Love Affair With a $5 Shelf

Back in December, during the holiday shopping season, I decided to stop into a local thrift shop to see if there were any hidden treasures there that could make good stocking stuffers for my kids (ornaments, books, handmade pottery, scarves, etc.)

While perusing the vast assortment of less than stellar items that day, my eyes suddenly fixed upon something tucked to the back on the lowest shelf.

It was a small wall shelf, perfect for holding little treasures I already had at home.

Thought it was covered in a layer of dust, I was immediately smitten.

I did not hesitate for a moment before carting it up to the checkout line and handing the woman $4.99 plus tax to take it home.

I wrapped it, added a bow, and proudly told my husband, 

"You bought me a $5 shelf for Christmas!"

To which he replied, 

"Great! Hope you like it!"

I most certainly do.

Yes, there is a throw pillow continuity error in my photos of which I am acutely aware.

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

Strings and Things

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There are 3 guitars currently residing in our house and not a single human within these walls who can play anything outside the first few notes of Smoke On the Water.

So far.

Obviously a live studio audience indicates growing popularity so I should probably begin making plans to arrange my decor around a collection of guitars.

Something along these lines will do nicely.

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via the Instagram account of A Beautiful Mess

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Don't worry - the thought of potential future fame and riches has not changed him one bit.

Yet.

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

Dorm Sweet Dorm

So it's been a little over a week since my oldest daughter moved into her new college dorm room.
Move in day went very smoothly and we didn't even have to take any trips to stores for forgotten items.
I'd love to think it's because we planned everything out so well that nothing was forgotten.

We certainly brought plenty of stuff with us.

Plenty of stuff.

Sardine can.

After some goodbye hugs for everyone (and the dogs) we made the trek to her school which is a little over an hour from where we live.

Sister hug.

Bro hug.

Hugs for Gidget.

Ear scratches for Buster, crate for Winston.

Hugs for dad.

We barely had room for the plants, Fred (not pictured) and Ginger, the red-headed cactus.

We unloaded everything from the car and while I parked, my daughter, with the help of volunteers, managed to drag everything to her room.

Since her roommate had already moved in, we worked around where she had already placed some furniture and other items that needed to stay where they were, including a GIANT TV which my daughter couldn't have been happier about!

We started putting things away and moving things around...

Wee closet.

Desk supplies.

Very tall bed.

More desk supplies.

Hooking up the DVD player.

It was so fun to see all of our plans and DIY projects from the past few months finally come together in her new space.

Even though they didn't coordinate colors, bedding etc. beforehand, all of Jordyn's and her roommate's things worked really well together.

I like that they didn't go 'matchy' for their room.
Because isn't individuality what college is all about???

The DIY heart pillow based on another project I did looked really cute on the chair her roommate brought.

The DIY cork tile dorm shelf fit (and looked) great and added storage which is something you can never have too much of in a dorm room.

The DIY quilted bunting was something that I grabbed just before leaving in case she wanted to use it.
I like that it added a touch of vintage amidst all of the modern items.

We made most o the throw pillows except for the polka dot one from Ikea.

Lofted bed, giant TV.

Small basket from Ikea tied to the bed post to hold a book or an Iphone in lieu of a nightstand. 

Her red trunk that I wrote about here works great for extra seating or a place to toss stuff on top of or inside.
She added a lock in case she wants to lock up her laptop or the loads of extra cash college students always have.

Bless Ikea and their storage boxes and baskets.

Fred and Ginger in the window.

I wonder if this room still looks this clean a week later???

It took several hours and by then we were pretty much starving.
So we headed to a local burger place for fried pickles, tater tots, and milkshakes.

We're pretty much health food junkies!

And, of course I've already mailed her some items I thought she wouldn't be able to live without.
Hopefully she'll let me take more pictures during Family Weekend.

I'll use this door sign I made for her as my bartering tool...

And yes, I miss her already.

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

Space Saving Dorm Bookshelf

With less than a week before my daughter heads off to college, we have been gathering up our last few bits and pieces to make sure her new dorm room is organized, comfortable, and stylish.

She is quite lucky in that her dorm room is already updated and has nice floors, a large window and sturdy, modern, basic furnishings.

(You can see photos of it here.)

We noticed very early on, though, that one important item was missing - a bookshelf.

So we made plans to find or build one that could fit on top of her desk.

Wish I had noticed and bought that cute little dog.

I happened across this one for $30 while shopping at a local antiques shop.

To me it seemed like a great size, it was very sturdy and could be easily be painted if she didn't like the color.

But she was worried it was "too tall" so I sent another photo to give her a better idea of the size.

Obviously I could have been a supermodel...

or a toad.

Sadly, my daughter passed on this shelf, 

which would have been such an easy solution,

in lieu of building of our own.

Yay.

Our plan was to build something about 8 inches deep, 2 feet wide and without a base so she could slide her laptop underneath it and take up less space on her actual desk.  

We also decided that it would be useful if each of the shelf spaces was exactly the size of 2 square cork tiles so the back of the shelf could do double duty as her bulletin board since wall space is so limited in a dorm room.

We bought this package of 4 cork tiles from Target for $6.79.

These are not a high quality cork tile but since we are using them almost like a 'wallpaper' on the back of the shelves they should hold up.

No special DIY tutorials for this project because I basically just had to wing it and figured stuff out as I went along.

I did have to take a couple of mulligans and there are some flaws but overall the project came out as planned.

Big power tools.

It's level!

Primed and painted

Cork tiles inserted

She's thinking about adding some decorative hooks on the side so she hang necklaces, too.

Like this:

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She may even want to add some washi tape to the shelf edges or other cute details.

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The other cool part is that we built the shelf with future use in mind.

If she decides to use it later in an apartment, she can easily remove the cork tiles and leave the back painted or add some cute decorative wallpaper and use it as a desktop shelf again.

She can also add a base shelf and some casters to make a rolling bookshelf.

Or a coffee bar.

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I'm so excited to see how her dorm room comes together next week!

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

Dorm Art

In less than a month my daughter will be going to college and moving into her new home away from home.

We've had fun this summer amassing a great fortune of dorm essentials and some not-so-essential dorm essentials.

She's planning to use a lot of items we already had on hand, which are my favorite kind.

Plus we've been doing some DIY projects so her space can be really personalized exactly the way she wants it.

Obviously, no dorm room is complete without some sort of art so we've been brainstorming ideas for that.

Back in June my daughter took a trip to California with her best friend.

(Don't worry, they were chaperoned by my dad and stepmom.)

During that trip she took this awesome photo of the Santa Monica Pier with her iPhone:

 

While working on gathering items for her dorm room, I suggested that she have it enlarged, frame it, and use it as art for her dorm room this August.

Here's the photo with her modifications:

We're thinking 11x14 in this frame from Ikea:

What say you?

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

A Wee Backyard

My mom owns a townhouse about 10 minutes from us.

She bought it after my parents divorced so that she would have minimal maintenance on both the house and yard which is about the size of a postage stamp.

Seriously, her backyard is like 8 feet by 10 feet, and a third of that space is consumed by her ginormous A/C condenser which is an absolute necessity in Texas in the summer.

With the help of her brother, and obviously some sort of black magic voodoo, she made her backyard into a miniature botanical garden-y lavish oasis.

Yes, I'm slightly jealous but not nearly committed enough to do something like this at my own house.

It's fun to hop from one stone to another and pretend the pebbles are lava.

Some viney stuff on the gate around the AC that will eventually cover it so you never have to see it.

Her statue named Isabella that is probably some magical Italian gardening witch.

Potted herbs and a close up of the patio she painted to look like an outdoor rug.

Fleur de lis in the patio corners to ward off evil or something.

Some green things in cute ornamental hanging baskets.

Hose snake.

Normally she has a patio table with 4 chairs and an umbrella but some bad weather in the spring killed the glass so she's on the lookout for a suitable replacement.

Isn't it lovely, though?

Thanks, mom, for letting me photograph your yard while you were out of town and knew nothing about my intent to expose your gardening witchcraft.

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney