Loft Tour: KB's Wardrobe

Two weeks ago I shared a little tour of my workspace! It's definitely where I spend most of my time at home. However, there is a space in our little home that I love most of all. My wardrobe. When we moved into our loft we were sort of bummed about the lack of storage space (read: no closet). The gal who lived here before us had fashioned a few rickity shelves in the laundry room (which we use as a pantry/craft storage), but they weren't really useful. We have a huge white brick wall running the length of our loft and not enough furniture to put there so there was a huge area that just looked oddly open. That's when my step-dad suggested we hang chain from the rafters and make a swaying wardrobe. Genius! Mike and I high-tailed it straight to Lowe's to purchase industrial strength chain and 1" pipe. It was a labor of love but I couldn't be happier! Not only do I get a fully functional (and huge!) "closet", but it also serves as a decorative feature with all of the colors and patterns. The chains and pipe fit the industrial feel of our home, but the clothing fits my personality. The perfect combination! (Also, I'm totally one of those girls that If I can't see it, I won't wear it. So this works out so nicely!) 

The white storage cubes are from Walmart. The tall ones are 2 of the 3-cubby stacking shelves (8 total), and the shoe racks at the bottom are just that. (The horizontal shelves tend to buckle in the middle though! As you can see, I'm sure!). I love being able to display my little collection of clothing in our home because it's definitely a collection I've worked at accumulating over the years. Since I only own dresses and cardigans/jackets, they fit really well. My belts are in the bathroom and my tights are in a drawer. Win/win! I think the swaying wardrobe was such a genius idea and it's almost my dream closet! It's a piece of this loft that I will want to take with me to absolutely every new home we have (but it'll probably be impossible.) I'm just going to enjoy it for as long as possible! 

You'll be able to see more photos on Moorea's blog next week! Thanks for stopping by my space!

How do you store/organize your clothing? Are you a "all items turned one way, in a certain order" kinda gal? I am!) 

Loft Tour: KB's Workspace

(click the last photo to see full-size!)

It's been a long time coming... We've been in our newest Home Sweet Home for over three months now (holy cow!) and I'm finally getting around to photographing some of it to share. Since we live in a studio loft and there are no walls, we're going to share it "space by space". Up first is my little workspace with my new computer (a graduation gift from my parents). I recently (read: yesterday) cleared off my entire desk, moved all of my shoppe stash and stuff to another location in the house to make it a more "work friendly" environment. I took a cue from Molly and got some fresh flowers for my desk. I used to love keeping fresh flowers in my room at previous houses so this should be no different. Mike jokingly picked up a lava lamp on our errand run yesterday and I was sold. I had to have one. Best purchase in quite a while! It makes all the difference to my desk! (I highly recommend each and every one of you go buy one, too!). ~Lava lamp luverz club! 

Also on my desk: various organizational accordion folders to the left of my desk. This is where I keep receipts, business-y stuff and shoppe lists. The pink journal is a wedding notebook I've been working in. Various sketches and lists of things I want for our big day. The black spiral bound piece is The Editor... something I use to keep track of my blog schedule, sponsors and posts. The green spined journal is a back-up for my "Little Book of Ideas" which you can see below it. It's been the only journal I can write things down in. If I were to lose that little thing I might feel like I've lost an arm or something! It's priceless!  My Rilakkuma iPhone cover on my little white iPhone 4. Various nail polishes as I did my nails this morning (totally into the neutrals lately!). Craft, Inc business planner (So far I really like it!) and a ton of sticky notes. My life revolves around sticky notes and my Little Book of Ideas. I'm serious. I sticky note everything... even my phone! I also have my little Instax Mini just because it's cute and it reminds me to use it! 

You can see Georgia in two of the photos. She sits/lays under my desk 24/7. If I'm there and if I'm not. It's her favorite place in the house. I don't know if she just feels secure there or not but I like having her there to warm my toes!

Here's a picture that shows the pennant banner I made to hang above my desk. Mike cut it out of all the pictures above! Whoops! Oh, I've had a ton of people ask about the screensaver, too! Thanks to Weronika for letting me know! You can get it HERE!

Thanks for taking a peek at "where the magic happens" in our little home sweet home! We'll be sharing different spots in the house over the next several days! 

Where do you blog/work? Care to share your inspiring space?!

PS; There's a little hidden gem about a business venture we're currently working on! I can't wait to share that with you! Can you spot it?!

iPhone and Sneak Peeks

Yesterday we spent the day loading up way too much furniture and driving way too far to haul it into our new place. Luckily we had my uncle and my stepdad to help us. I don't think we could've managed otherwise! We had a 12' covered trailer, a 16' trailer, the backs of 2 trucks and my Xterra. And we were very picky about what we took, too. There's still a ton of stuff in my Nana's basement! We were driving to load up stuff yesterday and I passed by a yard sale with the most gorgeous antique ornate pink couch, but I was unable to pull over in time. I called my mom to run down there to check the condition and price, and 15 minutes later she called me back with a new couch and a ridiculously low price. I was elated. She also told me they had a gorgeous vanity and other things, so I hopped in my car and went over while Mike and my uncle loaded up our stuff. I found 2 designer chairs (not that it matters to me because I can't even remember the guy's name. Eep!), a white vanity with mirror (super distressed and old and awesome!), and a white side table for my side of the bed. I added up everything on the stickers and I asked the gal what she'd take and she quoted me about 40% of the price. 60% off, yes! We loaded everything up and then set sail for Nashville. Now everything is in our house and we've slowly started piecing it together. Today we're going to get stuff to hang a faux-wardrobe, paint all the walls that aren't brick, and then maybe figure out our internet situation. Right now I'm at my parents since we came here after work last night. We've got a lot of driving to do today so I'm trying to schedule a few posts before heading out since I'm not sure when I'll have internet again!

Above are a few sneak peeks of the place, as well as some photos of my birthday. Read: my birthday outfit (the black), a dress I picked up (the white), birthday veggie sushi, and then a few of the process of stripping, sanding, priming and painting our dining room set. Doesn't Mike look like a chimney sweeper?! They (the table/chairs) turned out A LOT brighter than we intended. Oops!

Anyway, off I go! Hang tight while I try to figure out when we'll have internet! I promise I'm not a totally awful blogger! :P

PS; I haven't posted an outfit in 2 weeks! Man! I promise I've whipped up some doozies. And by doozies I just mean stuff that I haven't previously worn a million times. I think. We'll see! I'll share them soon!

Movin' On Up!

If you follow me on Twitter or Tumblr, then chances are likely that you know we have decided to not move to Wilmington, North Carolina. ::breathe:: Okay, it's not because we don't love it, and it's not because it's anything shy of the perfect little town, but on our most recent trip earlier this month we realized just how many independent boutiques already exist. Two of them were identical to the shop I hope to open, and there were several others I didn't get to go into. So while the demographic was awesome, it's just not a good business plan to go into a flooded market and try to survive. Upon our initial heartbreak, we thought about other places that my shop might flourish. Then I realized how much I missed living in Franklin. I was tired of seeing the same faces and same places always, but I've officially been living outside of Franklin for 11 months (whoa!). I miss it. I do. Immediately we started researching houses and rental properties to move back. Downtown Franklin has the perfect area for a boutique, and there isn't anything quite like it existing already. The only problem: rent is insanely expensive! Also, Franklinites tend to be rather snoody and conservative. (Read: very snooty!) Still, they have money to burn. Of course I'm not thinking of a brick and mortar for several years, but I felt inspired by the area so we've opted to stay put a little while longer. Maybe for good, maybe for a year or so. Who knows!

We wanted to live in downtown Franklin, the Belmont area of Nashville, or East Nashville, but everything that came up was a bust. We walked around homes, called and emailed tons of people, and nothing worked out. But apparently my relentless internet scouring paid off! I found a factory-converted-loft in downtown Nashville up for rent! The timing was perfect. The price was perfect. And it was just neat! I immediately emailed the lady, set up an appointment for the next day (yesterday) and Mike fell in love with it right away. We drove up to Nashville yesterday for the day. We viewed a home in East Nash and it was just... awful. Then we headed over to the loft. We were early so we ran into a gal that would be our neighbor so she talked to us, showed us around, took us down to the loft available and the gal that was living there invited us in, told us everything there was to know about it and we were SOLD. We loved it. Other people showed up to see the place and that's when we knew we had to make a decision fast. Mike practically met the landlord at her car when she pulled up! We definitely weighed the pros and cons, and while it was a whole month earlier than we had anticipated moving, we put in our application because it was too good to pass up.

We spent the rest of the evening at Merissa and JT's house, and then we stopped by Bryan's work in Franklin on the way home. We woke up this morning to good news: The loft is ours! We go sign the lease tomorrow (my birthday!) and then move in this weekend! We're very excited and glad to have found something that appeals to us, in our price range, in a new part of town. I'll definitely share more photos as we decorate and such, but the next week will probably be just as hectic as this past one, even though I didn't even do anything! Please hold tight!

Here are a few listing photos of the space! The curtains on the lofted bed are my favorite! The porch you see is a community porch (there are 8 lofts in the building) and everyone is very much an artist. There are painters, guitar restorers, woodworkers, etc! It's like the coolest artist community ever and Mike and I are so excited to move in! The gal above us has her Masters in Sustainability and she rips old wood from barns and builds tables and mosaic countertops... all that jazz! As for the loft, we'll be decorating in a much different manner, but the best part: it is SO twinkle-light friendly! My dreams are coming true! I can't wait to go get the keys tomorrow! Hooray! Happy birthday me! :P

(the photos are awful listing quality, i apologize!)

Thanks to everyone who kept their fingers crossed for us! xo