Holiday Happenings

I'm a little behind on my holiday decorating this year.  I was less than excited to put the same tree up with the same decorations as always, so I was waiting for inspiration to strike.  Finally the  Christmas lights in my head flickered on and I found my holiday spirit.  This weekend will be a flurry of decorating and rocking out to Christmas music on my headphones (so as to spare Hubby since he doesn't share my love of Christmas music) Here's a sneak peak of a few things I have up my sleeve.

I'm excited to see how it all comes out!

Color Blocking

While I'm trying to muster up the energy to dig my trusty, less than real, Christmas tree out of the basement abyss, I decided to brighten up another area in my house.  The top of the stairway now has a lively pop of seudo-DIY color blocking art.

I call it seudo-DIY, since all I really did was cut it down to size and put it in an IKEA frame, but this piece is a great example that anything can be art.  This awesome pop of personality started its life as one of the most personality-less items that you see it most commercial interiors.  It's an acoustic ceiling tile.  Didn't see that one coming did you?  This particular tile was meant to be a color palette for all the available tile colors.

I couldn't very well let it get thrown away when it would look so good hanging on my wall!

This color blocked art is a great transition from the neutral stairway into Hubby's now restyled office.

Yup, I said restyled.  I finally put the finishing touches on his new dual monitor gallery wall and did some geektastic styling on the bookshelves.  You're not a real designer unless you can style a shelf with Transformers and D&D books.  Just sayin.  Check back tomorrow to see the big reveal!

Desk Rehab- part 1

Somehow, in 4 days off from the 9to5, I spent less time at home than I would have working 4 days.  I'm sure my home and kitties are feeling neglected. I did take some baby steps on projects, though.  I made positive progress on Hubby's new monitor/gallery wall (yay!) and I started tackling my secretary desk.

The desk will be the perfect piece for my new office once I make it a working desk.  Currently the desk surface is unusable due to misplaced hinges and cracked wood- totally fixable!

First step to making it usable for its intended purpose and not just a very large paper weight was to disassemble it a bit to remove the cracked worksurface.

In the next few weeks, I'll use Handy Dad's tools (and maybe Handy Dad himself) to replace the damaged section of wood.

Amongst the thick layers of dust inside, the desk also had a hidden surprise: a vintage note card and envelope wedged above the interior shelves.  It's blank inside, but the art on it is just so lovely.

It's screaming "please frame me" (but its screaming in a very dainty, respectful voice...since it gives off such a dainty, respectful 50s housewife vibe in my opinion).

I can't wait to get my desk refinished!  I have an AWESOME idea for the style of it that involves both paint and stain.

Did you get any projects started over the holiday weekend?  or have you ever found any hidden treasures in vintage pieces?  share!