First, we’ve decided to have a party. Since we haven’t had one in three years that is a big deal. It’s going to be a costume party. My husband wants it to be themed, but I think it’s already “themed” by being a costume party. We figure we’ll invite everyone we know and their spouses, for a total of about 76 people, and hope that more than a quarter show up.

Second, we’ve finally decided what to do about moving the rooms in the house. We have a room over the garage which is presently called “the office.” It’s the main reason we bought this house. At the time we purchased the home, my husband was working out of the house as a consultant. He needed an office away from us. It worked great for that. However, now it is mostly used for junk storage, although he does use it on the weekends sometimes to work.

I wanted to turn it into a teen room. Our boys aren’t quite there yet, but they will be soon. I figured that if we moved the foozball table over there and got a couch and the computers set up over there… Well, I thought it would be cool. After going back and forth with the idea, though, we decided we weren’t quite ready to let our kids migrate out of the house that much. So the computers are staying in the computer room. We are moving a couch over and a table and the foozball table. We are taking out the table that is there and bringing it into the house to replace our dining room table which is fragile. I’ll put the leaves down on it and put it somewhere. I have some ideas, but I’m not totally sure about it yet.

The teen room is going to happen on Friday, I hope. My dad and brother are supposed to be coming over to help me move furniture. I figure with them and my husband, who is off Friday after all, we can get the moving done quickly.

While I was contemplating all the movement I thought, what can I do to make my living room more functional? Right now it is primarily used as the laundry room. That is, I take the clothes out of the dryer and dump them on the living room couch to fold them and then I make piles of clothes on the coffee table. Even after most of the clothes are put away the unmatched socks tend to stay on the couch for days.

Looking for more functionality, I decided I could make the living room my office. I have a beautiful Duncan Fife desk which I love and it’s been well preserved. I pulled it out of our bedroom and put it up against the wall with the stereo. It’s sitting a bit off center of the beautiful blue pear oil painting my husband bought me for Christmas two years ago. I have a chunky cobalt and turquoise glass vase sitting under it. My black Powerbook sits in the middle. It looks elegant, even in the living room. Having it there does encourage me to get my grading done so that I can put my books away.

I’m going to take one of the couches from the living room out and put it upstairs in the new teen room. It will make a lot more space available in the living room. Not that we need space, but the two regular size couches are hard to configure even in a reasonably large room.

I am considering pulling the bookshelf out of the entry way and putting it next to the desk. It would give me somewhere to put my school books and would open th entryway back up. It doesn’t really need opening up, but I would like somewhere to put my school books. I think a tall shelf would look better than a short one.

Another life detial involves our bedroom. Our bedroom is much emptier now that it does not have a desk in it. R wanted a dresser in our room. I’ve seen some beautiful ones, most of which were out of my budget. I did find one that I can afford, but it’s almost my whole allowance for two months and I don’t really think he wants a dresser that much. In fact, I’m sure he doesn’t.

One of the things that was hard about looking for a dresser was I found some beautiful furniture I really liked but can’t afford. There was a solid rosewood sideboard in a Queen Anne style. It was only $600. But I can’t afford that. Plus, where would I put another sideboard? I already have one in the entryway. Then there was a leather padded sleigh bed. With delivery and taxes it was $600. That’s a great price, but I don’t have that much money in my budget. So no go on that one either. Today I stopped at a place and found a gorgeous dresser set, Duncan Fife, which matches my desk. But it is $800. Don’t have that much for sure. And of course there was a great condition absolutely beautiful Duncan Fife dining room set for $1500. Now I already have one of these, but if I could afford it, I would have bought this one. The table is in good shape and with my blue glass collection I would love to have another china cabinet I need to fill up. Plus, the sideboard for this set was massive enough that it would work as a dresser. And, though two of my chairs are nice, the rest are replacements and not as beautiful as the ones in this set. My aunt and uncle have requested my chairs if I ever get rid of them and that would be so fun, to let them go to someone else in my family… But it’s not going to happen.

Our bedroom has a huge comfy queen size bed in it that my folks bought us as a very early Christmas present. We had been sleeping in a full. The cover on the bed is a beautiful black with a gold/tan traditional print. It was my sister’s and when she redid one of her rooms, she gave it to me. It is very nice and was very expensive. However, it is not to my taste. I would really like to have a bedspread that is more my style. So far, however, the colors I’m looking for aren’t coming in anything that would work. We have a beautiful blue-green carpet in our room. My cedar chest has a green cushion on it. The walls are cream/beige/vanilla. We have two beautiful paintings with accent colors of orange and blue. The drapes, very simple panels, are rust. They match the background of the paintings, but… Basically nothing goes with anything in there. I would really like to have it all go together. It doesn’t look like that is going to happen for a while.

Another life detail involves the kitchen. For the last twelve years we’ve been using black plates. I like black, wear it all the time, but on my dark table, you can’t even see the plates. I was tired of them and I wanted something with more color. I finally found some plates I like. I bought a set of eight. But I haven’t bought the dessert plates or the bowls or the serving pieces. I’m thinking I really need a set of sixteen. If something gets broken, I still want to have a good set. Plus, I would love to be able to use the dessert plates for the party we’re planning. But that’d be a bunch of my allowance and I’m afraid to spend it for fear I won’t have enough for something we need.

How’s that for crazy? If we need it, we’ll get it. We won’t need my spending money for it, will we? But I have often (not always) put my birthday money into the family kitty without getting something special for me. I don’t want to do that anymore. I guess I should just get what I want and let the whole thing work out.

I want to go shopping right now and at 6 am. There’s a sale at Foley’s… Maybe I should go.