Karla's Cottage

A new look for the office

We finished the transformation of Rich’s office.  Well, almost.  We need a different sofa.

And for right now, the little nook that he is using as a computer area is just a board screwed to the wall, not a desk or table.

The rest of the room is all done, and everyone is enjoying the pool/ping pong table.

Most of the workout equipment is in the spot where all of the file cabinets and desks used to be.

The treadmill is behind the seating area, facing the tv, and there is room for an exercise bike next to it.

 The walls are freshly painted and patched.

I filled the knotholes in the barn wood window sills with turquoise chips and clear coated the wood.  After years of sunshine pouring in, they were cracking and dull.

We added new blinds and lighting, my son replaced the flooring.

The newly framed “ancestor” pictures hang below a sign pulled from the wreckage of the gas station Rich’s grandfather owned.

Some of these family photos were updated and reframed.  I still need to get a few others up there.  I think I have room for four more, a smaller one on each side of the bottom and top rows.

I have wanted that carpet gone for years, and am very pleased with the new, cleaned up version of the room!  All of the hard parts are done, now I get to go furniture shopping for a new couch.  

Light and bright white

While I had all of my painting paraphilia out for redoing my husband’s office, I thought it would be a good time to repaint my bedroom and master bath.

Of course, I had completely forgotten that I am a senior citizen. And that after painting a huge room, stairway, and bathroom, maybe I needed a break?

Less than halfway through the bedroom, I remembered.

Yep, I was exhausted.  So, I only repainted the doors, trim, wall, and sink area bathroom cabinet.  I didn’t make it around the corner to the master bath.

I am taking a little break from the physical labor!

And enjoying the tranquility I created in that room.

One of the reasons it was so hard, was that I used a very pure white.  If I’d softened the color, I’d have gotten better coverage.  The pure white wore me down to a nub, it took sooo many touch ups. Plus I had snow blindness from staring at the glaring, blank, white walls, trying to see where skips showed through and guessing if that area needed a touch up or was actually a shadow.

The color isn’t a huge change from the soft gray/blue that was previously on the walls, but it feels like it because everything is so fresh, bright and clean.  I think that painting the doors and trim the exact color of the walls (with a different sheen) makes the ceiling stand out, while also giving the room a feeling of being bigger.

The old curtains were tan, as were the doors.  Changing those made the biggest difference. And were an inexpensive purchase on Amazon.  Man, they have cheap curtains, and it was so easy to get 108” ones, unlike shopping in person!).

With four dogs and ten acres for them to run on, maybe I should’ve painted the entire room the tan color instead of getting rid of it.  Soon, there will be muddy marks all around the room from happy, wagging tails slapping everything.  

I’ll enjoy the pure white I tried so hard to apply as long as I can.

 

Keeping the winter woes at bay

After repainting my bedroom and redoing the sink area in it, I decided to switch out bathroom mirrors.

Mostly because midwinter sucks and I needed some entertainment.

I can endlessly entertain myself by moving stuff around to different rooms.  Of course, it would probably be even more fun I was buying new things to add instead of recycling my existing junk.

This mirror switcheroo is a good one.  My redone sink area is all white now, the doors used to be darker and there were red roses on the vanity.  I like the clean lines and pure whites.

This big mirror was fetched from the studio and with it right behind me as I stand at the sink, I can see the back of my head with the folding sides of the white mirror.

The one in the guest bath now, never really went well with the granite countertop in my bedroom.  I think it looks better with the white, wooden vanity in the other room.

Little things like fresh flowers and mixing up the crap in the house from one room to another are going to help get me through these cold days.  

I am such a winter whimp!

 

A little dinner party

After all of the holiday entertaining, January was feeling a little flat without any.  Plus, while we had some gorgeous days here and there, I was busy repainting a couple of rooms and missed going for walks.  When it got cold again, I was done with the big jobs, and I really needed to get moving, the city’s activity center was closed due to the shortages of staff that everyone is suffering from now. I couldn’t go for an indoor walk when I was ready to.

So, I was feeling a tad down.


A party was just what I needed to beat the January doldrums!

To be extra festive, I made place cards .  Not that I cared where anyone sat, I just thought it would be fun to do.

Rich and Jim are both beekeepers, so theirs got honeybees.

I made a peach pie and marinated grouper fillets that Rich caught in Key West in some Caesar yogurt and breaded them with panko, flour, salt and pepper.  Then sautéed the fish in avocado oil and butter.  

As I was cooking them, I thought it looked like it needed something more, so I whipped up a lemon, white wine and caper sauce to go over it.  My first taste of it puckered my throat, it was so lemony, so I quickly added some chicken broth and milk.  

It turned out okay, but for a few minutes I thought my typical, making stuff up on the fly way of cooking might backfire on me, as my friends were eating their salads and waiting for the fish to be ready.

I did screw up the pie.  My glass pie pan broke, and I had to use a metal one.  I don’t typically time things, I cook til they look done.  But I was used to being able to peek through the glass to see if the crust was browned.

It was a bit doughy since I couldn’t visually check it.  I might need to become a cookbook/timer person if I keep making mistakes.  But I don’t take cooking very seriously, so maybe not.

The evening really was just what I needed, it is hard to feel gloomy with a roomful of best buds!

 

 

 

 

In praise of gallery walls

As an artist, I seem to have a proliferation of stuff to go on my walls. As a person who enjoys taking pictures, and has very cute grandfairies, I also want their photos up there too.  

So, groupings are how I usually handle that.  The trouble is, I hate to get rid of old pictures that I love, but new ones keep coming along.   On this wall, I added a few of our family fairy pictures to the existing  collection.

We are in the process of redoing Rich’s office.  My talented son put this floor in over the holiday, and it has been a huge improvement over the old carpet.  
Previously, Rich had a gallery wall of barn wood framed family photos that he wants back up again.  While they are down, I’m sprucing them up and switching a few out.  (Photos to come when the room is done.)

Then, he had another request.

He wants our parents and grandparents on display too.

It is sweet of him to want this, so I have been working on a display that complements the other family wall but doesn’t match it.

I’d had big plans for painting some large landscapes to hang up there (we are out of room everywhere else) but like I said, this is sweet of him to want.  He also wants to hang work mementos that I thought would be leaving, so I guess I won’t be painting landscapes for the room.

Looks like I’ll be sticking to roses to hang elsewhere.  He deserves a space that is just as he wants it, since he deals with my stuff running rampant through the rest of the house.

And I have learned that he has some good ideas, too.  I hated the thought of getting this dining table, to replace my all white one, and now am happy to have it.

Rich had a favorite tree fall down, and wanted to keep a piece of it forever, so we had this made.

See what I mean?  He is very sweet.

A little sparkle, a little nature, a new look for January

My Christmas decorations go up early, and every single morning, starting in November, I flip the switch on every power strip the lights plug into, before I have even let dogs out or made coffee.

At night, after the doggies have been tucked in, the lights are regrettably turned off.  If it was feasible, they’d be on 24 hours a day around here.  

Once the season of cheer ends, I can’t face the long cold winter without some extra lighting, so I leave icy style garlands with mini twinkle bulbs above some windows and add lamps to the previously used power strips for some ambient glow to help me get through the insidious, dark, and and awful month of January.

Natural elements and plants are good aids in surviving winter, too.  

And I like the sparkle of glass this time of year.  

The mercury glass stays for the rest of the winter, with some pink roses and hearts added for February.

There is also something to be said for cleared spaces and clean lines, after the clutter of Christmas.  Filling my cottage with multiple collections and trees for November and December might be just what I need for that time, but by about 12/26, I am ready for simplicity.

Well, my idea of simplicity, at least!  I still love my stuff.

Just a little less stuff than normal.  And in neutral tones.

There are a few hints of color peeking out here and there, mostly muted.  And who can trash their poinsettias just because their holiday passed?  I always have a mixed feeling about them, because those flowers really shout “CHRISTMAS” to me.  But it feels like murder to get rid of them in January.  I’ve never been able to keep them alive too long, so it’s not a big problem.   But this year might be different, the two I bought months ago still are thriving and lovely.

There is a big splash of color from this glass art a friend made.  It makes me feel like sunshine is pouring in the room.

Actually, as far as January, we have had more bright light than we typically get.  Enough bright light to show every muddy dog foot print on the floor!  Oh well, be careful what you wish for, right?

The sunlight has been cheery, almost to the point that I forget it’s snowy and cold out there.