FINALLY!

After it feels like a million years of moving in, I've FINALLY unpacked almost every single one of my boxes. I have to get a few of those stick on hooks for my purses, and figure out what to do with my bag of high heels but... its nice to have a room that looks grown up. So here are said pictures of my new home.

This, is obviously my bed. I've had that red comforter since I moved into college. A big purchase that I'm going to have to save up for is a new comforter with a down, or down like alternative in it, (they run about 50 bucks at ikea) and a new duvet cover. The black one I bought hoping to cover this awkward one was too small. (Silly colleges and their extra long twins.) My partner in crime and I are going to craft a headboard at some point. Once I find some good brocade to put to work matching my color scheme. She claims they are really easy to make.

As you can see above my bed I've got my two collages, and various smaller frames. I may get a few more nicer larger frames in the near future as the wall looks a tiny bit bare. This is the FIRST time ever that I've got pictures in FRAMES!

Here is my vanity. (Man this is a way crooked picture, sorry guys) I could not function without it. Its just big enough to see a full length look of that outfit you're not sure of, and is the perfect size for awkward collages, my monthly budget (in lime green) and making sure my winter foundation matches my summer tan. I love it. I keep hoping I'll have time to stain it the same color as the piece that my tv is sitting on. One day...

The photographs above my bed are pretty shadily acquired. My ex Michelle had all these way trendy, emo, angsty, indy girls as her friends. Oh, you know the ones, who shop at kid robot and cut up their own clothes but aren't very nice despite their nerdiness. The one's who love photobooths and poloroids. (Ugh, I still gag thinking about "what-if's" and that relationship!) Well, on my last trip up there to see her, one of those friends showed off these proofs of these ferris wheels. I really wanted one. Like, really, really. Michelle refused to give me one, because she liked them so much and they were from HER friend anyway. So since I had a purse, michelle only carried a 12 year old's baby blue backpack, I was stuck holding them. I guess I happened to forget to remind her about them at the end of my trip and came back to LA to, at some point, frame them. I was so torn up about her when we broke up I hid them. And only discovered them when I was moving. Yay for me, I like them as much as I did when I saw them first.

Last but not least, my closet. Which is pretty full. Entirely too full as far as I'm concerned. I need to figure out what to do with everything in there. Maybe next weekend.

There's my brand new bookshelf. Which I bought at ikea for 40 bucks. Full to the brim of too many good things to read. I had to resort to filling the top of the shelf full of books so I could get them all to fit. The trick here is ladies and gentelmen, if you have alot of paperbacks, or books that are the same size you stack them horizontally as well as vertically. I hope that tomorrow night I'll be able to get a close up of the two bookshelves in the house, which are literally packed with trashy romance noves and fluffy books. I DO have a pretty impressive collection of books on medieval art, chicano art, and mesoamerican art, which I think I'll try to start reading in conjunction with my trashy romance fix. And what is my room without some cute pinups for me to look at first thing in the morning?

What do you think? I kinda want to squeeze in my really comfy chair from my dad's house in, but that might be overkill. I just get so tired of sitting on my bed and reading. And its a prety ugly olive green color, its just so very nice to sit in. We'll see.

A Grown Up House

You know what the difference between a grown up house and a college house is?
Frames. Yep, plain old fashioned picture frames. Silly I know.
My coworker and I talked about this a bit at break when she asked how settled I was in my new apartment. I told her I was still drowning in boxes, empty and otherwise. (goddamn trashy romance novels!) And how I spent a ton of money this weekend on frames, and trying to make my room look grown up and not so childish. She related to me her realization on "grown up" homes, when she went to a house party that a friend was throwing with her boyfriend. She walked in and all the dinner and flatware matched. Posters and pictures were in frames and there was a color scheme going. That's when she realized SHE was a grown up.

One of my really good friends from college is living with her much much older boyfriend, and she is/was always the type to worry about matching and stuff. Now that they live in his house she's even more aware, even though she really cant change anything without his consent. My Partner In Crime is similar. She loves the color combination of purple and grass green and has crafted her room at her parents house to showcase those colors. When I was living in the California house I choose every color of red imaginable and decked my room out in that. But it was still a college room, with posters that didn't match and Christmas lights. So I threw out my Christmas lights, and decided on something a little different for a color scheme. Orange, black and golden yellow. My mother and best friend insist that its going to look like Halloween. But I think if I'm careful and go heavy on the black and light on the orange (or tend toward a more bronze orange) I should be ok. I'm kinda nervous. I'll be a grown up.

Yesterday I took one large step in being a grown up and purchased 50 dollars worth of picture frames. Three poster sized ones, one long narrow ones, four 8x10's, and four little ones. I framed some of my favorite pictures from Team Gay in Santa Cruz. I took two of the large poster frames and collaged my last weekend in Santa Cruz Polaroids, juxtaposed with a few of my favorite (This one is called "Wrong Nail") Gil Elvgren pinups. I always had a collage wall in the dorms with things I found interesting; articles, ads, flyers, pictures and bottle caps I found around campus. I decided to toss all that crap and keep only a few cherished ones for my pin up polaroid collage. I have about six or seven fans that I want to put up on the walls also, that I've collected over the years. Now its all about moving things around and getting a stud finder.

Today's Gem: Ikea has the best frames for your money
For fifty bucks I got 14 frames. I bought six black frames and eight clip frames which consist of just glass and particle board for backing with silver clips keeping them together. The tiny clip frames come in a pack of four for 2.99. The large clip frames which were measured about 20x13 or something were only 4.99. The black frames were 4.99 and 7.99. I swear you cant go wrong because they were 20 dollars a piece at Michaels!

These large clip frames are ideal for a collage of pictures. I saw these really cute frames at target which were about the same size that consisted of different panes of glass in one frame which gave each picture placed on each glass panel depth. They were so expensive. So I settled for these clip frames instead. I went to Michaels and got scrapbooking paper in my highlighting colors (orange and gold) and placed them as the backing. Then collaged them to give them some depth all on their own. I tend not to be the type to want symmetry for some reason. I like everything to be a tiny bit asemetrical. So mine are all at odd slants and going wonky directions. We'll see how it looks. For more practical reasons these clip frames are ideal because if you decide your color scheme is different you can change out the back paper for your new color. I have a feeling this will happen every six months or so for me. I get so bored easily.

Gem #2: Michael's > Joann's for crafty stuff, but Joann's > Michael's for price.
Ugh I paid six dollars for yarn for beardaversary. WTF! I'm pretty sure it would have been cheaper at Joann's. And I feel like I'd also get a ton more of selection. My beard btw is going to be rockin'.

Hmm, I think that's about it. Oh, yeah, one more: always always always check the As-Is area of ikea. I snaked a rockin' black shag rug from the As-Is area for 53% off. (And by snaked I mean I literally snaked it out from under some hipster/scenester/goth/punk girl, she was just staring at it with her hands on her hips and Partner in Crime whipped it off its hanger and we stuck it on my cart. Man did we get the stink eye) It was only 24 dollars. It was the floor model so it did have some left over sticky paper residue in the corner but with some tweezers and carpet cleaner it looks as good as new. And now I can use my huge hardwood floor for more than just walking. Like impromptu champagne-taco bell-picnic-framing-parties with the Partner in Crime on my clearance urban outfitters square floor cushions. Or as Partner said, "Now you can have sex on your floor!" Hmph. That'll be the day.