As I Say: It's Never Too Late

I finally -- FINALLY -- completed a fairly simple project that I've putting off for just about forever: buying a large piece of wood to use as a surface to tack loose canvas and paper to, so I don't wreck the walls in my apartment.  I know -- I, too, cannot believe it took me this long...

 

Who doesn't love BIG STIFF WOOD?

 

And because the only place for the wood to go is where the piano was previously housed, le sweet piano then had nowhere to live.  Solution?  She is now in the boudoir, and along with some very thoughtful and careful rearranging turned my previously lackluster bedside table situation into THIS miraculous piece of decorating genius!

 

...and my favorite painting has never looked better. <3

 



Don't Let Furniture [di]Stress You Out

I am notorious for starting projects and not finishing them.  Or, wanting to start projects and never starting them.  The fact that I not only began but COMPLETED a project I've been thinking about for years is a tremendous feat all its own.  The resulting fantastically awesome piece of furniture is just a bonus.

I forgot to take a picture of the dresser before I removed all the drawers and I didn't feel like putting them back in just for a photo.  So here are the "before" photos, getting prepped to paint:

 

 

I bought it several years ago at Hawthorne Vintage while I was still living in The Hut.  I liked the way the bold blue color looked on the black and white checkered floors.  But once I got it in my room here at The Brain, it just didn't hold together very well with the décor.  I've been wanting to distress a piece of furniture for a long time, so it seemed like the perfect time.

 

 

Nelle also had a piece she wanted to distress so we brought the dressers to her house and over a few sporadic sessions not without many, many beers and bonfires, I distressed the crap out this already pretty damn awesome piece of furniture.

 

 



Here are the steps to distressing from a total amateur who has never done this before:

1. Paint everything white (or whatever color you want the piece to be).  I did two coats for evenness.
2. Let it dry so it's fully set.  I left it for several days.
3. Start with a coarse sandpaper and sand the places where you want the wear.  It helps to be delicate with the coarse sandpaper -- too much pressure and it'll take off the color underneath.
4. Go over everything with a medium-grit sandpaper to refine the worn areas.
5. Finish with a very fine sandpaper to smooth out rough edges and snags.  Wipe everything down with a cloth.
6. I topped it off with vintage-inspired knobs from Hippo Hardware (which, by the way, is the best place ever on earth, EVER. http://www.hippohardware.com/index.htm?lmd=40605.680382).  For variety I used five of the clear glass fluted knobs, two clean-lined metallic grey knobs, and *one* clear glass amethyst colored knob and mixed them up.  Finished with the badass gilded mirror I bought the same day I bought the couch.

I love it!  It's perfect in my bedroom.  Once I make the room not a total $#!t hole anymore, I'll post a pic.

Couch Recon: Complete

I bought a couch.

It was the ugliest colored one in the store.

It was love at first sight, and now it's MINE.

Operation: Couch Reconnaissance began harmlessly doing just that -- checking out what my options are, getting a sense of what I want, etc etc.  We went to Consigned Home Furnishings (I HIGHLY recommend this store if you're looking for furniture -- every piece is unique and really cool, some stuff is new, some used, and because it's consignment if they don't sell stuff in a certain amount of time they start marking it down a LOT).  Brother went with me and we weren't fifty feet into the store when he sat on this one and said "Hey what about this one?"  I, uh, well, it's -- It's .... Kind of awesome.....?

I sat on it, and it was all over.

Nobody in their right mind ever plans to buy a GOLD couch, but what was I to do?

Love is love.

Okaaay, it actually was NOT the ugliest colored couch in the store.  The Ugly Winner by far is a two chair and couch set made of --- waaaaait for it -- BABY PINK MOHAIR.  

Did you just throw up in your mouth a little?  I did.

The Abode

The apartment is coming along.  Updates:

Got the dining room in some sort of order.  I was a total badass and hung FOUR curtain rods all in one evening.

Went crazy at Ikea, too, and got rugs, cups, and other miscellaneous items that make me embarrassingly giddy.

Plotting couch wrangling has commenced as well.

Bought a dishwasher (a machine, not a human) and should be arriving next week.  THAT makes me feel like a grown-up............

Mom even mentioned this place looks more "grown up" than the others and she's totally right, and I was totally thinking that before she said it.  It feels more like a little house than an apartment.

It's more exposed, has more windows, and has more traffic noise than the other place, but somehow feels more private, quiet, and secluded.  We're sleeping better, we feel better, pretty much all things are better here.

THANK GOD for blessings in disguise.

Spring Cleaning

The weather the past few weeks has been completely idyllic.  It's kind of unbelievable for May around here.  It won't last, because it never does, but MAN has this Spring been fun so far.

Last weekend the Boy and I had a "beach" day in the park.  Meaning, we went to the park across the street, bared our pasty white Portland skin in our swimsuits, sat on a blanket, drank iced tea, read books, and pretended we were at the beach.

I was totally convinced.  The sun was warm that day, but the air was crispy and the sound of the wind blowing through the tall trees sounded exactly like a roaring ocean.  Didn't need you anyway, Oregon coast . . . 

This morning I got up and kept trying to talk myself into going outside and doing things in other places, but I actually felt like being at home.  I actually felt prepared to tackle everything I haven't been doing -- but have needed to do -- for months.  You know the stuff: sorting mail, doing dishes, shredding stuff, cleaning the floors, sorting throwaway clothing into "Goodwill" and "try to sell to snobs at Buffalo," cleaning the mold out of the shower, blah blah blah . . . 

With each to-do I completed, I felt lighter and more at ease.  I had this huge round chair that nobody sat in that took up a lot of space in this little apartment.  It just collected piles of clothing and pillows.  I was finally like "You know what?  I am so done with this stupid chair" and I made a sign that said "FREE! In good shape, needs love <3" and put it on the sidewalk.  It was gone within a few hours, and I feel SO MUCH BETTER ABOUT LIFE.  It's weird -- getting rid of things that I no longer use actually makes me feel different physically.  Like I can breathe again.

I started cleaning stuff out because the Boy is [kind of] [technically] moving in.  We started looking for a new place months ago, but his lease wasn't up until the end of May.  The plan has been if we couldn't find a place by the time his lease was up, then he'd just move in here and we'd work it out.  He basically lives here anyway, so it won't be much different.  But it means getting rid of stuff I don't need anymore, because apparently I'm really good at keeping, collecting, and stashing anything and everything.  It's not as bad as those weirdos on that hoarders show, but I certainly get stuck in the "but what if I need it later?" thought spiral.  This is the problem: if I keep something because I might need it later, then I will never need it later.  If I get rid of something because I know I will never need it later, then I most certainly do need it later and it MAKES ME SO PISSED.  Do you see how this can be a problem?  Time and time again it proves to be true.

Stupid universe.

Speaking of apartment hunting, have I told you it is turning into my worst nightmare?  I've been actively looking for a place since January -- literally, since January.  We've looked at two places, the only ones that were even remotely worthwhile and proved to not be scams.  We didn't get one of them, didn't apply for the other because it was kind of atrocious, and turned down an offer from my boss who rents a property because it's just way out of our price range. I don't remember finding housing being this difficult.  Like, ever.  

Am I being too picky?  I hope not.  This is the way I see it: I'm not going to move unless a lot of things are better than our current situation, ie: closer to jobs, more square footage, at least a little bit cute and/or funky, some decent light, a normal sized kitchen.  It will be a waste of time and money to move just because, to soon realize our situation is not much better than before.

So if you know of anyone who has a place, is leaving a place, knows somebody who knows somebody who has a place, or even someone who has a large garage or perhaps an unusually luxurious cardboard box, let me know.

All of this means I need to make some amount of peace with my current apartment.  I have spent a lot of time being mad at her, but overall she's been good to me.  I can't deny that.  So I must figure out a way to make it work for the time being.

That's what today was about.

And *this* sweet little setup lit my freakin' fire -- I find I don't usually like having my own paintings hanging up in my house, but when I did this I just about crapped.

Not only does it make the room look waaaay bigger (how?!) but these paintings make me SO FREAKIN' HAPPY.  The photos really don't do them justice, especially the one of Lo, but hanging them up like this sparked something inside me and I just feel delirious with excitement.  It's probably in part due to this vein of work I'm in right now.  These paintings express something I have been trying to express for years, and have never been able to.  I don't know what's different.  I don't know what shifted.  But something was ready to start producing paintings with this feel and I'm stoked.

I've also been daydreaming about having a place with a room to call my studio, instead of a corner.  

Me:  I'm going to rearrange the apartment and turn half of it into my studio.  Okay?

Will:  Awesome!

(I love that goofy bitch.)

I'm thinking, Why not?  Why not turn my whole dumb apartment into a big fantastic art-making lair?  Didn't do it yet today, but . . . . . . . . . . it's on my pre-To-Do To-Do.

Puttering around in my apartment today was exactly what I needed.  I feel more quiet today, and in cleaning and rearranging I did end up finding some peace with the place.  A few minor tweaks made a world of difference, and I soaked up the light and patterns and colors I'd stopped seeing after a while.

Art spaces are just messy.  No way around it.

I will never stop loving you . . . <3

I brewed some more coffee at 5pm and soaked up my handiwork.  Life's pretty good . . . I GUESS . . . 

;-)

The Orange Reconciliation

Okay.  Orange is not my favorite color.  I do not daydream about painting an entire wall a juicy citrus, nor do I respond to the big O in public decorated places.  But when I see things like this

and this

I immediately start salivating.  How beautiful are these spaces??  They’re so contemporary, urban but comfortable.  I think I could easily incorporate orange into my little home, but then I’m not sure.  Will I tire of it?  Will it eventually make me want to puke?  Because even though I love these rooms and the way they use the color, I still am not a fan of the color itself.

Sadly, I’m not allowed to paint in my place, but I pondered a a pillow, throw, or lampshade.  I’ll hold off for now and pursue hues I more passionately fancy, but it’s like a little worm creeping into my thoughts every so often . . . My friend KG would call it a “Brain Ninja.”