Chuggin' Right Along

Things I've gotten done this week:

First I cleaned the sewing room.  

Then I emptied what was my "art space" (read: "storage

 pit"), except for a few items which are staying in the 

room or just couldn't be moved elsewhere. 

Most of what was in the "art space" got moved into

 the sewing room; but the actual ART stuff I moved into the 

"music  room" side of  my looooong living room.  

It's a bit of a clusterfuck.

Then I moved this little white ceiling

fan, which was WAY too small to do 

much good in my 16x18' bedroom...

...into the 10x11' ex-art-space, which 

works MUCH better. 

Then I took this old ceiling fan, which HAD been in

the "art space" (and was originally the living room fan

when the house was built in '04)...

...took it apart and spray-painted the entire thing

(props to Pretty Handy Girl, without whose blog I

wouldn't have been brave enough to try lots of things)

...and put it into the master bedroom, which needed 

more air flow.  The fan is still dated and ugly...

but at least it's not bright brassy gold anymore. Eugh. 

Oh, and I also spray-painted this $1 Ikea clock gold. 

I hate it. But whatever, LOL. 

More soon.

P.S. ...

Have I mentioned how much I HATE the
Ikea flooring I put in the side rooms because
it was cheap?   I dropped this screwdriver from a
height of about 8'.  IT STUCK IN THE FLOOR.
Buy the real flooring, kids.  

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New Life For That POS Footstool

You know the one.  Just a quick refresher:

It took way more than a coat of paint and a new top (see previous post) , but, well, here's the after:

Tada!   Blurry photo, sorry.  I'm not using the damn phone camera anymore, I apologize for all the crappy pics.

It's repaired.  It's black.  It has a bigger (and structurally sound) top.

And it's covered in music!  :D  (Can you guess which room it's going into?)

This is all sheet music from my musical exploits in the SCA.  So, it's Medieval stuff, mostly canonical, with a couple of popular love songs of the day (various days);  and where there are visible lyrics, they're in Italian and French.  Because: nerd.  

Plain ol' decoupage, nothing fancy.  Homemade medium (craft glue +  water, sealed with polyurethane).

via

And la piece de resistance?  Well,  I was thinking something like this, but for storage of music books and small musical instruments, instead of plants.


What ended up happening was more of a "fishtank on a table with junk in it."

...yeah.

It just needs some cool decoration.  And a more organized method of music storage than "just dump it all in there for now."

Update soon. :)














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Music Room Loading [-------------80%---]

Little known fact:  putting guitars everywhere does not make a room into a "music room".  :D

Okay, so, this was a computer/office area at one time, at the north end of the looooong living room:

If you've been reading this blog long, you know that this was the latest in a medium-length line of computer desks that have been in front of this window.  I don't have internet at home anymore, therefore, I wasn't actually using my computer for anything...so this little table, salvaged from work by a friend and given to me, was basically just there to keep my laptop and some other crap off the floor.

The same friend once sold me a Casio keyboard, which I'd always planned to actually learn to use - but for that, I needed a table or stand of some kind, and before long, I got two ideas...

CraftyNest.com 

This was the first:  

The second was to designate the space at the north end of my living room as a music space - with the keyboard, my guitars, my violin, music stand, books, etc. all set up.  I LOVE seeing musical instruments displayed; and I thought if everything was out in the open, I might use them more often.

 

Meanwhile, ever the fan of combination projects that end up taking me weeks to do when mere minutes will suffice, I realized I really needed a new work table in the garage.  This thing was NOT cutting it anymore. 

Dirty?  Fine.  But the legs weren't holding the thing up anymore, because the screws were all stripped out, and the thing was bowing in the middle with the legs being so far apart.  The top was sound, but...ugh. 

Nothing a little elbow grease and spray paint couldn't fix, though. The legs from the "computer desk", the top from the old work table, and some cleaning in the "music room", and you have this! 

◄  the Ikea KAUSTBY dining room chair that I upholstered last year

◄  That's Ember, my Ibanez. She's the one I play most often, so she's out in the open, the most easily reached. 

The Gretch barely shows there in the shadows in the corner; but that's where the next part of this room comes in: that white folding settee (yes, the one I keep moving around all over the house, which never quite works, ever) needs to GO.  I'm just not sure what exactly to do with it yet. 

Anyway, once it's out of the way, more room for the Gretch and the music stand.  And for people to be able to walk up to the kitchen bar.  It reduces traffic flow in the actual kitchen at parties.  Plus, I like being able to reach over and get a glass of water without walking all the way around, hehe.  Because I'm lazy.  

This. 

And finally, here's that little brown  black  silver  turquoise black lamp I keep spray painting.  I think I actually like it now. It looks grown-up.  

So: tada!  And it turns out I was right:  with my instruments out in the open like this, I DO grab them and sit down to practice more often!  Couple more things to do in this room: 

• replace/update light fixture (I have a new one, I just have to work on it and hang it)
• find a way (and a place) to hang up my violin where it's easy to reach and out of the way of the cats
• move that damned folding settee somewhere. 
• paint the living room ceiling to match the rest of the house - it's the only one left to do! 

Whew!  

Okay, back to work...

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Living Room Sneak Peek

I have a BIG living room post coming up.  BIG.  But for right now, here's a taste:  you know the big china hutch in the dining room?  The one with the rock collection in it?

This one. 

You would NOT believe what a Herculean effort it was to empty this entire thing out, find new homes for all the stuff inside - not just the rocks, but all six drawers, and the space underneath - and then push it across the entire freaking house to its new home:

Library! 

Fortunately, when I moved this thing into the house to begin with (in two pieces), I had the foresight to put slidey-feet on the bottom, so it was easier than I was afraid it would be to push it all by myself.  (I didn't repaint the living room; that's the same gray, it just looks really blue in direct sunlight).

And now it's a library!  There were two giant bookcases in the master bedroom that moved out over the weekend, and left my book collection homeless.  Some of it will be going into other rooms - music stuff, and art/design stuff, for example - but much of it now lives here.

And because I'm just cool like that, the cabinets underneath are filled with video games, LOL.

In case you don't recognize the wall, this is the "tank wall" where I've always had aquariums, and once hung a giant silk bedspread.  This is the north end of the looooong living room.

I can't wait to show you the rest. :)

Bob: Repairs & Updates

This is Bob:

Before & After

They're both Bob, actually.  Bob 1 and Bob 2.  You know how you have to have a name or something for a project when you're planning it out, or making lists of projects?


The shelf on the left got to be Bob the first time I fixed it up.  My father built it when I was like a year old (his name wasn't Bob), and eventually it got pretty rickety, and the style was weird - strange peaks jutting out from the top, and an angled crossbar from top to bottom across the back.  I took it apart and rebuilt it, and fixed up the stain job, back in...2006? 2005?  I don't remember.


A couple of years later I thought it would be pretty cool if I had a pair of them, so I built another one: Bob 2.


Bob 2 was getting a bit wobbledy recently, too (an accident last time I moved it stripped out some of the nails/screws on the bottom), so last night I took them both out to the garage, cleaned them up, painted just the front edges black, and then painted some fake gold "campaign furniture" hardware on the front at the joints.   I really love the way they came out!

After-After

It's subtle, but it's that little touch that these shelves really needed.

And this very small makeover was exactly what I needed this week,.  Kress is moving into his own place this week, and you know how moving can be.

Especially if you're as OCD about packing and stacking as I am, and you're not in charge of the packing and stacking, and are basically sitting still while moving is happening all around you, hehe.
                         ZOMG CHAOS.  

So anyway: shelf makeover! Ta-da!




That's Joe, my Gretsch 5125, in the corner.  I'm fostering it for a friend.  I'm going to have to get myself a practice amp so I can keep playing it after Kress moves all his PA stuff out.  








P.S. - I painted that desk lamp again, too.  Turns out I hated the way I did it the other week, after the first day.  This is boring, but at least it goes with my stuff.