Some arty updates

Since I finished the cabinets, I've had a bunch of people asking me what the next big thing I'm going to tackle is, and to be honest, I'm not sure.  There's a bunch of stuff that I'd love to do, but it all costs money, so for the time being, I've been contenting myself with some less expensive updating - mostly adding art and decluttering.

First up was finally hanging up some pretty sea glass art that I bought when I was in Barbados in February.

I know, I know - a ridiculous delay.  I have no excuses for why it took so long.  I bought it there with the express purpose of hanging it in my bathroom, which, as it turned out, worked great!  Only thing is that I didn't end up hanging it where I thought I would.  Originally I was thinking I would hang it up as part of a larger gallery wall on this big, blank wall.

But when I put it up in context, it was clear that it was just too small, and it would take way too many pieces to make a gallery-style wall work very well.  But!  On the other wall, they fit perfectly.

So I still haven't solved the problem of the big, blank wall, but I'm enjoying this little addition.

Meanwhile, on my trip to San Antonio a few weeks ago to visit my friend Alex (HI, ALEX!!), I had the pleasure of visiting the fiesta store (not sure what it's official name was).  This store, you guys, was amazing.  All kinds of insane Mexican art in fun colors.  This little cutie grabbed my eye right away.

I named her Zelda, after my new best friend (Alex's daughter), who I met in San Antonio (HI ZELDA!!!).  Both the human Zelda and I were immediately drawn to this little blue flying pig.  I dig the colors, and the recycled metal aesthetic.  Kind of like if you went to a junk heap and just happened to magically find all of the pieces that would perfectly fit together to create an adorable pig.

Zelda is now hanging out in the area near the bay windows in my living room, which used to look like this:

I had this rolling TV cart thing there, which I used to store cookbooks mostly, but it also became a repository for whatever other crap was floating around.

Not cute.  You know what IS cute, though?  This guy.

I'm enjoying having her sit here kind of near the couch where I can stare at her all the time. 

Anyway, so to return to the un-cute TV cart, I've been thinking about moving it out of that nook for a while, because it's kind of a crowded area.  Having that there, plus the ottoman and the tree, was a little much and felt kind of messy.  I would actually love to have another place to store the ottoman, because I actually don't use it all that often except when I have company and need more seating.  Haven't figured that one out yet, but I took one step in the right direction by getting rid of the TV cart and putting all the cookbooks and papers elsewhere - more on that another time.

So the end result is nice, though these pictures don't totally do it justice because of the bad lighting (sorry about that).  It feels a little more open, a little less cluttered, and a little more piggy.

Perfect.