decorating on a budget: my project this week

slowly but surely we are making our little condo our "home sweet home". this week i decided i needed to give myself a project. making our home a little more cozy was the perfect project. we had some target gift cards (yay) that helped with my project.

first: fix our patio door/window area. forgive me for using this awkward picture but it was the best i could find of the before

after: i spent about 1 hour looking through curtains at target. you can't really tell but our ceilings are high. and thus i needed long curtains. i almost gave up and realized i would probably have to pay about $100 a curtain. but then spotted these beauties. wonderful, long, and cheap table cloths. yep, i spent $15 each for the tablecloths turned curtains. luckily i already had the hanging clips and shear curtains. plus the mr. was pretty excited i didn't have to spend $150 on curtains.

second: rearrange the harp. it was in our second room (which i loved) but i wasn't playing it as much. it was awkwardly tucked in the corner and too difficult to get to. so i solved my problem by moving rooms. i added some vintage sheet music prints to give it a more "harpy" feel. bring on the practicing.

third: the shelf. i feel in love with our shelf in our last apt. i knew i wanted to recreate the look in our new place. we ordered the shelf months ago but ran into a problem with our stud finder. we finally got a new stud finder and i begged spence to put it up last night. this is still very much a work in progress. i have big plans for this wall. a mirror, some shutters etc. we'll see how it all comes together. 

fourth: so this hasn't happened yet. our new couch. we have been waiting two months for our new baby. ahhh i hate waiting can i just say that. so for now we have a very classy (and very cheap) futon from wal-mart.  we almost didn't buy a temporary couch. we thought we could last. but boy am i glad we've had this little guy these past two months. hopefully in the next couple of weeks this will be switched out for a lot bigger and nicer seating arrangement.

fifth: our patio. it was sad and needed some tlc. this one will get some more lovin in the spring with a new paint job and flooring. for now i gave it a good cleaning, added some plants and (my personal favorite) twinkle lights. 

i wish i knew enough about photography at night so i could capture these beauties in their full glory. but these vintage round clear bulbs won my heart.

as you can see our neighbors are steps ahead of us plant wise. our little mums look sad compared to theirs. but we're working on a med student budget. i'll keep adding and maybe by next summer we'll have our own little garden.

my favorite spot: my little reading corner. i love sitting in our big overstuffed glider. it's so cozy and makes me happy. it's also nice have a bit of diy "art" on our walls. a good mix of us and other stuff. i felt like in our old place all we had was pictures of us. i like us but don't love staring at myself all day long.

my office: again still working on this one. i might get some shelves for the wall and a new (cute) file cabinet but for now this works just great. i love being able to look out of the window and see the little squirrels chasing each other (seriously just happened).

spence's little corner: now it doesn't look like much (and lets be honest it isn't) but this is my mans spot. he is an amazing piano player and i love to just sit and listen to him play. one day (when we have a house) we'll move our real piano in. for now our piano gets to sit and wait for us at my parents house (thanks mom and dad for the piano by the way).

another cozy corner: i've found that this is my new place for phone calls. something about my 7th grade butterfly chair makes me smile. we brought it with us as a temporary seat while we wait for our couch but i think it might just stay with us!

so there you have it. my week has been full with settling into our family room, second room and patio. i still have a bit of work in the bedroom and kitchen but i'm slowing putting it all together.

it feels so nice to have our home feel like home. i still have tons of projects but thats good! i think i'll attempt homemade roman shades for the second room next week. we'll see how that one goes.

how do you decorate on a budget?