An Inspiring Office

I'm loving this cute little office area I came across today. Usually, when I come across a space I like, I copy the image to my inspiration folder, and that's that. However, I wanted to spend some time reflecting on what I like about this image, in the hopes that it will help me find a solution for my own office chaos.

First off, I love the color scheme. Since paper stuff and office stuff can be so stressful, this palette of aqua, tan and white is oh-so-peaceful. I love the way the colors are repeated throughout the space, and how the aqua draws your eyes to the vases and boxes.

I like that everything is pretty. There are decorative items, (vases and flowers) but even the functional stuff is pretty. We've got pretty and functional paper boxes, labeled neatly.  A pretty, white cabinet with sliding panels keeps messier stuff covered up, although it still looks pretty organized up there.  The parsons' desk is cleanlined but very useful, with a large workspace. The chair looks pretty comfortable, and very, very cute. The wastebasket is obviously useful, but attractive at the same time.

Let's look at the elements that are included in this very small office space. I think it would be safe to deduce that these are the essentials, as there isn't room for much else besides the essentials!

• Laptop


• Desk & Comfortable Chair


• Lamp


• Bulletin Board


• Concealed, Labeled Storage (Boxes and cabinet)


• Magazine holders


• Pen Cup


• Notebook


• CD Storage


• Wastebasket


• Decorative Items

My guess is that additional office supplies are in the desk drawer, and it looks like there may be a printer and other accessories under the desk on the right side.

All in all it is a fabulous use of a small space, and it has definitely inspired me!

Loving the Living Room

I'm really trying to get every room in the house photographed before the end of the month so I can have an updated album of how the house has changed since we bought it last February. I can't believe it's been a year already! The Castle is feeling more and more like home, and a pleasant one at that!

Here are some pics of the living room in its mostly finished state. But, before I show off all of our hard work, here's a reminder of where we started.

And now, the stunning afters :-)

Here's what we've accomplished in this room:

• Tore out icky brown carpeting


• Scraped glued on cork (!) panels off the walls


• Spackled, patched, sanded and primed walls


• Painted walls


• Tore out weird light thing in fireplace area


• Found gas logs in attic, placed in fireplace


• Tore out terrible header over mantel, documented here


• Installed new lights, wiring, primed and painted mantel area


• Replaced hardware on bookcase doors


• Installed moulding around window.


• Replaced all outlets in room


• Hung pictures, shades and curtains.

Still to do:

• Install moulding around other window


• Install moudling on mantel


• Hook up logs if possible


• Replace tiling in front of fireplace


• Refinish floor, install quarter round next to baseboards


• Make new grates for floor vents

All in all, I'd say we've made pretty good progress in this room, and we spend lots of time in it so we definitely love it!

Dressing the Chicken...

...bouillon jars, to be exact. In rearranging my pantry I found these little jars that hold my beef and chicken bouillon cubes. I love the size of the jars, and just keep moving fresh batches into these jars I bought a while ago. A few months ago, probably during my fall cleaning, I hastily used a sharpie to identify the contents, on each top, so I wouldn't have to play the "which bouillon is this?" guessing game. 

The size of the jars is great, but they're not the prettiest to look at. Today I thought, why not dress these little jars up a little? That way they would completely follow my policy of every item in my home must make me smile. I am a huge clutter magnet, and this mantra really simplifies my decision making process. And, it ensures that the things that surround me are ones that I really do like.

Here's what I started with:

And the finished product:

I basically took some scrapbooking supplies and a white charcoal pencil and went to town. I cut two strips of the green paper to fit around the jar, and two circles to fit the top, with a detail cut from the green paper. Tape and mounting squares holds everything in place, and then I took my trusty sharpie once again and wrote the equivalent on the bottom of the jar so as not to forget it. 

Voila!

Friday Fav: Sunshine

Well, it seems that my Friday Favs are showing you all about me. I love sunshine. Interestingly enough, for having spent over half my life in the often sun-less town of Rochester, I adore the sunshine. I think partly because I equate sunshine with God's presence. When the sun's rays hit my face, I think "Oh, God is smiling down on me right now." Which he could also be doing when it's cloudy, but I don't think it then. 

In other news, we've had a rough couple of weeks. Our washer overflowed all over our basement so our house priority list went from this:

• Finish rooms we've started on
• Paint Kitchen
  
• Work on outside curb appeal and yard
• Refinish living room and dining room floors
• Work on remodeling basement

to:

• WORK ON MESS IN BASEMENT!!!!!

 ;-)

Learning screenshots, and other news

Today I took two minutes to organize my Google Reader. Google Reader is great, by the way, I love that it remembers all the blogs I want to follow, thus freeing up my mind for other things like, I dunno, remembering the coffee to water ratio for making coffee for guests. :0)

Below is a screenshot of what my reader used to look like; blog after blog after blog, and each day some would be bold and others wouldn't. (Note: this would drive my organization loving self batty) Now I do go through and unsubscribe from blogs I no longer read pretty regularly, but my problem now was the disparity in blogging frequency of the blogs I read. 

So, I took a couple minutes to think about what folders I would like to divide my blogs into. I came up with Favorite Blogs (the ones I always save to read until last anyways), Daily Blogs, and Infrequent Posters. That way I can see at a glance if one of my favorite blogs has a new post (hello Jen M and findingJen!) or I can see if one of the blogs I enjoy reading, but rarely has new content, has been updated. The third folder, Daily Blogs, are the ones I find myself reading every day.  Now my reader looks like this:
Much, much better. A quick fix and a more relaxed and organized me. :0)

Friday Favs: icanhascheezburger.com

Have you every spent some time on this site? It's mostly cats, with some other animals thrown in, with hilarious captions. Seriously, if you're feeling blue, spend some time browsing this site. Your mood will improve instantly. Here are some of my recent favorites :-)

Florida Trip Canceled.*

You will not go to Florida. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. 

*The trip wasn't completely canceled,just pushed out to the end of the month. Still, it's rough. 

Fringe.

My hair went to the chopping block today. Well, PART of my hair. I've been growing my hair back out since last May, or really since November of 2006, when I donated 14 inches to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program. (side note, that was really hard, but Very Fulfilling) 

Anyways, back on subject. I didn't want to get my hair cut, but my bangs were out of control. I usually trim them once or twice between haircuts, but apparently I hadn't done that in a while, as my "bangs" were down past my lips. 

You're probably wondering, why not just grow them out then? Well, because I have like FIVE inches of forehead. And it looks weird. I blame it on my Enormous Brain. :-) 

Focus. Ok, so here's what my new 'do' looks like. I finally got the thick bang look I've been going for... for like a year. :o) 

Oh, and while we on the topic, (which we weren't) we're loving the new show Fringe. So many questions and mysteries, it reminds me of Lost. Oh wait, it's made by the same people! duh Oh, and Walter is hilarious. :o)

The Very Great and Wonderful Grammar

Did you read Winnie the Pooh as a kid? And I don't mean the Disney version, (although it is wonderful) I mean A.A. Milne's creative books that he wrote for his son Christopher Robin. I have them, all of them, and I love them. Should we ever have children, I will enjoy reading them to them almost as much as reading them to myself. ;-) 

But I think my favorite element of the books is how Milne writes. He capitalizes things that gramatically wouldn't be capitalized, and vice versa. I think it's genius and have decided to write in this Way from Now On. That way, when I tell you about My Very Awful and Horrible Day, you will remember it because I told you about the Scary Cashier, and the Really Terrible Weather. And you will also know that I do not like Mondays. And that I love Ice Cream. :o)

2009 Goals in Progress

I've set up my google calendar to remind me to check my goals for 2009 once a month. This forces me to actually make an effort to accomplish them this year. :-) Here are the ones we've made progress in so far. (and on a side note, don't you just love google? they sure do make my life a lot easier)

• Increase emergency savings by $500. We've saved just over half of this so far
• Increase car fund by $1K. We've done this too, but Luke's car needs some work so... it might be a wash. :-(
• Have money saved for garage saleing season. I have $10. That counts right?
• Have a stocked food supply. We have a month's worth of meat in the basement freezer, and we're working on stocking the non-perishables.
• Finish painting rooms in house. I've painted the living room, dining room, master bedroom and hallway, as well the ceilings in all of those. All we have left is the stairwell. Of course, those are just the rooms we've been working on. There's always more!
• Get together with family once a week. We've pretty much done this with Luke's family, and we've seen my brothers about every two weeks. It's been Great!
• More people coming to Bible Study We've had four new people come this year, and we're hoping they stick around! Yay!
• Continue goal of getting in better shape. I've lost eight pounds so far, and am still losing. On a side note, how it is possible that Luke only weighs six pounds more than I do? That's motivation for ya!
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