Progress: Dining Nook

Vintage kilim, vintage milk glass hobnail vases, some flowers...it's coming together. Next: blinds.

Project: Inspiration Wall

As a professional fashion photographer, I get to read magazines as part of my job. I know, poor me. If I see images I especially like, or want to make a note of, I rip them out and put them in notebooks. I also have a folder on my computer, which is insanely large.

Lately, I've seen a few photos of interior design that incorporate magazine cut-outs, and since this *is* my office, my haven of creativity, it seemed perfect. I'm nowhere near done, but it's a start.

Yum: Nutella Croissants

There was a period during my first semester and winter break, freshman year of college, when I decided Visual Media/Communications was not for me, but I didn't know what to study. I had always loved to cook (I invented a crepe batter recipe when I was three. Really. Last lines read "add chess, roll up crap and eat."), so I thought culinary school was the way to go. I figured I would finish out the year, see where I was, then apply if necessary. But then I took an amazing Art History class and changed majors, so I never actually went to cooking school.

Which is partly why I like everything to be homemade. Which is also why these nutella-filled croissants are especially evil. Oh noes--Pillsbury! Premade! Processed! Really, if you're eating chocolate pastry, you're not looking for health food, so get over it. These are super-super easy, and super-super decadent.

Need:
- One tube of Pillsbury mini croissants, in a tube (or how many you want, one tube makes eight.)
- Nutella

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Unwrap dough, divide triangles, and lay out.
3. Take a dollop (maybe about a teaspoon) of Nutella and place on the bigger end of each triangle of dough. You may need two spoons to scoop and scrape.
4. Roll the croissants, from big end to small end. The ends will be open, but they shouldn't be, or the chocolate might melt out. I recommend pulling over the little flaps to seal the sides. Not as pretty, but you don't want to lose your precious chocolate!
5. Bake at 375 for 13-14 minutes.
6. Buy new pants, as you will eat all of them in one sitting.

You're welcome. :D

Apologies: Comments

So here I was, thinking, "poor me, no one reads my blog--no comments!", and then I went to my Dashboard, and saw there were a few waiting to be approved, since I seem to have mucked up my settings. That seems to have been fixed. Sorry!

Opinions: Mantle Lamps/Art

Ok, I found a solution for the remote control lamps. Turns out the transmitter is designed to be plugged into a socket, but it has holes for the actual plug. It looks like a socket protector for kids, but not actually protecting anything. Plug the lamp into the transmitter, which is plugged into the wall.

Since we have two working sockets next to the mantle, it only makes sense to have lamps on it, and I think I'd like a matching set. As of right now, we only have one table lamp, a vintage chrome ball lamp that's about 32" high. I found a match on eBay, so we could use those. As for the art over the mantle, it's coming down to two options: 1.) an enlargement of one of my fashion prints, and b.) the vintage silver mirror I found at Urban Ore. I know I don't want silver with silver, so I don't want the mirror with the ball lamps. Either We hang the mirror and get new lamps, or we use the lamp(s) we have and go with the photo.

What do you think?

Project: Remote Control Lamps

As I have mentioned before, we don't have ceiling lights in every room of the apartment except the bathroom and kitchen. When we enter the apartment at night, it's completely black, assuming we haven't left any lights on. As of right now, we are using one of my photography lamps with a 100-watt CFL bulb, but I reeeeeally don't like it, even if it's temporary. The idea was to have a lamp on a side table to turn on as soon as we walk in, but the closest socket is 15' away--I just discovered the socket on the same wall as the table has been sealed shut. Plus, a lamp by the front door isn't that central, so it wouldn't illuminate the room as much as it would need to.

Here's what I'd like to try, if it's possible: get two lamps for the mantle (maybe find a partner to our silver vintage ball lamp), and have them attached to a remote control that would stay by the front door. We could walk in, press a button, and turn on lamps with the same ease as flipping a switch.

Except, I'm not sure how this would work....off to investigate.

Thoughts: Color

Since we're still moving in, I've been literally facing how much we have. And frankly, I'm not happy. It's not only a lot of stuff, but I'm just....past it all. When The Boy and I were first decorating (and by "we", I mean "me") there was a lot of color for the sake of having color. Now, it all looks so...young. Color is fantastic, don't get me wrong, but color for the sake of having color just seems too in-your-face and overwhelming to be mature. We're now on apartment #3 in three years (and probably not going anywhere anytime soon), and I'm fascinated by how my taste has changed. I have more appreciation for shape and tone rather than outright color. I'm gravitating towards classic and elegant, but with bite, which is similar to my fashion sense. Vintage, but not kitschy. I'm comfortable with color, but I'm 25 now, and I feel like I can have an adult's apartment, if that makes sense. I don't think I can do minimalist, but I can certainly tone it down, which I'm trying to do.

This means I have a LOT of stuff to get rid of. Jonathan Adler pillows, a giant poster of David Bowie, a very cool, but very green, vintage MCM lamp...they should be enjoyed by someone else.