goodbye green

Ok, so on Wednesday morning Bill casually asks, "now, what are you doing today?"

"Um, I thought I'd paint the kitchen."

"Again?"

If I locked the man in another room and asked him the color of the kitchen, he could not tell me. Seriously! We never have any discussions on whether to paint, and certainly not what color. I'm a lucky girl! Well, except for the fact that he'd rather have a root canal than pick up a paint brush ...

So off I go to Delaware Paint to haggle with the poor guys who must cringe when they see me coming: the lady with the poor eye for color. But she sure buys a lot of paint! After a good 30 minutes of discussion, they send me home with color swatches and tell me to come back tomorrow when I've decided.

In the end I did away with all the green, used the same Wheat Sheaf as in the breakfast room, and chose Pizza Pie for the rest.

See for yourself. From this:

To this:

We think it looks smashing, all warm, cozy and delicious! I guess that's all that counts.

gratitude challenge day 21 - I'm thankful for the small town I live in, where I nearly always see someone I know when I'm out on errands. Thankful for my paint store guys, too, where I get great service. Community is a great thing!



goodbye blue ... and Uncle Hugh

So I told myself, "That blue won't do." My lovely and skilled daughter Katie painted the breakfast room over a year ago. My thinking was, blue would look cool and cheery with our green kitchen. But it never set right with me. I like to think I inherited my dad's great eye for color. Trouble is, I know what I like once it's done, but I lack in choosing the right color at the start.

Blue's a hard color to get right if you ask me. I once painted the living room a light blue and son Mark, at the gloomy age of 14, commented, "what, are we having another baby?"

I first chose "Heavy Cream." Don't you just love paint color names? Heavy cream was too yellow. Back to the paint store for "Wheat Sheaf." Maybe a smidge light, but Wheat Sheaf it is and shall be.

Veterans Day inspired me to pull out the fantastic photo of my great-uncle Hugh Lanier in his WW I uniform. He stood straight and handsome, hat tucked under his arm. Pasted inside a cardboard cover embellished with stars and stripes, this photo may have been the only copy in existence.

On one of my trips to the paint store, dog Ellie got bored. Or she might be annoyed that I put her favorite couch in the basement. I thought she'd grown out of her appetite for photographs, but apparently not. I found the cardboard torn into many small pieces on the floor of my study. Oddly, I saw no pieces of Uncle Hugh anywhere. Nor upon examination of "piles" in the yard. So perhaps Uncle Hugh will reappear, but my hope is slim.

Those are the highlights of my week. How about you?

goin' green

Kitchen walls are a terrible thing to waste. Two years ago, or so, my dear daughter Katie convinced me to paint a part of the kitchen green. I call it "tennis ball green." It popped! It caught the attention, for better or worse, of every visitor.

It also made the other kitchen walls glaringly drab and dingy. Four kids with a penchant for flinging shoes and book bags, one dog, and endless family life and celebrations had taken a toll on those poor walls.

So when a "two gallons for one" card from my favorite paint store arrived in the mail, time was of the essence. To paint. Deadline: April 30.

I am nothing if not indecisive about many things, including selecting paint colors. You'd think it was an earth-changing decision, like whether or not to invade Normandy.

"It's just paint, for crying out loud!" I scolded myself. And so, color selected: two shades lighter than "tennis ball green," it is "mint chiffon." Very 1950's-ish sounding, don't you agree? Makes me want to put on some pearls and an apron.

As hubby left on a business trip yesterday, I swung into action: Paint, stir sticks, spackling, sandpaper, rags, newspaper, brushes, rollers, an extra lamp.

Seven exhausting hours later, the first coat was complete. I even moved the refrigerator! About 11 p.m., I was comatose on the couch and awoke two hours later, feeling as if I'd run a marathon. Admittedly, I've never run a marathon. But I didn't feel so good.

Off to bed and surprisingly, I awoke refreshed and ready for coat #2. A piece of cake! It's done. It's green. And now the breakfast room is looking awfully dingy, too ...

Note: my friend Lisa observed that "you always do these projects when Bill leaves." Yes, I do, and I love it. In a skewed way, it feels like a little vacation. Go ahead and analyze me.

during ...




... and after!