Ikea

I went to Ikea with my friend, Penny this past weekend, and it was a bittersweet experience. I got some really cute stuff for super cheap, but during checkout, we had a bit of a mishap. Penny was lifting a rug she found out of her cart and upon lifting it, she accidentally hit a hanging sign above her. Attached to the bottom of the sign, was a smaller sign that read, "Cards Only". This part was only attached by a magnet, and it fell directly onto Penny's head. She immediately grew a golf ball-sized bump, and it scared us both. I don't want to get into too many details, but the Ikea people have not been very compassionate. Penny seems to be doing okay... the bump is still there, but the doctor she saw said that was normal. I really hope Doc is right. Head injuries freak me out.

On a lighter note, Here are some of the items I purchased at the store...


Curtains for the Living Room



Throw pillows for my couch



I bought two of these side tables. I'm going to use them as a coffee table set up for right now. They were just so cheap...

Rug for the kitchen (the pink one).


I also bought a set of sheets and pillows for the guest bed, and two matted photo frames.

Like I said, so bittersweet.

two new etsy purchases!

I just ordered these prints from etsy seller restlessthings. They come in postcard size individually. Don't know what I'm going to do with them yet, but they sure are good lookin'.


And a few weeks ago, I ordered this print from Iris Schwarz.


Now, I need frames. Good thing I'm going to Ikea soon.

Coming right along...

Last night I had nothing to do, so I bit the bullet and took some pictures of the newly-painted living room. I normally like to procrastinate and/or tease, but I decided to be nice this time.


View from the porch door. I think the color looks really well with my stuff. I'm definitely going to change out a few things... The mantle isn't going to stay like that, most likely, and I want a new coffee table eventually. I was thinking maybe something kind of Hollywood Regency, similar to the ones in the following photos, but we'll see.




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I'm really liking the color against the bright white trim and the dark wood furniture. I think with some random bursts of color on the wall, it'll all come together. I'd like to collect colorful art prints and arrange them on the wall above the desk here, or possibly above the couch. Here are a few images I've seen on other blogs that caught my eye. The first two are bedrooms, obviously, but its the same concept I'm imagining.



...and this last one is a little blurry, but I like the odd, cramped grouping. I found all of these on the Domino Magazine website in one of the Galleries.


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Well, thats all for now. I have a couple other ideas for entries today, so check back later to see if I follow through!

Oh, and just for good measure, here's a picture of pup-pup!

Weekend Summary

Rachel and I painted my living room this weekend, and I must say, we work quite well together. Its amazing how efficient I can be when I actually pull through. Saturday morning started off a little rough... I woke up, went back to sleep, woke up again and it was just way too nice outside to begin any type of indoor labor, so we decided to walk to Starbucks (its a block away, folks!). Well, Starbucks led to a little stroll around the park, which led to a full-on coffee picnic in the grass, which led to hunger, which led to sushi at Sake House... then we decided, what the hey, lets just walk through Five Points real quick to see what we may see. What did we see? A new store called Nest Living, for one. Expensive, but gorgeous. There is a post on Urban Jacksonville about it here, and the store website is here. We also shopped around in another one of my favorite neighborhood antique stores treasure chests, Fans & Stoves. Then, it was down to business. We finished in about 4 hours and it looks excellent (pictures to come).

So, over the weekend I had a lot of time to just sit in the apartment and reflect. I have a lot of work to do/things to buy (and minimal funds). But I composed a little list of priorities in order of importance.

Living Room
- curtains
- TV stand
- new light fixture for ceiling fan
- rug
- more DVD/book storage

Bathroom
- curtain/shade
- bath mat
- shelving/storage for toiletries
- new light fixture (vintage chandelier?)

Kitchen
- curtains
- curtain and hook for pantry doorway
- mats

My Bedroom
- curtains
- rug for vanity

Slowly, but surely.

this has nothing to do with decorating OR my apartment...

...But I just wanted to share my love for Zach Condon.

Has anyone missed me?

So its been a while, I know. But I have been working pretty hard... trying to get organized and unpacked. I'm happy to say that my bedroom is basically done, minus curtains and a few minor details. I plan on going to Ikea next weekend for those and a few other items. For now, I'll just show some pictures...


The new bedding came, as you can see. I think it works really well with the pillows I already had. I did buy new sheets and a bedskirt though.






I love this little dog print I found at my favorite antique store, Southern Crossing. In fact, I love just about anything if dogs are involved.



I still have a little work to do on the vanity... its not quite girly enough yet. Suggestions?



This corner is lookin' a little rough, I think. What can I do to spice it up? I have this white, Dorothy Draper-esque mirror that I could hang behind the lamp, but I'm not sure how I feel about mirrors being hung in places they can't actually be used. Someone give me some feedback!



The curtains hanging now are just pieces of fabric on one of those cheap, adjustable plastic rods that the tenants before me had left (I'm assuming!). I was thinking I'd stick with the white, but just get something more sturdy. Although, I do like bamboo blinds...

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So there you have it, the first pictures of my put-together bedroom. I'm currently working on the kitchen. Its taking me a while because my idea to put the fridge in the pantry fell through, and once I have my heart set on something I have a hard time letting go... those who know me can attest to this.

Thats all for now... I may have another post this afternoon.

real quick...

New (To Us) Sofa!
Originally uploaded by guessica

I have drooled over the wall in this room for quite some time now. Main reason: the oil paintings. I want to do this, but not in the living room... I want to do it in the 2nd bedroom. I'm not sure what exactly that room's purpose will be as of right now, but if I have a bed in there at some point, I could hang paintings above it. I have been hunting down paintings, and I already bought two.

I hired a decorator! APRIL FOOLS!

I really needed some help up in this bitch...

Meet Sheila!



I just love what she's done with the room above.. She's got such a keen eye for color and concept. How lucky am I to have such a natural working with me?

I lied.

I did not get a chance to upload the pictures I took until last night. And then as I was going through them I realized that I have such a loooooong way to go. But hey, that'll make this blog more interesting, right? Keep in mind that these were taken prematurely. I hadn't unpacked or anything...


Living Room



View of the fireplace from the entrance.



View of the screened porch door from the entrance.



View of the front door from the hallway.

I'm going to change this paint color because it looks really bad with all my furniture (not to mention, its pale yellow and I hate pale yellow). I'm thinking grey... any suggestions??

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Porch



Screen door.






The porch is the least of my concern right now. Eventually I'd like to have more plants and some outdoor furniture that is meant to be outdoors.

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Kitchen



View from the Living Room into the Kitchen.



Boxes everywhere, but you can see that I have a little built-in cafe table (ain't it cute?!) Every unit in the Fenimore has one.




View from the Pantry. I plan on moving the fridge into the Pantry (I'll do a post about that probably in the next couple weeks).



This metal/wood shelving unit on the left was already in the apartment when I moved in... I think I'm going to keep it, but I'm not sure I want it in this spot. It blocks the table from the rest of the kitchen. Thoughts?



View from the kitchen into the 2nd Bedroom.

As you can see, a lot needs to be done in the kitchen... I need curtains for sure (I think I'm going to make some this weekend), and like I said before, I'm going to move the fridge. The reason for moving the fridge is so that I can fit my china cabinet (the one you can kind of see in the 2nd bedroom) into that space next to the stove... which will make that door inaccessible, but I'm fine with that.

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2nd Bedroom



Uhh, not much going on in here right now!

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Bathroom



Okay, that bathroom is a little gross right now. The maintenance guy still has some painting to do and I need to get some shelving in there pronto. Also, the laminate flooring is turning yellow, but I guess there is nothing I can do about that! I'll just make it work.

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My Bedroom



(This photo was taken before I brought my mattress over).



View from the windows to the hallway.


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And there you have it. I'm still unpacking and getting things set up... I have a feeling this is going to be stretched out as far as can be (its just my way). But at least you've now got images of the layout to look at.