the tale of the fail whale

it all started last summer when i bought a cheap $7.99 coffee table from savers and made a plea to anyone who drinks bottled beverages to save their caps. for months i would randomly received a zip lock baggy from a weekend party one day, or two forgotten caps from someone's jeans pocket another.

then one thunderstormy night i sat down in front of all my stacks of organized bottle caps and decided to go at it. i was going to first sketch it out and then lay out rough borders with the caps, but instead i just did it. and here's the final product.

note: i still need to replace some of the bottle caps around the whale so they are all darker colors since those seem to look the best.

PS: i have to give a shout out to jennifer of new home economics for suggesting the twitter fail whale idea!

i spy a bottlecap

first of all i'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who drinks bottled  beverages and is nice enough to pocket the caps and donate them to me, you guys rock! (and now you have proof your donations have not been in vein)

alright, so if you remember back to last summer, i bought a cheap $7.99 coffee table from savers with the intention of collecting enough caps of various colors to create a cool design for the tabletop. and this past weekend i decided i finally had enough to get started on my diy table. an hour or so later, i finished stacking all the caps by brand...there were roughly 1,029 bottle caps.

any ideas for a design? i've been kickin around the thought of making a design of the twitter fail whale. for now im going to use my blue wicker table with the glass top so i can change the design whenever my mood changes. kind of like an etch-a-sketch for furniture...

walk with me, talk with me

here's a little walkthrough of my condo so far...

sink + vanity = happy girl

most of you probably know that there was a crazy cat lady living here before me...which meant that the place had a somewhat distinct odor, if you know what i mean. luckily we've already replaced nearly everything reminiscent of her (floors, walls, ceilings, closets...) but there is just one thing left. my bathroom vanity.

so tonight me and dad drove over to building materials outlet and picked out a 48" vanity and a 43" sink top. wait. 48" and 43"? that doesn't sound right. well, that's because i have only 42" to work with between the wall and the shower. and apparently 42" is not standard (unless you want a really short vanity...) it's either 36" or 48". im sure i just lost everyone there.

anyways, after exhausting all ideas of what we could possibly do (like buying a 36" and a 12" tall cabinet and putting them side-by-side) we finally decided on buying the bigger one. now dad will have to cut it down, make two new -- slightly larger -- doors, and reassemble the whole piece.

have faith, it will all come together somehow. my dad is nothing less than amazing. and plus, then i can actually use my vanity for storage. what a novel idea!

like christmas morning

 i woke up way too early and was too excited to go back to sleep. it felt like christmas morning. i guess i'm just really excited to finally be moving in! i thought the day would never come.

anyways, mom had found some cute chairs in the jc penney catalog, with some special discounts that expire today. i was trying to buy them online, but the shipping would be insane (since i want six chairs), so me and dad just decided to drive on over to southdale and see what they had in stock.


sidenote: we were there by 9am, walked up to the doors, and were completely disappointed that the store didn't open until 10am. bummer. so we turn around and get back in the truck, and then i notice that other people are going in and out? me and dad look at each other, and then simultaneously get back out of the truck and head back in. long story short, it turns out since they have saturday 'door busters' they open early, but don't make any note of this on their signage.

i ended up buying six chairs, which are super cool because they have 360 degree swivel, and are adjustable height! now i can have matching chairs on both sides of my bar (the high top side, and the standard counter height side). perfect.
 

here they are [almost] all set up. thanks to matthew for assembling them so quickly!

bottle cap coffee table

another great find at savers. this little coffee table has a great black base that should go with my living room decor. i wasn't impressed with the light wooden top (not in the picture), but that's ok since i plan to completely make it over anyways.

here's my vision: a bottle cap coffee table (see my progress here). and there's tons of inspiration on the web. for example:

i've begun collecting bottle caps, but it might take a while to get enough variety. so if anyone drinks a beverage with a fun bottle cap, send it my way!

and on the down side, if i mess it up, im only out a $7.99. man do i love savers.

the beginnings of the island bar

today dad and matthew started my island bar that will straddle the living room and dining room step. the reason i wanted this was so that the island would be two-leveled depending on which side you sit on. the dining room side will be standing bar height, while the living room side of the island will sit at standard counter height. i ended up going to ikea and buying a table top and extendable legs.

so tonight they got started. first they had to draw out a template because the table will actually need a corner piece cut out of it so it will hug the beam.

on another note: don't ever buy contact paper from the dollar store. it was the worst $1 i have ever spent.

a few things

i scored a few things this weekend...here's two of them (both from target).

indoors outdoors

so i was at kohl's the other day shopping for fun decor — like accent rugs and scented candles — when i stumbled upon some vintage-inspired patio chairs. i thought to myself: "it's green. it's vintage-y. it has a giant button. i like it!" so i bought two.

and it helped that they were on sale too.