I just have one thing to say today…
That’s all.
I have made peace with the fact that everything that I touch is going to forever be a work in progress… because I like changing things up and I am constantly learning new things. My crafts room is one of those things that I will probably keep on working on until it is time to part with it.
In the past two years my crafts room [really, my whole entire house] has changed significantly. Originally, this room was a dining room. From experience, we don’t really do the whole dining room thing. Also we have an eat-in kitchen and it is big enough for me and John [and guests too if we have people over], so we opted out of having a dining room and decided to make it into my crafts room and load it with all kinds of prettiness.
I used to be in the farthest corner of the house. I had an L-desk and a cube storage to house all of my stuff and that was it.
Huge sloppy mess!
So when we decided what to do with this room in the very front of the house, the first thing I wanted was this desk. My husband built this for me.
As I was slowly moving in to the new crafts room, we realized, if we were going to make this the “pretty room” we need a place to house all these supplies I have. Otherwise, they would all just be randomly laying on the floor like it is in the photos.
While we were trying to figure out what we really wanted to put in this room, I put together this corner. I DIY-ed the lamp, the table is something I already had. My cat ruined the finish on it, so I sanded it some and painted it heirloom white by Rustoleum.
Then it warped into this… The armoire we already owned. I needed a place to store the printer and printing supplies, so this had to happen.
And now, it looks like this. I have been going back and forth over painting it… but every time I come in here, the first thing you see is this gigantic dark armoire. So a couple of days ago, I finally decided it needed to get made over. And… VOILA!
This whole thing was a long grueling process. From picking out the color to getting it finally done. This piece of furniture is HEAVY. I could not move it by myself, not even John could do it. So, spray painting it was out of the question. This needed to be brushed and rolled. I used paint conditioners to reduce brush and roller strokes, the finish is pretty awesome, but it increases drying time.
The light has also since been changed from this wimpy semi-flush mount to a more stylish one.
This was the state of this room for a while. It was a mess until late March and early April this year. We got brave and added more storage.
Here’s what it looks like now…
Since April, we were able to get two new task chairs for my new work space. I have picked up some knick knacks. The ampersand was from Marshalls, the big @ sign on the wall was a great find from the Goodwill, the task lamps were from Big Lots. I didn’t really care whether they matched or not because they are temporary. I didn’t want to spend too much money on them. The plan is to add recessed or track lighting over the counter. The pinwheels I made myself out of my paper stash, as I was organizing during the spring, I found that I had some unopened paper stacks that I had purchased a couple years back… I finally found good use for them.
My desk never stays clear of stuff because I am here every single day making something or working on something. This is one of my most favorite places to be. In fact I am getting a little sad thinking that I may not be able to spend as much time here in the next few months because I am going back into teaching. But I also realize that I really don’t want to be a stay-at-home wife forever and be stuck. I always knew this gig was going to end…
I am just thankful that I was able to create this beautiful space in the process and be teaching again. I miss being in the classroom! 🙂
It is true, time flies when you’re having fun. This summer, we did something different, well different in the sense that we actually decided to travel instead of drowning in DIY home projects like we have done in the past couple of years. We drove at least 2,000 miles [back and forth] out west and visited John’s Grandpa.
The photo above was taken from their front porch after a really nice dinner with Grandma and Grandpa’s best friends. They have the most beautiful view of the sunset over there. Their house sits high up on a hill and it overlooks pretty much all of the city in the front. Out in their back deck you can see the Casper Mountain.
It has been a while since our last visit, so much has changed in the town. It seemed bigger, roads seemed wider… I felt like there was more traffic now than the last time we were there. The town seemed more alive.
This is our tree. We carved it on our last visit in 2009. It took us a good 10 or so minutes to find it and I was so pleased that it was still there and you can still read what the carving said. And we got to see this little guy sitting on a rock as we were cruising up the mountain one day.
This is Grandpa and John. We grilled, cooked and ate a lot on this trip. Well, nobody starves when I am around. 😉
This is Molly [Grandma and Grandpa’s dog]. We have been around her a bunch of times in the past 7 years but she never warmed up to us or anybody for that matter. She just wants Grandpa. End of story.
She did tolerate us in the full week that we were at “her” house. We invaded her space, took her Mommy and Daddy away from her. She growled at us a lot, nipped the back of John’s foot enough times that he was scared of her. By the way, she is a little yorkie-poo. lol
Here are some of the photos I snapped during this trip… These are both from my big camera and my phone.
This is a view of the town on our way down from the Casper Mountain. I was surprised this picture turned out, we were going pretty fast.
Just something from Grandpa’s garage.
Famer’s Market finds… We bought stuff from this local spice vendor, their spice blends are the BOMB!
We didn’t buy from the “jelly and jam lady” because I make my own at home but she did tell me about the berry-like plants that are growing in abundance in the park where the farmer’s market was at, they are currants [photo below]. She saw me and John looking at them and talking about them.
This store was like Christmas, they sold fudge! 🙂 I bought a box of a variety of the flavors that I thought would taste good. And they were all yummy, except John and Grandpa ate most of it when we got back to the house. They did let me get a taste.
This jazz trio was the entertainment at the park. We sat there for a few minutes and listened to them play while we ate.
But, these little stores were what really caught my attention… The artisanal breads and local honey stores! 🙂 I loved the multi-grain loaf I picked up and I still have to open the jar of honey. I am looking for a good excuse to use it in a dessert or meal.
While on this trip, John also got to golf with Grandpa. He has been wanting to do this for years! I was so glad they finally got to hang out and catch up and golf. I had a lot of down time because they golfed pretty much everyday, which I was really thankful for because all I really wanted to do was NOT DO ANYTHING! lol 🙂 I did cook and bake some, which pleased everybody, of course.
This ball was busted on the other side…
This place a.k.a the basement was my hangout. Most of the time, Grandma would come and join me and we would watch movies and fall asleep in our chairs in the afternoons while John and Grandpa were out golfing or doing whatever they were doing… We didn’t really care.
But before we went on our journey out west, we stopped in St Louis and stayed the night there to watch Matchbox Twenty and the Goo Goo Dolls in concert. Of course that whole week temperatures were mellow until the day of the concert, then it was 95 degrees with a heat index of 100. Awesome….. NOT! But we had a good time. We were so glad to be back at the hotel in the air-conditioning by 11 PM.
Photo by: Mynee’s Musings
Photo by: Mynee’s Musings
John + Van 