digressions in decorating

believe it or not, and you'll probably believe it because why wouldn't you ... I am blogging from my bed this morning. I woke up at 6 a.m. and was unable to get back to sleep so made myself a cup of tea and some toast with jam, grabbed my laptop and headed back up to bed. The number one "young man" of the house (favorite son and only son) presented me with a nifty lap table on my last birthday for just the purpose of writing in bed ... so here I sit, blogging away in the half light of morning with two dogs strewn across my feet. What more could anyone ask for?

this rather askew-seeming photograph below was taken at this angle for a purpose, and that is to show you, my dear fellow bloggers and blog visitors my new accent wall.

this weekend I took on the very daunting task of painting an accent wall in my dining nook. The painting part was not the daunting part ... although I must admit to my embarrassment, I absolutely despise prep-work ... I much prefer just opening the can of paint, rolling it on fast and furiously and getting it overwith so I can stand back and admire my handywork... but, this time, I did things right. I taped off the woodwork and adjoining walls with blue tape and even spackled the multitude of nail holes behind the big mirror... so ... that's not the daunting part. What's really really daunting is the choosing of paint colors!

I really liked it when the illustrious KMart had that great line of Martha S paints that all were in the same color family or appropriate contrast on the artist's color-wheel and matched up perfectly. KMart has since closed in our area ... well, I think you must go to the big city to find them now and my little corner of the universe is too backwoods for them, if you can imagine anywhere being to backwoods for KMart! So, I was left to my own devices. Lucky for me, and I don't come by luck easily, I'd managed to remember the name of the Dutchboy brand of paint I'd used in the kitchen! Hooray! So I merely found a chip and laid it against about 5 zillion other chips and agonized for about an hour and finally came up with a dark olive.

I'm very happy with the result and took a photograph for posterity ... although I usually change my wall colors every year out of sheer bordom, much to my husband's chagrin, poor man! And probably next year, I'll have had enough of accent walls and this one will too go by the wayside in a splash of inspiration. But, for now ... it's rather pretty ... sort of moody as the art critiques are so fond of saying, and despite the fact that I suffered a crick in my upper back and right shoulder due to this project, I decided to forge onward...that I must also have an accent wall in the living room and in one day, prepped and painted an additional, much longer wall and must say, it looks overall pretty neat!

In the midst of my painting fury, with furniture pulled out this way and that and paint pans and brushes atop tables in the midst of spread out newspaper here and there and the 6-foot step ladder being dragged throughout the house, I took a break and at this moment, I can't remember just why I needed to leave the house on said break, but I did. I ended up having to take the "young man's" car ... and what a mess it was let alone on empty! Being a good mother and somewhat over indulgent mother and probably a really verging on bad mother, I filled up his tank and ran his car through the car wash ... yes, he thanked me. But, what I was going to say was, while I was out and about taking my paint break I actually decided to run through the McD's drivethrough and get myself a cup of coffee, having heard that they do a pretty good java. Guess what? It was one of the best cups of coffee I've had in years! And, they put the cream in for me (well, how nice of them!) ... AND ... it cost a whole heck of alot less than Starbucks! Now ... it wasn't a Latte ... granted ... it was merely a regular cupa joe with some half and half added. But, it was rich and hot and ... well, just thought I'd mention a good thing.

Today I am still on the painting spree (or will be when I get out of this bed anyway) and will probably finish off my entryway, which is a sweet little place with a domed ceiling. Now, that sounds really fantastic doesn't it? But, my entryway is about big enough for an ant family to enter and turn around twice in because I live in an 80 year old Sears and Roebuck kit house. Cute, but just a tad... impractical. Impractical by today's standards because our furniture is so big! How do we get the big furniture of the 90's onward into a little dinky house built for the mini-people of the 50's?

You know what the only problem with writing in bed is? The mouse keeps sliding off the pad ... either that, or the pad gets bent up like a fortune cookie and the mouse is only able to get its signal out via the wormhole effect... thus the curser is flying all over the darn page!

Okay... that being said... I think its time for another cup of tea. Thanks for stopping by.
~L