I moved!

I posted the before pics. And here are the after pics. There are a few things on my "to get at some point" list, like a chair for the living room, and a few things on the "to do" list, like plant flowers and organize the balcony a bit, but overall, it finally feels like an apartment.

Ava loves the balcony

To do: do something with that microwave cord

Den or Study or whatever you want to call it...

I know those last 2 pictures were barely different...but the whole thing wouldn't fit in one frame!

Hall

Final 2

I am so sick of looking at rugs, so this is it. I'll explain my dilemma and then am open to thoughts.

I like this rug:

But it is expensive compared to this rug:

I worry that the first one might not go with my couch, and I worry about finding the right greens to go with the second rug. So neither one is perfect. When I started this whole rug thing, I wanted something that would give me a bright pop of color. Both of these will do that, I think, although yellow can sometimes come off like a neutral. But maybe that's ok? I really love the style of the pattern on the grey/yellow rug. Simple, modern, but with a natural feel. The green one feels more whimsical and not as sophisticated for some reason.

That said, this is a big price difference. $390 versus $564 (after a 25% off discount). If I was certain about the first one, then maybe it'd be worth it, but I'm not sure...

So - what do you think?

I don't own a rug...

Remember when I wrote about rugs? Well, I bought one. The first one. They shipped it to me. FedEx delivered it...to the "side door" according to their door tag. Of course, I don't actually have a side door to my apartment. The building has a side door, but that side door faces Santa Monica Blvd, which is much busier than my side street. So certainly they wouldn't leave it there, right? Well, I actually have no idea. But it's gone. Fortunately both FedEx and the company I bought the rug from were great and the company reordered a rug for me at no charge. Yesterday, I was notified, however, that in between the time that my first rug shipped, was stolen, and had to be reordered, the rug had been discontinued. I tried to see if any other vendors might have it in stock, but nope. It's unattainable. Even through eBay, which I thought was a goldmine for discontinued rugs.

So that's out. And it means I need a new one. So the old options are still on the table. Well, except I don't really like #2 and 3 anymore, so let's just focus on the green swirl rug and these new options.

1. Lulu rug

Apparently it's a brighter apple green than this picture depicts. They offer swatches for $2, so if this ends up being the front runner, I think I'll get that to be sure I like the color.

2. Safavieh Dhurries rug

3. Floral Yellow/Olive Rug

4. Stream Rug

5. West Elm Andalusia Rug

6. Argonne Rug

7. Pottery Barn Green Swirl Rug

I own a couch!

Ok, basically this blog has become a music/decorating blog. Pretty congruent with what's going on in my life lately.

To follow-up with the progress of my apartment decor, here is my new couch:

I had it custom made from Custom Sofa Design. It's a modified version of Jonathan Adler's Butterfield sofa. Mine is slightly shorter and with 2 instead of 3 cushions. Espresso wood finish and Linato fabric in color Cafe.

Mr. Clean is my hero!

I have talked in person to a lot of people about my love of Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser, but last weekend, I cleaned the linoleum floor of my new apartment with it and am in love again. I took photographic evidence of the amazing-ness of this product. You know how linoleum has those grooves in it where dirt gets trapped? You can mop all you want, and it's not gonna get that dirt out. Well, Magic Eraser? No problem. See below.

Before

After

Music Updates

I am on a blog kick today. Maybe because I have been spending so much of my time looking for apartments and then looking for furnishings for said apartment that I have run out of time to blog and/or things to blog about.

Well, some people read this for random info about me. Some people read this for info about music, and since I have acquired a lot of music recently, I figured I'd share. Rather than writing long reviews about just a couple of albums, I'm gonna try to give a quick overview of what I'm really liking lately.

First, Islands - Vapours. I know, I know. This came out last year. One of the tracks was on my Best of 2009 list. But I am just now really listening to the album as a whole, and man, I love it. I am not sure why I wasn't obsessed with it last fall. Maybe because I was instead obsessed with Fanfarlo and then with the new Yeasayer. Regardless, I'm making up for lost time. Some favorite tracks are obviously the one I put on my Best of list, but also: "Vapours," "Shining," "On Foreigner."

I'm going to see the Morning Benders and Broken Bells play a show together on Wednesday, which I'm pretty excited about. Stay tuned for a review of the show maybe next weekend if you're interested. I loved the last Morning Benders concert I went to, so I'm expecting good things.

Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record. This brings me back to my favorite BSS album, You Forgot it in People. Lots of good meshing of melodies.

Gayngs - Relayted. This is a "super group" of sorts, with people from Bon Iver, Megafaun, the Rosebuds, Solid Gold, POS, and more. The album kind of has an old R&B feel to me, but I mean that in a good way... Different members take bigger roles in various songs, so it's a little varied overall as an album. I like: "Ride" and "No Sweat" the best, but "The Gaudy Side of Town" and "The Last Prom on Earth" are also worth a listen.

Hot Chip - One Life Stand. This is another one that I had sitting around for a bit before I really listened. Also, like Islands, I loved their first album and felt "eh" about their second. (ok, technically I'm referring to the 2nd and 3rd albums for Hot Chip, not the 1st and 2nd, but did anyone listen to Coming on Strong, Hot Chip's debut album?) But this one is great. The video for "I Feel Better" is amazingly weird. There's no song quite like "And I Was a Boy from School" or "The Warning," but it's good in a new and different way.

LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening. Pitchfork just put this on their Best New Music list. It's pretty great. A little inconsistent overall, but "Dance Yrself Clean" and "I Can Change" are a good place to start. "Drunk Girls" is the one that got all the hype early on via the internets, but it's actually one of my least favorites on the album.

The National - High Violet. This also made Pitchfork's Best list. It's classic music from The National, but a little more consistent as a whole, I think.

The Rest - Everyone All at Once. So I actually wrote about this last November. But apparently I loved it then and promptly stopped listening to it. I rediscovered it this week - and my thoughts have not changed.

Wow, scrolling through my iTunes list, I am finding a ton of music that I haven't mentioned. I'm not going to get into it tonight, but if you've come across something and aren't sure if it's worth your time, I might have an opinion. So let me know if you have review requests.

The "Before" Shots

In a few months, I'll be able to post the "after" photos, but I figured that I would go ahead and post some before pictures of my new apartment.

Living Room

Balcony

View from the balcony

Study off the Living Room

Looking into the study

Kitchen (minus refrigerator)

Bedroom closets

Bedroom

Bathroom (obviously)

Separate shower stall

Tub is pink. I know it doesn't look that pink in the picture, but it's pink...