OUR APARTMENT!! Part 2 (friggin' FINALLY)

It's raining pretty hard today, which is completely unusual since it's been sunny and clear almost the entire time we've lived in Denver. While the gloom is a little lame, I can tell that Nikki likes it. Seems to remind her of gloomy days in Baltimore. She's a strange bird. However, the nice thing about rainy days and Nikki is that she's more inclined to do things she's been putting off for a while...like editing photos and helping me update the blog! The first one I wanted to post was the "thrilling" second half of the apartment tour. Once everyone sees how SWEET our place is, maybe they'll be more inclined to visit! So without further ado, I present to you: OUR APARTMENT!! Part 2 (friggin' FINALLY).

We begin the second half of our tour with the master bedroom. The French doors are especially cool, I think. The beads hanging from the door are Nikki's "Ravens rally beads." She wears them in public along with a Ravens jersey and...well...you'll see in the next pictures...

Nikki here. This is my prized possession as far as furniture is concerned. It's an antique dresser in the most gorgeous shade of mint green you've ever seen. The top part folds down to reveal four drawers and a shelf where I keep things like my memento boxes and underthings. It's made of this great hardwood and is just scuffed enough to feel worn in. I got it for free from a crazy woman when I lived in my first apartment. She had a bunch of furniture to get rid of, and as long as I could get it out of her apartment and over to mine, I could have it. I especially love it because my mom wants to own it BADLY, but I refuse to give it up. Along with our TempurPedic mattress, this was the only other piece of furniture I insisted we bring across the country with us.

Ok, see the weird panda thing behind that picture of Nikki and her mom? That's what Nikki calls her "pandahatmittenscarf." Her friend Genny bought it for her because Nikki has a pandahat that she wears to football games (and around the house for no other reason than to embarrass me, I think). I've included two photos below of Nikki in her get up so you can see what I have to live with during football season. (The pig, by the way, is a humidifier. In this dry climate, without one of these, you wake up all cotton-mouthy. ...Hee hee. I always wake up with cotton mouth!)

Picture One:

Picture Two:

This is Nikki with her friend Tia IN PUBLIC at a Ravens game last year!! She tells me that everyone in the stands loved the hat, but I don't believe her.

 

Back to the apartment. This is the master bathroom. Tons of storage space, and Tasha does her business under the counter top.

Across from the counter is a bathtub, which makes Steve very pleased. He's the type of guy that likes to soak his weary bones from time to time, and having the option to either take a shower (behind that door in the back) or a bath makes him happy. Nikki always says that she doesn't like baths because, like the Gypsies/Roma, she believes that sitting in a tub of water of your own filth is gross. I just think of it as a small pool. I've tried to get Tasha to take bubble baths with me, but she doesn't like water. :(

Nikki's jewelry corner. She wants me to let you know that 95% of her jewelry is made by her "awesomely talented friends."

The master bedroom walk-in closet. Smaller than some closets, bigger than most. A great place to play hide-and-seek. Tasha runs here (or under the bed) in the rare instance there's a thunderstorm.

Back in the living room. Nikki's had this bookshelf since college, and it shows, in the back of it is only held on with two nails. :P Selected reading: The Collected Poems of Pablo Neruda, The Origin of the Species, The Poisonwood Bible, and The Art of War. Can you guess which are Steve's books and which are Nikki's? Steve's friend Jess Knowles drew that picture of him back in college. He says that it was her first ever commission. Who knew he was such an art lover (and an egoist)?

I showed you the kitchen in the first apartment blog post, and now Nikki's gotten a chance to decorate it a little! She took the photo of the cone flower on her first trip to Colorado, and she won the bamboo, fish-shaped cutting boards at a green wedding raffle.

Speaking of new decorations, the bar got a bit of a facelift since the last time. The pineapple keyholder is for Steve's keys; the basket is for Nikki's keys. The bird is actually a foam puzzle that Nikki got from a (now-closed) store in Rehobeth, DE when she was in middle school. I took it apart and tried to put it back together again, and let me tell you, that tail is a lot harder to figure out than it looks!

And now, the artwork that is currently gracing our walls. I'll let Nikki give you the specs.

This was a page from a fairy calendar I used to have. It's based on the play A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is my favorite play. (I've acted in it at least four times.) I had a coupon for a steep discount on custom framing at Michael's craft store, so I decided to have it professionally framed.

My Baltimore photo collage. All photos are Nikki originals. From top left: Stieff Silver factory, Broadway Market in Fells Point, Bertha's Mussels in Fells Point, Domino Sugar factory, The Cat's Eye Pub in Fells Point, rowhomes in Waverly, and Locust Point, as seen from across the Inner Harbor. I had originally tried to sell the piece, but not having any takers, I decided to keep it to remind me of home.

This print is one of a set of two. My brother James, a chef, has the other one. When I lived in Cockeysville, MD after college, I saw a middle-aged couple put these two paintings gently on top of the community dumpster. Then then loitered a bit in the parking lot, as if waiting to see if anyone would take them. Being Italian and poor, I thought that the pictures would make an excellent addition to my apartment's decor. So I reached in and grabbed them, dusted them off, and took them home with me. To this day, I don't know if they were alarmed or pleased that someone dumpster dove for their discarded artwork.

I'm going to end this entry with a picture of Steve playing Rock Band, because it makes me laugh.

*urp*

We ended up only staying one day up in the mountains camping. Nikki accidentally booked a campsite at a park that was four hours away from the first one. She blames Google maps for not showing her the correct location. We ended up going somewhere else fun instead, although it was just a stop-over on the way home.

I'd write more, but Nikki put me through the washer and dryer when we got home. She said I smelled like "campfires and cat." I'm still a little dizzy from the ordeal, so I'll be updating the photos and all later this week. I still had a good time camping; I just wish it had turned out a little better.

Pardon me while I go be green near Tasha....

Nikki Post: My Mount Everest

This is my desk. Before getting my new laptop, my old computer (see on the right), monitor, and keyboard took up most of the space. To the left was always the recycling pile. And on top of the desk....an archaeological dig going back months sometimes. There's an organizer in there - an inbox of sorts - on the left side, under that pile of...well, the box is really the only thing I can clearly make out.

This has always been my catch-all area. My shoes and purse are always here. The drawers were littered with miscellany, although I was recently able to clean them out. Do you need a pen? I have - no joke - over 30. Markers and highlighters, Post-It note pads in different sizes and colors, and small notepads from the various places I've worked in the last five years.

I'm not a hoarder by any means. I LOVE throwing stuff away, giving stuff away, purging my life and apartment of unnecessary things. But my desk, for some reason, never really gets cleaned. Once in a blue moon, I'll have a manic episode that gives me the strength to dig through everything until I can see the countertop again, but those episodes, thanks to my medication, are few and far between.


Today, I'm tackling this hot mess of a desk. TODAY, I stand up to the clutter and remove it from my life. Today, I go through my "important documents" drawer (second down on the left), which holds paperwork on my car, my cat, and God only knows what else.

Pray for me.