Mellow Yellow

Today marks the second visit of the cleaning lady, and I'm pretty sure she's going to mutiny when she sees how dirty this place has gotten in two weeks. Little does she know that my cat attracts leaves like velcro and paint in the sink is a state of being over here. But she might also notice that since the last time she was here, new curtains were boughten and the bedroom has been painted and my shelves for the front room are back, sporting a fresh coat of glossy paint.

Good things. Things that will appear in pictures soon. I promise.

Some bad things might have happened, too. Things like our fancy marble dining table arrived cracked down the middle. And I didn't order enough wallpaper for the baby's room. And I'm 99% sure I didn't order enough wallpaper for the powder room, either... did someone say wallpaper calculator? Who? Wha?

I don't know -- maybe it's the fact that I'm dead tired and HUGE, but I just don't care anymore.

That's why they call me mellow yellow...

today.

Tomorrow I will assuredly have a nervous breakdown since I've been with Ike all day all summer with no school, plus his birthday party is this Saturday and I haven't prepped AT ALL.

Oh and the baby will be here in a month.

Mellow yellow, dudes.

Mellow.

[pinterest]

Sweet Relief!

Last week I was experiencing a serious pressure related block up/meltdown, and pretty much as soon as I (you) gave me permission not to decide, I decided a whole bunch of decor related stuff. I also decided not to worry about the house so much anymore, mostly because I am now 35 weeks pregnant and I look like I swallowed a whale and I have a sad little waddle going on. Apparently a tiny human will be rocketing out of my hoohah in five weeks or less and I should maybe probably focus on preparing for that, too.

At least now Baby X won't have to spend his first month or two of life staring up at a patchwork quilt of peachbluegraypurple paint samples in the master bedroom, because that shit is DONE.

Sadly this is not our bedroom, but the color is a very similar medium purple gray. I took the advice of Anita and Christian and revisted my sample of Dior Gray. Sanders gave me his blessing (because Sanders is a saint and is totally allowed to bestow such things upon mere mortals), so we did the deed and it is good.

Climaxxx!

I also ordered some desperately needed new bedding... old bedding may or may not have gotten caught in the painting crossfire.

In a reversal of my usual hatred for contrast, I'm planning to go mostly light and bright against the moody painted walls. Like so:

Because a basic white quilt and shams can be dressed up in so many ways.

Pretty, simple pillows and ikat blanket.

I might have ordered some coral sheets...

And a giant faux fur blanket to cover up our new quilt, because kids and cats (and lazy parents) are murder on white.

Details and pictures to come when I can stand long enough to take them.

In the meantime, let us bask in the glory of my decisiveness...

because it won't last for long.

[Images via my bedroom files on pinterest]

Lowdown on the Slowdown

Last night Ben sat me down and said something to the effect of, Honey -- I think you have a  problem. Except that's not exactly what he said, because husbands who call their wives Honey are kinda icky. Anyway, how dare he criticize my obsessive need to endlessly repaint swatches on the wall, my 800 trips to return failed curtains, my seeming inability to make a single decision on my own?

How dare he care about my happiness?

I must admit to getting a little caught up in timetables, in the hormonal rush of nesting on the clock. And like some commenters noted yesterday, rushing has definitely brought on mistakes -- nothing catastrophic or terribly expensive yet, but mistakes nonetheless.

I also admit to enjoying decorating as a spectator sport. I LOVE showing you guys what I'm working on, but it's pretty grueling to turn something out once a week. Or even once a month.

Add to this the fact that even the pros disagree on decorating "rules" (have you seen House Beautiful's 101 Decorator Secrets? SO MANY of them directly contradict each other. Awesome!), and I find myself rudderless, aswim at sea. Too few parameters and too many variables.

I like order, dammit. Tidiness. Mathematical certainty, objective truth. That may seem a little weird for someone schooled in the arts, but I will remind you that photography is filled with mathematical formulae and sciencey stuff. I love the unbroken line of cause and effect. I struggle against the nihilism of anything goes.

Order. Symmetry. Complementary. Happy.

So I will busy myself with finding a way to work, because I do enjoy solving problems (and trust me -- my patchwork paint swatched bedroom of horror IS a problem), but forgive me if my updates come a little fewer and further between.

Things will get done, but perhaps progress will happen on a more geologic scale.

Also I am tired and huge and the baby is punching my cervix 24/7.

That'll slow a girl down, too.