Lemons!

During law school, I spent two years living in a campus apartment, which would have been known as "married student housing" in my parents' college days.  They now let unmarried students who are in grad school or have been in undergrad for several years live there.  They also let lone individuals have two bedrooms without roommates since a few new residence halls have opened up and taken the strain off the housing supply.  We weren't married when I first moved into my tiny bedroom apartment at the height of harvest season before my 2nd year began.  My dad and brother had to help me move and they were WAY too busy for such nonsense because of the farm so they made a few trips from my storage unit that I was sharing with a few classmates and piled everything very haphazardly near the entrance of the apartment and took off leaving me to deal with furniture to position and boxes to move.  I think they must have helped me assemble the bed frame at least!  They also accidentally grabbed a large painting that belonged to one of my friends from the storage unit that I had to return to the unit later.  (I am not trying to sound unappreciative...I just think the whole afternoon was funny.  It must be so annoying to be a man and always have to help people move heavy items...)  I had no idea what to expect from my new campus apartment.  What I did know was that it cost about $300 less a month than the off-campus one bedroom that I had rented my first year.  The campus apartments had cable TV, internet was very cheap, and, since UND generates its own electricity, the monthly electric bill averaged about $4.00 per month.  Seriously.  The building was quite dated, with panelled walls and a porcelain sink protruding from the bathroom wall without a counter or any sort of cabinets.  However, it was spotlessly clean and the outdated faucets and showers dumped water in wonderful way that new, water conserving fixtures can never compare to.    

After one semester in the one-bedroom I upgraded to a still cheap two bedroom and was assigned to a unit in a neigboring building of the complex.  This place seemed cavernous compared to the one-bedroom, mostly because it had white walls instead of panelling.  Both of these units were quite sufficient for student living and I lived there until graduation.  The two-bedroom was our first home after getting married and I was always relieved to get back to that cozy little place after sub-zero walks from the bus stop. They lacked one major thing however...curtains...yikes.  Upon discovering this I pinned some blankets over the windows that August day that I moved in until I could get to Target to buy some cheap curtains.  The two bedroom had FOUR whole windows instead of just two like the one bedroom so I decided to make some curtains myself!  The kitchen had a window and I had my heart set on curtains with a corn on the cob pattern like the curtains in the Simpsons' kitchen!

I couldn't find any fabric with a corn print on it so instead I ended up choosing a sunny, yellow fabric with a lemon pattern!  I didn't care if it would look over the top because I couldn't do much else to modify the appearance of the apartment. 

Later that year I was in Kohls and came across this cheap lemon slice rug.  I bought it and it was the start of a lemon theme.  I am not crazy about themes in houses because they can get ridiculous fast so i will call it a casual lemon theme...it is not in your face as soon as you walk in the door...you notice it gradually... 

I found these towel and also a cutting board with lemons on it (I forgot to get it out for the photo) and also some dish sponges (long thrown away) in the dollar aisle at Target when they had a brief line of fruit oriented kitchen items in there. 

I found these fake lemon figurine things at TJ Maxx within the last year. 

I ordered this poster that hangs above the stove when we lived in the campus two bedroom.  It is a vintage Sunkist advertisement.

Oh...then there is this wall hanging...I bought that at TJ Maxx as well.  It is metal and the lemons are raised off the background.  I bought it to hang in our apartment when we moved here.  Justin hates it and didn't want it in our new kitchen when we moved to this house.  It looks kind of wacky in this picutre and the wall color looks all wrong compared to how it is in person but I actually think it goes nicely in the kitchen.  It is a small, 1950's kitchen so anything overly ornate or farmhouse-y would look wrong.  I should mention that the whole kitchen is not full of lemons...there are other aspects of the decor.  If you want to see you can click on the "kitchen" link on the right side of the page. 

The lemon slice rug has been with us since it was new back in 2007.  I wash it regularly the grippy material on the back is inevitably wearing out and it has started slipping around and causing problems.  It bunches up and I keep tripping over it.  This afternoon I shopped for a new rug to replace it.  It didn't have to be lemons...it just had to match the kitchen and preferably have a color or colors to match the Fiestaware dishes from which I drew the colors that dominate the kitchen (yellow, turquoise, green). 

Ohhhh my....there are so many ugly area rugs out there!  I went first to TJ Maxx, because it is a good place to find cheap crap that is a bit different from the usual things you see everywhere from Target or Kohls.  I couldn't find anything good.  There were some cute things but they were meant more for a living room or someplace that wouldn't require the rug to be washed regularly.  I was looking for something with a grip on the back.  Next I went to Kohls because that is where the original lemon slice came from.  They still had that half-circle shaped line that I had in mind but were so ugly!  Ugh!  There was one with fruit on it on clearance that I almost bought just to be silly but it was so bad I had to put it back.  Next I went to the mall and started at Herbergers and then went to JC Penney.  It was all the same...garish colors with pictures of coffee cups or wine bottles or vegetables and words like "espresso" or "vino" all over the place.  Maybe that would be OK if I liked coffee and I do like wine but that "tuscan" wine motif would be weird in our kitchen. The alternative choice was something in dull, muted taupe or sage green that would look all wrong.

I finally tried Target (the Target here is still attached to the mall like they were in the old days before SuperTarget took over!  It is convenient but I miss SuperTarget).  That is where I found this!

Hahaha...I still think it is kind of ugly but oh well...at least it doesn't get bunched up cause problems.