Home Studio Reveal

Over the past couple months, Love of Character has been busy busy with orders and I've been working in a crammed space, mainly on the floor. Made for filling orders a cluster. Well last weekend, my mother came over and we got to work on organizing my space! Dustin and I decided it would make the most sense to convert the original guestroom to a work space, and move the guestroom to the smaller room...sorry guests! At least that way, our guests still have a space, and I promise to make it pretty for you. I will admit to you all that I had a couple meltdown moments. One because I felt like a hot disorganized mess; two, because I was sad that all of the hard work we put into the guestroom and office was short lived. I needed to move on, however, and do what was best for the business (and our sanity).

This room is the perfect space for my at home studio! The amount of light alone makes it a brighter place to work. With the bed out of the room, we were able to put my standing work desk in the middle of the room. Makes it much more useful than when it was against the wall. We also had more room to organize my products, shipping supplies and tools. Check it out for yourself...

Scored this adorable yellow stool at TJ Maxx today for $30! It is a smidge high, but good for breaks.

Work table from Overstock.com - works great, but when we were moving it around, it was quite flimsy (aka put it in place and don't move it!) I also had Dustin and my father-in-law build wooden boxes to prop it up to a standing level. Without, it was a normal desk height.

Love having my ribbons on the desk where I can easily pull from. I ordered this holder from Amazon and it is meant to go on the wall, but works fine on a desk. I will say, the bars are not far apart enough to hold two rows of ribbon, but it does work great for holding washi tapes.

The work station I purchased comes with nice built in shelves - perfect for holding pretty legal pads!

With the great built ins we have, my mom wanted to make a mail station (see center section). We also put the snacks and hair tie containers on here as well.  Works as a great storage situation.

The Rifle Paper Co. calendar adds a nice pop and I can check my shipment dates. Also, how cute does my shipping tape looked stacked up instead of in a box!

So nice having the computer and my products in the same room! Makes shipping and printing orders 100x easier. The desktop backdrop is a good reminder for myself - "You can do anything, but not everything"...important for girl bosses to realize! You can find the wallpaper here.

One of my favorite parts to the room, is the new IKEA cube shelving unit. It stores my products, keeps them organized and helps them look pretty.

Last Sunday was brutal and I could not have done it without my mother (she is a tough cookie! which was much needed). It was so worth it. I feel so happy and productive in my new space. The flow is great and everything is right there. Having my work space clear to make the boxes has been much more comfortable then scrunching up on the floor trying to pull everything together. In love and feel more like a girl boss! Now back to busting out more boxes in my beautiful home studio....

Busy working on some Tiny Boxes of Party Character for a wedding next weekend. 

Made some Little Boxes of Bachelorette Character for a Bridal Luncheon - switched a couple items and viola! Look so good on the new table.

Thanks again Mom and Dustin for the help! Also, special shout out to Dustin for finishing his Masters! So proud.

Lots of Love,

Smorgasbord of Home Updates

When you have as many projects going on as we do, things get a little crazy around the house. Now, none of them are necessarily BIG projects, but all of these medium projects are causing chaos. We wanted to give you an update and some good laughs on each of our projects, so here we go...

1. The tiny bathroom that is feeling massive. I am going to be painting flowers for the next year if I keep up at this pace. Obviously wanting the painting to look good, I'm having to move rather slowly. A dozen flower bunches can easily take a couple hours and that's usually what I can sneak in here and there. Luckily, I'm loving how it's turning out and it is something I enjoy doing. I just get anxious when I want to get a project done...not allowed with this one! I'm now trying to decide if I just do the upper half or if I want to go with the full "wow" effect by doing the whole thing. Here is where we stand and the sad thing is, Dustin reminded me a mirror is going on this wall...sad realization, but if I ever switch the mirror I'll want the pattern there (is what I keep telling myself).

We also have a lovely new fixture in our dining room:

You know you've lost it when you start referring to a toilet as "cute."

2. The fireplace that is seeping into other areas of the house. I mean that literally. Time for the the funny story: My wonderful husband ripped out the nasty tile that was there before and then had to fill up the holes where the tiles stuck too well. He had it all ready to go for the thin leveling concrete substance. Got that all measured out, stirred and then poured it over the hearth. It looked smooth, filled the space and he was proud. Sitting there he realized one side started to look lower and then lower and then panic set in. He ran downstairs and there was concrete dripping through the ceiling. Now, luckily (for this situation) our basement is unfinished and we just use it for storage. Unluckily, it dripped right on top of his tools stored down there. He was not a happy camper and of course his lovely wife picked that exact moment to call him to "check in"...whoops! It eventually stopped, just caused some clean up. Nothing is easy...

Leveling round two was done with a little anger and is not as smooth...we are told we can smooth out when putting the tile on.

3. The island in uneven territory. The island project is actually the one we are feeling good about because Dustin has been working hard to get the cabinets painted! I think they look awesome and I'm definitely glad we went in the direction of unfinished cabinets. Now we need to find somewhere level to attach the three cabinets together...which might be impossible in our 92 year old home. We have to get them attached on level ground, so we can level out the bottom on our uneven floor by adding a wider base. The good news is that the ceiling fan in there has been making a terrible noise, so I no longer have to convince Dustin to get rid of it. Painting and hearing that awful noise has helped him decide a pretty light is better!

4. The magic carpet that Teddy likes to ride. On a happy note, Teddy is doing much better! He is recovering and back to his peppy self...thank goodness! Sad teddy made me feel so bad.

Like the rug? It's our new office rug! Remember I asked you all for opinions a while back on rugs in this post? Well I ordered the popular choice number one and it was backordered forever. When it came the colors looked different and I didn't like it. I thought the accent color was orange, but it ended up being a weird brown. Love free returns and shipped it back. Found a new addition to the Urban Outfitters rug collection and fell in love! Teddy has been enjoying it as well and it's his new favorite spot to watch me work.

We have another project we are crazily deciding to start hopefully this month, but this one we are hiring out for - yay! I will give you all updates on that one soon.

Hope I didn't wear you out with our crazy projects...I keep telling myself we will get there eventually!

Lots of Love,

Mom's Office Reveal!

My mother and I are so excited to reveal her fabulous, new office! It is the perfect matching of feminine and grown-up. I'm so glad she finally lightened up her dark and boring office - office work is dull enough already! This morning we went on a mission to find the finishing touches and we major scored on some great pieces. Check them out...

Oh hello new office!

Mom spray painted the frame of this great home portrait - the gold on the Posy pink is perfect.

Today at Hobby Lobby we last minute stumbled upon these fun bulletin boards after we thought all hope was lost!

This amazing lamp was a total score from Target today - had to have!

Notice the cute Love of Character legal pads! These were some of the originals that inspired us to make some for the shop.

Desk is my childhood desk that she spray painted white - we might try to find something bigger, but it works for now.

Rug | Pink Boxes | Lamp | Bullet Boards | Calendar | Legal Pads | Tape Dispenser | Stapler | Wall Color | Mug | Ghost Chair

Now she needs to get to work! It will definitely be more cheerful now that she has a gorgeous office. And seriously, that rug makes the room. We ordered that thing back on Christmas day because she fell in love. So fun to see everything finally come together!

Lots of Love,

New Project: Mom's Office

Hi all! Sorry for the lack of posts this past week, we had a lot going on and I had to put my focus elsewhere. We got through and I'm ready to get back on track! With that said, I have an update on an ongoing project and have a new project to add to the list.

Update on the powder room project: Dustin ripped out the tile this morning! Yay! Slowly (and I mean slowly) moving along. He wanted to start on the walls again, but his allergies are already bad and the dust sends him over the edge. Hopefully his allergist can help him out, so we can get those walls ready for some pretty paint!

New project: Mom's office! While hanging out on Christmas, we decided mom needs to girl up her office and make it a happier place to be. The project started with some fabulous inspiration:

Bright new rug from RUGS USA

The minute we saw this rug, we new it was the perfect starting point for her cheery office. RUGS USA is one of my favorite places to get rugs because they are constantly having great specials. We also ordered the same pink boxes from IKEA that my Aunt Mary and I have for our offices:

These boxes are affordable, come in different sizes and come in a few different colors!

For her desk situation, she already has a pretty ghost chair to use, but her desk is too small. We are looking for a table that we can make work for the space. Thinking it could be a potential IKEA hack situation. Something like this table could work, if we spray painted the legs gold:

Affordable IKEA table

Bizchair is a great place to find chairs, especially ghost chairs.

For the light, we fell in love with this World Market pendent:

Paint wise, we are going to try for a barely there pink similar to our office. We think it will be a good way to add an elegant girly touch, plus it will tie the rug, boxes and accessories together.

Alright Mom, your office has been posted about...now we have to make it happen! We will keep you posted as we make progress.

Lots of Love,

Office Reorganized - Rug Search

With all the business fun going on - which is going well by the way - I needed to reorganize my office to handle the shop items! I went to Target a couple weekends ago and I was uninspired by the plastic, usual storage containers. Then I remembered the fun boxes we ordered for my Aunt Mary and for my mom from IKEA - of course I needed the same!  They are much better for organizing my items and much brighter for my space:

IKEA Shelves | IKEA Boxes: Large, Flat & Small | Chair Details | Target Zig Zag Wire Basket

By the way, IKEA shipping is finally reasonable! I ordered the shelves and boxes all online and it was shipped right to my house.

Now that we have reorganized, there is a bigger open space in the office. It is calling for a fun rug and I need to decide what direction I want to go in. Here are some fun ones I've stumbled upon:

Urban Outfitters

Urban Outfitters

RUGS USA

RUGS USA

I'm leaning towards the patterns of the UO rugs and I like the flatness of them in case I want to do crafts on them. All are so fun though, and I'm sure I'll continue to go back and forth! Love having this as my little girly, pink corner of the house because it is full of character and inspires my work.

Side note, I have exciting shop news! I am adding another brand to the mix, Designs by Nicolina. I have ordered a few of her greeting cards and a great print. Make sure to check them out!

Love of Character - Paper Goods

Also, check out my friend's new blog and enter to win my giveaway! I would love it if you all entered 1. because you could win a cute Little Box of Character 2. I would love your support! It is a fabulous blog for Wichita area moms (it can really pertain to any mom!) and has different local contributors:

http://citymomsblog.com/wichita/

Lots of Love,

Office Chair Makeover

Working on the website, I have been in our office a lot. While at the computer, I have realized that our cute, gold office chairs are not the most comfortable things in the world. They were fine for recreational computer use, but not for constant work use. I wanted to find an alternative, but cute office chairs can be so expensive. Not wanting to pay hundreds, I put it off. That is, until I was strolling through Target yesterday and stumbled upon a find:

Target Room Essentials Grey Linen Office Chair

I liked the grey upholstery, but it was still lacking a little something to work in our office. You probably guessed it...gold! Being only $69.99, I thought I'd give this baby a whirl and spray paint the legs gold. It was extremely simple and I love how it turned out.

As always, I use my favorite gold spray paint:

Rust-Oleum Metallic Gold

Only two pieces to spray paint!

I love how it turned out and it matches the other gold accents in our office:

Photos via me

Had to get a picture in with Teddy (he's extremely furry at the moment)! Now we can work on the computer a little more comfortably - good ergonomic thinking! I love what a can of $4 spray paint can do.

Lots of Love,