What Ana Does

Now that I'm back to work after three years of being off, I'm able to finally SHOP unfettered and unimpeded. Sorry, but there's nothing worse than asking my husband for money to buy a new sweater. (Though, I appreciate how much pressure a single-income put on him.) So my requests for personal purchases were as few as I could manage. Now that I have a paycheck again, my first FOR ME purchase was ... pajamas! JCrew was having a HUGE deal on their PJ sets and I jumped in. I love a classic matching PJ set. The state of my current PJs are a little sad. Most of my flannel printed pants are long past retirement. And the t-shirts are usually those I won't wear in public anymore. It doesn't make for a very flattering look. So my donation pile will be growing again. So there ... that's what I bought with my first paycheck back at work!

A week in and I'm feeling pretty lucky I got this job doing what I want to do, and so close to home.  First Desk Selfie = DESKIE! 

It's kinda amazing what $150 can do to a space. For the time and effort, I'm happy with the results. So I painted the walls using leftover paint from the master bedroom ceiling angle. Then I used peel-and-stick wallpaper on the wall with the vanity. Last, I used vinyl floor tiles for the flooring. All knowing that in a few years, this bathroom will be gutted and updated -- once we don't have young teens. They are slobs! To finish it up, I just need to pick up a few bathroom rugs for the space this weekend. Here's the BEFORE picture again: And more of our After pictures ... The floor tiles were NOT PERFECT. If you look close, you can see where the patterns don't come together. I struggled with this at first, you can rotate the tiles to try to get a better match. But it was futile. And from afar, it looks awesome. So, I'm pretty happy. It didn't need to to be perfect. Here you get a view of the new light fixture that I didn't budget fo

This week is a big one. My first week of a new job. After three years of being home, experiencing all that it is to be a "housewife" -- not to mention moving my family to France and back. (No big deal.) And I'm finally back to work. My Office -- Hello! This also marks a pretty big success for me. When I left my job three years ago, I wanted to change my career path just a bit ... I had moved far away from being creative at all, and that was not making me happy. And I didn't think a career change was going to be possible or easy. And no one likes job hunting but it's especially hard if your resume says 12 years of one thing, but you want to be doing something else.  So, high-five ME! Along the way, I learned a lot about being home. It's not easy and not always fun. In fact, it's incredibly lonely. I identify as an introvert and I like my alone time -- but even I need to be around people sometimes. I was lonely ... a lot. And then there's the c

This bathroom makeover was only supposed to be $150. But, I had a small accident and now it's just a bit more. In Progress: Watch Out For Falling Lights! Peel and stick wallpaper isn't sunshine and roses to hang. It's sticky and doesn't like to be straight. I've done it twice before and I knew what I was getting myself into. So, this time I bought the smoother tool and an exact-o knife, so I was well prepared. Luckily, this pattern I chose DOES NOT NEED TO LINEUP PERFECTLY. It's glorious. You can't see the seams anywhere. It made life easier. What didn't make life easy, was the vanity light .. I was standing on the vanity, uninstalling the light and trying to figure out how I was going to run the wallpaper behind the light fixture when it CRASHED and SHATTERED to the top of the vanity ... were my bare feet were. GAH! I feel so lucky I didn't end up in the emergency room with glass coming out of my feet. Yikes. But, unluckily, it added

Now that the laundry room  and master bathroom have been made over and are looking lovely, they are no longer the ugliest rooms in the house. That honor now goes to ... the kid's bathroom! Take a bow! It's certainly on my "gut job" list, but, given the preteen slobs that currently use it, I don't think it's a wise investment. Maybe when Alice get to high school? But, I DO think I can throw $150 dollars in there in the meantime and upgrade the look at bit. We have family visiting at the end of December and using this bathroom, so I'd like it to look less like a catastrophe. Here's the current room -- I didn't even tidy it up. This is what it looks like in all it's glory. I think this filter is doing it A LOT of favors. It's pretty grubby. My issues are many (!) but, as I learned from the laundry room project , a new floor goes a very very long way. So that's what I'll start with. Given my tiny budget and DIY skills, I

Yes, there certainly was a lot of UP AND DOWN on the ladder to get this angled ceiling in the master bedroom painted, but it didn't take too long (a few interesting podcasts) and I'm very happy with the results. Much happier than the willow color I had picked out before. The transition into the ceiling is a little cleaner and airier. And it picked up the cream color of the curtains, but different enough than the white trim. Here's another Before pictures of that curly willow color. You can s ee more master bedroom BEFOREs and a full run-down of this minor project here . PS. The new color is "Pearly Cotton" from Magnolia Home. It's also worth noting that the whole idea of this Master Bedroom "touch up" was to calm the whole room down, and make it more tranquil. I pulled down art and family pictures to let that awesome blue wall just breath a little. The TV wall used to be jammed with three pieces of dark-wood furniture. It was a lot

I was tip-toeing through some old blog posts and discovered these early photos of our living room ... Living Room: Before Our house in New Jersey was much smaller, so we didn't have a lot of furniture when we moved in. I didn't want this "formal" living room to turn into a kids play room, this space was too valuable to me to make it into a toy dumping ground as I've seen other families do. I wanted a true Living room where I could chat with visitors and family, without the TV blaring in the background. A comfortable place to read books and the New York Times. Maybe nibble on some cookies and drink tea. Living Room: Before 2 First we found the sofas. The coffee table and the grayish wall color. It's my favorite room in the house (other than my bedroom). Follow the evolution here . And what we ended up with is pretty nice! Here's the rooms from the same angle today ... Complete with Halloween decorations this year. Spooky! I have been

It's not often in Illinois that we get snow in October. Usually Mother Nature has the good grace to wait for the leaves to turn and fall from the trees before dumping the white stuff all over the place. This year, it seems She was too excited to get to snow ... October 31, on Halloween, and we get a few inches! Not that anyone here was complaining.  They couldn't wait to get home from school and play in the snow.  Still all here the next morning! And look at that sky!  I think Bruce loves the snow more than anyone on the house. He spent the day playing and jumping and slipping in the backyard. So, I guess this week, at least, it's winter! Related posts: More Winter posts