I have a love-hate relationship with craigslist. I suppose most people who use it do. Trying to sell stuff on craigslist is usually a pain because of flaky shoppers. And trying to buy stuff is a pain because of flaky sellers. Nevertheless, I have to admit that it's a great internet tool for buying and selling crap. Well, this past week I had two consecutive good experiences selling and buying on craigslist. It was as if all the stars were aligned or something.

First, I bought an awesome, old storage chest for $50. It's got the right dimensions and even the loud turquoise colour works for the colour palette I'm going for. I've been hoping for months to find a wooden chest that would function as storage/coffee table/extra seating for the living room. And I can't believe I found one that fits the bill perfectly. We just need to slap some casters on this baby and it's golden. The best thing about it: not IKEA.

Second, we finally sold a black armchair that I've been trying to get rid of for months. After taking a hiatus, I re-posted it and it sold within days - huzzah. Now the living room feels a bit more spacious. The armchair had the wrong proportions that made it look odd with the rest of the furniture. I bought it last summer at an estate sale and it turned out to be one of my "early mistakes."

Now we only have three more pieces of furniture to purge: the Dude's big-ass ergonomic chair and two bookcases that are standing in the place where the new storage chest/bench/coffee table is going to go.

As you can see, I'm up to no good again. I'm thinking of re-painting our bedroom.  It was the Dude who proposed it. For once it wasn't me who came up with a home decor idea. After having attended a design competition where we saw six beautifully decorated condo suites, I whined to the Dude that our bedroom had too many colours going on. Currently we have blue, brown, white, red and gray going on in the bedroom. There's really no main colour.

So the Dude gave the most brilliant suggestion: paint three of the walls white and one wall black (the one behind the bed). He said the blue walls weren't really helping our colour scheme. Oh my goodness, I have trained him well. LOL! He's heard me coo at sexy black walls enough times to suggest it. I'm très excited about the possibilities newly painted walls present.

The photo above shows all the paint options I'm considering. They're all Behr paint chips from Home Depot (I'm quite happy with their paints based on previous experience). I'm probably going to go for Ultra Premium White (it's the whitest white paint), but I'm afraid that it may feel too sterile and clinical. When I see pictures of spaces painted in this colour I adore it, but I'm not sure how it would feel actually living with this colour. Anyway, I'm going to paint a sample swatch of it before I commit to it.

Now it's a matter of finding time to paint. Too much going on for the next four weeks. Maybe early March? I'm going to start with the white walls. Then choose the black paint. Yay, yay, yay, I finally get to have a black wall.

I'm learning how to use a sewing machine. Actually, I'm re-learning. I first learned in middle school home ec class, and then shortly thereafter lost all my sewing skills. Looking back I can't believe I made all those projects when I was a little teeny-bopper, like cushions, bags, and shorts! I made a pair of shorts! They were constructed out of flannel fabric because grungy fashion was all the rage back then. I have no idea how to make shorts now...very sad.

Well, I recently made a garland as my first sewing project. I cut a gazillion little felt circles (by hand) and then sewed them together very badly (who knew that sewing straight is very hard?). I put them up as decoration for our New Year's Day open house that we just hosted. Fortunately, they were hanging high up enough so that you couldn't really see all the mistakes.

Maybe one day when I've practiced enough I'll be able to sew up some shorts again.