It's curtains for us...

No really, draperies and such.

In addition to my paint-related day dreaming, I've been eyeing some curtains to aid with privacy and to help disguise the ugly-ass blinds. I've had some creative results dealing with them in previous homes (a valance composed of scarfs, anyone?) but this time I'm really leaning towards a professionally made set of drapes to bring some drama to the bedroom and livingroom. Our place is going to be fun and welcoming, but I would definitely like it to feel classy and sexy too.

What (simple accessory) could accomplish this better in the bedroom than velvet curtains? So sumptous and luscious, they just purr loveliness, in my opinion. The ones on the right come from Urban Outfitters - I think I prefer the turquoise color, mostly because I feel the olive might be too matchy-matchy with our current bedding. Oddly enough, I'm really digging the goldenrod color as well. The one thing I'm not super excited about is the $50-a-panel price tag. Ah well, someday I will have my velvet drapes, just maybe not too incredibly soon.

On the left we have the sheers I've been eyeing at Overstock.com. I don't hate the valance, but my friend Cec thought it was pretty atrocious and I generally trust her design taste. Otherwise, I am drawn to the color and the pattern; I have no problems imagining these shading the atrium window against the lovely gray/brown paint, in front of our new gray sofa. The window is stinkin' huge so I would need two sets, but at $30 a set, they're quite a bit more affordable than those at UO.

Truthfully, I need a bookshelf and some side tables before I need curtains, but I'm having a damn fine time letting my design imagination run wild.

Fun with paint!

Spending most of my life in rentals (with many nomadic years as a kid) I've never really been in a place where I was allowed to paint OR felt like I was going to stick around long enough to really find the proper inspiration/color.

Now, in this joint abode, I am practically obsessed with getting paint on the walls. I keep having to tell myself: "wait for Bear - this is not a one (short) person project" and to my (pleasant) surprise, he has actually expressed a great interest in working on home projects together when he gets back. For weeks I've had the perfect palette for the living room in my head, trying to decide which color should go on which walls and how to play up the high ceiling as well as the atrium window.

Sherwin Williams hooked it up with the "Rooted" collection. We've already got all the accent colors in the group sprinkled through the living room and I'm really loving the gray trend right now. It looks classy, dammit. I may look into color-matching to save some $$ if possible, but as far as I'm concerned my color search is over.

Now I just have to patiently wait until my boyfriend gets home and I have someone tall enough to tape off the ceiling - even with a ladder I still come up just a little...short.

Adventure times in the new abode OR my maintenance manager has a wee crush on me.

As I was preparing to move out of the old place, one of the friends who had come over to help me remarked how much she liked the style of my low-slung ikea Hagali bed frame. Since Bear and I already had plans to replace it in the new abode, I happily agreed to give it to her after I moved out as well as help her set it up. On move day, I broke it down into 11 pieces and those pieces were put in our new bedroom until I could find time to coordinate taking it over by car to her place a few blocks away. After living with a rather large pile of boards and slats in my bedroom for a week and a half we managed to find some mutual free time after work and she walked over.

Our new apartment has its own private hallway off the courtyard with a door on each end that locks behind you. That evening around 6:15 PM she buzzed from the front gate and I ran downstairs to meet her, shutting the upper door behind me to prevent the cats from making a break for it. BIG OOPS - no keys, no jacket and now we're locked out of my apartment.

After determining that there was no way for her 5'3" frame to boost my 5'2" self up to the point where I could safely hoist my body over the edge of the deck to the unlocked slider, I called the building maintenance guy for help. Not even there a month and I'm already a pain in his ass, I tell ya. After having us hanging out in my hallway for about 20 minutes, he returned to the complex and let us in. Before he left he chatted with us for a good while, suggesting he was always happy to return to help cute girls and making a joke about how maybe if he "meowed" I would adopt him along with my other 2 cats. :/ No, buddy. Not likely, but "thanks, really!"

After calling another of her friends over to help and having a beer to celebrate being inside, we loaded up the frame and took it over to her apartment where we drank another beer and team-worked it together in 15 minutes or so.

Now I just have one more piece of unnecessary/unwieldy furniture to dispose of and I can truly feel like I'm ready to start settling in. I'll have to wait a few weeks until Bear gets home to replace the bed frame (and we've been eyeing a couch to replace my chaise,) so in the meantime I'm thinking paint...C'mon payday, momma's got color on the brain!

Oy. A month?

A month since I last blogged. That is a crying shame. Honestly though, I've been really effing busy!

Big, big changes afoot. While Bear was back for his visit we decided to move forward on looking for a place together. And a few days after he returned to Istanbul, I found it.

We are, for all intents and purposes, now co-habitating a lovely 2 bedroom apartment in the Junction neighborhood of West Seattle. Of course, he's not going to be home for another 3 weeks or so but his dresser and some of his clothes and shoes are there, so technically it counts.

There's a muthaf*ckin' Safeway downstairs, y'all (and just beyond that a Subway, Taco Del Mar, Papa Murphy's, teriyaki place, QFC, Cupcake Royale, all kinds of great bars and restaurants, yadda yadda.) I was joking with Bear on Skype last night that "we are soooo metropolitan...in the suburbs." I love love love West Seattle and we now live right in the heart of all the neat stuff (and much closer to Alki/downtown, etc.)

It's been a huge undertaking to do essentially as a singleton. Though I have had help from my friends (OHMIGOD CECILLI WAS A GODSEND) and had movers for the big stuff, it was no small task moving out of a 3rd floor walk-up with an arthritic back. At this point, everything is moved in even if it isn't exactly where it belongs yet. After a little bit of settling I can break out the paint brushes; once Bear gets home we can go furniture shopping (and move the rest of his stuff over from the Island.)

Over the next few weeks I'll start posting the "before" pictures so you guys can see what we're starting with and then as we go I can update with our progress (or you can just stick around to see if I lose my mind in the process.) It'll be fun, promise.