Help! I Need Your Advice

It was one of my goals for this year to redo and sell a few pieces of furniture.  I have no more room in my own house but I want to continue to enjoy rehabilitating furniture and accessories.

And now that the opportunity has presented itself I have no idea about how to charge for my time or my finished projects.

So I thought I would ask all of you here in the bloggosphere.

A few months ago I ended up bringing a little dining table home from my daughter’s in San Diego.  I gave it a little face lift by painting the base a bright white and I continued the makeover by painting the top with black chalkboard paint.

After way too much thought I listed the table on Craig’s List.  That lead to a request for me to paint a child’s desk top in chalkboard paint.  I am thrilled, after all this is what I wanted but I have really tough time putting a value on my work. 

So I am hoping those of you who sell your work and those of you who buy the work of others could give me some much needed advice right away.  Specifically, 1) what price do you think I should set for the table and 2) how do you set a price on your work.  I can only put this lady off for so long so please hurry.  I can’t wait to read your comments.

Thanks,

Traci

I want to thank all of you who left comments or sent me messages after the death of my father.  All of your kind words were much needed and very appreciated. 

I accidentally published a post I was working on but other than that I have not felt like posting until now.  It is time to get back to my routines so hopefully I will be posting on Monday.

Thank you again for all your kind words,

Thinking Outside the Box or In this Case the Floorplan

Quite awhile ago I shared a picture of my then 20 year old son’s bedroom before I went in to clean it out.  He has sooo much packed into the smallest room in the house and that got me to thinking recently.  And that thinking lead to rearranging a third of the house, all while we were working on the wood flooring.  But once I got the idea I wanted it done yesterday. 

So here is what we did.  We took the living room furniture and moved it to the office. 

Then we moved my son’s furniture and belongings to the living room.  While most living rooms would not work as a bedroom ours is separated from the rest of the house by pocket doors leaving only an opening from the bar area into the living room open.  More on that later. 

The final move involved putting all my sewing, painting, and craft supplies into my son’s old room. Please believe when I write that it no longer looks this bad. 

This gives my son more room and privacy, moves him to the other side of the house giving us more privacy, and I ended up with a room all to myself.  Everybody is happy!

So I have been working on a few elements of the room that I wanted to share.  I have been very inspired by Susan’s new office over at BNOTP.  But I have a slightly smaller budget.  Actually it is so small that there is no budget and I always find that challenge exciting.

This is definately a room that calls out to be functional.  But I want it to look as uncluttered as possible so first up was a way to hide unfinished projects.  Luckily for me my daughter no longer had a use for three bifold door panels that I had replaced when we moved in so I put those babies to work. Right after I painted them

There is no need to adjust your monitor they really were that bright.  And since this is a no budget job I used all of these partial cans of spray paint to cover up all that green.

I did end up buying a new trigger for spray paint cans and two cans of vanilla colored spray paint but that is more like a weekly expense for me so I am not counting.  If you don’t have a trigger for spray paint you need to drop everything and rush out to get one right now.  The trigger makes it soooo much easier.

Up next is repurposing a $30 table to give me some work space  for all my crafts and supplies.

Thanks so much for reading,

Traci

Farewell To My Father

I featured my dad in a few posts last summer and so somehow it seems appropriate to write a post his passing.
My dad collapsed while getting ready for bed last week my stepmother called 911 and they were able to revive my dad but not before irreversable damage was done to his heart and brain.  My husband and I arrived on Friday and I spent almost every moment of the next two days with my dad.  On the second day he was able to open his eyes periodically and look at us but he did not seem to know who we were.  He was not even able to follow the most simple request to blink his eyes. His heart was so damaged it was not capable of pumping enough blood to keep his organs going.  He probably did not understand this and that may have been for the best because not being able to take care of himself was his worst fear,  and he never wanted to be bed bound.
 He had requested many times during the last ten years that if he could not be himself he wished not live. 
So the doctors ran tests and used drugs to try to minimize the damage to his heart and brain but  unfortuntaley they were unsuccessful.  My stepmother and I decided that in order to follow my father's wishes we had the all of the 13 drugs and the ventilator and breathing tube removed.  He was started on morphine for comfort.
I had no idea if my dad was able to understand me but I had told him when I arrived that I would make sure that his wishes were followed.  After I had informed the rest of our family of our decision I had a few moments alone with my dad.  And as I explained what was going to happen I started crying. My dad looked at me and his eyes filled with tears.  Some part of his brain was upset that I was crying. 
We all said your goodbyes most of the family left the hospital.  My step mother did not want to stay but my step sister and niece stayed and kept vigil with me,
I was there with my father to wipe his brow and put moisturizer on his lips.  I wanted his passing to be as quick and  painless as possible.  Without the support from the drugs his damaged kidneys stopped making urine and his blood pressure dropped downed to dangerous levels. It took about 4 hours for before his body could no longer survive and he sliped quietly away.
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Here he is seated in his favorite patio chair looking like he is barely tollorating the attendion of having his picture taken.

It is unbelievable to me how sad I am and how much needs to be done.  While I have been home for a few days I am returning to see my dad's ashs interred.

Thanks for reading,