Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

I moved into my apartment nearly 2 months ago, but until about 2 weeks ago, I still hadn't put together my bed! Not for lack of trying, mind you. My bed's hardware simply refused to cooperate with my efforts to assemble it! First, I couldn't find the hardware for 2 weeks. Then, I thought I had succeeded in putting the bed together, but lo and behold, it collapsed on me in the middle of the night! A couple weeks later I tried once again to get the bed put together but the hardware was not fitting the way it should. The entire experience was incredibly frustrating and nearly brought me to tears on more than one occasion.

Thankfully, after my two oldest brothers moved out of my parents' home, their bunk bed (which is assembled in the same manner as my bed), was taken apart and moved out of their room, which meant that I had access to additional hardware. This time it worked! My bed is now put together for good and I am SO happy to not be sleeping on a mattress on the floor anymore. It's amazing how much easier it is get up in the morning when all you have to do is swing your legs over the side of your bed and stand up!

Having my bed put together has finally given me the push I needed to finish off the rest of my room. I had to run down to my hometown last week and since the World Market there is moving, everything in the store is deeply discounted. I found a small rug and a pillow that go great with my color scheme, so I picked them up. Here's how my bed looks right now:

The striped pillow was only $8 and the rug was only $7.50! They add so much to my room for less than $16 bucks, and they go perfectly with my target color scheme (black, white, blue, and green). I also like the fact that the rug has tan stripes, which helps to tie in my standard apartment carpet.

Here you can see how the striped pillow ties in with my other decor: the white sham in the back, the pillowcase that came with a sheet set I picked up at Target last year (somewhere around $8, I think - and I bought two so I never have to use anything else), the round floor pillow also from Target (on sale for around $12 - I'd had my eye on it for months so I decided it was worth a little splurge), and the ampersand pillow made for me by Rebekah. I like them all, but the "&" pillow is by far my favorite!

Here's a wider shot where you can see that I desperately need to come up with a solution for hiding those risers! They are so ugly.

And just so I can embarrass myself and you all can see how much of an improvement this is, this picture shows what my room more or less looked like for a month-and-a-half! I am ashamed. Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, the black fabric hanging behind the vertical blinds is an old shower curtain that I hung there to block the light that comes in at night.

I'm so excited to finally have my bed put together that despite all the busy-ness of school, church, and work, I am on a decorating roll in this room! Projects planned for the next two weeks: hanging art, finishing the organization of my bookcase, adding curtains to my window, setting up a small jewelry station, making a de-stressing area to relax with a book or play my flute, and streamlining my desk for maximum productivity. Should be fun!