Apartment Progress: The Closet Is The Only Finished Room

Hello! So we moved into our apartment in July and I absolutely love it. I've been making "improvements" lately. You be the judge if they are actually improvements. Or if it looks like a demented emo preteen stole Mom's credit card.

For some reason, I am mainly focusing on the closet area. It seems more manageable. And the stakes are lower than the living room. The rest of the apartment is unchanged. Here's what I've done so far, and perhaps that is enough.

I've loved Keith Haring since high school, and I've always wanted to use wall decals. Better use wall decals before I turn 30, I thought. Thus, I bring you my closet door. Cartoon dogs, I love it! I got the idea of somehow decorating the closet door from the Dos Family house tour in Design Sponge. Their space is the coolest! This is pretty crazy, but not as crazy as their jumping tiger-emblazoned pocket door. 

I bought Blik's decals and they were pretty easy to apply. If you screw up, it can be remedied. But read the instructions first. Not sure why I didn't do that. The videos are a good place to start. 

I emailed a pic to my friend Debie and she wrote: "Your new closet is crazy but I love it!!!  The top two dogs are barking at each other but the third row of dogs look like they're barking at a common enemy." 

So I put the dogs up while Joe was out of town for the weekend. I wish I could've seen his face when he saw it, but i was behind him. "Oh my God," he said. "Are there more?" Haha, no that's it. They are confined to the closet. 

I bought some basic, burlap-inspired Bed, Bath & Beyond curtains to shield our messy closets from prying eyes, and I went on a bender at the Container Store. Would you believe I carried all these boxes (and more) home on the Metro?

The Frida Kahlo poster from my last apartment is now in the bathroom, and I bought some Jonathan Adler hand towels. I really want a headboard, but channeled that energy into $$ bath towels instead. They had cute little hooks, and I was sold.

Joe said, "Those look like some towels a baby would throw up on." Me: blank stare. I recently showed him a fancy new blinged-out forest green peplum top I bought, and he said, "That looks like a really nice Christmas sweater," which threw me into a fit of despair. But, he was not wrong about the sweater.

I will have the last laugh though, because in case you haven't noticed, everything I've been buying is pink. Poor Joe. I ended up getting the amazing floral sheets I picked out for Racked! They totally match an existing dress I have, to the extent that I'd say one of these companies might have a lawsuit on their hands. 

Will keep you updated should I move out of the closet in my decorating efforts. xoxox

Guest Post: The Product That Saves Dying Nails

 Beauty advice interlude: My super cool friend Debie is a makeup artist in New York, and today she was nice enough to share one of her tricks of the trade. 

Ladies-- when it comes to first world problems, we know that chipped, broken nails can be one of the worst offenses.  They snag our most delicate of clothing, ruin our favorite tights, and leave us living in fear of every soda can top.  As a former nail biter (I was one of those “I didn’t even know I was doing it and oops now my nails are bleeding” die-hard addicts), a part of me wonders if the nail gods are making me pay for my once-terrible habit with the curse of weak, brittle tips.

Fortunately for those of us not blessed with naturally fierce claws, relief is found in the form of Rejuvacote, a miracle product manufactured by Duri Cosmetics, a company operating out of Brooklyn.  This humble pink antidote has transformed my cracked and peeling nubs into healthy tips, growing stronger by the day with each slick application.  Directions suggest you apply a fresh coat daily for 7 days but I found it hard to resist applying multiple coats in one sitting to achieve a finish that’s distractingly glossy.  One brief week later and my “dying nails” might not be “to die for” as their tagline promises, but they do look and feel pretty darn good.

Rejuvacote certainly isn’t the only effective nail strengthener out there but for about $8 a pop (I purchased mine from my local Bed Bath & Beyond), it’s a much cheaper option than other strengtheners (comparable alternates are OPI Nail Envy which retails for $17 and Nail Tek Xtra which retails for $12) and infinitely more practical than indulging in a weekly manicure.  Armed with Rejuvacote and a little patience, let those fear of pop tops fade away and instead let those nails shine (literally)!

Beyonce's Pixie and a "Cell Phone Mugging"

Hello my lovelies! (TM Cup of Jo)

Am I crazy or did Beyonce get the same haircut as me? Yay pixie cut! Compare for yourself: Queen B's new hair and my Miley-esque cut, which has since grown out a tad. "Maybe she reads Gosh Gee Golly," Joe said. Ha! I'm digging her hair, obviously, since I'm pro-pixie. Anyway, I feel like I'm on the cutting edge today.

Other than that, I've been busy working. And reading crime stats in local blogs, which is one of my more perverse hobbies. I can't find the link, but there was a story recently about a woman who had her bike stolen, then she saw the thief on her bike the next week and took out her cell phone to call the cops and the same guy stole her phone. Maybe that's an urban legend, ha. Just to give you a baseline for my neurosis, when my dad found out that I was moving to Mount Pleasant, he told my mom, "Her chance of survival is slim." 

Yesterday, I sat in the car while Joe ran and grabbed his dry cleaning. It was a nice day and I had the window down while scrolling through Twitter. Sddenly, a hand shot through the window and I heard someone yell, "Give me your phone." I realize now that my reaction time is very,  very slow. It was like being underwater. I found myself screaming "No!" and lunging towards the driver seat. I looked back at my assailant and... it was a friend of mine. It was all a joke. I wasn't going to end up on the pages of a Capitol Hill blog after all. Anyway, my life flashed before my eyes a bit there, but maybe it was a good drill for the real thing. God forbid.

New Apartment: Before Pics

I promised I would post pictures of our new space, and now I'm making good on that promise. Please keep in mind, these are before pictures. Before. That's why it is so messy and haphazard. Yes, that's why. Hopefully it will get better.

When you enter the apartment, the "gear wall" greets you. It's basically a particle board wall and then different hooks and baskets that can be rearranged. I don't know why the management company considers this such a big selling point for the apartment, but they do. Of course, Joe actually does have mountain climbing "gear" but I'm not sure if that's what they had in mind. "Here is our gear wall," I told my friend Haerah when she came to check out our apartment. "Ahh," she said. "It's a really nice stuff board."

Stuff board, gear wall, same difference. The question is, can it be made pretty? I will say it is convenient.

The closet is similar. I loved the concept, and it's pretty spacious. There is storage above the two bars. Joe and I need to work on sharing this space though, since I want to hog it all. Check out those sexy acrylic CB2 bar stools. I got them via Craigslist last weekend from a couple who bought them to stage their home to sell it. So they are practically new. They'll hang out in the closet until I can muster up the funds to buy the matching table.

The kitchen is on the wall with the door, and comes with open shelving and tomato red accent paint. It's pretty cute! I hung up my  Instax photos via the Fred Flare Birds on Wire set that Joe's sister gave me for Christmas. I think I'm going to do a black and white theme in the kitchen area. My plates are ugly, but the glasses are mismatched (all the wine glasses have winery logos), so I don't think I should put them in the open shelves. What do people put in open shelves? Purely decorative items or things they use a lot so they can be lazy and not open doors?

The TV is along the same wall as the kitchen. A coffee table is acting as a makeshift entertainment unit. I don't think there is anywhere else to put the bookshelves, but I'm not sure what should go above the TV and between the bookshelves in terms of wall art. Maybe a gallery wall. Would that look dorky?

Speaking of looking dorky, here is a chair directly in front of a couch. Ha. Our apartment is small and this works for the moment. The orange couch has a place of honor. There's a very Japanese-looking glass wall that can slide back and forth to separate the bedroom from the living room. Here you can see where the kitchen table is currently, not a lot of space for that either. BTW I got a new Air Macbook. That's the reason why I can't afford any furniture. I almost started sobbing when the guy rang my credit card, which is not a normal reaction. But I do love it so far.  When I walked into the Apple store, I thought it smelled like body odor. Maybe it was from the geniuses, or maybe it was the customers' flop sweat when their credit cards are charged.

Oh yeah, and that cool little round grey table is new. I got it at the very inspiring H Street mod vintage furniture store, Hunted House. I was convince to buy it by the proprietor who told me that the coffee table would look at home in Roger's office on Mad Men. Sold! 

He probably says that to everyone. No matter. It is the perfect size and I think it's going to look groovy. 

The bed is squished up against two walls, which doesn't look great, but there's so much more space for my dresser this way. I think it desperately needs a headboard. Remember last time I tried to buy a headboard and gave up? Why are they so expensive?

There are a few interesting other touches, but I'll save them for another day. God willing, it won't still look like this in a year!

New Hair

I chopped all my hair off two weeks ago. 

After the cut, I asked Joe, "Is my new hair swaggy?" 

"It's something," he said. Then after my protestations, he demurred. "It is definitely swaggy." 

For your reference: on the left is fresh from my hair stylist and on the right is my subsequent attempt to style it. 

I specifically requested it to not be like Miley Cyrus, but I think it's a little Miley. Whatever. I'm digging it! I was actually inspired to go short by Michelle Williams (Who What Wear just wrote about her undercut ) and also Robin Wright in House of Cards. She rocks that cut. 

It took me three years to grow my hair out and then in an hour, it was all gone. It was the longest it's ever been in my lifetime. You can see it here in the pages of Interior Design magazine (I "modeled" for my company's photoshoot. I haven't mentioned that here, but it was surreal!)

I don't miss the long locks. I think I wrote about the fact that I was freaked out by how much hair fell out daily. Maybe I never noticed it when it was short, but when it was long, it scared the bejeezus out of me. After I went to Iceland and ruined my hair in the Blue Lagoon and it was looking particularly terrible, I googled "women's hair loss" and just cried while reading the stories. Irrational behavior on my part, I know. I actually called up Joe and just scream-cried into the phone. In between sobs, I managed to get out the words, "All my hair is falling out." Joe was so sincere, and took me at face value. "What can I do? Can take you to urgent care?"

That wasn't necessary.

OK, so that's my insane reaction to long hair. I never got used to finding strands everywhere, but I still seem to have the same amount of hair as before so no harm no foul. I was just so sick of it so it's time for something new. I think I need new, edgier clothes (or girlier clothes?) to go with this swaggy hairdo. And fun earrings. I'm thinking statement earrings and ear cuffs. So now you know, I got this haircut to show off trendy ear cuffs. 

Leave me a comment if you love it or hate it, or if you have any suggestions for fun products for punky, edgy short hair. 

New Hair Cut: The Modern Long Bob or "Lob"

So ​before I went to Coachella, I almost dyed my hair pink! In fact, my stylist attempted to dye it pink, but for some reason it didn't take. Maybe God was watching out for me. It would've been subtle, I swear. She suggested doing an ombre baby pink on the ends, and it would've been cute. But maybe that's a lot of look for me, so perhaps its for the best.

​The pink might not have worked out, but I did get a new haircut. My hair was the longest it's ever been, and it was driving me crazy. I feel like the long bob is having a moment (or the lob, if you will), so I found some inspirational images to show my stylist. Check it out below (oh hey, rocker Taylor!).

Image sources: Taylor​, Miroslava, Alexa, tutorial from amazing stylist blog She Lets Her Hair Down

​I like how it turned out a lot, but I can't make it look as good as my stylist did. That's always the case though. I'll post a picture when I can get my act together. Also, the past few weeks I've been itching to go a lot shorter (oh hey, Michelle Williams pixie crop!).

What do you think of the long bob? What hair trend are you feeling lately?​