Considerably decluttered.

In my last post I put up pics from my freshman year dorm. I have to say, I de-cluttered CONSIDERABLY during sophomore year! Still going for a taste of the tropics though.

Heck, I even added a faux surfboard AND a tiki bar lamp!

Desk where I did not do much studying. In fact, I probably staged that textbook being open for the sake of the photo.

The nice thing about about this dorm was the fact that it had a common area. Here, you can see that the theme is: PINK. I provided the bean bag and tablecloth in the corner. That rug really tied the room together.

It all started somewhere.

And it did not start at home. HAhaha.


My childhood bedroom never had much of an identity. It was just sort of an ever-growing collection of my possessions from birth through teenage angst, displaying a mish-mash of the furniture I'd had since I was 2, my glow-in-the-dark stickers, my Keroppi phase, and my teenybopper days.


Circa 2003:

Like I said, this furniture is the same set I've had since I was a baby... and it's still there to this day whenever I visit. :) The bed sheets were once pink and frilly to match my canopy but I made the cool decision in the 90's to upgrade to some Lion King sheets.

Things of note here: the full Nancy Drew collection on my bookshelf, some stuffed animals I never bothered to get rid of, hmm.. yup that's about it. (But seriously, por que  Ricky por que!?!)

THEN, I discovered IKEA the summer I left for college, and it was really the first time I got excited about decorating because I was able to personalize my dorm from scratch. At that point in my life, I was very colorful... in the most tropical of ways.


Freshman year dorm:

Spongebob?! Hibiscus patterns? Posters of islands and palm trees? Oh, that sounds so accurate. 

Alternate duvet cover. I really went to town on that turquoise.

When I went home for winter break that year, I was rather inspired to give my room a facelift and I decided on an Arabian Nights theme. I remember my mom's concerned look when I was described I was going for a harem look, but I think I did rather well considering my limited college student budget.

Pretty much how it still stands today. And yes, I did say adios to my Ricky Martin poster.

Our Roommate

One of my favorite holidays is Halloween, and part of why I like it so much is because I think haunted houses are really, REALLY cool. I always loved trick or treating at the few houses that go all out for Halloween -- you know the kind I'm talking about, the ones with the funny tombstones lining the walkway, ghosts hanging from the trees, fog machine, creepy music playing from rocks, maybe a dad dressed as Frankenstein cruelly jumping out from a bush to scare the kiddies, and of course the mom who gives out King Size Kit-Kats!

Needless to say, apartment living for the past 4+ years did not exactly make for an ideal  haunted house setup, but last year, on or around November 1st, I decided to stock up on some sale Halloween items.

Favorite item was easily the skull head I found, but because the holiday was over, I actually just kept him in the back of the car (you know, in lieu of where people generally put stuffed animals), in hopes of warding off potential thieves. Seriously. But I guess one day there was some major pothole, and the skull fell and broke his head.

So we brought him inside and semi-glued him back together.

Not wanting to put him away for good, we found him a home atop our Crate & Barrel sideboard. Year-round creepiness FTW!

So as you can see, he's somewhat happy here guarding our wine along with our 2 fish.

But, sometimes... he gets bored and it's like we don't even know who this dude is.

The smart roommate who leaves the light on bc he's always studying. 

The roommate who wears his sunglasses indoors. Douche.

The roommate who only talks about football, and had a rough season.

The roommate who didn't realize he was a Halloween prop and so decided to dress up for Halloween anyway.

The roommate starring Blair Waldorf.

The hipster roommate.

The hipster roommate who saw Harry Potter (current display).

The ultimate hipster roommate who moved out to Williamsburg anyway.