I remember being in seventh grade and not "getting" women and shoes. Why would you need more than one pair, preferably Vans? Then one day I bought some ballet shoes at Target for an event, and I got a lot of compliments. They got dirty, so I decided to buy them in another color. But red didn't go with my favorite pink shirt, so I bought some gold wedges. Then I needed to wear socks and my Vans were too sloppy, so I got some fancy sneakers. dot dot dot - Twelve years later and I need infinite cubbies for all of my footwear.

This is also what happened to me with bedding. I started off with a cheapie comforter. Then I bought a fancy feather duvet after college. Then the feathers got in everything, so I bought a synthetic duvet. Then I needed a light coverlet for my boyfriend who complains about overheating. The end game is that I have way too many forms of bedding and I would make the worst Buddhist ever because I cannot satisfy my cravings for more.

I'm moving to a new place in May, and I swear I will acquire all of the items below and never think about bedding again:

• Three sheet sets: white, solid, and print
• Twelve pillowcases
• Two bed blankets
• One bed coverlet
• One spring duvet
• One winter duvet
• Two duvet covers

Desired: Unisex, modern or simple, nice quality, machine washable, synthetic filling for the duvets, eco-friendly blah blah blah, everything matches or "goes." I also have a thing for linen, and if I don't indulge it now, it may haunt me.

Ordered (sort of) by affordability:

1. Canopy 3-piece Coverlet set - at Wal-Mart. I know Wal-Mart is evil. But read the reviews. I am not too proud.
2. PB Teen Classic Organic sheet sets - I love the feeling of cheating the system by shopping at PB Teen, even though it is not really cheating anything
3. Pinzon Zero-Twist Egyptian cotton blanket - Pretty herringbone. On sale! (Queen size in White is $120 off.)
4. Unison Porter duvet set - Like a man's shirt.
5. Organic ikat stripe sheet set - At West Elm.
6. Italian 464 Percale duvet cover - On sale!
7. Sanford Burrows streamline duvet set - On sale!
8. St. Bart's duvet cover - Made by Rough Linen, aka Tricia Rose, the mother of a friend from San Francisco. She's been featured everywhere and handcrafts these amazing, soft sea-captain's duvets from natural linen.
9. Emile mineral duvet cover - Another linen choice by area.
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   Click here to download:

   bedding-cravings-kHecvClgDjtqIbICivnt.zip (227 KB)
   

I bought the socket chandelier from hsup on Etsy.com!

Once upon a time, I interviewed for a job as an inventory counter. The major skills required were 10-key speed and basic math. (It sounds glamorous but it's nothing compared to another summer job I had counting cars at intersections. I was basically doing the same job as the rubber tube thing that you drive over. Except I was cheaper.)

In this day and age when the words "douchebag" and "guido" are thrown around like cheerios at a baby convention, it is important to remember who the original guidos were. Men from the 1970s who lived in dens painted avocado green. (Maybe. Maybe they lived in places that looked like vodka bars. By the way I was born in 1985.) Today I am frustrated because I may have inadvertently created a living room only someone from the 1970s could appreciate.

Half the fault goes to my landlord. Besides being colorblind, he is cheap. I can't fault him for cheapness itself. I am cheap. I buy four out of ten dresses at Goodwill. (No, more accurately, Value Village. Goodwill is for losers.) But in his cheapness he replaced the original low, looped berber carpet (which had been destroyed by his german shepherd/lab) with a 1/2 inch shag carpet. It is essentially dorm room carpet. You can lose a dime in it. It makes me want to barf. And that barf might go well with the color I painted the north wall.

I took some crappy cell phone pictures, but they don't exactly represent this color so I'll try to explain. It is Behr Ultra Premium paint (primer and paint in one) color "Eco Green." It is a yellow-based, muted green just a little more shaded than their "Retro Avocado" color. Every booger I have ever seen is this color.

Sometimes, I wake up in the morning and look at my north wall and I am like "OK, I can work with this. Let's just use some ultra white on the baseboards and make it like a modern combo. Let's put a starburst mirror or some white picture frames against that and it will look trendy." But other mornings I wake up and I feel like it's the ugliest color on the planet.

I really need some help on this. My only friend who is not color blind (yup I have multiple) tells me the color is horrible. I am tossing and turning at night. Is it really horrible? What color should I paint over it? What color would "go" with this horrible carpet and look good in a dark east-facing room?

Please ignore the 6 Shock Tops on my kitchen counter, that is just how I roll.

GIGANTIC NICK CANNON "DRUMLINE" DRUMROLL PLEASE ... So I finally got my own place.

It's not the most fabulous place ever. My landlord put in half-inch shag carpeting right before I moved in (just thankful it is neutral despite his very real colorblindness.) Also - textured plaster walls (one of them painted Michigan State green), dated overhead lighting or NO overhead lighting, a galley kitchen that's so narrow you can't walk around the open dishwasher drawer. But of course ... it's mine. So it has that going for it.

Oh yeah - one other thing I forgot. The apartment faces east. And the apartment is in Seattle. Thus despite the seven foot long window, I only get a few good hours of light a week. So it's important to me to have good lighting.

This is a rental, so I'm not going to fuss with installing new ceiling fixtures, unless I get cozy with an electrician sometime soon. So I'm limited to floor lamps, table lamps, string lights, and plug-in swag lights. Of those, I prefer the amount of floorspace coverage I get from a higher lamp. I really want to get this right, and I don't mind spending a hundred or a couple hundred for the main fixture in my living room if it's absolutely amazering.

Here are some of the lights I've been looking at:

1. Operetta Paper Clip Chandelier by ReDesign Technologies on Etsy - This is my "stretch" choice. Also my mother would never understand.
2. Socket Chandelier by hsup on Etsy - I frigging love Edison style bulbs and sputnik-looking fixtures, and this is a nice compromise. Also he said he would make it in a plug-in swag style for me!
3. Le Petit Chandelier by phdconceptions on Etsy - I can't realistically install this in my rental. But oh my gee. And it's a good $50 cheaper than the Edison Chandelier at Pottery Barn.
   
4. Cage Hanging Pendant Lantern by mostazaseed on Etsy - Here we go, finally a reasonably priced option. Love cage lanterns. Love goldtone metal. I agree with the description: "would look divine in a grouping hung at different heights over a corner reading nook"
5. Alternatively I could just shop around for an Edisonian table lamp for this wonderful Squirrel Cage bulb from Rejuvenation.com. Maybe an industrial table lamp like the Winthrop II Industrial Table Lamp from LampGoods on Etsy.

At this point in writing this entry I realize I have featured almost 100% industrial or metal lighting. Wow! The things you learn about yourself while making lists. That is why it remains my favorite thing to do EVER.

I'm taking the oodles of time I don't have and putting some finishing touches on the tiny mouse-hole (as my mom calls it) studio apartment I've lived in for 4 months.  One things I realized I needed was a bathroom clock, for two reasons: 

 

Diving headfirst into a furniture project - let's see how this turns out!

He doesn't look too great right now (he's more 1970s than 1870s), and upholstery is going to be a beech for whoever does it. I've decided to stain the trim myself but not do the tricksy fabric part myself. Luckily I just read the book (by "just" I mean three months ago) The Four Hour Workweek, and it empowered me to outsource my life to Craigslist. Through the power of Craig, I found a DIY buddy who's about 1/5 the cost of a professional.

Total projected cost of chair + labor + fabric + stain: $250

I wish they had a fourth design.  Then it'd be perfect!

I used to love visiting this one hardware store on Fillmore St in San Francsico that carried a bunch of Fred items: soap scrubbers shaped like radishes, rhinoceros-bonded chopsticks, shot glass ice cube trays, etc. My interests are generally right where novelty and inventiveness intersect. I have been known to skew silly and useless.

I forgot the Fred brand name until it came up today in a search for fun alarm clocks. Then suddenly I was introduced to about ten websites featuring Fred products, all of which I could lose myself in for like an hour:

1. http://www.popdeluxe.net - Great stuff across categories from arty art to Urban Outfitters novelty decor. Represented: Tord Boontje laser cut Tyvek light
2. http://www.spoonsisters.com - A little cheesier. Represented: Food Face™ Plate
3. http://www.patinastores.com - Doesn't stand out in terms of selection, but it's a Minnesota based company so I have to include. Represented: bacon wallet
4. http://www.perpetualkid.com - I feel a little weird about perpetual childhood since MJ died but we have to keep his memory (and Neverland) alive in our hearts somehow. You won't find anything you can really use here. Represented: anti-theft lunch bags