thegoodlife

Monkey Hooks

Since we're chatting about decorating these days, I couldn't resist taking a few moments to tell you about these hooks I found and now am madly in love with.

First: The Background Story

We now have a massive wall of 4 bookcases in our Dining Room/Living Room- They aren't anything fancy, just some IKEA BILLY bookcases we painted white. I spent a lot of time agonizing over those bookshelves. I didn't want them to be too cluttered (remember: clutter is my enemy these days) but I still wanted to style them nicely and have them as a place to store books and some picture frames and decorative items.

One thing I decided to do early on is to leave two side-by-side square sections in the middle of the big wall of shelves, basically to break up the "bookshelf look" and have a place to display some large frames or art canvases. I decided eventually on some square RIPPA frames from IKEA. However, then the problem became clear. How the holy-heck was I going to get the frames to hang on the back of my flimsy bookcase? They have spent 3 months leaning on the shelf for lack of a solution. The frames weigh a ton and something like 3M command hooks wasn't going to work.

Then, I found myself wandering around Target one day- and just so happened to stumble upon an endcap full of "As Seen on TV" products- like the Magic Bullet and Green Bags:)...and that's where I found the answer to all my hanging problems- Monkey Hooks!!!

Here is what one looks like:  
The ideas behind this thing is that you poke a hole into your drywall and the curving pin acts as leverage- all that sticks out of the wall on your end is that little bent hooky part at the bottom.

They are designed to go straight into your walls- and while we tried to use them just on the back of the bookcase, there wasn't enough clearance between it and the wall. So, smart hubby John figured if we just drilled right through the back of the bookcase into the drywall, we could do it that way...AND IT WORKED!!!

And now, my 2 frames are hanging happily in my bookcase!!

 

Obviously this is only one frame, I couldn't get both of them in the lens, so just duplicate it in your imagination:)

I am telling you, these frames look light and airy- but they are heavy!And anyone who owns an IKEA bookshelf knows how flimsy the backing is- it's like a tad bit stronger than cardboard. And that Monkey Hook is in there, it's leveraged perfectly, but is also super easy to just pull out when and if I need to.

So that is my PSA for today. Go get some Monkey Hooks because they rock!

I know this might be one of the most boring things I have ever written about on my blog, I am just really excited about the small victories in life lately. For my next post, I will try to give you better inspiration and entertainment- like pictures of the bottled water I bought today...

To die for! ;)

stay tuned...

The Big Office Re-do

I have been yammering away about all my time and effort fixing up my new office/studio/craft-room, and haven't quite been finished enough or ready enough to share pictures of the finished product...but, this week my new Massimo Vignelli calendar arrived in the mail and I finally got creative with merchandising my current stock of hoop.dee.do's...and then I did some cleaning and hiding of junk, and took some pictures. I even dug up the before and during photos of the work in progress. 

Here is the "BEFORE" before...like, back when John and I shared this space- and it had a big desk and stuff. This was circa 2006/2007. I loved how it looked, but I had NO SPACE TO WORK- that desk was huge, but ineffective to work on, and my closet desk was teeny tiny- so a long time ago we planned on redoing this room- we sold the big desk, then I took over the dining room and turned it into my office, and this room just progressively filled up with junk. An old mattress, books, junk I picked up on my travels. Lots and lots of crap.

I started drowning in all the stuff. The clutter. I couldn't get away from it. I struggled to do anything creative because I didn't have a place in my home where my eyes could rest. I hit a breaking point this summer, after being away for so long, when I came home, it was like a house depression took over me and I couldn't do anything but purge...so purge I did...

 

 

 

 

 

I know this isn't what everyone would make their room to look like, and honestly there are things that work and don't work about it...but, the amount of money I spent on the office was barely anything...maybe $200 at most for a new office chair, the 5-drawer dresser in the corner, along with paint, a rug and a lamp or two. Everything else I already had, including the table- which was our dining room table, and the desk, which is a combo of an old metal sign from the office I used to work at, and an Ikea LACK console table (which they don't make anymore). The big dresser was also in our old dining room, it holds all my tools and stuff, and the Orange Chair I bought for $15 at my neighbors garage sale in the spring.

I have to tell you, I spent a lot of time on-line looking for ideas and general "you can do it!" inspiration, and 99% of my motivation was provided by regular visits to Making It Lovely...I can't wait until I can actually renovate a house, like tear out floors and kitchens...Nicole's blog is a DIY decorating dreamland. I found so many things I liked after "shopping" her room pictures...I fell in love with new stores, like www.cb2.com and www.westelm.com and re-visited places like www.pier1.comfor accessories and other fun stuff. My tastes have changed dramatically, and I likey.

Here are the dramatic before pictures, when "project: I hate this house" started in September:

 

 

 

This was just before I had the garage sale, you can see I had some shelves up where I made the hoop.dee.do's and a table for shipping. All that was on hold while we "moved."

and here are pictures of after the paint, while moving crap in and out.

 

 

 

oh, that carpet.
I have dreams at night of the carpet fairy coming and replacing it.
I continue to dream...
(we rent, and the owners so far will not work with us on replacing it, or allow us to replace it ourselves, so until we can work something out, we have to live with it. It wasn't like this when we moved in, but 5 years of walking on it have brought up some moisture and stain issues. It's like this in 3 major areas of the house. I could go on, and on, and on...)

anyway...

That's the "Big Reveal"...I am 100x happier in my new space- and it also is a HUGE bonus to have a new Dining/Living Room to go along with my office...but that is still in progress and will have to share those pics another day.

If you have any questions about anything I did, or anything you see, or anything at all- just pop it here in the comments, and I will answer in the comments as well.

Happy Weekending!

Happy New Year!!

 

Let's just say someone had a way lot of fun last night and might be paying for it just a smidge today;)

Well, it's 2009- Jan 1st is finally here, a whole brand spankin' new year ahead of us peeps. Wonder what the next 365 will bring? I am aiming for a size 9/10 sometime before next Christmas, a vacation- one that involves air travel to somewhere warm- a happy 5 year wedding anniversary and maybe some kayaks for the summer.

Jan 1st is also a new Garden at 2peas, this month the theme is YOU, and there is a ton of inspiring stuff to check out, so go run on over! Here are my two for this release:

 

 

and here's a page I made for the Gallery, a Weekly Challenge Jen Harrison hosted to scrap a funny picture- and of course, our resident furry clown always has a picture or two I can dig up:

 

I am going to go relax with the hubs and enjoy what's left of the day- tomorrow I have to get all serious and organized, so I am going to enjoy my last chance for laziness- movie and pizza anyone?

TTYS!