The Grand Tour!

I unpacked everything last Saturday, but haven't gotten around to uploading + drawing all over the photos yet... I've been quite productive today (despite having the electricity out in our room for most of the day thus forcing me to move myself and my computer and a pile of blankets and pillows to a corner of the living room by the heater... I felt like a hobo). And here it is! Doodles are a mixture of things to come and explanation of things that are there. Hope that makes sense...

Ok, here we go... LOTS of pictures ahead!!

The Closet

BEFORE

 AFTER (plus suggestions for improvement!) ;)

The Kitchen

Cabinets BEFORE

The most horrid contact paper I have ever seen...

Cabinets AFTER

...luckily it came off pretty quickly.

Inside the drawers...

I discovered this cute paper underneath circa the 1970s! ♥ Much preferred...

The Kitchen!

There really was no "before" because it was the same but with no stuff in it...

The Bedroom

BEFORE

Our room... we got two old dorm desks and a couple of wooden chairs at Goodwill!

AFTER

Desktop wallpaper by Geninne!

The Living Room

BEFORE

AFTER

There you have it, folks. The gist of our new apartment. I would like to fill it with plants and rugs and blankets and cozy things like that, but first we have to have MONEY... I've applied for three different positions around town and will keep on applying till I have a source of steady income! In the meantime, I'm cooking up some fun stuff for Scoutaroo. Hoping I can pull it off, still doing research, but you can expect a thing to happen that will be different than before... with that cryptic message, I bid you adieu!

♥ Ciara Kay

Stress Sewing

WHEW... busy month. Jamie finally came back from Ye Olde Lincoln Nebraska, and after a weekend of fun with friends and family we hit the ground running... well, actually, first I puked my brains out for 24 hours, THEN we got down to business. Not sure what that was all about, but I guess there was a flu going around. Anyway!

We spent three days in the Bay area hunting for the perfect Santa Cruz home! Day One, utter failure. Day Two, a little less discouraging. Day Three, found the coolest loft in an industrial complex that was affordable and awesome and roomy (quite an elusive trifecta in Santa Cruz). But, we didn't make the cut (we were competing with 20 other people to apply...). However, we are now waiting to hear back from a different property manager about a couple of other places in the area. The places we're applying for aren't as cool as the one we missed out on, but the company managing them seems great and there are walls and roofs and working toilets at both of them, so it'll do. :P Trying to stay positive here... We were both pretty disappointed about not getting the first place we applied to, but I'm determined to make the best of it.

Needless to say, I've been pretty stressed out in the last couple of weeks (having Jamie back helps for sure). Last night when we got the news that we didn't get the place we wanted, I was tempted to just crawl into bed and go to sleep at 8:00 pm, but I lay there for a few minutes and decided I didn't want to do that after all. I wanted to sew a skate wheel bag. So I did.

I used an old corduroy pant leg + some extra fabric from the dress I made last week! (Speaking of which, I should post pictures of that, too)...

Holds 8 wheels and their nuts quite snugly! I even made a little nut sack! ;)

Perfect wheel bag for my other set of wheels! I also used some cool stitching on my machine for decoration. ♥

Then, this morning I woke up at 5:30 am and decided to get out of bed and alter some clothes. This old shapeless, knee-length dress and a pair of capris I've had for like five years are now an adorable outfit!

Before...

After!

I feel accomplished.

♥ Ciara Kay