Another valiant attempt to stay organized in a terribly designed rental kitchen

Our rental kitchen is tiny, about 6' by 10'.  But I know from obsessively reading Apartment Therapy that small kitchens can be awesome when used wisely.  For two young people living on a tight budget, six by ten should be plenty.

Somebody else's well-designed tiny kitchen.  Our kitchen was not so lucky.  I want one of those magnetic knife thingies, btw.

Our kitchen, unfortunately, was not used wisely.  It's basically just a box, with our front door at one of the narrow ends, and a door into the living area in the middle of one of the long walls.  Plenty of room to build cabinets and a counter along the long wall, perhaps even a little wrap around counter with a range and oven built in.  An under-counter fridge would maximize the space, but I know I'm dreaming there.  The ceilings are very high, so there is plenty of room to build big cabinets just about everywhere.

Another well designed tiny kitchen that is not mine, from Apartment Therapy.  We have enough room for cheap-o cabinets like these!  Why didn't you put them in!!??

But instead, the "designer" of this kitchen chose a less traveled route, choosing to install one counter-top along the narrow wall of the kitchen.  Beneath this counter-top are the three most awkward cabinet spaces ever, each awkwardly fitted with shelves that don't fit the space.  That's right, some of them don't even hit the back wall of the cabinet, leaving a convenient six inch gap at the back of the cabinet for pots and pans to fall through.

The Bermuda cabinet gap.  Pot lids have no defenses.

And then instead of building in cabinets above the tiny counter, as in the picture above, this mysterious "designer" chose to install a single large cabinet on the wall to the LEFT of the counter-top, making EVERYTHING difficult to get to, even stuff on the bottom shelf.  Then over the sink he or she chose two  narrow open shelves of different sizes.

Why would anyone build a cabinet here????

And I know that an under-counter fridge is dreaming, but was this GIANT of a creature really necessary?

NOM NOM NOM

I could go on about the stupidity of our kitchen, but needless to say we've been up against some organization challenges.  I've tried to fill the open shelving with our prettiest, most colorful dishes.  And because we only have two tiny drawers in the entire kitchen, I hang as many things as possible, and keep silverware out on the counter-top in some ceramic holders we got at Ross.

I like that they have a little picture of the utensil on them, so it looks like I'm keeping utensils on the counter on purpose because I'm so proud of them.

Before I hung this spice rack, I used to keep all the spices in a pile on the counter.  Craziness,!

In the past few days we have further improved the kitchen. In order to stop things from falling through the crazy gap, I bought a giant drawer from the clearance area of the Container Store to "contain" everything on the shelf.

Try getting to my pot lids now, evil gap!

Since we recently got a free coffee maker from a hotel that closed in town, and a gigantic toaster that takes up half the counter, I got rid of the tea and picnic supplies I used to keep on the counter, and relocated them to one of the cabinets.  We also hung a wine glass rack to hang the glasses we got for free after a wine tasting with my family a few weeks ago.  I think it's about time I stop drinking wine out of jars.

Sometimes I think the toaster and the fridge intimidate the tiny little coffee maker and the tiny little stove .  Appliance bullies.

We also built a pot rack from some cut redwood saplings.  I have yet to find the right solution to hang our pots and pans from it (no S hooks big enough at the hardware store, and these tie hangers are too big to fit through the loops of all but this saucepan).  Building the pot rack was a post all of its own, so I'll save that for another time.

Anyhow, it was another valiant attempt to tame the worst designed kitchen in the West (they should give out a prize for that) with zero budget.

Homemade iPad 2 case using $7.50 worth of thrift store clothing

I got crafty.  This afternoon I headed down to Goodwill, and picked up a kids polar fleece jacket ($3.75), and a tweed skirt ($3.75).

Tweed skirt and polar fleece jacket

I don't have a sewing machine, so this process took longer than it would have had I driven up to my grandmother's house (which is what I usually do when I have pants to hem, or Cornhole bags to make).  But my mother taught be how to hand sew, at least enough to keep a couple of pieces of fabric together.  A few hours later and voila!  A temporary iPad sleeve with a super soft inside and a stylish outside that will protect my precious gadget from the harsh reality of the outside world.

Doesn't it look cozy in there?  It's not quite done, of course, it needs a button for that cord to hook over.  I plan on getting a button tomorrow (I know, I can't believe we don't have a single button in our apartment either).  This should be plenty of protection for a bevy of upcoming plane flights (a wedding, then work, then more work), and going up to campus.  I will still keep my eye out for the perfect case, but for now I don't have to hurry!

The iPad 2 finally arrives (and finds a home in a business card holder)

 I got the call on Wednesday evening, and was picking it up at Best Buy seconds after the store opened on Thursday.  Why didn't I pick it up on Wednesday you ask?  I tried, they wouldn't let me.

Just like bringing a baby home from the hospital, this little bundle of joy demanded diapers and a nursery--or at least a protective sleeve and a spot on the desk.  I haven't taken care of the sleeve yet (I plan on getting crafty so stay tuned), but I did learn that a cheap-o business card holder will sub in as a stand, so off to OfficeMax I went.  It turns out none of the business card holders alone could hold up the iPad when it was vertical, so I went with this guy.

Way cheaper than an Apple iPad dock.

It is strong enough to hold the iPad up on my desk vertically and horizontally.

My iPad goes both ways.

And it also holds my desk stuff.

Multi-use!

So I can get rid of my mug-of-pens, leaving my desk looking like this:

Sleek, huh?

So far I am extremely pleased with my purchase.  I had a Skype meeting on it already, which was a breeze, and I purchased QuickOffice (docs, spreadsheets, presentations) and iCab mobile (Safari alternative with tabbed browser and downloads) with a gift certificate to iTunes left over from Christmas. Plus, the iPad is already getting along quite nicely with what is now Chris's iPod touch. Here they are, chatting about being super-skinny, super-sexy gadgets together on the coffee table.

"No you're sexier!"

What if Google ruled the World?

I have ranted before about how wonderfully Google keeps track of my mail, contacts, to-do lists, blogs, calendars, etc.  I have even wished that Google might extend its magic to the parts of my life that are less well taken care of: GCarRepairs perhaps? GPhD? GHangover?

Spanish artist Alejo Malia has taken the liberty of imagining a world where Google's presence has moved from cyber to physical, dominating our streets, and even visible to astronauts in space.

Whether these images are meant to celebrate Google's awesomely-efficient organisational tools for our everyday lives, or creepily ever-growing presence in every aspect of our existence, I'm a fan.

Things to do with your books now that you have a Kindle

I don't have an e-reader, but I assume you, my sophisticated, cloud-ready reader, probably do.  So what do you do with all those piles of books sitting around?  You can hoard them, as I do, ignoring your boyfriend's pleas to downsize.  Or you can get creative, like these folks:

Juniper Books Christmas tree from Museum Muse.

Headboard from Instructables, featured on Ohdeedoh.

Desk from Delft University of Technology, featured on PhDAZZLE.

Reader's table from This Into That.

Book page vases from Country Living

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A closet workspace for the doctoral student?

I have been thinking a lot about workspaces recently, with the imminent arrival of my boyfriend and his computer in my studio.  For while, I was considering investing in a cloffice.  In other words, I was thinking about putting my desk inside my closet.  Just in case you were wondering, cloffice is not a word I made up.  There are entire sections of design blogs dedicated to the cloffice.  The New Yorker even wrote about one.  Here is a great one, from Apartment Therapy.

Check out this cloffice, from two fellow graduate students with a blog about making their lives a little more glam while pursuing a PhD.  The girls at PhDAZZLE make cloffices sound hip, but I think I'll stick with what I've got for now.

Click here to check out PhDAZZLE.

Nerdy Chic: Designing with Science

Confession: Despite my claims at rationality, I spend at least half of my time online perusing design and organization blogs.  My favorites include Apartment Therapy, Chez Larsson, Design Sponge, Manhattan Nest and Ikea Hacker, among others.  I love seeing how other people have organized their homes and lives in creative ways, and I dream that someday I will have the time and space for such endeavors.

In my attempts to create a somewhat unique space on a graduate student budget, my apartment has taken on something of an accidental nerdy-chic style.  I mean, I'm pretty nerdy (but also chic, right guys? right?) so it makes sense.  I have a framed piece of wrapping paper printed with pages from a human anatomy textbook, several botanical watercolors by my grandmother, a small collection of pine-cones, and a vintage celestial globe given to me in high school.  I also have glass bottles in many shapes and sizes scattered around the apartment, in which I cultivate philodendron cuttings and germinated seeds from my leftover produce, and handmade throw pillows (I had a lot of time last summer) with appliquéd sea creatures on them (an octopus and a sting ray).   Adding to the sense of nerd-dom are bookshelves full of astronomy texts, tattered fiction and education journals, and of course me, the resident nerd.

It turns out I'm not alone.  Science style is all over the place, and has even been spotlighted several times on Apartment Therapy.  Check out some of these science-inspired pieces on my secret lust-list.

Textbook inspired pillows by Heather Lins Home.  The best part is the addition of the figure numbers.

Has anybody else noticed that taxidermy and botanicals are beyond hip right now?

Hey these guys totally stole my idea.  I love how BIG they went with it though!

This globe looks a lot like mine.  I think the lines of it are very mid-century; I could see it on Don Draper's desk.

Too cool.  Hey doctor friends, could you get your hands on an x-ray for me?

A lovely turn-of-the-century (the one before last) photograph of Lick Observatory, one of my favorite places.  Would look awesome on my wall.

I think I need some of these flasks to complement my bottles.  They make perfect flower vases!  Plus, you can conveniently measure out the cut plant food.

 And of course the dream of the mid-century wooden ant-farm complete with queen.