Playing Picross Puzzle Adventure and solved a puzzle and it was my lady, Gala. She is old, she is cranky, but she is the loveliest and the best. She also only sleeps with her tongue hanging out anymore. I don’t know why, she has all her teeth.
She just woke up. It gets stuck like that now. God, her tongue is huge.
Sometimes I feel like the universe is in on the joke. I drew the tarot card: The Tower. It’s not a great card to draw. Things are happening to you, you just have to sit and ride the ride until it’s done and then rebuild. Nothing quite so dramatic has happened but my Dad got injured and is currently convalescing in a rehab facility until he can get strong enough to come home.
Hopefully this week he’ll be home at some point but it has been a journey where nothing can actually get done and there is no changing anything and I’ve really just had to sit through this journey until it’s over.
Even though I’ve been stressed a few of my friends have been like, “you seem to be doing okay” and I’m like, “There is literally NOTHING I can do or control at this point, it is what it is”.
A big key to managing the stress is not letting my schedule go to shit. I’ve been doing so good with keeping up my goals so far for the year that I am determined to not let everything go by the wayside. Am I giving myself some grace though? Absolutely. Still tracking food but not being so militant about calories. Skipping my exercise on one day but doing both sets exercises the next day. Looking at my tasks each day and being like, what can I reschedule later in the week, what can I realistically get done on the actual day, and what can I just get rid of because it truly doesn’t matter. It’s been helpful.
Also coupling this all with work where I had to work extra because people had asked for time off. Absolutely no complaints, everyone deserves to have their days off that they ask for. Nothing we do is so important where it can’t happen, it’s just another time constraint to work within. I think I’m doing okay with it.
I am exhausted today though. I may take a nap at some point and you know, that’s fine.
My mom used to cross stitch? I have several pieces that she’s made before she had given it up. This is one of my favorites. I need to redo it’s framing, it’s starting to yellow a bit as it was put onto cardboard so I think if I put it on some acid free foam core, it should help it not continue to discolor. I think I bigger frame too and a light green mat? Maybe it could go in my bedroom?
My Lamp is here!
Did I need this lamp? No.
Did I buy this because it looked like Gala? Yes.
The Beauty in Question.
The Very Embarrassing Before Picture. The only big one I’m posting.
After refurbishing my furniture, hanging curtains, removing doors, painting, wallpapering, and buying a locker I still had a couple things to do.
1) Rug, I’m over the bathmat for Braeburn.
2) Bedding for the new aesthetic. I wanted the whole bedding shebang…comforter, blankets, decorative pillows. The works.
These are the 2 things that took the longest to make decisions on. I went in person to so many places. Macy’s, Kohls, World Market, Pier 1, Kirklands, Target, etc. etc.
I thought I had found some bedding at Target…reviews showed that they literally felt apart after 2 washings, that wasn’t going to work. I thought I found a comforter at Macy’s…THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS AND NO PILLOW SHAMS????
I asked my Mom for bedding suggestions and she said the same places I had gone to see.
I decided to peruse Home Goods, primarily for their rugs but maybe I’d get lucky. Rugs were a no go but I did get lucky for bedding and accessories. I got baskets for my locker for clothing, I also got baskets to hold my decorative pillows when not in use on my bed, I got a comforter, I got shams, I even got snacks that day. All for less than the comforter at Macy’s.
The rug fell into my lap a bit. I had looked online at Flor (Carpet Tiles, we’ve used them in several areas of the house…they are good when you need to replace or clean them with dog accidents or illness, our house even came with some already) but the only ones I had liked were way too expensive. But then…the catalog came in the mail while I was redoing my room and they were introducing some new colors and it was waaaaay cheaper than when I had originally looked and I decided to go left field with the colors. I had been looking for a beige or cream rug but when I saw the colors in the catalog I swiftly switched course and I’m so happy that I did.
Here is a slideshow of the After Photos. I’m just pleased with this space. I’ve made my bed every day since redoing my room, my laundry stays caught up on and I’ve even cleaned and organized my drawers too. It is such a peaceful and tranquil space. I never even used to have the windows open because it was just open to the outside so I never even got light in there. But now with the sheers no one can see in and it lets in beautiful light.
Even just walking past it in the hallway I still love it.
While the bulk of the work is done, I’m still looking for a few things decor-wise. I’m waiting for a Lamp for the mirror dresser that I ordered awhile ago. I want to hang my branch weaving up again but I’m unsure where. I bought some beautiful brass statues of some pheasants at an estate sale but don’t know what kind of shelves or where to put them at in here, and I have a painting I want to re-mat and frame to better match the room. Also maybe some new lampshades for my lamps because one is a bit busted but you can’t tell from looking, haha.
It’s time for a break! I wonder what room I’ll do next.
The big messy dresser. Before.
I redid my nightstands so I could better understand how to use the contact paper before I did the big dresser. I was so scared to do this one since it is so heavy to work with. You can see the original legs at the bottom with this too. They are bulbous and ugly and just did not go with the style.
I purchased the same legs I got for the nightstands except in 4 inch length and not 2 inch length, I thought I purchased the same knobs but they were much smaller than I had anticipated which I feel worked out in the end because there is so many knobs on this thing it would have over powered the dress front.
New knobs, still a mess though.
The finished product.
I had to remove the mirror and drawers in order to switch out the legs. Something I didn’t mention previously is that I had to paint the legs. I ordered a dark walnut color and let me tell you NONE of the legs I received were dark walnut. I’d say the 2 inch ones were a mid tone wood and the 4 inch legs were Cherry colored. So I spray painted everything to match.
When my parents last visited them I was able to show them my recently finished room and they thought I had removed the tops of the dressers and added REAL MARBLE. I’m gonna call that a win on the type of vinyl I chose and how good of a job I did installing it.
It also looks amazing with the wood and the wall paper and the curtains. The room was really coming together at this point.
The Bane of my Clothing Existance
Before anyone gets mad at me: I did remove the doors. I still HAVE the doors. They are in a storage area in my basement. I would never just get rid of the solid wood original doors of my 1950s house. I also took a set of these off in my office so I can actually access my art supplies. I still have those too.
Another issue in my room was the closets and not being able to get at all of clothes when I wanted to find something or put items away. They had to go. I had thought about getting some different doors but then I watched an Architectural Digest video on YouTube and decided to move into a different direction.
ooooh.
I still need to get a steamer but the wrinkles are disappearing.
I can open these curtains all of the way and access my entire closet. It’s beautiful. You might be wondering, why didn’t you go all the way to the center? One reason is ease of access to the light switch for the closets another reason that this was actually Try Number Two to get these to actually stay on the wall. The whole thing fell down, the curtains are nice and heavy and I had to repair the wall and get extra curtain rod holders with new dry wall anchors to get this to stay up. It’s solid now but it definitely took some effort.
You can see I’ve painted the walls white in this photo too, no more blue gray color.
And because I don’t want to wait on to what I did with the accent wall. The whole room is white except for the longest and most unbroken wall in the room.
Before.
It’s a Toile! But it has a woodsy jungle in it with lions, parrots, antelope, deer….it is so pretty and I love it so much.
Did I have an existential crisis hanging it? Absolutely.
After.
Do I regret it? Absolutely not. It took the whole day and an additional trip to Home Depot but I got it hung and done. It is a pattern I never would have chosen before. It is completely out of my wheel house of design and style but it makes so much sense in my bedroom.
You can also see the white cover for my AC vent right at the bottom. They had been repainted a gross brown so I spray painted them white, which I also had done in my office before. I love the clean look next to the wood flooring.
The Sorry State of my Clothing Ladder
One problem area of my bedroom was where to put the interim clothing. Clothing that wasn’t quite dirty enough to wash but I still wanted it to air out a bit before it gets put away.
I never had this problem in the past because of one reason. All of my other places I’ve lived had walk in closets. Closets that were big enough to hold all of my clothing with room to spare and air out. They didn’t have walk in closets in the 1950s when my house was built so I’ve had this problem ever since I moved in. I thought this ladder would work.
It did not.
So maybe I’ll buy a wardrobe dress that can hang clothing! The only one I had found that I even remotely liked was from West Elm. It was THOUSANDS of dollars.
I couldn’t pull the trigger so I kept shopping and looking.
I happened upon a Company called Mustard and they make pretty metal lockers. All sorts of colors and styles and I fell in love.
It was hard to pick a color and because I hadn’t repainted or hung my wallpaper up it was hard to choose something that would go but I went with my heart and my gut and ended up with:
It’s BEAUTIFUL.
Before I go any further I have to say that this thing was packaged immaculately. I’ve never seen such a smartly packaged piece of furniture. I had to put it together, it came in two flat packs. Ikea could learn from this company. Absolutely kudos to them.
This thing solves all of my problems and as of this writing I’ve been using this for 2 months now. It works and has kept working.
Problem 1: Messy clothes
Solution: Doors to hide the clothing but the clothes are organized with hangers and shelves and baskets now.
Problem 2: Airing the clothes out
Solution: This thing has ventilation slats.
Problem 3: Putting clothes away when it’s time
Solution: Now that the clothes are organized inside when I need to put clothes away I can just move hangers from here into my closet and then grab the empty hangers to put back into the lockers, rinse and repeat.
I love this thing so much I’m thinking of getting ANOTHER one for my entry way to keep my coats and boots in.
Not me, but the feeling is there.
So my bedroom was a mess.
I was never happy with it. I had gotten a new bed and frame several years ago that I love, but my Comforter never really went with it, my bedroom furniture while perfectly utilitarian left a lot to be desired looks wise. I had a bathmat on the floor because my doberman needed it to be able to jump up on the bed without skidding out. I also had a clothing ladder that was always a mess.
I reached a breaking point. I needed a change. I never even really was cleaning it because I was just so unhappy with it I didn’t know what to do.
I’ve done this twice so far in my house. When I redid part of my basement (not a finished basement but nice enough to use now!) and then my office. I adore my office. I moved into a smaller room in my house for my office and made it the most cozy of spaces for me. Bright white and pastel pink walls. White Cork boards to hold interim projects and supplies. Multiple types of wood tones to bring in different levels of light and dark textures. My gallery wall of art. A cozy loveseat for me, but mostly for Braeburn.
Case in Point.
I knew I wanted a change for my bedroom. I needed a change for my bedroom.
The first thing I wanted to tackle was the furniture. Namely the nightstands. When I purchased my new bed it was quite a bit lower than my nightstands so I removed the legs and they were just sitting flat on the floor forever. I started shopping for new nightstands. Then I saw how much a nice nightstand is. $$$$$
How about a refurbishment instead. I’m pragmatic like that.
Before. Flat on the ground, dark wood, dark knobs. Boring.
I found some two inch mid century modern style wood legs, just enough to get the dressers off the floor, I watched several videos of how to use contact paper on rounded corners and then purchased a fancy marble vinyl contact paper (not the usual white and gray marble style, but a marble that had purples and gold flecks in it) and then bought some gold sphere knobs so they would pop out on the front and add some contrast but also bring in the gold from the marble top.
The Gold Knobs are already making this look better.
Contact Paper added. I ordered a roll wide enough where I didn’t have to worry about seams on top of the table.
Legs! We have lift off.
This was only the beginning. I had a whole other dresser. I wanted new paint, I picked a wall paper (I’ve never done it before!) I wanted a rug instead of a bathmat, I wanted something else for my messy clothing ladder. I even wanted something other than the sliding doors for my closets (which I could only access half a closet at one time). I wanted actual bedding so I could be fancy and make my bed look nice. I embarked on a journey.
Spoiler Alert: I LOVE LOVE LOVE my bedroom now. I can’t wait to share more!
Birthday Sushi
I miss having a halfway decent place to share little tidbits of my life. My life is boring, which I prefer, but I would still like a place to share tiny joys, updates of art, and other random bits and bobs. So, I’ve decided to focus on the website that I actually pay for.
I was half keeping a private blog on this thing, but I always needed it perfect when I posted and I’ve decided I’m done with that. I’ve put the app for this website onto my phone and I would like to use this more frequently, more imperfectly, and just more in general.
Cheers to the imperfection and to the random. I’ll be seeing you again soon.
