flea + free decorating ideas

The most compelling tip jar I have seen to date-
"Stimulate My Economy: Change I need"

Good morning! I apologize for the relatively infrequent posts over the past several days. Last Thursday I attempted to move my blog from Blogger to WordPress.org, and though it was successful, I have a lot of graphic and editing work to finish before it's complete. So for the time being I recommend reading the Blogger version as usual.

While I was busy transferring info between blogs at Noble Tree with my amazing web guru friend, Tim, I snapped a few pictures of some awesome decorating ideas in the coffee house. Most items are free, if not easily found at your average flea market or garage sale.

My favorite: vintage chandelier with paper planes attached

Vintage snail mail tacked to the wall collage style (aka: reclaimed wall paper)

Coffee cups strung along a banister

Vintage windowpane with message

A bright pop of color on an otherwise ho-hum fireplace

design crush: dream studio tour

To some, this studio may look familiar. That is because it is the headquarters for Pink Loves Brown, a Chicago based stationary line designed by Nicole, of the popular design blog, Making It Lovely (home of these great photos).

I will cut to the chase and admit that I have a huge design/career crush on Nicole. Her lifestyle in Chicago incorporates a successful business and a house worth blogging about- two things that I hope to one day achieve on a similar level. I have the business part started, but my own jewelry studio is "cute, but no cigar" to this amazing 150 square foot workspace. Can you believe that all of this wonderful resides in a spare bedroom of an Oak Park bungalow?

Moral of the story?
1.) It can be done.
2.) I have some work to do.

Just the right shade of blush for the walls.

Nicole installed these bamboo floors herself!

I. Adore. These. Shelves.

FYI: My packing station has some explaining to do.

Genius! I have this same shoe caddy from Target.

no paint artwork in 15 minutes

Simple white canvases above my bed.

I never really thought too much about these canvases until my cousin mentioned they were his favorite pieces of art in my apartment.

"Art?"

What was once an unsuccessful attempt to make jewelry displays later became an inexpensive way to fill the space above my bed. Nevertheless, I will accept the compliment and now I am excited to share this simple no paint project (read: apartment friendly).


I bought two $22 primed canvases from Blick, a spool of textured charcoal thread, and a foot of charcoal starched linen-like fabric. I cut the gray fabric into 14-18 leaves for each canvas and cut a small slit in the center of each leaf to make room for the thread.

Then, I wound the thread across the canvas front to back about 12-20 times, threading leaves as I went. Once I was out of thread or liked how it looked, I cut the end and knotted it to the first thread. Done.

Can this even count as a project? Seriously?

There are a million ways this could be evolved into even more elaborate artwork. If anyone tries this project, please send me a picture to post!

weekly post its- my favorite house tour

This week I am going to devote the entire Post It to the Lincoln Park home images from Summer of Summer Thornton Design via Apartment Therapy. I found this slide show months ago, and it remains my absolute favorite. Check out photos below to see why I adore Summer's space so much.

And the best part is her place is only 700 square feet!

before and after: medicine cabinet

Part of my quest to live with intention includes living in a beautiful space. This is not a terribly difficult feat for me considering I share a 353 square foot studio with my boyfriend. Less space = less to make beautiful. One of the best and most recent improvements has been my fresh flower revelation. But this weekend I got antsy. I needed a new project and my web wandering led me to the most miraculous medicine cabinet I have ever seen.

Inspiration Medicine Cabinet photo found at Apartment Therapy

Resting my eyes on this image inspired me to take action. Below is what I have looked at every morning and evening. For 547 days.

Hers and his medicine cabinets. Gross.

So I headed over to Target this weekend and bought a $10 roll of contact paper. I was a bit disappointed by their selection (polka dots weren't at the top of my list), but I settled upon a natural cork contact paper that resisted mold and mildew (read: bathroom friendly).

Complicated tools for Project Medicine Cabinet

Once home, I measured the cabinets and cut the contact paper to size. It took about 20 minutes for the whole project (most of the time was spent cleaning the glass shelves).

1. Empty Shelves 2. Cork lined shelves

Painfully beautiful medicine cabinets

Now that the project is complete, I cannot believe I put up with that ugly sight for so long without taking action. Next up: disguising the bathroom's "Jamaica." Don't ask. Once the situation is under control the story will be told.

design crush: Bold & Noble

What a cool British design company! More of their prints can be found on the Bold & Noble website. Definitely worth checking out.


[Bold& Noble found via Poppytalk, images from Bold&Noble]

design crush: anthropologie rugs

Though it was tough to find jpegs of these amazing rugs from Anthropologie, they are certainly worth checking out in more detail. I can't say I would put them on "Intentional Obsession" status, but they are definitely huge, beautiful statements. And at this point in early February with three frozen months behind me and a few more months ahead- these blooms certainly brighten my day.

a pocket full of posies for less than a pocket full of change

This is the coolest trick ever. Okay, maybe not the coolest, but way up there. Up there with turning a tangelo into a dessert bowl. It's that cool.
Here is the deal: every two weeks I shop at Trader Joe's for groceries and I struggle to determine whether or not it is worth buying fresh cut flowers. On the one hand, they are beautiful and will enhance my space, my mood, and Erwin might like them too. On the other hand, they are semi-expensive for something I don't "need" and only last about a week. [Side note: I also have similar silent debates about manicures, but that is a whole different post.]
During my most recent bi-weekly T.J. trip I discovered a solution to my internal dialogue. I found a bouquet of various flowers for $3.99 (they were aptly named the "Consumer's Bouquet" for like minded individuals trying to save cash). When I got them home and started rummaging for a vase, I realized I didn't have one large vase, but rather several small vessels. Eureka!
Take a look at how the $3.99 bouquet has been divided and conquered- bringing cheer and color to four areas of my apartment. By splitting up the bouquet I now have four punches of color for a buck each. Not too shabby.

intentional obsession: white marble

Though it may seem odd, my first love is actually home decor, not jewelry. Gasp. One day I plan to make interior design a more permanent part of my vocation, but for the moment I will stick with the jewels and leave the decor to my dreams.

However I still continue to evolve both my jewelry studio and apartment into spaces I adore. Ask Erwin, the decorating is never done. With this in mind, I plan to start a recurring post titled Intentional Obsessions (I.O.). The title meaning that these obsessions are part of my personal vision and though they are not in my life yet, I intend to incorporate them over time. Sound good? I think so. Plus sharing them will take the edge off the longing desire.

My first I.O. is white marble. One day I intend to have a kitchen with white marble counter tops like this:
(notice the icy blue wall color!) Or maybe a bathroom like this:
But until then I could always use this coffee table:
Or this end table:
Or heck, even these cheese trays:
A girl has to start somewhere.

no paint apartment? no problem!

What a great idea for those with apartments that don't allow walls to be painted (many of us)! Or for those who are perhaps to lazy to paint walls in the first place (most of us). This image is from a recent post on Design Sponge.

First, I adore this icy blue color. I even chose it as my inspiration board's background for 2009. But what is even cooler is that anyone can use painted shelving like this as a way to add color to a room while keeping the walls neutral or stark white.

I am definitely bookmarking this concept for my apartment move in October.

where i work. part 2

With a lull in the day I thought I might follow up with the rest of the studio tour. Here it goes:
This is a big empty frame that hangs above my computer desk. I simply taped a piece of fancy paper from Paper Source and started adding things on top of that almost as if it was attached to the frame. The little Buddha and small stone are there to keep things in perspective.
This little wire basket is the mate to the corner shelf/basket thing hanging on the wall in Part 1 of the studio tour. Here it holds bowls of chain and wire for the jewelry we make. The little square is actually a ceramic egg holder from Anthropologie for about $9.
This dresser is one of a set of my-best-friend's-mom-from-when-she-was-a-little-girl-in-the-1960s. My best friend from childhood, Carol Beth, used it when she was growing up and when she got married she didn't need the set anymore. When it arrived in my hands for $0, it was worn, bright white with fading flower appliques, and had yucky yellow brass hardware. I sanded it, painted it "popcorn white" and added all antiqued knobs rather than handles. I adore the double knobs rather than traditional pulls but really it happened out of necessity. They actually don't make drawer pulls the same size as this piece any longer.
This little piece is the nightstand to the set from my-best-friend's-mom-from-when-she-was-a-little-girl-in-the-1960s. It serves here as a entry table and spot to store some running stuff.
GREAT IDEA! Since my bathroom has no storage besides a medicine cabinet I needed a place to stash my blow dryer and cleaning supplies. So I bought this vintage picnic basket from my trusty Ann Arbor thrift store to do the job. (The wine holders hold the blow dryer and brushes.)

So there it is. All in all when I moved to Chicago in August of 2007 I think I spent a total of $2000 on all the furniture, accessories, and trusty U-Haul. No cushy corporate moving and relocation reimbursements, but it's pretty darn cute anyway.

where i work. part 1

So for those who wonder why "makeunder my life" is the title for my blog, I will explain (a little). In part it has to do with my belief that great things come in all sizes, large and microscopic, and that my life though humble, does not need to be void of style. Even if one (read: me) doesn't have a lot of money to invest in her environment, that does not mean she cannot enjoy great design.So I thought I would share some photos of my studio (which is now actually the Jess LC jewelry studio exclusively- but at the time of these photos taken last summer, I also had a bed to sleep on in the studio as well). Please keep in mind this is a ~400 square foot space - about the size of the dining room in my parents house. I did mention I had a "humble abode," right?
This is one of my favorite tablescapes ever- the table itself is a bench repainted (twice) that I found on a run with my dear friend Catherine in high school. The black box was $4 from a thrift store in Ann Arbor, Michigan which I dearly miss here in Chicago. The plants are all under $6 from Trader Joes. Loveseat is from Ikea.
The (fake) painting was $100 from Bed Bath and Beyond and the adorable bird statue is from Ann Arbor's awesome Heavenly Metal.
A $4 Urban Outfitters lampshade got a makeover with my Grandma's vintage pins.
The two green hang-y things are from my high school days playing decorator in my old bedroom. They are filled with pine cones from old holiday decor and the middle piece is actually a corner shelf hanging with it's bottom against the wall. Inside that are some pine cones and a birds nest. The strings actually are not really supporting the pieces- they are there to make that dowel rod from my old Christmas decorations look like it actually has a purpose.
These keys got a lot of attention on the Apartment Therapy blog post about my studio. They were about $12 and in a rusty black color when I bought them. Using a foam brush I painted on a gold coat to make them look more "schmancy." The big glass vase is standing in a vintage candy dish, the candle holders are my Grandma's, and the two glass votives were $1 each.
This is one of my favorite (and really easy) projects. Inside this simple frame is a $4 document I found at an antique store from October 21, 1865. It is a deed to some land in Georgia - but it's current validity is under suspicion. The 'mat' is actually just a fancy embossed paper cut the width of the frame. Voila - a historic piece of art for about $12.

All this storytelling makes me wish I could decorate some new spaces... any takers?