Living Room Reveal: Before & After

Collecting art is definitely a weakness for me and I wouldn’t have it any other way! I love bringing art home from my trips or creating my own to display.

But there is one downside and that is that I’ve started to run out of wall space in my apartment!

Then it recently dawned on me that creating a “gallery” wall in the living room would solve that problem and give me a way to spice up the most lackluster room in the apartment!

So after a few weeks of planning and prepping, the revamp of the living room is finally complete. I love how the gallery wall looks and how much it changes the feel of the entire place!

“Before” – the TV wall feels a bit empty

“Before” – the sofa seems to be floating in front of the big, white wall

“After” – the art, rather than the TV, becomes the focus and coincidentally compliments the colors of the newly styled bookcase

“After” – the gallery wall of art ties all of the furniture together

I love the mix of art medias – from tile to silkscreen, etchings, photos and posters

Rhino Robbie helped fill in a small gap of white wall

The Fiery Furnaces raccoon print was taken from the book “Gig Posters”

Petition for Cats in the Workplace

My boyfriend picked these decals up for me when he got his car washed recently. They made me laugh as soon as I saw them and put a smile on my face every time I see them on my back windshield.

It makes me feel a little “suburban mom’ish” but that’s how much I love my fuzzy kids!

Sami on the left, Wylie on the right

MY Happiness Project: Month 1 - Status Report

One week into MY Happiness Project and I’m three for five on my goals for the first month. That equates to a 60%...which isn’t great if you’re in school but pretty good for my first week!

1. Get more (consistent) sleep – Um, not quite…my bedtime has actually been more erratic than usual


2. Get more exercise – My biggest success! I hit the gym three times this week (cardio 1, yoga 2)


3. Clear the visual clutter – On a roll! I already finished my biggest redecorating project but there’s a few more to go


4. Clear the mental clutter – A big YES! I’ve cleared out almost TEN pages of email in my inbox, only six more to go


5. Tackle one nagging task – Um, not quite…I’ve continued to procrastinate on even starting this one, blurg

No Rhinos Were Harmed During the Making of this Art Project

Has anyone else noticed the growing design trend of cardboard animal trophies?

Well I have and I think they are awesome! They’re animal friendly, earth friendly, beautiful, unique...and I just had to have one!

And thanks to my wonderful boyfriend, I got my very own from Cardboard Safari over the holidays!

Not only do they create amazing products out of recycled cardboard, but Cardboard Safari is also located in my childhood hometown of Charlottesville, VA so I was happy that we could support a local business.

Until a few days ago, poor “Micro Robbie” had been sitting unassembled in his packaging for the past few months. But then my recent bout of redecorating had me looking for that one standout piece to hang on my gallery wall and out he came!

The laser cut pieces looked intimidating at first but in no time “Robbie” was put together and up on the wall…the perfect finishing touch!

I can’t wait to get started!

By the way, I love their logo

Those are a lot of little pieces!

The back of the plaque

Close-up detail of the laser cuts

Fifteen minutes later and he was ready to hang!

Perfection

Jury Duty is Not for Morning People

Remember how I said that 2011 was all about firsts? Well I experienced another one today…jury duty.

After being excused from reporting on Monday and Tuesday, I received an email last night that I was scheduled to show up today.

Needless to say I was less than enthusiastic about the early morning, but it turned out better than expected. In fact I scored a work-from-home day because after only an hour of jury orientation, I was excused to go home!

So back home I went to Wylie and Sami where I spent the remainder of the day answering work emails and starting more projects around the house! It was just lovely...and super productive.

And how was your day today?

Fun Mail From Around the World!

Over the past week, I have received lots of fun snail mail from around the world!

My first postcard through PostCrossing came all the way from Saga, Japan!

The color wheel pendant necklace from Yellow Owl Workshop came packaged in the most unique and beautiful way!

The attention to detail was incredible!

The pendant was more beautiful in person and has become my new favorite piece of jewelry!

The Ninja Bunny necklace from CryWolf arrived today all the way from Ontario!

I love their silver logo!

I can’t wait to debut Ninja Bunny tomorrow at work!

Petition for Cats in the Workplace

In the fifth episode of “The Sami & Wylie Show”, Sami battles the always-nefarious chili pepper refrigerator pen while Wylie plays the part of innocent bystander.

The Sami & Wylie Show: episode 5 from Jenn on Vimeo.