What Ana Does

It was around mid-March that we were sent away from the office and asked not to return. Staffers who could work from home, were shipped off to do so. I grabbed all that I could and haven't been back to my office space. Since working from home, I'd been sitting in a corner of my dining room table. The location made sense because: a) the girls did school work on the other corner of the table, so I was there for help and to keep them on task. b) Dave took the office and spends most of his days on conference calls with the doors closed. And c) I could keep an eye on the dogs and all the other activity going on in the house. But lastly d) I could look out the window at my backyard. Sigh. It worked for awhile but, lately, I've been finding that I get UP so many times through the day (see the list above and it's easy to understand why). And getting myself resettled each time was annoying. And now my hours are increasing, so I really needed to figure out a more permanent sp...

If there's one thing I take away from this little sabbatical as a stay at home mom it's this: I really enjoy creating things with my hands. When I was a working full-time, driving kids around, stressing about dinner and passing out at the end of each day, crafting was very low on my daily priority list. Weekends were about spending time with family, maybe painting a wall and reading. Not much else to cram in there. But now that I'm home all day and have gotten some really big house projects done, I'm able to indulge in just crafting to craft. And with the holidays, I have the best excuse to create holiday decor things for family members and to pretty-up the house. I forgot how much I love to make things. I have bins and bins of crafting supplies that I've been collecting here and there but never had time to sort through and create. Now free time is finally here and I'm totally indulging in it ... and feeling sincerely grateful for it. Anyway, here's ...

I discovered this cute little yellow and white desk in my random internet travels. Oh how I love yellow furniture. And it's metal, so it matches (kinda) my little yellow stools. So, yeah, I purchased it. The price was right and I'm a sucker for free shipping. Anyhow, it's here now and I've set it up in one of two spots I thought it'd be perfect for -- behind the sofa in the family room. We had a dark-wood console table back there, and it did a pretty good job of looking big and dark, but not much else. My idea was installing a desk with a direct line to the TV to make multi-tasking easier. For example, some evenings I have brainless tasks for work to do. Then I starting thing that maybe this table could be used to build a puzzle and the puzzlers can still feel part of the action instead of in another room in the house. Perhaps even a homework spot? And a sunny spot to work from home during the day. You get the drift. We'll see how the rest of the...

Decorating the master bedroom is not my priority. But I had a problem. When we bought our lovely bedroom furniture five-ish years ago -- one of the biggest furniture investments at that time -- we skipped the bed-side tables. Oh man, was that a mistake! Ever since, we've been using random bits of furniture that don't match and are usually too small or just not functional. And it's a perpetual thorn in my side. Recently, given the amount of reading or laptop-typing I do in bed, I decided getting a wee writing desk with some drawers might be the right piece of furniture for the bed side. It could function as a little get-away writing spot. And the drawers would be great to hide away all the bed-side clutter. Plus, and this is my thinking a lot lately, it's a piece that can function in other rooms -- even the kid's room, if we needed it to relocate. The New Writing Desk So, I waited and watched writing desks scroll through my One Kings Lane shops until...

Hooray Hooray! My little white desk is on the way! I ordered it from a discount shop online as a final sale. Talk about HIGH RISK! But it's mostly wood and painted white -- so I can probably fix any issues once I get it. It was a steal of a deal, I tell you! How's that for a tease?!

It took three trips to an Ikea an hour away... but we finally got a desk up in Alice's room. It's pretty plain, as desks go. Just a table with adjustable legs and a pink swivel chair that's just like her sister's. We spent the afternoon cleaning up her room and then she spent another hour sitting at her desk working on her pink princess laptop and ... not sure what else. Alice's New Desk

Nook Complete! So, what I once contemplated hiding (this crazy nook in the corner of Leah's room) is now a nice, "custom" work space. Bam! I tricked it out with IKEA shelves (that are level) and a charming accent color on the back wall (that could have been a shade darker -- I chickened out there). And a (slightly-higher than average) built-in desk. It came out a-okay! We'll complete the nook with an office chair and accessories later. Related posts: More bedroom stories

Check that out! Level! Success!! Leah's desk project is mostly complete. The top has a fresh coat of poly, the supports are dead-on level and the chair looks adorable (from Ikea). Too high? Too bad! But..... I'm nervous that it's a tad higher than I would like it to be. I measured several times and the right height seemed too low, so i added two inches. Bad idea. (Lesson learned: Trust the numbers!) But, we can't move it without crazy wall damage so I'm getting over it. And Leah doesn't seem to mind. Lastly, there is nothing cooler than drilling 4" screws into the studs in the wall. Raw Power!!! Next up, paint! And some shelves. Can you picture her writing her college essay here. *Sniff* I can. Related posts: More bedroom stories