My Home Office Wishlist

So, I know I am REALLY counting my chicks before they are hatched, but I just can't help it.  Our old house has not sold yet (If you are a praying person, we could use your prayers on this).  Our new home is nowhere near finished yet.  I know full well how much can change in a week's time let alone a couple month's time.  Still...

Our new house, while not huge, will have enough space that I will be able to have an actual, no-joke, home office just for me and my work.  I have been studying just a little about what it takes to be able to consider a room a home office for tax purposes.  In the process, I have been looking at what I would need, what I would want, and how I would like to have it set up.

Here are just a few things on my checklist/wishlist:

1.  Blue-tinted white walls.  I cannot stand all white rooms.  All the white is so sterile and stiff, and I find myself tensing up just looking at pictures of rooms done in white on white on white.  I just want a very light, light blue on my walls.  A color that sooths me, inspires me, and encourages me to soar. 

Contemporary Home Office by Toronto Interior Designers & Decorators AM Dolce Vita

 

2.  The room that is to be my office has a single window.  Granted, I wish it were overlooking the mountains to the west, instead of my neighbors across the street, but sunlight is sunlight.  I LOVE natural light.  While I do not want my back to the door, I also do not want my back to the window, so I found some pretty cool desk ideas on Pinterest that would offer me usable storage, plus the ability to situate the desk to view both the door and out the window.

3.  The room's closet has two sliding doors.  I have seen people use chalkboard paint on walls, or desktops, or framed in old frames.  I love all those ideas... BUT...  I love the idea of painting the top half of both sliding doors with the chalkboard paint.  Then on one, I want to sketch out a calendar (I think I saw someone use tape to frame it out), and the other leave blank so I can brainstorm, make to-do lists, add contacts, etc.  Completely functional and really caters to the wanna-be teacher in me!  LOL

4.  On one of the walls, I want white, built-in shelves.  Floor to ceiling, with maybe some drawers, or cabinets along the bottom.  This part gets sketchy for me because I know I will need shelf space, I will need drawer space, and I am not so sure about cabinet space except to hide clutter quickly.  :)  Regardless, I want the shelving to be white, and then I want to find a really vintage fabric or wallpaper to line the back of them with.

5.  The opposite wall from the shelves, I hope will be MY wall.  Home offices, for tax write off purposes cannot be too "personal."  There is a fine line, I am sure.  However, because I will be holding teleconferences, and video chats in that room, I really do want to keep most of the room as professional as I can.  So that one wall, I hope to hang the dolphin latch-hook my Grandma made me (which has been in storage since I have been married.)  I also hope to hang just a few tasteful pictures of my two most precious treasure, DH and the Kiddo.

There are quite a few more things I hope to include in my home office.   I hope that once we get all the housing situation sorted out, and DH and I put the office together, I can share pictures with you on how it turned out.  Then again, if it all goes south, maybe I have inspired you to upgrade or redesign you own home office.  ((If I have, I would love to see what you have done to make the office more unique, more relaxing, more professional, and more YOU!))

***********************************************

If you want gain more inspiration for your home office, visit 
 Houzz.com or my Home Interior Board on Pinterest

***********************************************

Crafty Me... Um... Not so much...

So, as I was visiting many of my favorite blogs this afternoon, I stopped by a blog by an old college friend of mine.  Sounds Like Tomatoes, like my friend is up-beat, a little quirky, and just a lot of fun to read.  Her latest post, "I've Been Making Stuff That is Sew Rad" caught my attention because I love crafty stuff.   If you don't believe me, you need to check out my Craft Board on Pinterest - then compare it to the "Ones I Have Done"Board also on Pinterets.  Hehe

Anyway, K (cause I don't know if she's okay with me using her whole name, AND I don't want to risk spelling it incorrectly) has been making little crafts for many years now.  All of them cutesy, and all of them much more difficult (I think) than I would be willing to take on.

Which got me to thinking about all the crafts I HAVE taken on.  Yes, over the years, I have actually completed some of my crafts- like the two little rag quilts, a crocheted hat (which is ridiculous BTW cause I added ear covers to it.. LOL), a couple scarves, a wreath, an Easter cross, and then some random crafts that I wanted to do because of Pinterest.



Finished wreath- pretty right?  I wish I had taken an "after" pic.

Part of the process of the rag quilt, which was lopsided, BTW.

 

The thing I have learned about myself and crafts is that I SUCK at them!  The crocheted hat and scarves have all started to come apart, because I never correctly learned how to crochet.  I simply did what I little I did know, and hoped it would work.  The harvest wreath I made has fallen apart leaving little fall colored leaves and plastic pumpkins around the entry way for people to trip over.  The Easter cross, also a wreath, was made by looping colorful yard around and around a wire hanger.  Yeah, in storage, it got bent in half, and when I tried to save it, the wire came undone, and yarn went everywhere.  (I do not know how the rag quilts have faired- they are with two pieces of my heart in Florida, where I sincerely hope they are still able to keep those little bodies warm--- when it gets cold there.  HAHA)

I visit Pinterest (almost) as often as I visit Facebook, especially since I am determined to reduce feeding my FB addiction.  I see all these cool crafty things to do, all the DIY projects- things that "might" save you money, "might" look awesome somewhere around the house.  I pin them.  I repin them.  I consider them.  I pull out pen and paper and start planning how I might also do some of them.  And there they now stop.  (Granted, part of that is because I am currently camper living... but still...)  I have realized that I am no crafter.  I can't match two colors to save my life.  My fingers are too stiff to hold a needle.  My hands shake too bad to hold a hot glue gun steady.  And my attention span, unless its buried in editing or writing, is about as long as a mouse's tail.  (You just envisioned that didn't you?) 

Shoot... I can't even picture how to decorate a room.  And I seriously think I can put together some cutesy crafts?  Yeah, right.

Nope.  I think I will leave the crafting to my truly talented friends like K.  And if I truly need a crafty item, I will hit up my Sister- she is really good with crafty stuff too!  :)

********************************************

There might be some stuff on my Pinterest page that would interest you... Maybe some of the crafty stuff I like to dream about doing is something right up your alley.

Take peek...  LuvinThisLife's Pinterest Page

********************************************