Greetings, brave knights! I’ve been listening to an audio book chock full of elven knights and dragons to pass the time during the grand sewing room project. I’ve got great deeds on my mind.

Progress was made yesterday on the project. I moved around furniture and packed up every scrap (yeah, I said that) of sewing paraphernalia and Mr. Bug valiantly made the 672 trips up and down the stairs bringing it all to the basement. As of this writing, the only handwork related items upstairs are my knitting basket and my work bag (the one I didn’t unpack when I got home from work yesterday.) Of course, nothing is even NEAR put away, but at least it’s all downstairs. Late last night I put together my two new Ikea Antonius drawer units with desktops and most exciting, we’ve got a real live guest room (dubbed the Lake Minnetonka room for reasons that will shortly become evident!) Wanna see? OK! I’ll show you!

First you have to brave this ferocious watch-beast.

Ah! You are brave knights! Here’s the bed-view… note the lack of a giant mound of material sitting on the bed. Also, my freshly painted bookcase-now-night-stand is to the right! That bed looks rumply, I suspect a certain watch-beast of dereliction of duty and sleeping on the client’s bed… Also, here’s our ONE sewing tie in this post. I made that quilt! All by hand! piecing, quilting, everything!

For comparison, here’s a photo taken not too long ago that accurately shows the normal state of the room.

I swung the bed around once I got everything out so that guests and/or watch-beasts can get into the bed from either side. Don’t you hate sleeping double in a bed pushed up against the wall? If I’m the one against the wall I feel like I might fall into the crack. Plus there’s no place to set my gatorade and iPod!

Here’s the view from the other side, showing off the strangely immaculate desk.

We now have a real desk! I can move the envelopes and stapler from their current home in the kitchen! Yay! Again, here’s a before shot. Mostly an accurate portrayal, except I usually managed to shut the desk doors. Usually.

Seriously, people. Our entire house is Ikea. In this room, Ikea items include the desk, bolster pillow, bed and lamps and this makeshift nightstand.

I have to admit – prior to the arrival of the Minneapolis Ikea in 2004, I thought of Ikea shoppers as souless and lacking any taste. My bias was mainly based on the movie Fight Club, I believe! Lucky for me I have no soul or taste, otherwise our house would be furnished 100% with dumpster dive finds and yard sale booty (instead of the current ratio of 47/47/6 of Ikea/yard sale/other)!

Speaking of yard sales, check out the booty from this super awesome sale Mr. Bug and I went to on Sunday! West of Minneapolis there’s a big, huge lake (called Lake Minnetonka.) A lot of the super-nice suburbs are around the lake, and this sale was in one of them and was at a house (compound, really) that was actually ON the lake. There were a lot of antiques and collectible stuff. Most of it was on the pricey side, but I fell in love with this map of the lake! We hung it in the guest room – thus the new name of the room.

It’s old and crackled, but I love how it looks!

I didn’t know if it was really from 1896 or just a reproduction. I noticed when hanging it up that there was a bit more information on it.

Property of Chas L. Pillsbury. Hm. There are a lot of Pillsburys around Minneapolis – the food company has its roots here and there are various mansions, art collections, streets etc. with the Pillsbury name. I live a block away from Pillsbury Avenue, in fact!  I’m sure you all have those big families with their names on everything in YOUR town! Anyway. Chas L. Pillsbury died in 1959, so the map could very well be from 1896. Interesting, isn’t it? Due to the weathering and crackling, the map was only $5.00 – with the frame! I couldn’t be more pleased with our yard-sale find.

And now, brave knights, I must be off to change the slipcovers on the living room furniture and brave the pile of sewing implements in the basement. Off with you. I think you’ll find the watch-beast much less intimidating from this angle…