T.O.P.'S tUESDAY: wRITER'S cOTTAGE pART ii

A week later and the "Writer's Cottage" is complete and might have a solid name, might being the key word. It's the "cottage", "little house", or "whatever". I've charged my daughter to come up with a name but she hasn't even thought of one yet. Dad said "The Little House" and he can be "The Big House". This makes us laugh so it will probably stick unless Mary comes up with something better soon.

The insulation is complete and caulking is done also. Once the men finished the hard work, I started the fun of adding the wall and ceiling decor. Contact paper is en inexpensive way to add style to things and a new writing space. I picked two different distressed woods. The one on the ceiling has a touch of blue and the walls are just the distressed white. 

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Once the walls and ceiling were complete I added four blackboard "week-at-a-glance" schedules to keep me on task from week to week. To the right on the ceiling is a whiteboard yearly calendar, with no dates so I can reuse it each year. Above the door is a blackboard with short and long term goals. 

The placement of these was strategic so I am reminded each time I enter and exit of my immediate, upcoming, and long-range tasks/goals. I function better with lists and my things-to-do and goals written down and in my sight at all times.

The floor was swept out before adding some carpeting. Our budget didn't support a carpet to fit so we picked up a couple remnant pieces for less than $40 for both.

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We found some blue carpeting and it pulls the blue from the ceiling out, it looks great, if I don't say so myself. In the window is a roll of paper I found in Mary's playhouse, so I saved it and to the left of that is a small Bluetooth speaker. It looks like an antique radio, the same blue as the ceiling. The carpet is three inches shy on one side and overlaps in the center but I'm the only one in there and I adore it as is.

The furniture has been added: tables, chairs, a stool, bookshelves, and all the supplies necessary to enter the cottage in the morning and not leave until the day's goals have been met. The first day I worked in the cottage I banged out over 3,000 words. 

In case you are like my hubby, Dad and other non-writers...I usually wrote 700 - 1,000 words when I went to the lake or library in one sitting. In one afternoon I tripled word count. Woot woot! The time saved in packing everything up, driving to and from was spent writing. An added bonus, as I write, I can make notes on the walls and ceiling to keep track of characters, settings, and other story elements to keep the story flowing. In the car, I had so many different places, I'd lose track of where I saved it the last time I wrote. Now, it's one stop writing and creativity.

There hasn't been much writing this week because our daughter is home from her summer job and preparing to move back into college and we've had the added bonus of company with us too. It's wonderful! It's a vacation from the writing cottage but next week, when I'm not at school, I'll be putting serious hours  and words in. I have a book to get written before school starts so I can be working on edits during the school year. (This is a BIG goal, one I'm striving to reach)

With this, it's time to get some work done. Happy reading, writing, and more reading!

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What have you done this week to create a place to create? A place to invest time in your passion?