Pencil Cups

office after
Originally uploaded by Dried Figs

So since I'm a bit of a "place for everything and everything in it's place" kind of girl, one of the things I wanted in the office was lots of storage for all the little things that you need when you have both a writer and an architect in residence. Mostly this involves pens. we have lots of pens. Actually, we always start out with a lot of pens, but since we also have kids, they seem to vanish regularly. But pens are, in general, pretty important around here.
These mugs were something I picked up at Salvation Army whilehunting for teacups for Evie's party invites (I'll show you those next week!) and I thought that they would work in the kitchen or in the office, or maybe both, and snatched them up. When I got home I decided that perhaps have four different kinds of mugs in the kitchen was too much (big tea cups, little tea cups, mugs and these...humm, probably overkill) so I stuck them in the "to do" box and forgot about them for a week or so.

Earlier this week I picked up some inkjet decal paper from the hobby store to get to work on those invitations using this technique and thought, humm, maybe I could do something with those mugs while I'm at it. Actually I think the little organization bell went off in my brain. It's like the Bat Signal for organizers.

Alert! Alert! Labeling Possibility Approaching! Take Action Now, OCD Girl!

The invitations will be along the same lines, except with party information on them of course, not labels. Because that would be a little weird. Although maybe not, when you see what the party will be. Let's just say there will (if I can figure out how to write with frosting) be a food that says "Eat Me!" on it

If you haven't had a chance to play with Inkjet Decal Paper, you should pick up a pack. It has endless possibilities. It's really made for model making so you can create little decals for cars and buildings and things like that for your tiny little towns. But really, you can print anything on it and then put what you printed on, well, just about anything flat. Think of the labeling possibilities alone! But really, I think this stuff is crazy cool, next we're going to play around with using it for temporary tattoos...we'll see how that goes. If it works, my kids may spend their summer covered in playmobil inspired tribal markings.

The paper looks very much like good photo paper and prints about the same. I've seen a pour on fixative online but I've been using a spray version which I suspect is just a clear coat polyurethane. Once the images is printed, sprayed with fixative and dried, cut it out, as close to the edges of the image as possible and drop it into a bowl of water.

After about 30 seconds the image can be slipped off the paper backing and onto whatever you want. I like to spray the whole thing with another coat of fixative just to be safe.

You can't put anything with the decals in the dishwasher but you can wash by hand so it's a fun project for things like mugs and glasses. But like I said, the labeling possibilities go on and on. It makes me almost giddy, like when I had a label maker and labeled everything in the house. (and I mean EVERYTHING!)

At Home, At Work

So lately I've been having these conversations with myself. Mostly in the evenings when I'm painting the "office" which, by the way, I forgot how much I really hate painting. I mean, for a girl who's moved as many times as I have and who loves to have color on her walls, I really dislike painting. Hiring painters last summer when we bought the house was the best investment we made. Too bad we chose some colors in a hurry and are already itching for a change....Although after this switch up, I don't see much of that happening for a while.

Anyway, as I've been puttering away on the office I've been having these conversations in my head. What? you don't have conversations is your head? Not ever? Not even in very bad French? Huh, well, I do. It probably a sign of something, but I'm too busy to worry what that might be. So these conversations go like this.... (imagine the voice over guy from action movies)

"Two kids, two pets, two work at home parents...1 summer vacation. WILL THEY SURVIVE???"

I've been wondering, if you can't tell, how this whole thing is going to work. Who works when? who plays when? How does the balance work? If anyone out there is in a similar situation, I'd love to hear some advice.

Will and I work pretty well together. Sure there's a lot of opinions, but generally we get things done quickly and with a good laugh or two, and really, we compliment each other. I'm orderly (I know, you would never guess!) He's...not. But he is better at going on the fly than I am. We're both dreamers but about different things, so I think we keep each other grounded. All of that is to say that I'm not worried about the relationship side of things, or even if we will get out shit done. I know we will, because we always do. It's more the scheduler in me. The one who plans out what will happen when for the summer. 9:00 swimming. 10:30 Library, 12:00 Lunch 1:00 Pool...etc. I keep thinking about the logistics of the when's I can't help fixating on... I guess we'll find out come Monday.

And speaking of work, the office is not done, but is habitable, which is pretty good. In fact, it's not too terribly far from done. There will be more stuff (Will is still carting things home from his desk) and more art as we find frames. I'm still pondering the white shelf issue and want to make a whiteboard for the office like the one I made in the mudroom. It's turning into the Habitat/Salvation Army office. So far we've used 1 old ladder shelf, 2 bifold doors, 4 pieces of old hardood flooring, 4 thrifted cups with new labels and 1 Craigslist chair. Everything else, except the MDF sheathing on the desk, is from around the house, mostly the basement, which sadly looks more messy even with less stuff as a result of my digging. But yeah, it's getting there. And I like it. It's nice to have a space to work that's not also where the coats and the plants and the boots live. I'm sure once Will moves in it will be messier which wont be as fun, but we each have our own space, so I guess I can't complain if his side of the desk is a mess. He swears it wont be. But I've seen his closet.

This morning I ripped apart the cork board that used to hang in this room when it was a playroom. We both agreed that we needed some kind of system for keeping track of the various jobs we'll (hopefully) have.

I dug out my leftover vinyl decals and used some dark gray paint from the bathroom and went to town. It's fun over Will's old metal desk ( I used to hate that thing but now that it fits in with the office colors, it's won me over). So now I guess we are ready to roll. Fingers crossed.

And Again with the Wreaths

Yellow, you guys are so right. Except then when I started thinking about it, I decided what I really needed was a yellow wreath in the office.

The office is coming along nicely. Hopefully tomorrow I can post a few photos of our progress. Today I hung the light with only one minor sparks flying snafu, quickly solved (the wire with ridges on it is white Gillian, not black!) so now we have something other than the standard issue ugly half globe that casts a weird muggy glow. I realized as I was standing on a chair, pliers between my teeth, that we have replaced all but three lights in the house (yay!) and that three are DIYers (which could be good or bad, depending on your feelings about homemade lighting- fun? or scary?) But on top of the light I also made a wreath for my side of the office. Out of hangers.

I saw something similar in a window at Anthropologie this winter, can't remember if they were wreaths or shapes or how the hangers were, but I loved the idea and so today I traded all the wooden hangers out for plastic ones in Will's closet (they didn't match anyway :)) and got Gorilla Gluing. I love that stuff. Seriously, it's like liquid duct tape. Ok, maybe not quite as handy as duct tape. But close.

The (eight) hangers are the light weight IKEA style so the wreath weighs very little, which is good because I think it's going to hang above my computer. And things falling on my precious Macbook would not be good. I first glued them in pairs then in fours before attaching the two halves together. I'm digging the Mid-Century look, or maybe it's a sunshine look. I've kind of got the bug now to make another out of old school tinker toys if I can find some.

One question though, weigh in if you have any thoughts, hooks or no hooks. I'm leaning towards no hooks but they are a pain to get out, I think they will actually have to be cut, so that has left me undecided. What do we think?

Pathetic

So as it turns out, the blue funk was not a blue funk. It was a coffee problem. How sad is that? Seriously, We had been out of coffee for three days when I was in the midst of my poor me bout. I know what you're thinking, how can you be out of coffee for three days. Let's just say that day one was my fault (forgot to check coffee levels before ordering groceries) day two was totally Will's (how can you go to the grocery store with only three things on your list and forget one of them!) and I'm not even sure what happened on day three. I think by then I was so blahed out that I decided I wasn't safe to drive. I probably should have listened to my own mugs advice. But whatever. Then, surprise! Will brought some home at lunch on Friday and presto, funk gone. Really, this is terrible.

The worst part is that I made it all the way through college, grad school and one child before I even started drinking coffee. In fact, my relationship with coffee is really just a leftover pregnancy craving from the eight months I spent cooking Miss Evelyn. (it was one of about four things I could stand the taste of. (The others were goats cheese, sushi and ramen noodles with toast.So, yeah, basically I ate ramen. It was a rough eight months)

I'd like to think I'm just making up for lost time. Almost 30 years of not realizing just how wonderful coffee is. But after the "my life is crap without coffee" thing, I think it just may be a problem. I guess there could be worse things though.

So anyway, the coffee is restocked (and in my mug at this very moment!) the desk is done once this mornings coat of paint dries (which will be forever, I hate oil paint, but it's worth it) and tomorrow I can start, hopefully) hanging art and bringing in all the do-dads that make an office an office. Which reminds me. I need tape. And a place to hide the tape from the children. A very high place.

I even modge podged a filing cabinet this weekend with some funky, battered, possibly optical allusiony paper. That I could get down on the floor to do the work is kind of a miracle because I can barely bend my knees after a killer game of Broomball with friends Saturday night. Really, that game is rough. My helmet sent someone to the ER for stitches (Sorry Bruce!)

Whohoo, obviously I should not let us run out of coffee ever again.

Suggestions Please!

Well as part of of my quest to get my house back in order despite the jumble of activity (otherwise known as the mess that is the office and the kids room) I've been cleaning out closets. I really hate cleaning closets because they hold a sort of "out of sight, out of mind" space in my life. Things that I don't want to see or don't want to deal with go into closets. As I've explained before, our house has no shortage of closets. The only thing is that they are practically useless for anything other than shoving things into. But I'm on a quest to organize them all. Even the one in the office that I've been shoving things into during this whole switch-a-roo ordeal. (Well maybe not that one. No! that one especially! But it's soooo messy, I don't wanna do it! But it's a quest! You have to!)

Anyway, while cleaning out the Pit of Despair in our bedroom I found this shelf that is one of the five things that Will brought with him when he packed up his truck and moved to Oregon. The others, by the way, were a nasty armchair (now deceased), a Miller Lite neon sign (oops, I broke it, darn) A Tombstone Poster (rats, the flood got it!) and a trunk which is pretty cool and is currently living in the mudroom. When the shelf arrived it was stained a dark brown color but since it has appeared in various settings in our houses and in various colors. It was red in Briton nursery, white in Evelyn's nursery, green in her big girl room and white again when I thought it would go in their shared room but instead ended up in the closet due to the lack of straight walls that also led to our closet issues.

So the question now is, what to do with it? I was kinda leaning toward some kind of ribbon holder but am undecided. It could go either in the mudroom, the office or the kids closet which is soon to be a playhouse. Any thoughts? I need ideas!

And when your back is turned...

I've been in a weird funk all day. Grumpy because the washing machine repair people told me that they have the criticle part but can't get to me for another week (which was made even worse when I saw them stop at the house across the street this afternoon), irritated because we haven't made a lot of progress on the office and none at all in the kids room, and all in all just plain tired, like I haven't slept properly for a week, which isn't true because I slept half the day away on Sunday.

Evie and I went for a little mini hike, shopped for a dress for her upcoming four year old photos, played with the chicks, and puttered around the house before I gave up and decided to take a nap on the couch despite the beautiful day outside (Evelyn kindly agreed to watch Curious George while I snoozed, which might explain what came later).

When I woke up, not really refreshed but ready to shake off my blues, I stopped for a second on the way out to the yard to check email while Evie "washed her hands."

And filled her boots up with water.

And poured it all over the floor.

"Just to see!"

No More Curious George I think.



I probably should have been mad, but when your child dresses herself like this, it's hard to do anything other than laugh and take her out to swing while the floors dry...

Waxed Paper Wreath

Will told me it was about time that I replaced my recycled container wreath (I don't think I've ever had him care about what wreath is on the door but OK, whatever...) so to work I went. I was inspired by a newspaper wreath I saw somewhere but needed something a little more water resistant. Ah, waxed paper. What is it they say about necessity? Necessity is the mother of go digging in your kitchen cabinets? Something like that. Anyway, I like how fluffy it looks. I think I'm becoming a little too attached to white wreaths on my red front door (but they look so pretty!) so next time I'll have to branch out with some color. Maybe...




Also, I'm a little bit in love with this new photo processing App my friend told me about. It's called Camera Bag and it's so darn fun. Here's what the wreath looks like without the crazy finishes :)