And then I remembered we sort of mentioned it back in the day for our very first house tour. Which, by the way, holy ships!, how our home has evolved! Not being one known for getting right to the point, I’m trying to say that we’ve added another floating frame to our bathroom wall of photo strips:

Over the last few years since the original tour was posted, we’ve received the random email asking where we get the frames (JoAnn’s) and where we find the booths (our favorites in Chicago are Quenchers, Charleston and any Renegade pop-up). And you’ll notice that while they used to be black, we sprayed them white during our bathroom’s umpteenth color transition.

During a recent weeding of unnecessary office items, I realized we had one more black floating frame. We didn’t need it for the studio-to-be, so I sprayed it down and filled it with a handful of strips that’ve been stashed for far too long. (On a side note, we’ve only ever seem them in black, and online searches turned up too-expensive results.) The next day, I got an email from West Elm boasting their frame sale:

We don’t need another – we’re up to total of 7, but isn’t that how it always goes? A day late, of course.

Unexpected bathroom art makes us happy (the kitchen’s a close second), and since we keep that door closed at all times (see why, right here), it’s nice to not have to stare at our goofy faces in, say, the living room. No, we’d much rather reserve that for the kiddos.

How do you stash your booth strips?

After an Ikea day last week, Scott and I picked up – on a whim, among other items – the full length Stave in white. The hinges sold us (it swings out from the wall! Genius!), it’s thick and sturdy, and it was a very reasonable $39. In addition, it was one of those rare Ikea items that was made with quality-ish materials, reflecting a very normal-sized, very accurate “us.”

Ladies, I am sold on the full length. I can see my shoes. I can double check the pet fur on my backside and lint roll my jeggings (yeah, I said it) before walking out the door.

Oh, and it reflects light down the hall and yadda yadda, too.

We snapped the above phone photo last night while it was propped against our laundry door – reflecting our current messy hall, paint stained jeans, Jackie paws and all. Ten minutes later it was hung in a hidden hallway nook so it can swing towards the bedroom, making it easier for that out-the-door clothes check. When not in use, it stays flat against the wall. Again, genius.

In the midst of Operation Studio chaos, it felt really, really good to check off one project. An unplanned project, but a satisfying one nonetheless.

1. I love our office; it’s blue, and it’s pretty.
2. I always sort of assumed it was Scott’s space. Yes, I work from home more than half of the week, but I have my painting table, you see. I have my laptop and the kitchen counter, and everything’s been working just fine, yessum.
3. My studio? This has been our ongoing inside joke for the last year – it wasn’t meant to be real. Not yet. Every day, I dramatically discuss my plans for my studio. My future studio in our someday home. The one with more space.
4. But most importantly, he told me (in not so many words, of course) what I never had the courage to say out loud. Operation Pet Shop has outgrown it’s headquarters in the kitchen nook. It is real. It’s my real, legitimate job, and it’s working out. (Amazingly so. Thank you.) Moving into a space of my own makes it that much more real. And I got really excited (and scared!) about that.

Now, why he acted so no big deal about it was beyond me, especially when last week, he took his bikes off the ceiling and relegated them (with chains bigger than my head) to the basement. Yes, points 1 through 4 whizzed through my brain on repeat for the last several weeks, but my initial response to his dinner chatter was, uh, what about your bikes?!

Yet without thinking twice on his part, they were gone. And point 4 played over again (and again) in my head. To Scott, there’s no question that I’ve graduated to the office. He trusts me and this unconventional path I’ve chosen. He’s the cheese to my macaroni. Which is why a few short hours after those bikes came down, the office looked like this:

Over the course of that same week, we primed the blue (Distance by Behr), the trim and the doors. We painted the ceiling bright white, and we contemplated thirty shades of pink.

Now, in point 3 of my dream studio, the walls are pink. Did I not say that before? I also have a shaggy rug for my toes, large, expansive spaces for stuff, and ridiculous amounts of framed artwork. While I may need to reconsider my choices on rug and forgive the space shortcomings (this room is a pint-sized 8′x10′), the pink was a must.

First, a few close calls: Belle of the Ball by Behr (too fleshy), Reverie Pink by Behr (pretty in tone, but too much saturation for my taste), Pink Sea Salt by Martha Stewart (too peachy-cream), and the first runner up, Naiveté by Olympic. However, saying naiveté made me cringe, and so while it could have been the one, we tossed it.

The winner? Diana by Olympic. Can you see it? Soft and clean, it’s just the right touch of pinky-lilac for the future home of my inspirado. Which, ironically, is totally the opposite of her dubbed nickname, Dirty D. (You might remember it from Renee’s bedroom redo of yore, too.) Only the top half is finished in this photo, with more coats to come on the see-through bottom:

But as Scott boldly announced on Monday, we will not be a slave to this room. After a day of misfortune – between a failed crown molding install, a lack of base paint for more Dirty D and more arguments than I’d like to publicly admit – we’re taking this one step at a time. Sure, I’m writing this update from the kitchen counter, and yup, I’ll be painting your kiddos from the same table I’ve been doing so for the last year for a few more weeks, and that’s okay. I’m coolio with this table, and until completion, we’re having fun dreaming and sketching up the end result.

As for what’s on the to-do, here goes:

• Prime the walls, trim and doors
• Paint the walls, trim and doors (halfway completed)
• Install crown molding and chair rail
• Paint the painting table for the new room (yes, really)
• Sell and/or donate the unnecessary furniture (halfway completed)
• Design, build and install a storage wall (similar to our media wall)
• Decide on artwork for the room
• Clean, paint and prep thrifty frames
• Frame, mat and hang inspirational artwork (using this technique)
• Decide on lighting
• Decide on textiles: rug, curtains and upholstery for seating
• Buy the decided upon things. Budget. Install them.
• Re-stock painting, shipping and packaging supplies
• Pull it together like we own it
• Return to normalcy (we can only hope)

The first item had been checked off, but trust that we’ve dabbled (and have been continually dabbling) in the first half of the list for the last several days. In this between time, our hallway has been, um, fun to live with.

We’ll be chipping away one day at a time, and while we plan to take off some of our self-imposed pressure, we also hope to have a functional space by February. (Famous last words?) Regardless, I’ve slowly begun to realize that Scott was right – even in all his casual hey, why not? glory. With the office being known as “the room we store the bikes” for the last several years, it was no longer catering to our evolving needs. While it’s only beginning to make sense to me now, I’ve been pinning – with caution; this girl doesn’t like a cluttered board – my little heart out for the last three weeks. (Not to be confused with Sussudio, mmkay, Phil fans?)

The goal? A functional, inspirational and organized room. A room that makes me smile, surrounds me with creativity, and makes me eager to start my work day. A place for everything and everything in it’s place. And certainly no more of this working-from-the-kitchen-counter bull.

Because we’re curious, how would you design your “dream” room?

For better or worse, this weekend was our first test.

If you follow us on Facebook, you might’ve seen that a full-on office gut job has begun. The space is making a slow and steady transformation over to Kim’s dedicated studio space. It’s going to be awesome… when we finish it.

We made solid progress on Saturday. Trim and doors were given a fresh coat of white, walls were primed and painted (more on the color later) and the project was on schedule. Yesterday, on the other hand, was a total disaster. Honestly. What began with an awesome morning dog walk turned into the mother of all shitstorms.

A simple crown molding installation turned into a nightmare (dramatic, yes) that still isn’t completed. We spent $30 renting a nail gun and $15 on finishing nails we didn’t even use – much to Kim’s budget-crunching dismay. The light we ordered for the room was cancelled from the manufacturer when they realized they didn’t even have it in stock. I drove 30 minutes to Lowe’s to find that they had just sold their last gallon of base paint we needed to finish the walls. We wasted hours of time, argued over the right way to do things and accomplished absolutely nothing.

So what did we do? We quit.  Feeling totally defeated, I returned the unused nailgun and changed out of my painting clothes. Big effing deal. Our first pseudo-new years resolution was a success. When the stress got to be too much, we realized that we’d be happier and more productive another day on a fresh charge of the old batteries.

We hoped to have an awesome progress report post ready for your perusal today, but we don’t. And ya know what? We’ll all live. In the meantime, we realized we still had a bunch of fun, awesome thrift store adventures to share with you guys. While visiting Kim’s family in Pittsburgh over the holidays, we found some gems hidden throughout it’s hills and valleys – with our tops being UFO and Bill’s Furniture (found on our way to Retro on 8th, which turned out to be closed that day!). Here’s what we saw through Kim’s lens, including the much debated Dorothy Draper knock-off that I convinced her we positively did not need.

But what we took home are a few carefully selected gems that did make it to the back of the Subaru. They’ll all end up in my lady’s studio – eventually.

In other (non)monumental news, our ol’ wagon reached the 100k mark. While it didn’t quite make it during the triangle of terror, it did reach it’s target during the umpteenth trip to Lowes over the course of the nothing’s-going-quite-right Sunday. How appropriate.

More news on the studio progress (or lack thereof) in the coming days. In the meantime, any thrifty scores make their way into your home lately? Resolutions you’re willing to share? And who else photographs their car mileage milestones? (Yeah, we’re literally all over the place. Sorry ’bout that.)

We bought two tubes of toy animals from the craft store – one with zoo animals and the other with nothing but monkeys – and a small pack of eye hooks. For the full rundown of what we did, see what she did right here. After all, there’s no point in reinventing the already working wheel.

They’re tiny, cute, and perfect for prettying up our gifts to give. I’ve always been a fan of simple wrapping and clean bows, and these shiny embellishments finish it off just right.

Of course we only have one wrapped and ready, again with the whole oh, we’re so behind! thing. But that one gift is looking good, mind you. And because we got two tubes of toys, we were able to make 24 ornament-slash-gift-toppers, and we even kept a few favorites to amp up our sad, flood-washed collection.

The whole project took less than an afternoon, with the majority of time being spent literally watching paint dry. We were dorkily excited over the cuteness of it all (yup, Scott included), and we were reminded yet again to slow down and, you know, be crafty. Have some fun. Put no-good stress behind us, and stick that pesky, bossy to-do list on the back burner for another day. Especially at this time of year.

Do you have any holiday-themed DIYs to share? We’d love to see, get inspired, and pin the crap out of them.

PS… If you’re looking to give a Pet Shop gift certificate, your order should be placed no later than today to ensure a timely Christmakwanzakuh delivery. Have a question? Email us anytime!

1. I Am Home: We’d been discussing this skull for at least a year. Originally, we’d wanted a fuzzy, fuschia version (trust; it was cute), but in the end, we came home with the black chalkboard. To match our back splash, of course.

2. Couch Guitar Straps: I bought this guy on a total whim; maybe it was because they’re handmade in limited quantities – or maybe it was because of the other couple eye-ing it, too. Regardless, I couldn’t be happier with my impulse purchase, and we’re pretty sure any photographer on your list would swoon over their designs and durability. (Oh, they also have guitar straps and wallets. Mm-hm.)

3. McBitterson’s: It made me laugh. I couldn’t stop. I’d like to frame it for the small art wall so I can laugh every day. Scott says I can’t frame something that says Happy Birthday, but I don’t see why not?

4. Kin Ship Press: They were at the booth right next to us, and they were the cutest and the sweetest. Dan bought a pipe from Grandpa Pete, Hillary picked up a framed pig from us, and we bought this set of pillowcases from her. Win-win-win. (Even better – they also have a his/his and a hers/hers.)

While we love everything we got for us, believe it or not, we did pick up a few items for some folks on our to-buy list. Of course we can’t share those with you, just in case. After all, this isn’t the place for those sorts of secrets.

And on a random but totally noteworthy, well, note, Twitter confirmed our suspicions. When an incognito Joan Cusack asked me how much?, I might have squeaked an answer, but we can’t be sure. (We also may have seen School of Rock way too many times to count. We love you, Joan, and all your principal-ness.) She walked away empty handed, but rumor has it she scooped some animal art in the end – from Ryan Berkley. (And hey, we got some Ryan in our life, too!) But, Joan Cusack, do you want a painting? You know, we do custom work and everything.

Ah, anyway.

We hope this lil’ list of sorts spurs some holiday gift ideas of your own. And being that we are very (very!) behind on our shopping, fingers crossed a day in the ‘burbs this weekend can perform some Christmas miracles. Are you done? Tell us your behind, too.

Photos 1-3 are our own, photo 4 courtesy of Kin Ship Press.

One of the upsides to having a bitty home is that you can be most anywhere – and still see the tree. Part of that is our placement, and like every year prior, it hangs in our entryway (while the usual console takes a backseat to the basement). Seen from the hall? Uh-huh. The kitchen? Living room? Yes and yes. In the evenings, it’s a pretty sweet night light.

We lost a slew of ornaments in this summer’s flood (you might remember that we salvaged what we could), and we’re tisk-ing ourselves that we forgot to snag a three-year ornament while we were in Grand Rapids as part of our Christma-versary tradition. A few boxes of clearance ornaments had to do for now, and we’ll just have to start growing our collection again.

And because everyone loves a good bokeh tree, here’s a bokeh tree with our model man, Jack.

As two nuts that revel in all the holiday cheese, we’re a bit late to the game this year. While we normally enjoy a good tree trimming the Friday after Thanksgiving, over the years we’ve been slowly progressing into December, and this year, well, is it already mid-month? We blame busyness, but with the year wrapping up (fast!), it’s about time we take a few final weeks to really soak up the cheese, so to speak.

Are your homes dressed in holiday cheer? Or, perhaps, you’re a little behind, too? And hey, who can point us to a not-too-cutesy tree skirt? As you can see, we’re embarrassingly bare bones down there. Help!

PS… Don’t forget to check out our giveaway from Row Boat Press – ends tomorrow! And get free shipping on all (unframed) orders through December 25th using promo code yellowbrickhome.