Anyhoo, I engaged in a bit of craft therapy on Friday night (how cool am I?). I went to Target to see if I could find some Halloween decorations (as if I don’t already have enough), but couldn’t find any that suited my fancy, so I decided to make some instead. I went next door to Michael’s (hooray for strip malls!) and picked up some cheap picture frames, paper, ribbon, and stickers. Here’s what I came up with:

I actually got the idea for the “BOO” sign from a blog last Halloween (I can’t remember whose it was), although, I made a couple of alterations.

I printed out the letters on orange scrapbook paper, which was pretty difficult to do, since we just have a laserjet printer, with very few bells and whistles. It was really difficult to get the letter to print just where I wanted it to – but it worked out okay. I also stuck some really cute spider and bat stickers on the frames. I’m pretty happy with the way they turned out.

I have tons of these glittery letters left over from when I made my Gram’s memorial sign, so I decided to put them to use by spelling out “spooky.” Don’t worry, Kyle already pointed out how big of a nerd I am. Now all I need is some orange and black tapers for my owl candle holders. I found some cute ones on etsy, but I’m hoping to find some locally, so I don’t have to wait for shipping!

My Mom was actually the one who encouraged me to decorate for Halloween. I was telling her how much I’m dreading the upcoming holidays, since it will be the first time we will be “celebrating” them without my Gram. My Mom told me that making our place feel a little more festive might help. While I can’t decorate myself into feeling better, it is nice having the place looking cute for Halloween.

I have another crafty Halloween thing planned – I’m hoping to have some time this week to make it.

While I love rich, chocolately, wood furniture, I think I want to go with a white TV stand. Our coffee table, end table, and bookshelf are all dark tones, so I want to mix it up a little. I don’t want it to look like we won our living room off of the Price Is Right. However, I haven’t had an easy time finding white TV stands. The ones I have been finding are all sort of “shabby chic.” Yucky.

Here are two that I really like from West Elm:

(Imagine this one without the back panel )

I know they look very similar, and they are virtually the same price, but I like both of them for slightly different reasons. I would gladly buy either of them, but they are quite pricey. I mentioned to Kyle that maybe we can get one for Christmas!

So yesterday morning I told Kyle I wanted to go grocery shopping. We made a list and hopped into the car. We barely pull out of the driveway before Kyle said, “do you want to just go to Best Buy and get a TV?” Haha! I told him if he wanted to, we could. So we went to Best Buy, looked at TVs, and then I told him we should go to Target (which was right next door) to do a little comparison shopping. We got to Target and there was a pretty good deal on a TV that had excellent reviews. After mulling it over for awhile (okay, a long while), he went for it!

Enter TV beast:

It’s a 40 inch – freaking huge. Kyle actually wanted to get a 47 inch, but I quickly vetoed that. I think 40 inches is borderline too big, but he is quite satisfied with it. He spent the rest of the day enjoying his new purchase, while I was in the office doing homework. Must be nice to have a good job and be out of school!

Now we need a new TV stand. I have my eyes on one from West Elm, but it’s pretty pricey! We shall see…

I obviously have a thing for typewriters. I love how simple this pink one is.

And this blue one is adorable!

This is just perfect. The artist also has a boy version of the same print. 

I obviously have a thing for owls as well. I’m not sure if this would look very good in the office (probably not), but it would look really cute in a nursery! 

And I just love this chubby little guy.

I got them from laurawallstaylor’s etsy shop. Aren’t they charming? I need to get some tapers to put in them, but I’m not sure what color to get. They are going to go on our ledge in the living room.

At first I thought it would be too big for our tiny kitchen, but I checked out the dimensions, and now I’m thinking it’s too small (diameter is only 6.25 inches). And at $88, I’m not willing to settle. It sure is pretty though…

When we first moved in the room was quite a mess. In fact, I didn’t even like working in there, so – for the most part, I didn’t. The desk was the worst part. The keyboard tray didn’t stay on its track, and it would always fall on my lap if I pulled it out too far. SO. ANNOYING. Kyle surprised me big time for my 24th birthday and got me a nice new desk and chair from World Market. I adored the desk, so I started working in the office more often. I’m one of those people who has to have a clean room to be able to do work, so I really wanted to focus on organizing the office as a whole, and making it into a nice space that I enjoy being in.

On to the pictures! (I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the pictures. I think it’s I’m going to need to upgrade my camera soon.)

I’ll admit that the “before” pictures are sort of like those ridiculous infomercial “before” pictures. I normally don’t leave unfolded clothes on the bed, nor do I leave the vacuum cleaner in the middle of the room. Haha! But I wanted the picture to reflect how bad it actually was.

Before:

On to the “after” pics! (They are actually more like “in-between” pics – I’m still working on some things.)

After:

New bedding from Crate & Barrel:

I painted the bookshelf purple last summer. I’m kind of wishing I would have painted it black. Ideally, I’d like to get a larger bookshelf, so I’ll probably just leave it the way it is. 

I decided I wanted to surround myself with things I love. Enter Andy Warhol’s kitties:

An old typewriter my friend picked up for me at a garage sale several years ago (I painted that nightstand the same color as the bookshelf):

My nerdy wall:

My Oxford Illustrated edition of Jane Austen’s novels/Minor Works, and my “secret of happiness” statuette I got in Paris:

My nerd fairy:

My Union Jack I got in London:

And one of my favorite quotes by William Blake:

Well, there you have it! Our guest bedroom/office.

I did, however, manage to spend money this weekend. Somehow I’m always able to do that. 

I’m working on redecorating my office and I found this adorable owl will that will look quite charming on a shelf that I just hung:

I also hung my William Blake quote decal:

I also made a pretty good blackberry peach crisp:

Well, it’s time to go do my Sunday ritual- laundry!