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

apartment tour part 3: my hallway

I told you I'd eventually finish my apartment tour ;) I think the only room left after this is my workspace. I like my new room so much more than my apartment, but I want to finish up the tour anyway, just to document what everything looked like. I love that my blog sort of serves as a record of my life (at least the last four years of my life, anyway) and I can always go back and peek at my archives whenever the mood strikes.

Also, I'm so sorry for the quality of the pictures in this post. The hallway in my apartment was SO dark, it's not even funny. It basically had zero natural light whatsoever, so I not-so-affectionately referred to it as the black hole. It was practically impossible to take good pictures, but in person it was actually pretty cute. I absolutely LOVED that as soon as you turned the corner to go down the hallway you were greeted by my enormous painting of Dwight Schrute. I originally painted him for the dining room but he fit so much better in the hallway.



The apartment came with a linen closet, but seeing as I have way more books than towels I decided to temporarily take the door off and turn it into a bookcase. I tried color-coding my books for the first time and I love it so much! I have a very photographic memory so this actually helps me to find my books easier. I'm always like "well, I know it has a red spine and yellow lettering!" etc. so this helped loads. I organized my books the same way when I moved back home, too :) I guess technically alphabetical order would be even more functional but it wouldn't be half as pretty..

The Read More Books sign was something I just drew to fill the space above the door. And to remind me to lay off the Netflix once in a while ;)



I love this little bookend guy! I haven't found a place for him in my new room yet but he definitely needs to find a home. I got him on amazon, here.



At the end of the hallway I had a little table with my cat book collection (I did a post on it here) and the letter that we received in the mail thanking us after my family adopted Hypatia. And of course, the Dwight painting :)

Sadness -- I actually don't have any place for him in my new room. Right now I just have him propped up against my desk but he really belongs somewhere where he can be the center of attention (like this hallway!) If you're interested in the painting (or prints!) I listed him in my etsy shop here.



The Hypatia dress that I designed last year had a place of honor next to my Hypatia art grouping. I blogged about the idea for the art grouping last year, as a way to grieve & honor a lost loved one's memory. You can read the post here.



My favorite addition to the grouping is the little beaded heart in the middle. My mom made it for me after Hypatia passed away last year, it spells out her name in morse code. It was such a sweet, thoughtful gift. I actually have more pieces to add, too. A few incredibly sweet readers sent me artwork via email that I still need to print and frame, and I also recently got a beautiful portrait from Danielle, as well. I had much more room for the art in the hallway than I do now, but I'll find a way to add them. No such thing as too much art on the walls, that's my motto! ;)

Well, that's it for the (dark, dark) hallway! I'll get the workspace tour out of the way soon so I can move onto the tours that I'm really itching to do -- my new room and my new workspace!! It still needs some finishing touches, like new blinds and a new light fixture, but it's already definitely home :)

DIY shiny wall covering

I had every intention of posting this on Saturday but my body thought it would be more fun to get food poisoning instead. It definitely wasn't fun. I'm better now but it probably wasn't my favorite holiday weekend to date, lol.

Anyway! On to the DIY! My new bedroom was missing a key component that most bedrooms have -- four walls. One of the walls in my room is a half-wall with an opening into our front entryway. It's blocked off and concealed with a set of bookshelves from the front, but on my end I just see the back of the shelves, a kind of ugly that paint doesn't sufficiently hide. I have a white curtain hanging behind them but it still looks pretty makeshift. So I came up with this quick, easy (and most importantly, cheap!) project to hide the weird wall and make my closet oh-so-glam in the process! :D



All you need are door curtains from the party supply store and command strips. How many you need of each depends on the wall you're covering, but for me it was five curtains and 20 strips (four per curtain.) The total project came in under $40 and the most effort involved was just moving my clothes out of the way while I worked and then moving them back again!



All you have to do is attach the command strips to the top of the curtain and adhere them to the top of the wall. In my case, since I was trying to hide a half-wall, I attached them to the ceiling since there is no wall in the area where the bookcases are standing. You can't even tell that it isn't one complete wall now!

This next step is really only necessary if you have cats since the shiny door curtains just SCREAM "come play with me" to felines. After you attach the curtains to the ceiling, cut off the excess so that it isn't dangling to the floor. So just make sure the ends are safely out of reach. And make sure there aren't any stray pieces laying around after you've chopped off the hem.

It's definitely a bold (possibly a little bit gaudy?) statement wall but I kind of love it! It started out as a cheap solution to an ugly problem but turned into one of my favorite projects in my new room! :)

apartment tour part 2: my bedroom!

My bedroom is probably my favorite room in my apartment (I know I said that about my kitchen too… it's probably a tie) It's definitely Hubble and Arrietty's favorite too -- they love cuddling up on my bed and lounging in my mountain of pillows. My new quilt is from Target. I know I'm going to get some eye-rolls but it's from the kid's section. I know. But I'm seeing the fact that it came in Queen size as a sign that they knew adults would want to buy it too. My pink alarm clock is from amazon and my bed is IKEA (from like 10 years ago, and I painted it mint.)



My dresses didn't all fit in my closet so I picked out all of my lacy, cream and white dresses and put them on a rack in my room. I'm annoyingly absent-minded though and keep forgetting that I have these here when I get dressed...



I kind of ran out of artwork to hang up since my gallery wall in my studio used up most of the pieces I had brought from home, so I decided to just decorate with dresses! I have all of my prettiest vintage frocks hanging up in lieu of art, but aren't they art in and of themselves? They're beautiful!



The pink one with the big bow and bell sleeves is my all time favorite (close up a little later!) I think even if I did have enough art for my bedroom, this one would still be hanging up. It's a little like sleeping in a giant closet but, come on, that's actually kind of awesome! ;D



I have the makings of a little hat collection hanging on my wall, along with my not-so-little sunglasses collection. You might say I like to buy shades… eek! Also, my giant cat face tote is one of my favorite things ever. I got it on amazon here.



I LOVE this poster for one of my favorite Julie Christie movies, Petulia. It's just so perfect in my bedroom! It's surrounded by my faux-fur collars and my lady tie collection! I'm getting close to having one in every color -- it's one of my life goals, actually.



I keep my brooches on this cute little tiered tray that I got at Target a couple years ago (Their Valentine's Day section never fails to disappoint!) I love vintage enamel brooches -- I actually have a sweet & lovely project in the works that sort of incorporates them, I can't wait to share it when I'm finished! :)



More dresses on the wall (and a robe sitting on an incredibly awesome vintage hanger) My window looks so bright and sunny here but I don't get very good light during the day. I actually take most of my product photos back at home since they come out too dark at my apartment. I always make fun of people on House Hunters who go "oh, this space has simply marvelous natural light" but seriously, I wish I had considered that when I rented this place…



More dresses! Also, that robe on the door is my dream robe -- I must have searched for "pink vintage robe" on etsy and ebay every day for months before I found it and then… I never wore it. I love the idea of wearing a robe and walking around the house like some kind of 1960's screen goddess but when it comes time for PJs I'm only cozy in sweatshirts, t-shirts and flannels.. I can't help it!



I love love love love love how my room looks when my closet door is open. I have no idea why, it just looks so cool to me! Probably because I've actually never had a real closet until now. At home I had a shallow closet with sliding doors, which fell off their track when I was like eight. The idea of a real walk-in closet where I could actually STORE MY CLOTHES? I'm living the dream.



The amazing pink dress with big bow and bell sleeves. I can say for certain that I have known true love. *heart skips a beat* It's from Fancy That Vintage, my favorite vintage etsy shop!



I just realized I didn't get a good picture of this dresser -- oops! There's a slightly better one on my instagram here. I inherited it from my grandmother, and my dad let me paint it purple (he said he'd rather it stay in the family and be purple than get donated or collect dust in the garage and stay dark brown. Wise man, my dad!) My Grandmom Eve loved pastel colors, too, though so I think she'd approve :)

The shoes are from a vintage shopping trip a couple years ago -- my cousin found them and urged me to try them on even though they weren't my size. Low and behold, they fit like a glove. It was meant to be! :) I love the light pink color & little leaf cut-outs!



And a different angle on the dresses. There's only four walls, what can I say? :) I think last time I said my workspace tour was up next and then I posted this instead but really, my office tour will be next. Promise!

Also! I have a shop my closet update coming tomorrow, so stay tuned ;)