bakers rack

When I lived in my apartment, I had a baker's rack in my kitchen. It's actually a plant holder I got from Home Goods, but it worked for this purpose as well.

At Shane's apartment, we have a galley kitchen. We barely have enough room for the trash barrel not to mention this baker's rack. So, it was bound to be outside the kitchen if we decided to use it. Which is exactly where we first put, right outside the kitchen.

It worked for a little while. I actually never really loved it there, but there really wasn't much more we could do with it. Then mom was coming to visit so we needed to put the air mattress in the Living Room and make more room.

So, we moved it on the other side of the wall, more in the "dining room" area.

I think I like it a little better there, just because it's in a room where it fits it's contents a little better (minus the stereo of course :D)

It got one more make-over this evening. I felt the stuff we had on the cut-out shelf looking into the kitchen needed to be cleaned off desperately! It had the wine rack and the alcohol on it. So, I moved everything onto the rack.

 Here's one last picture of it:

Just one more step in the organizing/decorating process of the rooms. But, every little bit helps! Since we don't have walls that separate the rooms, I want to try and get the things that are room appropriate into these spaces to help break it up some. We'll see how that works!

Peace and <3



the home in my title

Prelude before I start: due to the storm that came through Maryland and all the running around to get things back to normal, I haven't made it to Trader Joe's to get cheese. BUT, I will this weekend, so next week should be a pretty exciting week for you all to look forward to :)

We've been pretty busy the past couple of weeks. We had a pretty nasty storm come through here a few weeks ago and I never mentioned how much fun we had when Mom came to visit!!

We went to a 3D IMAX movie about Sea Dinosaurs. It was pretty cool

No one expected the storm to be quite as bad as it turned out to be. It started in Ohio just around 2pm on Friday, June 29th. It blew up coming across the lakes and just went on from there. Shane and I were in the living room playing video games, when around 11pm the power went completely out. It stayed out until Tuesday.

Luckily his parents didn't lose power and we were able to stay with them. What made it worse was that it was well over 90* every day that weekend/week. ICK!

We finally made it home in our cool apartment Wednesday after the fireworks :D

We have a few projects for the apartment planned, along with some decorating and painting. The next few months are going to be really fun! Shane could be cringing at this point, and I may be eating my words when they are through...but I'm sure they will be great once complete! Here's what we have planned:

1. Convert two closets: Hallway one into a pantry; a smaller narrow on into a linen closet
2. Paint the Living Room
3. Paint the Bedroom
4. Build a mantle piece for the fireplace

To start the decorating process, last weekend Shane and I hung up a DVD rack that we bought at IKEA a couple of months ago. It it looks really good hanging up over the TV. Problem is now is if we buy anymore DVDs they may not fit ;)

It really ties all the units in on that wall together. The pictures on top of the rack are just there for now. I'm going to put up some other things and kind of play around with it some.

Shane also hung a mirror that I had bought at Home Goods when I first moved into my apartment. You all may remember it just leaning on my book shelf in my "dining room". This is the first time it's been hung up anywhere! I may be a little high, or the shelf may not be high enough...I haven't quite decided yet!

We're getting there with the decorating! Little by little and before you know it, we'll be moving :P

There's a few "ticket" items we want to purchase in regards to decorating. We'd like to get:

1. Table lamp for the Living room

2. Replace the bookshelf (shown with the mirror) with something a little "entryway" friendly.

3. Print out some pictures and hang them on the walls, put on shelves and put over the fireplace

4. Smaller table to replace current dining table

The carpets are what I believe to be original to be building. They have huge stains throughout and gather up here and there. If it were our condo that we owned or planned on staying here for a lot longer, I'd say we would just replace them.

But, since we aren't planning that right now, we need to do something. Our plan is to either A) try cleaning them really good or B) get some area rugs to put over the really bad stains. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do when it starts getting loose and you have rolls in some places.

I'd like to really make this place ours since we'll probably be here for at least a year, year and a half. My plan is to document as we go and share with you my findings on things. Would love to get your feedback and see what you all think!

Peace and Love! <3