My blogging desk was a little blah.  In fact, it was never meant to be a desk to begin with.  It’s an IKEA console that I transformed into a desk out of necessity.  (Take a look at how I painted it here.)

This piece of furniture works hard though.  It serves as our mail sorter (see all those baskets?), bill paying center, blogging office and house stereo (during family dance parties).  And since I’ve been spending so much more time there (well, here) downloading DIY photos and such, the idea struck me to make it a little more appealing.  Even though I had polyurethaned it, the desk top was getting nicked up.  I decided to add a glass top for function and style.  Handy Hubby found a local glass shop to supply and cut a glass desk top for under $40. 

It was a great improvement but I had one more trick up my sleeve.  Off to my fabric store crush, Fabric Shack, in Waynesville.

That’s just a corner of the store.  They’ve recently expanded into another building.  It’s a sewer’s haven.  I was looking for a fun printed fabric to display underneath the glass top.  I narrowed it down to these final four…

Wanna guess which one I chose?  Ta-da!…

I was totally digging the scrolled, monogram-esque print.  A yard and a half put me back $10.  I brought it home, measured my desk top, added an inch lengthwise and widthwise and then cut my fabric to those measurements.  With the added inch, I was able to finish the edges.

I simply removed the glass top, smoothed out the fabric over my desk then placed the glass back on top of the fabric.  (Well, maybe it wasn’t as easy as it sounds.  I had to keep adjusting until all the wrinkles were out.)

Here’s my view while blogging now…

To the left… (to the lef’, to the lef’…everythin’ you own in a box to the lef’)

To the right…

All together now…

This little detail makes blogging even more fun for me!  If that’s possible.

Adding a quirky detail like this to an overused area in your home can make the oodles of time you spend there more inspiring.  Do you have a built-in kitchen desk where you make grocery lists or pay bills?  Why not hang or lean a small but fun framed print above it?  Do you spend a lot of time cooking in the kitchen?  Try framed artwork here too that either leans or hangs against your backsplash.  Maybe you just like to chill in a corner on your favorite chair reading a book.  You can add a funky side table in a fun color or hang some bold artwork just at eye level.  Is there a designated place where you hang your keys on a daily basis?  That would be the perfect opportunity to add some ‘flare’!  It’s the little things like this that can make ordinary, mundane chores less stagnant.

Last week my older son, Layne, turned 5.  (This is me taking a deep breath.)  Am I really old enough to have a 5-year-old?!  Um, yes, I am.  Get it together, Dana.  At any rate, it didn’t take long for Layne to decide that he wanted a ‘solar system party’.  Ever since we got him a book about outer space for Christmas, he’s been rattling off random solar system facts left and right.  The kid doesn’t forget anything.  So began my quest for space party decor. 

I knew I wanted things that we could reuse either in the kids’ bedrooms or for other parties in the future.  I knew I wanted the sunroom to serve as Mission Control (i.e. party central).  I searched the web for some inspiration and quickly found this inflatable solar system.  At $34, it wasn’t exactly cheap but I figured we could recycle it as pool toys, kids’ bedroom decor or even a future school science project.  I was sold…and so was it.    

Next, I browsed some web images of real birthday parties and was delighted to find another reusable decoration.  Fabric garlands are all the rage for their ‘green-ness’ and ease to assemble.  And they look adorable!  Here’s the one that inspired me…

I knew the pink wasn’t going to fly with a 5-year-old boy.  I started thinking blues, greens and yellows…the colors of earth from afar.  After I had a color scheme in mind, I went to JoAnn Fabrics and bought a bunch of scrap fabric and 10 yards of heavy-duty cotton ribbon.  Then I used a rotary cutting tool and self-healing cutting board to cut triangles out of the fabric.  I made sure that each triangle had a match so the garland would be two-sided.

Then I simply paired up two triangles of the same fabric and sewed them onto my white ribbon.  I contemplated using fusible interfacing between the two triangles to beef them up but that stuff is expensive!!  I also decided not to finish the edges of the triangles because 1) I was running low on thread and 2) I liked the idea of it looking a little ratty, imperfect.   

I had some scraps left from cutting the triangles and tied them to a strand of twine.

At this point, Handy Hubby must have liked what he saw and kindly offered to help out with the party planning.  I gave him the task of whipping up a homemade Mission Control station that the kids could play with.  I suggested he cover cardboard boxes (we had plenty in our basement) with foil to make it look space-agey.  Well, he went above and beyond the call of duty!

Mission Control turned out so great that even I wanted to play with it!  Handy Hubby used lids and an empty yogurt container for the buttons and dials. 

The mouse is a deck of cards covered in foil and attached with a string.

There’s a video screen of the ‘launch pad’…

…and a speaker to communicate with the astronauts.

Awesome, right?!  Isn’t Layne so lucky to have such a cool Dada?  After all the decor details were in place, I moved on to the birthday cake.  Warning:  amateur baking and cake decorating ahead.  I had the grand idea of making a rocket cake complete with boosters.  I cut a rocket shape out of a store bought box mix carrot cake.  (While cutting, I had horrid visions of what shape might come out if I wasn’t careful…but I tried really hard to keep it G-rated.)

Then I added Ho-Ho boosters, cream cheese icing and “NASA” in black icing.  I am nooooo baker or professional cake decorator.  My icing is far from smooth and I discovered it’s difficult to write with icing.  I used the negative space cake (the parts I cut away to get the rocket shape) to make a little square cake atop a cakestand.  Star sprinkles finished it all off nicely were a diversion from all the imperfections.  Success = Layne knew it was a rocket.

In the end, the party was a blast! (pun intended) 

It took some work, yeah, but it was fun.  And I’m super-duper happy that we can reuse/recycle everything…well, the cake is gone.  It tasted better than it looked.

I live 15 minutes from IKEA.  (Have you seen their new commercial, by the way?!  It’s hilarious.  Yeah, the one where the wife/mother tears into the front yard with her flatbed truck full of IKEA boxes.)  It’s a blessing and a curse.  Steve gets scared whenever I mention I’m headed there.  On one of my recent trips, though, it WAS a blessing.  I found 2 ‘damaged’ MATILDA curtains in the “AS IS” section for $1 each.  The only ‘damage’ was a few of the curtain rod loops had come unstitched.  Luckily, I paid attention in home ec.  So, that’s at least 6 yards of white fabric for $2!!!!  I ran with them to the checkouts. 

Back home I had 2 black leather storage ottomans hidden in my son’s closet.  I totally loved the idea of them – we store board games in them – but they were pretty dark for my taste and our decor.  Enter, stage left, the new ‘damaged’ curtains.  I was sure I could make simple slipcovers for the ottomans… even though I had never attempted to slipcover anything before.

So, a few months later (yeah, this past weekend) I finally got around to making those slipcovers.  First, I threw the fabric in the wash to preshrink it.  I wanted the slipcovers to be totally removable and washable because, remember, I have two little boys!  From the clean, shrunken, newly-ironed curtains I simply cut out 10 identical 20″x20″ squares of fabric.  Two squares for each top of the ottomans and eight for each vertical side. 

Then I simply stitched them all together and hemmed ‘em up.  Here are the fresh white ottomans after $2 and 2 hours of ironing, measuring, cutting and sewing.  (Yes, that’s HGTV Property Virgins host, Sandra Rinomato.  Now ya know what I like to watch while I sew.)

They aren’t perfect but I’m in love with how they turned out.  More slipcovers may be in my future!  For more IKEA-related decor and projects, check out IKEA FANS.