Apartment: Before and After Pics! (Part One)

Finally! Here are a few "before and after" pics of my apartment:

Living room, before (ack!) :


Living room, after (and from many different angles, because I love the wallpaper so much...) :


I think the new wallcovering (lovely blue floral print courtesy of grahambrown.com, installation courtesy of my dad -- thanks, dad!) made a huge difference. I'm so pleased with the way it turned out.

More pics of other improvements in the apartment soon, I promise.

Le Weekend

Another weekend is upon us. It looks like I'll have just a little work to catch up on this weekend, which means that I'll be able to cross some things off my "fun" to-do list:

1. Pick up a few new, fresh Apica notebooks at Kinokuniya.

2. Drool over what I hope is an impressive selection of beads at Beads of Paradise.

3. Venture to The Strand for vintage fashion and art books for my new "bookshelf."

4. Watch Confessions of a Shopaholic, my highly anticipated Saturday Netflix delivery.

5. Read last 40 pages of Confessions of a Shopaholic before watching it on DVD.

6. Stock my fridge with yummy treats from Whole Foods.

7. Grab drinks with friends.

8. Post pictures of my new apartment improvements on blog!

I'm Back!

It's been over two weeks since I last posted! No time to dwell on that fact; let's just correct it:

Last week, my parents made a much-anticipated trip to NYC and I spent the whole week with them. It was wonderful. They were kind enough to indulge my DIY obsession, and my apartment has never looked better. Thanks to them, I now have an accent wall in my living room and another in my bedroom (each of these walls has been totally transformed with wallpaper, courtesy of my dad), my wall art is now on the walls instead of in the "project" corner of my apartment, and my favorite wine glasses are suspended from a rack underneath my kitchen cabinets instead of tucked away in the cabinets. I promise to post pictures soon.

In other news, while this blog remains, for the most part, a politics-free zone, I just finished watching President Obama's press conference on health care reform. At some point over the past few days, it dawned on me that the health care debate is one that I should pay attention to -- I finally decided to do a little digging after hearing the term "single-payer health care" for the umpteenth time and being frustrated -- for the umpteenth time -- that I didn't really know what it meant. Now, I am more informed, but also confused. There's no question that as-is, the American health care system is underperforming. And that's unacceptable. I'm anxious to see how the debate plays out.

Wimbledon Update. Oh, and Happy Fourth of July!

I'm in DC visiting family and enjoying a little rest and relaxation during the holiday weekend. My grandmother and I just watched Serena Williams become the 2009 Wimbledon Champion -- exciting, yes, but also a little heartbreaking, because she had to win one final match against her older sister, Venus, to do so.

We're watching the trophy presentation now. Venus is a very gracious runner-up. And Serena still can't believe that she won. They're so sweet! And absolutely fantastic -- very down-to-earth and incredibly talented.

I'm off to partake in some 4th of July activities (I'm thinking bbq and fireworks) -- Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

Wimbledon! And the Tennis Grunt?

I'm up a little early today (I know! I am equally surprised . . .). The extra few minutes in the morning gave me time to catch up on some news (and write about it) before I officially start my day.

I've been pretty busy over the past week or so, but I still cannot believe that I seemed to forget about Wimbledon! I've just learned that both Venus and Serena have made it to the semi-final round, and if each wins her respective semi-final match, then they will face each other in the final. I love and hate it when that happens -- I'm always so happy to see them succeed, but it must a little difficult for them as well. Or maybe not . . . what do I know?

In related news, apparently a scandal has been brewing on the court (first at the French Open, and now at Wimbledon) over the intensity of the tennis "grunt" -- according to NBC's Today Show, Venus and Serena's grunt registers as loudly as a household vacuum cleaner, while Anna Kournikova's grunt is as loud as a motorbike. Question: Who took the time to figure this out?

I'm off to start my day. Here's to a good one!