Cabinet Fever.

I recently received $250 from the universe and set about to get my IKEA on. I knew the piece I wanted and was all ready for Saturday, when John and I would head to IKEA to get the giant butcher block cabinet. It was $329, but with my free extra money, it was now affordable. I went to the website to see if it was in stock, the last time I was there I didn't see any assembled. And there were none. Not at any of the 4 IKEA's in Southern California. Ratsass.

We decided to go anyway and see if something else would work. Thank gods for the drop-in play area! John and I wandered around, me feeling like NOTHING else would work, and John trying to figure out how to make me happy. We ended up with this:

Which is like what I wanted but without the drawers. (It was $249. Coincidence? I think the universe knew what I needed better than I did). It's actually pretty roomy. I had trouble filling it. Now it houses Lego and puzzles and stuff. So it's in easy reach for the boys.

John put it together last night. He's an IKEA expert because the TV show he works on uses a ton of it. He's put together entire closets. Here's what I found in the kitchen when I went to help:

 

Virgos. You can't live with 'em.

So now I have miles of counter space.

I don't know if you can see in the photo, but our dishwasher is at the end with a butcher block on top. We're actually going to remove the Formica top on the dishwasher and replace it with an old oak table top piece to make a butcher block island. It'll be cut to size and routed to fit. 

John didn't want to keep the table top. But I said, "NO! We can cut it down for something in the future!" He thought I was crazy. Who's crazy now?

Still me.

Coaster Child

The problem with being a night person, (I am not an "owl," too hipster-ie), is that I feel inspired, (or have inspiration emailed to me), so I set forth bringing it to life and then I have to wait until morning to photograph and/or write about it. The best lighting in my house is 10am in my kitchen nook. People keep telling me "Light Box!," but these people probably have a bigger house than me. Or don't live with wild monkeys bent on destruction.

Today I asked for ideas for my next project and I got one response, "cake!" which, it turns out I actually made. Without realizing it until just now. (Good use of "the secret," Deborah!) And then later I was reminded about my coffee melting my new bedside table situation. It seems a hot beverage placed on a ModPodged nightstand sort of melts the glue making it fog up again. So I made this:

 

A little coaster! The fabric was in my scrap bin and it's one of my favorites. I only had a little left but couldn't throw it away. I'm so glad I figured out something to do with it.

 

See what happens when you photograph at night? So dark. With weird shadows. But don't you love my mug? It makes me happy just to look at it.

If anyone else has an idea of something I can make, let me know. But remember I'm lazy and have limitations.

The Secret Bedroom

A lot of you know that I use the secret to get everything. But I thought I'd share a little bit of the how. First there's tut.com. You actually type in your goals and then the universe sends you personalized emails. Here's an example:


I understand, Courtney, that you must wonder, sometimes to the point of bewilderment, at what you're truly capable of doing. Yet, therein lies the "problem," because living the life of your dreams is far more about what I'm capable of doing. Surrender -
    The Universe

Sometimes they're so good they make me cry. Which, not difficult, but still.

Now to use this toward my interior design dreams, that's my favorite part. I've never been one to walk into a Crate and Barrel and buy a $5,000 bedroom on a credit card. I'm too cheap for that. Even if I had the cash, not really my style. If you follow the secret, you probably have a vision board. I don't like them, too clutter-ie. Especially mine. I'm a square-right angle clutterer. So what I do is frame my inspirations and put them around my house. Like so:

This is my bedroom inspiration. It sits on a shelf in my bedroom. It was almost impossible to find anything that was small enough to replicate. No sense in finding some crazy 500 square foot dream bedroom. I love the wall color, it's a rich eggplant, and the textures in the pillows and then duvet and the closet drapery. It's got all that pattern that I love so much.

Here's my bedroom. It's tiny, but it's not like I need a treadmill in here:

We used the IKEA swedish shelving and I added an Indian flavored tapestry. Then I made a fabric panel in some excellent IKEA fabric to cover the end. It faces out to the hall and I don't want to see clutter from outside my bedroom.* (Barkley really wanted to be in the picture).

Underneath is the really bad clutter. That's what the tapestry is for. But I wanted to show you everything, good and bad and biscotti on the corner of my bed.

*I know I have a shoe hanging off the basket. It's an excellent shoe and I like to look at it. A shoe fairy sent it to me with kind words and it reminds me of good things. I also have my Buy More hat in there. I wanted it and my husband got it for me from a producer. So it gets displayed as well.

Santa, baby...

After I read that you can use a Xerox to make iron-on embroidery patterns, I went nuts looking for cool, free patterns. And I found this one. She offers one a month and this is part of a christmas set.

So I printed out a bunch of great patterns and went to a copy store, copied the patterns, chased my kids. Got home, and was disappointed. It barely shows up. Maybe I needed to darken the copy, I don't know. It just didn't work. Too faint to see any pattern.

Then I discovered that Sulky makes markers that are iron-on transferable. But, as usual, it's a weird item I'll never find in a store. Unless you're me and friends with the UNIVERSE! Then you walk in a local sewing store, and there it is, one black iron-on marker, waiting for me.

So I taped my patterns to the window and traced it to tracing paper. And it worked! There are definitely some tricks, but it's the best thing I've tried so far.

Sister's Are Asking the Universe For Themselves...

Our bathroom is tiny. Like super tiny. Like I have a book called Small Bathrooms and by small they mean 11' x 11'. And our bathroom is 5' x 8'. So. I guess they need a new book called,Ridiculously, Tiny Bathrooms.

But there is hope! This month's, (quarter's?) Do It Yourself magazine featured two bathroom remodels, with of the exact layout of my bathroom. Including the door that opens into your knees while you pee!

I will keep the photos close to my heart and on my vision board.

P.S. I know if I took off my door and had a wide angle lens my picture would match. But who's gonna take off a door?

edited to add: This is our only bathroom with the exception of a room in the basement that has a toilet in the corner. I call it the "newlywed toilet" because it's the one you use at the beginning of a relationship...