Motivated by Company

It's amazing what the pressure of incoming company can motivate you to finish around your house.  This past weekend I had not one, but two visitors!  They were actually part of a number of visitors that came in town to celebrate one of our friends at a baby shower.  I've slowly been working on getting my guest room reorganized and painted but unfortunately that is still not done.  You'll have to stay tuned.  But I did get some minor electrical work done!

The ceiling fan light fixtures in my guest room and office were the same and they both got upgraded.  Here is what they looked like before.

With eight foot ceilings and a small square footage, there was no reason to have these lighting cans pointing in various directions.  They cast odd shadows around the room and really didn't do their job very well.  I swapped them both out with a single bulb simple dome light.

Obviously this is my office, but it's the exact same as the guest room.  This light works so much better although I'm still trying to find the perfect bulbs for each room.  I'm really having issues around the house coordinating the CFL bulbs...warm white v. bright white v. daylight.  Different rooms look better with different colors and it's been a bit of trial and error with whatever I've had on hand.

Because I was having two guests at the house, I converted the office into a guest bedroom for the weekend thanks to my new air mattress.

I bought it off Amazon for $45.  It's awesome!  It takes about 2 minutes to inflate itself after you plug it in.  Just set it and forget it!  I wasn't really paying attention when pulling out linens or it may have matched a little better.  That's a combo of a couple different bedding sets.

I love that it inflates to the size of a normal queen bed and I don't have to ask guests to sleep a mere 6 inches off the ground.  It was a great buy.  It also folds back into a bag for easy storage.  I also got the blackout shades installed in the guest room similar to the ones in my office.  More on that later.  After I finished those little tweaks to the rooms, I set out some fresh flowers and enjoyed a fabulous weekend with my friends.

Office Rug

Back in November I finally bit the bullet an ordered a rug for my office.  I couldn't decide on a pattern so I just ended up going with white shag for now.  I found it on sale at RugsUSA and it arrived a little before Christmas. 

It was a little wavy at first so it has been relaxing for the past few weeks.  Biscuit seems to be a big fan.  She's in this room more than I am because it gives her a good squirrel watching view.  Here it is now, settling in with a few less waves.

Not a very lady-like pose

Obviously it looks a little better with sun coming in the windows but I took these pictures last night.  I'm still working on tweaking a few things in the room but it seems to be coming together!  And Biscuit's happy so that's all that really matters.

More Office Spray Paint Action

I finally came to a decision on my office chair and decided to just take it from black to navy.  Not a drastic change but one that matches better.

During this spray painting session I also managed to turn my arms, legs and hair blue.  I need to stop spray painting on windy days but it seems like every weekend is windy.  No worries, after a couple of showers I eventually got all the blue paint off my person.  I also tackled a random little table that has been floating around my house since I moved in.  It doesn't match anything so it never really found a home.

Since gold and navy were the paints of the weekend, I gave this guy a face lift to match my office.

Nothing too exciting but it definitely took this little table from country bumpkin to city slicker, added a little class.  Now I have a place for my drink as I read in my new comfy chair.

Going for the Gold

As of last weekend I have a new favorite spray paint.  Gold!  I picked up gold a few weeks ago to perk up some old iron pieces I have laying around the house and finally got around to using it this past weekend.  I went through my normal routine of starting with a couple of objects and then once I saw the results I kept walking back in the house to find more things I could paint gold.

I started with some mason jars and eventually added an old railroad nail and a candle stick.

These pieces are going to be part of my office.  The gold looks great with the navy and orange.  Eventually they will help with styling my bookshelf in the room.  For now, I just look and them and smile and then slowly scan the house for more things I can grace with my Rust-Oleum Midas Touch.

The Office is Open For Business!

The office is done!  At least for the year 2012.  I managed to clean up the room and semi-organize my closets last weekend, all under the waterful eye of Pablo.

 

 

I still need to give my shelf a little attention.  For now it just holds random homeless stuff.

Next year I hope to change the lighting in this room.  The light kit on the fan is horrible.  It gives off weird directional light.  I haven't decided if I'm going to switch the fan for a light fixture or just get a new light kit for it.  I have the same situation going on in the guest room as well.

My other plan for the new year is to decide on a rug for the room.  I keep changing my mind so I'm going to put that off for a while.  The room is definitely an improvement over how it began.

It looks darker in these photos but in real life the room actually feels lighter to me. 

The Chair is Finished!

My extra fabric showed up on my doorstep yesterday and I was able to tackle the rest of my chair.  This gave me something to do last night since nothing was on TV except election coverage.  I had already made my felt patterns of the 3 pieces I was lacking so all I needed was to cut the new fabric and start putting it all together.  The cushion was a little challenging but I'm happy to report I now know how to install zippers!

I slapped it all together and man, was I excited with the result.  It's not perfect by any means, but it looks great.

Next came the challenge of getting it back into the office, removing the legs and squeezing it through doorways. 

 So for less than the price of a slip cover, and much less than the price of a new chair, I've given this giant chair a whole new life.  Or at least a couple more years until I get irritated with it's massive size again. 

 

Unfortunately the rest of the office is a mess right now so I can't show you a full room shot at the moment.  I'm cleaning out closets and files and generating various piles of junk.  The Presidential Race may be over but my Race to Finish the Office Before Thanksgiving is just getting warmed up.

Monster Chair

Happy Halloween!  I have been planning and executing an attack on a monster in my house.  A monster chair that is. 

It has been hard to make progress on this side of the office with a giant chenille rusty red chair in my path.  I toyed with getting rid of it but decided it would be more economical to try to work with it.  While at JoAnn's Fabric one day I grabbed a swatch of a fabric that caught my eye.

It was a fun navy houndstooth but a little overpriced.  I was determined to find it online for a better price.  And I thought I had.  But then my fabric came in the mail.

I had accidentally ordered a 44" wide printed fabric.  No bueno.  Not one to be deterred I came up with a solution.  I bought a few $2.00 a yard 72" yards of felt to back my flimsy purchase.

My plan was to use spray adhesive to back the fabric with felt, making it a little more durable.  Here's a sneak peak of what the chair will eventually look like once recovered and back in the room.

Much better that the rusty red, right?  With my fabric problems solved I began on what would become an entire week of staple removal to strip down my chair.  More on that Friday!

Odd Collections

I've collected a lot of odd things throughout the years.  I think this happens to everyone.  There's just something satisfying about creating a collection and adding to it.  One of my first collections was "Photos of McDonald's Restaurants Around the World".  It was a wordy and strangely specific collection.  I amassed photos with my point and shoot camera and via my dad's business trips.  I had huge dreams of turning them all in to a coffee table book some day.  I no longer take photos of foreign McDonald's restaurants but seeing unique ones in new cities always stirs up a smile.  And I still have a thing for coffee table books.

Later in my teens I got really into Gumby and had quite the impressive collection of Gumby  licensed products.  I sold the collection on Ebay for a handsome profit.  As a flight attendant I started collection magnets of the states and countries I visited.  Still today I can assemble about 85% of the US on my fridge if challenged, though the magnets live in a drawer now.  When I started skiing in high school and college (recreational once or twice a year) I would collect pins from the various mountains I skied.  Lapel pins that I would attach to my neon green poufy ski jacket that screamed "TEXAS" to all the native Colorado skiers.  As a matter of fact, I think the pins are still on that jacket. 

Lapel pins are probably the one collection I still keep up with today.  I received several during my time as a flight attentdant and then have picked up other ones along the way.  I don't have tons but each one I do have comes with a special memory.  I've been lucky to visit a few cities hosting the Olympics.  Last year I attended my first World Series game.  This year the UT Co-op handed out Red River Rivalry pins with purchase.  I would take each pin and stick it in my lapel pin Ziplock baggie.  Not an exciting display of my collection.  With the office renovation in full swing I decided I wanted to put them in a shadow box.  Shadow boxes are not cheap but I found one at Michael's on clearance for $8 since a piece of wood had broken off the interior frame.  That's at least $20-30 in savings.  What a deal!

I considered painting the wood first, but it grew on me.  I punched my pins into place and then hung it in my office.  I like that I see it when I walk in the room.

I still have plenty of room for growth, which is good.  I probably only acquire 1-2 pins a year.  I like to think of it as my own version of a charm bracelet.  Oh wait, I have a charm bracelet and collect charms for it too!  I forgot about that.  Excuse the mess of my office.  I'm starting with that far wall and slowly working my way across the room.  Making progress.

I feel like my collection is now official and not just a plastic baggie I've held onto over the years. Now if I could just track down those old ski pins...