I've been trying to get the office into a better shape; more efficient and less cluttered and pleasing and comfy. I'm pretty much finished. There's three pieces of furniture left to polish, and the bed to make, the carpet to hoover, and some things to put away on the dresser. But yeah, I'm done and I'm pleased as punch how everything turned out. Originally, my desk was at an angle with the coffee bar (white table and mini fridge) on the other side of it under the north window, with the red chair across the room in front of the bookshelf and west window. I've straightened my desk so it's parallel to the wall behind me, and I moved the monitor and tower to the left side, as opposed to the right. The chair and coffee area have switched places. Also before this the espresso maker was in the kitchen. However, The Sister rarely makes herself a cappuccino, mom no longer uses it, and it's the only way I make coffee. Press a double shot, add a little brown sugar and half and half or cream and boom! That's my coffee. So, since it gets the most use from me, I moved it up here. I also completely rearranged the tall bookshelf. It was entirely too crowded before. My sewing machine and vintage sewing books are still on the bottom shelf. I found a home for my iPad and it's just better overall, I feel. The art that I have there is more noticeable. The dictionaries and thesauruses and word origin books are on the top shelf to the right and easy to lay my hands on. Languages are really important to me. I've always been fascinated with them and one thing I always dreamt of as a small child was to learn as many languages as I possibly could. All of my language books were crammed onto one shelf before, but I've split them up. The tiny and interesting one's are out in the room, with the bulk majority in the closet, along with all of my lesson journals (3/4 are filled!). I only learned French in middle, high school, and a bit of uni. Everything else that I'm learning, I'm learning on my own, hence all the second hand language books, (because I have the funds for a quarter a book here and there, but not lessons at a college or online). They range from the early twentieth century (1914) all the way to the 2000s, and several were gifts from my friend. She's given me the ginormous German dictionary from the OpenLearn University, along with iknow German which is to be downloaded and used on one's iPod or through iTunes, French cassette tapes, her French workbook from uni, as well as those two Berlitz books in the second book. She also gave me a Choctaw workbook, since that is her language, but she doesn't know it as well as she'd like, so while she took a class in it where she lives, she printed up the same things for me, so I could learn as well. I made her some French flash cards, since she was interested in learning some of that. Her language love is Spanish, which I'm not a fan of. Nor am I fan of Italian. I don't hate them, I've just never been drawn to them and there's no passion for learning them. In between those and the gold German book (a gift from dad and it's from the 50s, and is the current book I'm working through) are gifts from my aunt. Thin children's books. Peter Rabbit in French, Cinderella in Spanish, and Paddington the Bear in Norwegian. There's a lot of books for French and German, the some Latin flash cards and a textbook on Latin from Cambridge University, Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Cherokee, Russian, and Arabic. I also have French language lessons on vinyl, but those are with my vinyl collection instead of in here. Some things I love which are on the top shelf near the dictionaries. Frank Lloyd Wright Books, I totally dig ancient Egypt, The Far Side Book was the last gift we gave our brother, the Oriental Rug books my maternal aunt wrote as she's an expert (she's also why we have all the Persian carpets in our house), I dig vintage advertisements and historical costuming. And View Master. We have three. One that was my maternal grandmothers, which is in my bedroom; the official grey one for the 1969 moon landing, which is downstairs in the library; and this red and white one which was our brothers. The box is what mine came in, but I've got some cool slides in there, obviously. This is an odd picture, n'est-ce pas? (ness-pah = isn't it?/right?). Wilson Art made all those groovy mid-century laminate countertops. They're still making countertops, and are still producing some of their original line like the Daisy Print that you see here. You can request free samples of them. I have Autumn, Apricot, and Wintergreen in my room at my vanity. Tropical (the pink/purple) and Envy I use here. There's also a laminate sample of tropical leaves that I got from them. It's just retro inspired, but I have it under the telly in here. So, one time visiting my paternal grandmother, I was choosing a mug to use with the French Press coffee I'd just made. I was rooting around in the upper cabinet beside her refrigerator and found this tea cup. No saucer, no other cups, just this one one right here. Odd, but OK it's cute, so that is the cup I used during that trip. Fast foward to when we had to clean out my maternal grandmothers house and deep in her kitchen china cabinet I came across this tea cup. (This very one, as I left my paternal grandmothers' at her house of course). No saucer, no other cups, just this one right here. Was it a promotional thing? Like they got it in a sack of flour or because they'd purchased so many cans of a certain kind of coffee? They did live in the same town for awhile, which is how my parents met. Was it like some house wife club, where they all got the same little tea cup for being members? It's just odd to find it in two separate houses with no explanations and not being part of a set or have a saucer or anything. While I can't answer the mystery, I like having this cup, knowing I share something with both of my now deceased grandmothers whom I loved very much. However, I felt it would make a better candle holder, so that is what it is and why it looks a little dirty inside (it's candle wax). Ah, the closet. It's a double closet with two doors and open space in the middle. My desk is situated in front of the other closet door (to the left of this). It wasn't functional, because the printer and a lot of things we needed to get to often were right behind me instead of this side of the closet, the right. So, I've solved that. Collage things on the bottom shelf, then language books. Then the printer (I had forgotten to move my completed collages off the top of it before I took the photo), magazines, jewelry making, and illustration art supplies on the next shelf up. That box contains my fancy writing inks and writing pens and quills, then there's project books and the stapler and tape dispenser and other projects that are in boxes next to them, the next shelf up (the top shelf) is all the printing papers. What you can't see is the top of that shelf running the length with clothes hooks hanging from it. There's that shelf and one above that. There are other projects, mailing boxes, my early 1960s typewriter, and extra coffee items. That door is from my bedroom. I have a small closet and next to it a door leading to what was dubbed as the playroom when we were kids, but is now an extension of my bedroom. It has a slant ceiling as it's built into the eaves of our house, so I call it the slant room. This is that door, as I have curtains in that doorway now. And vintage advertisements from the 1960s tacked up (a fridge and one advertising spark plugs) and then some local guy who does fandom art, his work was in a now defunct magazine. That's his Star Wars art you see there. The initial photo up there, the photo collage, I have shown my desk from two angles and you can see that there is a piece of wood on top of the desk slightly elevating up the desk lamp, the monitor, and the terrarium. This is that piece of wood.
So, we all got to say what we wanted from my maternal grandmothers house. Our brother said that he wanted the dining room table. Or well our aunt said that he wanted the dining room table. We thought that was weird, because while it's a pretty table, there are no good memories that were had sitting around it for holiday meals. But, if that's what he wanted, then absolutely, it was his. I had said I wanted the curly maple furniture. It's the bedroom furniture I always slept in when staying over. Two twin beds and two dressers, a tall one and a shorter one that was wider. There was also the kitchen table, chairs, and sideboard, and I had wanted to inherit those as well. So, turns out my aunt was wrong and our brother wanted the kitchen set (even stating he hated the dining set - ha ha). While I had wanted it, I was totally OK with him having it, considering all he wanted was that and the blue leather sofa. Except that our aunt had forgotten a leaf for that table and when we told him about it, he said to just forgot about the leaf because he didn't really need it and didn't want us to have to ship it to him. So, I kept it. It's pretty wood and I knew I'd have use of it someday, somehow, even though I wouldn't be fitting it into a table. Fast forward thirteen years and I've finally found something to do with it. It actually is really nice having it up here on the desk. It's giving the whole area a nice dimension and slight elevation, I like the woods complimenting and contrasting each other. Plus it reminds be of both my grandmother and my brother who have been gone now for thirteen and twelve years, and it reminds me of those great times around that simple kitchen table. There were never any real fights or derision at that kitchen table, though my mom cost me my trip to Europe at that table, but I digress.
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AuthorA girl from South Mississippi who finds herself in exploration. Archives
November 2019
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