Home Office Tour (2nd Time)

Well last fall I welcomed you in via vlog to my home office and my personal touches that I added to the room besides painting it from ugly tan to beautiful grey and a striped accent wall.  You all know by now that I love change and I got the itch when I started seeing all these fun makeup tutorials pop up on my pinterest feed.  I thought to myself, I have no place to do my make up! I have a small master bath that was somewhat remodeled when we moved in (new vanity and toilet) and of course I chose a vanity based on looks and not functionality. Well I'm surely paying for that one now.  I have no countertop space besides the area to the left/right of the sink and that just allows my toothbrush holder and some soap. That's about it.  With that said, you can probably imagine how awfully messy it is (come on, I'm messy to begin with) and with make up products, hair products, and tools all over the place, it really is just not nice.  I said, that's IT.  I'm going to figure out somehow to make my home office into a more functionable area so I can do my hair, and make up.

First and foremost I have to give a major shout out to these nifty pieces of foam and plastic that were invented. The EZ Sliders were seriously a life saver when I had to move my heavy ass bedroom furniture around the weekend before.  I used them again this past weekend when I swapped things around in the formerly cat room-turned-office room. P.S. if you are kind of turned off by the price tag, $16.99 and $19.99 do not doubt yourselves. If you are moving any kind of furniture in a carpeted room, you want these. Just get two $5.00 off coupons and go to Bed Bath! (P.S. I really liked these products and wanted to share.... I wish I was promoting them because I got them for free! ha, yea right).

Ok, so moving along. Here are some pics!

I'm really so happy with how it turned out.  If you didn't tune back to last years post with the vlog, basically I had everything set up opposite.  Moving the mirror wasn't an option as I drilled incredulously large holes in the walls to place anchors so it was staying (and partially because I was super lazy to fill the holes in and paint over it). I picked up the small* vanity mirror for $19.99, the little bowl that I place bobby pins, hair ties and clips in for $6.99 and the perfume/hair product tray for $12.99 all from HomeGoods.  I do so well there!  I already owned the 5 tray organizer so I moved it from my closet to here, thank goodness it's not TOO ugly, and I "made" the make up brush holder (trip to the dollar store to buy the cup and beads). OH, I lucked out finding the nailpolish tray in Marshalls, and that was $4.99.  I'm really digging my new space.  At first I thought it was not going to work with inadequate lighting, but it actually is just about right. So far, I've been able to do my make up 3/4 days (I was home "sick" on Tuesday) prior to leaving to get to the van. Success!

*I say small because it fits on my desk, but it's actually quite large! So perfect for doing makeup and my hair.


And because it wouldn't be fair not to share, my favorite furry friends were helping me as I rearranged the room around:

"We have 72 in stock"

I really think it's about time for me to share my really ridiculous Ikea story. And to show you some decent (see: crappy iphone) pictures.

Once upon a time I went to Ikea in search of pink magazine file holders. I knew that they had light pink from visiting in the past so I figured those would do just fine.  Little did I know, as I rounded the corner into the Home Organization department, would I spy the most perfect, bubblegum pink magazine file holders on display.  I think my heart nearly skipped a beat because I was so thrilled that it would match my cube decor.  I beelined straight for them, to find them completely sold out. They only had the paper boxes in stock in the pink. I pouted. I was upset. I drove all the way up there to buy them, and they were all gone. No worries, there were about 10 of them put together (on display) so I took two down, and figured I would buy those.  No big deal right?

Wrong.  First, since I decided to buy those, I didn't see if they had a sticker on them, so I took an unopened, wrapped version in the yellow. My friend and I made our way through the rest of the store, and I found the perfect desk lamp and headed down to the register area to pay.  First of all, I want to let you know that this was a Wednesday night.  Second, they had four registers open (a lot, for them) and there were at minimum 10 people deep on each line.  This was going to be fun. My mom had texted me to pick up the chocolate cookies and raspberry cookies that they sell.  My hands were so full (of course I found other crap along the way that I didn't need) so I said, let me get this stuff, drop it in the car, and I'll run back in to pick up the cookies (and these potato cake things SO GOOD).  No big deal. (The chocolate cookies were right by the register by the way...)

So I get to the register, the worker clearly hates her life and doesn't want to be working that night so I sensed her attitude right from the start.  I explained that I wanted to buy these pink magazine files, but they didn't have any wrapped ones in the boxes so I brought these two down, but brought the yellow one with the scan code in case she needed it. She didn't like this.  She proceeded to ask me where I got these (pink ones) from. I said, I don't know, wherever you have them all. Then read on below for the rest of the convo. She will be represented by a C, for cashier, and L for me, Lauren.

C: "The Home organization department?!!"

L: "Yeah, on this floor."

C: "No, these are displays, you didn't get them from there. Where did you take these from? A floor model?"

I was getting really pissed at this point...

L: "Can I buy these or not?

C: "No, I can't sell these to you I will get fired."  

L: "What the hell do you mean you'll get fired? You can't sell me these because they are display items? "

C: "Only the person from the home organization department can release these. I can call her if you want me to [and then gives me the devil eyes]"

L: "Yes, call her. I drove all the way up here for them"

She phones, whispers in the phone facing away from me. I had wondered if she even was really on the phone.

C: "She just checked and told me they have 72 of these in stock. I can have someone bring them down for you" (with an attitude she tells me this I might add)

L: "This is honestly ridiculous, if you have them in stock, why can't you just give me these? You can put two more together. I'm not walking all the way back there, and at this point I'm holding up the line for someone to bring them down here. Forget it"

So then, Ms. Cashier lady's ghetto-ass friend comes down saying "Yeah I saw a bunch of those in stock. They are up there"

And I just attitudely responded "Yeah, I'd really love to see that because I searched all over the place".

So I paid for my items, sans pink magazine holders and left. So at this point I was so wound up over these dumb ass magazine files that I gave my stuff to my friend and asked her to hold on, and I was going to just get the potato cakes and cookies by the food court and then we could leave.  Well, did you know, they had the potato cakes, and the raspberry cookies by the food court, but no where in sight where these damn chocolate cookies.  Oh, I know because they were back by the freaking cash register that I just came from.  So I marched back over there, got the cookies and walked right past the register, the cashier yelling at me on the way that I had to pay for them.  I ignored her, took my stupid ass cookies and potato cakes and paid at the food court and went on my merrily (aggravated) way.  I really was questioning whether or not they had these stupid pink magazine files like they said, 72 of them... so we dropped our stuff in the car and ran back through the store.

Went back to the home organization department, no where in sight. This is when my story can wrap up because it's getting long, or I can go on to explain the shit I went through with this woman. I will give you the abbreviated version, I know your eyeballs are tired at this point.  I found her, and asked her "Hey you, I want those pink magazine file holders. Where are they"

"We are out of stock. The pink is all sold out."

[crickets. . . ]

"No way in HELL are you sold out of those pink ones. I just came from the cashier who SPOKE to YOU on the phone and YOU told her that you had 72 in stock"

Lady in dept: "No no no, You gave me number for yellow so I check yellow and we have 72 yellow".

That went on for about 5 minutes. I couldn't let go because she kept telling me that I"M THE ONE who gave her the number when I corrected her each time saying that it was the dumb ass at the cash register.  There was a problem communicating because english was not her first language.  She really was the sweetest lady but I was so revved up from the dumb ass cashier that I honestly couldn't cut this poor woman some slack.  But the "You gave me this number" comment just ate away at me. I had to leave. I was making a scene and never in my life have I been one to make a scene.

So that turned into a longer version, but now, long story short, I have them in my desk. Thank you Amazon Prime.

How did I do with the decor? I wish I decided to clean my desk up a little bit prior to just snapping these pictures, literally.  I love it. I'm known as the Pink Lady on the floor. :)

A few thoughts + September Goals

Why is blogging SO hard to do on your days off?  I woke up yesterday morning completely forgetting that it was Monday and for some ODD reason, the only thing on my mind was CLEANING.

Shocker right? Considering I'm the queen of messiness.

Although it was Labor Day, I did not partake in any LD festivities. Instead, Mike and I spent the entire day cleaning out our closets (we have two huge walk in closets; our room and the cats room <--- yes they have their own room).  Closets accumulate so much crap. I surely figured that out yesterday.  I'm excited because we got rid of a ton of clothes to make room for more hahah! to donate to Goodwill. It's always nice to know that somewhere, someone who truly needs them will be able to get them at little to no cost..instead of me, just having them waste away in my closet...especially when they are in good shape!

We also went through some our our old bills, but our shredder crapped out on us half way through.  It still had the power light on, but it stopped shredding. So strange.  I even opened it up and pushed all the paper down, and checked the inside and there didn't appear to be anything caught.  That was rather frustrating...which got me to thinking:

2nd BEDROOM MAKEOVER TIME!

My goal for the month of September (besides getting back to the gym - - Amanda, are you starting the 30 in 30 link up again?) is to redo our 2nd Bedroom/Pretend office with no desk/Cat room/Waste of a good room.  It currently hosts our cat's potty area, ONE sports picture on the wall (not shown above), a "leather" futon, some hideous curtains (they matched the futon and were male/female friendly) and a standing lamp.  Yep.  Pretty bare, pretty ugly.

I'm giving myself $300 to put towards the room.  This does not include the purchase of a desk. I'm currently looking at this , this and this.  I've been pinning ideas like crazy.  Who here has good office inspiration? I'm looking for the girly, subtle theme.   The $300 will go towards: paint, curtains, a rug (if I can find one cheap), and any accessories.  I'm planning to DIY for a few different items.  I will check back in on the blog by October 1st.  That's a Tuesday, so there will be no excuses!   I'm going today to check our local thrift stores, the Dollar store, Christmas Tree Shoppe (Do you have this store by you?? P.S. They sell Mason Jars for under $1.00!!!) Homegoods and Marshalls.   I just love projects like this.

So I know I am on a "spending freeze" but this isn't EXACTLY ALL for me, right?  Mike needs to use the computer as much as I do. And that just means we need an actual place to sit at and do our work... because I read that having your laptop on your thighs is bad for men!!  Oh, which reminds me, I'm going to have to get a wireless mouse.  Does anyone know where I can find an Apple bluetooth mouse for really cheap? Ha. Guess my budget will now be $350.

Let's see how I do! I'm excited :)

So remember I told you all about my trip to AC? Ha, I didn't wear the dress that I bought..  it was so darn hot out on Friday!  I'm just going to return it.  I really love it, its a form fitting plain black dress, with an open back and some kind of twist or something.  I might kick myself for returning it, but if I go to AC again, I can just wear another black dress I already own.  It was $20, which is cheap but I mean, do I REALLY need it? Probably not.  And I can't return the shoes, well you know why because I didn't have a tag made up for them, I'm okay with that because they really are so adorable.  And we didn't even take pictures!?!!? Who does that? We even spent the night in Wildwood the following day.  The beach was RIDICULOUS.  Not a great place for someone who is two weeks post-LASIK.  I figured it would be on the "windier" side, but not like tornado winds!!! No joke, my towel kept blowing over, the chairs were flying all over the place, a little girl came running out of nowhere for her ball which blew away...the towel was COVERED in sand within 15 minutes of me cleaning it out. It ultimately resulted in me wrapping my head in a towel shaped like a turban and me saying numerous times "I'm miserable!"

Another  big thing I'm EXCITED about is TODAY!  Today is the day I'm guest posting on Kali's blog!!!  Click HERE to see what I think are 5 items for you to try to do before the end of Summer! And don't tell me Summer is over yet -- because it is NOT!  Summer will be over in exactly 19 days!