apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

We're not huge fans of lavish parties, we're more the casual dinner party types...just a candle or two here and a bunch of flowers there and we're ready for a simple get-together. But every once in a while, something so lovely and colorful comes 'round that we start yearning for an excuse to break out the party finery and get down on the dance floor.

lamp before, jump below for lamp after

We love this quick lamp revamp from Carlene (and her crafty husband). She's described the above version as "Scruffy brown lamp. Cute shape, ugly color". We agree. Check out the new version below the jump...

In the process of cleaning up and redoing our backyard, the amount of garden debris that we've collected has far outrun our weekly curbside composting pickup. In a recent dead tree branch and overgrown bush ambush, we were overwhelmed by the pile of branches that we amassed and had visions of spending nights sneaking our green piles in to the neighbors' bins for the next few years...lucky for us, we found a better solution. See pictures below the jump...

What we're sharing here, dear readers, is a bit of an embarrassment. But we'll push our shame aside in the spirit of this month's organizing and cleaning theme, and we're asking for your help!

So a couple weeks ago we're frolicking around our backyard, planting trees and digging holes when we notice some funny looking plants and this little rhyme starts running through our head, ""Leaves of three, let them be..."

Not recipes or addresses...we found a better use for our little gray box. See what we got going on below the jump...

Eleven months ago we closed on our first home. Ten months ago we moved in to our work-in-progress from the tent in the backyard. The time has flown by at record speed and we can't quite believe that last April we didn't know the difference between a reciprocal and a miter saw. Older and wiser now (chuckle chuckle, snort snort), we're often asked what items make good "fixer-upper" housewarming gifts. Our list below the jump:

Name: Matt, Sara, and Bella Janssen
Location: On the road, at time of post: Scottsdale, AZ
Size: Approx. 200 sq. ft. (32 ft x 8 ft)
Years lived in: 8 months

>>Enter Slideshow

We couldn't have dreamed up a more appropriate house tour to end our Small Cool month. You may remember Sara, Matt and Bella as finalists from the contest last year. We were impressed by their declaration, "Small is BETTER! Even with a 3-year old and surely more on the way, we will never go back. Small is the new big!", but even more impressed with their follow through. Way to put your money where your mouth is....check it out.

We've recently noticed an increase in bathroom visits by our arachnid co-dwellers and we gotta say...we're not quite ready to break down our neighborly barriers and invite them in. Our general code-of-conduct is starting to reveal a major flaw...

We're in the midst of an office organizing overhaul (i.e. HELL) and we're trying to come up with a practical and clever way to organize our "creativity" (i.e. MESS). We were particularly blown away by Derik's gorgeous color coordination and wish we had such fine looking doodads hanging around our digs...

We are such proud parents. Just look at how much the little seedlings have grown! The tomatoes won't be ready for a while, but our lettuce was just begging to be harvested....

We're gonna go out on a limb here and admit that we're a little bit over the industrial warehouse look. We're bored with steel and exposed beams, tired of concrete floors and cool marble. But guess what? Against our better judgment, we've fallen deeply, madly and unabashedly in love with a home made entirely of concrete. Can't really get much more industrial than that, eh? We dare you not to fall in love, too. More photos below the jump.

Wow...we're a bit floored by this beauty of a plant. More photos and jaw-dropping below the jump...

We're not trying to claim an eco-friendly prize here, and our life is full of hypocritical idiosyncrasies, but we feel that we do our darndest....and isn't that the point? If we use our travel mug 29 days, can't we be forgiven for that one day in the month when we forgot it? We're part of the group that follows the tortoise, rather than the hare, when it comes to reaching a goal. All of this to explain why we think the new online store, Feel More Human, is a great step in the right direction.

We're always keen on a good discount, especially if it's for something we've had our peepers on to begin with...that's why we walked away light-headed after our visit to Trove. So much treasure, so little time...

It's true...we have a sweet spot for redwoods. And camping. And notecards. And all of those things together.