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. 

Fall Yard Cleanup

You know you're getting old when you are still sore from yardwork you did 3 days ago.  This past weekend I cleaned up the yard a bit just in time for my bulk trash pick up.  The front yard had again filled with acorns and also leaves from my neighbors' trees.  The back yard was just getting downright shaggy.

I started by cutting back my garden.  I got rid of everything except my pepper plants that are still producing ample peppers.

Next it was time to tackle the alley.  I don't think I've been back in my alley since I cleaned it up in the spring.  It's not a fun place to hang out, but the vines that were growing through my back fence were drving me crazy.

 That vine made a pile in the alley that was almost as tall as I was.  I sprayed a little RoundUp in hopes of keeping it clean back there...at least until next spring.  I think I now have the cleanest alley area on my block.

Next up a mow for the backyard and suddenly things were starting to look much neater.  If I would just get around to building those flower beds along the back fence.

 

I also need to figure out why my roses are laying down on the job.  Oh well, at least they are blooming and beautiful.

New Roommate, Take 2

So things didn't work out so well with Stewart and it was very sad.  Since then, I've been keeping my eyes on rescue dogs around the city.  I've been to more adoption events than I thought possible.  Yesterday, I grabbed my mom and headed over to Operation Kindness's no-kill shelter.  In just a couple of hours, my mom and I were wrangling this girl into the car.

Operation Kindness had her listed as a 2 year old Spaniel/American Cocker/Poodle mix.  Yeah...no.  She's a terrier mix of some sort.  Maybe a little Wheaten Terrier mix.  She looks very similar to my sweet Gracie that we lost a couple of years ago.

Gracie 2000-2011

Gracie was 25 lbs and short.  New Dog is 36 lbs with long legs.  Her name at the shelter was Adora.  Not the greatest name, especially considering I had just finished Gillian Flynn's book Sharp Objects with a horrible character by the same name.  She will now be known as Biscuit.

The ride home was a little crazy.  My mom had to sit with her in the backseat for the first leg of our journey back to my parents house.  She shook the whole way!  When it was time for me to drive her home, I had to get in the back seat with her and then climb up to the drivers seat.  Unfortunately she too decided that was a great idea and popped between my legs as I was climbing.  I thought I'd never get her home but she settled into the front seat and was good the whole ride.  Guess she just prefers shotgun.

Biscuit and Pablo get along as well as expected.  She follows him around and he growls at her.  That's true friendship for you.  She's settled in quite nicely, napping after sniffing around her new digs.

This morning she figured out she could get on the couch.  Oh well, I at least tried to curb that. 

She slept all night in the crate, whimpering just a little when I first put her in.  She is doing her potty business in all the right places and loving her dog food.  When the temperatures dropped this morning, we discovered she fit into Gracie's old polar fleece (which was always a bit big for G).

Hopefully our new roommate Biscuit will fit right in and like living with us! 

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.

Spanish Art

While in Barcelona this summer I saw a lot of beautiful art.  But what caugh my eye the most?  The random graffiti all around town.

I took a bunch of pictures and when I got back I decided to blow a few up to frame.  I ordered them in 11x14s.

They sat around for a month or so until my frames went on sale for 40% off and I was able to use an additional coupon for 25% off my whole purchase at Michaels.  Basically it was like getting 4 for the price of 2.

I wanted to hang them on the blank wall in my bedroom since my art in there is all pretty colorful and funky.

No idea why that last picture is sideways.  The ellipitical kind of covers that wall but I decided that I'd still decorate as if nothing was there.  It took a while but I think I got them fairly centered and straight.

I love all the random statements they are making.  "We are all one."  "Remember who you are."  "Do what you love."  "Be human." "Peace worldwide starts inside."  Nice little sentiments to see every day. 

So Many Staples

Before I could start recovering my chair, I had to first uncover it.

The person that put this chair together must have been paid by the staple.  I spent days pulling out hundreds of staples using a screwdriver and needle nose pliers. 

 

I made sure to note how I took everything off so that I could eventually put it all together.  I piled my removed pieces in the corner and would use those to make my patterns.

Reassembly would mostly be stapling but I had to sew the rolled arms and will have to sew the main cushion as well.

I left a little of the old fabric on in places that I wasn't needing a pattern.  It meant less staples to remove and that was a-okay with me.  Once I got the arms on, I picked up my staple gun and next thing you know it started looking like a chair again.

I had a jammed gun that slowed me down on Wednesday night but by Thursday I was back up and running.  Unfortunately I ran short on fabric.  I forget that more is needed when you have to pay attention to the direction of the fabric pattern.

No worries, additional fabric should be on my doorstep by next Wednesday so hopefully my next chair post will have a completed chair moved back to its home in my office.