Friday Random

*This is fun. And reminds me how you can't argue with the crazy.

*This week seemed to be heavy on kid tragedy in the state. I swear it makes me want to lock Sammy up until he's 50.

*Also, the threes happened quickly this week: Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.

*I'm making a raspberry cheese pie tomorrow. I can't wait to steal some after dropping it off at its owners!

*Have you seen this (Lacey, I'm looking at you!)? Books for a penny. Sweet!

*My motivation for finally losing the baby weight...I used to wear things like this. I miss it.

*Park days with the girlfriends are somehow rejuvenating. Even if we all spend 1/2 the time chasing our kids around, starting and stopping stories 20 times or playing "guess who can talk louder" to compete with the noise and chaos!

*I'm so excited to see this:


*Ring of the week:

I found this during last week's search of a green ring on etsy. It came Wednesday. I love it. I wore it with orange yesterday and it looked great.

It's smaller than I was hoping, but that's my fault for not reaching the 5 inches into my drawer for a measuring tape and just assuming. I'm also excited because I've decided wire wrapped rings are going to be my new project. You thought I had a lot of rings before...wait until I figure out how to make them!

*Song of the week:

(by my side, INXS) - I go on these music binges sometimes. I'll discover or rediscover, usually, a song and I just can't get enough of it. There's no rhyme or reason. Just something strikes me and I have to listen to that song. ALL THE TIME. This is my current binge. Of course, the video is better since you can stare at Michael while listening. Big time bonus.

Progression. Progressive? Pro...Color

All day painting (and I mean I finished up about 6:45 last night). Sore in weird places (between my thumb and finger?). One painted door. It may have won the battle.

All totalled:
Door - primer, paint, paint, touch up.

Trim - primer, paint, paint, swearing, paint, wondering what the porch would look like painted, grouchy at Sammy, lots of yelling, more swearing, paint, mixing paint like a mad scientist, paint, resignation, finding pennies to go back to Home Depot and try again.

The door before. Well, with grey primer that wanted to suck the life out of me. Our door and trim before before were all white. White wood trim and a white metal door. Just like every other door in our neighborhood...Except the cool black door across the street, but I KNOW he had nothing to do with that.



The door, round one. The paint is SO uneven. The green is brighter than expected. The plum / eggplant is, um RED, even though it's most definitely plum in the can and plum where they blobbed it on top. Great. A psychotic Christmas door. Still happy and have hope. Whee!



Door, round two. I mixed brown into the paint after consulting Sharon, my decorator, and instead of making it richer and darker as we both thought it would, it made it a dusty rose color. Yup. Reminded me of everyone's color scheme from the eighties. Well, swapping the green for blue. Yikes! Resolve weakening...

On a positive note, the second coat of green evened things out and made it a little richer. LOVE the door. Well, except that corner I got a big blob of red/plum/dusty rose on.



More mixing. It goes a LITTLE darker and isn't so scarily the same color as a wooden doll I made at a church activity in college. Still not pretty or what I was after. Blends into the bricks. I'm not looking for a door that blends. Clearly...

Realize it's late and Isaac is coming home. Sore, tired, HOT, cranky. Will go to Home Depot and buy deep purple eggplant this weekend and try again next week. But, until then. Here's the on hold stage three door. When you look at it from the street, the green looks the appropriate mossy / army green. I'm completely in love with it. Except the gold hardware that I desperately want replaced.

A New Dress

I'm painting my front door today (army green with a plum trim!). I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm barreling ahead anyway. It'll be good, right? RIGHT? I'm not so sure.

I often wonder if the quest and need to get the house perfect ever really stops. Will there come a point when I stop fixing and changing and painting and buying and doing and just be satisfied with it all. We have been the giant hoover of consumerism lately and I'm overwhelmed by the boxes in our garage waiting to be recycled. Isaac father's day present, a George Foreman grill, Sammy's new twin bed (!), a bike for Sammy, curtains for the windows, outside gazebo with netting. Now I'm scanning IKEA for a solution to my shoe problem and I keep thinking, with each one, ok, this is where it ends. We're done consuming and we're just going to be.

I think part of this is natural. This is our first (and, knock wood, only!) house and we do want it to be perfect for us. We have a few projects left (see: patch walls, gazebo) and then I want to just be. Live in this house and make the greatest of memories for Sammy (and, uh, never have to have our vaulted ceiling painted again!). I want to stop consuming. I want to stop using our one free day a week on house projects - that's why we hired landscapers, gosh darnit - and use them for good. I really hope this is the summer to finish it all. Finish getting the plants ripped out so we can plant veggies next year. Finish ripping the tree stump out and get the gazebo up. Finish patching the holes and putting the drawer pulls on. Finish deciding what fruit trees to plant next year. Figure out the shoe thing and finish the other couple of projects and then just...stop. This house will be what I imagined and will be ready to go. You know, until I decided to get new kitchen cabinets. Or put hardwood throughout the downstairs. Or recover the family room couch. Or enclose part of the downstairs bathroom for more pantry room. Or...sigh.

So today I'll be painting my front door. Look for the crazy woman in pajama pants and t-shirt wielding her first paint brush since 1982. Feel free to stop and talk me down from the crazy at any point.

Love This Life

Life is good. It's warm and sunny. I have a bowl full of fresh farmer's market strawberries. I have the best husband and son. Sammy and I spent the morning making robots with sidewalk chalk. Plans are made for a much needed girl's afternoon out. I have a book I'm excited to read. I have a full tivo. I have ingredients to make fresh pesto for dinner and this is on the stereo ready for dancing with my cute little man:

Life, indeed, is good.

Happy Father's Day!

There is NO ONE else I would do this crazy parenting thing with. Thanks for not pressuring me before I was ready. Thanks for understanding my crazy and weak mommy days and picking up the slack. Thanks for being the kind of man Sammy can emulate proudly. Thanks, especially, for Sammy and for being just the best dad.