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Measured

July 10th, 2009

I have this thing called “no patience.” It’s really annoying. I try and try and sometimes I’m “fake” patient, which means I go into another room while biting my fist while no one is looking and then come back into a room with a smile on my face like “oh, were we waiting to do something?”

But deep inside, I’m screaming because waiting? CAN SUCK IT.

I have been very busy doing designs lately, which is really good except that it’s mixed in with everything I’m trying to get done which I pretty much fail at as it is. I’m figuring out that I can not do work on my couch any longer. I must sit at a desk or the table.

We have a great desk in the office, but my kids like to sit there and color and play games on the computer, which is okay with me because then THEY ARE QUIET and quiet is gooooooooooooooooood. We do not disturb the quiet.

I can sit at the kitchen table and I do, but it’s so uncomfortable. It just is, trust me.

So, yesterday morning I remembered that we have a really cool desk in our basement. I’ve been hesitant to bring it up because I wasn’t sure where I was going to put it, but yesterday I finally decided that I would have to stuff it into our living room for the sake of getting some work done efficiently.

I went downstairs and uncovered the desk, it was covered with books and crap and surrounded by chairs and suitcases and other very heavy and annoying things. I finally made it to the desk and lifted it and all I thought was “wow, this is one heavy desk.”

But I persevered. I carried the desk to the front of the stairs where I got the leg of the desk caught on the glider that Brian sits on while playing video games. I should have set the 500 pound desk down on the ground and moved the glider, instead I lifted it higher up to try to set it free from the glider’s grip (think she-ra meets somebody really, really dumb) and pulled the desk which caused the glider to fall, directly onto my ankle.

It hurt.

But I continued. I was on a mission. I MUST SET UP A PROPER WORK STATION FOR ME AND I MUST DO IT RIGHT NOW. (NOT IN SIX HOURS WHEN BRIAN IS HOME)

When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I sized up the size of the desk with the width of the stairs and decided that Yes! It will fit.

I climbed the stairs, turned the desk on it’s side and pulled it up, one step at a time, scraping the backside of the beautiful desk against the wooden stairs. (I swear, I’m not an idiot, I’m just an idiot sometimes.) After a few minutes and sweat, MY GOD THE SWEAT, I made it to the top of the stairs where I couldn’t get it through the door.

Between the door, the door frame, the stair case rail and the massive desk itself, I could not get it through. I tried endlessly, I even left the desk at the top of the stairs, praying it wouldn’t fall, to get a drill to remove a leg. I instructed the kids to not move for fear their movement would send the desk cascading down the stairs.

I made it back with the drill but there were SOMANYSCREWS. And angles and no way could I do this. Especially while on stairs.

I tried for another ten minutes but it seemed the more I tried, the more stuck I got on the stairs. And the more I tried, the more holes and scrapes I was putting into the drywall.

And then it happened. It got stuck. And I was at the bottom of the desk looking up and had to climb through the legs to get back upstairs.

Where I promptly shut the door behind me, wiped the sweat from my brow and sat back down at my kitchen table.

And pretended that this wasn’t laying, stuck, on my stairs.

Where it sits, still, 24 hours later.

Getting work done is overrated. I’m going to the park.

stuck

Oh and when Brian got home late last night, I was all like, so I was going to move the desk upstairs and he was all “oh really, where to?“ and I was all “into the living room, see? I cleared out a space.“ To which he replied “nice!“ and then I opened the door to the basement and was all “hey, look down here!”

And then he looked at the desk and looked back at me and didn’t seem surprised at all.

The office – before & after

June 8th, 2009

before 2132

Check it out. Can you get over how ugly this room is? Now, in my defense, many of the items in the room had already been moved around and painting had already begun in the bathroom when I finally remembered to take before pictures, but still.

ugly.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that I started the day out by painting my bathroom first. See?

after bathroom 2564 copy

I used two different colors. One wall is brownish and the remaining three are greenish. I do not have a before shot because taking a picture in a bathroom this small is not fun. Not fun at all. But the color before was a builders off-white with dirty hand prints all over the walls.

It was tres chic.

I am so relieved that this bathroom is painted because PAINTING BATHROOMS SUCK. It’s hot. It’s small and it’s hot.

Anyway, back to the office.

So, here is that picture again since I can’t seem to shut up and move on.

before 2132

and here is the after:

office after 2548

OMG. I know. Isn’t it amazing? The room feels like a totally different room.

Here’s another before and after series:

before 2129

office after 2545

We took the love seat out and it feels so much better in there. Also? I changed everything that was on my walls by moving it around, taking it down all together or shopping in other rooms or my basement to change things up. I did not spend any money on redoing this room, except for paint. And I bought the cheap crap paint, which I do not recommend unless you love to paint the same spot over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. If you do like to do that, then you’ll love the cheap crap paint. And if you do like to paint the same spot over and over and over and over and over again then there is something wrong with you.

No offense.

ooooh…look. More photos:

office after 2539

office after 2535 copy

and here’s how it looks at night. Which I totally love.

office after 2578 copy

I love this project, it has inspired me to do a few more around the house. Also, I do plan to add to the room, I realize it’s bare, but it’s takes me a little while to get the room to be “just so” plus we be broke, so you know, it’s just not done.

But that’s okay. I’ll just come back another day and show you what I picked up at an Estate Sale yesterday. FOR FREE. But before I show it to you, I have to dismantle it, paint it, put it back together the way I want it, figure out how to hang it and then hang it.

You’ll probably see it sometime in 2016.

But it’s going to be awesome.

I think.

Light

March 17th, 2009

We spent this last weekend in Louisville at my sister’s house. It’s typically a very perfect situation.

I have a boy and a girl, my sister has a boy and a girl.
Her boy likes Wii, my boy like Wii.
Her girl likes to dress up, my girl likes to dress up.
I love Target and vanilla vodka, my sister loves Target and vanilla vodka.
My husband loves beer, her husband loves beer.

And we all play and we don’t sleep enough, it’s always a great time. There are always, always donuts involved.

This weekend was no different except that our kids weren’t necessarily the healthiest they’ve ever been. Although Racecar was much better when we departed, we didn’t know how sick Ariel was about to become. She wound up with a fever Saturday night.

Now my sister’s kids are both sick and I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m next.

But it was still worth it, she and I are truly the very best of friends, spending time together like that is the best.

Another thing that was the best was the lighting that was all around me. I don’t know if the lighting was just fantastic all weekend long and I got lucky or if it’s always this great and I’m just realizing it now that I’m learning to take pictures in any light situation. Whatever it was, I left feeling completely inspired, not just to take pictures, but to also make my house more beautiful, to make it my sanctuary, to fill it with only things that I love. (I will be going to Old Time Pottery as soon as I hit publish, you know, for more inspiration. My husband is aware and he is very, very scared.)

Pictures. Just for you.

This is Mary. She’s a hilarious girl who talks brilliantly. She’s two and she loves me and calls me Aunt Ba.

Mary

These are my chips from Qdoba. I don’t have a Qdoba where I live which is probably a good thing because I would eat it ALL OF THE TIME. Every time we visit my sister we always get Qdoba, I get the vegetarian nachos with black beans, the chips on the side. This picture is an ode to the chips that I adore. Oh and Mary really wanted to know why I took a picture of my chips.

I had no good answer for her. Other than YUM.

qdoba chips

It was my nephew’s birthday, we had cake.

cake

I had a photo shoot at my sister’s best friend’s house. The lighting there was superb, too. I didn’t go there to take pictures of whiskey, I went there to take pictures of Katie and her children. But I love this shot.

whisky

I love this shot, too.

Wirth 20090313 DSC_4548 WM

There are so many others shots that I want to share, but I’ll wait to share them on my photography site.

My sister recently painted her dining room and overall just simplified the entire look of the room. This room inspired me the most. (must go shopping for lovely things RIGHT NOW.)

dining room

I love these boys and the looks on their faces.

cousins

My sister and Ariel.
A and Aunt Sarah

Then we went outside because it was WARM which is a beautiful thing. I left Kentucky really believing that spring was finally on it’s way. Yesterday and today have been filled with abundant sunshine and birds chirping and it’s a beautiful thing. I’m trying to soak in the newness of this season.

green

vintage blooming forsythia

forsythia

It’s so special and I can’t waste another minute behind this computer!

My Masterpiece

February 23rd, 2009

I can’t tell you what the rest of this week is going to be like for me, but for right now, rather than sit and profess my sadness to you, I’m just going to pretend like I have no sadness.

That’s healthy, right?

Back in the day, I was always doing projects and reorganizing our house and making it incredibly difficult for Brian to find things because I was always rearranging things. But then, oh I don’t know, things change. You are diagnosed with Hashimotos, you start a blog and learn about twitter, you battle grief and depression and well, that mojo is just gone.

But while it’s gone, it’s missed and wished for every single day. So, last week when I rearranged our office, it really was a big deal to me. I felt so good about it all week long. (and Brian loved it, too,which is not surprising because did you see how awesome it was?) I felt like me and it was the loveliest feeling.

Then yesterday, I slept a little late, until nine or so and then after a few cups of coffee, I put my running shoes and bra on (the key to success) and I tackled the day. I organized drawers and kitchen cabinets, cleaned off the front of the fridge and did all of our laundry.

The big project, however, was in my bedroom. Since December November, I have had a pile of moving boxes in my bedroom, everyday I’d look at those stupid suckers and throw my dirty jeans on top of them at the end of the day. I knew one day I’d have the gumption to open those boxes up, but that day just seemed to never come.

Until yesterday.

And then I was feeling all inspired (as always) by The Nester. She’s been running a wonderful series on her blog called “Ten Minutes to a Room you Love.“ The idea being that you can improve your room simply, right now, with what you have.

There are many things that bother me about my master bedroom.

One: The pile of boxes. (duh.)

Two: Lack of drawer space.

Three: Our furniture does not match, it resembles a collage dorm. (Minus the posters on the wall.)

Fortunately, there are tons of things I love about the room, like the wall color, the size, the windows, my window treatments, my quilt (okay, my bed), the white trim, I just really love my room. But I knew it could be better.

So my goal? Empty the damn boxes and just do something different.

First of all, in my dream world, I’d like to think that I’d have either one of these two dressers:

img88m

img69m

but the truth is, I can’t spend any money, so, the only thing I can get at the Pottery Barn is inspiration, and that’s okay with me. And that’s just what I did. While browsing their catalog yesterday, I noticed a mirror above a dresser, I remembered that I had a mirror that I bought from Ikea almost ten years ago and immediately grabbed my hammer, a nail and that mirror and ran upstairs to hang this bad boy.

I already has this dresser in my bedroom, which I bought from Target about two years ago:

So simple.

I love the door handles on that dresser:

On the other side of the room sat the pile of boxes. I unpacked those and was left with just space. I was considering putting a little kids dresser there that Brian and I purchased for Ariel when she was just a baby swimming around in my belly, it was $99 at Babies r’ Us, but I just couldn’t stand the thought of something so chintzy being in my room, but I decided to try it anyway.

After placing everything in my room, I asked Brian if he would run to the hardware store to buy new drawer handles and he did. (yes, I know the idea was to do it without spending a dime, but I would not have been happy with the outcome with big, white plastic handles on the drawers. Leave me alone.)

Now these handles are probably not the handles I would have chosen (these are), but that’s okay, anything is better than what was there.

Is it just me or does that dresser not look like a $99 dresser purchased over six years ago? (warning: do not open the bottom drawer, it will fall apart.)

This change brought me happiness during a time when I really needed it. I’m so glad I did it.

Makes me excited for tomorrow…

Relieved

February 17th, 2009

Friends, I can breathe out of my nose. It feels so good to finally be feeling better.

These past eight days I have been doing nothing except blowing my nose and sleeping, I was in a pretty good mood this morning. Then I walked into the kitchen and began making the coffee when the most amazing thing happened.

I finally smelled a flower that was given to me almost a week ago.

I had the sense of smell back.

Which filled me with much optimism and delight, I even listened to music while putting my make-up on. (the fact that make-up was being applied was a true sign that I was feeling better.)

After taking Ariel to school I created a to-do list which contained items that I have been neglecting for way too long. And then I decided to rearrange the office because the current arrangement was just wrong. I decided to rearrange the furniture before completing my to-do list because I’d be in a more work-like atmosphere as opposed to sitting on my couch and then I’d really get some stuff done.

For sure. No doubt about it.

My back would face the window and my face would face the wall in the old arrangement of the office, every time I walked into that room, I’d look at it and wonder what I could do with it. Then I realized I should move the desk but never did because I was too lazy, too tired, pregnant, too hungry or too sick. (P.S. if you ever need an excuse to not do something, you may contact me. You are welcome.)

So, I began moving the desk around.

The funny thing about the desk is that it’s L-shaped, which apparently means that if you move one side more than the other, then the two pieces in the middle that are screwed together will sound they are going to crack into two (or twelve) pieces. After learning that lesson, I moved the desk ever so slowly (into the wall. twice.) and it finally ended up where I wanted it. (okay, almost.)

That desk is heavy and I am not strong.

But, I moved it and I was reassured that it was the right decision. (especially since it was all in one piece.)

The only problem that remained was the area rug underneath the 70o pound desk. Before moving it, I slid it out from underneath the desk and kind of rolled it up in the middle of the room, waiting to unroll it back to underneath the desk, after I was done moving the desk.

When I went to place the rug back underneath the desk, I realized it was nearly impossible to lift the desk and slide the rug underneath the desk. I clearly needed another set of hands.

But my only option was Racecar and well, he’s five. (yes, I know I could have waited for Brian to come home from work but that was HOURS AND HOURS away and I had so much work to do.)

So, I decided I could get underneath the desk where the keyboard tray is and prop myself up on all fours, push the desk up with my back and use my hands to pull the rug towards me.

God, I’m so smart.

I crawled underneath, raised my back into the desk and broke the keyboard tray, causing the wood to scratch my neck. I was concerned that I had punctured my jugular, but don’t worry, I didn’t.

I literally pushed the screws out of the wood and broke the wood. Brian’s going to be so pleased.

But you know? Who really likes those stupid trays anyway? I just shrugged it off and placed the wood against the wall and summoned Racecar into the room where I instructed him to “pull, no, PULL, NOOOOOO PULLLLL!!!!! THE RUG THAT WAY.“ And he did and we worked it out. (and we cheered and danced afterwards. I tell you no lies. We were happy.)

But then there is this, but that’s not my problem:

I then reorganized and dusted (but not around the cords (and sat in my beautiful new office, opened my computer and stared blankly at the screen. I then unplugged my laptop and sat down on the couch where I’ve done nothing all afternoon.

The end.

(The end product. Now I know the wall decor is all wrong so please do not send me emails or leave me comments telling me that it’s all wrong because I AM AWARE. I’m just waiting for The Nester to come over and help me. She just doesn’t know it, yet.)

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