Personal Project: Bookcase (Part 2)

Well I finally made some progress people! Who would have thought it would have taken me, what, 3 weeks to rearrange a friggin' bookcase!? Well I took some tips and tricks from my earlier post and organized my books into colors, mixed and matched the ways they were stacked, and added little touches of decor throughout. I'm pretty happy about how it turned out.

Even though it's not totally complete (I still need to fix up the top) I thought I'd share what the practically-finished bookcase looks like:

Before (Junky, Haphazard, Unintentional)

< < < < < and BAM!! > > > > > 


After (Sleek, Clean, Intentional)

And yes... the Christmas tree is finally put away. :)

draper style

One of the blog subjects I have neglected for a long time is "entertaining." I live in a small studio apartment, so it would be kind of weird to have a full-on party, but since I literally live across the street from the Rose Garden (an arena where the Portland Trailblazers play <3 <3 <3 and major musical acts perform; I have never seen it so nuts as it was for Michael Jackson's Immortal tour) it makes sense that friends will be coming over before such events. Actually they've already come over, but we could say I sucked at entertaining them. A glass of tap water is just so lame!

When I first moved in, I was really excited about setting up my former console table as a bar table (subconsciously inspired by Don Draper I'm pretty sure), which I did do, sort of. As of now, it holds a wine rack with three bottles of wine, 6 mismatched hand-me-down wine glasses, 4 hand-me-down martini glasses, 2 random champagne flutes, a decanter, and a vintage cocktails book, which is definitely the coolest thing on the table. At least I don't have all of my random souvenir shot glasses displayed - now that would be really bad.

In order to spruce up my entertaining game, I've decided that I want to get rid of all the accidental, boring glasses and find some unique vintage ones instead. So I did a little looking on Etsy and became really excited about what I found. I can't decide if I want to go for the mid-century gold and clear glass style, or the bold, colored glass style. I think I'll sit on this one for a bit...

Here is what I found:

1960s amber chalice cups/wine glasses via

1970s Colony Park Lane blue wine glasses via

1970s brown glass wine goblets via

1950s Indiana Whitehall olive green tumblers via

1920s cobalt blue cocktail glasses (actually fruit cups but whatevs, it works) via 

1960s plum mini pedestal goblets via

1960s Culver Old Fashioned glasses with gold (22 ct)  fruit pattern via

1960s Culver Valencia Old Fashioned glasses via

1960s "Early Americana" tumblers via

Culver mid-century cocktail glasses via

1960s gold rimmed highball glasses via

1960s Hausproud roly poly tumblers via

1950s atomic roly poly tumblers via (quite possibly my favorite)

california dreamin'

is exactly what I'm doing.

One of my friends who works in PR told me that she was going on a business trip to San Diego, and she wanted to know all of the good places to eat and drink. After brainstorming and remembering all of the great spots from the days I lived there in my college years, I got a real bug to go back. I want sun. I want beach. I want the nightlife and the shopping and the windows rolled down!

Oh but wait - it turns out her business trip got switched to Santa Barbara instead, which happens to be my absolute favorite city in California. My grandparents lived there before they passed away, and my Auntie Gail has lived there for years. I've said it before and I'll say it again: my dream is to retire there. So when I started brainstorming places for my friend to check out while she is there, I got this can't-stop-thinking-about-it-for-three-days urge to go back, so I gave my landlord 30 days notice sent my aunt an email to see if I could plan a trip down in the near future.

I have a very easy time romanticizing California because of all the family trips we took to Los Angeles and Santa Barbara when I was a kid. I look back on these memories when I didn't have a care in the world, and think of palm trees, sunshine, open windows, playing on the beach, citrus and avocado trees, blue ocean, seafood on the wharf, the gorgeous drive on PCH & highway 101, and of course Disneyland! Something so fun and innocent about those memories. Sigh...

Well, the universe decided to tease me again when I saw these awesome photos on an Apartment Therapy house tour (click the link and check out the interview) from a home belonging to newlyweds in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. Sigh...

Love the centerpiece

I'm determined to get some plants for my kitchen window now - so cute!

Yum yum yum. That bowl of little peppers is rad!

Totally OBSESSED with those towels.

Sigh....

A girl can dream.

boochie boy likes to drank (beer)

"Is my face fat?" - Hayden's question after texting me the above pic

My little brother is a true gem. From going to see Blink 182 when I was in 10th grade and he was in 5th to his most recent venture to Portland when we destroyed our bank accounts on good beer and good food, we have always been close. And by close, I mean I boss him around in this annoying-girl tone and he doesn't complain, and he constantly makes fun of me for pretty much everything and I don't complain. It's just how it is and the trade-off is worth it.

There's no doubt I've had an influence on him, being the cool older sister: he "got into surfing" because of me, he listened to crappy pop punk because of me, he worked at wannabe skate shop PacSun because of me (I worked at a real skate shop in the mall once upon a time), he got tipsy off Mike's hard lemonade because of me, he goes to college in San Diego because of me, he became hooked on LOST because of me, he shops at Forever 21 because of me, he ate a seitan and Daiya philly cheesesteak and liked it because of me, he passed his philosophy class because of me... the list could go on forever!

But I will admit, there are several things I got into because of him: Zelda, Mike Jones, The O.C., anddd Jimmy John's. I even got into Phish because of him. Oh wait, no I didn't!

He's also now who I turn to when I want to know about beer. Not sure if he's trying to keep me up to speed on "what's good" or if he just likes to rub in how drinking two beers doesn't give him a hangover yet, but whenever he's drinking a beer that he thinks is good, he'll text me a photo and some kind of description. That's what the majority of our text conversation is about. (Unless I'm having guy problems and want the input of a 22 year old. Yeah what's wrong with me? Jk Hayden you give awesome advice.)

So instead of having all of these little photos scattered all over my text history, I thought I'd upload them to this blog so they can be nice and organized and easy to reference before a night of going out or trip to the grocery store.

Disclaimer: he lives in San Diego, so his preferences are dominated by what's available on the Best Coast

Second disclaimer: if you aren't really really really into beer this will no doubt be the LONGEST AND MOST BORING POST OF YOUR LIFE. (Mom just wait until you see where all of his money goes)

I give you, Beer Texts from Hayden:

"A new Belgium type" "Buddy's Belgium home brew"

"Red rocket, a delicious red ale from Bear Republic"

"Taste of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot and a Green Flash Winter's Folly"

"Go to a good bottle shop and buy this beer"

"Gettin ready for a great weekend" "Green Flash West Coast IPA"

"Yum!" "Ballast Point, another San Diego award winning microbrew, all their beers have to do with fish or the sea"

"Roy my drinking buddy"

High school friend's cider company "now sold in Texas, for Texans" 

"Tap Room"

"A rarity... one of the best IPAs made by Russian River. It's quick to sell out"



Text from me: Elysian Brewing tasters in Seattle

"Blanco, Tx"

"More brown than black" ... "More brown than black is a collaboration of stone, Ninkasi and Alchemist brewing from VT"

"Red hook is mediocre"

"IPL is an India Pale Lager"

"We are buying it right now" All Texas beer blows. "You blow" "Their IPA is good"

"New Beers I'm Enjoying: Belgiums ... The Reverend from Avery Brewing" and it looks like you're studying, good job. Or are you reading Game of Thrones? He actually sent me this text tonight.

Text from me: Tasters at Roscoe's

"And I've started drinking again. My flight is delayed till 7"

"Look at those rings!" "A little Sumpin' Wild by Lagunitas. A Belgian Strong"

My text: "Mason jar of amnesia pale ale, to-go from the bar :)" Whaaa??? How'd you get that??

"I'm starting to drink stouts"

"Cask ipa tonight" "Cask is a keg they let sit for a loong time"

"Stone's 15th anniversary imperial black ipa. Learn how to text correctly ... I get to keep this pils glass from PB Bar and Grill. Roy says 'hey there' in this photo"

"I felt like Benjamin Franklin last night at I drank by candlelight" 

"My purchases earlier... At BevMo, this is a place I just recently stumbled upon. Stones anniversary wassaturday. FRESH BEER"

"Beer mmmmm" oooh puzzles

"Mmmm beer" Ooh more puzzles

"Our beer wall"

"It's strong. 9.4%"

Text from me: Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat

"It's just such a beautiful beer."

And there ya go!