a look at the before photo, from when I first got the keys!



Me and my brother built the arched entryway from plywood (not the most perfect way to do it, but it did the trick!) and I made my Cinema sign using my laser printer. 



I don't know how many people would want to recreate this, but if you're looking for authentic home theater carpeting I highly recommend the one I got, here. It came rolled up and I hired a local flooring company to install it for me as wall-to-wall carpeting. This was one of the first things I did when I moved in (the rug was literally sitting in the POD in my parents' driveway before it was even delivered to the house on move-in day lol!) and it immediately made the house feel like it was mine!



The chairs were all from Wayfair (I just searched for "black recliner" and then sorted the results from cheapest to highest price and picked the cheapest ones lol) I put the back row chairs on furniture risers so that they'd have a little more clearance to see the screen. Each chair had a blue quilt (from the kid's section at Target!) so we could all be extra cozy during the movies!





I used the wall behind the roll-down screen to store my DVD collection and also to highlight three of my all-time favorite films. Above the shelving I had printed out pictures of my favorite movie stars and put them in Dollar Store frames. 









My house didn't have a ton of closet space, so at the back of the theater I had two utility cabinets filled with pantry items and household essentials (toilet paper, my vacuum and broom, paper towels, etc.) and then I used the side of one of the cabinets to build a mini concession stand for candy and popcorn!



I've mostly come to terms with having to give up this house, especially since I was able to move a lot of my furniture and knick-knacks and artwork into my apartment. But I just don't have the room anymore for most of these posters and they're back in storage. I can't imagine I'll ever own a house again (I don't even know if I would want to after this ordeal) but I really miss having my own little theater. 

long time no see!

Hey! Long time, no see. I mean on this blog at least - I've still been posting things on social media so maybe it's not long time no see, maybe you literally just saw my instagram stories earlier tonight!

Anyway, a lot has happened since my last post when I was giddy with excitement over my cup holder bags and mere months away from getting the keys to an actual real life house. I spent most of the last two years knee-deep in decorating projects and making my house the most fun, colorful, retro, happy PINK house that I possibly could! I made the den into a home theater complete with a 90s inspired patterned carpet, I turned my guest room into a time-travel room that was a replica of my childhood bedroom! I had cat doors for Arrietty everywhere and pink carpeting upstairs. I covered the kitchen in a fun retro pink flower power wallpaper and made an arcade in my basement. It was so fun! 

I had to put the house up for sale this past summer (long story, you can read more here) and it officially closed on Friday. I just realized that most of the photos of my house that have been circulating around the internet for the last 6 months all came from the Realtor listing so I wanted to post them here and give them a real home 💖 

I'll break this up into a few posts so it's not like a hundred photos at once! Let's start with the kitchen! This might be the room that changed the most over the ~2 years I lived there. I had a hard time getting it perfect, but by the time these photos were taken I was finally completely, totally happy with how it looked. I loved the color scheme, the fun wallpaper, the mismatched color chairs, and my checkered rug. It was just SUCH a happy room!