Rollercoasters, dinosaurs, bruises and an office reveal

I survived.
I huffed more paint than any one person should, and endured my fair share of IKEA-furniture-assembly induced bruises, but I did it! I finished the office.
Well, a) I shouldn't say "I".. my brother was actually (surprisingly) quite helpful, and b) I have a few more pieces of art to acquire/add, but it's, for all intensive purposes (JUST KIDDING GUYS) donezo!
Also? I'm 100% convinced you don't know pain until you've painted a ceiling. Especially if you do 2 coats (how on earth the ceiling got so dirty, I'm not sure) and stand 5 foot 2. woof.

But before I show you the good stuff, I'll tell you a teensy bit about the brief portions of my weekend that did not involve paint and screws.

Friday night I met a friend for drinks and appetizers at Crave.
Saturday, I headed to my parents early to start moving furniture out of the office. Then, I did something I haven't done in approximately 8 years. I went to Valleyfair. Jess organizes her company picnic there every year, so they sent her some free passes to come tour the new exhibit ("Dinosaurs Alive") and sample the new picnic area menu.  SO, Lauren and I happily accompanied her. It looked a little like this:

Meeting the Peanuts gang, going on rides and alternating who the "odd duck out" was (Jess lost that one on the Scrambler), and sampling the new menu. I will say, it was some of the tastiest food I've had in a LONG time. Not what you think of when you typically think of amusement parks: prosciutto wrapped asparagus, brie, caprese spears, shrimp cocktail, etc. #nomnomnom. (P.s. I can't even tell you the amount of flak I've gotten for my distaste for the word "yummy" since the aforementioned blog post. Ya'll are a bunch of turds).

I then returned to my work on the office.
Without further adieu, I present to you (photos I'm practically embarrassed to share) the "before"

Oh, just kidding, when I wrote that part about being embarrassed I forgot that my brother and I had already cleared off the desk. That's really where the shame was. To put it mildly, my dad is a paper-pack rat. We were cleaning out his filing cabinet recently, and he had tax returns from the 90s. O_O.

Some progress....(paint on, using these guides to hang the curtains) 

I just realized I took no "in the middle" pictures.

aannnndddd FINALLY, the result:

(Lucky (aka "squish"), the cat model..)

(This is where the dresser used to be)

I am SO FLOORED with how it turned out. I think he will quite literally, crap his pants.
Annnnddd because I can't get enough of this handsome devil...

and because who doesn't love a good side-by-side:

I want to get some art for above the desk, but you get the idea. :)

And now, I spend the remainder of the week taking ice baths, because OMG SO SORE, and going to bed by 9:30. TJ is a little squirrely what with all the time away, so, he'll need some extra snuggles, too.

OK IF YOU INSIST, TJ.

You like?

Office redo: inspiration

Memorial Day weekend was a good one.

With the weather being cloudy, off and on rainy, and overall chilly (60s at best), I didn't feel the desire to take many pictures. M and I went to Bachelor Farmer here in Minneapolis on Friday and ate ourselves stupid (seriously, if you're in MN and have never been there: GO. Such a unique dining experience. All local food, very contemporary, with a Scandinavian twist!). Saturday..hmm.. what did we do. AH, I ran errands to get supplies for my dad's office redo..the actual topic of today's post! and Saturday night we went to the Happy Gnome in St. Paul to celebrate a friend's nursing school graduation. Sunday was a lazy day with the kitty, as was Monday. Monday night we went to my parents to grill, and I closed off the weekend with a viewing of the Bachelorette. I don't even want to hear it. It's trash, probably half fake, and I don't curr.

 

Moving on, since I took no real photos this weekend..

 

I casually mentioned a while ago that I wanted to redo my dad's office. 

A few years back, when my dad was in Florida, I surprised him by updating his kitchen. Nothing terribly fancy, but I painted the cabinets (they had this delightfully hideous sponge painted strawberry detailing), painted the walls, replaced all the hardware, and bought a shelf and some art. He was floored when he got home and saw it. 

Well, my mother... bless her... and her wheelchair, have destroyed the kitchen. She's run into the cabinets, scraped the walls, to the point where there's giant rivets gone in the wood, and the white cabinets are now incredibly dirty and stained. I don't even like talking about it because it bums me out so hard. I know it's not her fault, and now she doesn't really tool around in her wheelchair the way she used to, but it still makes me go "wahhh." 

The bonus with the office is: she never goes in there! Just kidding. But my dad has painted her room and mentioned wanting to paint and clean up the office, which was my childhood bedroom, before the wedding since one of his friends will be staying with them. That's when I realized that his upcoming trip to Canada with M would provide the perfect opportunity to surprise him with an office redo! 

I created a polyvore account (that people continue to "follow" me on, despite the fact that I've only created ONE board?) to mock up an inspiration board for the office. Here's what I came up with:

So yesterday I headed to Target to try to recreate this mood board. I picked up 4 window panels:

 

They were on sale for $13 a piece, and these curtain rods in a silver finish: 

 

Annnd I splurged on this mercury lamp base, that I wanted to keep for myself (although I think it was only $29.99 in store): 

 

and this lamp shade to top her off: 

I'm unsure if I'm going to go through with the rug.. I may sacrifice that for more art in the budget (he has some great old sports photos/memorabilia I may frame). I'm going to go scout desks at IKEA this week, which is where the desk in the inspiration board is from. Although, I may opt for a more plain "table" style desk, with no drawer. I'll have to see what they have in stock.

I'm planning on painting it something like this:

SO, stay tuned for some updates! We'll see how this goes. :P