department of the interior: home decor

hey, you have a side view of a blue neighbor house, too!

yeah! the couple who lives there are nice. older, with raised garden beds in back. also the 2nd floor neighbor has a tortoise, apparently.

hah, I was talking to VG, but apparently we all do

the cling now covers up the view of the big air conditioning unit right outside that window :)

The only thing as fun as a duvet cover is a tangled set of earbuds. (Even after sewing in straps in the corners.) Argh.

over the weekend, with the help of inlaws, we
* designed and installed a strangely shaped shower curtain rod/curtain (now upstairs shower is usable, also we used a conduit bender!?! now i want to bend pipes for fun)
* installed shelf in closet
* have guest bed (!!!!)
* have dogproofed the backyard
getting there!

first overnight guests stressed me out a little but hey, now we have all of the above things! all is well so far.

also i am in LOVE with the stained glass window from my grandmother-in-law's house, which was gifted to us in addition to a chest and a steamer trunk that REEK of mothballs (one worse than the other)
tips for reducing the smell in the one that doesn't smell nearly as bad? i already have a bowl with vanilla extract and a bowl of baking soda in there.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7286/8733706964_26acc97013.jpg

LL, you could try charcoal briquettes? Put them in a shoebox or some kind of receptactle without a lid and leave them in there for a while. for mothballs you'll have to leave the chest sealed up for a week or more but it might draw the smell out.

I have some charcoal in my trunk (great place for it, eh?) and I guess I could put some in there -- does it get rid of the smell or just make it smell like charcoal? I have also heard that kitty litter works, but I haven't bought any to find out.

Also, it has been a few days and I'm still somewhat horrified that I used "gift" as a verb. Who am I?

charcoal briquets don't really have a smell, or shouldn't

Activated charcoal and borax. But since camphor is volatile, you could also just leave it open with a fan blowing on it for a week or so (garage or outbuilding?)

i have borax, will try
honestly i haven't smelled the inside of the chest in a few days, maybe the vanilla is working but something tells me this stench is beyond the scope of vanilla extract

Can you open it up and air it out under blazing sun for awhile? UV radiation!

But since camphor is volatile, you could also just leave it open

Can you open it up and air it out under blazing sun for awhile?

speaking as a *chemistry major* i think this is probably the best course of action

ok i can put it outside! it's really not THAT smelly but i want to put sheets in it so i don't want people's faces to have to mash up on something that is super reeky.

be sure to put it in a sunny spot

plz to air it out so when I come to live in your spare bedroom I have nice sheets

will do, it's really shaping up nicely
we hung up some free jazz posters the other day

fancy nice framed silkscreened ones, not like goofy ones

dang

pics!

they're just three little posters that have been trapped in an office for the last 6 yrs or so, nothing to scream about really
but if you insist i'll take a pic when i get home

we insist!

I read that like "Free Mumia" so that was fun.

Free Brotzmann!

Free jazz!

jazz oppressors

http://www.kalamu.com/bol/wp-content/content/images/we%20insist%20cover.jpg

haha!

here they are -- nothing to scream about, as i mentioned, but nice enough

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7282/8742840594_f8c99fa661.jpg

here is a thing i just put in the kitchen
the binder is full of recipes ripped out of magazines and stuff i've printed and made notes on -- it's full of things i'd be upset to lose but haven't organized beyond that binder
the green basket thing is full of little baggies of spices i need to sort through and clean up

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8272/8748464100_0cbbbdce2e.jpg

it feels really weird to have people seeing the inside of my home
not sure it's a good idea
is this deindexed or ungoogled or whatever?

hi, binder. hello, basket.

ha and that is the stupid broom i painted and glued fake jewels to when i was like 23 to make cleaning more "fun"
loool
that's what i use to sweep the stoop now!

love the jazz posters

i have a binder too...but I should have been smart and upped to a big binder like yours. I have a smaller one and it's straining now.

bejewelled broom is A+

i just used it to clean and i'm gonna be honest -- it did make sweeping more fun

anyone know the name of this coffee table?
http://x-cdn.apartmenttherapy.com/51795dfb74c5b66adf0004d7._w.540._s.fit.jpg

That's a Nelson bench

this isn't really home decor because a person's gotta have a shower curtain if a person is going to use my shower so
we had to make a shower curtain

this is a close up of the place where we bent the pipe and made a little spacer to attach to the ceiling

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8253/8747465567_f7fd25952b.jpg

nicely done!

Wow, you've been on a "bender" with these pipes lately!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1114r

lolol

tbh that was the only one we've tried to bend

now i am working on the outdoors areas because i want to have my garden paradise in order for summer. did tons of weeding, hedge clipping, weed pulling, and marveling at the fact that i am now the owner of a rose bush that lives about 3 feet away from a gigantic smelly dumpster.

Oh, I thought you said you and your in-laws had used a pipe bender for something else recently. No?

Yay rose bush! I was just looking at rose bushes on Saturday, wondering if they can be grown in pots.

Do you have a lawn? I never want a lawn, unless it requires no more than 0 maintenance of me.

we have a tiny lawn and a little mechanical push mower, which we tested out yesterday. totally works!
i need to make up a plan for planting things, and soon because it's getting hottt out there.

yard areas (front and back) are mostly hedges and pavement/patio, with little areas of grass and some small strips in which to plant things. there's a little bench too.

omg u guys i am moving to a new place for the first time in five years, bringing basically nothing (for various reasons*), and am hoping to actually do a decent job making the place look like an adult lives there, how do i shot this

* cost of moving furniture across country likely > cost of new (cheap IKEA) stuff, also my sister is moving into my old spot after years abroad and may as well use it, also most everything i own is hand-me-down whatever and i want a clean slate

also nb i have not physically seen my place yet, a friend scouted it for me and she signed off on it ("it's cute!") but there are some unfortunate limitations

- NO OVERHEAD LIGHTING (except in the bathroom). i didn't notice this until after committing to the place, and it's probably not a big deal, but wtf
- large kitchen/dining "zone" with almost zero counterspace (like seriously, just a cabinet's width between sink/range). a butcher block/island will be mandatory
- hella baseboard radiators, including right where seems like the best place for an eNtErTaInMeNt center. will my vinyl warp? will i start an electrical fire? also along the bay windows in both the LR and the BR, which rules out curtains, right? why am i worried about curtains, what is happening to me?
- v limited cupboard space, and no shelving to speak of, save for the (thankfully) large BR closet.

my friend took pics, but sent them to me in some iphoto share-y way so i can only post the CL pics, and i bet they're not even online anymore

baseboard heat is a pain when you're trying to arrange furniture but it's not so bad, i've lived with baseboard heat for the past 5+ years and never had anything catch fire or melt