At long last...

I have my home and life under control!  Well, my home at least.  Tax season was rather eventful this year - both in a good way and a not so good way, but I survived.  I discovered that happiness is indeed a choice and that prayer works wonders in the face of adversity.  God helps us help ourselves and that is a lesson that I am very grateful to have learned earlier this year.

Peter has been assisting Aggie in supervising the spring cleaning and the little home projects that have been completed over the past couple of weeks.

I've been wanting to do something with the foyer wall that is part of my client area since just after the first tax season I worked at home.  The wall has a serious fingerprint problem - cheap, flat paint being the culprit.  I bartered with one of my clients this year and he installed this beautiful beadboard paneling for me and a chair rail.  When I have the paneling painted, I am also going to repaint the walls with washable, semi-gloss latex to make maintenance a little easier.  Isn't it cute?

The green table was an L.L. Bean bargain.

Unfortunately, this photo shows the dirty carpet - another client area problem - but that will soon be solved when my bartering client enlarges the laminate floor from the door up to my desk.  No more mess!

The paneling also surrounds the outside of the kitchen bar area.

That's the spot where Aggie likes to rub her face for some unknown reason.

Another mess taken care of!

My "dining room" is actually part of the living room, but it's not like I ever use the space.  I just love my oak table and oddball red chairs.  The paneling really brightened up that corner.  I am contemplating painting the narrow wall closest to the kitchen with the same green paint as the living room wall.

I just haven't decided yet...

I know that I suffer from too much stuff in a small space, but it feels homey to me and that's all that really matters, isn't it?

A few weeks ago, Richard put up my wall words for me - I love it!

That Jane Austen was one smart cookie.

Spring cleaning was long overdue this year - I tidied up my craft area and tried to get my stash of books to read under control.  The antique desk chair was a craigslist find; Tom & Al graciously picked it up for me on one of their forays into the wilds of Sarasota.  As you can see, I haven't quite decided what to do with it yet.  I counted the other day; I have eleven chairs in the house.

This is why my dining room is a corner of the living room - my home office takes up the space intended for dining.  It's just the right size and a convenient spot to see clients and block off access to the rest of the place with Aggie's doggie gate.

My craft area is also part of my home office, and I am always looking for ways to consolidate stuff and minimize the amount of desk space it occupies.  I found this great stamp pad storage system on eBay and finished that project up the other day.  See - more space for vintage McCoy flower pots!

They are pretty and functional.  Who could ask for anything more?

Long post, I know, but I love the feeling of having accomplished something that I wanted to share.  More regular updates this summer!

Small changes...

are just the things we need sometimes - don't you agree?  I had recently moved the red wooden welcome sign I had affixed to the door with sticky tape and the door was looking bare.  Now I've added this cute little hello.  Getting ready for tax season - and sprucing up a bit around the home office - in between catching up on paperwork and answering the telephone.  I love the way my new greeting looks - it's easy-to-apply vinyl and I found it on Etsy for eight bucks.

I think that's a lot of happiness for a little bit of money.

I found an ME print to replace one that was ruined in a moving mishap so I changed it out for the Count Your Blessings print I had previously hung over the client chair.  The other print is moving to the bedroom where it will hang on the same wall as the floating shelves I hope to finally hang up one day soon.  I always have some sort of decorating plan cooking...

My lovely friend, Erin, sent me an Amazon gift certificate for Christmas.  But what to order?  I needed another book like I need a hole in the head - Erin and I are equally bad about ordering (and reading) murder mysteries!  I'd been looking for some sort of wall rack to hang behind the door and when I saw this one and knew I just had to have it.  Another friend had sent me this adorable burlap bag a while back - that awful acid green color that I love with a bee embroidered on it.  It is definitely me!

The rack and the bag are a perfect combination.

I am thrilled with the overall effect.  Of course, I didn't hang it myself.  I leave such technical pursuits to the experts: my friends, Tom and Al graciously installed it for me on Monday.  Aggie supervised and Bee now seems to be quite fond of Unka Al.  If only Peter would come out and visit when they are here...

Out with the therapy chair...

thanks to my dear friend, Ariela, and her husband, Marco.  A lady where Marco works is redecorating her condo and gave them several lovely pieces of like new furniture.  Ariela thought one of the accent chairs was perfect for the spot in front of my desk.  I love the beautiful bargain chair I bought last year just before tax season, but it really was too big for the space available.  And some of my clients got a little too comfortable in it - hence the therapy chair designation.

Aggie watched them take away the old chair - and Bee's favorite sleeping spot.  She was understandably curious as to what was coming in - and she was probably hoping it wasn't another cat.

And here's Marco with our beautiful new client chair.  Isn't it pretty?  And the upholstery color even goes well with the color scheme.  Serendipity!

Thank you so much, Ariela!

A much better fit - and comfortable, but not too comfortable...

And apparently, it even meets the Bee's approval!

I know it's been awhile...

since I've actually blogged about anything of consequence.  My friend, Tom, asked me why and I replied, "The mully grubs."  Isn't that a great expression?  I mean, I thought it was some kind of big-assed Texas bug when my friend, Linda, wrote about cleaning until the mully grubs were gone, but it really just means being down in the dumps - a blue funk as it were.  Sometimes I'm like Mr. Monk, bogged down in the OCD details of obsessing over perfection, or the lack thereof.  For the past couple of months, my whole house looks like each room has had some sort of minor explosion; I start a project, get distracted and move on to something else.  Well, I am happy to report that today something finally got done!

Tom and Al came by to do their monthly sales tax report, drop off their bookkeeping paperwork for October and put up the living room curtain rod.  You know - the one Richard and I puzzled over, cursing the engineer who designed it, until I realized after he left that the decorative ends of the rod unscrewed...  Duh!  They also brought me a case of Greek yogurt and a can of pumpkin from their morning trip to Costco, but I digress...

It didn't take long - since they know what they are doing.  You can see Al supervising the finishing touches once the rod was up and the valance was in place.  There was great gnashing of teeth and more than a few expletives deleted in the sewing room last night as I sewed the wrong edges together and had to rip it apart and start over.  I've been dithering over this thing for a month, worrying about ruining the cheap daybed quilt I bought to turn into this fabulous window treatment!

Of course, there's always too much light when you don't need it - 

but you get the picture. 

You can see that the valance matches the quilted throw and pillow on the chair - and it doesn't clash too badly with the lamp.  Thank you, guys - thank you so much!

I love it when a plan comes together.

I am really happy with the fabric and the wall color coordination - and it was really a happy accident.  Like most of the really good things in life.

The best of friends...

have staked out the reading chair in the living room.  I am pretty amazed that Peter and Bee have taken to each other so quickly - I mean, it's been a couple of months, but still.  Cats are very territorial and Peter has been an only for the last several years.  Maybe it helps that Bee was an only in his previous home.

At any rate, I am very happy that they are each glad to have a buddy.

In other news, I have finally worked up the nerve to cut this quilt into pieces to make the living room window valance.  Fear of failure - for about a month now.

See, I did it!  Now to sew it together, line it and get it hung.  Or hanged.

No, people are hanged; fabulous window treatments are hung.

Fall and my faithful companion...

Aggie, my faithful cairn companion, is fourteen years old today.  She came to live with me when she was eight weeks old; as I recall, we got her on December 6, 1998.  Aggie isn't doing too badly for a little old lady and I hope to keep her around for a good while longer.  As you can see, she is anticipating her birthday treat.  She got a new green collar - which she has been wearing happily for the past couple of days - but today I think she is waiting for an edible treat...

The other day I got some cheap fall flowers while I was at WalMart buying muslin to line my living room valance.  Yes, Aggie got nuggets from Chik-Fil-A that day - spoiled thing!  The flowers didn't quite fill up the basket as much as I had hoped after I spent about thirty minutes trying to cut the floral wire to arrange them in the styrofoam block.  I'm not sure which wasn't strong enough: my little wire cutters or my hands - probably both!

Bee came to see what I was working on and then turned his attention to the landscape gardeners outside.

I think Peter objected to Bee usurping his space and told him to get lost.

I got another cheap bunch of flowers today - along with a heavier wire cutter - and my fall basket arrangement is now gracing the kitchen counter.  I've filled up my pumpkin jar with fall candies; let's see how long they last.  At least they are a little more difficult to get into than if I had put them on the front corner of my desk!  Enough decoration for now - I might get my pumpkins and gourds out on Monday.

And now the birthday girl, Agatha Christie Smith, is reminding me to give her another treat from her birthday box of chicken nuggets...

A restful place...

I don't know where I found this photograph - probably Etsy - but this is just the most restful looking chair I've seen in a long time.  I think the color combination is soothing - and I can imagine it in the corner of my bedroom.  With Peter curled up in it, having a afternoon nap.  I'm not normally a fan of yellow, but the combination of the gingham and the quilt just makes me happy.  I already have several restful spots in my little home, but there's always room for one more.  Don't you think?

Checking items off the list...

really makes me happy!  Aggie wasn't sure what was going on this past Saturday, but after her morning crunch, she stayed out of the way while my friend, Richard, helped me with some long-awaited home improvement projects.

Our walls are a boring, lifeless taupe - painted with not-so-great flat paint.  I can live with it since I've added color to the place with all of my stuff, but the living room wall was calling out for something more.

So now we have a lovely green accent wall.  Richard is taking a phone break between coats, talking with his Army son, Todd, who has just returned safely from Afghanistan - a real answer to many prayers.

While the first coat dried thoroughly, Richard took on another project of adding a second shelf to my laundry closet.  This is the before photo - the shelf I ordered was too long and he took it to Home Depot to be cut to size while he was out to run a couple of personal errands.

Richard mounted the second shelf underneath the existing shelf - it was so snug we ended up not needing the center bracket.  I have been so looking forward to corralling the laundry area mess!

As soon as the second coat of paint was dry, I helped Richard rehang my artwork and I vacuumed behind the furniture - it's only been nearly two years!  Then he moved the furniture right back where it was - doesn't the new color look great?

I spent some time yesterday tidying up the laundry closet and filling the baskets on my new shelf.  What's in them?  Clothes!  When I got rid of the bedroom nightstands with drawers, I lost my everyday, around-the-house clothes drawers - so this was the perfect solution.  Wash, dry, fold, store - and wear!  I'm happy to say the laundry is completely caught up - for once - and I even washed my tennis shoes.  Now all I need to do is rummage around the house for an empty basket for my socks...

Of course, Aggie is completely exhausted from all of the commotion and has been lazing about on the sofa all day yesterday and today.  We should all be so lucky.

Peter still doesn't know what all the fuss is about, having slept through all the excitement under the bed.  All he needs to know is that when Mom is happy, everybody is happy!