In less than 10 days, some very dear friends are coming to stay with us for a few days.  I can hardly contain myself waiting for their arrival!  You see, when we first moved to Illinois (where we lived for nearly 7 years before moving to Ohio), Handy Hubby and I didn’t know a single soul in town.  Fortunately, Handy Hubby met Jeff at a training class shortly after starting his new job in Illinois.  Immediately, they hit it off.  A few months later Handy Hubby and Jeff organized a double date for me and Erin (Jeff’s girlfriend) to meet.  Erin and I were each told that we had to be best friends.  Lucky for the guys, the double date went great and although we don’t get to see/talk as much as we’d like, our friendship has gone on to see 2 engagements, a few 2-on-2 ping pong tournaments, 2 weddings, several winter beards, 2 big moves, 4 births, at least 10 dozen batches of homeade oatmeal cookies, gallons of Ben & Jerry’s Oatmeal Cookie Chunk ice cream, nearly 6 seasons of “Lost” and lots of laughs.  (No our dog wasn’t really possessed; it just looks that way.)

In anticipation of their impending visit, I am kicking my butt into high gear trying to get the guest room/playroom ready.  There’s not really anything wrong with the room per say, but I’ve been wanting to get the closet organized and the dresser accessorized for a few weeks now.  This visit is a good reason to finally tackle it once and for all.  My deadline is next Thursday.  Here are the problem areas:

A painted hand-me-down dresser with no oomph…

A nice sized but messy catch-all closet…

My hope is to add some colorful and guest-worthy accessories to the dresser zone.  I’ve got an idea to utilize family heirlooms (i.e. the quilts I had growing up that have seen better days).  Since our guest room doubles as a craft (sewing/scrapbooking) room, I want to turn the closet into an organized space for my supplies:  sewing machine, paper, thread, ribbon, paper cutter, rubber stamps, etc.  For 2 years, my scrapbooking stuff has lived in our unfinished basement.  That saying, “outta sight, outta mind” is true.  I haven’t made one scrapbook page in 2 years!  I messed around and made a very amateur mood board for the closet:

My vision is an industrial chic closet that’s organized enough to hold a bunch of craft items and also double as a spot for guests to hang up their clothes if need be.  And since it’s probably the ONLY “room” in our entire house that won’t be touched by a male (I’ve got 1 Handy Hubby and 2 spunky young boys), I’m gonna bite the bullet and paint it pink.  I need a teeny bit of girlyness somewhere!

So, that’s my plan to keep my mind (and body) busy until our friends get here.  And I know Jeff and Erin could care less about what the closet in their temporary room looks like but their visit is a good reason to swing into action.  Stay tuned to see how it all unfolds.