Inspiration, Organization, and Thoughts on the Color Orange

Don't you love it when you think and think and think and think on something, and don't arrive at the solution till you stop thinking about what it is you were thinking about? Did you catch that?

Anyway, I had just sort of given up the hope that my Office/Evil Den of Crafty Mayhem would ever be a place where I truly liked to be. It's devoid of personality, and any attempts at interjecting some have just failed. The best I came up with was a tropical print steno chair. Oof. Anyway, I figured I would just never find the right color combo, and then just like that, I did.

I went to the fabric store looking for two fabrics to do a recovering type thing for my cork tiles. I wanted one to hold things that I wanted handy, but didn't want to poke holes in. (I'm looking at you, checkbook! Outta the underwear drawer!) And lo and behold, I found a combination that made me so sublimely happy I couldn't stand it:



I love green and orange together, and I mainly just love all things green. But with my bedroom being all foresty and woodsy feeling, and the living room feeling calm yet fun, I wanted something that would say "Get off your ass and make something! And put things back where you found them, dammit!" Orange says that to me. It's like an epiphany! Yay orange!

And, yay pockets, yay things on the wall where I can find/see/remember them, and just.....yay.

Now, let's talk about orange for a minute. After this occurred to me, I did what I always do. I bought stuff and then did nothing with it. For a while. Then after doing this, and being an out and proud orange lover, I realized I knew what I wanted to do with an awesome peice of furniture I have for this room. (It's sort of a secret project. That way I can put off doing anything about it. Heehee.) Anyhow, I bought some fun fabric (On sale!) for it, and went in search of orange paint. I went to Lowes, and took home paint samples. Let me tell you something: unless you do their fun color matching thing, there isn't a really good, vibrant, ballsy orange to be had. In bringing them home and also looking at them in the sun, they are all some salmon-ish, terra cotta-like, polite...eh. I can't even get worked up about them, and people, I get worked up about pincushions. So, I will be heading back soon to try the color matching once I realized I want some paint in the exact color of my orange socks. I am just sort of sad that all color-maker-paint-chip-type folks think anyone wants is for color to be polite. I think that the occasional eye-searing shade of whatever floats your boat is necessary.

So, now that I finally have a direction in which to go, I'm looking forward to beating this room into submission and making it a place that I want to be in. Oh and learning how to put things away, that will the kicker.

What I Did On Christmas Eve

I realize that this is a long time overdue, but hey- that doesn't make it any less of a beautiful, beautiful thing.

I decided that since I was home alone while everyone else was doing their holiday thing that I should be productive, and give myself a gift that I had wanted to give me for a while- I clean my Office/ Den of Haywire Crafting. A daunting task to be sure.

Here's Maya. If anyone looks daunted by this idea, it's her. She's hiding her face in one of her many, many blankets.
I didn't take a Before, but I took a During. Prepare to run screaming from this horrific monstrosity.

And because you needed another angle of the madness- notice how deep the rubble goes on the left of the chair by the table. that is stacked clear up to the table, people. I wasn't playing around.

A while later, this is what happened. I really, truly feel Accomplished and Organized. And yep- those storage bins are labeled. Now here is a handy tip I picked up from Real Simple a while back: make the most of closet space by using the over the door shoe holder thingies for random odds and ends. I have done just that. Now random bars of soap, solvents, duct tape and hot glue guns all have a place to call home. So does the label maker. I am ashamed to say that the box up top with all the tubes contains many unframed concert posters, and also an incredibly large sheet of paper signifying my greatest achievement to date. Oh well, someday:
And then Santa came! (I know I am going to hell for this, but I don't care. The little beard sealed it for me. I mean, come on- there's funny and there's funny. This is funny.)

So This Is What It Feels Like To Really Go Crazy

O magic deluxe chai tea mix, O my sanity. It is only your sweet spicy milky warm deliciousness that prevents me from going on the most murderous of rampages. A rampage brought on by something you would never guess:

a $1.50 pack of blank recycled paper greeting cards I bought at Wal-Mart.

They've gone missing, and I can't find them and I know I saw them...sometime. It was recent. One day they were on one of the chairs in the dining room. They were also on the shelf in the office closet. Then they were on the floor in the office and one day I picked them up when I was cleaning up and they were put...

somewhere.

I don't know where. I have searched everywhere. I looked EVERYWHERE in this whole bloody awful office. I looked in the dining room. I looked in the closet. I even looked in my underwear drawer. Don't judge me- these are desperate times, friends. And it wasn't for nothing- I found my checkbook in there. Really, I did.

I am distraught. For one, I am distraught because of course if effing figures that the one time I really really wanted to play with them, had all the other stuff at the ready and could delight the masses with them, they are no where to be found. For two, it's a matter of principle. An entire evening that could have been spent blissfully getting glue everywhere and going to bed with bits of paper in my hair and leaving fun cards on the table for the cat to walk all over while I sleep has been ruined. Ruined, I tell ya! For three, I figure I could have bought a damn Mazerati by now with all I have spent on supplies for various crafts (okay fine, maybe more like a 1987 Dodge Caravan, but still) and I can't throw some freaking Christmas cards together if I want! For four, I just wanted to get to four, because saying "for four" takes the edge off a bit.

I'm gonna buy more tomorrow. I am gonna finish up the last remaining packages to be mailed, and mail them. I am changing these up because I realized that pickle jars for dog cookies would do nothing but add weight and cost to the mailing of the packages. Lame. So yeah, that is being finished, I am getting my volunteer on at the shelter, and the rest of it will be spent cleaning up this room for once and for all. It will be my gift to myself this year, and it's long overdue. Ephram the Holiday Snail would be pleased.

Oh, great. Just great. I just looked down, at 9PM, and realized the shirt that I wore all freaking day AT MY JOB is on inside out. Someone, come save me from myself. Please.

Internet Fasting

Alright, so I have done some thinking, and I think that it is time to take some drastic measures. I have realized that I spend WAAAAAAY too much time on the internet. I mean, it's really really awful. Terrible even! So I decided that with Christmas just a few months away (fuck off with your protests, I am not getting screwed and spending time in the mall this year) and tons of yarn and things I want to make just piling up, along with house stuff that needs to be done and just isn't, and TONS of other projects I have all ready to go, just waiting for me to get my act together and actually do them, it's time to get serious. Let's not forget that my sewing machine arrived on Friday!

I am gonna go on an internet fast.

Yep, I really am gonna do it this time. Here are the exceptions I am going to allow myself:

*Online banking
*Fantastic blog updates here
*E-mail
*Etsy- only store updates and the like. No shopping.
*Tutorial/Pattern printing and referencing
*DIY and design blogs- gotta stay inspired.

And that's it! Nothing else. So let's see if I can actually get back to doing things, or just blogging about how I WANT to do them. I am hoping to do this as a Master Cleanse of sorts, and get back to actually doing things, finishing things, accomplishing things, crossing things of my lists of things that need to be done, finished, and accomplished. Wish me luck! I am gonna start with two weeks of no internet, and see what happens.

An Office Chair Gets Reborn.

No Silly! The office chair hasn't accepted Jesus, or maybe it has and I just don't know because I didn't ask.

Anyway, everyone that knows me knows that I have been moaning and groaning about sitting in that godawful kitchen chair whilst doing my computerly things. It was really starting to get uncomfortable- strangely, this did not limit my time on the computer. Well, yet again How About Orange has inspired me- by helping me to stumble upon this post at Curbly. So, on the magical day off that I got last week for no reason at all, I went thrift store shopping for a desk chair to cover. The Children's Cancer Something Or Other Thrift Store had nothing. But Cobwebs, my new favorite store, had just the thing. Behold, in all it's two toned chocolate corporate cheapo dookie glory:


So with the chair packed in the trunk by the nice Cobwebs man (the South really can be a nice place to live sometimes- chivalry is alive and well here) I toddled off to GDC Home where I got this lovely stuff on sale for $6 a yard. See, even the ever-expanding (note the pot belly!) Charlie Cat approves:


So NOT ME AT ALL, but perfect for how I am envisioning my office, and I like that it is more foliage than actual flowers. And the flowers that are on it are massive and orange, with those odd primrose cluster flower thingies thrown in. I even like those. But yeah, I love leaves and trees and stuff like that, but not huge on flowers.

So I cranked up the Buddy Guy album I raved about last week or so, and got busy. Charlie did not really approve though, because he covered the speakers with his giant self and supervised the whole thing:


Well it was long and hard and involved a few extra trips to Home Depot but it is done and it is utterly fantastic!

here is the point in the blog where I impart some wisdom so that you don't make the same mistakes I did. When shopping for your fun old-but-soon-to-be-better-than-ever desk chair, pay attention to the construction. If you don't the bottom of your chair will come off like a dream and the top may prove to be incredibly difficult. It may just not separate from the wood grain textured plastic, like mine. However, if you find that it doesn't, don't despair. I despaired and it wasn't necessary. Especially once I tried out some heavy duty spray adhesive I just so happened to have on hand. Lots of spraying, careful folding and a dash of profanity- and look! Almost looks like the real thing!

That up there is the top of the back cushion for the chair. It looks like it was made that way, doesn't it! Well, it wasn't. I folded the edges, glued the hell out of it, and wonder of wonders, it worked! I love glue. You will notice that there are some glue boogers on the plastic portion of the chair, but they are drying and proving to be super huge fun to pick off. Remember putting glue on your hands and peeling it off when you were in elementary school? It's like that. Only better somehow.

Project Stats:
Chair: $12
Fabric: $6
Lunch at Chick-fil-A: $5-ish
Length of Time: 2 to 3 hours (it should not take you this long if you don't have major troubleshooting issues like me and just skip right to the spray adhesive.

I am SERIOUSLY considering spray painting the non-fabricy parts of the chair orange like those flowers. How fun would that be?

A Bulletin Board Gets a New Lease on Life

Okay, first of all, sorry for the not so awesome pics. But hey, there are pics! and that, my dears, is what we like to call improvement.

Today, my boss gave me a surprise day off! No real reason, I guess he just realized that there was also no real reason for us to be at work. I love days like this. I get so much done because i am still in productive mode from the work week, so I get things done. It's great!

I have already worked up about three blog posts and finished up a bunch of stuff. I am going to string them along some though, and that way you will be spared from too terribly many posts that are strictly about my day, or about beef stroganoff or complaints about my lack of WIP pics with regard to knitting. I finished the July knit along, just in time no less! and by finished, I mean went and got a button and everything! But here, thanks to How About Orange?
I was able to do a little upcycling and begin the spiffing up of the office process.

the before shot:

I got this bulletin board along with my first desk. I believe I was in second grade, but it may have been third. That was the year that my mom's gay best friend made me a copy of Madonna's "Like a Prayer" on cassette, and censored it. He wasn't sure if my mom would let me listen to blasphemous pop, but she was pretty cool and didn't mind. Anyway, the sticker on the left came with a bathing suit I got in 7th grade. The sticker on the right is a dreadful sticker I got at a Panic show a few years ago. I can't remember, but I really hope I didn't pay for it. Until last year, the frame was a yellowy-white plastic. I painted it with some crazy green acrylic. Not sure what I was thinking, but I would not call it an improvement.

The supplies:


Tacks and the little coverable buttons are the only things I bought. the rest is just glue in various forms and some fabric I got off etsy when someone was destashing.

TA DA! The finished product:

Cute little (and big) thumbtacks on a very much improved bulletin board. I see a few places that I need to fix up a little bit, but for the most part, I think that it is going to look great above my monitor. And all for about $3, and done while watching two episodes of Home Improvement, and half an episode of Just Shoot Me. I love the contrast of the pink and red with the fame and the dotted pins. I think that if you are going to give a bulletin board a makeover, you should really go all out.