My Apartment Design

Okay, without my explanations getting too lengthy, let's just say life has been hectic and still riddled with the chaos of moving into a new apartment! So, with that said, sorry for the long drought in blog posts!!

Part of the excuse for my absence consists of decorating my new apartment and new hobbies, particularly one... The green thumb of my family finally made an appearance in my life in the form of my fascination with Cacti and Succulents! You see, these plants require minimal attention and love the sun, and I finally live in an apartment that receives light from the sun (LOL - my last place was like a dungeon in terms of natural light!). So, in an effort to decorate my balcony and finally indulge myself with house plants that have the possibility of thriving [and not dying], I have rapidly collected a whole bunch of different plants, mostly Succulents and Cacti. If anyone in the surrounding buildings is watching me they must chuckle at how I flutter around my small balcony planting, watering, and grooming plants like mother nature... hehe... I find it to be very therapeutic and, quite honestly, now I understand why my mother always went straight out to the yard after getting home from work (and still does for the most part I'm sure). I never understood, in fact I used to comment that she would get lost out in the yard watering everything for hours on end.... Now I know why.

To say that I'm utterly fascinated by Cacti and Succulents would be an understatement! The sheer number of variations available are stunning, each one with its own unique beauty. In particular, I find the easy propagation (reproduction/multiplication) of the plant to be wild! Simply break off a branch and stick it in soil, within a few days (in most cases) roots will sprout and in weeks there will be an entirely new baby plant growing. Voila! Now tell me that isn't a wonder of nature?! As soon as the roots of the new plant begin to take hold in the soil, you'll notice the propagation leaf start to shrivel and brown almost as if to say "My job here is done!" :) Nature is an amazing thing, more importantly - it is our origin, which is why we should appreciate it, care for it, preserve and help multiply it more than we already do.

Anyway, the time of year is finally here (corny rhyme, I know), and the weather in Miami has finally crossed over to the warmer degrees so I'm anxious to see if my new hobby will be successful!

Here are some images of my progress designing the new place and of my new gardening hobby... Let me know what you think!

Above is my art wall... all drawings were done by me except the top left face which my aunt did in high school (or college)...

This wall is a mixture of my shadow box coin art, a Bohemia print my mom brought me from New Mexico, a Van Gogh print from my trip to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, some of my photography from Paris and Istanbul, my shadow box cork art, a carved man's face by my father (or maybe grandfather), a paper art Peacock found at a garage sale and many other little things....

This is a little vignette that started out temporary as I disbursed decor while unpacking, but I really love it now.... It's a mini resin statue of Jack Daniel that belonged to my father, along with a buddha head, some silver mushrooms found at TJMaxx and my Matryoshka doll collection, a few of the girls are from my trip to Russia and the others were garage sale treasures, hehe...

Above is one of the Persian Kelim rugs that one of my good friends gave me for my birthday in March.... the colors are beautiful, I love it!

This is my shadow box wall, it is incomplete, but already packed with goodies from my travels and things that belonged to my father....

I found this gorgeous lamp at an antique thrift shop downtown for $25, the blue hobnail portion was covered in decades of grime, so I got a great surprise once it was clean.... I love this lamp... the shade is from Ikea.....

The top pencil drawing is my art from high school and the bottom framed print and Asian fabric stretched on a canvas frame come from a Goodwill :)

This is my den (the arts and crafts room to be exact).... The artwork on the walls is a mix of my art and pieces I find at garage sales and Goodwills.....

The black framed pieces are my artwork from high school and early college, the framed Beatles art is my craft project - I painted and decorated the frames. Also, the brown mirror witht he green scroll on the bottom right is from Ikea that I painted. The canvas paintings are from Goodwills, and so are the two funky framed prints.

My crazy, banged up and crowded antique bookshelf that belonged to my great grandmother... I love it!....

The guest bathroom....

Here are just a few images of my plants, I plan on doing a more detailed post tomorrow after I take some additional pictures.....

These are my favorite succulent planters so far...

This is one of those strawberry planters that my mom gave me for Easter, I split up the herbs she gave me (Italian Parsley, German Thyme and Spicy Basil) and planted them inside. The top is just a regular plant (I forget the name) with a beautiful yellow flower that just recently bloomed... I also stuck two or three "hen and chick" succulents in there to see how they do (my grandmother tells me they can live in almost any soil or planter)....

And, at the end of a long day, this what can be seen from my sofa.... :)

This is all a work in progress, things always change as I love to move things around frequently. More to come in the future, I hope I've inspired you today!