Remember that dramatic painting we did for office 1.0?  And remember when Rebecca mentioned we might be taking the office upstairs once we have children 5 years from now?  Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about that room lately mainly because office 1.0 isn’t entirely functional.  It’s not the organizing-super-productive-making office we thought it would be.

Now, I’ll never paint stripes again.  (Right.  I once said I would never paint ever again, period.)  But the one thing I do love about office 1.0 are those paint stripes. Every time I walk in here, I’m still sucked in by those dramatic stripes.

So how can we do this for office 2.0?  No, no, no more stripes for me.   But instead, let me take you back a few weeks ago.  Remember when we said we wanted some lyric wall art for the dining room?

(via First Time Fancy)

Why not do this for office 2.0?  But in more of an office 1.0 dramatic way?

Imagine, if you will, that the image below is the wall that I’ll work off of.  Blank empty space, all we did was paint it a dark gray (thanks photoshop!).

Nothing special, I know.  But what if we did something big?  Like snakes on a mother-f’n plane big?

Being that we’re all about lyrics, why not put some on the wall?  I’m talking huge, though.  Like span the entire wall huge.

I’m not sure of the typography or spacing that we’ll need and want, but what I do know is that this thing has to be dramatic.  But not so dramatic that we’ll grow tired of it.  Because honestly, I’m not painting office 2.0 again.  Unless of course I can just use the paint-bucket tool.

Oh, look what I did there!

I know once we do move forward with this project, it will take us a year to decide on the lyrics.  I know I want something inspirational, but nothing too corny.  It needs to be something that I want to look at every day.

Without googling, mad props to whoever names the lyrics above.  They’re mad easy, yo.  

Two weekends ago, we got our new sectional and we were ready to ditch the coffee tables turned makeshift end tables we’ve had. Instead of putting them at the ends of the couch where they belong, we immediately wanted them out of sight.

Over the weekend, Mike’s brother and his wife had a yard sale so we dropped the tables off there to get rid of them. But… no one bought them. Whaaamp whaaamp. So we’ll be getting those tables back but they will not enter the house, they’re going straight to Goodwill 🙂

The room is less cluttered, though we still have to pick up a round ottoman and move the rectangular one upstairs. However, I have nowhere to put a drink! Our laptops also stay on the floor when we’re not using them, so we need side tables asap!

My only requirements are dark and round. I would like something with a glass table top since we’re not great with chasing after people with coasters, but it’s not mandatory. We’re not even sure if we want one or two of them, since we like the idea of putting a console on side of the couch (though that would force us to relocate Macky’s area for the second time).

I rounded up (literally?) some of my favorite dark wood end tables hanging around the internet. Yay lists!

1. Silhouette Nightstand– West Elm, $149

I spotted this when I stopped in the store a few weeks ago. I love the design of it, though I’m not sure if the smaller shelf is large enough to be practical (like, for my laptop when I’m too lazy to walk it to the office).

2. Chloe Round Wood End Table– Target, $74.99

I like the price and the design, though I’m not sure how practical those legs are for sliding near the couch. Target normally has some good, affordable furniture options so it’s a visit we’ll have to make in person.

3. Halo Ebony Side Table– Crate & Barrel, $299

Mike and I have liked the whole Halo line since we created our wedding registry at Crate & Barrel over two years ago. It meets all of my critera, though it doesn’t have a bottom shelf. However, that price is a deal breaker. Ouch.

4. Driftwood End Table– Crate & Barrel, $399

If I had endless amounts of money and cats that wouldn’t chew or try to commit suicide with this thing, I would totally want it. How cool is it?? I have a thing for driftwood lately, with my turtle and urchin in the family room. But, I’m going to keep it a little more practical around here 🙂

5. Lewis End Table– Overstock, $104.99

This table is a less expensive version of the first one I listed, so it pretty much has the same pros and cons as that one.

I would like the check out HomeGoods over the weekend and see if anything unique jumps out at me. While I like these tables, I can’t say I’m in love with any of them. But I’m thristy and need somewhere to keep my drink and my phone. Function trumps form… or at least my picky-ness 🙂

So I’m back in school for the semester and by the time Wednesday rolls around, I feel like I’ve worked a full week. My Tuesday night class is until 10:30, which means I don’t get home until 11:30 and I stay at work until almost 7 to leave straight from there. Darwin is also still getting chemo, which we’ve been doing on Wednesday afternoons, since our usual Tuesday evening appointments aren’t possible now. By Wednesday night, I usually collapse on the couch and need a time out.

I’m still trying to find a routine with everything. The spring semester was the hardest for me in content and workload, but my hardest class was on Mondays so I knew that all day Sunday was homework day. One of my online classes this semester has assignments due every Sunday and Monday, but they require participation and the topics aren’t posted until Tuesdays. So I can’t work on them on Sundays because starting late reflects on your grade and I have a strict no homework on Saturdays policy. See the above blurb about being over the week by Wednesday and well, last week I violated my no homework on Saturdays and ended up doing it then. This means I lost my part of my project day this past weekend.

I do best when I know, for example, Saturday is house project day, Sunday is homework, I blog Monday-Thursday and Friday is a day off. I just need to adjust my routine a little and figure out when to do the discussion posts for my online class sometime during the week. Which probably means collapsing and taking a nap after work on Wednesdays is no longer an option 🙂

Since we’re on a personal note, as you know a few weeks ago I went to a blogger meet up with Emily Henderson. While there, someone said I looked familiar, but I knew immediately that they couldn’t possibly know me since there are zero pictures of me on my blog. No, that partial landscape picture with me as an inch tall in my About section does not count. I’ve also been talking to Mike for a while about making some design changes around here (which will be slow coming, see above paragraphs about being stretched thin :)) Then even after that, I read one of those tips for bloggers things (sorry, I don’t remember where I saw it) where one of the tips was to have a picture of yourself so readers know who is talking to them.

You know where I’m going with this right? Photo shoot time!

Note: I put the awkward in Awkward Family Photos.

First it was just me…

Then Mike threw some of the entryway accessories in there to look more designerly…

Then, I added a prop! (okay she added herself. That’s Mowie, we call her our forgotten child. She’s not usually photogenic, though a wonderful cuddle muffin that sleeps with me nightly)

Then we kissed. Because she loves her momma.

Then someone decided he wanted to be included, but didn’t really want to be a part of the lame photo shoot. So he decided to photo bomb, as usual.

I look like I have a cat on my head. That would not be unusual around here…

I already changed up my picture on Twitter because let’s face it, I got married almost 2 years ago and the wedding picture was getting old. I haven’t decided which one to use on the blog yet, but like I said it requires that Mike and I sit down together and figure out how we want this thing to go. I haven’t mentioned this in a while, but Mike single handedly designed this entire blog and I don’t speak graphic design or code or any of that. Our usual process involves him handing me a piece of paper and telling me to draw it out so he can design it. Most of our changes are small and gradual since well, this little blog is at the bottom of his web design totem pole. Occasionally I lose my patience and add things on my own, but I have no time to learn new tricks these days. So progress will be small, gradual, baby steps (though you may have noticed some small changes here and there already). How did a post about being busy turn into talking about more things we want to do? 🙂

Anyone else have a full plate and just itching to blog and paint mirrors? Spill it.

This weekend we got around to hanging a few things in the powder room- 2 white shelves from Target and a mirror from Lowe’s.

The lighting is impossible in this room and yes there is spackle all over the walls. One of the shelves took a plummet in the hanging process and took some wall with it. The story of our lives.

We’re thinking of spraying the shelves a glossy white, using the remaining spray paint from the deer bookends I recently sprayed. I just like the idea of blending them with with the sink and potty.

As for that mirror?

We knew we wanted something fancy looking. I’ve loved this mirror for as long as I can remember and previously considered putting it in the entryway.

But this espresso finish? Not staying.

Yes, we’re planning on painting this frame an aqua sort of color, as I mentioned my love for this combo last week.

(the sink needs another round of caulk and some paint from when the previous mirror came crashing down….I told you touch ups were the story of our lives…)

I’m thinking we’ll go with one of the lighter tones to balance the super dark walls.

It’s come a long way from where it was just 2 weeks ago!

We also shopped around a little for some accessories with no luck. Who knew turquoise mist hand towels were so hard to find? Yes, turquoise mist is the new name I’m using for that color we’re trying to achieve. It’s actually the name of one of the paint swatches up there, but it’s a little too blue I think. I’m in search of the perfect turquoise mist 🙂

Our main goals at this point are to paint the shelves, paint the mirror and finish all of the touch up work that we keep piling on. Then I’ll figure out what to put on those shelves!