This and That

I've had a pretty busy week -- but unfortunately, not with house projects.

I have the opportunity to stage a home that a friend is trying to sell. I've always had a dream of starting a home staging business, so I jumped at the chance to work gratis so I can start building my portfolio. But with great enthusiasm often comes great naivete, and that's exactly what happened to me.

I thought furniture stores would jump all over themselves to trade furniture on a short-term basis in exchange for free advertising, but it turns out, not so much. They give a 10-20% designer discount (oh, how I love being called a ''designer''), but nothing more.

So I now have quite a dilemma. Do I throw caution to the wind and fork out money for a few pieces of furniture that I could use on later staging jobs? Or do I see reality for what it is -- everyone loves the idea of staging, but no one wants to pay for it -- and accept the fact that getting other staging jobs would be a tough, if not impossible, task?

I'm hoping to come to some decision over the weekend on that conundrum.

I also had my second substitute teaching gig yesterday. I spent the morning with first graders and the afternoon with kindergartners. Every time I spend extended time with those kiddos, I earn more and more respect for teachers. Kids are crazy, I tell you -- especially the kindergarten youngsters, who are being taught the basics of listening and raising hands and not flooding bathrooms with toilet water.

But I digress ...

On the home front, I'm still trying to work room by room -- right now, I'm still on the foyer. This weekend, I hope to touch up the baseboards and apply a dragonfly stamp to add a little pattern to the walls.

I also plan to repurpose a piece of wood that we (OK, Mr. Hubby) removed from the master bath. It was previously holding up a metal bar by the toilet (remember, a very old guy was living here previously). My goal is to turn it into a coat/hat rack for one of the foyer walls.

Wishing you much success with your weekend projects, too!

Here's the wood from the bathroom. Can't you just see it as a hat rack??