Shoe Art, More Furniture Mayhem, & Kingdom Keys

Today's Excitement:

I have constructed, painted, and put up my shoe art!!!! "what on earth does this mean' you ask? Well, I'll tell ya. Dilemma #1,428 post move to Germany: Too Many Shoes & ZERO storage. oh what to do... what to DO!?? A while back in good 'ole Cedar Rapids Iowa, my friend and creative genius Erin Thomas sent me a link on an article that contains a DIY project for your shoes. I have an obsession with beautiful high heels, and the article suggests turning your shoes into wall art. They tell you to buy the frame shelves that are around $30.00 per shelf. HA!!! surely i can do better than this. So then i go a-hunting in the IKEA catalog. well.. well... well... Shoe racks (that resemble towel racks) for 6 euro apiece. well i want around 7 or 8 racks. which means 48 euro. Can I convince my husband this is necessary... NOPE. back to the drawing board. It was a this point that i was racking my brain as to how this could become a possibility. What is the construction of the shelves/racks? could i make it for cheaper? Then it hits me like a dodge ball to the face.... I could use crown molding!!! furthermore, i could paint it any color i wanted, instead of having to deal with whatever color the shelf/or rack came in. Turns out, crown molding = 8 euro for a 96" strip. PERFECT!!! And the project was formed. Never mind the borrowing of powertools, plugging them into a transformer because they aren't 220 (Dude, don't underestimate... it works), multiple drill bit adventures & finally success. I am ecstatic with the results!!! I should have taken photos of construction along the way... but i was just too excited! Here are more images of the results. Enjoy!

More Furniture Mayhem...

So the adventure continues with the gigantic wall shrank that we bought on Ramstein Yardsales. After careful scrutiny (and the helpful eyes of James Hopkins), we discovered that "the unit" (as d & i so commonly refer to it) does indeed come apart... much like that of the ever popular portable IKEA furniture. So became the project of saturday afternoon/evening. We started in the storage room... taking the thing apart... one piece at a time.

We had to take the back off first, which ended up being the largest pain in the ass....There are soooo many tiny little screws... and that space between the wall of the storage and the unit isn't very big. So who decides that he needs to be in there??? why my gigantic husband of course.

So we finally get the thing apart... and it's in pieces. except for one large piece that we couldn't break down any further and had to carry up 9 flights of stairs... see-sawing it all the way up because it's too wide to fit in the staircase. But we made it! I owe Dana big time for this one. Just so you all can see, this is how tiny the elevator actually is...

I think it took us two elevator trips and the one-time 9 flight walk up. whew! So this weekends project is to put the darn thing back together again. I thought about refinishing it and was seriously challenged. and the realized i have too many other things going on right now to finish the job properly. and it isn't horribly scratch up. Nothing i can't fix. (: Phase Two?? ACCOMPLISHED!

Kingdom Keys...

Here's something random that i've come to consider normal while living in Germany. When we moved into our apartment here, i noticed that there were keys in every lock on every door of EVERY room. I asked Dana if one key unlocked multiple doors. He said nope with a smile. So we have nine keys to our house. ha! I didn't really think much of it as we don't really lock the doors.... But then i was at Amy's house on Monday working on a project and I wandered into the laundry room to throw my handkerchief in the dirty clothes. And low and behold, there is a rack of what seems like 100 keys. Because in her house, when every door has a different key, it's a good many more doors... considering they have three children and a basement apartment. So this image was my comic relief and my happy place for the entire rest of the day. Mostly because of how organized it is. (:

March comes to a close...

These were the last couple of images taken in March. I had made a fabulous dinner the other night for Dana and I. It turned out so delicious i had to photograph it. even though it's simple... it's one of my favorite series of dishes to make. Curry Salmon Cakes with Aioli, Sauted French Green Beans, & Baked Pomme Frites. YUM!

So I finally got around to cleaning the kitchen the other day... and i figured, it's probably the perfect time to photograph it... and let you all see my favorite room in the house. Thanks to photoshop's PhotoMerge effect, you can see the WHOLE kitchen. This shot took seven photos to compose. Even though there are a few errors, it definitely gives you the overall picture. (: Enjoy!

This Weekend:

is a three day weekend... not to mention a holiday... Easter, how DARE you sneak up on me like that! We have a couple of things that could potentially happen. Dana and I both just finished reading The Hunger Games (highly recommend it!!!) and we are dying to see the movie! Then there's "the unite" Phase Three: Operation No Extra Parts. All in all, if the weather cooperates, we could have a pretty nice holiday in order! Hope everyone is having a wonderful week and we wish you all a marvelous Easter Weekend!