Finally! New Desk Chair

I've almost lost count how many chairs I've had at my computer desk here in my craft room.  Most ended up being horribly uncomfortable.  And I don't even sit at the computer for long periods of time.  Admittedly, I've been cheap when it came to buying a desk chair.  That, and I really didn't want some big, dark, faux leather, clunky thing in here.  I really wanted a wood banker's chair type, but didn't want to pay the price.

Of course, I loved Pottery Barn's wooden swivel banker's style chair, but at $399 plus $15 in shipping, I just couldn't do it.

Pottery Barn

Home Decorator's Collection has their Oxford Office chair at $199 plus $30 shipping.  

Not too bad, but I was hoping to do a bit better.

Home Decorator's Collection

Walmart to the rescue!

On their site, I found just what I was looking for.  Their wood banker's chair is $139 and shipping is free if you pick up at the store.  As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure it's the same exact chair HDC was selling at $199.

The chair arrived very quickly, less then a week, and it was very easy to put together.  It's comfortable, height adjustable, swivels and tilts, and the casters roll very easily on my pink shaggy rug I have in here.

I'm super-pleased with this chair.

While I was in here taking pics of the chair, thought I'd share the new counter skirt and window valance I made.  I love the black and white print with the green apple walls, along with the pink shaggy rug I grabbed up at Lowes for a steal - twenty bucks on clearance.  

I may use some of the left over fabric to make a chair pad for my new banker's chair.  

Add it to the list! ;o)

Puppy Update

The new member of the family, Xena, is keeping us busy for sure.  We're still working on housebreaking her, and so far we've only had one day accident free since we brought her home.  Oh, it's driving me nuts!  We try to take her out every couple hours, but she still has accidents.  We can't seem to read her signals all the time.  

She seems to be getting leash training down.  I've been adamant about that.  Our last dog was terrible on the leash, which I'm sure is our fault for not training her properly.  On the subject of training, The Dog Whisperer is now my favorite show.  I DVR it and watch at least a couple episodes a day until I get caught up to the current season.  I really like his philosophies on dog training. Watching his show has also made me understand more about dogs and how they think, so-to-speak.  I feel myself being much more calm with Xena then I was with our first Boxer, Coco.

Another problem I'm having with Xena is getting her to "come" on command.  When I take her out to do her business on the leash, as a reward I unleash her and let her chase a frisbee.  She loves to retrieve it bring it back to me.  But when it's time to go in, she won't come.  I think she thinks it's a game to come close then dart off when I get near her to put leash her.  This morning, after we danced around the back yard for about 20 minutes or more,  I had to quick grab her and wrestle her to the ground to get the leash back on her.  GRRRRRR!!!!  That just will not do!  I think we need to work on the come command a lot more in the house.

See that white thing there on her collar?  It's a very cool device.  It's a GPS tracker.  Hubby found it at Amazon.  It's called
Tagg the Pet Tracker
and the cool thing is there's an app for that . . . hehe.  You download the app to your iPhone, iPad, smart phone, computer, etc., and if the the dog leaves your yard perimeter you can use the app on your device to track her location no matter where you are, with directions if needed.  It will even send you a text that the dog has broken the perimeter.  

Pretty cool!

As you can see, she's starting to love her crate . . . her space.  Unfortunately, that big, ugly cage is in my family room.  I have a small quilt draped over the top cause ya know they like to feel like their in their own den, but the quilt's just not working for me.  I've already purchased a painter's drop cloth and I plan on making a more fitted, hopefully attractive crate cover.  

Other then those few issues, I think she's a terrific dog.  And when we get those worked out, she'll be the perfect pet!

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No More Summer Slacking!

Around here, you can sense summer's coming to an end.  Hanging on to the last few days of sleeping in, staying up late, no real schedule, and blowing off stagnant home improvement and home dec projects.

About the only things I've kept up with this summer is the basic housework, my exercise routine, a weekly round of golf and some gardening. 

Son No. 1 went back to school in North Carolina last week.  Son No. 2, who lives on campus here in Delaware, and Son No. 3, who'll be starting 8th grade, start back next Monday.  And with only a couple weeks left in August, and the nights getting a bit cooler, you can certainly feel the change in the air.

So, next week I'm vowing to get myself back into . . . well, everything I've been putting off this summer.  

Like, straightening up and deep cleaning my craft room.  It's a mess!

Making a new counter skirt and window treatment in the craft room with this new fabric.  I think it's going to look great with the pink shaggy area rug and the green apple walls!

Cleaning up and sorting through all that stuff under the table in the living room.  What's the deal with all that junk? Well, that's stuff I was using when creating new summertime vignettes here and there around the house, and it just got stuffed under there.  Outta of site, outta of mind, right?!

Our master bathroom.  UGGHHHH!!!  I'm almost embarrassed to show these pics.  

We started this mini-reno almost exactly a year ago.  We had some drywall repair done and that begun the long needed makeover.  Because we honestly can't afford to replace fixtures and completely overhaul the bathroom, we're hoping some updates will help out this tired-looking space.  First of all, fresh paint on the walls.  Since we have to keep the big fixtures like the tub, shower, etc., I can live with their pale grey color, so I'm working with color scheme that compliments.  I tell everyone to think beach glass.  Pale greens, blues, greys and whites.  

A new tile floor and tile around the tub to cover the ugly cedar planking painted grey should help.  And some white bead board paneling on the front.  BTW, I hate that the tub is situated on an angle.  I've never been able to figure out what to do with all the space back there.  Any suggestions/ideas would be greatly appreciate ;o)

I picked out glass tiles for the backsplash around the tub and behind the vanity, below, which will be getting a new coat of heirloom paint and a new vanity top and sinks, and, of course, new vanity hardware.  New light fixtures and new shower doors will give this bathroom the facelift it desperately needs.

This project, primarily the tiling, is Hubby's.  And it's been slow-going, mainly because he's been working tons of overtime, annnddddd playing quite a bit of golf on the weekends this summer. Which I can't complain about.  He's been working so hard, and golf really relaxes him.  He knows he's going to have to get busy back on the project soon, though . . . hint, hint, Hon!

Another project waiting in the wings for way too long is the painting and refinishing of the kitchen table and chairs (this table does have a leaf that's out right now and six chairs altogether).  The chairs are getting a fresh new coat of glazed heirloom white paint, and the table top's getting refinished with a new coat of stain - I think.  

Not sure if I should restain it or paint it.  Suggestions?  

And I haven't decided if I'm going to paint the base glazed heirloom white or black.  Guess it would depend on what I decide to do the top.  Again, suggestions?

So among so many other big projects needing to get down around here, such as; pulling up the carpet in the finished basement and putting down the wood floor we purchased over a year ago; painting and redecorating that space; repainting the third bedroom; restaining the boy's bathroom vanity; painting and organizing our master bedroom closet; etceterAH, etceterAH, etceterAH . . .  (saying that in my head in my best Yul Brenner voice from the King and I).

All these projects, big and small, are gonna require a big swift kick in the butt for me.  Part of the reason, besides just summer slacking for not getting a lot of them done or at least started, is I just think I've lost a bit of my mojo.  I need some real motivation to get these projects going and completed, and some serious inspiration to make some much need decor changes around my home.  

I'm hoping when Son No. 3 gets back into school next week, and I have a few full days at home alone, I can get going on these projects and more.  How are all of you getting back on schedule now that summer's almost over?   It can be a tough transition some years!

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A LITTLE CHANDY MAKEOVER

Remember this little cutie I picked up a while back at Ikea?  I thought it would be perfect in my "studio".

It was a nice steal at $39, but the finish didn't do much for me.  Kind of a boring silver/metal finish.

How to fix that?  

Ahh . . . y'all know!!!! :o)  

Spray paint!

Much better! 

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MONDAY'S RANDOM RAMBLINGS

Happy Monday All!!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

Ours was nice.

Absolutely nothing special or spectacular.

Just a nice, productive couple days.

I really appreciated some of your advice on my last post regarding my monstrous

"to-do" list. It all really is just simple, right? Prioritize your jobs and make a list. Well, unfortunately for me, I've never been a good list-making-prioritizing type.

I want it all done yesterday!

Kinda hard when I'm just one person ;o)

Taking advantage of the break in the heat, I took my blogging friend, Kathy's advice, and hit the gardens full steam this weekend. I spent a total of 4-5 hours each day Saturday and Sunday weeding, trimming, dead-heading, edging . . .

You can probably get the picture. The gardens and beds were in pretty bad shape. After enduring, oh, I dunno, 37 heat waves this summer

- and we're starting day one of the next today! -

I just didn't get out there like a good gardner and care for my rooted babies. But I certainly made up for it this weekend.

While I was weeding and cleaning up the vege/cutting garden yesterday, this little beauty

was busy fluttering around all the newly blooming Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower) I planted from seed. He was bizzy, bizzy, bizzy.

The photos below I took this morning when I went out to turn on the sprinkler in the garden. The fog was heavy and it created a quiet peacefulness, almost like when it snows.

As any of you who have grown tomatoes knows, it's always feast or famine. For some crazy reason, I planted 24 tomato plants - several different varieties. I picked 1-1/2 five gallon buckets of tomatoes.

I took tomatoes to the neighbors next door,

tomatoes to my brother and SIL who live behind us,

Hubby took a big bag of tomatoes to work

and I still have 1/2 a five gallon bucket left.

We're gonna be eating a lot of pico de gallo and bruschetta this week!

I'm also going to share just a few pics from my craft room mini-makeover. I've been so inspired going through all the pics from

Karen Valentine's

Where Bloggers Create Party.

I'm still not through the list. Got 'bout 100 more to go!

A good friend had purchased a bunch of boxes of multicolor paper-lantern (only these are not paper - much nicer nylon!) type party lights. She realized they weren't going to work for her the way she wanted, so she was going to drop them at GW. I told I'd take them off her hands gladly paying, but being the nice friend she is ;o) she wouldn't hear of that!

I got to thinking how cool, fun and unexpected it would be to hang a string in my room. But the multi-color thing just wasn't going to work. Being the genius that I am hehe!!! I switched out the shades for a pattern that would match the color scheme in the room - being mostly bright green, hot pink and red. And just to jazz it up a bit, and hide the ugly wire, I used a red boa from one of our crazy Bunco nights.

Thanks, Gladys! ;o)

Now, that ribbon holder/shelf you see up there has been sitting in it's box, unassembled on the floor in this room since January. I finally put it together, hung it on the wall, filled both dowels with just a snippet of my massive collection of ribbon spools, and hated how it looked. Too junky . . . or too unplanned junky, KWIM??? But it does make a cute shelf, and I have ordered a few more spools of that yummy tulle ribbon that should be here any day, and they'll look pretty on the dowel rods - I hope.

The snaps below are examples of a more planned,

or an organized junkiness! :o)

Maybe you remember a past post where I talked about using some of these found metal boxes, containers, etc., here in the craft room.

I managed to integrate a few of them pretty well. I decided to use the old tool/tackle box to, well . . . hold "tools". Scissors, punches, twine, tape runners, glue sticks, tweezers, etc. Pretty clever, eh?

The box/drawer thingy below is housing all kinds of scrapbooking/paper crafts embellishments I'm hoping to use soon on future projects.

This next group of photos are just some random shots from around the room.

My small collection of vintage cameras up there.

A custom-made cabinet (built around a salvaged window shutter) houses a small amount of my quilt fabrics.

Mmm . . . fabulous fabric . . .

And lastly, today was a fun mail day!

Lookey what came!

If you haven't perused through Paula's magazine, it's really good. You can certainly feel her personality in every article and recipe.

I think I'm on year 8 or 9 of the Southern Living Christmas Book. It comes as an automatic shipment, and it's always a nice taste of the Holidays right smack in the middle of summer.

Oh, and isn't this little quilt a cutey?

I made that one years ago when I was sooo fortunate to have been able to work in an absolute premier quilt/fabric store right here in our little town.

It's created from early Debbie Mumm fabrics and pattern.

I love how the background fabric has the bees buzzing along leaving little "bee trails" with the phrase "busy as bee". Too stinkin' cute!

I had to share this adorable card of ribbon I purchased at the Scrapbook/Paper Crafting convention a few weeks ago. Isn't it darling? It's frayed ribbon "flowers" on tulle ribbon strips. I'm definitely going to have get me some more of this.

Pheewww . . . hope I didn't totally overload y'all with pics and words today! I just had too much to share.

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