mom's gonna snap!: Just a little Spray Paint…

With the warm and sunny weather this summer, I have been spending a lot of time in our home office. Why am I spending so much time in the office when it's so nice out? Now that I am working part-time, I am working from home more than I would prefer, so I set up in the office where I can also work on some fun projects. Plus, our office is sunny in the summer and it's just a happy place to be in our house.

A few years ago we designed and custom built a desk in our office that spans two walls and is perfect for the two of us to work in there together. By "we built", I mean hubby built, with assistance from his dad building the doors and countertop. One of these days I’ll clean it up, take some photos and share it with you. Or I will decide to be lazy and just keep it real, and show you what it usually looks like. Today is not that day though!

All this time in our office has left me staring up at our open shelving. Years ago we picked up a set of M & S bookends in Madison, WI and have enjoyed having our initials on display in our home. Unfortunately, they were black and just disappeared in our dark wood cabinetry. All summer they have been screaming at me for an update.

See? You can barely even see them!

Yes, this photo was cropped to keep you from seeing the top of our desk :)

Finally, on one of our many trips to Home Depot/Lowe’s/Menards, I picked up a can of spray paint and got down to business.

Now they add a fun pop of color to our shelves!

The Hunger Games and Harry Potter series are currently on our shelves. Anthony is totally into Harry Potter so I just recently pulled all of these books out and put them out on the shelf. He is so excited about them and tries to sneak the books down so he can read them when we are not looking. We have been reading the first book together and he is loving the movies so much that he can’t help but want to read ahead!

The black metal case on the middle left shelf is a special family piece. It’s from my grandfather and dad’s creamery. I’m really not sure how old it is, I just think it’s a really neat piece to have since it is from the family creamery that closed in the 80’s. I have great childhood memories of my time spent with my dad and grandparents at the creamery. Mostly my favorites are eating fresh squeaky cheese curds (daily!), fresh butter (weekly!) and dipping my wet hand into the salt bin and licking it clean (gross, I know!). My brother and I also spent many hours riding around in the milk truck, going from farm to farm. I think my favorite parts of the milk route were when my dad would sing the Statler Brothers music (sorry dad, but I loved it!) and playing with all of the barn kitties at each farm.

The Think sign is a vintage IBM piece. Hubby has worked at IBM for years and his grandfather’s brother, a retired IBM’er had this. Once he passed away, it was given to my hubby since he works for IBM.

When my grandmother passed away and we helped prep for an auction (she had a FULL house), I chose to keep a few vintage books that belonged to my dad and his siblings. All of the stories are “classics” to me: Anne of Green Gables, Wyatt Earp, Nancy Drew, Little Women, Tom Sawyer, Robin Hood, and a few others. I like to have a mix of “family” thrown into the display, just for fun. Decorating open shelving is certain not my forte, I just chose to showcase some pieces that are important to us!

Hubby helped coach t-ball this summer and the head coach had all of the players sign a ball for each of the assistant coaches – what a fun memory from his first summer coaching ball!

This rock cracks me up! Hubby made this when he was a kid and a few years ago it was gifted back to him. We proudly have it on display in our office! (Please ignore the dust behind it… No one ever gets close enough to see that dust, except for you….)