autumn table decor
The holiday season is just around the corner. With a late thanksgiving this year, my mother and I were already able to throw a fancy dinner party. When looking for inspiration for table decor, I found that a lot of the autumn themed decorations tended to be a bit hokey. We kept it fairly simple and decorated mostly with birch logs and little woodland animals that my mom already had from her christmas tree last year. We added some glitter and fake leaves just to spice it up a little then lined the table with real leaves that I collected back East, candles and tiny pumpkins. My mom also found some birch lined planters to house a few ferns. I loved how it turned out and it was not terribly difficult to set up. It even felt like fall in seasonless Los Angeles.
heart desk
It all started when I spotted this sad but cute little desk on the curb. Even though it was really beat up and we didn’t exactly have a space for it, I decided it should come home with me.
It was in really bad shape but I’ve been wanting a little desk so it seemed like a really good option to test it out. I sanded it down and cleaned off some cobwebs, then painted it with some leftover paint from when I was choosing colors for the living room in Woodland White.
It cleaned up really nice and I found a little spot for it in our dining room. It’s a little rough around the edges, quite literally, and not very well made but it’s cute and more importantly, free. Plus it’s nice to have a tiny workspace of my own and a few drawers to stow things.
weetzie
I can’t believe it’s been a year since we rescued Weetzie Cat. It feels like we’ve had her all along. I can tell she’ll forever be my little baby kitten. It took the better part of the year for all the cats to get adjusted to each other. Mochi still isn’t a fan of Weetzie at all, but usually ignores her unless Weetzie is having too much fun running around the apartment. Weetzie has picked out lots of hiding places where the other cats won’t go so she has her own little territories. Her favorites are on top of the fridge, in the back of one of the kitchen cabinets and her little suitcase bed. She loves that little bed. She sleeps there every night. Sometimes I wish she had a buddy cat to cuddle and play with but I know that wouldn’t go over well with the other lady cats (and 4 cats would officially be a lot of cats).
Weetzie makes me happy every day and I’m so glad we found her and that she’s a part of our lives.
mineral mantel
This weekend I was possessed by some strange nesting demon and had to work on home projects. I’ve been slowly redecorating our living room all year, without a ton of progress. Though I did paint the room a very satisfying light blue green, I haven’t sorted out any of the details. It’s August and I still had our winter terrariums up.
After visiting the mineral hall at the Natural History Museum, I was really inspired to incorporate some more natural things into our decor. I envisioned a combination of minerals and geodes in some geometric display in combination with some plants. I found tons of items that would fit this bill, but didn’t exactly fit my wallet. Plus with all the movie watching we do, our living room is often left dark; not exactly the best atmosphere for growing things.
Instead of ordering a bunch of perfect pretty things online, I searched around the house for some rocks and other bits we already had laying around. Surprisingly we have a lot of rocks and weird little things hiding away in closets. It was enough to get me started and see where I want to go. I like the contrast of heavy rocks with some antique glass canisters. I’ll still have to come up with an alternate for plants and I’d like to add some height on the sides. I’m also happy that it showcases our Mondo ET poster.
The room as a whole has quite a bit more work to go. Here is my long term list:
- Add a few select pieces to the mantel
- Make covers for the arms of our couch – The cats have gotten a little too comfortable scratching the couch corners. Some covers will hide the damage they’ve already done and stop them from making it worse.
- Reupholster my chair – The slipcover I made has been a good temporary solution, but it’s not a permanent one.
- New lighting fixtures – I’m not particularly fond of the sconces we have now, but of course, every sconce I’ve liked has been drastically out of our price range. This antler sconce is my favorite. I also have been looking at art deco sconces, but with four in the room, it’s unlikely that I’d find a full set that would work.
- Repair chipped paint on floor moldings / touch up window paint
I should probably make one of these lists for every room.
Mabel
Last weekend little Mabel was adopted. I’m so happy she found a forever home, but since she was with us for quite some time seeing her go was bittersweet. I gave her a lot of special attention because she couldn’t hang out with the other cats, and her little personality really grew on me. Not to mention she was uber cute.
The whole experience of fostering her started with a stressful, heartbreaking situation and I’m really thankful that I was able to intervene before an almost certain death at the shelter. Even though Mabel was the sweetest little dear that just wanted to hang out and cuddle all the time, she was still another responsibility. It’s funny how you get used to the things that seem difficult though and even grow to sort of enjoy them.
Here’s to Mabel, darling rescue kitty with a happy life at new home ahead of her.
