I love this door. I mean shelves.

Back to the main purpose of this blog: making a 425 sq ft “house” a home. In this so called home, we have one kitchen drawer. Yes, that’s right. One kitchen drawer.

I have lived in a place in DC where I  slept above a toilet. I have lived in a house where persons over 6′  had to stoop to fit into some rooms (in Colorado). I have even lived in a pop-up camper that one time (in Montana) … uhm, popped … to one side, creating a nicely 45 degree-sloped floor in the middle of the night (which equals rolling out of bed down to the other side). But … this is the first time I have lived somewhere with one kitchen drawer.

Meet our kitchen drawer. “Hello, little drawer.” And little it is…

This drawer has become the obligatory junk drawer. Home to twist-ties, scissors, rags, hot pads, matches, etc. So what happens to, you know … spoons. forks. knives. spatulas. But we cannot declare defeat!

Enter my most favorite “find” ever…  Meet my door.

Once upon a time this door was a regular door on a house. Then it was a damaged door on a burned down house. When I crossed paths with this door, I was living on the border in Weslaco, TX, and stumbled upon a wonderful woodworking artist named Augustín, who rescued wood from burned down houses and turned them into country-ish furnishings. (My best friend bought an awesome bench).

At the time, this door was a blue door frame with chicken wire in a stand. For two years, I used it to simply hang things … photographs with ribbon, tiny vases with flowers. (I’m sorry I don’t have photos. I promise to get better at this.)

However, the time came that I decided it should, could, and would, be more useful. At that point, I bought a basic slab of wood at Home Depot, had them cut it to the the near width of the door. I then mounted these strips of wood with brackets.

Then I carefully selected a paper from the oh so voluptuous paper selection at the Paper Source (let me count the ways I love you) and decoupaged, then shellacked it onto the shelves.

The door then instantly became a way to make up for our lack of kitchen drawers.

Sentimental mugs = silverware holders

Used kombucha jar = lentil bean container

Shelves = spice and tea rack

Chicken wire + mini-S-hooks = kitchen utensil hanging rack

(We go through phases of drinking tea anywhere from occasionally to frequently, but nevertheless … tea boxes are actually beautiful! No reason to hide them in the cupboard!)

This was our kitchen door before the holidays. It has gotten much more cheerful since then…

We have since decided that our little white lights are nice. We’re leaving them up until further notice … 🙂

What I love most about the door is that it has taken a journey that is all its own. It survived a house fire. It was transformed by a talented artist almost in Mexico. It was then further transformed by me, its not-so-secret admirer. And it now serves our household in a unique way. I will always have this piece of furniture!

If you also live in a 425 sq ft (or thereabouts) apartment with your significant other, looking for inspiration to maximize this space, I realize that this post is slightly unfair, because not everyone has met awesome Augustín or run into his incredible work in the back room of a small Texas town antique shop. However, perhaps you have your own one of a kid enviable objects that can be used in an unexpected way, or that you could modify to use in an unexpected way. If you do, please share them!

Recycled Christmas

Already on my second blog post ever, I am veering from my main purpose. Let’s take a jaunt off our “home improvement” course onto the side street of one of my favorite things … crafts!

I believe I mentioned I am operating on a budget. I also somewhat abhor the wastefulness of Christmas … wrapping paper all over the place … cards … gifts upon gifts … stocking stuffers … stockings themselves. Not to mention the energy of all those Christmas lights! (Though I must admit I am a sucker for those lights). Don’t get me wrong. I love the holidays as much as the next person. But this last Christmas 2013, Daniel and I made a special effort to minimize, reuse, reduce, and recycle.

My first project were homemade, personalized Christmas cards! I searched for funky images in magazines (National Geographic, Vogue, Psychology Today…) and cut them out. Once I had my treasure trove of pictures, I pulled out a nice black pen (rather, stole borrowed from Daniel’s very classy pen collection), and my old set of pastels to create a holiday arrangement and message. Here are a few examples…

That’s right. Fashion models get excited.

A muddy inundation in National Geographic suddenly becomes hot chocolate with some imagination. 🙂Alfred Hitchcock, you’ve never been so festive.

The only reason I could make this one is because I am lucky enough to have friends in cold places to remind me how happy I am to live in Texas!

Not afraid to be cheesy.

We also seem to have begun a tradition of handmade (recycled) Christmas trees. Here is our Christmas tree from 2012 when we actually spent the $20 on one of those miniatures from Whole Foods. There was a great piece in a National Geographic on the redwood forest with one of those great big fold outs with all of the creatures, tiny and not-so-tiny, that inhabit those great trees. We cut out some of our favorites, hot-glued short pipe-cleaners to the back, and twisted those around the branches so that we could have some of our redwood friends on our Christmas tree at home with us.

And here is our most recent Christmas tree from 2013. This time we used book pages from an old Nancy Drew book to make paper snowflakes (which we also put in the window … shame on me for not taking pictures). This time we didn’t even spend the $20 at Whole Foods. Instead we collected branches from around the neighborhood.

Besides the re-gifted gift bags, the two in front were using paper bags. (See Banana Republic? It had the help of some colored Sharpie art.)

Here’s some more on that recycled gift wrap. From all those times we forgot to take our reusable grocery bags into Wheatsville or Whole Foods with us, we had a collection of paper bags accumulating under the sink, growing to a worrisome height so that it was reaching its cupboard limits! So … get out the coloring supplies and reuse, recycle!

Please don’t miss the poetry by subtraction. I was in fact inspired by a link a wonderful friend had sent me, here.

Well, new friends. Despite the holidays being over, perhaps this was of some entertainment at the very least. Does anyone else have some creative holiday decor/gift wrap/gifting ideas you can share?

How it all began …

My name is Anne. I am an elementary teacher and lover of books, art, and trashy music. I live with my boyfriend, Daniel, in a small apartment … a very small apartment. 425 sq ft to be exact.

When I selected this apartment carefully of all the places my central Austin locator showed me in the part of town I wanted and the price range I needed, I was pleased that 1) it didn’t look like either drug dealer or drug user had inhabited it before me, 2) it did not have carpet (or a mysterious blue stain on said carpet), 3) it did not smell of mold, and 4) it did not require me to drive over 9 speed bumps through a labyrinthine apartment complex parking lot. Rather, it was in a small 9-unit building, adjacent to my favorite Austin neighborhood, painted a sunny yellow color (even if it was peeling), had nice (imitation) saltillo tile floors, and most importantly — let in lots of light from the windows on the east and west sides.

The fact that it was small (very small) and very imperfect did not bother me, as I was simply setting out to live on my own, completely unaware of the fact that I would soon unexpectedly reunite with an old teenage love (with whom I had not spoken in 7 years), that I would fall in love with him (both of us all grown up this time), and that he would leave his life in New Orleans and come to live with me in Austin just 3 months (and seven years) later.

We are now presented with two challenges:

First, we were 2 grown people living in the same small (very small) space. And despite the fact that Daniel gave away a truck load (and I mean a truck load) of books in order to fit his life into the back of one Ford Explorer and drive here, he still had … a lot of books. And so did I! And we had all those other things … like clothes … and shoes … and dishes.

Second, I seem to have an unending itch to design (and redesign) the space around me. However, I also operate on a tight budget, limited patience, and unfortunately,  and only so many small (very small) walls to adorn with frames, bookshelves and the like.

Thus, a little over a year after move-in, I feel inspired to start this blog to document our progress in this small (very small) apartment – even if the most dramatic “before” pictures are no longer possible at this point. And so this is how it begins.