The Desk

As promised, here is the desk reveal. Fortunately, my "before" picture looked especially sad and cluttered so the transformation will look especially remarkable. And there is nothing I love more than a dramatic reveal. Well, except maybe for a really cute cat video. Anyway, all I did was sanding, paint and installing new handles. This past week ended up being especially gloomy and wet so I made the best of things and turned our kitchen into a temporary shop for a few days.

 In the interest of making my projects as economical as possible (and because I really like the colour!) I decided to use the same turqoise-ish paint from the kitchen storage bench. Regardless of already having all of the painting supplies, I still ended up at the hardware store an unacceptable number of times. After expressing my frustration regarding the multiplicity of Ace voyages I undertook, my roommate Rose informed me that every project requires an average of three trips to the hardware store. I felt slightly consoled-after all, someone has to be the outlier.

Here's the final product, complete with a chair from Ikea (love!) I painted pink:

This finished piece combined with my full bookshelf makes this corner my favorite part of my room! So far at least.

 
Join me for my next blog entry about the best cakes I've made since moving to Carmel! Hint: one of them involves 23 of these friends. . .

Oh the Summertime!

For the second summer in a row I've worked on campus here at Anderson University as a Resident Conference Assistant (RCA). It's a pretty cool job that involves a lot of responsibility, flexibility, and strange hours. I just finished that up this Monday (!) and have been setting up the apartment I will be sharing with a few friends this next semester. I really love the decor aspect of having my own space. I ended up spending most of today hanging pictures and art prints and using far too much Modge Podge. I wanted to share a few of my projects from this summer. I was pretty busy, so I didn't do as much as I might have liked; I am pretty excited about what I did get done!

As always, I'll start off with an edible project. Here is a penguin "cake" I put together for one my co-workers this summer.The design was adapted from the always-wonderful book "Hello, Cupcake." My co-worker, Chloe, jokes about starting her own reality TV show called "Penguin Talk with Chloe" where she narrates the activities of live penguins. Hope she hires me for catering for the premiere party! Just chillin' next to the mineral water.

Here is a card (really a small canvas-our staff signed the back of it) I painted for one of my supervisors this summer. (Modge-podged over the paint of course:D) The quote is by Emerson and it says "Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful we must carry it with us or we find it not."

Next up is my version of Van Gogh's "Starry Night." It's made from river shells, sea stones, and a sea star. This was a long time in the making-I started it in January, set it aside and didn't finish is until this summer!

Speaking of projects that are a long time coming, I finally completed my t-shirt quilt which I started, well, two years ago. It's pictured here with my dinosaur sheets. I backed it with a fleece blanket.

Here are a few elements of my apartment decor. For these makeshift display shelves, I thumbtacked lace to the wall to hold up hardcover books. The wood art is from Bolivia.And behold: My newest creation! I found an old boring lamp left in my room and I decided to decoupage it with Impressionist paintings. I often look for books of art prints at used book stores in order to make cards and other projects and this one definitely got put to good use! Decoupaging is reason number 437 for why Modge Podge is the Best Thing Ever.