Guest Posting At Love & Renovations Today!

Hey everyone, Amanda over at Love & Renovations asked me to guest post on her blog today! It’s all about some pretty cool furniture I found while hunting Craigslist, so check out some of the pieces! My favorite?

This vintage Pop-Art Dresser!

Go check out the rest, and if you don’t already follow Amanda’s blog, you should do it!!

Closet Overhaul

Since my surgery nearly three weeks ago, my life has definitely changed.  Inside, I do a little happy dance every day that I go without socks, and outside…well, my wardrobe has changed drastically!

So I decided that in order to really make the change permanent in my mind, I’d have to reorganize my closet.  I do this maybe twice a year anyway, where I throw out old things, things that don’t fit, change out seasonal items, etc, but this time, I was looking to get rid of SO much more:

The pile has even grown since this was taken, but of course I forgot to take pictures.

You’re mostly seeing shoes here.  Lots and lots of boots, especially.  I used to wear a pair of black boots to work every day, so they’d usually get worn down quickly but instead of tossing them, they piled up in the dark corners of the closet.  Now that I don’t have to wear boots every day…POOF!  They’re banished from the closet.

Another thing I got rid of?

Socks!!  This was surprisingly emotional for me…not because I’m so attached to my socks, but because it’s just such a big change from my norm.  I had 27 pairs of white socks clogging up my sock drawer.  I also had a bunch of unopened pairs of tights, leggings & trouser socks, so it felt like I had just gone shopping!

I ended up keeping 15 pairs of socks.  It’s probably still excessive, but hey, it’s better than 27!

And since I was feeling SO good about my “new” wardrobe and all of the things that I could now wear, I gave my closet a bit of a facelift:

Bwahhahaha!  I totally Roy G. Biv’d my wardrobe!

Mike saw it, immediately rolled his eyes and said I’d never keep it up.  We shall see, won’t we??

Basically, reorganizing my silly closet has made me ridiculously happy.  I’ve brought my dresses and skirts to the forefront & relegated jeans and dress pants to the bottom of the closet/the trash pile/the guest bedroom.  Every time I walk in my closet, I feel like getting dressed for the day is just more FUN.  And I definitely feel better throughout the day since I feel happier about my clothes.  Win-Win!

My favorite part of my new wardrobe?

(ignore the scars from flip flops cutting into my feet, kthx)

These shoes!!  If you look closely, they have SPIKES AND SPARKLES on the toes!!  They’re badass and I love them–they were even featured in Nordstrom’s monthly/seasonal/whatever-interval catalogue that we just got, so I feel like I’m on the cutting edge of fashion.  And if I’m ever attacked while wearing these shoes, you’d better believe these spikes will deliver a swift kick to the balls–these shoes could be LIFESAVING.  (just tell your SO that when you drop $130 on them too)

Do you like purging your closet??  I had so much fun doing this and feel SO awesome now that it’s done!

I Love Lamp(s)

I hated the lamps in our bedroom.

Seriously, they’re older than me.  And what’s up with the crimpy lamp shades?  They were hand-me-downs from my parents, and we were even convinced for almost three years that one of the lamps (the one on Mike’s side of the bed) was broken.  We kept it there for three years without turning it on once because we thought it was broken.  I never thought to investigate into it.

It wasn’t broken, it just needed a new bulb.

Anyway, I was SO ready to toss them.  I wanted epic lamps.  We have a pretty big bed, so I thought epic lamps were in order.

Turns out, epic lamps are epically expensive.  So I was looking on macys.com for new lamps since we still have some $$ on our Macy’s gift cards from our wedding.  I found a lamp that I thought would be just lovely, and it was on the low end of the price-spectrum.

Source, $79.99

But $160 for two lamps took up a big chunk of that Macy’s card, and I’ve been trying to angle for a new purse from Mr. Socks, so I took a look at those old lamps and realized they had somewhat similar qualities to the lamp from Macy’s.  No, they weren’t as tall and elegant, but if they were white, wouldn’t they look kinda similar?

So I went to Home Depot by myself (for some reason, this makes me proud), got a couple of new lampshades and some white semi-gloss spray paint, laid our paint sheets on the floor of the garage, and went to town.

I realize that it looks like I’m about to chuck this at Mike’s  face, but I was really just shaking the can vigorously.

It actually took quite a few more coats than I thought it would.  Maybe it was because some of it was metal and the other part was wood that I didn’t bother sanding down?  Whatevs, I didn’t have the patience for that.

I also sprayed the electrical cord:

(Note to self–wear sneakers for chrissakes when you spray pant.  Seriously, I’m so stupid sometimes)

And after about 4 solid coats, it looked great!

The lamp shades I bought were a different kind than the lamp originally required, so I had to take the lamp “harp” off of the lamp–this piece:

To remove it from a lamp, slide those two cylindrical pieces at the bottom up, then squeeze the harp and pull out.  It should be pretty simple.

Once I removed the harp, I put the lamp shade on (it didn’t fit exactly and wobbles a bit, but the world isn’t perfect) and screwed in the bulb!

Wanna see?

And what’s a renovation without a before/after shot?

Yayy!  It isn’t from the 70′s anymore!  It’s modern and much nicer!  It surprisingly gives off more light than the old lamp shade did–I was expecting less since it’s black, but because the shade is open at the top, more light gets through!

Plus, it just looks SO much better, right?  I can’t believe I waited so long to do something so simple!

Have you waited an unnecessary amount of time to update something that turned out to be the easiest thing ever?

Four Day Weekend!

My Thanksgiving weekend was wonderful!  I got off of work at noon on Wednesday, cooked ALL day on Thursday, sat around on Friday and about went bonkers because apparently I always need to be busy with something, so we decided to paint the guest bedroom on Saturday and Sunday.  Oh, and we bought a Christmas tree and set it up–more on that another day.

Overall, a pretty productive and a nice, long weekend!

Guest Room Super-Before:

A little Before:

And Now:

Instant personality, right?

Our painting skills definitely aren’t perfect, and in person, the blue doesn’t look quite as neon as it does in that picture.

The walls are pretty bare anyway, right now, and as soon as I get some art on the walls, I think it’ll look even better!

Here’s what will go on the walls:

Wow, I wish I had taken a better photo of those three canvasses so I could photoshop it properly, but again…the use of imagination is best when viewing my photoshopping skillz.

I’m still trying to decide about those canvasses anyway since they don’t really match the rest of the theme that’s forming as I move forward, as you will see…

I will also be re-matting and framing this picture, which I like because it’s vintage-y and it has my name on it (and it was my ONE find at a second-hand store):

I love it!  I also love her little heart tattoo on her back, and it makes me want one.  Kinda.  But not enough to get one.

I also purchased these three prints from Art.com. (Get 25% off your purchase with the code HETA right now)

I am SUPER excited for these to come.  They carry on the vintage-y theme that I’m going for, they have fun colors, and…oh yeah, Mike only PROPOSED to me when we reached the peak of the mountain!

Yeah, so I’m SUPER excited to get those posters.  I’ll probably display that photo of me in the room as well.

And just because you might not have laughed hard enough at my last photoshopping attempt:

It’s not SO bad, right?  I’m still deciding if I should pay to have them matted, if I should do it myself, or skip it altogether and just frame the suckers.  I suppose it’ll depend on $$.

I bought two other things for the walls, but you’ll have to wait to see those.  Also, I’m thinking of some red shelves in the nook part of my nook.

And I still haven’t decided on a chair, but I will soon, I promise.

Was your holiday weekend productive?

Operation: Find a Kick-ass Chair

During one of my many visits to Anthropologie while in college, I saw a super awesome cream and pink paisley armchair.  Since seeing that armchair, I’ve wanted a super awesome, doesn’t-have-to-match-anything-else-in-the-house-because-it’s-so-freakin-beautiful chair.  Unfortunately, that chair was over $1000 and I never had the space for such a chair, even if I did have the dough.

But NOW I have my little nook in the guest bedroom, and I see it as the perfect opportunity to find a ridiculously amazing chair.  I’ve scoured Amazon, Etsy, and Google Shopping for days, trying to find the perfect chair under $300 for the guest bedroom.

Cheapest:

Source; $25.50

Source; $59

Source; $65

Okay, so they aren’t bad.  They’re pretty nice blue chairs, actually.  But they don’t quite meet my “kick-ass” standard, do they?

Moderately Priced:

Source; $169

Source; $175

Source; $295 for a set of 2

This set of two is $295, but they fit into my “moderate” price range if you factor in price-per-chair.

Upper End of my Budget:

Source; $225

Perhaps some red paint for the wood?

Source; $239

Source; $271

Source; $350

Um…$50 over budget, but…omg, it’s AWESOME!

The top contender for me right now is this one:

I think it’s a pretty kickass chair.  It makes me feel like I could read a book  or craft away while sitting in it.  Add a big aqua pillow, and I think it’ll be perfect for the room!

Use your imagination…my photoshop skills aren’t stellar.

And I know right now it looks ridiculous to have bright red in the room, but I promise with other red accents that I bring in, it’ll make sense and look awesome.

That’s what I urgently hope for, anyway!

What chair would you choose?

My New Wedding

Meet my new wedding:

Confused?

Let me explain.

Since the end of our wedding, I’ve been itching for another project, or for a series of projects.

For about the last year, that room (our guest room) looked like this:

Yeah, nightmare, huh?  You can’t see the floor in this picture, but it was covered in boxes and other crap.

Wedding stuff was everywhere, I used it as a second closet for all of the clothes I didn’t wear, and it looked like it belonged in a college apartment.  I spent all day on Saturday cleaning out the room, and while I did, something occurred to me:  this room is pretty big.  I mean…who would have known under all of that garbage?

Once I started thinking about the size of the room, I then thought, “I could use this room as a craft room.”  And that, my friends, had me so excited that I went into even more of a cleaning frenzy.  I shoved the old IKEA dresser (that I had tried to save by painting about two years ago) out of the room:

That freed up MUCH more space!  I also took out a tiny little bookcase that I had from my college apartment and Mike brought this up from the basement:

Wonderful cubby space for all of my crafts, books and stationary!

Further encouraged by how awesome everything looked, Mike and I set out for Target and picked up a wood folding table for $60.

Guys, it’s perfect.  It’s nice and big but it doesn’t take up too much space, and it can fold up neatly if we ever need that space for something (though I love this space so much that I don’t think I could ever give it up now).

I also picked up a new cutting mat from Joann’s so I could have a nice, safe surface to work on:

So I think it’s a pretty good start!  The walls are pretty bare right now, and I’ll have to work on that, but I do have these:

I purchased them at IKEA about 6 years ago and never hung them up in the house since we moved in 2.5 years ago!  They’ll go with the room perfectly.

Upcoming projects for my new “wedding” will include finding a chair for my desk, installing shelves, and collecting items to give the room “pop!”  I’m thinking the room’s color scheme will be the following:

And for inspiration:

Sources from top-left clockwise: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

I’m especially dying over those top two images–I want THAT chair and THAT craft room!

Do you think our guest room might ever be so cool as all of those?  Probably not, since I don’t want to paint the walls, but we’ll do what we can!  It’ll all be in the details, which is why I’m calling this my new wedding!