simple desktop designs

I'm always changing up the image on my desktop... I get bored easily and like to keep things fresh. Sometimes super busy designs make it difficult to see the folders on my desktop, and they're not exactly calming, either. Thanks to How About Orange, I found these charming and perfectly minimal desktop designs yesterday.

There are a slew of others to be found at simpledesktops.com. Have fun!

PS - which one do you think is on my desktop right now? :)

on the turntable: Melody Gardot

I had heard of Melody Gardot before, but it wasn't until a few weeks ago while watching an interview with her on CBS Sunday Morning (one of my favorite shows) that I learned her full story. A Philadelphian tried and true, she was riding her bike through the city at the age of 18 when she was hit by an SUV that ran a red light (the driver fled the scene). She was left with serious spine and head injuries and confined to a bed for a year; the head injuries left her hyper-sensitive to sound and light, and she was forced to relearn how to speak coherently and walk. She wears dark glasses most of the time due to her light sensitivity, and walks with a cane since she is prone to bouts of vertigo.

Having had an interest in music when she was younger, Melody used music therapy to aid in her recovery and found a true talent for songwriting in the process. Her music is extremely soulful and her story makes her all that much more intriguing.


(Pardon the cheesy album cover... this is the only version YouTube would let me embed!)

home office mini-makeover, part two

(read part one here)

Once we (and by "we" I mean Nick) got the new curtains up, I was anxious to get my home office fully functional and pretty, to boot. The Ikea in Conshohocken, PA, that is closest to us (where we got all of the pieces for the curtain project) did not have the Skruvsta swivel chair that I wanted, but the Ikea in Philadelphia did. Since I am impatient, my wonderful Nick headed out there the next day to pick it up for me. Isn't he nice?

Once I had my chair, I got to work really setting up an organized, inspiring and productivity-inducing workspace. Remember what we started with?

Well here's what we ended up with.

I absolutely love it, and I love sitting down here to work each morning. The natural sunlight flows in all day long (even when I took these pictures it was raining cats and dogs but the room is still bright and cheery without any lights on) and it's my very own little space.

Here's a little bit more of my home office.

The view from the kitchen doorway. If Nick is watching tv in the living room while I'm working into the night, I can just close the French doors you see on the right to have a bit more privacy.

Behind my desk sits this beautiful breakfront; it used to live in our old house on Claremont Road (the namesake for this blog), but when my mom sold that house and moved in with my stepdad, he already had a full dining room set. She saved her old dining room set for me (currently it's in her basement), and the breakfront lives with me now. The top portion holds wine glasses, my grandmother's China, books and design samples; the drawers on the bottom hold electronic cords, manuals, and discs of archived work. Over the years I've tucked tons of photos (mostly of friends' kids) into the panes on the glass so it doesn't look like such a formal piece. I look forward to having this in my future dining room someday. (To the right of the breakfront is the doorway to our kitchen.)

I think I bought this bookshelf for $12 in college when I was moving into a house to share with 3 other girls. It currently houses a mix of books that both Nick and I own, as well as a few photos of his grandfather and great uncle.

On top of the bookshelf sits this framed poster, one of the few things I bought when I went to Paris for a long weekend in 2001 during my study abroad trip to London. Les Années Pop was an amazing exhibit at the Musée D'orsay about pop culture.

My MacBook Pro now lives on the desk; I try not to get back in the habit of sitting on the couch with Mac on my lap.

Above my desk sits this cork board with some little things that I like... Operation NICE stickers from my friend Melissa, a letterpress Valentine from the lovely ladies at Orange Beautiful, a handout I got at a Johnny Cupcakes lecture, some sweet letterpress items from designer friends, our 2010 Valentine, a program from our wedding ceremony, a photo of my grandmother as a young woman, fun fortunes from fortune cookies, and old driver's licenses. (Yes, I'm weird and I like to keep my old driver's licenses. Am I the only one who does this??)

Next to the cork board is a Yellena print that my brother and sister-in-law gave to me for Christmas (left) and a screen print that I made in college... it's one of my favorite pieces.

I picked up some fun file folders from Target that sit to the left; in front of that, my Night Owl Paper Goods woodgrain desk calendar and inMotion speaker for listening to ma' tunes all day long. A few photos and other fun trinkets spruce up the windowsill.

Since the desk is juuuuust short of being wide enough to sit on top of our radiator, the desk actually sits about a foot out from the wall. I rigged up some risers that sit on top of the radiator so my printer and little shelf that holds copy paper don't take up valuable real estate on my actual desk, but they're also not melting away on top of the radiator (which doesn't ever actually get warm enough that it would melt anything, but I'm paranoid like that). My printer is a little HP printer/copier combo that was free with my MacBook Pro 2.5 years ago; I don't use it for printing jobs since I outsource most of my printing, but it's a great little printer and copier for day-to-day needs.

Overall, the space makes me super happy, and it didn't cost much money at all to spruce up; so far, working from home has been a great experience and I have never felt happier. Plus, on days that I don't have to go anywhere, it's pretty nice to work in PJs and slippers :)

What does your home office look like? Do you actually use it?

PS, that cool flip-clock screen saver can be downloaded here — just click the floppy disc image on the left and it will guide you to downloading!

home office mini-makeover, part one (and an update)

Last month I mentioned that I bought myself a purrrty new desk chair and I promised a peek into my home office mini-makeover.

What I haven't mentioned is that I was intent on creating a cozy home workspace because starting February 1, I became self-employed! Those of you who follow me on Twitter may have caught wind of this, and I haven't made a big announcement yet here on Claremont Road because I'm still sort of getting settled into my new role. I have some cool projects up my sleeve that I'll be sure to fill you in on in due time, but for now, I thought I'd let you in on the office mini-makeover.

Our apartment is set up with this weird little half-room in between our living room and kitchen. It houses our washer-dryer unit (which I have hidden behind a curtain), and it could serve as a small dining room if we wanted, but that idea never really appealed to us. We have a bistro table in a corner of our living room where we eat dinner together, and that's plenty for us. At one point, I had a small sofa in the half-room, making it a little reading nook, but I think I sat there maybe once. For the last several years the half-room has housed this great desk that my sister-in-law gave me when she no longer needed it, but it has always turned into the place where we piled all of the junk that had no home. I never sat down at the desk to work on my laptop — I always ended up working on the couch, and the desk remained the catchall for crap.

Obligatory before shots:

Ugly flowery pattern curtain and desk (I cleaned it off for this photo, mwaa haa haaaa), as seen through the French doors separating this room and the living room

Curtain opened to reveal washer/dryer on the right and a baker's rack piled high with stuff on the left... this space is a godsend since we only have two tiny bedroom closets, a small kitchen and very little storage space elsewhere

With my new role as self-employed designer extraordinaire, I knew that I needed a cozy workspace that was just mine — something that would help me to stay organized and productive. Part one of this was removing the so-not-my-taste-anymore (and not wide enough) curtains that my mom quickly fashioned for me out of cheapo clearance fabric when I first moved in here 5.5 years ago. I was 24 and cheap, and thought it would do the trick. The sagging curtain rod was so pathetic, but I just never wanted to put money into changing it.

I finally had enough last month and Nick and I headed to Ikea, where we purchased the following:

two pairs of Lenda curtains, light beige, 98" long - $14.99 per pair

Dignitet curtain wire - $14.99
three packs of Dignitet curtain rings with clips - $4.99 per pack
a box of Fixa screws/plugs - $3.99
Grand total: $63.93

Nick got to work as soon as we got home (he's a saint) so I could breathe a little easier. The final result with the new curtain:

Ahhhh... much better, no?

Stay tuned for part two to see the full makeover, complete with my new chair and an organized workspace!

happiness...

... is cheerful, bright tights on clearance for $1.98 per pair. Well, thank you, JCPenney — I guess I can handle winter for a few more weeks, after all.

I always hate when the stores start stocking spring clothes so early — it's always just about the time when I'm desperate for a few new sweaters to get me through the last dreary month or so of winter. But it is nice when premature spring clothes equals fabulous winter clearance bargains for moi! Have you found any good ones recently?

Monday music, vol. 4: Glad All Over

Every Monday, I'll be sharing a pick-me-up song with the hopes of helping you to begin your week on a positive note. Happy Monday!

Nothing starts the week off right quite like synchronized swaying. (Wait for the chorus.)


Buy this song here.

you may have heard that it snowed.

I haven't mentioned anything about the obscene amount of snow we got here in the Philadelphia area over the last few weeks, because I, for one, was sick and tired of hearing about it all. day. long. on the news. The local affiliates know people are stuck inside for days at a time — must they disrupt all the normal programming to tell us "it's still snowing!" for three days straight?

We get it. Fluffy white stuff! It turns to ice! Stay off the roads! There's a guy walking to the store to buy ginger ale for his pregnant wife! How nice of him! And look at this dummy spinning his tires!

... Now let me watch Ellen before I kick somebody's ass!

I get a little bitter around this time of year, if you haven't noticed....

While I'm pretty much done with winter, I couldn't resist sharing this with you. We live above a row of shops and restaurants; the store that is one over from the one directly below us has this lovely drain spout... er, ice sculpture.

It is finally starting to melt a leeeeetle now that the temperature is in the 40s this week (thank goodness), but it's still a pretty hilarious sight.

Spring, are you coming soon? I miss you. Love, Brooke.

laundry day, the claremont way

Last night, I was doing a few loads of laundry. I washed one load, put it in the dryer, and then got started on a second load in the washer. As I always do, I put the detergent in first and started running the water to dilute the detergent before adding clothes.

While the washer/dryer was running, I did some work. And then the washer buzzed to let me know that its cycle was done. So I opened it up...

And it was empty.

I never put the clothes in.

FAIL.

hi-fi weddings

Have you heard of Hi-Fi Weddings? Why someone hasn't created a blog like this sooner, I'll never know, because it is simply brilliant. It's all about personalizing the playlist for your wedding day, and it's chock-full of fantastic recommendations. From Ashley, the author:

Here at Hi-Fi Weddings, we understand the importance of music at your wedding. From the song that you walk down the aisle to, until the very last dance we invite you to share your wedding playlist…or to gather ideas from other like-minded brides and grooms. And while we love music of all sounds and notes, we’d like to focus on those that want their wedding mix to be less "Top 40" and more of music that is true to the soul.

A resource like this would have been amazing to have when planning our 2008 wedding, though I am still proud of the playlist we were able to pull together. Ashley recently read about our wedding day playlist over at Weddingbee, and she asked if she could feature it on her blog. Check out the lovely post she put together!

le poeme

One of my biggest hurdles in decorating our space is having the ability to objectively decide if I like something or not. Sometimes, an item will catch my eye, but I can't figure out if it's because it's pretty, or because it's ugly (or simply weird). I see items in other people's homes and I think, what a cool piece — I never would have thought to buy something like that for this room. But then when it comes time to find my own home accents, I lose any confidence in my ability to choose something that will add quirky charm, instead fearing that it will just be cheesy and ugly. It's like I'm trying too hard to look like I'm not trying too hard ;-)

A prime example: I saw this rug on Thrifty Decor Chick the other day, and I still haven't quite figured out the answer to the question she posed — love it, or hate it?

Le Poeme Indoor/Outdoor rug from Ballard Designs

Ignoring the fact that it's a rug, I do think it's particularly romantic and sweet because it's in French and it looks handwritten. Part of me thinks it would be a really great statement piece in an airy room with very simple decor... but the other part of me thinks it could turn into too much very easily.

What do you think? (By the way, we certainly have no room for something like this in our apartment, so this is strictly a hypothetical question :-)

Monday music, vol. 3: Faith

Every Monday, I'll be sharing a pick-me-up song with the hopes of helping you to begin your week on a positive note. Happy Monday!

Go ahead and shake your booty. You know you want to. George wants you to.


Buy this song here.

feel the love

Happy (almost) Valentine's day! Now that our Valentines have hopefully arrived in the mailboxes of our friends and family, I can share them with you.

I'm normally not a pink-and-gold kind of girl, but for some reason, I was really feeling a Marie Antoinette-esque color scheme for this design. After all, it's happy and lovey and Valentiney, right? Plus, I'm not gonna lie — I do enjoy the metallic ink when it comes to Gocco projects. It's sparklyyy.

I chose to design our card around a quote from Vincent van Gogh, one of my favorite impressionists. Using Blossom cover stock and A6 envelopes from Paper Source, I screen printed the design with my Gocco and gold ink.

See? Sparkly!

Sending Valentines may become my new tradition — it's not like Christmastime, when everyone expects several holiday cards in their mailboxes each day, so I've loved the genuine surprise and delight that our friends and family members have displayed after receiving our Valentine's Day cards.

Happy Valentine's Day, all! Enjoy the weekend with someone you love.