Hip Hop... Hibbie to the hip hop.. you can't stop easter

For me Easter has always symbolically meant that spring is right around the corner, which means that it's not only time to start thinking about putting those old heavy and moth eaten sweaters away, but that it's a great time to start planning your balcony!

At the peak of the summer last year I was wonderfully surprised at how our own balcony had turned out:

And now, a chilling winter later it looks something a little like... were plants go to die.

Not to worry! As spring has now officially been thrust upon us some wonderful things await the balcony! This year we will be focusing more on plants, getting this bad boy filled up with an Eden of our own (Another wrap song may come out 'Eden of our own' good ring to it.

That all being said we are still working hard away at the wall of frames. I've went to every possible thrift store, and homesense, every IKEA and Wal-Mart looking for on sale white frames.... and I've come to a conclusion. Purchasing all these frames in 2 weeks will be quite a challenge! Not to worry, while I haven't added much in 'frame value' I've been working away fixing up the frames to new and wonderful glory!

 

 

I taped some paper on that bad boy painting and have started the spray painting process to bring out some new colours! I'll hopefully have that all finished tomorrow, but until them we'll just have to wait for the paint to dry and some soon to come after pictures!

The Upside Down Kitties

Now that all the rooms have went from being chaos to organized cleanliness, we can start focusing on getting this show on the road. One of my favorite things about decorating is the possibilities, the fun things you find, new ideas you locate on the Internet or even just an old vintage family picture that makes you smile. So two weeks ago our living room/hallway was looking a little something like this:

 

 

 

Please don't mistake me, this isn't how we really live, this actually is the cyclone that followed my purge of everything (Thank Goodness for Tupperware containers) It was one of those mornings where everything feels like it's closing around you, that the chaos has escalated to a new level. So in a heated moment of decision (and a very understanding roommate) I pulled everything out, took everything down, un-hid everything that was in secret stashes and we one by one, item by item decided to answer that age old question.... "Will I ever use this again".

 

After this much needed step was completed, I started sketching possibilities. I looked at that shelf for hours, wondering how I could give it that designer flair... and believe me I've come up with a great idea. I had to break this project down into three groups. I've been trying to live off a budget the past few weeks so that I could have a savings again. Part of this meant that I not only had to be more frugal... but that I had to try a bit harder to squeeze every penny.

 

1. Pictures and Picture Frames

2. Shelves and Organization Options

3. Style Shelves

With my first quest in mind, I trolled every Goodwill, Home depot and anywhere I could think of that I could make frames. Everything seemed out of my range, 80-100$ for large frames. Then one day as Rhys and I had went to go to a new Goodwill we have never been too and I found this:

 

 

With every intention or re-painting the frame to it's former glory, it wasn't far off from the following few adding themselves in.

 



Please note the shelves are almost not cluttered! Can I get me some snaps? And then we are now at what I like to call the "Upside down kitties". This had started when I found a picture frame that was about the perfect size for 7$ at good will which was currently inhabited by Kitties.

 

 

It was an old brown colour, which wasn't my favorite so I took some leftover paint that we had sitting around and painted that bad boy. The problem was that I had originally tried to take out the glass which didn't work so I simply removed everything while I was painting and then placed it all back in when I was done. That's when this happened:

 



Yes ladies and gentleman (and computer using kitties) I placed it in the frame, upside-down. At fist being slightly perfectionist.... I wanted to correct it, however, it was a pain to put that frame back together and with the print only a week away, I decided to leave it. Which has thus far led to comments like "The Upside Down Kitties are watching me"... "You're making a kitty statement"... "What would the Upside Down Kitties do?" ....

 

 

So as they perch in the now white frame, upside-down.... in all their beauty. I await for the vintage prints that I purchased online to clean that messy look up a bit (and the jokes). If you scroll to the top you can see the progress on the shelf going from GAH to ahhh... to ouuuuuu (yes, you can say it out loud for fun I won't judge). So here we are still searching. I think I've got a good 3-5 frames left to get, but once that's done we will be well on our way to a happy hallway!

Hallway to Heaven!

It's been a while since I've had a moment to sit down and share some of my exciting new challenges with you. As I sit here, sipping my red, looking at the lovely flowers Rhys has just got me I can't help but think of the possibilities of my two upcoming challenges.

Before we jump right in, It's always good to have a price set in mind (As to minimize overspending) So I have declared a 200$ Budget. For what? Our Hallway:

Slightly outdated, disorganized and a harbour for... well pretty much just about anything. The goal, is to attract a colour pallet that is both friendly and warm. So what's that mean Mr. Fancy Pants? I've been thinking of using this awesome program called photo effect ( Click here to get there! ) to make the pictures from Europe something like this:

The answer is yes I am into yellow. So with that being said I went frame shopping! I searched high and low to find some wonderful frames to decorate with! Slowly it's been coming together and I've started painting. While repeating the same thing to myself over and over again I will not drip on the floor.... I will not drip on the floor... I will not drip on the floor. So far my chanting seems successful.

So deep Breath! Let's design!