inspired

I’ve been feeling super crafty lately. Maybe it’s from all of my visits to the Home Depot or staying up all night looking at design blogs. Whatever the reason, I feel like I can make anything. Including this awesome chandelier. I’ve wanted a chandelier for my living room and bedroom for quite a while but didn’t want to shell out $200+. So as fate would have it, I stumbled upon this DIY chandelier the other night. I’m definitely up to the challenge to make one on my next day off. 

Via Design*Sponge 

Via Freshly Picked

swap meet sundays

(My almost complete kitchen)

Sometimes I love not going out on Saturday night. Does that make me lame? Maybe. But sometimes I don’t mind sacrificing my social life if it means finding super cool things at the swap meet. Which is exactly what happened this past Sunday. My girlfriend Ashley, who is the queen of the social world on Saturday nights, actually stayed in just so she could go to the swap meet at 6:30 am on Sunday morning. Gasp. Say what!? She is now officially hooked, obviously. The swap meet started out slow; many of the vendors were still unpacking when we arrived at 7am. After a couple of loops around, however, we stumbled upon some treasures. Pretty sure I’m still on a natural high from all the things we found. Needless to say, I spent all Sunday afternoon incorporating all of my new finds into my apartment (and revamping one piece I bought).    

  (If my apartment was bigger this wine cart would be mine)

(A badass trunk with multiple compartments. The man selling it wanted $350!)

(An owl cookie jar. It looks kind of funny/scary in the picture, but I love it. The vendor wanted $35 and after a few minutes of talking,said he would take $25. He's there every week, so I'll see if I can get him down to $15 next week)

(A little side table I bought for $15. It looks completely different now that I got my hands on it!)

 (My favorite find of the day, or possibly ever. A coffee shop-esque, light up sign. I paid $10 and it works! I think it totally makes my kitchen come together)

(Another owl to add to my collection. Not sure where it's permanent home will be yet)

insomnia

Every night I’m in bed by 10pm. Yes, I’m officially an old woman. After I get home from work I clean my house, make dinner, work on a DIY project, watch an episode (or two) of Brothers and Sisters, then crawl into bed. My life is super exciting, I know :) But the other night I just couldn’t sleep. I was in bed and my mind kept racing with different ways I could rearrange my bedroom. Lately I have been focusing on my living room and totally neglecting my bedroom. It needed some love. By 1am that night I had the perfect idea. I made myself fall asleep only to wake up at 6am (on my day off) rearranging my whole bedroom.   

(Before) 

(Before) 

(Remember that wooden screen I found at the swap meet?)

(After. My wooden screen is now my headboard. I'll be making curtains this weekend for that naked window)

( I moved my mustard yellow swap meet chairs out of my living room and had no place to put them. So now they are my new nightstands) 

(Bookshelf is now in the corner with my parents mirror from the 80's)

 (My dresser. Still the same. Maybe I will wallpaper it to give it some flair) 

small spaces

Carrie Bradshaw once joked that she stored her sweaters in her oven. Well since I’ve been living in my tiny 400 square foot apartment (if it is even that big), I have considered storing my clothes in my oven, just like Carrie. But I thought that might be a fire hazard, so I’ve resorted to storing my wardrobe in my kitchen cabinets. Storing my shoes, to be more exact. My mother would kill me if she saw the pictures of what my closet looked like with all of my shoes scattered everywhere. But let’s get real, it’s hard to keep shoes organized in a small closet…especially when one has a tiny obsession with shoes. So I decided I might as well take advantage of my unused kitchen cabinet space. I’m just waiting for the next time someone goes looking for extra wine glasses and opens my kitchen cabinet only to find shoes :) 

(Slightly embarrassed)

(Just a small obsession...and mess) 

 (Before) 

(After)

ikat

(Quite possibly one of the coolest Tory Burch stores ever)

Lately I have been obsessed with a pattern called ikat. I first recognized it on dresses by designer 12^th Street by Cynthia Vincent. I was instantly in love. I then started seeing it in interior design magazines like House Beautiful. I decided I somehow needed to incorporate this print into my house. However, when I went to my local fabric stores and asked for this desirable print, everyone looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. “I’ve never heard of it,” they would say. I didn’t know how to describe the pattern so I looked up the definition of ikat: a fabric in which the yarns have been tie-dyed before weaving. Kind of makes sense, but still hard to describe to people. So I am now relying on the Internet to find my ikat fabric. Although I have no idea what I want to use the fabric for. Maybe I’ll make a headboard? Maybe cover a bulletin board? New pillows? I sense a new project coming on!! 

(I want these on my couch!)

(An Ikat bedspread with an awesome Twiggy poster in the background and colorful birdcages. Pure awesomeness)

the bench: revamped

(My one-of-a-kind, homemade, pink, velvet bench)

After spotting a pink, velvet bench at the Pasadena Flea Market I had my heart set on finding one for my home. The vendor wanted $395 for her pink bench, but I was convinced I could make one for a fraction of the price. After some more hunting at the flea market I came across a white bench for $35. So with that, $20 worth of pink velvet fabric, some scissors and a staple gun, I made a new coffee table for my living room (which I decided to rearrange 15 minutes before I went to work the other day). 

(Before)

(I obviously bought way too much fabric which means I get to cover something else in pink!)

(My new favorite tool)

(After)

(A footstool I found at the SLO swap meet, now covered in the extra pink fabric)

(A glimpse of my newly rearranged living room)

apartment therapy

(On the hunt, as always, for a bar cart like this)

Lately I have been obsessed with the website apartment therapy. Their motto is “saving the world, one room at a time”. Pure awesomeness. Their website layout is similar to a blog—they constantly post new articles about anything and everything pertaining to the home. These include interior decorating, entertaining, and house tours (one of my favs). The best thing about this website is that if you “like” them on Facebook, they continually stream new articles (we’re talking every 15-20 minutes). I have been catching myself spending up to an hour on this website a night! Ahh! Check it out. I promise you’ll love it. It inspired me to completely rearrange my house last night (pictures to come soon).  

(Cool, 60's, bohemian chic)

 (A hide skin rug I want in my apartment)

(Pink trinkets) 

All pictures via apartmenttherapy.com 

swap meet sundays

(Rows and rows of fur jackets)

No, I’m not talking about Disneyland. I’m talking about the happiest place on earth for decorators: the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena. It is an understatement when people tell you this place is huge. It is gi-normous. I arrived at 7am to the Rose Bowl Stadium, and it was pretty quiet. I got one of the first parking spots and walked straight in to the flea market with no lines (but I had to pay double the regular admission since the gates technically open at 9am). Remember that feeling you use to get when you lost your mom in a crowded mall and had no idea which way to go or look? That’s how I felt at the Rose Bowl Flea Market. But 100 times more lost. There is so much stuff. Everywhere. I had no idea where to start, so I asked a lady (who looked like she knew what she was doing) what she recommended. Her response was that I probably wouldn’t get through it all in one day and to just zigzag through all of the vendors. And so I was off! I was able to get a good look at the vendors and their offerings early on, but once the clock hit 9, there were so many people (over 20,000 people to be exact) that it was hard to see. Here are a few things I saw at this marvelous flea market. Pictures of my treasures (and the funny stories that go along with them) will come soon :)      

(A pink velvet bench. She wanted $395. I told myself I could replicate something similar  for under $50...just wait and see!) 

(No idea what this is. Maybe a coffee table? But it's badass.)

(I was obsessed with this settee. The vendor wanted $160. If I had a truck and a bigger house, this would have been mine.)

(I love the way these different replicas of the Virgin Mary look together.)

(My much-sought-after elephant table. Too bad the man wanted $65 and wouldn't budge. I told myself there will be more elephant tables to come!)

(I love this. Just love.)

 (A sneak peak at one of my goodies. You won't recognize it after I'm done working some magic!)

obsessed with pink

(The pink chair that I want and need - via House Beautiful)

Ever since the last issue of House Beautiful hit newsstands I have been obsessed with finding a pink chair. The cover of the March issue features a beautiful, plush, pink velvet chair. Not only do I want the chair, I think I need the chair. I feel like adding the color pink to my living room would totally transform it.  So I am now searching for the perfect pink chair everywhere I go. I am having high hopes of finding one at the Rose Bowl Flea Market this Sunday. I am so eager to go! I feel like a little kid anxiously waiting for Christmas morning. The Rose Bowl Flea Market is held every second Sunday of the month and has over 900 vendors. 900 vendors? Shut the front door!! One of those vendors is bound to have a pink chair for sale.  Some may think the color pink is only for a little girl’s room. But as the cover of House Beautiful puts it, “The power of pink! It’s warm, flattering, sexy (and men love it!)”. Amen.   

(Perhaps I'll find a pink-patterned chair - via House Beautiful)

(Sex and The City author Candice Bushnell's pink chaise lounge - via Elle Decor)