(Badly Needed) Office Redo

Notice that I've used "badly needed" in a few posts now? Yeah, get used to that. Spring cleaning not only means dusting and organizing, but redecorating as well. Also, this post might be a slight homage to the Dollar Tree.

This is not a how to post. I know, weird for me. Sigh. Life moves on. Anyway...

I did not take a "before" picture because I was so embarrassed about the state of affairs in here. For months, this entire room had been... well... you know how you always have that one messy drawer, the one where all the junk you don't know where to put anywhere else goes? Yeah, this was the state of the whole room. And I'm not really good about motivating myself to clean, so there you go.
Well, I decided it was time for action after heading to the Dollar Tree. I have come to love and cherish the Dollar Tree. Seriously, there are some real steals and deals in there. One of the things they had was these fabulous folding organizer bins. The white cabinet is full of them. All of them came with dividers, but I left those out of 2 so I could put bigger stuff in there. So now rather than being the cabinet from hell, it's the cabinet where all of my stuff is neatly organized.
I then looked at the top of said white cabinet. Boring. It needed a facelift. So I used things I already had and dressed it up a bit. The hub's great aunt passed away last year, and she was a hoarder. On one trip to visit, my in laws brought some fabulous old books, which I used as a base for my lamp. I had a Willow Tree statue of a reading girl, so on she went. Then one of the teacup candles I made previously joined the mix. Then (and this is my favorite part), I added the suitcase. My friend Monica bought an old clarinet at a thrift store and is cleaning it in order to turn it into a lamp. I know, it's gonna be amazing. More on that later, I'm sure. Well, she didn't want the case. After cleaning the clarinet, it was too gross for her. Well, you bet your buttons I dibbesed that guy. And look how cute he is! Add a little greenery behind it so that there's not an awkward empty space, and there you go! Vintage tablescape for free!Then I moved on to the table. I used to teach junior high (at 26, saying something like that makes me sound a bit pretentious and like I'm trying to be more like 50 - tee hee!) and when we moved away, I took the long, skinny card table I put in my classroom with me to use as my craft table. Well, as you can see, it's visible now. I put everything away, cleaned it up, only left the essentials on the top, and wiped the whole thing down. Glamorous? No. Functional and actually usable now? Heck yes. You'll notice that I bought some hanging organizers and duct taped them to the sides. The duct tape is under the table so you can't see it, but then I can hang stuff from the side of the table that I need but that won't go anywhere else. Again, thank you Dollar Tree.
Well, at this point, the wall was bare. Not to fear, Dollar Tree to the rescue again! Did you know they sell vinyl at the Dollar Tree!?! It's in the home office section, and it is a bit limited, but come on. For a dollar? Yeah, that's happening. So I bought two kits, one with a cute phrase and one with butterflies. And there you go, a cute and super cheap wall decoration.What you're not seeing in the room is that in the corner where I was standing to take the pictures used to be a quilting frame and 5 huge boxes full of food storage. Not very visually appealing. Well, they've all found homes in the closet now. Thanks to the hubs for the help on that one - my flimsy arms were not about to take on the challenge of hoisting 75 lb boxes of freeze dried food storage to a height taller than myself. And there you go! The room is clean and organized and a major project has been completed with an entire room overhaul. And the total cost? Well... $10. Yeah. And for that $10, I bought 2 vinyl sets and 8 organizational stuff-holders (that's the official name of those things, by the way). And this, of course, warranted that I share. Now if only I could find the motivation to do this with the rest of my house... :)

Dry Erase Calendar

Time needed: 30 minutes (the fancier you make it, the longer it takes)
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: picture frame (I used an 11x18, but pick a size that works for you), cute scrapbook paper, permanent marker, dry erase markers, tape, cork board (which, by the way, they sell at Office Depot in tiles of many sizes - I used a 6x6 that I cut down to fit), push pins

Directions: Choose the paper you'd like to be the background of your calendar and cut it to fit your frame. You can write the calendar or any of the events on the paper, but then you have to switch it out at the end of the month. You choose - it's your calendar! If you're doing a section for notes (see the left bottom of mine), choose a background paper to go there. Tape these together, and stick them in the back of the frame. Then, if you haven't written anything on the paper, graph yourself a 7x5 chart on the glass for your calendar. Do this in permanent marker so that the chart is always there - you can write the days in as the months come. Leave a space for the month at the top. Then, take your dry erase markers and fill in your chart! If you are looking for something more permanent than a dry erase marker but not something as permanent as a permanent marker, I'd recommend vis-a-vis markers (the kind teachers use on overhead transparencies). They stay on till you take them off with water. To stick the cork board on the calendar (and, by the way, that's optional - if you don't like it, don't do it), all you do is use the 3M stickies the cork boards come with. To cut the cork board, I just used scissors. And obviously the push pins are for things you want on your cork board. And, voila! A cute fun calendar! If you'd like to see a different version (this one's magnetic - I couldn't find a piece of metal small enough, hence the cork board), check out my cute cousin Krystal's fun blog!