Before and After

Here's the completed project I worked on yesterday. The above is the Before picture of our office/craft room. I didn't even take a picture of the Before of the desk area because, frankly....well, there are just some things you shouldn't have to see!

Here is same shot -- AFTER -- Cleaned up, straightened and "fluffed". The antique shopping cart in the foreground holds the ironing and mending piles.

Moving to the left, here is the finished and much improved desk area of the room. I made a little skirt with some leftover black and white gingham and a shower curtain rod. I just found the right length for the curtain and "sewed" the rod pocket and the hem with fabric glue -- one of the wonders of my world, along with stitch witchery. Great inventions!! Anything that prevents me from actually sewing at the machine is a great invention!!

The skirt hides a multitude of sins -- the computer "business", the paper shredder/trash basket and a couple of banker's boxes that store all those pesky papers you don't know what to do with, but can't EVER throw away.

Still moving to the left, this is a shot of one of my better ideas!! There on the corner where the blank looking strip is -- that is where my parents measured my children through the years. I live in the same house I grew up in and so, this house was "the grandparents house" to my kids in their growing up years.

When we moved in nearly 8 years ago, I wanted to paint in this room, but knew I could not paint over the "growth chart" of my children. So I just kind of painted around it and since no one could see it from the door, it was okay. THEN one day I found a bunch!!! of old give-away yardsticks, some old, some newer. AND I had my solution......

I got William to make a "border" of sorts using the yardsticks. So on both sides of the growth chart, there is a line of yardsticks....pretty cool, I think. This is, of course, also where Lily Kate gets measured from time to time. Good Stuff!!!

As you come past the "growth chart" corner, there is this old, old chest of drawers. It was my grandparents and it was old then....no tellin' .

My son, Devin's, antique typewriter that he left in his things. Better displayed here than picking up dust in storage, right? A stack of old books I picked up at a Friends of the Library sale in College Station, an old random teacup filled with potpourri and a tiny picture of pressed flowers from Israel.

Above the chest is a hat I found in my grandmother's things......very, very Audrey Hepburn-ish......framed by an old ornate frame I found at a flea market somewhere.

Well, that's it! Hope you enjoyed the tour of our completed office/craft room. I can now check this room off the "To Do" list.

What kind of project are you working on? I really desire this to be an inter-active blog, so "comment" and tell me what projects are in process at your house. It is also my hope that we can inspire and encourage each other in our tasks as homemakers. Let me hear!

Thanks for visiting!

Gwynie Pie