FINALLY, the transformation of the bonus room over the garage in our new house is complete!
When we decided to put in an offer on the house, we knew this room would eventually become my office, because if I was going to be working from home, I needed the larger office of the two of us (this is, of course, before COVID, so we had no clue Steve would be working from home, too). The more I kept thinking about turning this massive room into justan office, the less sense it made. I mean, I LOVE a good spacious, open room - but this one would've been overkill. I thought, "Well, I could just do like a sitting area on the other side.", but we've got places to sit and relax all over the house, one of which is a library, which is what I'd likely use my seating space in an office for (reading). So I started thinking about what else I could do. Suddenly, it just clicked. We didn't have an extra room in this house for me to convert to a closet - which had been on our list of "wants, not needs" - why not just treat this massive room as two rooms, and build a closet/dressing room from scratch? So, now that we had a plan, I couldn't WAIT to get started!
The room needed a total transformation. It was used as a bedroom by the previous owners. So fully carpeted, ugly green walls (sorry, I guess I should say "not my choice of color walls" - what's ugly to one person...), dated curtains, etc. I have a Before shot without the carpet. We'd already pulled it up before I thought to snag one.
So, first up was the flooring. Before you ask - we did the floor before the painting, because I had the hands available to help with ripping up carpet, removing the doors and tracks from the closet, and get started on laying the floor. It took a few oopsies to get down the installation, so it was slow-going the first couple nights, but once we got the process down, it went super fast. I did most of the full boards myself, and had help from a friend for the boards that needed to be trimmed down before being installed. The final result was SO much better than the carpeting.
Next up, painting! As you can see in the pictures above, the green was pea soup, and just NOT in my palette of acceptable wall colors. Since I now knew I was doing two rooms, I needed something neutral that would work for both rooms. Grey fit the bill. Once I got the walls painted, I started putting my office together. That meant unpacking all of the Oz boxes, and starting to arrange the shelves. By this time, Christmas was getting close, so I got to put up my Oz tree while I worked, as well. I took a picture of the final room, so everyone could see how pretty the wall color was, with the Oz stuff able to shine.
The only thing that was missing was the perfect chair. Lo and behold, a few months later, I found that, too!
Now, it was on to the big project (I know, like reflooring and painting aren't big enough, right?!): the closet. Now, I'll start this with a little backstory about me. My whole life, I've had fanciful dreams about what my house would be when I "grew up" (still waiting for that part to come). When I was little, I knew my house was going to have a spiral staircase, and a rotating door to get into the kitchen. Each room was going to have its own theme - one of which was a beach, with a hammock. As I got a little older, in my teenage years, it was the dream of having a house on the lake. We would pass them all while we were on boats in East TN, or North GA, and I would just fantasize about that being mine one day. As I got into my 20s and 30s, the one thing I knew I wanted was a room I could turn into a closet. Well, here we are, I'm pushing 40, and two out of three ain't bad! I'm on a lake, and I have my "room as a closet"! For these pictures, I am just going to show you progress pictures, with captions under each.
So first was putting clothes into the already-existing closet, and purses wherever they were out of the way.
Next came building the shoe rack.
Harvey appreciates shoes as much as her Mama.
I quickly realized I had enough room to fit two more shelves, so I put those on order while I continued to work.
Next up was the a-little-bit-of-everything rack. I also realized I had room for another jewelry shelf, so I put it on order with the additional shoe racks.
Coming along!
Jewelry rack, with rack #2 underneath it.
Two more racks of shoes makes it complete!
The vanity table was a nightmare to try and figure out. I searched and searched for tables that would fit around that floor heater, to no avail. Finally realized I had enough depth next to the shoe rack to use a desk, instead. It's worked out great. I have hair accessories in the left drawer, makeup in the right, and my extensive perfume collection and vanity mirror up top!
I added the bench next. Harvey approves. It has storage inside of it, so all of my boots are stored in there.
Then came the rug... I'm certain this is additional approval she's showing, here.
Then hung the mirror. This mirror was actually a stand-up that I converted to a wall mount, and I love how it turned out!!
Artwork was up next. I found a Canadian artist on Etsy that I fell in love with, and asked her to customize a few of her pieces for me. I'm saving those as a surprise in the video below, and will credit her at the bottom of this blog. Her artwork is exactly what floats around in my head, and what I would be sketching for myself, if my health conditions hadn't taken away my ability to do so. She's fantastically talented, and I encourage you to check out her stuff!
See that small-ish stack of purses in the first picture? It turns out to be way more that it looks like when you start color-coordinating all of them...
I built the purse shelves from some scrap lumber that my neighbor had. Cut it down (actually I didn't cut it down, but...), painted it, added brackets, and mounted on the last free space in the existing closet. The shelves need to be a little deeper, for how big a lot of my purses are (you'll see in the video), but I made it work. Lastly, I added a small laundry basket next to the sweaters, and the dressing room was complete*!
*Confession, I want to change the curtain "door", and I might add more artwork on the other side of the shoe rack, plus I need lighting - but complete for now.
So, finally... here it all is together. I've rearranged the clothes in their sections a couple times already, and probably will again. My OCD-tendencies and anxiety result in a lot of rearranging in any project I ever take on. Currently, the dresses for example, are by strapless, sleeveless, short sleeved, then long sleeved - and by color within each of those. I might change it to just color-coded, period. We'll see...
ENJOY!
As far as where everything came from - the desk was from Amazon. Chair came from Wayfair. Closet is all IKEA, other than the bench (Amazon), and the rug (Overstock). The artwork is from BrookeJadeStudio. I'll add the image here, so you can see all 4 drawings better than you see them in the video (I wanted Allie to be the feature, there).
So, the only thing left is to get at least one more bookshelf or storage cabinet for the office, so I can display the rest of my Oz stuff/spread out what's currently on the shelves, and have a place for all of my supplies, craft stuff, etc. The big projects are complete, and it's on to the next room!
I know what you're thinking. "Didn't she already do this blog?!" The answer is no. No, I didn't. I did the first Oz trip. But guess what??? ONE WASN'T ENOUGH.
So one thing you should know about me (or if you know me and are reading this, you already know this about me) is my birthday is usually a big deal every year. A month-long event. While I know this sounds incredibly selfish, it's never been about me drawing it out as much as possible (though don't get me wrong - I'm a Leo - the attention was never turned away). It was more that I had different groups of friends, family, co-workers, etc that I would celebrate with, so it always turned into weeks of celebrations. Well, this year I knew would be different. Everyone in my life is incredibly busy, as am I. So knowing I'd likely not have many celebrations, I decided I needed something different than the usual party at my house or going-out celebration on the actual day. After thinking about it, I decided a trip back to Oz would be fun, and after a few e-mails back and forth with my bestie, Kelly, we decided to go for it!
Now another thing that you should know, and likely have learned, if you're a regular reader of my blogs is I. LOVE. ROAD TRIPS. Hopping in the car and letting adventures happen is one of my most favorite things to do in life. I usually do these type of trips alone, because most people I know hate road trips, or can handle them but want to "hurry up and get there". I was worried about bringing up my fun road trip idea to Kelly until I remembered - she's used to long drives, given she has family in Nebraska. So I tossed it out there: what if we found quirky roadside attractions on the way to and from and stopped to take pictures? She was down with the idea, so I started researching.
The very first attraction I found while searching put my excitement level to warp factor 7.
A TRAIL OF STATUES OF ALL OF THE POPEYE CHARACTERS!!!!
Popeye was one of my favorite cartoons growing up. Mainly, I think, because my family used to tease me that I WAS Popeye (not sure why that didn't upset me, given I used to cry when people would tell me I looked like my Daddy, because I thought they meant I looked like a boy) because of my deep, passionate love of spinach. So the idea of reliving a piece of my childhood was very exciting for me. It was an instant "Add to trip" click. More research turned up a Buried Giant, Giant Concrete Teepee, and World's Largest Wren. We added them to the "if we have time/feel up to it" list.
So stop #1 was Popeye and his friends/enemies. I brought my Nikon and tripod, so we could get pictures with all of the statues with both of us, rather than doing individual pictures with them. We set the timer for 20 seconds and for it to take 5 pictures, so we could switch up poses and hopefully get 1 shot we both liked in the group. Two things you learn while doing this: 1) 20 seconds is either REALLY long, or my camera counted to 142 before starting to snap. 2) You run out of pose ideas very VERY fast.
Poopdeck Pappy
Castor Oyl
This is where the crazy lady was yelling at us from inside the hospital (see below). We got out of there as quickly as possible.
Sea Hag/Bernard the Vulture
Bluto!!!!!! (I geeked out so much I drove the wrong way in the parking lot)
Rough House
Professor Watasnozzle
Fun in the square!
WIMPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cole Oyl
Olive Oyl and Swee Pea
Alice the Goon
And the Piece de Resistance... POPEYE THE SAILOR MAN!
Now among the things that happened as we snapped these pictures: SEVERAL strange looks (you can't tell me we're the only ones that come to see the Popeye statues), a few fox whistles, a crazy person at the hospital yelling at us from inside, a stop for lunch at a "bar and grill" that didn't have a food menu - "we only have pizza", which I imagine was frozen pizza they would nuke if we requested, and a secondary attempt at lunch... until upon pulling up we realized we'd be shunned instantly because we have lady parts. This is a Man's World...
Chester, IL - you are interesting.
And so we moved on. Next up: the Buried Giant. Not gonna lie, the pics we saw of this beforehand didn't do it justice. It is MASSIVE. A really awesome sculpture. I would've loved to have been able to get pictures of it with no one there. But people have kids, and stuff.
So by the time we finished at the giant, we plugged in the address for the teepee, but got distracted by an outlet mall. Much shopping fun was had. As we got back on the road, we realized we were going to lose our light. So decided to go on to the hotel, and possibly hit the teepee/wren on the way home Sunday. Well, thanks to a random we-don't know-why traffic delay and a MASSIVE downpour (seriously, I was stressing - I don't see well at night anyway, thanks to my astigmatism - the rain made seeing to drive near impossible), our transit time got increased tremendously, and it became a matter of "What is our backup plan?" We had planned to try out a Mexican place in Manhattan, KS - where our hotel was - that night, but there was no way we'd be getting there before the kitchen closed. So we switched our plan to Party in the Room. Found a liquor store (That's a whole 'nother story. Good heavens.), got our wine, and hit the road again. This is actually the point the downpour hit, I got a bit ahead of myself. So, additional delay. By the time we actually got to the room/settled it was about 2 in the morning. We were exhausted. No party. Bed. Day one: 18 hours.
So on to Oz! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KATYBUG!!!!!!!!
Last time I went as Dorothy. For my birthday, a Wicked Witch felt more appropriate.
I took a ton of pictures at the museum and winery as I did last time, but they're a lot of what you saw on the previous blog, just with a better camera. So, in an attempt to long-story-short this blog (lost cause), I'll skip that and just give you this:
They were so sweet to put this in the party room for me!
A birthday selfie is required.
So after finishing our day at Oz, we made our way back to Manhattan. Did a little shopping, then went to dinner at Tallgrass Taphouse for birthday dinner. Rooftop dining with perfect weather, craft beer, yummy appetizers... can't ask for much more.
Plus, you know, this girl. :-)
Back to the hotel to rest up for the drive home the next day. Or that was Kelly's plan, anyway. Our day had too much going on, plus I needed to research the alternate route we were taking home for must-see stops. Katie-brain does not allow sleep when that much is happening. That being said, I was EXHAUSTED, and was reading sentences 4 times without understanding them. So, I made myself to go to bed and decided to plan our drive home the next morning, as I knew I'd have time while Kelly got ready (I'm a fast get-ready person. She is not.).
So the next morning, I discovered our alternate route still led us past the wren and teepee. And also discovered we'd be passing the World's Largest Fork. TRIP. BOOKED.
Total time for Day 3 was 12 hours. We encountered the wren, teepee, and fork. Tried an antique mall, but it might as well have been called a glass mall, as everything was glasses, goblets, crystal serveware, etc. Tried to stop at Osceola Cheese, and the line to get to the cheese was insane. Had I been by myself, not gonna lie - I might've stuck it out: I LOVE ME SOME CHEESE, Y'ALL - but for the sake of Kelly's sanity/the trip home we skipped out and kept going.
So here are the pics from the last of the Katybug Birthday road trip. I have some pretty "Katie's future photography business" pics as well, that I will likely add as a gallery to this blog eventually. I just need time to go through them and pick my favorites, edit, etc. This blog has already taken me two days. I don't need to delay it further. You get what you get, and you'll like it. Please like it. Again, I'm a Leo, I need attention...
I hate birds. I was ok with this one.
It is GIANT.
I feel like this fork deserves a meal beneath it!
So, anyway - Happy Birthday to me. On to more adventures!!
"It's always best to start at the beginning - and all you do is follow the Yellow Brick Road."
So to start at the beginning, for those that are new to the land of Katybug - here is a good start to introduce you to me (i.e. my Oz obsession). For those that know me, let's dive right in. In fact, let's just go through Dorothy's Oz journey!
Sepia (Kansas)
So years back, I discovered (likely because of a random Oz Google search) the existence of an Oz Museum in Wamego, KS. Made a mental note that one day I WOULD go. A few years later, I legit don't remember how I stumbled across Oz Winery's site. But again, mental note. Then happened to notice it was in Wamego, KS... and the bucket list trip was created and added to the list. A day at an Oz Museum followed by wine PLUS more OZ?!?!! Yes and YES. I didn't know when it would happen but knew it would.
Munchkinland
Cut to modern day, and Katie's plan to live life to its fullest. I decided now was the time. I was willing to go by myself, as I've discovered I actually have a lot of fun on solo trips, but tossed an invite out to numerous people to see if they wanted to join.
Now, mixed in between the bucket trip addition and modern day, there was the announcement that the Orpheum's Broadway tour this year would include Wizard of Oz. So, OF COURSE, I bought tickets to that back in December for a June show.
There are no coincidences in life. The weekend that worked best for our Oz trip happened to be the weekend of Oz at the Orpheum! So Friday at Oz in Memphis, then off to Kansas for a family visit and more Oz on Monday.
The Scarecrow
Appropriate, if you ask me, that this scene applies to this part of the story. The Scarecrow is my favorite character in The Wizard of Oz, and Dorothy's best friend. And I spent my Memphis Oz experience with MY best friend! She is a piece of my heart, so I wish we'd taken a picture of her Tin Man-inspired outfit. It was more perfect than I even processed that night! :-)
Waiting for the show to start. Selfies are always required.
We have matching Oz shoes (this IS a shoe blog, right?!), and I of course had to get a Betsey Oz fix in there with my purse.
Now, about my outfit that night: I knew I would be wearing "our" Ruby Slippers. So I just had to plan around that. Cue black pants. Then I thought "Oh, my black and white striped shirt would work. Matches the shoes." Suddenly occurred to me - I'll be dressed as the Wicked Witch of the East's legs! PERFECTION. Outfit selected. Presentation is everything.
*Note: I thought on the drive down there (too late), I should've bought a toy house and glued it to a headband so I could've been an accurate portrayal. But at least now I have a Halloween costume.
My review of the show (as posted the night of attending): "It was cute. Definitely wasn't blown away. I hated the way the Scarecrow was portrayed, and the Tin Man was annoying. THE. LION. WAS. AWESOME. Glinda's dress was mesmerizing. I wanted to kidnap that chunky little Toto dog. He got the loudest ovation at the end. Overall, I'm glad I went for the Oz experience, but wouldn't go again if it came back."
Tin Man
So Saturday morning, I hit the road for Kansas. Arrived late afternoon and spent a fun night visiting with family. Sunday we'd decided to do a day of antique-ing. Turns out, there was a beer/food truck festival going on down by the shops that day. Shopping, beer, and food... sign me up. We get to the first store, and I am immediately in love:
Started as a joke(ish), and rapidly progressed into me deciding I needed them. We decided to hit the other shops just in case I saw something else, or wanted to talk myself out of them. All I did was talk myself in to them more. PURCHASED. *Insert dramatic shipping story here and note: NEVER ship UPS. Just don't. Greyhound, if you have furniture/large items. FedEx for everything else.*
There were numerous other success stories from that day. Mom found some chairs, as well. We all found some little purchases here and there. One store we went in, the sales associate complimented me on my dress as soon as we came in the store. Later, I was looking at their novelty socks, and she came over and whispered "I have inappropriate socks, if you're interested.". BUT I thought she said "I have inappropriate thoughts.", and after being complimented the second I walked in the store, plus this, I was kind of like "Umm... ok, random stranger..." Once she kept talking and I realized what she had actually said, I started giggling uncontrollably and told her what I thought she'd said. We had a good hard laugh, and she said "Now I feel like I can't look you in the eye!"
Of all weekends for me to find this album - it happened to be Oz weekend?! MEANT. TO. BE.
Did I mention food trucks?! Buffalo chicken tots, FTW.
Cowardly Lion
So, Monday had finally arrived! Oz day!! We piled in the car and headed to Wamego. I found myself calmer than I expected, but I think most of that was that I had only slept like 2 hours. Once I had the museum in sight, I don't think the smile left my face.
Blue gingham shorts for Dorothy's dress with my Betsey Johnson Ruby Slippers. PRESENTATION IS EVERYTHING.
You start your journey in sepia (the gift shop, ticket counter, etc). The entrance to the museum is through Dorothy's house.
Here's the museum. Every display case, plus close-ups of certain parts. I have so many words, yet "Shucks folks, I'm speechless."
We had so much fun. Probably (likely) me more than my mom, aunt, and cousin.
Emerald City (The Wizard of Oz)
Museum tour over, time to head to the winery! I booked a private party/tasting for us - because if I was going to do it, I was going to do it right. We chose 4 hors d'oeuvres, and they paired the wines accordingly.
Our tasting room and custom menu. The Hot Pepper Bacon Jam was definitely the biggest hit (we all purchased some to bring home), but everything was DELICIOUS.
This was probably my favorite part of the day. Getting to geek out on Oz, and also laugh and chit-chat with family - well, that's a pretty good time, if you ask me. Also, discovering that they're allowed to ship wine to me (I've been told by other wineries that they can't ship to TN) was great. Because I really wanted to try their bubbly, but they're in a bottling cycle right now and didn't have any on-hand. Champagne/sparkling wine is my favorite. So I'm excited to order some. Plus be able to restock.
Not hard to guess who belongs to whom here, is it?
There's No Place Like Home
Well really, there are a couple places I'd rather be than Memphis. But that's "home" for now, so I digress. Time to bring the chairs home! I have left the home office in a state of disarray for months because I couldn't decide if it was worth setting up the room knowing I'd be leaving for Canada at some point. Once I got the chairs, I decided they deserved to be displayed appropriately. So I took on the task of unpacking about 20 boxes and setting up the shelves. Then I ordered curtains. And poppies for my Oz vase.
The Oz wine also found its home.
And, without further ado...
New chairs. Witch's legs curtains. Perfection.
And the panorama of the full room.
So that is my Oz journey. I may have mentioned presentation being important to me. So you're aware: this blog was written while wearing Oz knee socks.
