the vaccum cleaner that brought me happiness

After reading this Apartment Therapy appliance recommendation, I decided to find one for myself and give it a try. Cat hair blows like tumbleweed across my hardwood floors on an annoyingly regular basis and sweeping only seems to shuffle the hair around instead of eliminate it. Great news! The Electrolux Ergorapido 2-in-1 Sweeper works awesome! And it's light and cord-free and has extra bits that get into hard-to-reach places. It's like living in a whole new apartment now. Yay! Who would have thought that a vaccum cleaner could delight me so much.

white walls, blue interior window frames

I found this image on AT today. The blog spot highlights the whimsical botanical sculptures, but what really grabbed my attention and made me want to archive this for future use was the pale blue painted interior window frames - I LOVE how that looks with the white interior. AND I do believe I'm going to copy it in my new apartment.

Yes - new apartment. I found one! I can move in immediately if I want to because it's currently empty, but I still have some time in my current place, so I'm going to make the transition at a nice, balanced pace that will allow me to get in and clean and paint and prep before I begin the decorating and furniture move.

The apartment is a studio with a separate kitchen and it's a great space. As per my preferred types of living spaces, it is in a 130 year old heritage building and it boasts high ceilings, hardwood floors and...(this is where the blue trimmed window frames come in) a large bay window in the main room. The three large, high window panes are framed by old, unpainted wood right now, but the landlord gave me free reign over the apartment when it comes to painting and fixing up (it's a fixer-upper of the best sort), so they will soon be painted to look like the frames in the above photo. Fun!

I am very excited about my new, full-of-potential-and-possibilities space and can't wait to get started. Expect many before and after photos.

personal work spaces

(a glimpse into Christina's new and improved home office)

My friend Christina featured her newly organized and designed home office space on her blog last week and it got me to thinking that I really need to find me a way to work from home. There are a lot of reasons why working for myself and working from home are appealing, not least of which is the excuse to create your own personalized working space inside your already personalized living space. There are lot of great examples of personal work spaces online, one of which Christina linked to in her comments section that is AWESOME. Granted, I don't think it's part of her home, but it's definitely a studio space worth gushing over:

Check out more photos of Lovely Design's lovely Vancouver studio here.

skyfarm

I LOVE, love love love love LOVE this story.

nora jane pillows

I stumbled across these super colourful nora jane pillows by accident on etsy yesterday - one of those random perusals that resulted in some fun finds. I like decorative pillows - not too many, but just enough to add some punch to a room without overwhelming a couch or a chair. These would definitely add some charisma to a needy space.

one man's trash is another man's...

I've been thinking a lot about simplifying things in my life - starting with my consumer tendencies. I've been doing okay at spending less on unneccessary things and, more importantly, asking myself just how neccessary something is before I pull out the plastic to purchase it.

In an effort to challenge myself to live more simply and to wipe my debt slate clean faster, I've swallowed the 'bye bye in-suite washer and drier and everything else that is amazing and beautiful and comfortable about my posh loft' pill and given my notice to my landlord friend. I have the summer to take advantage of the rooftop patio and then I'm back on the hunt for a cheapo apartment full of character.

As sad as it will be to say goodbye to the loft, I'm actually really excited about hunting down somewhere new to live and taking on the new decorating projects and challenges that will come with it. My goal is to find the cheapest place I can in a neato neighbourhood and make it look fabulous on a tight budget - yay! (Seriously - I need to figure out how to apartment hop and decorate for a living. Anyone feel like spotting me a loan to apartment flip?)

Anyways, there will of course be more updates on this as my move out/ move in date approaches. In the meantime, let me get to the point of this post which is to highlight a super cool couple who have created a great space by recycling what others have thrown in the trash. 'Look what I found in the trash' is on design*sponge's guest blog and features Dave and Abi - junk collectors extraordinaire. Super inspiring! Talk about super creative, budget friendly living! Read about it and view more images here.

leah giberson

Despite conveying the sense of lonliness, boredom and mind-numbing sameness that is often present on the outskirts of suburbian sprawl, I'm finding Leah Giberson's paintings earily appealing. I'm presuming their enticement is a result of just that - their ability to mirror the often peaceful yet static stillness of a sunday afternoon in an environment that seems to welcome only power lines, concrete and unfortunate architecture.

In the artist's own words, "She dreams of owning her own house someday, but for now she makes paintings of them and imagines what it's like to call these places, 'home. She suspects it's not always what it appears to be. By simlifying these everyday scenes, she allows the encroaching shadows and ackward scale or placement that already exist to tell a more poignant story".

lyell

I'm really liking the spring 2008 catalogue shots of Lyell clothing line right now. And I love the couch in that shot above - it's got a kind of thrift-store, reused glamour feel about it - one of those pieces that gets better with age and looks better after it's removed from the kind of environment I imagine it was meant for (I'm thinking snooty, dusty, rennaissance home decor). Love it here. Would love it even more in my living room.

bailey doesn't bark

Love these delicate birdie porcelain pieces from bailey doesn't bark. They remind me of my sister for some reason...and her birthday was last week...and i still owe her a prezzie...hmm...

small cool 2008

Suzi's 557 sf place in Columbus

Apartment Therapy is hosting their annual 'small cool' contest - coolest homes under 850 square feet and there are some wicked decorating ideas. Makes me want to move to a tiny space to try some of them out! Gah - I get so bored so easily - I need a job that lets me tackle decorating challenges on a daily basis. Here are some shots of same of my favorites from the contest so far...

Kristen's 525 sq in West Village, NYC

Stephanie's 645 sq spot in St. Louis

Cooper & Ali's 502 sq pad in Oakland

Thuy's 465 sq rooftop cottage in San Diego

Okay - there are WAY too many to look at, so this is my 'haven't-seen-even-close-to-everything-yet' list. Warning: could easily spend hours looking at all the small cool spaces. It's supposed to rain tomorrow - perfect.