Winter Pinterest Challenge: All Dressed Up

Oh, you were looking for a post-30th birthday post? Sorry, it might be another minute....

But instead, let's get crafty!

I have been itching to take on a creative project, so I was so excited when the latest Pinterest Challenge was announced. Great motivator to get off my butt and make something...as long as it was something I could finish while watching tv, of course.

There are pictures all over Pinterest of some fancy dressed up bookcases, which were totally inspiring and seemed like a fairly doable project for me. Here is my favorite inspiration post:

Thanks for the inspiration, In My Own Style!

I happened to find a cute patterned roll of wrapping paper at Target that was only $2, and a perfect fit for our little black shelf in the living room. And it followed the same pattern as my inspiration photo.

Check it out now!

The project took me the length of a tv show, and was super easy. I just measured and cut pieces of the paper to fit, and then taped them to the cardboard back. Some of the other tutorials suggest using fabric and covering cardboard to inset into the shelf. I was lazy, and this was easier. Plus, it was a $30 Target shelf that I've had for quite awhile. It was already looking pretty beat up from the move. Now it looks classy.

Huzzah. I love a good quatrefoil print.

Have you made anything lately? If you would like some ideas, check out the Pinterest Challenge from Sherry at Young House Love, and all of the other linked projects.

Shrink Wrap This

Brr. It's cold. Goodbye 40s and 50s.

After being spoiled with some relatively warmer weather, we get dumped on with icy nastiness and lots of cold air over the weekend. Which is why we finally broke down and covered our windows with plastic on Sunday. 

Do you do this too? Maybe we are the only ones. But after a few years of covering my St. Louis apartment windows with plastic, and learning that the people who lived here before us did the same thing in the living room, we knew we'd likely be shrink wrapping those bad boys again to save money and stay a little warmer.

Check out these action shots:

We have bought the Duck brand kits the past couple of years, which come with pretty easy instructions and enough supplies for plenty of window.

We finished by hanging up some curtains in the front windows. We'd only been using the roller shades, but because they would be under the plastic, we had to commit to keeping them half open until winter is over. If needed, we can pull these shut. Plus they make our apartment look a little more grown up. Not sure if we'll keep em forever, but they'll do for now.

It's crazy how you can actually see the cold air blowing against the plastic. That could be because I didn't get it as tight as it could be. But clearly our old home's beautiful old windows are not the most energy efficient. Yikes!

What are you doing right now to stay warm?   

The Gift that Keeps on Giving

Consider this my belated Christmas post. I actually could have written this a month ago. Old news now. 

Christmas came early for our house this year, and it keeps on going.

We actually got the best gift of all back on Black Friday. A brand new washer and dryer!

Some of you may think that appliances sound like a totally boring gift, but I am all about those practical things that I need. We have been trekking back and forth from the laundromat since April, and while it's nice to get all your loads done at once, there is nothing worse than having to lug laundry around during the cold, snowy, yucky months. It is inevitable that one of your clean pairs of undies will fall right out of the dryer and into the brown slop on the floor in the laundromat. Truly tragic.

So as Christmas approached and we learned that our parents were interested in helping us buy a washer/dryer for Christmas, I could not have been giddier. We scouted out the Home Depot sales, read all of the reviews and consumer reports, and settled on a set of Whirlpool Cabrios. It is a top loading washer, but still high efficiency.

At the beginning of December, our beauties came home.

As I watched the delivery men unload and install them, I definitely did a little happy dance. My only sadness is that they didn't come with a big red bow.

It truly was an even for the whole family. Our little snoops both took turns watching the delivery out the window.

Bucky stayed in the doorway long enough that some neighbor kids came to visit him. 

So naturally Stella needed to know what was going on too. 

As if we lived in a sitcom, a second truck pulled up right behind ours. The man jumped out and said "Did you order a washer/dryer?" as ours were clearly sitting in the middle of the driveway. Were we getting punked? Nope. Apparently the next door neighbor also took advantage of the holiday sales and bought a washer/dryer too. Some much higher tech model. Which then made sense why had been standing in the doorway watching our set be unloaded. I think she thought we were stealing her appliances. Instead, a happy day for us both.

Are you here for us too?

Everyone gets a washer/dryer!

I, of course, immediately started a few loads. Chris seems to think that my enthusiasm for doing laundry will eventually wear off. Doubtful. It is actually one household chore that I don't mind at all. There is nothing better than starting a work week without having to worry about clean clothes.

I have a load in as we speak.

To our family, thank you for contributing to the best gift of all. We would have been saving for quite awhile longer without your help. And likely would have had a few tragedies at the laundromat this winter.

Anything exciting show up under your tree? (Or laundry room?)

Our Gallery Wall

We have finally filled the blank wall in our living room, and I am so excited to share!

Check out the new corner!

I did my best to take a picture of each piece, but unfortunately they were pretty gritty. Some are better than others.

One of the paintings I made from the Pinterest Challenge

A map of Madison, drawn entirely in lines from Studio KMO

A little red square mirror we found at Ikea. Oh hey, that's my hand!

A picture I took of Stellie's paws one day.

Some art I made with food coloring, inspired by Young House Love

A print of St. Louis that I got back in the day from Art Shark Designs

And for the bottom row:

A vintage postcard of Indianapolis that Chris found.

Three pics of the kitties that Chris framed for me for Christmas

A print of Providence that I got for Chris from ReStudios

A drawing that I found on Etsy called "Clink" from Genevieve Santos. So cute!

A rooster print that we found on Etsy at The Joy of Color

And finally:

The other Pinterest Challenge print

It has definitely been a work in progress for some time. So glad that we finally were able to hang everything. Right now, it sort of has a theme of the different places we have lived. And our kitties, of course!

I am excited that we still have some room for the wall to grow. Can't wait to see how it changes!

Staycay

Oh. Hello. Long time no see. My Olympics addiction has kept me from blogging for far too long. I just cannot seem to pull myself away from the TV and the Twitter. Which is crazy, because I actually had some time off last week. Both Monday and Tuesday. 

It is not often that I have a day off, or two for that matter, with nothing to do. If I use a vacation day, it is typically because I am either traveling (most vacation days are spent in the car), attending a conference/training, or on rare occasion, going on an actual vacation. The last time that I had two days off with no real plans was two years ago, when we happened to have back-to-back snow days at SLU. Being snowed in during a major storm is a bit different than having two beautiful summer weekdays off. I was sort of at a loss for what to do.

I started by doing what I know best. Making a To-Do List for my two days off with all of the "fun" I wanted to squeeze in. Nothing says "I don't know how to relax" more than planning out one's relaxing. Am I right?!

The list looked a little something like this:

• Clean apartment - Check
• Go to the beach - Check
• Read books - Check
• Watch the Olympics - Check
• Target trip (with it's own list)
• Work on dissertation - Sort-of Check
• Clean out fridge
• Clean out closet
• Get shoes for Maria's wedding
• Drink coffee - Check
• Get in two runs - Sort-of check
• Take naps - Check
• Pay bills
• Play with kitties - Check
• Watch Treme and send back to Netflix
• Finish blog posts
• Go to the mall
• Get more Gu from Sports Authority
• Makeup from Bare Minerals
• Sleep In

 Please note that I am really good at overloading a To Do list, whether for fun or for work. There were a few things on here that immediately got crossed off, once I figured out that I didn't actually get paid until Wednesday. Basically anything that required money. Womp womp. Broke Staycations are not very exciting.

But I did manage to check off a few of the other things, both fun and errands/chores. Yes, even on my staycation, I had chores on the list. Between my running schedule and work, I haven't had so much time to keep a tidy house, and several rooms were in need of some TLC.

A few highlights of my staycation:

I got in two morning runs, followed by this amazingly healthy breakfast. Check out how well I eat when I have time to cook. 

The nice weather let me open up all of the windows, which made the cats very happy. Always a plus when I can watch them stalk squirrels and birds from behind the screens.

Took a walk to the beach, and managed to stop and check out the Little Free Library on Lake Dr. So cute! We are actually doing a walking challenge at work. It is amazing the steps I got in on my two days off. So much more time for physical activity. Plus, you get in a TON of steps cleaning with all of the back and forth between rooms.

 

Walked through Atwater Park.

 

And down to Atwater Beach! So beautiful.

I stayed at the beach for probably about an hour, and managed to get sunburned, despite sunscreen application. While there I multi-tasked reading a book and checking updates on the Olympics via Twitter. Crazy, yes.

 

I also squeezed in a trip to the bakery and to Starbucks for a little afternoon snack. Yum.(I also spent a lot of time on Instagram - you can probably tell...)

A few reflections on my staycation experience.

1. I am really uncomfortable with just relaxing, because I so rarely have time to do it. I pride myself on being good at "going with the flow," but I seemed to struggle with a lack of structured time during my day off, and had to create a schedule/structure for myself. Perhaps on another staycation I can try a different route.
2. Sleeping-in just didn't happen. I really wanted to sleep late, but between Chris and the cats morning routine (yes, my cats seem to have a strict schedule), I got up at my regular time. The benefit of this is that I got my runs in early before it was too hot, and I was able to catch lots of Olympics coverage.
3. I could not resist the urge not to check my e-mail. I only logged on once, but then panicked when I saw how full my inbox was, and immediately began responding to stuff. Which then resulted in some of my coworkers yelling at me to stop responding. So I did log out. Oops.
4. Post-vacay led to me being super overwhelmed when I got back into the office. That wasn't fun. I need to find some better coping mechanisms to deal with that so that I don't immediately regret taking time off.
5. I would like to attempt to disconnect from social media on a future vacay/staycay. I actually probably used social media even more while off this time, again, mainly because of the Olympics. I think I would be a lot more refreshed if I turned everything off for a bit.

And finally - I am thinking that four years from now, I'll just take the full two weeks of the Olympics off. That Olympics fever really gets me...

How do you spend your Staycations?

Feed the Pig

About every other week, Chris and I pack up all of our dirty laundry, and trek across town to the coin laundry mat. Between us, we usually have about 5-7 loads. Chris has one, I have 3-4, and we usually have a shared load or two of sheets and towels. We go on either Tuesday or Wednesday, the discount nights with $1 wash loads. I love that we can do our laundry all at once, and that we stop to get Ian's pizza after. I basically hate the rest of this process. Especially the hauling part.

We have a jar in our living room where we hoard quarters, to make this night possible. My mom actually gave Chris a roll of quarters with his birthday card. How cute is that? Do you think that is to prevent us from bringing our laundry to her place? I only do that every once in awhile, because it takes forever. But thanks, Mom!

The rest of our coins? Those head into this guy. With the hopes that eventually we won't have to save quarters any more, because we will be able to buy our own washer and dryer. We have the hook ups in the basement. But no appliances yet. We are aiming for brand new, top loading, energy efficient, but nothing flashy. (I know that a lot of you love your front loaders, but I have found that they tend to smell like mildew all the time - ick). Delivery/set up is a must.

Right now there is exactly $16.93 in the pig. It does not add up very fast when you take all the quarters out. But someday that washer/dryer will be ours.

What are you saving for right now?

Pulling It Together: The Living Room

Now that we have lived in our apartment for about two months, we actually want to invite people over and have visitors. Chris' parents came to Milwaukee for Memorial Day, and we are planning for some weekends with friends a bit later. Which means that it was about time to whip our apartment into shape. I thought I would share some updated apartment pictures, one room at a time! Let's start with the living room.

The place was unpacked, but was still slightly unfinished looking. We were in need of a rug to hide some of the wear on our hardwood floors, and to pull the seating area together. The room is one long rectangle with a giant cutout in the middle, and so the furniture doesn't exactly line up in a logical way. We were hoping a rug might hide some of that. We also needed a larger coffee table that was not a small storage ottoman. I would love to eventually get a giant square tufted ottoman rather than a coffee table, but our current funds were not going to support that, nor would it fit in the space. We also wanted to add some seating. At least one more chair. This necessitated a trip to Ikea. We came back with a very full car load. After some assembly... TA DA!

We ended up getting a second end table, a coffee table, and this new rug. I am loving the rug, except we cannot get the edge to lay flat. I keep tripping over the darn thing!

We also got a second chair and an ottoman, and a new set of matching cushions. I am loving the red! Chris found the little side table at Walmart earlier this week. Gotta have somewhere to put your drink down. 

You might be able to see that we moved the storage ottoman under the window in the corner. Our own little nook! The cats are loving having another place to watch birds, cars, the kids next door. Little snoops. 

  

We also finally removed the cardboard box from in front of the fireplace that was keeping the cats out. Our solution? I don't know if you can see, but Chris took a piece of clear plastic from a poster frame and put it behind the sliding screen. It fit perfectly, without being a big eyesore like the cardboard box. And it means that they cannot roll around in the soot or use the place as a litter box. 

One of my favorite purchases for the apartment were these little red bird votives that I found on clearance from Crate and Barrel. They have a nice home on the mantel right now. It will be even nicer when we get around to hanging our new round mirror. It will have to stay in the box until we can find the right hardware. 

We also finally found baskets to hold all of the dvds in the media center. After taking measurements and looking at Ikea, Walmart, and Target (twice), I finally bought these. Glad they have a home. We have so many dvds that they are in every storage basket in the room!

Well, except for these. I found two red ones for each of the end tables. (Don't mind the dirty floor or the posters waiting to be hung). 

One of the other little details that I love is this red honeycomb vase that I found at Target. I may or may not have broken one of these while I was at the store. The crash was loud enough to bring over the sales associates pretty quickly. How embarrassing! I know they cannot make you pay for something you break, but I felt like I should definitely still buy one. Good thing it is so pretty.

So that's the living room. We still have lots of items to hang up, and I'm sure we will continue to change things as we live here longer. But I am really loving the place!

Roomies

I hope you will allow me to gush for a bit. Some appreciation is due.

Chris is an excellent roomie. Definitely a better roomie than I am. Here are ten reasons he is great:

1. He kills all the spiders. Even the ones on the ceiling that require getting out the step ladder. I have probably killed two or three. He has probably killed at least a dozen. Old home = lots of spiders.

2. He does the dishes way more than I do. Like 80 percent of the time. That has definitely not been a 50/50 chore thus far. It is not that I do not want to do them, he just usually gets there first. Which I then feel guilty about. But I am also thankful that he jumps right in.

3. He gets up to feed the cats when they are driving us bonkers in the morning. If it is a morning that I can actually sleep in, they are likely to start howling, biting, and anything else they can do to get our attention, around 6 am. If I happen to get up first, I am likely to lock them out of the room. He will actually go feed them, since they are crying because their bowl is empty.

4. He knows to do things like checking the pilot light. I couldn't begin to tell you what that is, or why it is important. He was also the one who figured out that our fridge was turning off. I just thought someone had spilled water. Without him, I might have eaten some spoiled food. Eek!

5. He remembers to set the coffee each night so that there is a fresh pot right after the alarm goes off. Sure, this is for him too, and sometimes I'll do this one. But it certainly starts the morning off on the right foot.

6. He does not yell at me about the boxes I still have to unpack, or the two piles of random clothes in our room, or my overflowing hamper. Or the makeup and hairbrush that can usually be found on the couch, since I tend to get ready while watching The Today Show. I think he is used to me being messy by now. I appreciate his patience. And that he doesn't try to change me.

7. He takes out the cat poo. Gross, I know. But it has to be done. And while I am willing to scoop the box at 10:30 at night, I am not excited about walking out in my jammies in the cold to throw it in the trash bin. And I also don't want it sitting by the door overnight. So he graciously takes it out.

8. He gets down things that are high. This might be a standard thing for the tallest person in most households, but I appreciate it. It prevents me from climbing up on wobbly chairs that may have a screw or two missing.

9.  He lets me try new recipes, and braves my cooking. I am not a bad cook, but sometimes the things that I make just do not turn out as planned. But he is usually willing to give it a shot, as long as it isn't most vegetables or seafood. He'll eat it even when it is clearly burned! 

10. He lets me have my own time and space, and I give him the same. I have enjoyed living with people before, but I know that I also live very well alone. I got used to having my own routine, so it is a hard switch to live with people again. I think that we are starting to settle into a pattern where we have some time together, and some apart. Which is definitely a good thing. Chris gets up in the morning to go to the gym, which means that I can get ready at my own pace, and we don't have to share the bathroom. I will usually run right after work, which gives me time to think and him time to do his own thing too. After we eat together, sometimes we will watch tv together, sometimes we will watch our own shows.

Thankful for such a great roomie! : )

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Gathering Art

Chris and I spent some time last weekend determining what art that we have for the many walls in our apartment. It appears that we have a lot of Dave Matthews Band posters. Yep, sounds about right.

We also have a lot more walls than we have things to hang, so I have been spending my evenings perusing original art pieces on Etsy. One of our hopes is to have a gallery wall in our living room. And we already have some great pieces to get us started that fit in with our current color scheme of black, tan, red and gold.

First, there is the St. Louis Love gocco art print that I bought from Art Shark Designs last year. It's so cute and itty bitty.

Then, there is the Providence Skyline print from ReStudios that I got for Chris last year for his birthday. It adds in a little bit of blue.

 

 I have had my eyes on this Clink illustration by Genevieve Santos for quite a while. I just think it is so adorable, so I finally bought it yesterday. 

And Chris picked out this Rooster Art Print from The Joy of Color, which will pull in a bunch of our main colors. 

Finally, I pre-ordered this Madison Map drawn entirely in lines from Studio KMO. I love that you can see the isthmus!

 

We sort of have a theme going on based on places that we have lived. I like it. 

Now I am trying to figure out what additional art that I might be able to make, to supplement and add in some more color to the gallery wall. Once our prints come in, then we can pull out the gallery wall tutorials that I have pinned, to help with the assembly and hanging process.

 

Decorating is much more fun than unpacking!