I’m back and a major to do list…

Wow, it feels so good to be back!  This past month has been both exhilarating and exhausting.  I’ve finished the majority of the work on Design Wars and I can’t wait for you all to see it!  This was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had in my design career.  It may be hard to top it, but there are lots of new projects in the works, so we will see…

That leads me to the second part of this post.  While I was working on the HGTV show, several of my clients have been waiting patiently.  At the same time, new clients have been calling.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m super excited about the opportunities and the growth of my business, but honestly all of this has come on a bit sooner than I had anticipated.  A good problem to have for sure, but I now have to prioritize a few things around my own home and get some projects done asap, so that I can move on to bigger and better things!

So I took  a page from Ally over at From The Right Bank and decided to make a to do list.  Hopefully, by putting it here on the blog, you, faithful readers, will keep me on task!  Ally did an amazing job with her to do list and I plan on doing the same.  Wondering what’s on the list?  Well, here it is…

1)  Set up two dedicated office spaces. It looks like Eric’s going to be working from home with his new job, so setting up two separate work spaces for us both is a must.  To be honest, I have always just worked where ever I wanted in the house, which put me at our kitchen island most of the time.  This was fine when there were just a couple of projects per month and the blog.  Now there are paint swatches, fabrics and catalogs all over the place and no where to eat meals, much less prepare them, so it’s time to figure out the office thing.

2)  Clean out the junk closet!  Okay, please tell me you all have one of these.  We have a closet off our bonus room upstairs that is a catch all for everything that doesn’t have a home anywhere else.  It’s always been this way, but for the most part you could get in it and find what you needed, that is until a few months ago.  Now, you can barely open the door and there’s no way anyone’s getting in there.  This closet is right outside the area that will be my new office space, so it has to be cleaned out to make room for my design stuff!

3)  Sort through all of the toys in the playroom/bonus room (again!).  It feels like we do this all the time, but our girls have way too many toys!  It’s really crazy and out of control.  Since the playroom/bonus room will also be home to my office, we have to purge again, now.

4)  Dismantle the guest room and set up Eric’s office.  We decided that the guest room would be the best place for Eric’s office.  He will need the most privacy, since I do most of my work while the girls’ are in school, but he will be working after they come home.  Our guest room is only used a few times a year which has always bothered me.  It’s basically wasted space all the rest of the year.  Our plan is to set up a Murphy bed or one of those air mattresses on stands that are supposed to be more comfortable than it’s on the floor cousin.  Any thoughts on this?  Have any of you used this kind of air mattress?  I’d love any input you can give me on this one.

5)  Redecorate my oldest’s room and finish my youngest’s.  Okay, let’s face it, unfortunately, these two may be a bit further down the list, but I really have to do it and soon or I’m going to have a major rebellion on my hands.  I’ll get to it girls, I promise.

So, there you have it.  It’s certainly not everything that needs to be done in my house, but it’s a start.  Once this items are completed, there are many other projects waiting to move up to the top of the list.

I hope you have all had a wonderful summer so far and I can’t wait to get back to my regular blogging schedule.  I’ve really missed it, maybe more than I even knew I would.  So, let me hear from you.  What do you want to see on the blog?  Any ideas on how to help me with my to do list?  Does your guest room do double duty in your home and if so, how do you handle it?  I can’t wait to hear from you all again!  Thank you so much for being so supportive while I was away!

There will be some exciting things happening here on the blog over the next few weeks leading up to my big debut on HGTV, so stayed tuned and take care!