Day 7 - Completion of the Studio

G'Day Wifers!

First off, let's get one thing straight.  I understand that my "studio" is actually a glorified cinder block room in the basement no one else wanted.  I get that.  But in my carefully constructed fantasy world, this is my studio.  It is where I do my little mosaic thingies, and my bad sewing and writing, and where I hide to drink when everyone upstairs is fighting.  The Bloggess and The Edge and The Black Keys are all down here waiting with some peanut M&M's and a case of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale for me to show up and party.  All groups or individuals with "The" in front of their name are welcome to pretend party with The Wife, who will be disappointingly unable to drink more than 2 beers without needing to take a Prilosec and go to bed.  But in my head?  Twenty-two and stone cold fox.

What was I talking about?

Oh yes, the pretend studio.  I'm a little proud of my little room I carved out on a little budget.  It is truly The Little Studio That Could.  Here is a picture of the dark, spider-infested room when I started putting a claim on it a few months ago:

I had already painted the walls with Dry-Loc, which if you've ever painted with that stuff you know it's like painting with sand.  That is icky old tile on the floor, and I've started painting the walls green.  Here is more ugliness:

All of this activity drove George the Superpet nuts, or as we like to call him around the house, Curious George.

He kept coming downstairs to check on me, and would often lie down in the middle of what I was doing, like, "You aren't doing one more thing until you tell me what the hell is going on."

I painted the walls and ordered some fun vinyl flooring, got a work table in, some shelving, and five strands of mismatched white party lights, and voila!  My fort is complete:

The lights are my favorite part.  It looks dark in this picture, but they actually light up the whole room.  One strand I bought at a kick ass shop outside of Kalona, Iowa, called Sister's Garden, if you can get there, by all means DO IT, but they are tiny white lights with these beautiful fabric flowers taped to them so the flowers glow.  So pretty!

Blogger won't let me put any more pictures in this post, so I will post more pictures in a second post tonight.  Scroll down and read the next post, which is actually the second post tonight.  I'm like an effing magician.

Day 7, Continued, a.k.a. Yay Pictures!

One thing I like to do in my space is surround myself with things that I love - things that maybe no one else would understand, but make me happy.  My Grandpa's shaving mug and brush.  The inside page of a vintage gardening book.  An old plate with nutrition facts on it.  My Author Stalker Wall of Fame.  An old frame around the window.  And party lights.  Oh YES.  Lots and lots of party lights.

My Author Stalker Wall and an award I won a long time ago and my fave pic of The Son with our first dog, Sugar Magnolia.  I am putting my fave pics of the girls up too, really I am.

All the vintage state plates and others I break.  It's very therapeutic and then I call it Art.  A win-win!

My Edward and Bella action figures, priceless pottery made by the children, and pink flamingo lights, my homage to white trash living.  This is the entrance to a crawl space under the kitchen, so it's a little creepy anyway, why not fill it with a sparkly vampire and his simpering human girlfriend?

A perfect space for my Beatles' Yellow Submarine action figures, Mint in Box mind you.  Poor Ringo is down below, he wouldn't fit in the pic.  Poor Ringo.  He was always sort of the Fourth Beatle anyway.

This is sort of a fun thing I put on the wall outside of my studio room - it's the cast iron mailbox from my great-grandmother's house in Shenandoah, Iowa.  Her last name was Barton, which is my nom de plume when writing.  She lived in a big beautiful Victorian house, pink with a picket fence and hydrangea bushes and roses and dishes of butterscotch candies.  The flower on the bottom moves so you can see if you have mail and then perhaps don't have to bother unlocking the padlock that would be on the front.  It's really lovely and makes me think of her.  So, I put it outside the studio, and the kids have been putting notes in it to me.  I get them and answer them, and put notes back to them in their room.  That way, the room is my space, but it's a fun thing for them too.

That is all on the studio - I hope all of you are able to carve out a space of your own as well!

Day 6 - Return of The Son

Today was the day The Son returned from camp.  How did Current Husband and I celebrate?  We didn't get up in time, ran out the door late for our hour-and-a-half drive (of course stopped at Starbucks for a quick coffee though - admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery), and when we arrived at camp, the program was over and there were only about three other cars left in the lot.  Oy.


I did my usual crying and lamenting the fact that we are late for everything, with a nice little side of hysteria, and CH had to talk me off the ledge before we arrived so The Son was not only irritated with our lateness but terrified at Mommy losing her shit.  Poor CH.  This is his lot in life.  If I wasn't so damn monogamous I'd reward him with a girlfriend who puts out more and agrees with everything he says.


It was great to get The Son - you don't realize how big a gap they leave behind when they're gone until they come back.  Suddenly the car was full of these two boys, voices hoarse, covered in grime, laughing and talking about their adventures, and I just looked at them and their pure joy.  The Son's Friend (TSF) is like a son to us, and they are like big St. Bernard puppies when together.  They run run run run and play play play and eat eat eat and then collapse and sleep.  It's incredibly sweet.

So they're talking about camp, which is a weeklong resident camp, and this is their fourth year going together.  Here is a recap:

• The food, while improved from past years, was not good.  The Chinese food was "poop on a platter", and the boys were constantly hungry, calling the camp meals "Minus Food".
• Speaking of poop, the boys reported that someone pooped on the floor in the bathroom.
• They did not climb The Tower, as they deemed it "too dangerous".
• At the End of Camp Dance, they both were rejected by girls.  The Son was asked to dance the next dance by his rejector, but TSF had a friend ask a girl if she thought he was cute, and she said "No".  TSF kind of chuckled and said, "So...how's your day going?"  You had to hear him say it, it was the funniest thing.
• TSF got poison ivy, and he had to ride his horse bareback one day and he said that it "hurt his stuff".
• Both boys are eager to go back next year and plan on being counselors at camp in a few years.

A re-enactment of what it was like to eat camp food.

On another note, CH tried on a hat at a Casey's store when I stopped for fountain pop on the way home, and asked "Should I get it?"  I took one look at him and said, "Absolutely."  Because he looks like Carl Spackler, played by Bill Murray, in Caddyshack.

"And I said, 'Say Llama?  How's about a little somethin' for the effort?'"

I said I'd post photos of my space, but that will wait until tomorrow. Good night, Wifers!

Day 5 - A Place Of Your Own

First, I'd like to say that I seem to have sort of lost my mind.  I just realized today that I forgot my nephew's birthday because we were on vacation, and I'm completely tormented by it.  Second, I forgot that it's August and I need to get my kids' rides to and from school figured out in 10 days.  Third, I forgot about Whoreticulture Friday, because I was so excited about my good day that I was not in a whorish frame of mind, apparently.  On to the blogging marathon.


For the past couple of weeks, I've been thinking alot about personal space, and not even in my normal double entendre/whoreticulture way.  We moved to Current House about a year ago, and I've been eyeing a little room in the basement for myself since the first time we looked at the place.  I call it my studio because that's very indie and college and artsy sounding, but really it's a bunker in the basement.  I finally finished my room!  I'm assembling my new chair and then it is finis!  I'll take pics of that for tomorrow.


Last Sunday, The Son went away to camp.  We get him tomorrow, and I can't wait!  He such a great guy, always so enthusiastic and sunny, and it's awfully quiet around here when he's gone. 

Here he is, picking Ron Weasley's nose.

His room in the "new" house is better, but it just wasn't set up in the best way, and he's 12 and starting middle school in 10 days, so he needed a bit more of a "hang out" space.  After we dropped him off at camp, we came home and started moving his furniture.  I ordered a faux leather futon/couch thing for his room, but sadly it won't get here until after he's home, so we won't get a Big Reveal.


The Son has a huge PEZ collection - over 250 of those little buggers have been all over his room.  He had some shelves, but not nearly enough to house his collection, and it is pretty cool, so I wanted to display it better.  While he was gone, I built and painted shelves for his room.  Don't be impressed - let's just say I won't get any carpentry awards.  They ended up how I imagine someone on a coke binge would build - fast and determined and filled with illusions of grandeur.  I got the middle shelves started, and then brought them upstairs to see how they looked before I painted them.

Hmm.  It was that wide the FIRST time I measured it....

"Which of these things is not like the other...."

And so, the Great Wall of PEZ had to wait.  I listened to some Ok Go on The Son's iPod, had a Diet Coke, and contemplated my options.  Suddenly, it came to me!  I could take the black bulletin board on the right and turn it the other way, thus creating room for my XL shelves.  Another Life Solution brought to you by The Caffeine Council.


Shelves were finished and painted, bulletin board was turned, and voila!  Success!

Sorry, my Blackberry isn't the best photograper.

His room is all clean and shiny, his PEZ are displayed, and his futon is en route.  I'm going to put this one in the WIN column.  Tomorrow I'll show you pictures of my "studio", and I'll also show you pics of my friend Tommie's newly built studio, which is kick ass.


Until then, sleep well Wifers!

Day 4 - Ponies and Unicorns

I spend a lot of time bitching.

It's sort of what I do.  Usually it's in some kind of smart-ass, trying to be funny way, and sometimes it's serious WTF, why doesn't anyone else see the dirty dishes/laundry/floors/bathrooms?  Today, however, was all Unicorns and Ponies, and since I'm blogging every day in August, I'm going to tell you all about it. 

I got up, and Current Husband had made a pot of French press coffee, which was dark and rich, like my men.  I had some delicious fresh fruit salad in my fridge, which made me feel good that I was doing something healthy.  Yay, points for responsible adult living!

I got to work on time.  It wasn't nearly as hot today.  It's Thursday, so it's close to the weekend, always a good thing.  I had ironed pants for a change.  My hair looked okay.  Work went well.  I got a coat of paint on the shelves for The Son's room (Tomorrow's blog?  My incredibly abysmal carpentry skills.)  I had a lovely time in the last few days with a good friend who is visiting, and her shiny happy daughter who stayed with us.  It was my mom's birthday and we had a nice chat.  My co-worker mentioned that she needed a donut, and I surprised her by going out and buying donuts.  (Yay for unrefined sugar products!  That was a total win-win.)  Another co-worker brought his brand new baby boy to work, and he teared up when a group of us gave him a large gift card.  My lovely neighbor texted pictures of her adorable new baby (born yesterday!) to me and we made plans to have some celebratory wine together when she gets home from hospital.  And?  I get to hold said adorable baby!  And give him back when he cries and go home and get a good nights' sleep!

I left work a few minutes early to get my hair highlighted and cut.  My gal handed me a glass of pinot grigio when I walked in the door, sat me down, and went to work.  She always does a scalp massage in the middle, which I love, and my hair turned out great.  I went home to find CH had made dinner for the kids, and 10 minutes later I walked out the door to have a margarita with a friend I hadn't seen in over a month, and we had a great time catching up.

Was it a perfect day?  No, because those are really rare.  But for all of the days that I feel down or like things aren't going my way, I have a day like this and think that life is Pretty Damn Good.  The simple pleasures of French press coffee and scalp massages and good talks with good friends.  The joy of seeing a family with a newborn baby and all the hope and love that goes with it.  The relief of having a haircut go well!  No unexpected curveballs!  A sugar donut!

That was today's Day in the Wife.  I hope you have a Pretty Damn Good day too.