...Because a Lisa Party happens approximately once a decade.
Yes! After all my hard work to whip the apartment into shape for myself (and fully embracing the solitude life of a basement dweller), I did a 180 and invited a dozen-plus people into my home. Voluntarily.
I'm surprised, too.
But it was pretty fun! At least, I had fun. And that's what matters. In addition to loading up on food and booze beforehand, I made some other changes to the apartment. Let's see.
PILLOWS
Call me basic, but I'm a sucker for a kilim. A lot of pillows in this style come in some pretty whackadoo colors, so it took a lot of digging to find combos (and designs!) that I thought could work in my space without making it look like the southwest threw up in my living room. The Etsy shop ZDkilimspillow had a great selection at reasonable prices — plus, my purchase was followed by the adorable note:
Thank you so much for your order,
I wish you that feel happy while using your pillow
Thank you,
Kind regards,
Zeynep.
Aw, Zeynep.
I do feel happy while using my pillows, but I will note that these are mostly decorative — you're not going to be snuggling up with them any time soon as they're quite scratchy on the woven side.
I also picked up this larger one from H&M on the off-chance that I DID get the urge to snuggle up with a pillow sometime. (Hey, hangovers happen.) H&M's stuff is pretty hit or miss, but I like the material and simple pattern on this one. Plus, their pillow inserts are cheap.
PLANTS
I know now to stick to only the cheapest, hardiest of plants, so I made stops at Home Depot and Trader Joe's for some basic green. The "tropical" plant above and my snake plant are both still kicking more than a month later, but I know better than to get complacent...they'll probably die soon.
But my zizi plants are still going strong! These have been with me since my last apartment. When my fiddle-leaf fig tree bit the dust, I transferred my two zizi plants into the big pot so I could once more have something decent next to the bed. This picture might be awful, but look how great that plant is surviving!
Sidenote: If anyone knows how to succeed in taking good pictures of a basement apartment, please do share. I think my #1 barrier to posting more is a lack of decent images to accompany all this word garbage I have no problem spewing.
RUG
Yep, I bought a rug. Probably wasn't necessary, but now I can officially refer to this tiny square of space as the "living room." Plus, my secret favorite thing ever is stalking products and snatching them up the second they go on sale, which is what happened with this rug after it had first sold out for a couple months. It's a simple flatweave with a printed pattern, so nothing fancy, but I wasn't looking for a forever rug and I dig the design. I've been assured that it's not too much black/white/gray in one space, but if you disagree...please don't tell me.
CHAIR
Actually purchased after my party, but whatever. Also, guess what? Pretty much no one sat down while they were here, anyway! All that loveseat drama WAS FOR NOTHING.
JK. I love my loveseat and it brings me great joy. It allows me to partake in one of my favorite activities: comfortably eating in front of the TV.
Back to the chair. I've wanted this chair for, oh...maybe four years? At least? Not really sure why, since a solid number of people have told me just how uncomfortable they think butterfly chairs are, but I'm a fan, personally. I also prefer to sit cross-legged whenever possible and am one of the first to plop down on the floor in meetings, too, though, so...don't judge it based on my opinion. But what I can say unequivocally is that it's a smart choice for a studio apartment, because I can fold it up and tuck it away when it's not in use/blocking the way to the laundry/whenever I feel like it. Points for practicality!
It was, however, expensive, and there was no getting around that, though I did manage to buy it while it was on sale for one of the only times in the past several years, so I can at least tell myself that. Also, I had picked up the frame in the clearance section for $10 about a year ago and have been hoarding it for this very moment, so, pat on the back, Past & Present Lisa.
Whatever. I'm alone in the world and only have myself to spend my money on. Let's splurge!
That's it for now. I will say one more thing about hosting people in your home, though: a certain someone may have scoffed at the idea of include carrot sticks and hummus as part of my snack spread, but they went like HOT CAKES. I also cannot recommend enough making a couple simple pizzas to anchor the food situation — it's a low-stress, affordable, and delicious option. And they're easy to jazz up and seem fancy, too. Yeah, I'm basically an expert hostess now.