Painting Project Update

I finished painting the wall in my office. The color is good but I am still undecided if I am going to paint the whole room purple or just one wall, maybe two. It looks good against the white shelves however once all of my books and nick-nacks are back on the shelves you barely see the colored wall behind.

The color is Lilac Acres by Ralph Lauren. I chose a semi-gloss but in hindsight wish I had chosen a matte paint instead. It's still pretty.

I had some issues putting together the Ikea shelves and desk I purchased for the room. I no longer have a van so it is an ordeal for me to return the items. The project is going slow as I need to decide about the desk and furniture.

Ahhh, after a good paint job, one deserves a Cosmo!

The Joy of Lemons

One of the joys of living in Arizona is the gift of free fruit from friends who have fruit trees. I'm always excited to receive lemons. They are so much better than the ones in the grocery stores. They are huge and yield a nice amount of juice.

My favorite use for lemons is a recipe a friend gave me years ago for lemon chicken spaghetti. You cut chicken breast into strips. Put the chicken in a skillet and squeeze fresh lemon juice over it while it cooks. I keep adding lemon juice and as it reduces and reconstitutes it greats a sort of glaze. The chickens is a little tart but great. I serve it over spaghetti with lemon butter. Easy and delicious.

What do you do with your Arizona fruit?

Redecoration Anxiety

In 2008 one of my goals was to get my home office, which I have vowed to call my "Studio" decluttered and decorated. I want to be as cool as all of the other crafty bloggers who call their home office their studio. I currently have some nice Ikea shelves that were stuffed to the brim with books, knick knacks, half finished craft project and e-bay dreams.

I went to Ikea this weekend and chose another table/desk in white and a shelf for my electronic components (printer, scanner, USB Turntable etc.) I will have to put them together once I get the walls painted.

When we moved into the new house I picked one wall in my office and tried out a paint effect. I was going for an old terra cotta colored wall look. A few weeks later we had problems with our bathroom and the workers had to put a hole in the wall to take care of it. This was the only wall in the whole house that I had painted. They repaired the wall but I never got back around to re-painting the spot they went through.

I went to Home Depot this weekend and agonized about paint. I stared at paint squares and photos of painted rooms. I could not decide if I should stay neutral or go bold. I went for bold. I bought a gallon of Ralph Lauren paint in a blueish purple. When I told my husband that I picked purple he had a weird look on his face, like, oh no, here she goes again. But kindly he did not give me a hard time. Making a choice on the color totally stressed me out but I keep telling myself, it is only paint. If it turns out ugly I can paint over it.

I spent today removing everything off of the shelves. I put most of the items on my living room table and all of the books in the spare bedroom in stacks along the wall. Our cat Gary proceeded to try to walk the wall of books and created a huge crap-alanche. Just too tempting I guess.

Table after cleaning shelves - see anything you want?

Wall of books.

So, I have the shelves clear. I hope to tape and paint tomorrow night after work.

I'll post some photos afterwards. Wish me luck.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Here's wishing a relaxing, stressless, loving 2008 for all.