Walking my Cat

So what have I been up to lately? Not much really in terms of decor other than taking down my Christmas stuff. :'( However over the holiday break, I did manage to further support the case that I'm a 'crazy cat lady'. Haha...I walked my cat on a leash in the snow!  YES, you read that right. Need proof? It's on Youtube. :)

I actually received the cat harness and leash for Christmas as a 'gag' present. I ended up having to exchange the cat harness for a small dog harness because my cat is kinda super fat.

Mini Winter Wonderland

Merry Christmas everyone!

I know you're all dying to see the rest of my mini bedroom winter wonderland, right right? So here it is. Keep in mind that my bedroom is still under-furnished. I still need a desk especially since Santa got me a super nice sewing machine. :D

This year, I kept the color scheme simple; white, silver, and red to make it easier on myself to coordinate everything.

Over my bed, I put up a wreath that I made by shaping a garland and tying it down using some floral wire. Originally, I was just gonna string the garland over my bed but it looked kinda sloppy. I decorated it with the same ornaments I used on my tree and draped a silver beaded garland across the tealight scones to dress things up more.

The ornaments on my wreath...

Close up of a white fleece puff I made. I stitched together 5 little round cutouts and shaped them.

And my cute little Christmas trees on my dresser. :)

That's it for now! Happy Holidays!

Transforming candles

The fastest and most dramatic way to transform a candle you're tired of is to simply wrap it in pretty paper! Gift wrap paper and scrapbook paper are great sources to look into for lots of different patterns. But whatever you decide to use, just don't light the candles. These candles are just fo' show!

Before: plain Ikea candles. Looking kinda boring...


After gift wrapping: Oh la la! So wintery and pretty...

...Perfect for glamming up my puffy fleece Christmas tree forest!

That's it for now and thanks for stopping by.

-Trinh

Whimsical Puffy Christmas Trees

So for Christmas this year, I've amassed a small forest of whimsical plush white trees to surround my table top Christmas tree (4ft. potted lit tree from Target) on my bedroom dresser. I just love the juxtaposition of the cute puffy white trees with the elegant candles. I added some yarn pom poms for texture and red and silver ornaments to tie these little trees to my larger green one.

Read on if you wanna know how to make one too!

Winter Wonderland Sneak Peek

Are you guys excited about the holiday season? I know I am! After seeing so many awesome holiday window displays in stores (hello West Elm, Crate & Barrel, Anthropologie!), I've decided to turn my bedroom into my very own winter wonderland. :) And since I <3 <3 <3 crafting, I'm making a lot of my own decorations this year so the process of decorating has been kinda slow since I only have two hands.


But here's a peak of what my dresser is looking like lately...

It's still a work in progess...I want more trees and some pops of color and a bunch of other stuff.



And in case you're curious where I got everything from...
If you saw my earlier post, you'll reconize the newspaper art on my wall as madeover old purchases from Marshalls. I didn't finish the second one until after the tutorial. The silver candlestick and candle holders I got from thrifting at the Salvation Army for about $3 each (Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel respectively). The candles are all from Ikea. And lastly the part that actually reads Christmas, the puffy white Christmas trees are handmade by me. I'll post a tutorial on how to make them later this weekend. :)

Chicago for a Day

Snapshots from my 27 hour trip to Chicago.



My room at the Fairmount Chicago. I forgot to take pictures of the rest of the room, but check out the sleek leather upholstered bed frame and large graphic floral print. I love oversized prints.

The view from outside my window on the 35th floor.

Walking around Downtown Chicago. I love seeing all of the Christmas decorations up in cities.

Some cool buildings I saw in Downtown Chicago.

Jay Pritzker Pavilion at the Millennium Park.

The Cloud Gate Sculpture which is really a giant shiny metal bean. Which is totally awesome.

photo by Patrick Pyszka

The Cloud Gate from underneath. I gotta say it's one of the coolest sculptures I've seen. The views are like fun house mirrors on steroids.

That's all for now!

Closet Case

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I don't have anything Turkey day related to post but I thought I'd share my closet organization project. :)

When you're living in a small apartment with roommates, storage space becomes even more of an issue. Thus in an effort to maximize what I got, I added a shelf to my closet and bought some canvas storage boxes. This is the organized final result.

Although my apartment is lacking in width, it has plenty of height with 11' ceilings. Even the ceiling space in my closet is very elevated. Here's a picture showing what I mean.

As you can see from above, I started out with only one shelf right above the closet pole. For someone like me with a ton of crap, I really needed to maximize the storage space in that closet. So off I went to Home Depot to pick up some shelving materials. Originally, I was planning on building a similar wooden shelf to match the existing one, but then I saw the Closet Maid closet stuff and decided that adjustable shelving would be both cooler and easier.

During a visit to a local discount store near my apartment, I found some canvas boxes and picked up 4 of them. I only have 3 in the picture below since I had already assembled one before realizing I should photograph them.

I picked up coordinating colors, beige and black. And labeled them according to their contents. I even labeled one "random stuff". Thanks to my snazzy new boxes and shelf, I now have a visually appealing way of putting all of my crap away.

-Trinh