Small tweaks courtesy of Ikea

**I was not paid or perked by Ikea to write this post, I just love Ikea and was excited about my purchases to add some more pretty function to my small abode.

When I moved out to DC about 2.5 years ago I didn't bring a car with me and in the 2.5 years I've lived here I've gotten along pretty well without a car.  But something I've learned about not having a car is that when you hear one of your friends is going shopping with their car you immediately ask if you can go with them (only if you like the location they are going).  When my friend mentioned that she was planning on going to Ikea and then some outlet malls I jumped on that like white on rice and asked if I could accompany her on the excursion.

I looked through the Ikea catalog online, measured spaces in my apartment and then created a shopping list using Ikea's shopping list feature on their website (I am obsessed in love with lists).  We managed to go early on a Saturday morning so we also splurged and got breakfast there. Yep, I know how to party.

An hour and a half later we left Ikea, and I was immensely proud of spending only $60, especially since I only get to Ikea once every 6 months or so, so I tend to stock up when I do go.  Here are a few updates to my place featuring some of the things I bought at Ikea:

First up, I really, really needed to organize the clutter on our table.  The table is in our entry way/living room/pantry/only space to hang out and it has become a dumping ground for mail and a bunch of other stuff that makes a neat freak like me want to scream every time I see it.

 Luckily I found these Kassett magazine folder, at Ikea 2 for $3.99.  Good, easy solution for under $4?  Yes please!  I got to label both of them, one for me and one for my roommate Katie.

Next up, also in the entry way/living room/pantry/only space to hang out, was our shoes.  Being two young women in one apartment we have a ridiculous healthy amount of shoes between us.  I have brought these wire racks with me from my first place in DC and have always hated them and hated how cluttered they make the entry way look.  I could ignore it in our last house since as soon as the door was opened it was behind the door - here it just screams "DISORDER & MESS!" Anyone else hear it? No? Just me?

 At Ikea, I wasn't sure what I was going to find but I know I needed to find something because I was sick of our shoes being all over.  Luckily, when I was in Ikea my friend and I spotted this shoe cabinet, Bissa, after considering some recycling bins that I thought could work - but this was so much better.  At $24.99 it wasn't too expensive, and after living with wire shelves for over 2 years, I was ready to commit.

  So much better, right?  I love how it also provided a table top space to relocate the key bowl, sunglasses and a happy plant (which I may need to water) so I could free up space on our mail dumping ground shown above.  It's so beautiful and fits both of our shoes really well.  I can see us having issues with tall boots in the Fall, but to be honest, the tall boots didn't work in the wire shelves either so I'll just have to live with those laying out - or maybe tucked to the left of this beautiful guy.

Side note: I love the shoe holder so much that I would love to use a few of them in the bottom of my closet to wrangle my shoes, instead of cheap plastic bins like these, which I like but Bissa is so much prettier!

Pillow Problem

I can totally admit it.  I have a pillow problem - if you look at the post on curtains, you maybe counted 7 pillows on my bed.  Yes, I love pillows and I love sinking back into them and burying myself in them while reading a good book. I have had a pillow problem for about as long as I can remember (my dad was not amused that he had to help me pack 5 pillows for my tiny dorm room for my first day of college.

But, getting back to the point, I love pillows and I wanted to recover my family room pillows.  The year before, my roommates and I decided to do a Maroon and Gold color scheme to honor the University of MN Golden Gophers, since we were both Minnesota natives.  This time around we decided we want to go a bit more "girly" because there were only two of us (both females) in the apartment.

First step was getting the fabric, washing it, ironing it (which I always hate doing, but have enough experience to know that it makes a difference) and then drape it over the couches to see what colors I wanted with what.  Now, I bought the fabric so that it had the same color palette so it could, theoretically all go together.  But since I have different sizes of pillows I wanted to see what worked best.

The Winning Combinations:

And, just for fun - the combinations I tried but didn't like as much

I got my materials ready, and then my sewing machine broke - womp womp.  Then I took apart my sewing machine, cleaned out the broken thread as well as ordered jean needles to get through the thicker uphostery fabric and tried again.

 I first sewed the hems, so I would have nice clean edges

 Then I folded it into a envelope - I wanted to make removable pillow covers so I could wash them if needed.  After folding it then I sewed the two raw edges to make a pillow case. (here is is inside-out and folded, ready to sew)

Flipped it back so the nice side was out, and had some pillows:

I actually ended up covering 11 pillows but apparently only took pictures of these four, I'm sure the other 7 will make appearances in upcoming posts!