Finally Made It!

So moving day finally arrived.  I couldn't have picked a worse weekend.  We moved early Saturday morning after the biggest snowstorm of the season.  We measured about 12 inches of snow!  We actually had to dig all the cars out of the driveway before we could even start loading things up.  The drive from my parent's to my apartment took over an hour and a half (normally should have been about 40 minutes) because the roads hadn't been cleared yet from the night before.  But nothing got broken or misplaced and we made it all in one trip.  I've been in the apartment for 2 weeks now, and I gotta admit, you wouldn't know it from looking at the place.  All the boxes are unpacked and all the pictures are on the wall.

Living room set-up w/ kitchen in the background.

Dining room/nook.  I installed the shelf under the window sill because I needed somewhere to put my abundant collection of Coke tins :)  But this is the red and white chrome and porcelain table I had mentioned in a previous post - plus the chrome Coke chair I reupholstered.

Kitchen wall w/ Coke stuff

Quick view of the bathroom (its really small and the vanity/sink is outside).  Love the little metal statue on the back of the toilet :)  My mom got me the old Seventeen magazine from a garage sale a looong time ago.  My bathroom is really girly, so it fit well!

This is a wall in the bedroom above my dresser.  Just kind of a collage of artwork/photos that go w/ the theme and style of my room.

My jampacked Ikea bookshelf in the living room.  I thought Dan was going to have a cow when I put the shelves at uneven intervals (he's the left side to my right side thinking ) but he admitted that it looked good once I filled it w/ my "junk".

More pictures to come of each room as I finish up.

Flower Power II

So these are the curtains I painstakingly painted because I was too anal to just buy curtains like a normal person (see previous curtain post).  I left the middle curtain plain black because I didn't want it to be flower overload.  They are hanging from those handy dandy curtain hooks rather than through a pocket on the rod.  They open and close much easier this way.  I had to cut almost a foot off the bottom because my measuring skills leave a little to be desired, but overall, I'm really happy w/ how the design turned out.

Little Miss Muffet and her Tuffet

This funny looking thing is a footstool - I always call it a tuffet :)  Its core is made from a 12 inch cardboard tube, with several other smaller tubes bolted around it.  I screwed wooden slats to the top, cut a piece of dense foam for the cushion, and covered it w/ material.

  It's actually very sturdy and can even be used as a seat.  The colors don't really work in my new living room, so that will be changing soon.  New paint, new fabric, still funky as ever!

Picture Press-ure

Working at a frame shop for the past 6 years has taught me a few things....frames are expensive!  So I'm always looking for new ways to frame pictures.  So here comes this idea I had seen in a book.  Tennis racket press frames!  It's amazing how easy it is to find them at garage sales for cheap.  Again, I used scrap matboard and glued it to the back of each press.  I attached a sawtooth hanger to each and hung them on the wall going up the stairs to my bedroom.  Some have holes cut in them for pictures and some have sayings on them made from old scrabble tiles.  This one says "Keep Calm and Carry On".  Another says "Live Your Life" and the third says "Dream Big"....I was feelings inspirational!  I have six total so far....now to find something to do w/ the leftover tennis rackets!

Picture Perfect

I bought this window frame at a garage sale for $2.  It was just raw wood, so I stained it (in dark walnut of course), and just had it sitting for the longest time.  Again, working at a frame shop had many advantages, so I used scrap matboard and cut mats to fit into each hole to hold 4 x 6 pictures.  I made it so that the pictures can easily be swapped out as new ones come along.  It hangs above my new fireplace :)

Susan Buys a Dartboard

I can't lie, I picked this up off the side of the road.  Driving home from work, I drove past and saw it sitting at the end of the driveway.  I turned around, went back, and picked it up.  I mainly like it because it was red and white, the colors of my future kitchen.  My mom always had a lazy susan in our kitchen that my Grandpa had made for her.  It held the napkin holder and salt and pepper shakers, among other odds and ends.  So that's what this became.  Working at a frame shop made finding a piece of round glass pretty easy.  I cut the glass to size, used silicone bumpers so it wouldn't slip, and placed it on the top.

I bought a lazy susan device from Home Depot for $5 and screwed it into the bottom.

Here's the finished product sitting in my new kitchen.  It holds a Coke coffee mug that's chipped and unusable (now serves as a junk cup), my paper towel roll, and the cutest little shopping cart I got at a garage sale for 25 cents - it holds fruits and veggies :)

Suitcase Stand

Let me start by saying, I have a soft spot for old suitcases.  This is the nightstand I'm using next to my bed in my new apartment.  It was an old round suitcase my mom had and was getting rid of.  As usual, I saved it :)  It was an ugly orange color, so I spraypainted it black (I made sure to tape over the lock and clasps to keep them silver).  As a base, I attached a piece of wood w/ some bolts through the bottom of the suitcase.  I had an old camera tripod that I had never used and attached that to the wooden base.  The tripod adjusts easily so I could put it at any level.  Just a matter of making sure it's level and the legs are spread apart so it doesn't topple over.  And there ya go!