Quick Fix: Raising a Light Fixture

So I mentioned in my last post that I had done another little project in the dining room besides our little gallery wall. Well, this little project had to do with the lighting fixture hanging above our dining room table. You see, this thing hung pretty low. Even with the table beneath it, I would still bonk my head on it from time to time. It was becoming pretty annoying.

Probably the most annoying part though was the fact that once we hung up the gallery wall of picture frames, when you sat in our living room, the top frames were being blocked. Something had to be done to fix this problem.

See what I mean?

Living in an apartment our fix had to be something that we could easily undo whenever we moved. At first the hubby used these rings that we had lying around the apartment. I think he was hoping to be able to close them, but the weight of the chains and light fixture didn't make that possible. I loved the fact that the light was higher so that we could admire our gallery wall better from the living room. But, I was not a fan of those silver rings.

So, we headed out to the store and picked up these little guys.

We also picked up a can of oil-rubbed bronze spray paint. Although we didn't like having to buy a brand new bottle of spray paint for such a little project, we knew we'd end up using this stuff in future projects.

I took the little s-hooks outside on the balcony and gave them a couple coats each. I wasn't sure if we'd need two hooks or just one, but we bought two to be on the safe side.

Once everything dried, the hubby took out the old silver rings and replaced them with the hooks.

It looks sooo much better now! Granted, you still see the jumbled mess at the top of the chain, but at least now you aren't looking at the random bit of silver sticking out like a sore thumb. From the living room point of view, you can't even see the small hook that we used.

And I love the fact that you can see the new gallery wall without the light fixture obstructing the view. Too bad that pile of paper clutter is ruining the shot, huh? Oh well. No one's house is 100% spotless, 100% of the time, right?

Anyone else out there have issues with low-hanging lighting fixtures? How did you fix it?

Dining Room Gallery Wall

My husband would be the first to tell you that I have a thing when it comes to picture frames. Our little apartment is littered with them in all of our rooms. I think the only rooms that don't have at least one frame in them is our kitchen and the guest bathroom. Seriously, sitting in our living I can count 9 frames just in this one room.

I think part of the problem is the fact that, once a photo is in a frame, I hate to take it out to replace it with something new. Instead, I find that new photo its own frame and its own home within our living space. I can't be the only one who does this, can I?

Anyways, ever since I had hung up our maps in the guest bedroom I wanted to add some more art on the walls around our apartment, and I thought the dining room was the perfect spot. We had talked about finding a large piece of art for that space, but we're always hesitant to invest a large chunk of change into something without knowing if it'll fit into our next (hopefully more permanent) home. Here's what we were starting out with:

And then it hit me... picture frames! I had a whole box of them sitting in a box in our black hole guest bedroom closet that still needed to be hung up. The best part, they were all black frames. Immediately my mind went to creating some sort of gallery wall using all of the frames. I had seen some on Pinterest that had caught my eye, so I used them for my inspiration.

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What I love most about this one is the fact that they changed things up. Large and small. Matted and un-matted. Chunky and sleek. I also love that they included what I can only guess is the intial of their last name.

{pin/original}

This one is probably my favorite hands down. Again, it has their inital featured within the gallery wall. But it also has some pieces that aren't totally devoted to photos. I'm also realizing that I like the asymmetrical gallery walls more so than the symmetrical ones.

So, now that I had an idea of what I was going for, I took out all of my frames and started laying them out on the floor.

Even the cats joined into on the fun and helped out.

As I was playing around with the frames, I realized I wasn't ready to take the risk of an asymmetrical gallery wall in what was suppose to be our "formal" dining space. I did, however, like the fact that I managed to throw in a couple of frames with matting, and the large circle collage frame (a Christmas gift from my sister) helped it not to look so straight-lined and boxy.

I used a tip that I've seen a million times online to figure out the right placement of all the frames on the wall - newspaper.

After taking the corner shelf with my Willow Tree figurines down and relocating them to our master bedroom, this is what the gallery wall looks like with all the frames up on the wall.

Please ignore the fact that some of the frames don't lay right. I use push pins to hang everything in our apartment, and sometimes the frames just don't sit right on them. Why push pins? Well, I don't think our neighbors want to hear us banging a hammer on our adjoining wall. That, and the fact that you don't really have to patch push pin holes as much as you do nail holes when you move.

When I first snapped these pictures we were still waiting on photos to come in the mail to fill in the large circles in the collage. But now that they have arrived, here's what that frame now looks like.

I love the fact that all of the photos are of the same color tone and that our DIY wedding program fits right in. It's a little personal touch without being overwhelming. Also, if you noticed, I swapped out a black/white photo of my sister & nephew when he was a baby with a photo of our niece and nephews from our wedding.

So that's our gallery wall. Nothing too fancy, but it makes a big impact. Now we're just looking for something to balance out the fish tank on the other side of the wall. We've been looking at options for a small buffet/bar of sorts. I'll keep you posted on what we find.

We're not totally done with the changes in the dining room though. We did a little something something to the lighting fixture. But I'll be back with those details another day. And...I recently changed up the photos that hang above our desk in our office, where I played around a little with an asymmetrical pattern that I'm excited to share with you.

Anyone else love the idea of a gallery wall somewhere in your home? I would love one day to be able to have one going up a staircase like the first inspiration photo above. Any tips on how to make an asymmetrical configuration work and still look elegant? Is there any thing to avoid when putting a wall together, or do you think this is one of those "anything goes" type of project? Would love to hear your thoughts!

A Little Pop of Yellow

I wanted to stop by quickly and wish everyone a Happy Easter before the weekend goes by too quickly. The hubby and I have spent the last two days cleaning our apartment in preparation for a guest who will be staying with us next weekend. Next weekend is our friends wedding, and we offered to allow one of their out-of-town guests stay with us for a night so that they didn't have to get a hotel room. And tomorrow we plan on relaxing and enjoying a lazy Sunday around the apartment.

But you didn't think I was just going to tell you about our weekend plans did you? I want to show you my new wreath!

I have been eyeing this wreath for over a month now. I've seen similar wreaths on other doors across the blogosphere and I've waited patiently to find one in my price range. These things are normally $40 at the big chain craft stores. Their typical sales bring them down to maybe $20. But last night, I saw a sticker that said 2 for $24 and I knew I had to get one while I could.

I had to talk the hubby into it at first. One, he's not the biggest fan of wreaths or the color yellow. And two, we're already going to be shelling out some major dough this weekend for our friends nuptials, so any extra spending is like pulling teeth for the both of us right now. But once I explained that this would be the best deal we'd come across (I had watched them go on sale last year and they never went this low), he agreed. Not to mention that I told him this wreath would probably stay on our door all Spring and Summer, which meant that I wouldn't have to spend any money on another wreath for another season.

I just love the little yellow flowers! And the pop of color on our door makes me smile when we get home. A wreath is one of the few ways we can add a little "curb appeal" to our apartment.

Anyone else out there splurge on a new Spring wreath? Or maybe your adding some pops of color throughout your house to welcome in the new season?

Laundry Room & Wicker Baskets

A little while ago, I mentioned that I wanted to overhaul our laundry room. I'm not sure if overhaul is the right word. But I definitely wanted to spruce it up a little bit and declutter the mess that had been sitting up on the shelves since moving day. And it's finally done!

Let me remind you what we were starting out with. On one side we had the lid to a litter box, some spray paint, hand-wash only clothing, laundry detergent bucket, bungee cords, and cleaning supplies.

On the other side, we had our stash of paper towels (you can never have too many of those, right??), distilled water, starch, an iron, more cleaning supplies, our toolbox - and that doesn't include all of the items resting on top of our dryer.

And if you looked into the laundry room from the kitchen, you would see our various brooms, duster, and swifter mop, our ironing board, and my aprons which hardly ever get used.

The first thing I did was take everything down from the shelves and figured out what needed to be trashed, what needed to stay, and what could be moved to another room. Some old cleaning supplies were trashed, but other than that, the majority of the stuff was staying. The only things that moved were the liter box lid (which went into our storage closet on our balcony) and the ironing supplies (I'll mention their new home in a moment.

So once that was taken care of, I went on the hunt for some baskets. I personally love the look of wicker baskets when they are used as storage, but the hubby hates them. The only reason he agreed to let me have wicker in the laundry room was because he reasoned that he'd hardly ever have to look at them. Woohoo! One small victory for wicker

My only dilemma? Wicker baskets cost a lot more than I wanted to spend. My goal was to do this little makeover for as little as possible. Over Spring Break, while the hubby and I were in Orlando, I asked him to stop at a couple of thrift stores my mom and I use to frequent. The main purpose was to look for a little cabinet/dresser/buffet to act like a bar in our dining room (kinda like this one from Katie's dining room). But while we were searching, I came across three little nesting baskets that were in perfect condition. And the price for all three? $8! You can't beat that! That's like the price of one small basket at Michael's or JoAnn's on sale.

So, thanks to my little baskets, the laundry room is looking much more organized these days. Ready for some after pictures?

This is what the laundry room looks like when you're standing in the kitchen. 

Please ignore all of the clutter on our fridge. There are still holiday photos up on our fridge along with wedding announcements, invitations, and thank you cards. I can't bring myself to take them down quite yet. 

I didn't do a whole lot when it came to the middle portion of the laundry room. The hooks stayed where they were at. And the little white laundry basket stayed put too. The only change was to add the brown rug to the floor which came from our guest bathroom.

The side that probably changed the most was the side that originally housed our toolbox and ironing supplies. Our toolbox is still there, but for the most part, everything else is gone.

On top of our dryer, we have a little trash can for lint and used dryer sheets. I used the smallest of the three baskets to house our Oxi Clean and our dryer sheets. The hubby was a little worried that by taking them out of their box they would lose their smell/function. But so far, they've been out of the box for a couple weeks now, and we haven't seen a difference. If anything, our laundry room smells much better now. I also decided to throw a flower pot on there as well to act as a coin catcher. We had a small jar on our island for a little while, but our change collection was outgrowing its home there and needed a bigger container. I think it works well. Tucked in the corner you'll see the handle to our steam mop. There really isn't an easy way to store that thing.... so, it stayed put where it was.

Up on the shelf, we still have our spray bottles hanging out. We keep the car stuff and the Shout in the laundry room. All of our other spray cleaners are under our kitchen sink - which I should probably add to my to-organize list. The dark brown box holds all of our hand-wash only items. Since we don't have that many, that basket is the perfect size. Plus, since we already had it on hand (we used it as our "card box" at our reception), it was free! The lighter box now holds our small - but growing - home improvement stuff. And then, of course, you have the toolbox.

Side Note: We recently bought one of those massive bottles of laundry detergent. Why? Well, the smaller size wasn't available that day. We had it sitting on top of our dryer and used the little dispenser and cup to get the soap into the washer. Well, I guess the left over detergent on the little cup dripped onto the top of our dryer. So, I grab an all natural spray cleaner to wipe everything up.

Problem! It not only discolored a portion of the dryer, but some of the paint also started to chip away. Ultimately, its not that noticeable. But, just wanted to save someone else from having something like this happen to them in case it happens in a larger proportion.

Above our washer we've got our paper towels and distilled water. I moved the laundry detergent up there as well (now I just make sure to thoroughly rinse the cup before reattaching it). We keep some extra clothes hangers in the laundry room for items that need to line dry. And I can't forget to mention the little pictures to the left that I showed you here.

This side got the largest of the three baskets. It became home to all of our other cleaning supplies - steam mop & swifter accessories.

So where did the ironing stuff end up?

In our guest bedroom slash office. I found this over-the-door organizer made specifically for all of your ironing supplies. It even has a little spot for a water spray bottle, but I thought it was the perfect place to tuck the cord.

The best part, we barely notice it. Usually the door to that room is open, so unless you're peeking behind the door, you won't even notice that it's there. The only problem that we've run into is the fact that our ironing board likes to open up on its own. So we're working on a way to keep it from opening until we're ready to use it.

The nicest part about having the ironing stuff in the guest bedroom? It gives the hubby a place to iron his clothes. (I hate to iron. I'm the type of girl that just throws her stuff into the dryer to de-wrinkle it). Before he would have to lug everything from the laundry room into the living room to iron his clothing. Now, he doesn't have to lug it anywhere else in the house.

The fact that our laundry room is finally organized brings a smile to my face. Now if only I could get the clothes to wash, dry, and fold themselves, I'd be set! I can't wait until we have our own little house so I can really personalize our laundry room with color, art work, and better looking shelving.

Anyone else been on an organizational kick? Where do you go to score great deals on baskets and containers to tuck away all of your clutter?

Follow Up: Social Media Buttons

So, after some fiddling around, the social media buttons finally look like they are suppose to look - small, petite and cute!

I must say a big "Thank You!" to Isa and Kira who quickly replied to my comments asking for help.

First, I tried to make things work through Flickr, by resizing the images using their built in software. However, no matter what I did, the buttons still came up rather large in my sidebar.

Then, Kira suggested that it was perhaps the image hosting site that was causing the problem. So, per her advice, I opened up a Photobucket account and uploaded the images onto there.

I did have a little problem uploading the RSS button; for whatever reason, only half of the image would load. But, Photobucket has a neat little feature called Auto-Fix which filled out the rest of the button. The only downside is that the feature changed the original color of the button. Since I didn't want to fool around anymore with the editing, I saved it as is. Then, I went to the Pinterest button and auto-fixed it, hoping it would save it in the same new color, which it did!

It's been a bit of a learning curve, but I'm happy that I've finally figured this one all out. Maybe one of these days I'll graduate into the big leagues of HTML. But for now, I'm happy with my really basic knowledge :)

So what do you guys think? Any of you head over to Isa's page and snag a set of buttons for your page?

Social Media Buttons

I've been dying to add some little features to this blog for a while now, but considering I'm pretty computer illiterate when it comes to coding and what not, it seemed like a daunting task. But recently, I became determined that I would add some of those cute little social media buttons to the side bar, even if it was going to consume way too much time to figure it out.

After a quick Google search, I came across The Academy, written by Isa Maria, and her super cute (not to mention FREE!) downloadable buttons.

Aren't those amazing?! I seriously wish I knew how to create my own digital design stuff. Maybe one of these days when I have tons of time to devote to it. Or maybe I'll make the hubby learn for me... :)

I loved that her set of buttons included a Pinterest button. A lot of the buttons that I found on other sites failed to include a Pinterest button, which is one of the main sites I wanted to link up to. Plus, the fact that the Turquoise 201 set practically matches with the background of this blog, I think it was meant to be!

Anyhoo, it took me a the better part of an hour to figure out how to set it all up, but with the help of Kira's tutorial she linked to, at Her New Leaf, it made the process a whole lot easier. The only thing I seem to have a problem with is the size the images are coming out at... can't figure out how to make them cute and petite. But, it's still a giant step forward.

So far I've only linked to my Pinterest account and an RSS feed. Hopefully I got the whole RSS feed thing right; it isn't something that I personally use to follow blogs since I have my blogger dashboard. But, I figured enough people must use it if I see it on everyone else's blogs, right?

I'm still hesitant to link to my personal Facebook account. If you've noticed, we don't mention our last name anywhere within this blog, for two reasons. First of all, we still feel like it gives us a slight sense of privacy. And secondly, being that I'm a teacher, I know my students google my name at the start of every school year. I'd like to try to keep my personal and professional life as separate as possible. I'm sure they'll come across this thing eventually, and when they do, I don't want them having access to my Facebook account. I've been thinking about creating a separate Facebook account specifically for this blog, but I was going to wait until I felt like there were enough readers to warrant making one.

As for Twitter, I tried it, and I simply just don't get it. Sorry folks! And I do have a Flickr account, but there really isn't anything on it except for odds and ends that end up right here on the blog anyways.

But for now, I'm really excited about my progress on this little blog. Its the simple things, you know? If you're new to this whole blogging thing, I hope the links in this post help you out as much as they did me. These girls are excellent at making it super simple to understand.

Any other blogging technical tips/advice you've found to be really helpful? What are some things you like to see when you read your favorite blogs? Let's chat!

Newest Additions

In my last post I dropped some hints as to what has been going on lately around our little apartment. It's not been anything major, but still, the little changes all add up and put smiles on our faces. Since I'm still waiting on the hubby to write his post about his new toy, I figured I'd introduce you guys to the newest members of our little family.

Yep, we got some fish! Eight to be exact. We bought 6 guppies - 2 blue, 2 red, and 2 yellow - and 2 albino corys. We've been planning on buying fish for a while now, and we're so happy we finally got everything into place to make it happen.

What had been delaying us? Well, first of all, I've had this fish tank since I first moved out of my parents' house. It's a hexagonal, 35-gallon tank and solid wood stand (you can see it in the pictures below). The hubby and I dream of one day turning it into a salt water tank. But we're both know realistically, a salt water tank while still living in a temporary place is crazy. So, we decided that we didn't want to look at an empty fish tank anymore and started buying supplies little by little to turn it into a full fledged fish tank.

Even though we had the tank (which is the most expensive part), we still had to buy our filter, bubblier, thermometer, gravel, and aquarium decorations. We bought these one at a time each weekend over the course of a month. Then it was finally time to fill it up with water and see it in action.

Problem! Turns out the tap water around here is not only really hard (which we already knew based on the hard water stains on all of our dishes), but it also runs high in pH. Normally we wouldn't worry about it, but when we consulted with the fish store, they said that there was too much of a difference between our pH levels and the pH levels that they had in the store. To put it simply, it would more than likely send any fish we brought home into shock.

So, we babied our fish-less tank for a few weeks waiting for the pH to drop lower through the use of both chemicals and occasionally swapping out the water. Once we got the levels as low as we thought we could get them (which was still relatively high), we figured we'd go ahead and risk bringing home some fish.

I've always been drawn to the pretty color of guppies. Sure, they are a little more expensive then buying neons (which always seem to be on sale for $1) at $2.79 a pop, but we loved the unique characteristics of each of the fish. As for the corys, well, we knew we needed some ground feeder fish, and these guys were on sale for $1, down from $4 a piece. Score! A lot of people purchase those black sucker fish (sorry, I don't know the name off the top of my head), but we feared that he would get too big for our narrowly tall tank.

We've had the fish for almost a week now, and we think they've adjusted well. We did have 1 causality less than 24 hours after we first brought them home from the pet store, but we took him back and exchanged it out. Who knew that fish stores did that? I wonder what they do with the dead fish? Do they flush them down a toilet too? But the girl at the pet store said that it probably wasn't our water. In fact, she said it was probably because the fish had been transported to their store the day before, so because the fish had gone between 3 different tanks in less than 48 hours, it had probably died from shock.

Now that I've rambled on way too long about our fishy adventure, I think I'll leave you with how our other "children" feel about their new house mates.

When we showed Periwinkle the fish, she didn't seem too interested. Every so often I'll catch her staring at the tank, but for the most part, she doesn't seem to care one way or the other about what's happening in the tank.

Cruz on the other hand is a different story...

Yep, he stretches up big and tall to get a better look at the fish. If he's not staring out the office window or bugging us to pick up his wand and play with him, you can usually find him trying to catch the fish. He's done it before - he killed the beta fish that I had at my last apartment. But this time, the tank has a lid! Good luck getting these fish Cruz!

We so happy to have a little more "life" in our apartment. We're constantly going over there to check on them and count them to make sure their all there. In a couple weeks we're talking about adding a few more fish to the tank. The guppies tend to stay near the top of the tank, so we're going to see what fish we can get that swim near the middle to lower portions of the tank.

Any one else out there with fishy adventures? What is your go-to fish for your home aquarium? Any tricks on how to keep it super clean? So far so good, but we know it's bound to get dirty.

P.S. There's a little glimpse of what I've been working on in the dining room in the photos above. I can't wait to share those pics with you guys soon!