Author name: Karla Nathan

The marathon shopping trip is finally done!

I have shopped myself ragged this week, and didn’t really have the perfect car for it.  We jammed in as much as we could, and I actually did end up with my knees against the dash and lampshades in my lap at one point!

On that trip from Marshall’s, we bought so much for the apartment, that we broke a table leg trying to get it all in the car.

Oh well, at least it feels less "new" now!

All this newness is hard for me. I love the aged patinas and well worn edges of the treasures I find at 2nd hand places and flea markets.

See what I mean?? It doesn’t look like me at all. If we hadn’t brought these lamps from home,  this room would have no personality at all.

We also have Sugarwing’s photos everywhere.  I found inexpensive frames at Michaels and IKEA for the 8x10s of the baby to cheer up the bare white walls.

And of course, we have pictures of Ry, Adam and the cute little hippy chick around the room too.

My husband didn’t want any clutter, stuff, or knicky knacky fun things around. And since we’ll have this place temporarily, and we are doing it on a budget, I had to agree–no matter how much it hurt– to not fill up the rooms with pretties!! 

Like I said, the lamps my friend, Shanna created sure do save the room from total boringness!!  One sits on a cute little $12 table from Marshall’s, the other is on a $7 wooden TV tray from Wal-Mart.  The TV tray is behind the couch, so doesn’t even show. I certainly didn’t want to spend much on a table that no one saw.

Rich brought one of my paintings, this was done from the balcony of our hotel room during a vacation to Destin, Florida a few years ago.  Hanging it is a reminder of a romantic and lovely week we spent together.

I thought it was touching that he packed it.

Another homey touch, is this photo I found at Homegoods for $18. It reminds me of the time we spend on the lake back in Kansas.

I found a serene, blue curtain on clearance there for $9 and a matching runner for $14.  The rug is chenille, and very fluffy, a touch of luxury in the plain bathroom.

One totally unnecessary, but fun thing I bought for the bath was this sparkly soap dish.

This is the guest bath, and I will probably use it when I come to stay, so I had to have ONE girly thing in the apartment!!

I saw this large picture, done totally in Glitter! I wanted it, for the sheer gaudiness of it, but knew it wouldn’t be a good idea.  Isn’t it fun, though?  I wish I could have done the apartment in funky fun things and make it a great get away place for us.

Instead, I was a good girl and decorated the place all neutral, comfy and BLAH.

Actually, it isn’t bad and I shouldn’t complain. You’ve seen my house and know that my poor husband has to live knee deep in roses.  I can stand macho decor when I come to stay in the apartment with him, I can be brave and make it through one week a month with out my pretties around me!!

Especially if I have plenty of photos of my fairy grand baby to stare at!  She is prettier than any rose.

We bought a couple of lamps on clearance from Marshall’s for around $60 for the two. And this frame was only $6.

The one on my side of the bed has beads, so that makes me happy! This little table was another Marshall’s purchase for $11.

I bought the sheets, fleecy, soft blanket and quilted cover there too. The cover is a neutral tan, all the rest are calm white.

Its almost like a hotel room. 

Rich picked out the furniture for the bedroom himself. He spent a bit more than I would have, and got the wrong size bed frame, but it really is a nice set.   He has good taste. And I think the room could actually be nice if I could paint the walls a deep rich color to compliment it all.

We brought this from home too- a welcome mat that makes us feel right at home. A  Kansas University Jayhawk will greet us everytime we walk in the door.

The main furniture we bought last month, and had delivered this week. We’ve spent a lot of time waiting for cable and delivery guys. The rest of the time was shopping-shopping-shopping. It takes a lot to fill up an empty apartment!!!!!  I’ve been to Wal-mart 4 times, Target 3, Best Buy 3 Marshall’s twice , Home Goods, KMart twice, furniture stores, mattress stores, grocery stores, not to mention buying a new wardrobe  at Macy’s for my husband to start his new job! (he runs golf courses and all of his shirts had logos of the old company, not the country clubs from this one)

I’ve managed to do it all on about $6,000 so far. That includes stocking the cabinets, buying shampoo, nail clippers, coffee maker, trash cans, new clothes, shower curtains, every little detail of starting a new place. Whew. 

I drove from place to place looking for sales and comparing prices.  My husband says I might have spent more on gas than stuff.

I didn’t include meals out in this. We ate dinner out every night, and that has been wonderful. Some was on an expense account, but not all.  This mural is from a Texas Road House we ate at tonight, I loved seeing the founding fathers BBQ ing!

I can’t believe we are done. There are two more deliveries next week, but I am going home tomorrow and Rich will handle the rest.  I am worn out and slept for about 12 hours last night, did I mention I have had a sinus infection  for a few weeks now and haven’t had time to go to the doctor about it?

I look forward to getting home and seeing my Sugarwings and Dorkies and pretties that I like to keep all around me.  I hate leaving Rich behind here, but have tried to make it as homey as possible for him and I’ll come back to visit a lot and he’ll be in Kansas a lot too.  The next year won’t be easy, but I am lucky to have a wonderful man that works so hard and puts his family first and has landed this dream job that he deserves so much. 

And of course, I am lucky to have my blog friends who put up with my running on and on about everything I do and keep me company while Rich is away!

I’ll draw for my December giveaway winner as soon as I get home, and will be working on some projects, so will actually have something pretty to show you instead of ugly, over stuffed recliners and macho stuff! Thanks for your patience and for being there for me!

December has only been gone a few days, and it seems like ages.  We’ve been so busy trying to set up a new apartment in a new city, all from scratch.

Sissy had this pretty book set out in my room when we visited on our drive Eastward.  I’m afraid we didn’t get to stay long, one night, with a family get together, then on New Year’s Eve, we had big plans for crafting all day, then having a champagne toast and homemade veggie soup (like my Daddy used to make) welcoming the new year quietly with family and friends.

Crafting started well.  I made this page (it still needs words, Sissy will add them with her lovely writing).  I took inspiration from the book above.

It is so much fun to delve into someone else’s craft supplies! Like the first day of school and a brand new box of crayons (or crins, as I called them)

The background was done with those eye shaped chalky ink pads (Sissy had ALL the colors to play with!!!).  I used pink, periwinkle and white to make swirls, with the white over the top to blend. Then "aged" the edges in brown.

I drew the bird and branches in glitter ink and got to try out her embossing glitter on the branches.

This one was done with the same chalky inks, smeared around and then blended over the top with a gold ink pad.

Then, I stamped green fern like fronds onto it, edged the sides in brown for aging again, and drew swirls and vines around it in brown ink.

My niece, Shelli, brought a calender we could cut fairies out of, I added a naked sprite from it, sparkled her with shimmering gold ink, and drew gold swirls around her head, accented with rhinestones.

Shelli used glitter and images from the calender for this page.

Then, she did a similar chalky ink pad background on this one. I drew some swirls on it for her and she added pictures from the calender.

My other sister, Bobbie, brought us an embossing tool to try out and Shelli did the design across the top with that.

Then, her husband came in and mentioned an ice storm on the way. I shot out of my chair, packed my bags, ran down the stairs and to the car and was GONE before the storm hit! 

We had a safe and dry drive and were glad we cut our visit to Indy short, as sad as it was to leave. I don’t even remember if I said goodbye or not, you should have seen me rush out of there. No veggie soup, no champagne toast, I didn’t even get to finish my pages!!

And here we are- my new (part time) home, sweet, home!

The huge load we carried out in the car didn’t go very far in filling up the space.  It isn’t easy starting from scratch, this week has been a shop-a-thon.

The big, ugly recliner that my husband has daydreamed about his entire life arrived. But the table was missing hardware and the couch was the wrong one.  More deliveries tomorrow.

My husband doesn’t shop, but made an effort to buy a bedroom set on his own last time he was out here. For his very first shopping trip, it went well. Mission style, really nice. But- the wrong size. He didn’t realize beds came in different sizes????

Oh well, the new mattress I bought will go in the guest room and I’ll buy another one for that set, in a larger size.  I’m just proud that he shopped all by himself and bought something really interesting.

I’d been hearing that IKEA was the best things since sliced bread (oh my,that phrase makes me sound old).

We didn’t much care for it. Some things were a bargain, others were just CHEAP. Thin towels, rickety tables. And not my style at all.

What was sweet, was that it wasn’t my husband’s style either. I thought he wouldn’t care, but he really did, and wanted homey, not stark, like they carry there.

We loaded up on simple things, like 49 cent dish towels, 99 cent trash cans, 99 cent toilet bowl cleaners, 42 rugs, and a $2 sieve.   A few 59cent mugs and bowls too.

Then, we drove around the wharf in Baltimore searching for a good restaurant.  Lost, in the dark, looking like tourists, with the light on in the car, looking at a map instead of the road.

We found a place called the Rusty Scupper. I thought, it had to be good, it had a hand painted shark in the lobby!

And I was right, plus the view was even better than the food.   We managed to spend every thing we saved at IKEA by eating a $100 crab cake meal.  I figure we broke even, since we had saved so much on toilet bowl cleaners!

I’m afraid my camera doesn’t do justice to the beauty of the wharf at night, and it was so cold out there, I didn’t really care to adjust it. I snapped a photo and ran to the car. 

Well, more shopping tomorrow, then home on Sunday.  I’ll get some photos of the end results of our buying binge!