DIY Upholstered Headboard!

I'm giddy! I've been dying to make an upholstered headboard for some time now, and today I finally did it. It was SO EASY. Seriously. Un.believ.ably easy.

Since we had to put our bed under the window in our room (it just cut the room up awkwardly anywhere else), I wasn't sure I could have a headboard. But then I decided, whatever, I'm doing it. And I dove in!

I picked out the fabric, with input from boyfriend, and went to town. The hardest part was buying the ENORMOUS piece of plywood, getting it cut to size, and getting it delivered by one of the many day laborers.

Once that was out of the way, it was easy peasey. Seriously, look:

Step 1: Use spray adhesive to attach 1 in. foam to the board (I had the foam cut at the fabric store. Yes, it added some cost, but it was WAY worth it to me)

Check out that fabric panel art in the background--did that today too.

Step 2: Lay out fabric on the floor (note: the fabric saleslady said I could skip the batting and I'm SO glad I listened to her. Definitely didn't need it and it would have added to the cost, obvi)

Step 3: Lay board on top of fabric, foam side down.

Step 4: Staple fabric to the board, pulling taut.

Step 5: Admire, jump up and down, put it in place.

So yeah, I'm happy. I didn't want it to be too tall because of the whole blocking the window thing and I think the height is just right. It looks modern and fun against the grey. Loves it.

Ignore the blurriness...sorry, must have been all the jumping up and down

I still need to figure out a way to attach it to the wall (the whole window thing throws a wrench in that...), but for now it seems sturdy enough just using the bed to hold it in place. Ha. We'll see...

Yep. Super proud.

ps--don't judge the rest of the room. It's obviously still coming together...

pps--look at my cute little chair waiting to be reupholstered!

The new apartment!

Well lots has happened since I last posted: I took the bar (no results until November 19th!), traveled to Europe, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Australia, and moved to LA!

We moved into our 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment almost a week ago and are finally getting settled. I'm not ready to show any after pictures (you know, to my fake blog reading audience who is quite judgey) but I figured I'd get started with one small before. Boxes galore, no furniture, but at least our tv made it!

I love our big, huge window and the hardwood floors!

And here's a couple "halfway there" shots:

We obviously have no couch yet--it's a slate grey sectional from Macy's. I love it! And I'm planning a sweet gallery wall around the TV to make it blend in more (well as much as it can--it is 50 in after all). I would love some curtains, but I think the air conditioner is too close to the window.

This is the corner of our living room opposite the photo above. I ordered a chair to go where the desk chair is now. I've been calling it the reading corner. We also need to hang art and get a rug.

I will (probably) post afters in a week-ish when it's more finished. Hopefully our couch will be here by then!

I have some VIPs coming in next week: mommy, my sister, and the ever adorable Zoe:

I know, she is so cute.

We will have tons of fun galavanting around town in this:

My new-to-me Acura!

Anyway, that's it for now :)

Pantry Eating at its best

Gorgeous Italian pantry--image here--Nope, not mine. It would be way more fun to eat out of this one...

First things first--I love that this is a fake blog open to no one to read. That means I don't have to try to come up with clever post titles. Because I certainly am not clever enough for that...and I would needlessly stress over it naturally.

Anyway, we move out ONE WEEK (!!) from today. This means the bar is only a little more than a week away. Honestly, I'm glad. I can't wait to take it and be done with it. I'm doing my damndest to make sure I don't burn out/peak too early/freak out/lose motivation/insert other worry here. So here's hoping I keep going and just pass the darn thing already.

Sooo back to the topic at hand: pantry eating. I'm fascinated by frugal mommy sites where they talk about their crazy, ridiculous low budgets and doing things like bartering for milk. While I'm not going out to work in the fields just yet, I figured I might as well try to use up all our pantry things before racing to the store to buy new food.

I suppose I should show you what our pantry actually looks like now:

Okay I did choose the saddest shelf and took it with my phone--so while it certainly does look sad it's not all that bad

The sad pantry has made for some interesting meals:

1. Rice, black beans, and Portuguese sausage--surprisingly wonderful!

2. Pork chops and a medley of veggies--eh. Cuba really turned me off to Pork. Doug like it though

(oh and ps if i were a real blogger i'd have pictures of all these. but i'm not. so i don't)

3. Italian sausage, edamame, and tater tots--so weird. so delicious. i felt like a little kid getting to eat whatever she wanted

And tonight's meal of old frozen chicken breast, frozen sugar snap peas, and baked sweet potatoes (maybe i'll get a pic up here...probably not)

The reason I started this long, winded, rambling post was that this has taught me to stretch my imagination and not run to the delivery menu drawer. Hopefully I can keep this up when I don't have the "oh crap I am moving and need to use up this food" mentality.

Maybe one day I will be bartering for milk after all...particularly given that mint.com now informs me I have -$174,000 to my name. Excellent.

Inspiration (from Grey's Anatomy no less...)

The ever wise Bailey spoke those words a long time ago, and they have always resonated with me. It reminds me to stop beating myself up when I can't do it all and to let go of even trying to.

You gotta do what you can, of course, but when you can't, you can't.

So thank you Shonda Rhimes and the Grey's writers :) I have plans to blow this up a bit bigger and frame it to hang somewhere in the new apt.

ps--i also had fun experimenting with making a poster. I need better fonts!

Eat Pray Love

I just finished Eat Pray Love. I know I'm late to the party, but hey now I get to see the movie with it fresh in my mind! Can't wait to do that by the way...

Here is where I pause to watch a trailer of the movie. And get sad because Liz was most certainly not Julia Roberts in my head. And in my mind the book bore no resemblance to a romantic comedy, which is exactly what the preview looked like. Sigh...

Anyway, I just loved the book. It was one of those books where you want to slow down and soak up every word so you can be sure it's getting through and sticking.

So on that note, I decided to excerpt a few of my favorite passages:

"the appreciation of pleasure can be an anchor of one's humanity...You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight."

"Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it."

"If I am truly to become an autonomous woman, then I must take over that role of being my own guardian...I not only have to become my own husband, but I need to be my own father too."

I realize there were many gems I did not mark that I now have sadly lost. But what I appreciated most was Gilbert's incredible honesty. She truly bore her soul, her most private and ugly thoughts, for the whole world to see. It made for some powerful stuff on God, grace, relationships, happiness, and figuring out who you are and your place in the world.

Couch Love

We're in the market for a new couch. In about 4 months that is. But I can't wait! I am ready for an upgrade from our current couch--the Ektorp from Ikea. No hating on it--it has served me well these last three years and has gotten LOTS of love this year! But it's white and a little dingy. In short, I'm over it.

So while killing time before Billy Elliot today (that kid can DANCE!), my mom and I stumbled upon this beauty in Macy's:

I LOVE IT! I love the buttons on the back part. And Doug would love its flat arms. It comes in a chocalatey brown color that would be perfect! I also love that it looks all sleek and clean, but is totally comfortable too. (obviously we tried it out). PLUS it is ONLY $699! A total steal.

So of course I got to browsing the interwebs when I got home and here's a couple others I like.

This lovely at Pottery Barn:

I love the shape of the back. And of course, I love the upholstered look rather than the slip cover. I like to show off those legs! Sadly this is not as much of a steal...probably would be about $1800 in any fabric I'd want.

And this one (also Macy's):

Sorry, Macy's website has yucky abilities with downloading pictures. So it's hard to see. But this is another gorgeous beauty with the buttons and wide arms. Love her.

And then my eyes started hurting and I lost interest. Because did I mention this isn't happening for months yet?

Summer Reading

Yay! My Amazon order arrived today :)

Here's what I'm reading (aside from 11 fascinating Bar Bri books on topics such as Wills and Real Property...):

1. Eat Pray Love
2. The Choice Effect (written by a friend of my college roommate and best friend!)
3. Little Bee
4. Madame Bovary (not pictured)
5. House Beautiful
6. Better Homes and Gardens
7. Real Simple (not pictured--Amazon takes FOREVER to send magazines!)

I was inspired by Edie, my blog crush, to ramp up my reading again. She reads some impressive stuff. Seeing as I'm also spending a million hours a day on the aforementioned boringness of Bar Bri, I thought I'd follow her lead on a smaller scale!

I've been reading Madame Bovary for a couple days and so far it just hasn't grabbed me yet. So I'm jumping ship for the time being. I'm starting with Eat Pray Love. I know I'm light years behind everyone who read this years ago, but hey at least I know it should be good! I'm in a reflective mood lately and am looking to be inspired. So bring it on Elizabeth Gilbert!

So here goes!