I'm exceptionally proud of my room. I've spent most of the past year working hard on it! I was brought home from uni kicking and screaming and then spent a good few months ignoring the boxes upon boxes (and backpacks, bin liners and tote bags) that had taken up residence all over the floor creating an ugly obstacle course from my bed to the door, but eventually I decided that things had to change. It's normal to be angry when you find yourself back in the family home after any time living independently, and it's totally understandable to revisit that teenage angst that was actually born in your childhood bedroom, when you're back in it again for the foreseeable future. I needed a phase of mourning - 1. For the last three years of freedom, 2. For the person I was at uni, and 3. For my formerly reliable and untouched brain.
(Before)
However, soon I decided that if I was ever going to be happy at home, I had to revamp my room. I had to make it a nice environment where I could retreat to and find comfort in. I saw the bedroom of a good friend of mine and was amazed at how she'd made it into the physical equivalent of the inside of her head. It was her personality and her style, her passions - and her fandoms - all crammed between four walls. Suddenly I wanted that. I needed it.
So, let's first take a look at the key area of my room, what you see when you walk through the door. This area has been massively improved by the addition of the luxurious double bed, of course. The noticeboard has been there since I was maybe early teenage, and it was one of my first missions when I set about revamping the room. It was covered in theatre tickets, cover shoots of hot band members and my favourite magazine articles from my Year 11/sixth form days, and while I can totally appreciate the importance of those scraps of paper back then and I know they contributed to the building of this girl (Caitlin writes perfectly about this, yet another reason she and I should hang out), I needed to update things. So I blitzed the board and set about re-covering it with 21 year-old Gracie's influences and fond memories. Now 22 year-old Gracie is itching to contribute to it, too...or just destroy it and rebuild. We'll see.
Items of note here: my poor little blue ukulele I found on eBay and promised I'd learn to play three years ago but never did (top left), Sully & Stitch in their honeymoon pad (bottom left), Cat Therapy colouring book + pencils (front and centre), Hippy my beloved HP laptop (purple and proud, bottom right), my graduation present from a uni friend - 'Grad? Grad.' a la TFIOS painted lovingly on canvas (top right), blue Caffe Nero takeaway cup sleeve which I pocketed during my first shift at my perfect job (lower middle of board), and the postcard that says 'smile' which seems to leap out at you from the noticeboard in this photo...
Items of note here: my poor little blue ukulele I found on eBay and promised I'd learn to play three years ago but never did (top left), Sully & Stitch in their honeymoon pad (bottom left), Cat Therapy colouring book + pencils (front and centre), Hippy my beloved HP laptop (purple and proud, bottom right), my graduation present from a uni friend - 'Grad? Grad.' a la TFIOS painted lovingly on canvas (top right), blue Caffe Nero takeaway cup sleeve which I pocketed during my first shift at my perfect job (lower middle of board), and the postcard that says 'smile' which seems to leap out at you from the noticeboard in this photo... 
Next, swivelling around to the right, my window sill. Here we have a collection of scented candles (not pictured as they are all half-burnt and blackened considerably, not very pretty at present but still smell divine), my mirror where I do my makeup in the mornings (because direct daylight is best, however devastating it may be when it first hits your sleepy face), my new roommate Kenickie the cactus who sits happily in his bed of a stolen Starbucks mug, my red jasper skull which encourages me to adventure and look beyond my window, my Feelings Stick made by my mum (see New Girl season 1 epsiode 4) and three jars of pure legit Australian sand (one Surfer's Paradise, one Byron Bay, and one a mixture of several perfect Aussie beaches, all sand samples collected in Spring 2012 and smuggled back to the UK via Dubai. You can literally put a finger in one of these jars and say "I am in Australia."). 
My desk goes through a good sweep every month or so; I shift the stacks of books, piles of papers and collections of random significant objects, feeling my head clear and breathe as I do so, and every time I swear it will never get this bad again. It always does. There are a few staples within this mess, though.
For instance, my crystals. I have them currently on a china plate in the centre of my desk (in front of the completely packed but barely used tea caddy), as I used to have them in tiny clusters all around my room but I've found that having them all in one central location is best. Beside the plate is a pair of sculptured hands which always hold the one crystal of the bunch that calls out to me most that day/week/month. I have amazonite, jasper, onyx, garnet, quartz, fluorite, lapiz lazuli and many more. Also behind them (atop the aforementioned tea caddy) are my Buddha buddies. They are all different stones and all have different meanings, and every now and again a pat on the head or rub of the belly with just a fingertip is all that's needed to set me straight. Sat with these guys as well is a perfect little timepiece my grandparents gave me at graduation, and my prestigious Montjoie star awarded to me after I gave speeches at my old school last year. I also have my To Be Read pile glaring at me on the desk, which both fills me with pride but reminds me not to buy any more books any time soon...
Above the desk are my bookshelves. They were given a tidy up and restyling earlier this year; my dear friend (the same one with the inspiring bedroom) got in touch with her Virgo tendencies and attacked the shelves with intense organisation. Every book is now crammed in and colour-coordinated. Often I'll be sat on my bed reading or Netflix-ing or blogging, and I'll look up and see the gorgeous rainbow of books on the wall facing me... It makes me so happy. I keep quite a few knick knacks up there with the books - some of my jewellery (4 ring holders, 2 earrings stands, 1 'miscellaneous items' pot), my nicer perfume, the spooky (as in, spookily accurate) fortune sticks, the coffee tamp I won at Barista of the Year, and my (now retired) prettiest Ultimate flying disc. Plus photos, obviously. I plan on someday having a shelf dedicated to photo frames, but right now I feel they punctuate my slightly overloaded shelves nicely.
The rest of my jewellery can be found between the window and the shelves; I used to always hang necklaces and bracelets from pins on my noticeboards, but then that would cast shadows and just cover up the many valuable artefacts I'd collect and stick on there. Then one year for birthday and Christmas presents I was inundated with tall free-standing jewellery holders - especially those wooden painted ones made to look like female bodies with hooks sticking out of their necks. I gave those a go, but gradually grew sick of looking at them. My necklaces would not be best displayed on those, and they'd get tangled together as well. So now they're all on a little row of hooks - I think the proper purpose of these hooks is to hang coats on, but they work perfectly for this. Very handy. Looks quite cute, too.
One of my prized possessions in my bedroom is a gift I received from my lovely former workplace (Everyman cinema, Winchester) when I was yanked out from behind the bar one day and rushed into hospital... The wonderful team sent me signed cards and a perfect illustration done by Matt, a fantastic colleague and genius artist (http://www.teaandpencils.com/). 
I also have a more personal noticeboard next to my window; safe from prying eyes and the harsh bleaching glare of the sunshine... This board is splattered with my super-special cards, tickets and photos. I cannot pick a favourite 'thing' here - every item is important to me. Photobooth snaps with my little sis and with my boyfriend, the postcard Frank Warren signed, the Hogwarts Express ticket John and Hank Green scribbled on, my Grandad's message which became pretty permanent on my forearm two years ago, all six of my Joshua Radin concert tickets, my fragment of the silk scarf my best friend ripped apart for us to share when we were just sixteen... Everything is golden, here.
So, that's my room. Or at least the parts of it that I don't mind showing... There's still some renovation to be done and some tweaks to be made. For example, I want my retro 60s typewriter to be a gorgeous ornament as well as a funky way to write letters to my friend in Berlin. I also need a place to store and display my best mugs - the Bing Bong one, the one with the heart painted on, the precious stolen Starbucks ones (my friend and I decided to take our own initiative and punish this company for cheating their taxes in 2012)...
There's still a lot to be done. But I hope you appreciate and enjoy what I have so far!
Really cool post, Im in the process of redoing my room after being away at college
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