A Few of My Favorite Things

OK, so the title is one of the oldest clichés in the book (well, Sound of Music was made in 1965, so probably not, but you get my drift). But today I'm going to introduce you to some of my favorite items in my home. For a teeny tiny apartment, I have a lot of favorites...so I'm going to limit myself to just ten. Here are my top ten favorite decor items, in no particular order.

1. Globe lamp

I know it doesn't look so great in that photo, but it looks awesome lit up:

I've wanted a globe lamp since I first saw While You Were Sleeping with my mom when I was younger (which is a great romantic comedy, if you haven't seen it). Here's a screenshot of little Lucy's globe lamp she inherits from her father:

The line that goes along with this scene is "'Lucy, your mother gave me a special gift. She gave me the world.' Actually, it was a globe with a light in it. But for the romantic that he was, it may as well have been the world." Aww. Unfortutantely, my acquisition of the globe lamp is less sweet and more crazy. It involves me at the Goodwill, seeing the lamp across the store, running to snatch it up and dancing around with glee. I think I spent $12 on it. Truthfully, I probably would have paid $50, since I've seen them on Ebay for $100 and up (yikes!). 

2. Milk glass collection

If you don't know what milk glass is, you can read the Wikipedia article here. The first piece in my collection was the vase on the far left. It was my great-grandmother's, and I snatched it when my grandma was going to throw it out. Next, I found the bowl at a thrift store and bought it to match. Next thing you know, I had a collection going! I don't fool myself into thinking it's worth anything; I know these aren't precious antiques! I think they're pretty, especially the hobnail.

3. Jewelry cabinet 

I bought this at a thrift store---me? thrift store? You're shocked, I know---for less than $10. When I bought it, it was gold with black glaze and the inside was very old faux velvet that was falling apart. Ew, right? I spray painted it a metallic silver and recovered the inside with a red damask print. I know there are plenty of people that would have taken this a more sophisticated route and painted it a more muted color. What can I say, I love shiny things!

4. Silver elephant

More shiny silver! This elephant was actually what got me started on the metallic silver kick that I'm currently on. He's from a thrift store (of course). I think it's quirky, which is one of my favorite types of design items. Sometimes I like decorating with "classic" or "trendy" things that everyone has, but it's fun to mix it up with something quirky like this or a gold scarab beetle jewelry box (yes I have one and yes I love it!).

5. Ceramic lamps

I bought two of these bases at the thrift store (do you see a theme here?) for practically nothing. They have old wiring, but I don't turn them on too often so it's not a problem. I love love love the bases of these lamps, though I borderline hate the shades. They were super cheap ones that I bought at Target, and I got black because our walls are white. I'm on the lookout to replace them now....I'm thinking a black-and-white patterned shade would be fun.

6. Artwork

One of the best things about thrifting is that you can find great original art for practically nothing. I have 3 paintings in my house that I love love love, and I paid less than $10 for each of them! Since I bought all of them unframed, I like to think the artist discarded them as not quite good enough, enabling me to scoop them up for a song. I wish that I could let these artists know how much I enjoy their work.

7. Vinyl chandelier

Vinyl wall art is a great way to decorate in an apartment, since it peels off easily. In these pictures, the light is reflecting off the vinyl and you can see the white spaces in between. In person, it looks much better; I think it looks painted on even! This picture was taken before I made the chalkboard and replaced the hanging letters with it. I love the chalkboard hanging up so much more! The chalkboard is probably an honorable mention for my top 10 favorites. 

8. Wall of books

I'm a book collector (some would say hoarder). I love to read, and I've been a frequent library patron since I was 3 months old and my mom carted me there in a carseat. As a child, I wanted to live in a library when I grew up. Once I got old enough to realize that would probably (hey a girl can dream) never happen, I wanted to create a library of my own. Being surrounded by books may make some people feel claustrophobic, but it makes me feel comfortable and peaceful. This is just one of our book shelves, but it's definitely the biggest. It's right next to our bed. I would love to have walled the entire apartment in them....okay maybe that's a bit much, but at least put them up on another wall. They were really expensive for me though--$200 total--so this is it for now. I felt these shelves were the best option for an apartment because they're narrow, so they don't take up much space; they are a huge statement piece, which is hard to achieve in an apartment; and they will be easy to take down and move when that happens.

9. Wooden candelabra

This candelabra was a really really dark wood. I painted it metallic silver and rested it on one of my milk glass plates. It sits on our teeny tiny dining room (if you can call a tiny nook right off the kitchen that) table. Do I have too much metallic silver crap? Probably! But I love it so. :)

10. Photo Collection

This collection of photos is over the sofa in our living room. I spray painted the frames black, red and silver to go with the rest of the room. They were all just mismatched thrifted frames that I paid a dollar or two for at one time or another. I love seeing some of my favorite photos---and some of my favorite people!---every day. In our old apartment, which had more windows, all the frames were black and in a border at the top of the wall around the entire living space. Here we have too many large blank walls, and it didn't look as good. 

If you can't see in the photo above, those are the lyrics to Bob Dylan's song "Forever Young." I typed them up, putting my favorite lines in red.

So now that you've been introduced to my favorite things, I hope you feel like you know me a little bit better. I still plan to do a tour of our apartment, but it has to be clean first! Since that only happens about once a week month year, it may be awhile!

XOXO darlings,

Cassie