Updating Home Office/ Adding Desk Extension

Updating Home Office/ Adding Desk Extension-

When I started working from home in late March I didn't know how long it was going to be. We had a nice little desk in our spare bedroom that Dave mostly used. I decided to start using it. It faces the front yard, facing East and has a nice view out the window-

Previously in my office at work I had two monitors, which I really needed. Since they were moving out a huge amount of staff at once I only got one monitor, which was frustrating but I got used to it. This week they gave some of us second monitors, and some extra equipment since it looks like we'll be working from home permanently. Permanently is a loose term since who knows how long that means? Anyway I picked up my second monitor and this weekend Dave built me an extension for my current desk to have room for it-

2nd monitor waiting

End of desk

Luckily I saw the keyboard tray that I had Dave remove from the desk on the floor. I had a eureka moment thinking that we could basically use the keyboard extension as an extension on the desk to hold the other monitor. Dave used some heavy brackets and added a pine leg for stability-

works great!!!

I also wanted to update some of the decor as the walls are a light sage green, but is a cooler color. Some of the art on the walls were dark blacks and grays, which seemed too dark. So I swapped out some prints that I already had with white or light backgrounds. Then I bought a few things at Big Lots. I got a really cute little faux wreath, a white faux mini farm door and little wooden sign that says Live Simply with a white background. The sign was $5 and the wreath was $6, door was $20-

I transformed my previous home office into my full-time work office with a little bit more pizzazz. I also decided to reorganize our canning and storage rack so it looked a little bit nicer. Those little things to tweak. When you're working in a home office 8 hours a day and 5 days a week you notice all the little annoying things,  messy rack-

Before, messy desk shelves-

 After shelf shot-

 Also cleared off  small organizer with drawers-

I also re-purposed my thrifted frame/ home printed sign I had in my old office-

Now in my main hall with my lemon topiary I made!

Pantry/Dark Days Challenge Meals, Vintage Chicken Wire Frame, Freebies :)

 Pantry/Dark Days Challenge Meals-
I realized the other night I did a combo! Pantry Challenge and Dark Days. I used frozen red bell peppers, frozen pepperoni, leftover cheeses, my frozen homemade/organic pesto, and local pizza dough. A double header! Tonight we're having Jambalaya (the mix is pretty good!) with shrimp and Andouille sausage. I have leftover bread to go with it, and salad with homemade dressing.

My Inspiration

Vintage Chicken Wire Frame-
Last summer I saw the frame above in Idaho City, and snapped a quick pic. They had planed the wood down to bare. On the way home I found an old, chippy, $10.00 local window frame at Habitat, and Dave and I broke out the glass and added leftover chicken wire. I thought it woulds be a great way to display my vintage kitchen items.

I recently took a small wire brush to ours, and I got to decorating today, it took a few tries for placement but easy easy otherwise. Dave added the wire and bracket to the back. All done! Here's the print that was there before, over our dining room table-

New frame-

Total cost- $10.00

Since it was much heavier, Dave added 2 brackets on the back and hung on the studs. I don't think it's going anywhere! Since it's hung with raffia I can change the placement pretty easily if needed.

Freebies-

Yesterday I was reminded of the adage- one person's trash is another treasure! I met with some fellow librarians to hang out, and some brought swappables. I scored a hand-beaded butterfly, with glass beads. I thought it was plastic until I got it home and looked up the name on the tag Grassrootscreations.com Pretty much a fair trade deal and glass beads! Really nice. I hung it over my computer in the dining room-

Reminds me of Spring!

I also got a new pitcher from Italy, nice! I decided to plant my new ivy in it :)

I like the green ivy and the green kitchen items. Maybe I'll train it up the chicken wire! Love freebies!!!

Coal House At War Show, Chicken Wire Frame, Dark Days Challenge Meal

Coal House Families

Coal House At War Show-
I stumbled on to this gem of a "reality show" on PBS, and wow! It's about the very simple, and tough, life in a 1940's coal area in Wales. Funny, sad, and very inspiring. Episode 1 is below, and it's still airing. When you were "drafted" in Wales it was either in the military, OR the coal mines. Blackouts, air raid drills, children being sent away to safe areas (sometimes for years), what a tough life! I hope you'll watch some...

Kitchen in one of the coal cottages

All ready!

Chicken Wire Frame- 

This last summer in Idaho City I saw this in a store and decided to create my own-

$27.00, my frame was $10!

There's was taken down to bare wood, and I prefer the chippy paint. I found an old window on the way home from there, at the Habitat Store, and Dave helped me break out the glass. A couple days ago I took a small wire brush to it and wiped it down with a damp cloth. The we stretched left-over chicken wire to the back, stapled it well and covered the edges with duct tape. I'll be getting all my green, vintage kitchen tools out and adding them to do something similar to the above. I'll post photos when I'm done!

I love the layers of paint

Anya had to get into the act :)

Dark Days Challenge Meal-

With the holidays so busy I didn't focus on this as much. This week I did make breakfast for dinner, since Dave was out of town. With my own eggs and local challah bread I made---- french toast! It was amazing, and even more so with a few strips of uncured, organic bacon. Yummy!

Annual Dark Days Challenge, 63 Degrees- In December! My New Fave Things

Annual Dark Days Challenge-

 I read about this in 2012 from a now defunct blog, the Urbanhennery. I do it every year, as best I can. Starting late this year , ah well! Here's how it goes~~~  

Dates:

The challenge runs from December 1st – April 15.

What’s the Challenge?

Try to cook four meals each month (1 per week) focused on sustainable, organic, and local ingredients. Whatever you can find is fine! Write about it on your blog (if you have one) or here in the comments section. Feel free to link back to me on your blog!

What does local mean?

Traditionally local food challenges call for a 100 mile radius, but winter is more difficult in many climates. If you’re new to eating locally try 150 miles. Typical exceptions are oils, coffee, chocolate and spices (unless you grow your own). 

What if I can’t find every ingredient locally?

If you can’t find every ingredient, or even most ingredients, still try to do what you can. This is just as much about what we learn, the obstacles we find and the decisions we make as it is about cooking with mostly local ingredients. Do what you can, where you can.

What if I don’t have a blog or photos?

You are still welcome to participate! I'll try to post each week. Just you come by each week and add your meal/experiences as a comment. Take photos of what you’ve got, just do your best. No worries, keep it simple...

Dinner tonight- our own fresh eggs (french baked), local bread, spinach-

Yum, yum and so easy!

Last month, 8" of snow, then 4 degrees

63 Degrees- In December!

Yesterday was 61! This morning at 7:00 it was 61! Record high for this month, record snow last month and 4 degrees. What the heck month is this??? Freaky weather, the California "pineapple express" blew thru the last 2 days, windy and way too warm. Now the rain has finally started and temps are dropping, it's 41 right now. Back into the 40's for the high tomorrow and 30's at night. Pick a season already...

My New Fave Things-

Every year I get rid of more decorative things. Some go to our grown girls, the rest to charities. Then I buy a couple new items for something new. In the long haul I'm getting my stuff to much less items overall, and where I want it to be looks-wise. I'm going more and more for natural. I also get a lot of thrifted items, of course :) I like to put out mostly winter things this time of year, that way once the holiday tree is down I'm still good. I LOVE snow and winter! Take the bird above (and one below) new, about $2.00 at Michael's, nice heavy ceramic. I love birds for winter! I got several small things there 1/2 off...

Bird #2

  

North woods Santa, how cute! Ditto 50% off, $7.00 I think...

North woods table

More birds (Target) and jar lamp ($4.00) from Michael's

Anya posing with my table runner I got last Jan., 80% off online

And last, but SO not least- I found this guy (about 12" high) in a thrift store last night, 1/2 off, for $2.50!!! Like new, what's not to love? I had been looking for something wintry lamp-wise for the top of a barn wood bookcase we have. It's on a timer and comes on at dark. And he has a little bird on his arm :) Love it!!!!

Near Record Rain, Wet Chickens, Eggs & More Winter Coop Prep, Dark Days Challenge Coming!

Near Record Rain-
Cold and blue skies this morning! It absolutely POURED all day yesterday!!! Cold and very wet. We need the rain (being high desert) but it was a lot. I loved watching our new gutters actually work! Our old ones had leaked and rusted, so we bit the bullet and had new no-seam ones installed. Perfect. I had the croupy crud all week, so it was nice to just clean up the house, put away kitchen stuff, winterize the bed. I love snuggling into new flannel sheets, my fave comforter and cover. I bought an Ikea duvet cover a couple years ago that's bright yellow with white flowers on one side, and reverses on the other. In spring I flip it over. Nice and cheery in the winter-

Dave took down most of our outside Halloween stuff (in the covered porch area) yesterday. I think he was bored. Today I'll do the inside. Turkeys will go up next weekend. I like to take a breath in between holidays, etc. I've never been the holidays way in advance kind of person. I'd get tired of looking at the stuff :)  But I do love thanksgiving more than most holidays, as it's much less commercial. And I'm shifting more to Yule celebrations. In the mean time here's a few shots of my fave spooky stuff-

I love my prim raven

the Cheshire-type cat, I love it!

my little thrifted prim cat

entry way

Wet Chickens, Eggs & More Winter Coop Prep-
We do our winter coop prep in stages, since the weather varies so much. The lower window was added a week or so ago, and the screen stored. Today I'll cover the door screen with plastic, and since the upper window opens we can adjust the ventilation easily. We'll add more shavings today, since the first 30 degree temp is supposed to hit tonight. Next weekend we'll add our "sun room" to the far left of the coop. It's a nice dry extra place, mostly glass. We could have really used it yesterday!

Sometimes chickens just aren't the smartest critters, but they're finally laying!!! Two eggs every day! After 2 years I finally have eggs again. I can't figure out if one just isn't laying (we have 3) or they're rotating? Oh well. Yesterday it was pouring and I kept thinking they'd go inside. Nope. Early afternoon I lured them into the coop with treats and closed the door. They were really squawking an hour later, so I let them back out. An hour later I could see they were pretty wet, so I repeated. This time I left them in for the rest of the day. I don't want any cold, wet, sick birds. Since this was their first cold, wet storm maybe they just didn't know to go in? So- I helped them :) They'll love the sun room :)  I'm finally picking the last of the green tomatoes and making pesto, yummy!!!

Dark Days Challenge Coming!

I'll be starting this soon. I started doing this 2 years ago when I read about it at the Urbanhennery, a now (appears to be) defunct blog. It’s a challenge to continue cooking at least one local meal through the leaner days of winter. Your ingredients can come from your freezer, pantry, cold storage or local sources like farmers and other producers. I’m going to make a personal commitment to one meal a week. I’m also going to try to include others in our meals so our extended family can experience the pleasures of local foods, even in the dark days of winter. So here's the guidelines of the challenge, which I borrowed and modified slightly, feel free to do the same-

Dates:

The challenge runs from December 1st, 2012 – April 15, 2013 or so.

What’s the Challenge?

Try to cook four meals each month (1 per week) focused on sustainable, organic, and local ingredients. Whatever you can find is fine! Write about it on your blog, or here in the comments section when we start. Feel free to link back to me on your blog if you have one!

What does local mean?

Traditionally local food challenges call for a 100 mile radius, but winter is more difficult in many climates. If you’re new to eating locally try 50 miles. Typical exceptions are oils, coffee, chocolate and spices. 

What if I can’t find every ingredient locally?

If you can’t find every ingredient, or even most ingredients, just do what you can. This is just as much about what we learn, the obstacles we find and the decisions as it is about cooking with local ingredients. Do what you can, where you can.

I'll add a button, if if I can remember how to do it, so you can join along :)