where to put the horses painting

While in Jersey last week, a friend told me that the realtor who sold our old house has opened a vintage furniture shop.  Since I was in the area, I dropped in for a peek, and oh my heavens, its a good thing I don't live there anymore, because I would be in there pretty much every day.  The store is called Dig This, and it is full of really cool vintage and midcentury modern stuff.

I was smitten by two large-ish paintings.  I bought them.  Yes, I bought paintings when I was 3000 miles from home and had no means of transporting them.  But I loved them, and I believe in buying art that speaks to you if you can afford it, so I did, and I had them shipped out to California. I am still waiting for them to arrive.

I bought one of the paintings knowing that it would be perfect for the Princess's room.  The other painting, however, I bought because I liked it, but not knowing where it would go.  Its a very bright splatter picture of abstract-ish horses.  I don't have exact measurements but its probably about 24 x 36 or so.

I still haven't quite figured out where it will go.  I don't think it will go well with my master bedroom, although I'll try it in there when it arrives.  There is no spot for it in the living room, although it might work in the dining room over the game cabinets.  It would be fabulous in the downstairs bathroom but I've already got art in there I really like.

It might work in the upstairs bathroom.  I have plans to repaint that bathroom soon.

The other place it would be fabulous in would be the guest bedroom over the bed, and whee, a whole new decorating scheme or two!

I have been wanting these Nate Berkus comforters from Target for a while now. I've been waiting for them to go on clearance, but they appear to be ready to just sell out at full price and never get marked down ever.  I love both the orange and the navy, and either would work well with the painting.  I could move the pink ombre dresser into this room, since it is currently underutilized in Princess's closet.

My usual M.O. is to have solid color bedding and colorfully patterned curtains.  I think with a patterned comforter I would probably do a plain white curtain.

I will just have to wait till it arrives and carry it around from room to room to see what looks best, I guess.  

mood board for yellow walls

A friend of mine has a beautiful home that she recently had painted.  There is an empty room off the front foyer that is painted yellow, and she hasn't decided what to do with it, so in a spare moment I made up some mood boards.

When I asked my friend what colors she decided on for paint, she described her house as "painted like a Mexican restaurant." The first floor is mostly terra cotta and yellow.  I think that someone who commits to a Mexican restaurant color scheme is not afraid of colorful furniture, so the first moodboard has bold teal to complement the golden yellow walls, with a punch of coral to relate to the surrounding rooms.

curtains / mirror / umbrella print / sofa / pillows / chair / pouf / coffee table / side table / lamp  / rug

The teal and gold ikat curtains were the starting point for the room.  With strong yellow walls you would want to repeat that color in a few places around the room, so I brought in a graphic yellow and white rug and yellow lamps.  The Murray sofa from Room and Board is actually the same sofa I have in my living room and I've been very happy with its clean midcentury lines (anchovy smell notwithstanding; presumably my friend could buy an anchovy-free sofa, although she has two boys so you never know).

For the second moodboard I went with a more neutral color scheme that would flow with the terra cotta in the surrounding rooms.

curtains / vulcan print / qo'nos print / chair / coffee table / pillow / rug / lamp / sofa

The second room is pretty close to my personal style lately.  I'm all over a leather sofa, kilim rug, comfy armchairs and ethnic accessories.  I would love to have this look in my own living room.  I'm trending a little more casual boho lately.  

Which do you prefer? 

Downstairs bathroom (In Progress): possibilities for the vanity

I've hit a standstill in the downstairs bathroom.  My original plan was to paint the walls pale pink, the vanity coral, use the chiang mai dragon fabric as art, and put down a turquoise and electric green rag rug.

I love the pink walls, the art, and the valance, which I showed you a while back:

But then we turn to the other side of the room.  

I painted the mirror electric green.  I'm not so excited about it.  It feels too bright and not connected to the valance or the chiang mai art, despite the fact that the electric green is a pretty close match to the hanging vase in the chiang mai fabric.  This leaves me with a color dilemma.  

Actually, there are many more issues in this little vignette--the light is not centered over the vanity, or over the mirror, or even within the space.  Its just hanging out off randomly to the left.  The mirror is not centered over the vanity or within the space, and it is hung crookedly (not by me and I will fix it eventually).  The vanity itself is not centered in the space, and the countertop is not quite big enough for the vanity (look at the left side).  The sink is not centered in the vanity.  Eventually I plan on replacing the light fixture, the mirror, the vanity, and the floor, (and the shower stall and the window) but until then I am stuck with this offcenter mess. 

Anyways! Color dilemma! The green is not working out. 

I could paint the vanity deep pink and the mirror orange.  

I could paint the mirror a deeper, more olive green, and paint the vanity white. (Or vice versa.) 

I am limiting myself/committing myself to pink or orange or green.  Your thoughts?  

I'm baaaack...

This time of year I get very, very homesick for the East Coast.  I miss the seasons; endless summer gets old when your AC bill is a gazillion dollars month after month.  I miss the leaves changing.  I miss the look of New England towns in fall.  I miss the crisp bite in the air when you need a jacket in the morning.  I miss Honeycrisp apples.  I miss sweaters. I miss warm snuggles under the heavy winter blankets.  I contemplate buying pants at back to school sales, then put them back because we won't need them until January.

Last year we went home for Christmas, and I was feeling extremely homesick at the time.  We touched down at Newark airport in 57 mph winds.  It was 19 degrees when we walked outside.  The entire week we were home it did not go above 31 degrees.  A few afternoons we were desperate enough to take the kids to the park for an hour, and we couldn't feel our toes afterwards.  When we returned to California, it was 68 degrees and sunny.  I turned to the Mister and said, "you know, this place ain't so bad."

I appreciate California in January.  September, not so much.

I was lucky enough last weekend to have a quick trip to south Jersey by myself.  I got to hang out with my sisters, see a large number of family members, and see a bunch of friends.  Going to New Jersey is bittersweet; I love to see everyone but it gives me an ache in my heart that I don't live there anymore.  And as much as I miss my friends and family in NJ, I missed my kiddos while I was away more, so it was nice to come home.

!

Sisters!

I also sometimes think to myself that I should just stop traveling, because I SWEAR every time I have a trip planned, I end up taking one of my children to the ER the night before I leave.  This time it was Greg with a broken wrist.

He fell off a play structure at school.  Its a small break and he will only be in a cast for three weeks, and he claims it is not painful, so that is a good thing, I guess?

In other news, Linda at Calling It Home is having another One Room Challenge, and this time there will be a linky party where you too can participate! It starts Wednesday October 2nd.  My favorite blogs are ones where real people do real time decorating, so I am excited to see what other people come up with.

I hope to get back to regular blogging too. What are you up to?  Wearing a winter coat already?  Gorging yourself on a regular and steady supply of Honeycrisp apples?

Oh! I need a new blog header. (I need a whole blog overhaul, but for the moment I am looking to buy just a blog header.) Can you recommend anyone? 

Downstairs bathroom: (In Progress) paint, art and a cornice

Last we saw the downstairs bathroom, it was beige with holes in the ceiling and I was planning on putting a pink/red/purple combo in there.

Then I changed my mind.  Sadly, you can barely tell that the below picture is a different color than the above.  The above picture is an ugly beige; in the below picture the bathroom is painted Valspar's Pink Wink, a very pretty pale blush color.

I bought a chiang mai dragon remnant on ebay and framed it in gold bamboo frames I thrifted a few years ago.

I originally tried to make the remnant into a cornice, but it didn't work out.  So I bought some pink/orange/green fabric and trimmed it with some greek key trim. I asked on instagram which fabric I should use and nobody picked this one, but the Mister liked it, so that's what we went with.

The other side of the room is not going so well; we'll discuss that tomorrow.  

DIY problems: black trim with black doors or white trim with black doors

The past few days have been permeated by the stench of DIY failure.  Pretty much every thing I touched came out all wrong.  And it was a fair number of projects.

I will spare you the details of All Things Gone Wrong, but will ask your opinion on one that I haven't decided how to fix.

Originally I decided to paint the upstairs trim and doors black.  The baseboards were painted black by the painter, and he also did the trim around the master bedroom door black so I could see how it would look.  All of the upstairs doors are still white, as I haven't yet gotten to painting them either.  Last week I decided I would get started on the trim.  I taped off all the trim, sanded them down, and started painting them black.

Unfortunately the trim all needs to be primed, as the black paint slid right off.  I also discovered that the doors and trim are painted with latex on top of oil, and the top layer is peeling off, and sigh, this is turning into a really massive project.

Before I went any further, however, I sat down and looked at my inspiration pictures of black doors and trim. Shockingly (!), I noticed that 99% of the pictures I have saved with black doors HAVE WHITE TRIM. The horror.   I looked further, and found pictures of black door trim.  All those pictures with black trim have NO DOORS, just open doorways.  (I found ONE picture of an interior black door with black trim.  All the rest black door/black trim are exterior doors, usually casement style.)

I am having a wee crisis of confidence in my decision to paint both the trim and the door black.

What do I do??? The baseboards are black.  The door jambs and doors are white.  Keep the jambs white and baseboard black as they are now? Paint everything black? Paint all the trim back to white and paint the doors black?

Another factor to consider--What about the interior of each bedroom?  Paint the whole doorjamb so that the door trim is also black inside the bedroom?  Just paint halfway, so that the interior door trim is white? My painter will loooove that.

Help!

State of the Union: Project Make All The Friends

Its hard to find new friends as an adult. I should know, seeing as I've been forced to find new friends now every year for the past decade.  I could just post an ad on craigslist.  "Plump hippie/flaming liberal seeking like-minded individual to eat brownies and discuss whether Domino was better than Lonny. Must understand sarcasm, MTHFR gene mutation, and Pokemon scoring system." How many responses do you think I'll get?

I've been feeling lonely-ish.  Not super lonely--I still have friends in our old town, but our new town is twenty miles from the old town, and thus the unexpected drop-in/hey can you pick up my kids/see you at school pickup time spontaneity isn't there.

The thing about finding new friends is that you need either common purpose or frequent interaction with someone.  The other person has to like you and not think you are weird.  Most importantly the other person has to actually WANT to make a friend.  There are lots of people here that I have common purpose and frequent interaction with who seem to enjoy talking to me, but they seem to already have enough friends.  People here are friendly but....I dunno...busy?  Perfectly happy to have a conversation when they see you standing in your driveway (how about this weather! Did your kids start school yet?), but not interested in actually getting to know you. (Or I stand out as a crazy weirdo. Either is possible.)

It is easy to find other mom friends when your young kids hit school age, because you will see the same group of people (common purpose) at the same time every day (frequent interaction), and if you are not a total hermit (I am, but I am forcing myself to speak to people) you might even strike up a conversation with them.  This is how we found friends last year at Greg's school.  There were at least ten moms that I could talk to at school or group playdates, and probably three moms that I would set up playdates with on a regular basis.  However, only one of those moms do I consider an actual friend that I go out to dinner with and call up saying "omg you'll  never guess what just happened."

I know that since the kids are going to be at schools this year in our old town, the probability of us making new friends who live outside our immediate block are not high.  Thus I am aggressively courting new friends from other areas of life. That sounds stalkerish, doesn't it?  I asked the director of my kids' preschool if we could be friends outside of school, and she said yes (yay!).I'm hoping to collect the kindergarten teacher.  I had coffee the other day with our realtor, and she suggested dinner sometime, so I have added her to Project Make All the Friends. I hope that when Greg starts his new school that he makes a few friends who don't live too far away (its a county-wide school, so new friends could be 40 miles from here, but I'm willing to travel if he finds someone he likes).

It hasn't been a total success.  There have been a few failures along the way that make me squirm (I used the word "boner" to a person who was clearly not the kind of person who I should have said the word "boner" to--keeping it klassy!), but such is life.  Now I need to figure out how we can make some "couple friends".

Personal growth and meeting people and putting yourself out there!

Le sigh.  Hold my hand and send me a brownie, please.