This or that?

More office Progress

Today was a rather productive day. After resting in the morning to make my big headahce go away I was able to do some work in the afternoon and evening. I started with taking the second desk out of the room, and taking it apart. I then went on to the closet and saw that I have far too many plastic tubs. I designated one of them for winter clothes and moved that to my bedroom closet, I made a tub to collect thing to donate to the Salvation Army, and a decent amount of stuff to just throw away. After several trips to the dumpster with desk pieces and garbage, and several trips to my car with things for the salvation army, the room has made some seriously progress.
After dinner I ran to Home Depot, because they always seem to have a selection of large house plants for a reasonable price. I found a great tropical palm plant that is probably close to 5 ft tall if it stood up straight.
I changed the arraingement of the room, putting the desk on the wall that the second desk was on, and put the bookcase to the left flat against the wall instead of kitty-cornered. I also have decided to part with the chair I had been using in there, and instead use a chair that is meant for my dinning room table. I only have room for 2 chairs at the kitchen table, so two remain in a closet. This seems like a good solution for now. I don't have the heart to paint that chair the same color as the desk, but perhaps in the future I will find something that is reasonable to paint.
Lastly, I brought the side chair in from my living room. I'm imagining a little table next to that chair for setting my drink on when I'm reading in that chair. I also think that a floor lamp might go behind that chair in the future.
The plant-- its in a pretty awkward space right now, right in the middle. I'm not exactly sure where that will end up.
I am also really digging the idea of having my desk completely cleaned off (ie no pencil cup or bill holder on desk). It gives it a much more sleek and relaxing design. I have some more ideas for the room, but thats all for now.

Office progress

I have made some progress on my office revamp. I spent an evening doing "research"--walking around target and tjmaxx looking for some ideas. I came away with a couple pretty non-specific ideas. First, I need to paint my desk a lighter color, find a tall potted plant, and a couple new lamps--maybe a floor lamp and a desk lamp.
I decided to get rid of the second desk I had in that room, and have also spent time going through the closet to get rid of other things I no longer need-- like many pairs of long, long curtains that I used in my apartment in Chicago, and other random stuff. I picked a color for the desk yesterday and primed and painted that.
I'm hoping that the result will be a much calmer, clutter free working environment so I can do some serious studying in the coming year. Its my last year as a student for a couple years (yeehaw!) so it needs to count.
I'm also thinking of a new rug, and moving the side chair I have in to make a comfy place to read/nap. To finish it out, I want to add some candles/vases. I just thought of the idea of keeping track of what I spend, so I'm going to do that. Last night I spent $35 on paint, brushes, a tray, a drop cloth, etc. Thats all I have spent so far besides time.
Here is a picture of my primed (but not painted) desk:

Depressing. Please advise.

So I am starting a class tomorrow, an intensive biology class. In preparation for this class, I went school supply shopping with a classmate. After the binder and notebook shopping, I started looking at my office a little more. It sucks. While I have spent quite a bit of time perfecting the other rooms in my apartment, I have spent very very little time on the office, and it shows. My other rooms look put together and planned, while this room looks like I just threw whatever I had in it. Which is what I did. So, here are the undoctored pictures of my horrible office space. How do I fix this? I've been considering painting my desk a color--a bright green or blue of some sort. Should I get a new desk? Get rid of the second desk? what do I put on the wall where that hideous wire shelf is? How else can I rearrange this ugly room? I really do like looking out the window, but its not necessary. That is the only window, and it faces east, so it doesn't get much sun in the hours that I am using it.
In the mean time, I'm going to spend some time looking at other peoples offices online and will post what I find.

I fixed it!

Some how I had an extra piece sewn into the bird. The pattern is for two fabrics--a belly and the top, only I read it as "cut two" of the belly piece. Looks much nicer now, and it's still popular with the kitties.

Its a bird, I swear.

I found a free pattern online for a bird, originally intended for making a mobile (here). However, I immediately thought it would be an awesome toy to make for my cats. So I printed the pattern at work today (A single 8x10 page) and tried it tonight with some left over apple and pear fabric.

So, its not exactly recognizable as a bird, but Franklin and Ellie are a sucker for anything with catnip (I have even sewn catnip into baby socks and they don't complain). So I put some catnip in with the stuffing, and then caught this picture of Ellie with it mid-bunny-kick. Its a hit!


I think I will continue to make them with my leftover fabric-- it takes such a small amount of fabric and such a short time to sew that I will be able to make many of these at a time. I'm thinking I'll stockpile them to use as gifts and for my planned etsy shop.

Looking at the pictures on the original webpage, I want to know how they made the tail so flat and without visible stitching. The instructions say to sew the other seams, turn, stuff then sew the tail shut..Cheaters.

Can't Believe I Didn't Think of This Before

I've spent the last month or so looking at the two end tables in my living room trying to decide what to do with them. I've had them for a little more than two years--I was either given them by or bought them really cheaply from the people I babysat for in Chicago when they moved away. They are your standard particle board end tables, but had started looking rather rough lately.
Given I'm a student, it didn't seem reasonable to throw away these perfectly good tables to buy something new, when I can't really afford anything nice (or nicer than these). I thought about painting them pink to match the inside of the armoire, or somehow otherwise covering them. But today, a light bulb went off in my head! I have a gallon of glossy black paint in my closet also left over from the armoire!
So this evening I repainted them, and I think they look great! Now I'm thinking maybe I should still try something else with them. I'm digging mirrored furniture right now, and I have seen several tutorials for doing it yourself, but I'm afraid that might be too much for my living room. If I do one, I have to do the other, right? That's a lot of mirror. Maybe the new shiny black finish will be enough to satisfy me for a while.

Artwork for my bedroom

After I took that big mirror out of my bedroom and put it in my living room, that space above my bed was looking really empty. I've spent some time trying to decide what to put in its place. I was looking for something that would match the colors of the things already in my room, but not be too expensive. I was finally inspired late last week to get some fabric with blue and brown and recover some canvases I had. I found some fabrics at joanns that I liked, and also got some ribbon that matched to use.
Making these things was really easy- I just stretched the fabric over the canvas and used a staple gun to staple it on the back. I then added the ribbon in the same way. Once I had decided which ribbon to use on which fabric and how to position it, the whole thing took about 10 minutes. I am really happy with the final product, and also think its cool that if I decide I want different colors or find some other amazing fabric it will be really easy to change these up.