Dressing up my desk

No, these are not dinner napkins...

... although they are made just like 'em (cut a large square, make a narrow double-fold hem with neatly mitered corners).

Actually, the red one in the middle is a napkin, "luncheon" size, I'm calling it. That one's becuase I had a small piece of the red colorway lying around, and I figured why not make one more. I eat lunch at my desk a lot. Sometimes that's because I'm on a roll and want to keep going on a project, but more often I'm using my lunch break to blog-surf or catch up on personal emails.

The four large ones are for my desk. Which is really a square dining table, and which has these very cool glass-covered sections. Each is about 15.5" square and 3/4" deep, with a bevelled glass top. The insets have a woven reed lining, which is a blah brown that I've never liked (I am a COLOR fiend, as you may have noticed).

In the past, I've lined these sections with beautiful papers of the heavy/expensive hand-made, gift-wrappy kind, and sometimes I've put little trinkets in there, too. Sort of a 3D collage of pretty things and favorite stuff.

When we last moved, a year ago (yikes, it's been that long?!), I tossed the faded old paper and disassembled everything for packing. Then reassembled here, without doing anything at all in terms of desk decor. Because moving is hassle and a time-eater, and I wanted to get set up and back to business. I figured I'd dress the desk back up in a little bit, when I had the time and felt inspired.

I've had the inspiration/plan for a while now: make some cloth inserts from fabric left over after making my office curtains. But the time-motivation thing didn't happen until this past weekend. When I produced these, cleaned up the desk, and got them in place:

Don't they look nice?

Of course, this is a WORKING desk, and although I like to think I'm a smidge toward the "tidy and organized" end of the spectrum, my desk typically looks something like this: 

So glimpses of flowers is what I get. I'm thrilled, though, to have finally crossed this off the "someday" list, and to have a more colorful, cheerful, and inspiring desk to sit at all day.

Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time for me to stop blogging and go get some "real work" done...