He says/She says Wall Art Delima: Poll!

Soooo.... I think we may have a solution for at least half of the most hideous wall in the apartment. I did a little scouting and took a picture of the piece in a shop, showed the husband as he sipped a latte in a neighboring cafe, and awaited his reaction. At first he didn't get it, then he hated it, then he thought it was interesting, then he said go buy it. He hates the ugly, blank wall more. We've been hating on this wall since we moved in over a year ago and the artwork in question is well within our budget. I happily skipped off and made my purchase.

Now it's home. I like it. I think it really ties the room together (name that movie!). It's still wrapped in plastic and not hung, but we'd center it on that section of the wall. I like all the busyness. I think it makes the fireplace look more included somehow. I still want to paint/cover/burn the TV garage, but the painting maybe helps detract some attention from that eyesore...??

My mother-in-law likes the colors, but not the style. I Skyped my mom and she's of the same opinion, but after a while said it had grown on her and she thinks that 'all things considered (price, problem, colors), it's interesting and worth keeping'.

My husband is Mr. Type A, alles in ordnung, and says it's stressing him out, like it's a mess he needs to clean up. Yes, he really says that. Says he thinks he can't handle abstract art. Says it doesn't 'match' our other living room wall. But, he says, leave it up, maybe it will grow on me while I'm away on business for two days. Sigh. We can return it during the next two weeks. He likes to remind me of that one, too. Right after he says it could grow on him.

I want to bang my head against the wall. But not this one. It's solid concrete, yet another reason this piece of art is perfect; it's super lightweight meaning we won't have to whip out the schlagbohrmaschine (bolthammer) and make craters to hang this piece!

Ok, sound off! What do you think? Should we keep it or return it? Vote below!

Kawaii-esque kid's raincoats

Corner View: Free Kawaii Mustache Downloadable

So this weeks' Corner View theme is 'The incredible, mysterious mustache' and I totally thought I had to share this free download I ran into recently.

This adorable digital scrabooking kit is great for dolling up blogs, too. (cough cough) I think my niece is still adorable. The sunglasses and purse are her requisite 'going out' apparel; I find this hilarious!

The creative maven behind Minitoko is really an interesting sort: she lives in France, loves Japanese things, and teaches computer graphics. Check out Minitoko's blog, and check out her amazing shop where she has pages of freebies and even more pages full of digital kawaii kits for purchase. Craziness - this is not your typical scrapbooking!

PS - we didn't hang the pictures yet; we've been hopping down rabbit trails looking for sconces and have found none. Oddly enough, we found some affordable art for the worst wall in the house. I think it will cover half the wall, thank goodness. More later!

For more mysteriously moustasche'd Corner Views, check out the list on Cate's post.

Make and Read

Here's a short round up of some fun things I've found online lately, maybe you'll like them too!

1) Cute idea, really cheap, too: DIY microwave popcorn. You could totally make this into a cute neighbor gift or something for the holidays.

2) In addition to hanging pictures tomorrow, I'll be making this pumpkin pie spice cake with cream cheese frosting for a family get together. My sister made the muffins earlier this week and said it was delish, so I'll be raiding my secret stash of American pumpkin puree for the cake!

3) Great sewing tutorial that is really clear in its explanation of terms and steps. I've made napkins before, but I totally learned something from this free downloadable mitered napkin tutorial.

4) There are so many of these beige tote bags used as grocery bags here in Germany. I think I might snag of my MILs this weekend and surprise her with a make-over version. Check out Design*Sponge's DIY market bag makeover.

5) Katie's writing love letters. You can too, check out her adorable love letters journals.

6) So clever and 'duh' at the same time: personalize store-bought cards.

7) Love that there's a recipe for DIY homemade Febreeze.

8) Love Nicole's method of losing weight. I've been writing down my weekly digits, but graphing them out seems to be a much more encouraging way to go about it!

9) Oldie, but goodie: how to improve your cheapo webcam's lighting quality. I totally tried some of his tricks on my most recent Skype call.

Hanging Pictures thanks to Skype

I've been eaten by the blogging abyss thanks to an onslaught of work and my (perceived?) inability to deal with computer hardware problems. As I type this post I'm running a program that theoretically should 'repair' damage to my drivers. If you see a picture in this post you'll know I've won my battle! (yesss...i did it!)

In keeping with the technology theme, I'm probably one of the last people in Blogland to obtain and learn how to use a web cam. However, thanks to my sister's generosity on my last birthday, I now have a functioning Skype account and a lovely webcam. Nevermind that all my calls to date have been to my mother. All two of them. Did I mention my birthday was in August? Right.

Yesterday I propped the web cam up on the back of the sofa and had her help me decide on how to arrange all the pictures we need to hang. I'm pretty satisfied with how things stand. Yes, I made paper templates for planning. We'll be hanging the real pictures as of this weekend. I've also toyed around with expanding it further on each side, a vertical row of three on the far left and a vertical large and middle frame on the far right. What do you think?

Know what else? I'd really like to get two sconces on the wall; one on either side of the map, to give some target lighting for those chairs and to replace that lamp (that's blocking the map and supposed to be in my office). S. is not fond of dangling cords, but I think it will look fine and also detract from the wrinkle in the wallpaper to the right of the map. Did you notice that wrinkle before I pointed it out?

There have been quite a few projects going on lately, stay tuned for the catch up...