Now the progress on the studio is slower as I do little things here and there. I feel like I worked so hard this weekend, and there's not a lot to show for it. I still have a lot more fabric to sort through and fold to go in the left bookcase. The baskets up top need some tidying up as well, but it's looking much nicer than it did before.

I solved my light switch problem, although I didn't, perhaps, choose the easiest solution. I changed out the switches altogether for new, white paddle switches, and found this sweet little switch plate at my favorite Ace Hardware for only $4.49. It had an antique finish, so I painted it white.

Changing out the switches isn't too hard. Each one had two wires, so I took the top wire out of the old switch, and put it in the top hole of the new switch, then did the bottom wire so there was no chance of messing it up. The main thing to remember is to shut off the power!

I also installed the hooks, which were on sale at Anthropologie. They didn't come with any visible way to hang them, so I improvised by nailing picture hangers on the backs and hanging them from sturdy nails. They're mostly for holding my knitting project bags, so they didn't have to be super sturdy, although they are quite solidly in place, I must say.

I picked out a doorknob while I was there as well. The deciding factor was the fact that this one was on sale for $14.95. It helps that I do love milk glass.

It, too, was a little tricky to install, but that's the great thing about Ace, you go in with your problem, and they walk you right through the solution. I had to get screws to mount it, and there was a little grumbling and growling as I tried to fit everything together. A third hand would have been helpful, but I'm now quite confident in my doorknob installation abilities.

One last project was to place grommets in this quilt design wall I have (it's really just a piece of thick flannel or felt, my husband bought it for me from Keepsake Quilting, I believe) and then put cup hooks along one wall so I can easily hang it up and take it down. This was one of those projects that was a tiny bit harder than I expected, but came out exactly as I envisioned, so the frustration was worth it. Cup hooks are not easy to screw into wood.

The grommets are actually plastic, and I found them at Joann. You just cut a circle out of the fabric and snap the two halves of the grommets together, no special tools needed! They were a little pricey ($10 for eight), but I had my 40% off coupon, so it wasn't bad.

So here's another cheap decorating tip: sales and coupons are your friends! This takes patience, and it's also good to have a plan. I tend to think very carefully about how I want a room to look, and realize that I can't rush it. Once you've figured that out, you can accumulate the things you want over time rather than going on a crazy, expensive shopping spree. When I try to get too much at once I tend to make costly mistakes. So bit-by-bit, and watch for sales and coupons. If you're in the U.S. and not on the Joann mailing list, get on it! They send coupons regularly. For California residents with a Beverly's fabrics nearby, ditto that. They do theirs via e-mail, and it's not as frequent, but still worth getting.

I have lots more fun projects coming up, and I'm going to need some opinions, so I hope you won't mind if I ask what you think over the next couple weeks. I actually made myself a to-do list for this year in lieu of any formal resolutions, and the majority have to do with this studio project. I'm posting it here for reference:

To-do list for 2009

Grow mushrooms
Make Kheer (Indian Rice Pudding)
Clean the microwave
Get some new chicks (2 Araucanas, 2 Cuckoo Marans, 2 Rhode Island Reds or 2 Barred Rocks)
Make myself a sweater
Finish my studio:

•   Slipcover chair
•   Make window coverings
•   Find a dresser
•   Paint the dresser pink
•   Collect and frame art to display
•   Install shelf above work table
•   Find vintage metal stool   
•   Hang plate collection in an artful display
•   Paint ornate picture frame and turn it into an inspiration board (turquoise?)
•   Make drapes to cover shelves-possibly patchwork?
•   Come up with a clever name
•   Put up quilt design wall
•   Find a rug (possibly this striped rug from Ikea?)
•   Make fabric cover for my sewing machine

Train Winston to do tricks or herd sheep
Vacuum every week
Lose 30 more pounds
Learn to make creme brulee
    (not sure how the previous two items will work together)
Take more pictures
Make a quilt
Design a pair of socks (knee socks! with Scandanavian-style colorwork! I can picture them in my head)
Clean out and paint laundry room
Make more things for my Etsy shop
Make French Macarons

And one last thing, completely unrelated to all this, I wanted to share a music video. This is my brother, and the song is from his new CD, which you can pre-order at www.caryjudd.com. I've been lucky enough to hear the songs as he's recorded them, and this is, by far, his best music ever. I'm pretty sure it's going to be my favorite album of 2009, so you really should think about getting it. I guarantee you won't be disappointed!

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I have lots to blog about, but no time to do so. Painting is mostly finished, except for the ceiling, but I can do that any time. I'll just throw some drop cloths over stuff and paint away. I actually ran out of paint, so I'll pick up another can later this week. The painting was the hard part, now I get to do a lot of fun little things, but it will be some time before I'm done. Right now I'm busy moving stuff back in my OCD fashion, and thinning out and organizing.

One bookshelf is full of books and things, and the other is filling up with fabric. Eventually I will have curtains covering this end of the room to tidy things up and add lots of color. In the meantime, I'm trying to arrange everything neatly. I also need to find a triple switch switchplate. The old one was cracked and disgusting. I'm leaving it off until I find a new one.

I mentioned in a reply to Sara's comment that I am all about decorating on the cheap, and she requested some tips, so here's tip number one: Paint! Not only is paint fairly inexpensive (except when you need three cans of primer before you can even get to the paint), and obviously a new color on the walls transforms a space, I find that when I have to clean out to paint I see all the Stuff in the room in a new way, and I tend to edit and move things around. Et voila! A whole new look, just because you changed up the color.

And, for some other nice things (hence the post title), I'm currently reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and I am loving it so much! I haven't even finished it and I have to recommend that you get yourself a copy and read it right now. I also went and saw Gran Torino last week with a friend. It wasn't my first choice of movies to see, but the show time worked out the best for us, and I was so pleasantly surprised. I really loved it. It's a drama, but I laughed so hard through most of it and then I bawled like a baby.

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I didn't quite mean to disappear for ten days, but I've been busy. I finally started painting my little studio. And I painted some more and then I painted even more, and I'm still not done. I've gone through two cans of primer so far, and I started on a third can tonight. I knew this was going to be a big job, but I didn't know it would be quite this big. My studio is actually an old tack shed that a previous owner finished off inside using whatever leftovers they found laying around, so it's sort of a quirky little space. Sometimes we call it a guesthouse, which sounds much more glamorous than it could ever be. A previous owner (I'm not sure if these are the same owners that initially gussied it up) walled up one end to make a very narrow space in which they built a workbench. Based on some remnants of foil stapled to the walls and ceilings, and some chains which looked like they were for some hanging fluorescent lights, I'd guess they used the space to grow some plants. I'm not saying what kind of plants, I'll leave that to your imagination.

Anyway, the point is that for six years I've wanted to paint it, and I finally got started. There are lots of odd little bits of wood, so I decided to paint everything white so make it look fresh and bright and clean. It is also painted in patches of five different colors, so some of the darker colors require a little more priming than the lighter colors. I can't bring myself to post a before picture here, because it was just so ugly, but if you must know what it looked like, go here. And now, after two cans of primer, it looks like this:

 

I still have more priming to do on the other side of the room, I think if I work on it for the next two nights after work I'll be able to actually paint on Saturday. I decided to treat myself to a new doorknob from Anthropologie for that door when I'm done painting. I'm thinking something like this one, or maybe this one. And how much do you love that lamp? I think it's going to be adorable in here. It's from Target, of course. Last Fall I even made up a style tray of inspirational ideas for the space. In case you missed it:

 

The Vika Artur trestle legs and table top were on sale at Ikea this past month, $10 for each set of legs, and $30 for the table top, so I've got them all ready and waiting to be assembled. I'm not having much luck finding an inexpensive vintage metal stool, but I can be patient. I also hope to find some green fabric similar to what's on the chairs in the top right photo to re-cover a wing chair. There will be a lot of little projects to do in the room before it's complete, but it's going to be lots of fun, if I ever finish painting.

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I have some more colorful things to share, which is especially good because it's dark and gloomy out around here today, and that means my drive to work is probably going to be excessively long. We Californians tend to come  a little un-glued when it rains. Once there was a huge, unexpected rainstorm on a Friday afternoon and it took me three hours to get home. Not even kidding. That was like two years ago and I still remember the horror. But that's another story for another day.

Do you have a uniform? You know, not an actual uniform, but a set of clothes you regularly wear with interchangeable components? Mine is jeans, t-shirt, cardigan sweater, flats. I try to keep it from getting boring by doing interesting things to my t-shirts, and buying things like green pants and cute flats. I wonder if I should be embarrassed by the number of cardigans in my closet. It's like I'm channeling Mr. Rogers. Anyway, back to today's colors!

I didn't realize that I needed yellow shoes until I saw these at Target, but I think they are going to turn out to be this Fall's must-have accessory. Thank you Target for now carrying shoes in size 11 for my ski's-for-feet! Stinkin' cute, right? I didn't get the little ankle strap in the pictures, but you can see the little heels below.

I am modeling them with my new $15 Old Navy grey cords. I had to give up on the idea of winning that weight-loss competition. That was a stupid idea for me to join a weight-loss competition with a bunch of guys. So, since there was no chance I would be taking home any prize money, I've obviously been pants shopping. And it it nice to be able to walk around without constantly tugging at my waist band to pull my pants up. Plus, you know, you can look pretty cute for not a lot of money, I'm discovering.

Another Target find that I am enjoying:

I generally hesitate to decorate with mass-produced 'art', but I just really love this tray, and the colors were perfect for my living room. Plus it is functional, I can always take it down and actually use it as a tray. Trays are good things to have around.

I'm knitting more socks, pink this time! This is my first time using Knit Picks Essential Sock yarn. I wasn't too sure I would like it, it's so inexpensive and I am partial to Lorna's Laces, but I think it's a nice yarn for the price. Sure, it's not hand-dyed, but I bought a few colors, and they're all pretty nice. Sometimes you just want a good, solid color, you know? And it's washable, and quite soft, so as long as I'm on this sock knitting bender, I'll keep using it. Has anyone knit socks with it? I'm curious how well it wears.

And I'll leave you with not color, but a black and white cat and a short list:

1. I watched Lars and the Real Girl this weekend. It was so sweet.
2. I can't stop playing Zilch. Don't click that link, I'm warning you, you'll start playing and won't be able to stop.
3. For my fellow Americans, take this quiz and see how much you know about our history and government. I'm embarrassed that the average is so low. We need to know this stuff, people! Politics is beyond the scope of this blog, but I think it's important to know this stuff (I was in the 80% range, if you were wondering, and I think I should have done better). 
4. You would never know that 10 minutes before the picture below was taken there was a black and white blur flying from one corner of the house to another, bouncing off window sills and jumping on the kitchen counter, which is absolutely NOT ALLOWED in our house. It is against the rules, I tell you!

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No, I'm not trying to imply that I think I am a fox in my socks, that was just my favorite Dr. Suess book that I never owned. I remember checking it out of the elementary school library multiple times, along with a book of jokes and an origami book. It was so popular that you had to get on the waiting list to check it out.

I actually forgot that I had this tasty yarn, hand dyed by Yarnchef. I'm trying not to have a yarn stash, so I figured I'd better cast on a new pair of socks, and use it up. I'm knitting the Go with the Flow socks from Favorite Socks, but I think the pattern might be too busy for the yarn. It's a lacy rib, but maybe I should just do a plain ribbed sock to show off the beautiful colors. What do you think?

I was playing with my macro filters again.
They are kind of fun, and much less expensive than buying an actual macro lens. Here's the exact one I bought:

Digital Concepts +1 +2 +4 +10 Close-Up Macro Filter Set with Pouch (52mm)

If you happen to order it by using that link, I think I'll get a little kickback. I haven't tried this Amazon Associates thing before, so I'm going to give it a shot and see what happens.

I also did a little Fall decorating this week. Please note Petey perched on the windowsill. He ate my orchids from last week. I'd like to see him try to mess with my pumpkins.

I got my first ever unfriendly comment today. At least I think it was unfriendly, because it was in ALL CAPS and the commenter seemed to be accusing me of hypocrisy because I have chickens, and I eat chicken, but I only eat chickens I don't know and that are killed by someone else. Interesting. I might delete it, but I might leave it there, just so I can feel like a real blogger, stirring up controversy.

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