New fabric for the office

I've been searching for the perfect fabric to make some panels for the sides of my open stainless steel worktable for a long time now (to hide all of the paper cutters, trimmers, adhesives, paper...). I wanted something fairly graphic with some contrast, but interesting. At first I looked at stripes and some other patterns, until I saw this:
Woot! Love it! Now I will just have to dust of my sewing machine and get cracking. (It's a J. Dewberry Manzanita. I got it here.)

Pictures will be coming some day...

I know that I mentioned (a long time ago) about posting pictures of the basement on here, and they've never surfaced. I've taken a few, but maybe it's the pursuit of perfection (or not!) that keeps me from posting them. I want to take pictures and post them and be able to do a big *sigh* and have it look the way I have it in my head.

The reality though...

It's not so perfect at the moment. I don't think it's got to that point yet. At the moment my office is a piled of dragged out junk from under the stairs (beside my office) and all the dirt that's come with it. Driving me crazy. I'm working on that today so I can hopefully clear out a good amount of crap from the spare bedroom (you can't even see a bed in there it's that bad). Then I want to swing the vacuum around without sucking up boxes, Christmas goodies and other large miscellaneous items. And I want to be able to walk in a straight line down the upstairs hallway. We have mastered the 'junk swagger' and learn to cross by things by using walls for balance...lol.

Maybe I'll post some goodies later on today. And maybe not! (Just for the suspense you know!)

Who knew you could do so much with this?

I learned this at step class this morning. Our instructor brought out the ball and proceeded to contort and roll all over it. We did all sorts of sit-ups, twisty things, roll-y things and squeeze-y things on it. At one point I had to try not to laugh as we all rolled up on the ball at the same time and made this big farty noise that echoed through the room (I've been hanging out with Trevor too much, lol). It was fun, and a nice way to get out of the house (I've been working in the 'compound' here all week).

The rest of the week has been filled with work (getting ideas for a new logo project that's due for the first presentation TOMORROW, no pressure), cleaning the house and doing overall domestic things. I made an awesome chicken dinner on Tuesday (roasted chicken...on a Tuesday you say? Why yes!) and was very happy with the way it turned out. I tried a Jamie Oliver technique of salt and pepper-ing the chicken in a bag the morning before it was roasted and then added the garlic, butter and lemon before it was put in the oven. MMM-mmmm. It was so juicy that I literally had to POUR it out before it was carved up. And then I made chicken stock out of the rest of it yesterday (it was a pricey organic chicken, so I'm using all of it up!). Über domestic, that is moi.

And for the weekend, we're partying it up with Mike and Cynthia. Mike is having a man time with Trevor playing video games on the big tv and Cynthia and I are going to TARGET!!! Woop woop! I love going there. I think I could go there every weekend, in fact. So we'll see what we score there.

I think I might try and tackle some closet organizing as well. I tried to do that last week and failed. (Okay, if you don't really try, can you really fail?) So we'll see what comes out of all of that. :)

Ahhhh, my office

Well it's day one in the NEW OFFICE! Hurrah! Finally working downstairs instead of being crammed into a little kitchen table next to the cat food. It doesn't get more bleak than that. But now, those days are over and it's time for the real office! Things are still in disarray, but it beats the other situation. There's boxes that need to be unpacked, but I also need some bookcases, shelves and other storage pieces to take all of my stuff and hide it away. But, there are pictures on the wall (beautiful!!!), a little window for natural light and a whole lot of pretty 'limelight' paint on the walls. Very refreshing! Things are going to work out well here. I'll post pictures of it once it gets sorted out a little more (adds to the suspense, no?).

And it's now officially organize-mania week around here. Lots of things to do, with unpacking the office, getting the main floor sorted out (it's filled with TOOLS and more TOOLS...they hide away in the corners and reproduce), getting the Christmas decor going and of course packing. PACKING!!! Phew, I need to take a deep breath here. And maybe grab a paper bag or two to blow into. Wait, make that the shopping-size ones, lol.

Yes, it's going to be panic stations to the max around here this week.

Be afraid, be very afraid

Last night was the first weeknight push to get the crap out of the basement. Not sure if it really went well or not. I feel like all I've managed to accomplish is adding junk to more and more rooms in the house. I've started to clear out the spare bedroom to put things in it that we want to keep; the loft room will be for all of the boxes from the office that need to be moved in; and the downstairs living room will be the designated garage sale room (but is it big enough???). Scary. My house has been turned into a Public Storage warehouse.

At the office I managed to pack 5 boxes yesterday and set them close to the door so I just grab one as I leave at the end of the day and bring back to the house. Hopefully that will make a smaller job of it (spreading the pain out over multiple weeks).

Victory!

The junk drawer has been conquered at last! I took Cathy's advice (how could I not!?) and took things out and piled them in categories.
Looked a bit scary...but I sucked it up and got it done!
If you can believe it, there were THREE measuring tapes in that drawer, THREE old cell phones (and accompanying wires and pluggy-inny thingies), TWO cd players...the list goes on. I'll be either garage-selling those in the summer or recycling them at an electronics depot place. Phew! And now on to other places in the house!

It takes a village...

So here is the bain of my existence...the thorn in my paw. Yes, it's the JUNK DRAWER. It has now managed to become a huge monster-like mess, and seeing as I can no longer cram anything else into it (it most recently rejected a sunglasses case), it's time for drastic action.

Cue the One Organized Chick (http://oneorganizedchick.blogspot.com/)! Yes, I have climbed the the mountain to see the guru of all things sorted and in their place. Surely she will restore the peace and efficiency to this horrific scene:Stay tuned to see what happens!