Take another picture with your click click click click camera.

I totally love this song. And it happens to be right in line with a very exciting happening in my little life this week.  Back in August {yes, I mean TEN months ago} while on vacation in Cape Cod or for those of you from the Commonwealth- "The Cape"- my camera inexplicably stopped working... just after taking this picture....

When it was on, the lense retracted and closed.  When it was off, it unfurled and the lense opened. You heard me right.  It was all backwards.  Our mugs broke the damn camera- on Matt's birthday. 

Obviously unusable, it sat in my office for 8 months.  Which was part of why the pictures I've been posting for the last 8 months have been sub-par at best.   I think it was part fear of sending my beloved camera off to no-mans-land, and part of it was laziness.  Then I found a small mom and pop shop in my hometown that had great ratings for camera repair.  {Though, I must say, they were less then stellar in my case. They were curt, expensive and they vastly under quoted their lead-time. Hence why I'm not mentioning their name on here.} Six weeks later... My camera is up, running and back in my hands! WOO! 

With that being said, I thought I'd share with you some new pics of our house and the way it's looking lately.  It's still missing some key elements so bear with us...

Fist of all, our couch is so very naked.  I need to get on making throw pillows for it.  But pillow inserts are expensive!! I know I could buy batting and its cheaper but I like to make shams so I can continue to be fickle and change them out whenever I want.  So to-do list part 1: make more throws. 

That awkward gaping hole between the couch and loveseat is not going to be empty long.  There is an upholstery project in the works to fill in that hole!  I swear I will show you the inside scoop on that one soon! 

You guys might remember the personalized print I made for Matt and I not too long ago.  But the yellow and white print on the right?  That is thanks to my brother Joe, who is a seriously talented artist and his most recent gallery show featured a slew of a silk screens entitled "There's No One There."  I had mentioned long ago that I loved the one with the truck. And my amazing big brother surprised me by sending us that very piece all the way across the country.  Isn't it so cool?  And it goes so perfectly with the rest of our bright colorful art that we have in the room already. 

That may or may not be The Bachelorette on the TV. This particular wall is a toughie for me.  I want to replace the TV stand for something more like furniture, something more solid.  In the meantime, I want to put a fun table or a pouf or a plant under the Metropolis poster.  A plant, to me, would be ideal.  I would get height from it, as well as a fresh, comfortable, lived-in look. 

Along with a paper mache animal head that I plan on making myself. BUT! While the paper mache animal head is a "go" the plant .... not so much.  Matt is afraid of ruining our beautiful hardwoods. So maybe something like this would be more up his alley...

That's not so bad?  I can't say I blame him for not wanting to ruin the floors though, since we went from this....

To this....

Not too bad, right guys?  What do you think? What are your ideas for that wall that is irking me?  We don't want too much furniture... but not so little either.... Oh all the things we could do!  Alright guys, its on you! Now dish!! 

Happy Tuesday Nesters! xo

Moroccan Peacocks

I was chatting with my friend Amanda recently as she was pontificating on how much she loathes her living room in its current state.  Amanda is a graduate student in music education with a full-time job as a music teacher.  She is living in a pretty awesome house not far from  yours truly, in the Boston 'burbs. She shares that space with 2 roommates. With one moving out and taking the art from the living room with her, this frees up the space for some changes.  She was, of course, talking to the right friend when it comes to decorating.  We got to talking and came up with some great concepts and landed on a sort of ultra girlie Moroccan theme with a peacock palette.

I took Friday off from work {With the intention of spending the vast majority of the day at the RMV.  Alas, about 3 minutes later, I was given the boot and told to go the "mail-in" approach.  No help, I tell ya. No help!}  so I had some time to kill and I popped into home depot and grabbed a ton of paint chips and here's what I came up with.

The girls already have a rug that is purple and beige.  So purple will be a heavy influence in the room.  But since we want it to be kind of Moroccan, we will be adding interesting patterns and pops of brighter colors like pink and orange.

Bringing in the idea of the peacock, we're going to tone down all that purple with some jewel toned blue and greens, focusing on teals.

These are the mustard-y, burnt orange-y colors that I pulled out also as accents to couple with the pinks.  I'm thinking throws, pillows and smaller decorative accessories. FUN!

And well Target was just across the street from Home Depot, so why not swing in there? I took some snapshots of some fun goodies that caught my eye as inspiration.

This tall, banana leaf vase would be perfect for some tall branches adorned with some hand crafted flowers. Hmmmmm... I smell a DIY project.

Adoring both of these hurricanes.  Both the rosey pink and punched tin are very romantic and feminine keeping with that aspect of the room that we want. 

Loving this big round basket for the corner of the room.  It would be a great storage space to house throw blankets, books, knitting or not-often-used remotes.

Now, Amanda's living room is not a looming space.  In fact, its quite "petite," shall we say.  What always solves a feeling of claustrophobia in small rooms? Mirrors, mirrors, and more mirrors!!  I love the idea of using these end tables to reflect more light than just a wall mirror.

Speaking of wall mirrors, a Moroccan theme wouldn't be complete without some beautifully intricate patterns and this quatrefoil mirror fits the bill. I wouldn't mind snagging one of these for myself, in fact!

This adorably girlie lamp is on sale and would be a perfect addition to the living room as well! But of course only with a colorful lamp shade like this violet one....

These fun little drinking glasses are from Target's new Calypso Collection.  I love all the colors and their metallic quality.  These could easily be grouped and turned into votive holders on a fun little tray.

So all in all, I think the impromptu trip to Home Depot and Target were both successful.  I certainly was getting ideas for things that work together and don't.  What the costs are that we're up against, what we can make ourselves, and color chips that we can whittle down to our palette.

Happy Monday Morning Nesters! I hope you had a wonderful weekend!  Do anything fun? Perhaps took Friday off to got to the RMV/DMV as well?  Dish!

Mapping it out...

Heya Nesters! Over the weekend I had one helluva productive morning! I'll be showing you a couple of the projects I finally completed this week and today will be the first!  Remember way-back-when {5 months ago!} I was chatting you up about maps and how much I love them?  Well, with a little help, I finally got the age-old project up.

The Gallery Grows

Heya Nesters! One of my favorite gifts I get for my birthday and Christmas are prints of my fathers vast portfolio of photographs from the late 60's and early 70's.  He has such amazing works and when I had my quick stint with art photography in college, his were my biggest inspiration.

{Image of the Triboro Bridge courtesy of my Daddio}

Two Hundred.

Two Hundred. 

This post is number 200.  Whoa.  That's a lot of posts for a newbie like me.  I've been at this blog for 8 months and I'm so happy to be here and have you all reading it. I hope that at some point or another you have been inspired and learned something from this blog. If you haven't then hopefully you will in a future post. But enough jibber-jabber, let's get on to the goods. 

Back in action

Heya Nesters.  I'm back in action today... sort of. Still a little tired and worse for wear, but on the rebound from a pretty terrible bout with influenza.  Anyhow, I decided I wanted to keep it simple today, no need to over-exert myself, right?  So lets take a peek at some cozy homes that make you think "Gee, if I had to be under the weather, doing it there would make it somehow more bearable."  Or maybe that's just me...?

 {via Apartment therapy}

DIY Project: Wine Case End Table

Heya Nesters! Good Monday morning to you all! I hope you had a nice weekend. 

I have a nice little treat today! I hope you enjoy! 

You remember my dad, right? He just had a birthday and Matt and I crashed his NYC apartment right here. He is one creative dude. A degree in art and a prolific photography portfolio prove that, however, I have learned a good portion of my DIY skills from him too.  As a kid he taught me how to swing a hammer, whittle some balsa wood and some basics of woodworking.  So it didn't surprise me when he sent me an email with a fantastic DIY project that is so simple it needs no directions!

If I had a Million Dollars: Living and Lounging

Hi Nesters!  When you have guests over, you want to have your living spaces as welcoming and chat-friendly as possible.  Along with comfort, you have to have style. I love the idea of a luxurious vintage Parisian inspired space.  That's why on this weeks If I had a Million Dollars, I would want my living room to have lots of warm cream colors and cushy, cozy furniture that has an old-world European feel. 

 {images courtesy of indigoalison}

Pillow Sham II

Heya Nesters!  After an early holiday escape from work yesterday I headed home with all intentions to nap before my yoga class.  And then the urge came over me... the urge to sew. 

What was next on my hit-list of sewing to-dos? More pillows of course!!

Ruffles a-plenty!

Hey Nesters! I had a fun purchase this weekend that I am elated to share with you guys. Maybe I'm just a huge home goods nerd but I got the cutest throw blanket. E.V.E.R.

Oriental Rug Love

When I was living at my old house, I had to accommodate the interesting multi-level design of the apartment.  The old, wide board hardwoods creaked like crazy underfoot and caused some serious disruption for our downstairs neighbors.  We solved the issue with lots of throw rugs and one larger area rug.  You can see a couple of them here as well as my cute inexpensive living room area rug.

Where Silver Things Are...

Hiya Nesters! After yesterday's post, I got a lot of inquiries about where I put the silver dresser.  I'm so happy you all are so observant!  And today, I've got your answer! 

Click READ MORE to see details....

Switcheroo

Heya Nesters! Today I come to you with a little peek at one of the big "switcheroos" I made in the living room.  I've said before in this post that I really wanted to change things around to make the space more "user friendly."

This is how the picture gallery looked with my silver dresser that is full of art supplies looked as soon as you walked into my apartment.

A Fight with a Bookcase.

Hey Nesters! I have a new addition to my home.  But it was a fight...

I got the Target Room Essentials bookshelf yesterday evening after work and put it together all by my lonesome!  Though it was too heavy to lift on my own, I managed to slide it from the shelf to the cart, and the cart to the car.  Then I had to call that strong man-o-mine to help me get it into the house, and the mayhem ensued...

Click READ MORE to get the details...

DVD Dilemma

On a recent jaunt to The Christmas Tree Shops to pick up some hand lotion, I walked out with 2 baskets at ten dollars a pop! Oops!  Prior to this purchase, my small DVD collection was wrangled on one shelf of the bookcase next to the TV.  It was a temporary solution and I wanted to resolve it. That's where these baskets come in. 

Click READ MORE to see more! ...

Nestperation

Heya Nesters! Today we will be using gratuitous bird references because this jar that I found at TJ Maxx was oh-so-empty and needed to be fixed. I needed a nest like one that I fell in love with in Joni and Erics Apartment Therapy House Tour.

DIY Project: Cedar Chest

Hey Nesters! I'm back with you today as a proud gal! Do you remember way-back-when Matt and I went to an estate sale and picked up this cedar chest?

It was in pretty rough shape but luckily, with a little elbow grease and fortitude, it has been revived!

Lay it out on the line... again...

Back in April, before I had even moved in, I was already planning where all my furniture would go. Remember I was testing out my lay outs in this post? Once the lugging of all my junk was finished, I ended up with a similar version of possibility number 4. 

DIY Project: Pillow Sham

Hey Nesters! A few of you may have seen my "tweet" that I made a very successful trip to the fabric store on Saturday. I was anxious to put at least one project into action!  I decided to tackle my currently bland couch by adding a new throw pillow. 

Click read on to see the step by step instructions after the jump!

Every Book Needs a Home....

Heya Nesters!  I'm sure you've seen my lovely Ikea Lerberg shelves lurking in the corners of my pictures.

{Yikes! Remember the move!?}

I got them for my last apartment thinking that they would give the same appeal as the Crate and Barrel Sloan Grey Leaning Bookcase since the shelves tapered and gave the illusion of a lean.

Yeah. Not so much.  They were also $20 each and when you're already at Ikea, how can you say no to that?