Writing Spot - My new blog haven!

I moved into my 70's 'modern' home when I was pregnant with my son.  Since then I have written four NANOWRIMO novels and a multitude of blog posts.  All of this writing was done at the kitchen counter, dining room table, or even on folding TV trays which is a transitory way to write.  My son is 9 now and while it may seem like I've done quite a bit of writing (I have!), it's been forced or perhaps uncomfortable.  Inspiration is sometimes not forthcoming.  My schedule and family keep me busy which makes it hard to retreat into my imagination and pull forth all those good stories that I know reside there (probably languishing on some beach somewhere!).

Quite possibly the beach in question where my imagination has been languishing.

So when I began to rethink my living room area, the reason why I had picked this room out of both of the social areas in our house was that it was more enclosed.  This enclosure, while it doesn't entirely shut me out of the flow of household events like an office with a door would, it does provide me with a few sound barrier walls and is tucked away from the more hustle-bustle places in our house. 

As I reported in an earlier blog, I had a ill-fitting bookcase.  While it was beautiful, the style was just not conducive to the room's style.  It had gorgeous crown molding on the top and bottom.  Because of it's proportions, it was difficult to find a place in the room where it fit properly.  It was too large for the corner that I had stuffed it into.  Some of the shelves were glass which were not the best for putting books on and it had become a dust catcher with a huge pile of books in front of it.  I collect books like I collect dust.  It's just horrifying. 

I had also at one time or another purchased a writing desk from a yard sale for $30.  I had stashed it into a corner and piled things on it.  From time to time, I cleared it off, destroyed junk mail, and piled more things on it.  It's a beautiful desk (as I hope you will see from my pictures), simple and unusual.  I could look around the room and see the bones of a writing spot but not figure out how to really carve one out until I divested myself of the looming bookcase.

Once the bookcase was unloaded and gone thanks to Craig's List, I had a huge corner.  The desk fit neatly in the corner even leaving room for a set of bamboo fronted drawers that I bought at another estate sale (not sure what I paid for them but it might have been $10).  I also had a fantastic amount of wall space for pictures that I had obtained at various places, one of them from the now defunct Lancome blog (they migrated to Facebook and this makes me sad.  I read them much more on my RSS reader than I ever check my Facebook).  The other pictures you see are Jack Vettriano prints, one of my favorite artists.  The one on the left is "Something in the Air" and the right, the famous "Elegy for a Dead Admiral".

As you can see, there are two lamps, one a nightlight that I leave on constantly.  Originally, it was intended to go over by the television (50's style!) but it didn't fit very well and really didn't light the space properly.  After some musing and again hauling different lamps around, I placed it in the desk corner when the blue compliments the blue of the desk nicely without being too matchy.  The other desk lamp is very bright and nice when I'm working in the evenings (or even the dreary days when no much light filters through the dense clouds and into my windows).  I turn it off mostly.  Beside it, there is a collection of objects that changes.  I bought the pins at an estate sale and think they just look lovely with the shells.  It's been my color inspiration recently.  Then, there's my new China Glaze Hunger Games polishes which I have been using in my manicures due to my excitement over the movie release.

My little laptop, Snowball, fits ideally on the desktop without crowding the manuscript that I have been editing.  It is my own book, the second unpublished book that I have written (I have a total of four so far).  Because of the ease in which I can now sit down and think, write, or dream, I have been able to take out old writing and rethink it.  Or create anew!

Manuscript in progress!

In the drawers to the side, I have various writing implements, scissors, and other desk items.  Plus there is the requisite stash of candy and chocolate for writing binges that require sugar.  That would be in the top drawer for ease of access!

And then as this writing spot evolved, it occurred to me that I had another misplaced shelving unit, my ornate miniature shelves.  Now, while my style wavers between modern and classic, these gold shelves with their expressive details are extremely luxurious.  Again, I found them at an estate sale.  They were in fairly good condition but dirty and with a few broken details at the top so many people had been passing them by.  I didn't have a good spot for my little items so I took a chance.  They had been hanging by the desk prior to creation of the writing spot but it was on a wall where they looked out of place and overwhelmed.  I had cleaned them in a superficial way prior to  hanging them but they were still dingy and without sparkle.  A bowl of water with a bit of dish soap and a handful of cotton swabs later and they now shimmer with a clarity that they didn't possess!  I rehung them in a corner where both the wall paint and the size of the corner brought out their more beautiful qualities.

They add a lot of detail to the space, from my Marc Jacobs Lola perfume bottle to the miniature zen garden of sand and shells.  Sometimes while I'm pondering, I just stand there and mess around with the little things, especially the sand garden.

My chair is vintage as well and sorely in need of a recovering.  But it makes for a comfortable writing chair when the cat isn't sitting on it!  Down at my feet are my cords - those much needed electricity delivery systems!  But also my charging station for my Ipad (which you don't see in the pictures) but which often ends up on my desk even while I am using the laptop.  One day, I was writing a Hunger Games piece for my new blog (which hasn't been launched yet) and I had the laptop open to my Word document and the Ipad open to the Kindle app with Hunger Games (book 1) open so I could refer to passages.  Uber-Geeky, I know but a blogger has to do what a blogger has to do (teehee).

So tell me where you write!

Bad Blogger!

I have been a lax and slightly-overwhelmed-with-life blogger. But I'm back - maybe not on track- but still trying! What life has thrown at me since my last post in September is irrelevant really but here's some of the highlights!
1. January Snow-pocalypse! In the Northwest, down in my cozy nook at the bottom of the Puget Sound, we endured an intense (for us) snow storm of monumental proportions. At my house we were lucky to be out of power for only four days. Others didn't have power return for nearly two weeks. My boss was out for that amount of time due to a neighbor's tree taking out her power box (smashed it to bits!). There's still (even four months later) piles of debris and as I write this blog, my hubby is going out to remove some more branches from the wilderness parts of our property.
 2. The February engine disaster - my car is kaput. Luckily, I have a spare one to drive until my main one is fixed. However, it will be $5000 later. OI!
3. Dear Daughter turned 21 and I threw her a bash. Lots of planning into a cocktail party at Christmas time! It was a success and I wish I had pics but I do not. I had the silver and linens out. Worked from a sort of luxe Mad Men theme where we had eggnog and spiced punch (since it was December) and lots of hors d'ouveres, including little chicken skewers and a fantastic meat plate with garlic crusted salami (drool!).
4. As my car died, I was in the midst of rethinking my furniture/deco in my living room and also in my husband's T.V./computer room. We are still transitioning from some pieces of furniture to others. Craig's List has been wonderful for clearing out the old furniture but I still have a toddler table and an Ikea shelving and entertainment unit to sell. However, I have discovered a new love of the used furniture store, Furniture Works, in our eclectic downtown area. I purchased a beautiful bookcase with doors to replace another bookcase that I had in my living room. The bookcase that I replaced was beautiful but very misplaced in my design scheme. It sold within a day on Craigslist because it was very nice. But my new one is streamlined and fits better with my more eclectic and modern living room.

Me at the beginning of our January Snow-pocalypse!

So there it is! I've missed you, my loyal two or three readers! LOL!