At home in the office

I've been working on prettying up my office space here at home and recently completed two projects that have made a big difference.  The first was inspired by this serene pencil holder from up in the air somewhere.  I realized I could make my very own at the pottery painting studio down the street. I used masking tape to block off the sections and then painted them mustard yellow--a color good for all seasons. The lines turned out really bold, but I like it.

The desk blotter is a cheerful addition from Prudent Baby. The step by step tutorial is here. I chose two contrasting fabrics: a black and creme rose print and an eggplant linen. I bought a yard of each from a great store called U-Fab that sells a nice selection of discounted fabric by the yard.  I used roughly one half yard of the rose fabric and have enough to make another blotter if this one gets pen marks all over it, which is probably inevitable. I used such a small amount of the linen fabric for the accent bands and so I re-covered a push pin board that was part of Roscoe's original nursery--you can see it there in the corner.

My office feels like spring!