I love, love, love to decorate. Have I mentioned that I love to decorate? Well, it just so happens that I do. When I get down in the dumps, the first thing I do is clean, organize and rearrange my space. Perhaps it revitalizes some feng shui or juju within my psyche. All I know is that when I’m in a relaxing place, all seems right as rain. Another thing I love is tiny spaces. When the two worlds collide–tiny spaces and decorating–I’m in heaven. Well, it just so happens that I moved into a teeny-weenie, 300-square foot apartment. These past few months have been spent making infinitesimal decorative fine adjustments and now I finally feel like my apartment is ready for public consumption. So, I wanted to share what I’ve created thus far. Considering that I run several businesses out of my apartment, I think I’ve done a bang-up job of balancing functionality and personality. My requirements were many: I needed a space to make soaps and other bath & body products, plus storage for bottles and ingredients; I needed storage for my vending gear such as tents and tables; I needed a place to sew and make jewelry, plus storage for my mass quantity of fabric; I needed a place to store all of my field biology equipment such as tents, day packs, night packs, and miscellaneous camping gear; I needed a place to meet with people; and I needed a place to set up my reiki table. That’s a tall order for an apartment this size but I rose to the challenge. Heck, at least it doesn’t look like a hoarder lives here, which is what I was afraid would be the case when I first moved in. Since I went crazy with the photos, I’m going to have to break up my apartment tour into several installments. These photos are of my living room/bedroom space. Click on any photo to display a larger version.
This is Petunia’s bed that she lets me sleep on. I used my desk as a room divider which gave me the chance to hang some of my favorite painings and photos. Michael Sowa is probably my favorite artist. He knows how to capture whimsy. I made the large mosaic box on the desk out of all the accidentally smashed dishware that I’ve been collecting over the years. I’m still not completely finished but I will share photos when I’m done. Right now it holds all of my reiki supplies such as tuning forks, cheat sheets, crystals, etc…I included this photo because you can see the stray cat outside. I’ve been putting food out for it in the hopes that it will want to become part of the family at some point.My beloved Gibson, The Paul. It calls to me everyday…”Play Me! Play Me!” I’ve gotten good at ignoring it, unfortunately. The items in the striped bag are all the urns and ashes of my dead pets. The striped bag is actually the first thing I ever sewed in home-economics class and it served as the carrier for my savannah monitor named Satchel. He went with me everywhere in that little bag for eleven years. The green wine bottle is actually a silk-screened memorial to a winemaker/friend who has passed and the feathers are from a pet crow who has passed.Ever since I was a little kid I’ve always wanted a net over my bed. Don’t ask me why. Last year I found one for super cheap on Overstock.com and went for it. By cheap, I mean $17 bucks. Can’t beat that! And I just love it.I adore the tv cabinet I scored at the Salvation Army a few years ago. It reminds me of the hurricane shutters on all the windows in New Orleans. On top of the tv is my very own nicho that I made. I definitely have to share some photos of that at some point. The quilt draped over the chair is the best one I’ve made thus far. It was the first class I ever taught at Jo-Ann’s so it holds some great memories for me.