Since August

It's not that I haven't been doing bloggable things. It's that I haven't sat down to write about them. Well...it's kind of both.

To be honest, the blog slowdown began during glutenfest. Yep, I'm blaming the grain. Man, that sucked. Imagine how you feel when you get the flu. There's always one day that is the worst. And then, the day after that, you feel a little better...but still not good. That's how I felt. Like it was the day after the worst day of the flu. Every day for 10 weeks.  It was not a happy place to be.

The thing about having no energy and just wanting to lay your achy joints down and take a nap (God, how old do I sound?! But really, that's how I felt! Instantly OLD.) is that it's hard to be motivated to cook, or make crafty things, or take photographs of any of it. And then, when the horror of glutenfest ended and I was able to start eating normally and began to feel better, I had a lot to do. A backlog of tasks. And not much time for blogging.

Here we go...and apologies in advance if you follow me on instagram because there are going to be a lot of familiar photographs here.

I made a bunch of meals. 

 And I baked a bunch of treats.

I made a new Valentine's wreath, constructed entirely from scrap materials I had laying around my craft room/office/pantry/chaos closet.

I preserved some things in the refrigerator because the prospect of actually "canning" anything freaks me out. Some jalapenos (not pictured). Some meyer lemons.(Ok, a LOT of meyer lemons.)

Some kumquat marmalade.

Oh, and hey, I got a new job! IN WHICH I ALMOST NEVER TRAVEL FOR WORK.

I know.

It's amazing. Revolutionary. I hardly know what to do with myself. But one thing I am doing is decorating my (shared) office, now that I spend so much time here. Luckily, my officemate is a dude who cares not at ALL what the space looks like. Which is excellent because you know I love free rein when it comes to these sorts of things.

The monkey lamp from CB2 is my FAVORITE. As are the drawings from Penelope - "You're the best Kate ever." How cute is that? 

In more recent office decor developments, I am super excited about the window seat, which fits so perfectly it almost looks custom. (It's not.) I absolutely love sitting here and working. The current pillows are no-longer-used leftovers from home for now but I'm pinning more pillow fabrics and other items for the office so you can probably expect an office decorating blog post from me in the future.

And yeah...that's about it. Kind of a sorry showing for an entire half a year.
Will try to do better between now and this August!

A Thing of Beauty

This past weekend, I organized my shoes.

Wait, wait! Don't close the browser window! This story has a good ending.
Bear with me. 

I realize devoting a full day to shoe organization is like one step above (below?) storing them in the oven, Sex-and-the-City-style.

But it was necessary.
My shoes had started to multiply like Gremlins in a kiddie pool.

There were shoes behind the closet door.

And behind the bedroom door.

And in an old, broken bookshelf.

And on another old, broken shelf. 

(Thanks again, movers, for breaking all my stuff!)

And in a basket.

Er...two baskets. 

And in the closet.

And the other closet. 

Some might say I have too many pairs of shoes.
This sentence does not compute.

I clearly just needed some better shoe storage.

Here's what I did:

1. Assembled the large, deep Ikea Billy bookcase. (This one.) Despite my non-love of white laminate, I determined that the white shelves and background would provide the best, most neutral canvas for shoe display.

2. Drilled three extra sets of shelf holes at the top, bottom, and right below the middle door hinges. This was a huge pain in the ass and I wish I'd done it before I assembled the cabinet but I didn't realize that it was necessary until after the shelf frame was together.

3. Added the Billy Olsbo glass doors. Drilled holes and added cabinet knobs.

4. Alternated Billy glass and wood shelves in the cabinet to keep the look light & airy.

It only took about 4 hours.

Ikea seems to have gotten smarter about their instructions. They now feature this drawing to start that bible of exasperation, the Ikea instruction booklet:

Do you see that?

Sad guy with pile of parts = alone
Happy guy with pile of parts = with another person

That's right. Ikea is trying to tell you that you should not assemble their products without a second person around.

Screw you, Ikea. I don't have another person.

Despite their singleton discrimination, I have to admit, they've got a point. If you have ever assembled anything from Ikea that involves door or drawer parts, you know why this drawing is here; namely, for moral support and suicide prevention when you realize you're missing a part. I bet their risk management people made them add this to the instructions to avoid lawsuits.

Approximately 60% of the way through the building process, there is inevitably a moment of utter exhaustion as you look around, surrounded by torn boxes, papers, little metal parts, and rebus instructions. And a half-assembled piece of plywood laminate furniture that you have carefully made sure is NOT TOUCHING THE BARE WOOD FLOOR.

Ugh.

That said, I persevered despite a minor breakdown (proudly, there were no tears) that accompanied attaching the doors. In the end, it was worth it. 

I can now see all my flats, sandals, and heels at once. The only thing that would possibly make this better is a wider shelf (and more wall space) so that my boots could be in there as well. But there's no room for boots. It's ok. I'm still pleased with this solution. It feels like I'm shopping every time I get dressed.

It's a little bit awesome.

Joy. I feel joy every time I look at this thing. It's like Christmas morning EVERY morning.

As Mom said: "Nice! You have room for one more pair!"
Yes. And I'm enacting a strict one-in-one-out policy from here forward. Gremlins begone!

Brilliant Bookcases

I grew up around a lot of books. Literally thousands. (Haha.) Book storage was a constant problem (or, as we like to say at work: "opportunity"). I have carried this love of books into my adult life and have tried to be diligent about recycling all but the most precious of them. Currently my collection fills about one and a half large bookcases. Could be worse, believe me.

But while some consider them "clutter," I love the design element that books add to a room. That's right, books are not just for reading. We are talking brains and beauty in the same package. If they are styled right, of course.

Recently, I stumbled upon this blog which has a fantastic collection of bookcase solutions to browse.

All these great pics have the wheels turning in my head since I'll need to figure out some new book solutions soon. As part of the Great Furniture Rearrangement currently underway in my apartment, the bookcases presently in the back half of the living room are going to have to be relocated or removed entirely. Hmmm...