i think i'd like to bring this blog back to life. so keep an eye out for that.

a very long story about doors

there's no door to our room, just an odd-sized gap in the wall, and it became clear shortly after we moved in that something needed to be done. our cats are completely maddening at night and it would become an even bigger issue with a sleeping baby. so we started looking into our options. a regular door is impossible; we rent, and the gap is not a doorway, but really just a gap. it's about 46.5" wide and 96" tall, while a standard door is 36" wide and 80" tall. it didn't take long to come to the conclusion that accordion doors were the only option.

trouble is, accordion doors need a track along the top- something that we discovered after buying two of them- and doors are not generally eight feet tall. after brainstorming and arguing and being generally frustrated for a while, we decided that the best option was to have a piece of wood cut to size, paint it white, attach it to the walls with brackets at the necessary height, and nail the track to it.

the "doorway."

attaching the L brackets.

measuring. the combined length of the two tracks was too wide, so one of them needed to be cut.

tracks cut and secured!

hanging the door "frame" was the trickiest part and required both of us, so no photos of that part. fast forward to-

we have doors!

now, you might think that that's all there is to this story. alas, it is not. our first closed-door night was a disaster. you see, the cats were not pleased by this new development, and they were not about to let a pair of vinyl doors keep them out of the bedroom. mind you, their food, toys, and litter box are all in the living room/kitchen, so they didn't need to get into the bedroom. they're just spiteful.

the major flaw was the bottom of the doors. the handles secure with magnets a little higher than halfway up, and there's no track on the floor, so the doors can simply be pushed apart where they meet at the bottom. bit of an oversight on our part, i suppose. i pushed our old tv stand up against them, but it wasn't enough. i tied the handles together, no luck. as a desperate, last-ditch 4am effort, i wiped down the lower half of the doors with vinegar- cats hate the smell. when combined with other barricades, it worked! kind of.

notice that big red bookshelf next to the doors? yep, nickee hopped on top of it by way of the kitchen counter and jumped through the gap above the doors.

today we gave the tv stand away, so that's one less barricade. i punched little holes at the bottom of each door so that i can tie them together, and we pinned up poster board across the gap. the cats could pretty easily knock it down, but i'm hoping they won't realize that.

nickee and nono won't try to get through the doors as long as someone is in the living room with them, so i don't know if these new deterrents will work. i guess i'll find out shortly after i finally drag myself to bed.

my god, these have been a few extremely long days. i haven't been sleeping well so i've been forced to get by on a couple of hours of sleep here and there. it makes one day feel like four.

our weekend has consisted of shopping and projects. we finally got our tax refund on friday and it was enough that we could put some aside for important things and still afford a few luxuries, which are not common for us. naturally, i was extremely excited.

you see, i'd never been to ikea.

yes, you read that right. never! i've spent countless hours browsing the website, compiling wish lists, and imagining how i would decorate our apartment if i had the means. so when friday rolled around i finalized and printed my shopping list, and after a stop at home depot (more on that later...) we set out on the half-hour drive to ikea orlando.

i will spare you the play-by-play but let me just say two things:

1. my list didn't have a prayer.

2. shopping alone would have been dangerous- financially.

i was pretty satisfied with my self-imposed spending limit, but it turned out that ikea had the same effect on andy that it had on me. i was not expecting that. "look, this bookshelf is on sale!" and, "i know this one is more expensive, but it's way cooler." the flip side to his furniture enthusiasm was my weakness for accessories. i think we kept one another in check- or at least, he kept me in check. we ended up getting the more expensive shelf for our tv and an extra bookshelf to boot, but i didn't get the cushions or storage boxes that i wanted. sigh.

after an extremely stressful drive home with half of a large box dangling out of our trunk on the interstate (superb planning on our part, luckily our bed frame made it home) we began the long assembly process. we worked until the wee hours yesterday and until 3am today.

assembled: one expedit shelving unit, one lack coffee table, two lack end tables, one billy bookcase, and one leirvik bed frame.

to do: finish decorating, buy a box spring so we can actually use our bed frame, sell/donate all of the old furniture that is now cluttering up our tiny apartment, and install our new bedroom "doors"- again, more on that later.

progress!

30w3d

today, at long last, we got our tax refund. this means something wondrous- new living room furniture! SO excited.

taking a stab (no pun intended. just kidding, pun completely intended) at embroidery. this is my first (incomplete) attempt and i have absolutely no clue what i’m doing. i didn’t have any transfer paper so i just dove in, freehand, and i’m pretty sure it shows. haha. but i’m having fun with it.

if anyone knows of any good embroidery tutorials/resources/inspiration/what have you, please link me!

needing no justification for baking funfetti cupcakes at 2am is one of the many perks of being pregnant.