Decorating My Closet

Living in an apartment offers many challenges. One of those challenges is big desire to desire to decorate and a lack of wall space. I've decorated my living room, kitchen, dining "room," bathroom, and bedroom, but I've still got the bug. After I cleaned out and re-organized my walk-in-closet this summer, I really do enjoy going in there now and picking out my outfit for the day.

So, why not jazz things up in there and make it really fun? I was thinking of doing a Paris fashion theme (i.e. tres chic/o-la-la) to tie in with the other Paris stuff I have going on throughout the apartment, but wanted something a little different. Today I was in Michael's and saw a Gone With the Wind poster. The light bulb went off! A GWTW themed closet is perfect! For those of you who don't know me, I'm obsessed with this movie! I've been collecting GWTW memorabilia and GWTW Hallmark Christmas ornaments for a long time now. I also have all these pictures from old calendars and ones I bought in Atlanta that I can use to make it special. The poster I bought today (pictured above) is one of my favorite quotes from the movie. I rushed home from Michael's and put it up in my closet. Hanging the poster in the closet, where I'll see it everyday, will remind me that I'm a strong woman who deserves the best as well as how lucky I am to have S. in my life. Yeah, he's my Clark Gable :)

I'm so excited to see this "room" come together. Check back for updates :)

Holiday Decorating Blues

Downsizing from a 2000 square foot house to a 880 square foot apartment has zapped my enthusiasm for fall decorating. I'm irritated that I no longer have a front porch, fireplace mantle, built-in bookshelves, and a formal dining room. Those features really allowed me to have fun with decorating and make the house feel like home. About a month ago, I culled through some of my fall decor and got rid of a few things that I felt I could live without. A few weeks ago, I pulled out my autumn kitchen towels and bought some candles. I couldn't bring myself to drag out my boxes from storage and start decorating the apartment.

So, instead of grading papers today, I sucked it up and got out the boxes. I was disappointed I couldn't find a nice way to display my lighted leaf garland. Every way I tried looked tacky. Now maybe if I was 20-something years old, I would have tacked it up on the wall or something, but not now. I was also going to drag out some cute Halloween stuff too, but I just didn't have room.

I came to realize that I just needed to put out the pieces I really loved and be happy with it. In the end, I just have my china hutch, liquor cabinet, and a small wall decorated. Instead of putting a wreath on my front door, it's hanging on a wall. I'm usually not a fan of putting up faux flowers on my walls, but I didn't want to take the chance of putting it outside on my door plus I couldn't find my wreath hanger! I'll post more pictures later once I get my dining room table cleared off and set up.