here's an idea: TTFN sign

We're big Winnie the Pooh fans in my family and we each have a character to represent us -- mine is Tigger! I decided to pay homage to my favorite bouncy tiger with this sign above my front door :)

My apartment is on the second floor but you enter at ground level and go up a private staircase to get there, so I thought I'd put a hello sign at the top of the stairs to greet guests when they're arriving (I haven't decided what that one is going to say yet..) and a goodbye sign at the bottom for when they leave.

It was so simple it doesn't even require a DIY post -- I just bought wooden letters at the craft store (already painted white) and attached them with Command strips. The whole project cost like $12. I haven't been super cautious about being renter-friendly (I got a list of how much each thing will cost to replace when I moved in and I'm just planning on owing some money when I move out, lol) but this project is definitely renter-friendly and so fun! :)

new digs

Today I get the keys to my apartment! ahh! I'm a complete bundle of nervousness and excitement right now. I picked out my paint colors and I'm planning on tarping and blue-painters-taping the whole place tomorrow so it's ready to paint Thursday. They actually told me it was fine if I painted as long as I put it back to white before leaving. Honestly though I would have probably done it anyway... I can't even imagine living somewhere without color surrounding me like a big happy hug.

However! I am actually leaving my studio area white (gasp!) I settled on white chalkboard paint after seeing it on A Beautiful Mess a little while ago. This way I can still add pops of color whenever I want (imagine the possibilities -- snowflakes all over in the winter, easter eggs in the spring, etc.!) but wipe it away for a plain white photo background whenever I need one. Plus I'm planning on having colorful furniture to counterbalance the plain walls, and the trim is going to be pink! :D

I've been obsessing over my dream home board on pinterest all week, soaking up ideas and inspiration and, frankly, getting a little overwhelmed by the many things I want to do when I can't possibly do them all! I want wallpaper somewhere, giant statement art (I already painted a huge portrait of Dwight Schrute for my hallway!) family photos, colorful furniture, white furniture, pastels everywhere but also bright colors? I think I'm going to end up meticulously planning some things (like my kitchen design is already pretty solid) and then letting others evolve as I live there for a while. My bedroom took years to end up exactly the way that I wanted, and I'm sure my apartment will be the same way. But I think that's part of the fun! Waiting to see how rooms grow to suit your ever-changing needs and tastes!

Anyway, these are some of my absolute favorite pins that definitely represent the direction I want to take. Pastel, feminine, slightly kitschy and kind of retro. The photos link back to the source (except for two that I couldn't track down.)

paint by number

Saturday night at 2am I got a random urge to paint a mural in my bathroom... so I did! I found a vintage paint by number online for reference, printed it out and then hung out in the loo all night with pencils, paint and a brush! I stopped around 5am, got some sleep, then finished it off Sunday morning. I'm super-duper incredibly happy with how it turned out & so glad I just went ahead and did it!

My bathroom wasn't especially pretty ... the paint was peeling and I had a lot of obvious holes where I'd stuck push pins over the years. So this mural covers up all the uglies! I only did one wall so far, but I'm planning on continuing the scene onto the door & other wall when I have a chance! :) I can't wait until it's all finished.. I'll definitely share photos of the whole room when it's complete!

ps. While working on the mural I finished Felicity on netflix ... [Spoiler alert!!] I never watched it when it was on so this was my first time, and I totally did not expect a time travel storyline! That just came out of left field.. and how was Elena alive at the end? Totally mind-boggling to me. I loved it, but it was just so completely unexpected! Although I was sort of rooting for Noel the whole time, so I wasn't incredibly pleased with how things ended up in that department ;p

room tour part 3

This part was a little slow coming since I hadn't quite finished polishing up my workspace when I posted the last part of my room tour. A USB extension cord, iphone dock and headphone extension cord were all that stood between a pretty workspace and a huge mess of cords lol ;)

The little curtain I have hanging above my desk is actually the bottom of a vintage maxi dress that I hemmed. It hides office supply storage like all of my paper for printing Flapper Doodle goodies!

Next to my desktop I have this AMAZING little wall unit from IKEA (called Ludvig). He only takes up 7" of floorspace, yet inside there are three shelves and a fold-out desk for my laptop. It's ridiculously awesome and also perfectly serendipitous that the width was exactly (I mean down to the 1/4") the right size for this little nook between my closet and my windowsill.

Above Ludvig I have my new record player that I love with all of my heart. My old one was one of those big gigantic Crosley reproduction models with a built in CD player, mp3 speaker, cassette deck, radio, dishwasher, swimming pool, etc. All I really needed was a simple record player for a tiny room, and this new one fits the bill! It's wall mounted, battery operated (no cords!) and it has built in speakers! It's basically a dream. I got it from amazon here, although I saw it at UO for like $30 more!

The lamp was a flea market find that I spray painted and re-wired. It's my favorite find ever, hands down! So unique and pretty! (And so cheap.. it was like $1!)

See how Ludvig folds out to unveil a huge workspace for my laptop!! Love love love!

And when my laptop is not in use, there's actually a little built-in piece that holds it in place to charge! There are also some pockets where I store my tablet, an extra mousepad, pens, etc. And the whole thing is deep enough for my mail holder too!

I love that the image of Hypatia on my desktop is like 2x the size of her actual head.

I picked up this little doll bed at IKEA last month and re-covered the mattress it came with in a vintage fabric (another maxi-dress excess leftover!). I keep hoping Hypatia will use it when she keeps me company at my desk but so far all she'll do is sniff it. Hopefully she'll get the hint soon.. I keep patting on it every time she's nearby but she's yet to step inside. I swear, though, if I put an ugly cardboard box there, she'd be sitting on it in a heartbeat.

That's it for part 3! I have one more part and then that's it for my room! I know it seems silly to break up one single room into four parts, but I've crammed so much use into my small little space that it almost seems like more than one room to me! I have my studio, my office and my bedroom all in one 11' x 11' area! :)

ps. Did you enter the h&m giveaway yet? :)

room tour part 2

Part two of my little room tour is my work area! The table is made from two 2' x 4' pieces of 3/4" thick wood mounted to my wall with brackets, and supported in the front with table legs from IKEA. It's really perfect for me... I get 8 whole feet of table space that I can use for packing orders, drawing, measuring fabric for sewing, etc. It's even perfect for folding my laundry!

(Notice Hypatia in the photo above? haha!) Right now my television is sitting on my table, but I have a bracket coming in the mail today so I can finally mount it to the wall! yay! Also, above my workspace I have art and movie posters to inspire me! Here's a little rundown on where everything came from:

Anna Karina painting - by me

Cat poster - a little store in New Hope, PA

Still from the movie Darling - ebay

Green painting - Elizabeth Bauman

White haired lady - Vivienne Strauss

Sunday in New York poster - I forget!

Cat embroidery - by me

Bette Davis linocut - Baking with Medusa

Painting of two girls - Valerie Pensworth

Prism girl - Dada Dreams

Blue painting - Elizabeth Bauman

Yellow painting - Elizabeth Bauman

Dirk Bogarde postcard - Immortal Ephemera

Jane Fonda collage - Catwalk

Purple painting - Amanda Blake

Everything will be OK screenprint - AJB + MTK

The two little pieces of art next to my thread are by Heidi Burton ... I have quite a few of her pieces and they always make me smile! Over on the left corner is my Fargo bobblehead (from Eureka!) All of the pen holders are from.. wait for it.. IKEA! :D

At the end of my desk I have this little shelving unit I got at Michaels (with a 50% coupon! huzzah!) It's absolutely *perfect* for storing all the little things I need on a daily basis as well as displaying my precious knick knacks! Also, now I always keep a little pail on my desk for garbage. When you're sewing or cutting paper you always end up with tons of tiny little scraps all over the place. Now I just keep this garbage pail by my side, and all of the trash gets disposed of immediately! Chloe will eat anything in her path, so I need to be super careful about what's laying around, especially bits of string or ribbon!

I use my under-the-table area for a LOT of storage now, so I decided to conceal it with a pretty curtain! I got the fabric at Jo Ann's this week, hemmed the edges and attached it to my table with velcro!

Under my table I have three red cabinets from IKEA (which I'm sure you're familiar with already thanks to my outfit photos lol) a garbage can (behind the middle curtain), the hamper I used as a kid, which I now use as a bench for my table and a shelving unit that I got at IKEA this weekend. Here's a tip -- if you have a tiny living area, always look at the kid's section while you're there! They have so many short storage options that are perfect for under-table or under-the-bed organization!

So that's part 2! I have one part left, which is just all the other little corners of my room and maybe I'll do a peek in my "closet" which is technically just a clothes rack in the upstairs hallway, lol! The one downside to converting your bedroom closet into a workspace... ;-D

room tour part 1

I'm breaking this up into a few posts so I don't have too many photos, and also because I'm not entirely finished with the other side of my room yet, haha :)

So... this is my bed! I bought the four-poster frame from IKEA a few years ago during the Moroccan bedroom phase, and I love it too much to part with it even though it doesn't match my room anymore. I know it's probably the opposite of good taste, but I'm thinking about painting it a grapefruit pink color! :D All of the bedding is from IKEA (old) and I got the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers poster on ebay a couple years ago.

At IKEA this weekend I bought a couple heavy-duty hooks to attach to the wall next to my bed. I'm using them to store some extra dresses that don't fit on my clothes rack. I picked out dresses that match my bedroom, and I'm using them as artwork! It's decor and storage for the price of one! :D

Hypatia has her own little pink bed that sits on mine, and every night she curls up in it right next to me! The blue pillows behind her cat bed are there to keep her bed from sinking into the small gap between my bed and the wall :)

Tomorrow I'll post the rest of my room!

reorganization

dress - handmade

cardigan - forever 21

shoes - target

tights - we love colors

bag - h&m

On Saturday we went to IKEA to get some new things for my bedroom/studio. We only go about once a year and it always feels like a vacation, so I was really excited! I even made some vegetarian meatballs to bring with me so I could dip them in the swedish meatball sauce (although I'm still SO annoyed that they got rid of the old potatoes in favor of mashed.. now it just feels too much like hospital cafeteria food to me.)

I ended up getting a ton of things to help organize my room better, and then spent all night Saturday and all day Sunday assembling furniture. I can't even feel my right hand anymore after using the screwdriver so much, but it turned out amazing! It's much more functional now then it was last week, and my supplies are so well organized that I feel a lot more motivated to work!

I think I've become a bit of an expert on cramming a lot of function into a little space. My room is only 11' x 11' yet I have a queen size bed (on risers so I can use all the under-the-bed space for extra storage) and an 8' long table, along with a closet I converted into an office space. I don't think I've ever really shown photos of my room (except for the little piece in the background of my outfit pictures lol) so I think I'll do a little tour on my blog this week :-)

I might dig up some old photos to show how it's evolved too... I've been in this room since I was 6 years old! It started with a Beauty & The Beast theme, then evolved into a Frank Sinatra shrine, and then it was a dark, dimly lit Moroccan hideaway (or at least I tried to make it look that way). My favorite is definitely its current state, though. A teal and grapefruit bedroom/studio that I share with my fluffy little feline, Hypatia! :D

home sweet home

With my teeny tiny itty bitty almost invisible budget, I'm probably going to end up with an apartment that's smaller than my current bedroom. But, that hasn't stopped me from dreaming anyway, pouring over design blogs and pinning everything I love on pinterest. Honestly, I've managed to do a lot with my little 11' square room, turning it from my childhood bedroom into a bedroom/studio/office/living room, with walking space to boot! I'm used to living in cramped quarters, so I think I'll manage, even if my whole apartment could practically fit in my palm ;)

Here are some of my favorites that have made it onto my "apartment ideas" board. Most of them are from sweet home style on tumblr, but you can get all of the source links here. (ps. how amazing is the giant pink cat poster a couple photos down? ahh!)




Do you want to comment, but have no idea what to say? Trust me, I've been there! So to make things a little easier, here is a question you can answer if you can't think of anything else to say! :)

Would you rather live in a giant mansion or a cozy cottage?