MoodBoard: Office/Craft Room

I might as well call this my chick cave. My office/soon to be craft room is where I spend a LOT of time. Especially since I actually work from home 40-50 hours a week.

The Great Goodwill Find of All Time (aka my new desk) is what prompted me to rethink everything about the space.

Here are a few 'before' shots:

 

Dancing Green by Sherwin Williams. Loved it. Past tense.

Yeah, right. It hasn't been this clean since the day we moved in.

If I showed you a CURRENT shot. You'd boo me off of the Internet. It's a landing place.

Quick, guests are coming, shove everything into the office!!

Well, it won't be anymore. I declare.

I've put together a little mood board... I was in the mood, so I did. :)

Thanks in part to Thrifty Decor Chick for her Board & Batten. IKEA because they are soooo goood toooo meee. Goodwill for that desk. Martha for her pretty, pretty paint and Pinterest for random gray and yellow shots.

I am seriously giving myself a deadline. I want this DONE.
The only thing holding me back, is that do I not have a chop saw. My dad does, so I may go steal it.

The first thing I am going to do is go to IKEA, grab up the stuff I need there... and then also work on my desk. I want IKEA and the desk done by Sunday. That's less than a week folks.

Can she do it?!

Tune in to find out!! (or "Like" QOTC on Facebook for play-by-play updates)

Dun Dun Dunnnnnn.

xoxo,
me

I ♥ My 'New' Table

I know I've already shown you the mostly completed family room coffee table [you know, the $12 find?!]

But, what I failed to mention is that my super sweet husband stayed up late on Thursday night to poly the baby.  And now that it's dry... and back in place... I wanted to show it off one more time.
 

Of course I cannot take all of the credit for it (except for the fact that it was I racing through Goodwill, dodging peeps, straight towards the purdy thing and I was the one who decided on the Jacobean color).

Marcos and Alex spent hours sanding it down, getting the smoke smell out of it... and then staining it lovely colored. I will note that I *may* have touched the hand-held sander at one point. And I did go out to supervise once or twice.

Isabel and Marcos carried it in from the garage this morning. So, even my girlie got in on the fun!

So... please help me congratulate my wonderful family... for their time, energy and mad DIY skills...
I owe them a good, home-cooked dinner tonight.

Anyone wanna do the cookin' for me?

See who I am linking up to:

Check this out...

It was made from a program called Tagxedo. There are so many different options, colors, etc to choose from.
Go here to find out more.

I used my blog address and it came up with all of the words from my blog. Like a tag cloud.
Only cuter.

How clever.

Flaunt it Friday... #1

I don't think there are enough Link Parties in the world. So I wanted to add my own. =)

 You know... an easy way for me to find people, blogs, cool things... without too much work! ;)
And a way for you to FLAUNT what you've been working on or doing around the house, work or your community... Really anything goes!

RULES:

Please link no more than three items/ideas/recipes/widgets, etc for this particular party.
There will be a Link Party every Friday... so come back and share more next Friday for sure!

Please link directly to your post. 
Please do not link to the main page of your blog, any other Link Parties, or any contests or giveaways.

Please add my button to your post... 
Made that super simple for you... Copy and paste the HTML code below.

<center><a <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">href</span>="http http://www.<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">queenofthecreek</span>.com /"><<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">img</span> border="0" <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">src</span>=" http://1.<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">bp</span>.<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">blogspot</span>.com/-MYwmLeE2NWI/TzU3-<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">apELhI</span>/AAAAAAAAF4Y/NSW3cJufrqw/s1600/flaunt+little+button.<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">jpg</span> "/></a></center>

It's really THAT simple. Let's get this party started!!

Don't forget, I will be back for sure on Sunday night to post some fun things I've found out in Blogland... in my new weekly Clever! post.

Almost a teenager...

I am slowly dying inside...

 When Isabel was little, I worked a 3-midnight shift. I feel like I missed out a lot on both kids (Nic wasn't around yet) during those 2 years. But we did what we had to do to keep them out of daycare, etc.

Isabel has grown up. She will be 13 in April.
It's not always been easy. In fact, call my mom (867-5309) and she will tell you that there are times when I've called her crying, screaming, begging for her to let me come home.

She just laughed her EVIL laugh...

 

And said, "PAYBACK, BABY!!!!"

I whimpered. Why does she have to be some mean?! *I* think I was a good girl.

Enough about mom and me. This post is about Isabel.

Isabel, when it's just the two of us, or her and Marcos... is the sweetest, dorkiest, funniest, wittiest, girl... ever. (I think she gets that from me!!!).... 

 

But if her brothers, her cousin or washing the dishes are involved, WATCH OUT!

We are taking raising Isabel day-by-day... as patiently as possible. It's a phase. She will outgrow it when she's thirty five. We can handle this. 

There are those moments when I want to pull my hair out...

And there are those moments, like this morning, when she came to me asking if I could help straighten her hair (she just got her hairs cut, too!!).  

If I do say so myself... Isabel looks stunning today! 

It's Pride Day at school. She goes to a Charter School... and since the Jr. High students have had an awesome semester so far, they decided to give them a day to dress down and to have a party at school, with music and snacks, etc. 

She asked if we could go get a new outfit for the occasion.

Last night, we were at Tilly's getting her shirts. She begged for new Vans, I caved on new shoe laces for her current Vans. lol...  Since Tilly's doesn't sell jeans in a size larger than super-skinny, no meat on the bone, we took a chance on Tar-Jay. And scored. They had the gray skinnies on clearance for less than eight bucks.

I think she looks adorable and grown up - ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

 

It's hard to believe that the big ONE THREE is right around the corner... and that I will officially have two teen aged kids. 

Off to get medicated.

P.S. Just kidding about the medicated part. Maybe.

P.S.S. You didn't think I'd give out my momma's REAL phone number, did you?!

P.S.S. Happy Friday!!

Got my hairs did.

So... after I cut my own bangs the other day....
I realized I would need to get my hairs fixed.

It's not that I did a horrible job. It's just that Felicia , my new stylist, says I cut way too much off. As in, I gave myself way too many bangs.

She was going to just clean the bangs up and do a little trimming.
And then I asked for some foils just in my bangs (there were 4 in all)...

I told her she could do whatever she wanted with my hair. I am not tied to it (anymore).
I told her I've had it super short, long, and everything in between. I was hers to do what she wanted with.

She got giddy and now I have an A-line.
Which I LURVE.  It's even cuter than my last similar haircut (abt 4 years back). I think I am definitely going to keep the bangs and shorter hair. For a while anyway! ;)

Without further ado - horrible self-photo shot... I swear the hair is cute!

 And here is the back.

My hair is FINALLY my natural color (except for those 4 foils)...

Anyway, I am feelin' lighter and sassy.

Watch out world.

What once was tabled...

...is now finished!

Remember my family room coffee table.
The one we picked up from Goodwill for TWELVE whole DOLLARS?!

Yep, that's the one.

Well - the husband and the boy (the oldest, not the youngest) finally finished sanding it down.
Here it is all nekkid like.

And this is the point where all the fun started.

Here is the table with its Jacobean coat on...

[don't mind the garage. they are supposed to be dirty. swear!]

I LOVE IT!  There are some spots that didn't take the stain very well, because of excess glue or something, but I think that adds to the CHARM of it.

It looks old!!  And it doesn't so much scream 1990s anymore. lol...

Finally one thing marked off of my To-Do list.
Err. I will give the husband and his apprentice full credit though.
They are the bomb.