The Perfect Desk to Fit and Odd Space

When Lilly first looked at the apartment we now live in there was one space that she wasn't quite sure what we'd do with. It's an awkward nook at the top of the stairs outside of our bedroom, that is a decent size if you ignore the fact that you can't stand in most of it due to the eves. She picture messaged me these photos of that space the day she saw the apartment first:

These don't do a great job of showing you the space, but they're the only ones I have of it before the invasion of our stuff. There were two obvious options for this space, one which I liked more than the other: Storage Space or Home Office Space. A space for a desk and office-like thing appealed to me much more, so I set off brainstorming how best to use the space to our advantage. 

After hearing the description of the space I knew I wanted to run a desk along the wall under the eve, but needed to see the space to make sure there was enough room for this feat. Indeed there was. Plenty of room in fact. So I began designing in my head the 10 foot long desk that now occupies that space. 

Lilly had already gotten a precious yellow filing cabinet from a thrift shop, so I decided that if we got two more, we could run boards across the three cabinets and each have our own desk space. 

While the middle cabinet was already a great yellow color, the two end ones were far less exciting beige colors, so I became no stranger to Home Depot and Lowes as I mis-predicted how much spray paint I'd need to paint the two end cabinets purple (I think in the end it took about two cans per cabinet? maybe?)

My mom got me two of these awesome colorful wooden bowls last Christmas as well as the colored pencils made from actual sticks. 

Lilly has a fun assortment of very retro things on her side of the desk that are quite fun. She still hasn't found a desk chair that she likes enough to get yet, but I found one I absolutely love at Savers for $7! It may not be much to look at, but it's super comfy, and really easy to transport as well.

While I'm sure all of you who may read this can figure out how to make this desk all on your own, if you want my extra insights on the process of making it, and/or can spare $2 to support this blog, I've created Instructions in a PDF format for sale at my etsy shop. Cheers!

Lazy Monday Baking

Yesterday Lilly and I stayed in and had a bit of a 'lazy' Monday. However, I don't sit still for long, feeling the ever compelling need to do something productive, so one thing lead to another and I ended up baking not one but two batches of cupcakes (well, technically muffins, but they taste like cupcakes, and I like to call them as I see them). Originally we set out to make pumpkin brulee, since I remembered to bring my brulee torch to the apartment with the last round of stuff I moved in. However, we were lacking in the heavy cream department, and neither of us were prepared to venture out into the real world to get it. So we browsed through recipes involving pumpkin until we found this one.

The recipe seemed rather healthy (as far as these things go that is). We omitted the raisins, a) because we didn't have any, and more importantly I had set out to make cupcakes, not muffins. We also didn't have cloves or allspice, so I put in a teaspoon of ground ginger instead, and me being me forgot to add the water.  That being said....they still came out delicious! :)

While I was in the process of making the pumpkin cupcakes, Lilly asked me how many bananas are needed for the banana chocolate chip cupcake recipe I make with my 3 year old cousin (in this case I use the word cupcake to trick him, but really, they're still more like cupcakes than muffins :). Already predicting where that question was leading I began to make a whole new batch of cupcakes while the pumpkin ones were in the oven. My cousin and I use this recipe for banana bread, mostly because it's ingredients are things that my aunt usually has in the house when I'm over babysitting him. However, we use chocolate chips instead of walnuts (how many 3 year olds do you know that eat walnuts?) and usually I use yogurt (anything in the plain to vanilla variety) instead of all (or in yesterday's case part of) the sour cream. Also, I pull out the potato masher and mash (or rather, my cousin usually mashes) the bananas instead of slicing them. 

Since we only have enough muffin pan space for 18 muffins/cupcakes at a time, when I made the pumpkin ones, I filled those cups up and then used a layer cake pan for the rest of the batter, so that I could rinse off the mixing bowls and get going on the banana ones. After the pumpkin cupcakes were out of the oven, I set Lilly loose on the internet to find one more thing: a recipe for cream cheese frosting. A normally easy feat, but the catch was that we didn't have any confectioner's sugar (ahh, the woes of moving into a new apartment seem to continue). All was well though, because she found a great recipe that suited our needs perfectly (note: we left out the almond extract).

I love my cake tester! so much better than wasting lots of toothpicks or raw spaghetti :)

The chocolate chip banana cupcakes we left unfrosted, although in the past I've used chocolate frosting on them, and then they really are more like cupcakes than muffins. I'm sure they'd also probably taste amazing with a little Nutella on top...but that could just be because I <3 Nuttella :)

Lilly's friend came over after dinner to partake in a little guilty pleasure TV (America's Next Top Model!), and after feeding her one of each of these she was left with the same problem we had: she didn't know which one she liked better! All in all not a bad way to spend a 'lazy' day.