Fabric Wall Art

I was at the fabric store and found a couple of really cool looking fabrics. However, I didn't know what I would do with them but I bought them anyway. One day, I just decided that I could stretch them over a frame and hang them on the wall. My sister took me to Home Depot and bought some 1"x2"x8' pieces of wood. Then she cut them into pieces and made some 16"x16" frames for me.
Here's my sister slaving away while I was inside the house simmering a bad mood.

Frame completed!

We cut out the fabrics into squares, stretched and stapled them onto the frames.

The corners were folded and tucked in neatly.

Finished one frame!

Finished with the other frame, too!

Of course, Calvin also helped us out.

These were hanging on the hallway entrance in my apartment. These were taken and hung up two years ago when I first moved in. I think it's time for a change.

I hung these new fabric frames in place of the old strawberries/blueberries photos. I must say, I really like them. Thank you, Baotran for making these with me!

Art, pup, and shark

Every 2nd Saturday of the month, Sacramento art galleries are open to the public. It's called Sacramento Art Walk or Second Saturday. This month, I went with my sister to one of the galleries because her boss' boyfriend had his stuff on display. Oakland has a similar event called Oakland Art Murmur which happens on every first Friday of each month.

Apartment Update!

I finally put stuff up on the walls!

It started with Nur giving me these super cute little "clothes pins."



Clothes pins + postcards + a piece of string and TADA!

Flowers for My Vases

One of my favorite flowers is carnation. Why? No one seems to place too much importance in carnations. They're not expensive and full of cliche meanings like the roses, nor do they represent class like fancy pants orchids. They are the cheapest flowers I could find, have a light floral scent and last forever! Okay, not forever, but up to 3 weeks.

So once in a while, I buy a bunch of carnations. This time, instead of throwing them all into one vase like I usually do, I decided to split them up.



There are these two empty wine bottles that I had just sitting there looking useless. Why not use them as vases for my flower?



I found a small vase also just sitting there being useless and put that one to use, too!



...and another one! Who knew I had so many small vases laying around.



Then I ran out of small vases, so I used a glass.

This is a trick I learned from Martha Stewart, fill the vase with lemons or limes. I just so happen to have a bag of key limes that was going to spoil soon.



Voila! A pretty vase of carnations for my window sill.

Moving on to other things!



I recently received this wall decal in the mail. My sister helped me picked this one out. I trusted her judgement and it came out to be awesome!



It took me forever to set it up straight by myself, but I did it. At least one wall in my apartment is no longer bare. If you look at just this one angle, you can never tell that the rest of the apartment still looks like this.




On a entirely unrelated note, I'm currently in like with this song.

The Move Part III

I woke up at 6 am to unpack because I am crazy! I still have the kitchen left to do. It is waiting for cabinet liners.


The cleaned up bedroom! I basically don't have anything in there. Decorations will have to wait.


What a difference since last time, eh? Helen said that I need a cat sleeping on the bed to complete the bedroom set. I agree.

I do not know why there are so many mirrors at my new apartment, two in the bedroom, one in the hallway, and two in the bathroom. The person who lived there before me must really like to see himself naked or something.


The half-way unpacked kitchen.


The couch that is in serious need of cleaning.


A bookcase.


Another bookcase.


This is the view from my fire escape.

That's it for now, folks! I shall update on the flaky internet story any decorating story.

The Move Part II - The Quest for Internet

Oh, internet, why do you like to toy with my heart? AT&T called and said I should have internet on the Feb 10th at 8 pm. I got home at 10 pm, and tried to set up my internet.


Do you like my new office? It's in the kitchen. It's there because the phone jack and the power outlet is next to the sink. What? I tried to set up the internet and did everything they told me. Alas, nothing was working! As in turned out, the old phone jack was rusted and all of the copper wires were oxidized.


By some miracles, I found a brand new phone jack among the bathroom stuff and managed to installed it. Hoorah! Internet!


While setting up the internet, I had the stove next to me so I made some eggs and ate it with a bit of salt and pepper flakes. I hadn't unpack the dishes yet, so I ate it out of my cast iron pan. I am the definition of classy.

The Move Part I

I finally made a move from Berkeley to San Francisco! Now I can pretend to be an urban hipster with skinny jeans and hoodies.


Here are all of my stuff packed up and ready to go!

The new apartment is on the 2nd floor and the building doesn't have an elevator. That means, for every box of stuff that I had, I had to run up and down the stairs every time. So exhausting. My legs got the work out of their lives.


Here's the new tiny kitchen.



The unpacked bedroom. Wow, what a mess!



The new bathroom had this really ugly curtain.



So my sister got me new curtain! Isn't it cool? Helen used to have the same shower curtain, too! ...and so did Brendan. I suppose we all love our little world.



Duckie also moved with me. I got him from the Contra Costa Water Department during one of the career fairs. Besides not getting jobs at career fairs, I like to pick up free stuff like Duckie here, and random tiny plastic cones.



The first morning at the new apartment, I woke up with wonderful hair!



I turned on the water, washed my face, went to turn off the water and...the wonderful faucet handle broke into pieces! I was very strong! Just kidding, the faucet handle was so dirty with rust everywhere. It was disgusting. Since it broke, I couldn't turn the water off!


But don't worry, I was clever, I took off the handle on the cold water side and stuck it on the hot water side and all was well again.


Of course, I called the landlord and demanded new handles! Don't worry, I also cleaned up the faucet. No more disgusting grimes.


There was also a giant gap, approximately 1/4", under my door so the cold breeze came to visit very often. Until I had a chance to visit Home Depot, I used my dirty moving jeans as a temporary weather strip.


On a side note, I realized that I have a lot of perfume. I must be really stinky.