In Focus: A Cure for the Blahs

So, yesterday I had a case of the blahs. It seems the folks at Apartment Therapy knew just what would cheer me up:

This collection of photos showed up in my reader this morning, and it's just what the doctor ordered. Precious Pets + Fabulous Furniture = Bye Bye Blahs*! Does that puppy just not melt your heart?

*Sorry, I'm a sucker for alliteration. Nerd? Guilty as charged.

via Apartment Therapy

Living: I Have a Case of the Blahs

Do you ever just feel 'blah?' Well I do. I feel so overwhelmed by packing, moving and grown-up mortgage stuff I haven't felt very inspired lately, blog-wise.

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Hopefully next week will pull me out of my blogging funk. We close on our house on Monday, so I promise to rush over and take lots of 'before' pictures to share with you. Then there's all the To-Do List maddness... You see we don't have to be out of our apartment until December 15 so we have a whole month to try to paint and get a few things done before we have to move all of our stuff in. Which is a good thing, but now I have all the unreal expectations of what I think I can accomplish in that month.

So I promise to stop being 'blah' very soon. In the meantime, I may just have to post some flikr eye candy for a few days. My apologies.

Making: Jewelry Organizer

Up until now I have been storing my accessories in a jewelry armoire I got when I was 10 (that looks a lot like this), only mine is missing its legs because they broke off. I originally thought I could store my jewelry in my vanity but the drawers were too big to keep everything organized and visible.

I set out to create customized solutions for all my jewelry. My top priority is to have everything visible and in one place. I took care of necklaces with my display board so my next task was to organize my rings and small earrings - I have another project on my to-do list to display my big earrings but it won't accommodate hoops and studs.

I found the base for this project at a thrift store and I think it has the neatest back story. The piece was originally used as specimen storage in a science lab. Each drawer has space for 100 little test tubes that were run through a centrifuge. The rack is steel and the compartments are hard white plastic.

I wasn't crazy about the white sterile aesthetic so I worked some crafty magic. I decoupaged each box with brown paper lunch bags and mod-podge to give it a softer feel. It still has an industrial vibe because of the steel rack, but it no longer screams 'I came from a lab!'



Here is a view of the empty drawers before I customized them.

The top drawer is for my small earrings. Using pliers I removed all of the plastic prongs except for the ones I needed to support the dividers. This was very tedious work so I opted to abandon this technique for the other drawers. I used cardstock to create the dividers and fashioned the cushions out of scrap fabric - a sweater for plushness and linen for finish. The linen really works well because the open weave allows me to push my earring backs into the fabric to keep them straight and tidy.

The second drawer is for the gold and silver rings I don't frequently wear. I kept all of the plastic prongs but used unrolled cotton balls to create a padded infill. I'm not crazy about this technique, and I may redo it in the future, but it gets the job done for now.

The next three drawers hold my large collection of button rings. Again, I left all of the plastic prongs. I used more cardstock to make each divider to stand my rings up.

I still have four more empty drawers that can be filled with other accessories. My favorite thing about this project is that I can customize each drawer to suit the needs of my accessories but they still read as a cohesive unit from the outside. Another great thing was how cheap this project was. The storage case was only $8 and I did everything else with stuff I already had in my craft supplies.

I didn't break this down as a tutorial because the thrift store piece is one of a kind, but you can take the idea behind this project and apply it to any storage and organization project.

MY TIPS:

#1) Think outside the box. You would never guess lab equipment would make a good jewelry box so don't be afraid to spend some time digging through thrift stores, garage sales and antique shops.

#2) Use what you have laying around your home. Don't always feel like you need to buy a lot of stuff for a new project.

#3) Use items for something other than their intended purpose. Lunch bags as decorative paper? Sweaters and cotton balls as pillows? If you can make it work, go for it!

Living: Busy Weekend

Dear Readers, I feel like I have so much to do this weekend!

-Friday night the hubby and I are double dating with a couple we don't get to see much so I'm very much looking forward to that.

-Saturday afternoon I'm going to cheer on the Wolfpack with the hubby's family. It will be nice to get back in the football stadium after a long stretch of bye weeks and away games.

-Saturday night the hubby and I are having dinner with my Mom and step-dad to (belatedly) celebrate my birthday.

-Sunday afternoon I'm going with Morgan to help her shop for her wedding dress. I love, love, love wedding planning, and I have to say it's much more fun when it's somebody else's money!

-Somewhere in there I have to squeeze in a haricut, laundry and packing - we close in less than 2 weeks!

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So what about you guys? Do you have big plans for the weekend?

Coveting: More Rugs

Damn you Apartment Therapy!* What I am experiencing right now is way beyond the normal amount of coveting that goes on over here.

I have been searching for the perfect rug with warm greys and hints of yellow. Just when I decided I couldn't afford a real rug and settled on this set of FLOR tiles...

... the helpful folks over at Apartment Therapy have to go and show me this...

... which then led to me wanting this...


... and this.

All three rugs are made by The Rug Company and they don't list any prices on their website, which is never a good sign. According to AT a 5'x7' owl rug would only set me back $3,285 or, to put it in terms I can really understand, over three months rent! As cute as that owl would be in a nursery - OK, who am I kidding I would put that in my living room** - it's never gonna happen. Because I have to buy stuff like food.

Stupid Apartment Therapy.

* OK, I don't really mean it. Please let me keep reading about DIY goodness and home organization.

**By now we all know how I feel about owls.

Buying: Rubber Stamp Kit

I just bought a vintage rubber stamp kit from EBay and I can't stop playing with it. I initially bought it to make the guest favors for Morgan's wedding but I figured I might as well get more use out of it.

The kit, which comes in this lovely yellow packaging, contains two blank stamp mounts, mounting rods and 200 or so individual letters, numbers and symbols. This is more than enough to stamp a return address or any short saying you might want to write more than once.

Once I quickly figured out how to assemble a stamp I set out on my first stamping project. When I started my job a year ago I was given a box of 1000 business cards. Then I passed the LEED exam in May, so my business cards were no longer completely accurate. Instead of throwing away the 950 business cards I have left - that wouldn't be very green of me, now would it? - I modified them using my stamp kit.

Now my business cards reflect that I am a LEED A.P. but also quirky and thrifty. I have lots of ideas up my sleeve for this bad boy, so stay tuned.

P.S. I know I keep showing you my business card and blurring it out. It looks tacky, and I apologize. But you never know what kind of crazy stalkers are lurking on the internet, so you can never be too careful.

Buying: New Cell Phone

I am so excited! After months and months of saving, I finally got my iPhone! I'm terrible at saving money, and it was so hard to not get lots of tights and scarves and boots for fall, but now that I have my new phone it was worth it!

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I previously had a Blackberry Curve, and it was ok but not nearly as user friendly as I expected from the first seller of PDAs/handhelds/smart phones. It might be great for busy executives, but I want something with a little more pizazz.

I already grabbed lots of great apps (Swede Shop, Feather, Awesome Note and Pandora, just to name a few), but I'm always looking for new ways to make my life better and easier. Tell me, iPhone users, is there an app you can't go a day without using?