It’s been about a month since I showed you around the kitchen of my new apartment, I figure it’s about time you see more of my place.
Let’s mosey on down to the living room, shall we?
Here’s a fun fact about my new place: it’s a converted second floor of an old house. So all the rooms, including the kitchen and living room, are former bedrooms. Which means all the rooms have doors on them.
Since my living room doubles as my guest room (hint, hint, would-be guests), I love the fact that both my guests and I can have our own private spaces. Basically we can both shut our doors and never have to see or hear each other the entire time they’re visiting me. Doesn’t that sound really perfect?
Another super fun perk of having a living room that was formerly known as a bedroom (excuse the bad Prince reference, my heart is still breaking): It has it’s very own bedroom closet. Which now acts as an office supplies/linens/camping gear/random other stuff closet.
My days of using my car trunk as extra storage space are behind me. Wheeeeeee!
Oh, but I forgot to introduce you to my bookshelf, which holds approximately ten books I’ve never read because I like all my books to appear magically via Kindle. Why, yes, my alma mater has called and they’d like their English degree back, why do you ask?
Since I don’t have any books to put in my book shelf, I’ve filled it up with other useful things. Like this handy metal purse that I bought at a night market in Thailand. Seriously, you guys, how many times have you been like, “Geez, I like my purse, but I wish it was more metally”? I bet you say that all the time, right?
Also super handy: these mini-pyramids that a student gave me from Egypt. Seeing as I later failed that same student (I KNOW, I’M THE WORST), I feel there’s a strong possibility these things are possessed by the spirits of angry gods.
Next up: this ink painting I bought from a toothless old man in a subway in China for exactly $3. It was an odd shape that I could never find a frame for because, apparently, toothless old Chinese ink painters don’t give a crap about the frame sizes available at your local Hobby Lobby. So I decided to cut it in two and put it into two frames.
Sure, I could have had it custom-framed, but why pay a professional to do something when I could just do it half-assedly all by myself? Besides, I’m kind of digging it. I feel like it’s super artsy looking now, don’t you think?
And, while I’m going down memory lane telling you about all the places I’ve picked things up, can we talk about this brass tea table?
I bought this table along with a goat-skin lamp while I was backpacking through Morocco because that makes sense, right? I mean, here I was, traveling with a teeny, tiny backpack that wasn’t even big enough for second pair of shoes, but, hey, why not pick up some decorative housewares that smell like goat? I ended up dragging both the table and the lamp through Spain and Portugal for another month until I finally went home to the States. The lamp has since bit it (apparently there is an expiration date for goat-skinned decorative housewares), but I still have the table because, AHHH, MEMORIES!
Also, because it makes my beer look super exotic and totally classy, don’t you think?
Now, let’s talk couch. If you’re a long-time reader of my blog, you know I love me a good couch. I can’t say my current couch is as amazing as the orange and brown wonder that existed in my apartment in China. But my new couch folds out into a bed for all my would-be guests (hint, hint). And it was free thanks to my personal furniture delivery service (aka my mom).
Also courtesy of my mom’s free furniture delivery service: this chair for guests (hint-hint). Sure, you could sit on my couch, but then you might disturb the butt dent that I’ve diligently been working on creating.
My mom also delivers handmade curtains. And hangs them up. While her ungrateful, useless daughter (aka me) sits in the kitchen, reading Facebook and eating the homemade cookies she also brought.
I’m sure you’re like, “Wow, this is great. Mini-pyramids haunted by evil gods. Totally useful metal purses. A Moroccan tea table that still smells faintly of goat. A free couch? How could this room possibly get any better?”
Well, it’s about to get better!
Because check out this TV gallery wall that I MADE ALL BY MYSELF BECAUSE I’M OBVIOUSLY A CREATIVE-GENIUS PERSON!
It only took me an entire day and about fifty billion nails (shhhh… don’t tell my landlords).
The night after putting it up, I kept on waking up to sneak into my living room to stare at my creation in wonder and whisper to myself, “I made THIS.” I felt like the awe-struck mother of a newborn. Except my newborn will never turn sixteen and steal my car to go out drinking with his buddies.
I love that it includes pictures, artwork and souvenirs from so many places and people in my life. There’s a photo that a best friend from college took. A pencil drawing that my grandmother did. Paper cuts from China. A necklace from Brazil. An ornament from Japan. A block print from Thailand. Presents from former students. And at least three postcards that I totally meant to send to people and never did.
Plus, I love the fact that having a gallery wall around the TV keeps the TV from being the focal point of the room. It makes me seem like some artsy, cultured person.
And not like a lazy, garbage person who spends 50 hours out of her week eating pizza and binge-watching Hulu while actively working on etching a butt-dent into her couch.
Thanks again for hanging out with me in my home! Now it’s your turn to share! What item did you buy while traveling that was totally ridiculous (and possibly smelled of goat) but you love it anyway because MEMORIES?