The Power of a Desk

I know. It doesn't look like much. It isn't much, really. But I can't begin to tell you how this cheap little desk has completely changed my perspective on our life right now. (I took that five minutes ago, by the way. Sorry for the mess.)

Somewhere around a year ago I could feel the house fever setting in, and before I knew it I was having full out heated arguments with Logan over whether or not we could buy a house. It was silly. I was just overcome with this longing for an office to house my crazy supplies and creativity, and it grew into the house monster.

So after finally admitting to myself that Logan was, in fact, right, and we shouldn't buy a house just yet, I decided to make some changes. We gave away our old (wonderful) couch to make room for a smaller leather one. This was a huge facelift for our little apartment. We got a cool rug. We rearranged. I refinished our TV stand. We got some decorative shelves for the living room.

It was all coming together.

But for some reason it just didn't quite feel finished, you know what I mean?

With the smaller couch, we moved it further up in our living room so I could have a lot of space behind it (next to the big, beautiful window) to work on Lemon Tree stuff. My printers already had their own buffet back there, and the console table behind the couch serves as my work area when cutting and packaging... but I felt so discombobulated constantly hiding my supplies in the closet or buffet and digging them out again two days later.

I needed a desk.

I took off work the Friday and Monday of my website launch weekend (oh yeah, that happened!), and when I came home on Thursday our house was COVERED in boxes. I ordered loads of supplies so I could get all the upfront costs out of the way, and I had planned to clean out my craft closet and store everything in there - but, as usual, time had gotten away from me.

In a last minute panic and moment of sympathy for Logan, I decided to clean the house and organize all the closets before the launch. This was probably the stupidest decision I made that weekend - next to maybe going out in public after four days of sitting at my computer, unshowered, in my pajamas. In my naiveté I thought it would only take a couple of hours.

EIGHTEEN hours later I was STILL trying to get things organized and put away. It should have been a week long project. But I had started and I wasn't going to leave it unfinished before the launch (let's be honest - under normal circumstances I probably would have... Logan can vouch for this), so I kept begrudgingly plugging away. And amidst that hectic day of dumpster runs and breaking down boxes, I discovered I had the perfect place just begging for a desk. So I bought one.

I learned that long weekend that a desk was all I ever needed to feel at home here. A space where I can spread my stuff, work through my thoughts, write, design, answer emails. A space that is MINE (and Logan's if he needs it) and doesn't double as a console table, a kitchen table, or my lap. I don't ever want to leave now. Since we got the couch I've felt like we'd finally really moved in but the desk really did it. The desk finished that process. We're here. We've nested. We love it, and we're not leaving any time soon.

Thank you, bargain desk. For providing a place for me to be creative and feel wholly at home. Thank you for teaching me that the grass can be just as green where I am, if I just look in the right places. And thank you for helping me get my act together before my website launch, when nothing else really could.

I love you, desk. Thank you.

(Oh, yeah, and Gracie proved early on that she loves the desk, too.)