the fruit of our labor

On the last post I mentioned that we had gone to IKEA to pick up a few "final" things needed for our new apartment. Many, many hours of hard work from both of us have been put in to our dear apartment, with installations, decorating, removing paint, cleaning, paint touch-up, re-touch up, and touching up again. It is by no means perfect, but we are definitely at a place now where we don't have to spend every free second working on it. :)

We had to take a picture to commemorate all the paint and paint accessories FINALLY being packed up and put away after many weeks (months?) of being out and about. :)

In our bedroom we got some new sheets from Costco a while back. We used to have cream, but with all the white trim in the room and "greige" (a new word I learned for our wall color...greyish-beige = greige. My new favorite neutral) on the walls it bothered me to also have another neutral, cream, with our sheets; so we got some white ones. Then a new problem arose as our bedside lamps were also cream (plus Daniel's had been broken for months so they needed to be replaced anyway). Enter IKEA. :) I love our new lamps with the white shades (I am trying to ignore the fact that the yellow light coming from the light bulb makes them look cream...the shade is white I promise!) mounted on the wall. It frees up space on the end table and kind of reminds me of a hotel. :)

And Daniel's old (though not that old...we just bought it in May!) desk lamp was kicked out of the office and relocated in here. It didn't really match the blue and brown color scheme and we could use some more lighting in our dimly lit bedroom. I love it in here, and it is slowly growing on Daniel. :)

IKEA's light department came through for us again with this lovely affordable hanging light so I can now actually see the stove while I am cooking. There is only one overhead light in our kitchen and it doesn't provide great all around light. Now I am just trying to convince Daniel we need one more for over the table (also dimly lit there at night) but I am also worried it may look a little odd with so many lights in one room. We will see... :)

Out with the old nasty curtain and in with a new one! This fabric was from IKEA and I couldn't believe how perfectly it matched the walls! I sewed (though really just measured and hemmed in the sides) by hand, so it definitely took me about 2 hours. With a sewing machine the whole project would have probably only taken 15 minutes, but I am still thrilled with the result. :)

We also picked up this hanging basket from IKEA so the random rod mounted inside our sink closet would have a purpose. :)

In the living room we got some new sticks from IKEA for a large floor vase. You also may notice the giant window leaning against the wall. It (and it's brother you will see in the office) were free off the side of the road so I picked them up a few weeks ago. They were bigger then I though they would be, so I am trying to figure out what to do with them still. For now, it is just an architectural element to take up some bare wall space. :)

The guest bathroom got some new bath rugs...

And the shelf I bought OVER A YEAR AGO from an antique shop finally got painted white and mounted onto the wall. Hurray for finishing long overdue projects. :)

Here is brother dear in the office. This one I pained white then distressed (you know, to make it look antiqued). This one is smaller, and I kind of want to figure out how to hang it horizontally on the wall it is leaning against. We just haven't yet figured out a way to hang it (safely, so it doesn't fall on our guests sleeping on the futon) since it is just a window. We also got a new pillow on the futon.

This is our new main lighting unit for the office (before it was only desk lamps). I like the built in shelves to store some of Daniel's many books, pens, and candles. :)

Here is the new desk/table lamp from IKEA that I LOVE. I love the white basket weave shade. And I also love how it is not a typical desk lamp, so it is somewhat unexpected. There is also a new clock on the wall above the printer and GRE study guides.

We are loving our new apartment so much. It has been great to have so much more freedom when it comes to decorating. Though it will be sad if we are only here for this next year, we will definitely enjoy the time spent here. :) We are gladly accepting visitors at casa McDowell, we promise we won't make you do too much yard work. Just kidding. :)

I can't believe it is October already - the greatest month of the year! :) My wonderful parents were visiting us last weekend so I will have pictures of our adventures up soon. :) Happy Saturday!

PS - somehow, miraculously, my pictures can be clicked on and seen larger again! I don't know what I did, but I will try to keep doing it. :)