Remixed Boot Tray

One of my brother's Christmas gifts this year was a boot tray, a handy little thing that serves as a catch-all for sloppy, snowy, wet boots. Before this winter, I would have never thought I needed such an item, but thanks to the massive amount of snow/ice we've had these past few months, I've realized it was an imperative addition for my apartment entryway.

My Inspiration

While my brother's tray is nice, it's a bit of an eyesore - since my entryway is part of the same space as my living room (and kitchen), I wanted it to add to the décor of the room. I found this idea on Apartment Therapy and fell in love. The original poster used a LADIS lid from IKEA as her tray base, but unfortunately, IKEA no longer sells that type of container. I searched high and low during my last visit, only to be met with disappointment. *sigh* So, onto Plan B.

Once I confirmed that it
wasn't super-valuable, I
colored over it's original
gold eyes with a brown
Sharpie, turning them a nice
(and more updated) bronze.

I searched and searched for a suitable black plastic lid at various stores but kept striking out. I also perused trays, but those were often too expensive (the LADIS lid was $3.00) or too cute to be used to hold dirty boots (like this one, from IKEA). My mom also pointed out how small my available space was - opening my front door leaves an area of about 11" between door and wall. I had my work cut out for me. Enter Ohio Thrift, a locally-based thrift store chain that I recently discovered while visiting friends. Needing a little bit of a pick-me-up after dropping my mom off at the airport the other week, I found myself browsing the aisles, sizing up items and scavenging shelves. I had a good feeling, since during my last visit I scored this little fellow (right) for $1.99! In the midst of my wandering, I found a few contenders for my boot tray, but they were all discarded when I found a deeper black wooden tray for $2.99. I sized it up in the store but hung onto the receipt, just in case I needed to return it for another option later. Luckily, I didn't need to! I brought it home, cleaned it up, and filled it with four bags of black river rocks from Dollar Tree. End result? Awesome functionality.

My mini entryway - the door passes
right over the tray without catching.
Also, please note the mini snow shovel,
bag of kitty litter, and ice scraper.

My Version!

Yes, these shoes are props. ;)

3D Letters, in Technicolor!

One of the craft blogs I follow recently shared a link for printable 3D letters (check them out over on Mr Printables!). I thought about what I could do with them, and decided to print out the letters R-E-A-D on brightly colored cardstock for use in my classroom. Printing them on cardstock made the trimming and folding a little difficult, but it wasn't too bad and gave them durability. I also slipped magnets into the bottom of the letters for added steadiness (and I had originally planned to place them on the top of a metal bookcase).

I made my letters over the course of a few evenings, which is the approach I'd probably recommend to anyone interested. It's an exercise in patience and detail, all that slicing and folding and gluing and taping (at least the way I did it!). I found the best combo to be using craft glue on the tabs, with a piece of Scotch tape layered over top (but out of sight on the interior of the letter, if that makes sense). I found that tape held faster, but the glue kept the sides together snug and tight. I also found that I needed time for the magnet-gluing to set, so I left them overnight and finished their assembly the following evening, let them then dry overnight with remotes on them for good measure. :P

I think they came out really nice - a few of my students noticed them and were duly impressed. I decided to display them on my counter, so that they were more visible. They got sort of lost on the bookshelf (you can see more of my classroom, including the bookshelves, here). They look pretty sweet up there, next to my IKEA score from last year's post-Christmas sales. :) [Note: The photos below were taken with my phone, hence the less-than-awesome quality!]

New Apartment + New Classroom = Decorating Mania

Note: This post is really for my parents, since they helped move me in to my new apartment and classroom a little over a month ago; as of this week, I'm finally unpacked (starting my new job two days after moving cross-country will do that to even the most organized of us!). There are still a few to-dos, but they are back-burner for now. Gotta map those curricula and mold those teenage minds, ya know! Anyway, peruse if you're interested, but I won't be offended if you skim over this post. ;)

Apartment Pics (sorry for the bad quality) - click to enlarge!

Butterfly Corner

The Butterfly Corner: To perk up a bare corner, I applied some floral wall art that I discovered at Wal-Mart (and it's reusable!), however, the corner still seemed a bit stark. I got the butterfly idea from a store in town that sells artwork from local craftspeople. When I saw decorative butterflies made from (reinforced) book pages, I said to myself, Wow, I can do that! So, all I did was create a template out of black cardstock, traced it onto multiple pages of Alice in Wonderland, and trimmed them out! I rolled/lightly creased them and used double-stick tape to attach them to the wall (controversial, I know, but it doesn't bother the paint on my walls). I like the effect a lot, and it cost me zero dollars!

Detail Shot!

They offer such nice texture on the walls.

To the left side of the butterfly corner is the couch (excuse the clutter by the DR table, I was in the midst of making curtains for my classroom!):

I can be OCD about TV remotes...

And then all the way over is the dining room space, where I found a way to incorporate some of the fruits of my scenic painting theatre class! We practiced two different methods of painting bricks on a single canvas, which I promptly sliced down the middle and reattached to custom frames my dad made for me. There's a small ceiling hook above the table in the corner, and I've played around with the idea of hanging some sort of plant (real or fake) from it, but I can't decide if that would be granny-like! I'd kind of like something that would add to the outside-cafe feel I'm hinting at with the bricks and ivy. *shrug*

Aaaaand here's where we need some more work (below)! I hung a black-brown IKEA shelf with brackets on the wall by the door, but the windows definitely need curtains. I also want to up the privacy here - people walk past this window all the time because of the way the apartment building is laid out, so I want to research some different ways to add privacy, beyond filmy curtains (which might look granny-like!). I want to retain as much natural light as possible, though, since I have houseplants and this is the only natural light source for my LR/DR/kitchen. There's probably a double-project here: securing more privacy while also embellishing the windows with curtains. More thought is needed before I move forward.

This was taken before I hung the wall shelf by the door.

People walk right up this sidewalk pretty often. It's a bit unsettling.

I did hang my large piece of artwork in the entryway - it juuuuust fit! The verse wall art is another Wal-Mart score (reusable, and only 99 cents!). And in the lower right picture, you can kind of see the cord cover I used to hide the electrical cord for the TV/modem/router, since there wasn't an outlet on this wall (stupid). I also traveled all the way to Target (there's not one in my current town) to purchase these bins for my IKEA cube shelf, since the color I wanted wasn't available online! They work great - the upper one holds dvds, and the lower one holds... the jumble of cords from the cable/internet/TV hookups! Sneaky, sneaky, I know! 

You can see the wall shelf here.

I also found a few storage bins for my wire shelf, which functions as a pantry and additional storage. The black cubes are from IKEA and the bark-imprinted bin on the top shelf was a HomeGoods find. I'd like to make a curtain for the edge that faces the LR, and I think I'd prefer a neutral color, so it blends into the wall better when looking at it from the direction of the front door, if that makes sense. I've kicked around the idea of a table runner, but I haven't found one I like for cheap enough. I did look at fabric at Wal-Mart, but nothing struck my fancy. So that's a tabled project for now.

You can kind of see the kitchen in the pic above right - here's another fuller shot. It's a galley kitchen.

Can you see my fall hand towel? :)

Bedroom Shots - click to enlarge!

All unpacked! FINALLY.

My little British section. :)

Um, my dresser. Ha, I've got nothing else.

Space is at a premium, but I think it all
fits! However, I did order a wireless switch
for that light in the back - there's no way I
could wade back to it every day!

Dontcha' love my anti-theft device(s)? My dad takes care of me. :)

I was a little skeeved out by the fact that the door blinds didn't reach all the way down to the bottom of the window (despite the fact that someone would have to lay on their back, on concrete, in order to peer up into my room. Nevertheless, problem solved. :) Maybe I'll use the remainder on my LR windows - the bottom pane only. It's a thought...

You can sorta see the problem on the left door window.

When you cut the line curvy, you don't have to worry about straight edges... ;)

Bathroom Shots - Forgive the tightness of the space.

The flowers I had matched perfectly!

And a matching clock! It helps me to keep moving in the AM.

Trying to show all the components - and you can see the bare spot above the toilet -
I think I'm going to create a piece of artwork like this (in theme colors) to go there... eventually!

Classroom Pics - click to enlarge!

Finally decorated my bulletin boards! And threw away a random stick from
the cabinet (I kept it for three weeks... and decided it has no apparent use).

A fellow teacher gave me the fabric, and I purchased wide
grosgrain ribbon at Wal-Mart for a border (there aren't any
teacher stores nearby, so border is a precious commodity!).

The Class Rules & Expectations sign is from Teachers Pay Teachers - it's
an awesome site if you haven't checked it out already.

Some more TpT printouts and my Entertainment covers of The Office, for a unique personal touch. :P
Also, the sophomores don't know it yet, but literature books are coming their way!

These posters were left behind by the previous teacher - I picked them all off the wall (she had used poster tape on
painted drywall! *shudder*) and laminated them before hanging them in a checkerboard pattern using sticky-tack.

Carryover decoration from my teaching time in MD! Doesn't quite fill the wall, though.

Books, journals, my awesome owl wallflower from Bath & Bodyworks (given to me by my former roomie - THANK YOU!!! - the kids really like it), and my collection of theatre posters from undergrad. Also, I brought my spider plant in because it wasn't getting enough light in my apartment - it's the only real plant in my room!

Confession: A few of these boxes are empty.

My collection of Medieval paintings...
from a calendar I had in college!

I got the printout on my podium from...
Teachers Pay Teachers! My kids get a kick
out of it! It says "Please Raise Your Hand if you
[Mustache] A Question!"

My desk - and curtains!

Turning my desk the way I did meant that all
of these cords were a visible mess from the
doorway, until...

I covered them with a curtain! I picked out a
fabric that I really liked at Wal-Mart and
"sewed" curtains with a hot glue gun! I used
a short tension rod to hang it on.

I used the same procedure for my room
curtains as well - I creased the hems using a
hair straightener. :P Worked like a charm.

The other window!

Finally got a chance to cover the back bulletin boards as well - the same nice coworker who gave me fabric also gave
me some wallpaper - the blue ran a little short, so I had to get creative. :P Give me a few weeks to put stuff on them, k?

I found a chevron-patterned desk calendar on
sale at Target... SCORE!

Cell phone jail! Thanks, Pinterest! ;)

I fit a surprising amount of stuff in this cabinet,
with room to spare!

My shelf, with its morning-coffee basket
(we have a Keurig in the teacher's lounge).

I definitely don't get tired of this view - especially on foggy mornings!