My Apartment - For Today

It's taken some time, but my apartment and I are having a love affair. My personal space is very important to me. Here's a quick peek at how she looks today.

I love color, especially pink.

I'm a big proponent of color psychology. I got the knock off Middle Kingdom vase at a thrift store for $4.00. If you need cheering up, try a pop of yellow.

The chandelier is a work in progress.

Yep. I've got vase addiction.

Design ADD: The Story of a Little Bookcase

Here's a little secret:  I love puttering in my apartment so much that I move something almost everyday.  Even if it's just a vase or a pillow.  It's taken a while for this place to evolve. I've been really lucky, all my furniture was donated by friends and family.

My talented brother made me this sweet little bookcase.  I intended to paint it gloss white, but my bro told me to check out the mistake section of the paint department. A happy discovery indeed!  I bought a pint of satin enamel by Clark + Kensington for $1.00!  Yep, no shit. $1.00.  After sanding (which I hate) the paint went on smooth.

Bam.  I love it.  I placed the little bookcase on my focal wall.

The chair is a gift from my mom.  It's a little chunky for my taste, and I wasn't sure I liked the sage green.  It sure is comfy, though and did I mention it was free?

After studying this wall for a couple of weeks, I began to go through a familiar stage in my decorating. Panic. I love beautiful things, but I panic when I have too many.  Maybe it comes from growing up in a hoarder home (the subject of a subsequent post).  I decided the focal wall needed to be cleaner.

Yep. That feels good. It's hard to photograph my place, it doesn't get much light. But I kinda dig its cave like feel.  So where did the little bookcase end up?

In the bedroom, where it is the perfect nightstand.  Now that's what I call form AND function.  BTW, I hate making my bed.

Going Home

Hello my dears!  How are you?  I've missed you terribly.  I have some great news!  I am writing a book.  It's the hardest thing I've ever done, just how do so many people write books?  SMH. Amazing.  Humans are amazing.

The other news I have for you is that I am moving to a cute apartment in Cleveland next week.  Yep. Cleveland, my old hometown.  Strange circumstance has led me back to Cleveland via Denver, lol. Lots more about Denver in subsequent posts and in my book.

Here's a couple of previews of the new apartment. It's small and has great character, including wood floors!  I can't wait to get in there! I have many ideas on decorating, but it will have to evolve slowly, will, of course, be simple and include a ton of pink!  This is it, dear friends, this is my retirement home.  I am never moving again. Hooray!

The place is quiet, clean, has beautiful windows and is just so.... me.  My personal space is very important to me.  Without it, I cannot maintain equilibrium.  I hope you will follow along as I make this place my home.

I get asked....

Hello dear readers, hope you are having a wonderful day!  I'm still stuck in the A/C. Not a complaint, just thinking about moving to Alaska. Lol, but really.

I was grateful to have some time to go through my neglected email. I don't get a lot of comments, but I do get a lot of emails. Not, a complaint, I love my emails!  Guess what the number one question I get asked is.

The number one question is......drum roll......that's right, you guessed it.  The number one question is:  "Do you really live like that?  And where's your stuff?"

The answer is YES!  I really do live like this. And in the next couple of days, l will show you how.

As you know, I am working on a social media experiment. I am blogging with my Android and it is a huge learning curve! Could I have a little feedback please?  Are my pictures too dark?  Any tips will be appreciated.

 It's dark in my little cottage, the way I like it.  And small. Very difficult to photograph. I have newfound respect for interiors photographers.  It's much harder than exterior shots.

Want more pictures, and less words?  You can also follow along at instagram, @margiemax #sweetlittlebeachcottage.

I really must learn how to link. ;)

My Sweet Little Beach Cottage

Hello dear readers!  I hope you are having a great weekend. It's a hot one here in Ohio. Hope it won't be like this the whole summer! A strange thing happened to me over the last several years, I actually prefer the quiet and solitude of winter.  And rain, I love rain. Not torrential storms, but gentle, misty rain, cool breezes on my face. And the beauty of gray skies.

So, I'm stuck in the A/C, and damn grateful that my sweet little beach cottage has brand new central air.  Whew, hew!  What luxury.  I'd like to mention quickly that I have the best landlords in the world. I will be talking about the all-important landlord/tenant relationship in a subsequent post.

Since I'm stuck in the A/C I'm cleaning the place, and of course rearranging. Who knows what the place will look like by Monday, so I thought I'd show you it's current incarnation, minus the mess.  I receive emails saying hey there's no way your place is that neat.  Well yes and/no. I do keep it simple. But I don't usually photograph it when it's messy.  Maybe one day I'll do a post of it messy. But not today. :-)

So...you remember the new painting I've been talking about?  It was intended for over the sofa, and ended up in the dining room.  I'm still contemplating if I'm going to put a painting over the sofa. In the meantime, I found a large, blue throw pillow at Gabriel Bros. for $6.99. What a deal. Since I can't paint as often as I like, I've grown very reliant on textiles for color and coziness. This place was freezing when I moved in. So luckily, I had a small collection of blankets, sheets, scarves, pillows, rugs, all of which can be moved around on a whim - and all of which came on the cheap.

Here's a little secret about my living room. I use it like it's a studio apartment. The back pillows come off the sofa - which is actually a very old Danish mod daybed on its last legs,  not a futon. It's just not in the budget to have it repaired and reupholstered.  It's amazingly comfortable to sleep on. And while it's small, it's actually helped my sleep because it's taught me not to toss and turn. Sometimes I'm too lazy to put the pillows back on.  There are two bedrooms that are too small to put beds in!  I'll have more to say about these little rooms in a subsequent post.

Little dining area is a study in using what you have. This is actually an outdoor table from Target. Have you noticed how cute outdoor furniture is? It can easily be used inside. I love the simple shape of this table.

I love my kitchen!   

It's the perfect marriage of form and function.  I'm not gonna say too much about the kitchen now, because I'll be talking about it in a subsequent post. But, don't the landlords have great taste?  Love the tile. And dig that awesome hanging glass lamp in the window. Oh, and a window, what luxury!