Category Archives: Decorating

My dumb, self-indulgent Pinterest project that I’m totally going to do no matter what.

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So, I’m a little obsessed with Pinterest. I’m almost angry at the friend who introduced me to it, because for everything sketchy and potentially wrong with it, there are some neat aspects to the site. Sure, there is a lot of beige, twee, Deschanel-style generic cuteness going on, but I have found some fun/interesting/smart ideas on there.

Normally, I’m not one of those “I’m gonna do a 365 Project!” people (well, except for my 365 Days of Shakespeare blog, which apparently people are still reading. Go figure. I put almost no effort into that thing…perhaps it’s about time I revamped it and, you know, tried). I generally find them kind of dumb, because no one ever seems to follow through and finish them, and they usually just fizzle out with a bunch of lazy excuses about why they weren’t completed. Or they’re 365 photo projects – the type that makes anyone with a decent digital camera think they’re a photographer.

So…why am I doing a silly, self-indulgent, Pinterest-inspired project that will most likely end in me giving up halfway through?

I dunno. Because it might be fun.

I’m not a crafty person. This surprises people for some reason. I think I must give off a crafty vibe, because whenever I admit that my gift-wrapping skills are akin to a drunk, blind kindergartner who has never touched gift wrap before, people seem confused. I really don’t know why. The last time I crafted something, it was a scarf. And it didn’t even have fringe on it. I don’t even know how to purl. I used to cross-stitch a lot, but I wasn’t particularly talented at that, either. For some reason, though, when I see all those cutesy-clever crafts on Pinterest, I kid myself that I could pull them off. So that’s part of why I’m doing it. I think it would be nice to be better at doing things by hand, rather than buying them.

Also, quite frankly, I think it would validate me in some way. I think I’ll feel some sense of accomplishment. I have this notion in my head that SAHMs are all crafty and organized. I know that’s not necessarily true, but I feel like becoming better at prettying up the house on my own and creating nice things from scratch will make me feel more like a mom. I know that probably doesn’t make much sense, but I want to at least try.

So, starting at some point in the near-ish future (probably September), I’m going to come up with 365 projects, recipes, and crafts that I found on Pinterest to try out. There will be a range of topics – I’ll focus mainly on beauty, fitness, food, and home decor/cleaning. There will probably be a few randoms throughout, but nothing’s set in stone just yet.

My hope is that this project will A) Be completed, lest the Mayans were right and B) Teach me something. I don’t know what. I just want to legitimately learn something so I can call it good.

So thus begins the Great Gathering of Ideas on Pinterest. God help you if you’re friends with me on there – you’ll be flooded.

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Apartment therapy?

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Sorry I’ve been MIA for a few days – my sleep schedule has gotten all out of whack and I’ve been distracted by just about anything even remotely shiny.

I’ve been looking around at our apartment lately and have been trying to come up with more ways to make it feel like home. In our old place, we got really lazy and only hung up a few things, didn’t really try to decorate beyond “yeah, that fits pretty well in that spot”, and just generally didn’t try too hard. Now that we’re in this new place – Ethan’s first home – I feel this pressure to make it homey. My mom has been really helpful with this…she came over and helped me (read: did it for me). She hung up almost all of our paintings, posters, and photos, helped me figure out a better way to arrange the furniture, and gave me a few more pictures for Mother’s Day.

Our place has a nice, open floor plan, which I love. It feels a lot more connected than our old apartment, with the added bonus of it not trying to kill us. There’s a slight “1950′s tract house” feel to the layout, which just makes me goofy-happy since some of our furniture is midcentury. The tricky thing about apartment living, though, is that you generally are not allowed to paint rentals. I think we technically could do some painting if we really wanted to, but we’d have to paint it back if we moved out. While we’re tentatively planning to be here for at least two or three years, if all goes according to plan, that still seems like a little more trouble than it’s worth. That’s my laziness speaking, I know, but I just don’t really see the point of taking the time, money, and energy required for painting a room if it can’t be a permanent thing.

So for those who are fellow renters or who are just more creative than I am (not hard to be these days – my brain is fried): any suggestions? How do you dress up the plain white walls and beige floors of your average apartment?