Doggie Winter Blues

The ice storm has surprisingly presented itself as a beautiful steady snow fall today. A true picturesque winter is what I see through my window as I type to you. The scent of smooth eucalyptus burns nearby as the sound of sweet doggie snoring and slumber permeate my ears. A wonderful day of doggie winter blues to share.











Keep on Keepin on.

Cold, Cold, Go Away

In honor of the next snow/ice storm lurking around the corner and soon to be making me incredibly cranky this Thursday through probably the entire weekend, I figured I share with you Sparky and I's latest attempt at keeping warm, energy efficient, and GREEN!

Sparky and I live in an old house built in the 1940's. It is drafty and cold...and I mean COLD. Not only is it stone-cold, butt-shivering, teeth-chattering cold all on it's own natural accord, but Sparky is one of those guys that doesn't want to be shocked or go into convulsions when the next natural gas bill comes popping up in the mail. So, 65 degrees is the warmest I ever see the thermostat, which is rare also. The thermostat stays at 60 degrees or lower when bedtime arrives. There is nothing more annoying than having to get up in the morning from underneath the warmth of 500 blankets in order to deal with stone-cold, butt-shivering, teeth-chattering cold. I have a constant inner battle between the idea of a little bit more money in my pocket or the convenience of warmth. Ugh!

Anyway.

Old house.

The insulation was probably about 30 years old in itself and maybe an inch deep. The first time I went up into the attic of the house, I instantly thought there was not enough insulation up there. During the OKC Snow Blizzard of Christmas 2009 that had temperatures in the single digits, Sparky finally concurred with my insulation observation.

When the weather got "decent", Sparky dedicated a weekend to Greening the house with Green Fiber insulation. yay! hurray!



Wait.

I have to help?

There are 40 bags?

Are you kidding?

Geez.

Enjoy the many faces of green insulation.









With the exception of me clogging up the machine on my first attempt...it went well. It was fairly easy, not too time consuming, and affordable (especially since it's a tax right off!) If I can do it...you can too. Trust me.

Hopefully the new insulation will make a difference in the upcoming snow blizzard. I'm crossing my fingers.

Keep warm! and...

Keep on Keepin On.

Give

It is difficult to comprehend the tragedy and devestation being experienced by so many people and children right now in Haiti. All I can say is that we need to give. give. give. give. and keep giving. In any way we can give, we need to give. We cannot forget after the immediate shock is over. We have to remember all the people, children, mothers, fathers, brother, sisters, aunts, uncles, and BABIES! There is still so much more pain and suffering to come. Give. and don't forget.

A Promise Kept

Do you remember those 6-some-odd months when Sparky was studying for his big test for work and I was the best girlfriend in the whole wide world who would cook him dinner every night after work while he studied and then I would (mostly) leave him alone to study every night without bugging him for anything hardly at all? Do you also remember when I told you that Sparky promised me that he would focus on turning the dog room into Babalou's very own writing room?

Yes. I do. and Sparky kept his promise. (check)

In either late October or early November, Sparky and I ventured over to the local home improvement store and searched for paint. I new that I wanted something kind of light grey and cool for the walls. Although I am absolutely awful at picking out paint colors due to my impatience with standing amongst so many color options for such a long period of time and I am INCREDIBLY indecisive, Sparky and I found a color we thought would be perfect... or at least the color swatch seemed like it would be pretty darn perfect if anything.

I was originally inspired months and months ago by this photo.



I instantly printed out the litter bugger and taped it to the grody orange brown color that used to be on the walls. Sparky and I would see this picture every time we went into the room. My taping the picture to the wall was also an obvious hint that I didn't want and wouldn't let Sparky forget his promise. That's how I roll.

So, the weekend before Thanksgiving (aka the week I got shingles, ugh!) we (when I say we, I mean Sparky) painted the grody orange brown to a beautiful cool grey...and I could not have been happier with the color choice! It was more perfect on the wall than on the color swatch! woot woo! I've never had that happen!

The before pic of the awful room and it's color. ew. I think Sparky was just looking for an excuse to paint over it.


I think Ruby likes change.


The inspiration taped to a chair in the corner...you can't miss that when you walk in, right?


But between me being sick and all the holiday happenings, my writing room got put on hold for a little bit. Which is totally fine with me because I had decisions to make on furniture...and I'm really bad at two things: Spending money on myself and deciding on what to spend my mentally alloted amount of money. I'm definitely not an impulse buyer. Ask anyone who knows me.

Anywho, my inspirational picture had the right start for me. I knew I wanted white furniture. I knew I wanted a desk (a great desk)...in the words of Carrie Bradshaw, "It's all about the desk"...so the desk decision was an integral piece of the puzzle. It had to be white. It had to have clean lines. It had to be modern. It had to be stylish. It had to be cozy. It had to be comfortable. It had to be capable of invoking inspiration. It had to be able to pull out the words from my mind. It had to invite me everyday to enjoy my thoughts. It had to be smart. And... it had to be...affordable (cheap).

I also wanted a bookcase. I've always wanted a nice large bookcase capable of housing all my books and future books I know I will someday covet. I think bookcases and the books within them can unveil a lot about an individual; such as there personality, their past, and the person they aspire to become.

And the chair. My dilemma. All white furniture was my definite but I wasn't sure if I wanted a white chair. The chair needed to be just as comfy and inviting as the desk but I was leaning towards using the chair to jazz up the white and grey in addition to all the colors of the books.

So, Ikea was my answer. Have I ever told you how I heart Ikea? I mean really. This place is a dream. I have yet to know anyone who couldn't find something at Ikea they liked, especially for the great prices! I had been searching online for a couple of months and had narrowed down my choices; but I needed so desperately to see my dream items in person and to sit and sample the desk options...unfortunately, the nearest Ikea is 3 hours away. boo.

So, after the writing room was painted and I knew I needed to wander around the Ikea store for a few hours, I kept bugging Sparky to drive us down there...he was not as gung-ho as I was. That's for sure. Something was always far more pressing on the weekends or I was sick. ugh. So the weekend after Christmas I had it set in my mind that during the long weekend of the celebration of the New Year, Sparky and I were going to Ikea and nothing was going to stop us...

Except me getting sick again. I took off work on Thursday and we had New Years Day off...but I was still too tired on Friday. I rested up on Friday and was determined that Saturday was going to be the day. I was going to be up and ready for this adventure.

and I was! yay! We left in the morning and were in the Ikea store around 11:38am (I only remember that because we had just missed the free breakfast!!!! dang-o!) After some very difficult decisions, mind changing (my notorious strategy), and strong confidence that my new desk, bookcase, and chair would not fit in the car with the hatch down all three hours back home Sparky and I were finally on our way.

FYI...we couldn't see each other the entire ride home. Don't do this at home, ya'll. This definitely was not our shining moment in intelligence.

View of the back with the hatch open...after we made it home.


My view from the passenger's seat...not a great view in my opinion.


..but did I mention that Sparky actually did pass his big engineering exam for work?!!! yay! Good thing fitting oversized furntiture into a small car was not on the exam. whew.

But we made it home. Our lesson has certainly been learned. I hope.

Here's the room right after we put the desk and chair together.


As you can see, I went with a colorful chair to jazz up the space. It has the grey and white with the orange bursts that really stuck with me. The shape of the chair is cool and funky and quite comfortable too!


I went ahead and added the curtains for privacy. eh. Definitely not my fave and not the look I'm going for; I have my eye set on the White Ruffle Curtains from UO. These were curtains we had in the cabinet and although I love the sheer white curtains, I need the option for privacy too. When I save up some more mulah for the right white curtains, those will go up, but for now these will do. Don't worry, during the day when the sun is shining, the curtains will definitely be opened up for natural light. duh.


The bookcase!

Chewy can't figure out what the heck is going on in the house today. There's a bunch of stuff all over the floors and none of the dogs are allowed to play with it! The shame.


I think Sparky might have it all handled.


Voila! The complete bookcase, desk, and chair.




I went ahead and emptied out my boxes of books, but I have a feeling that most of the books will get re-organized a handful of times.




Apparently, we exhausted the help...


and myself. These feet of mine are going to bed.


Don't you love it when a promise is kept?

Keep on Keepin on.