Second Thoughts…

Ergh. I think I have buyer’s remorse. I was so charmed by my own stenciled wall that when I went to find curtains, I might have gone overboard. Grey, I went in saying. I just need some light-blocking simple grey panels.

But then I saw these…

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And I pulled the trigger. They were at Overstock! On sale! And so green and trellisy…

But next to this?

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Maybe too much. Someone hold me. It’s too much, isn’t it? Tell me it will be okay. No, no, I know. Plain grey would have been so much better.

They come later this week. I’ll figure it out then. Stay tuned…I know you can hardly contain the excitement!

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Lattice Stencil in the Guest Room

Perfectionism be damned, I have stenciled a wall!

Though I haven’t gotten around to posting the photographic evidence, I originally tried my hand at stenciling in our dining room. The hubs came to inspect the finished product and wasn’t completely in love with it. And by not completely in love, he said something like, “I don’t think I can live with this.” Here’s what that looked like:

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It was kind of busy, maybe. And the silvery tone was a bit much. But mostly, he didn’t like that it looked “hand done.” Because, you know… it was, uh, hand done. And hard. And time consuming. But the dining room is another story for another day. Today is a day to talk about the GUEST Room.

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This is the before… The walls were neutral, but had patches all over them from the previous owners, and lots of scuff marks from furniture being moved in and out. So I picked up some Churchill Hotel Navajo White  and painted the whole room. Though painting neutrals is a little boring, it was super satisfying to see the marks disappear and the whole room looked brighter. (I love painting!)

Once I’d finished that, I took off all the painters tape and focused on the wall behind the bed. I taped the whole wall off, including the ceiling (learned this the hard way on the last stencil project!)

I had a stencil from Royal Design Stencils that was a nice clean allover trellis pattern (I learned from my last effort that a simpler pattern would make me happier).

This time I decided to try using spray adhesive. I didn’t use any last time, and positioning was a challenge. I used this: IMG_1738

And it was SO MUCH EASIER. I sprayed the whole back of the stencil outside and then carried it up to position on the wall. I only had to reapply the adhesive twice to do the whole wall, and I probably could’ve gotten away without doing it at all. No residue left over, and a great tight bond when I was working!

Here’s the first one I did, starting in the lower corner of the wall:

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And here’s what it looked like after a few more got laid in. It was tricky lining it up, and by the end, my wall actually crept up a bit to the left, but it was barely noticeable. When the hubs came to look at the finished product, he had only nice things to say!IMG_1734

Here’s what it looked like when I’d finished the whole wall. I had to go back up to the top and put in a partial piece, and then I went back with the Navajo White and touched up the spots where things bled or I got a bit carried away. Honestly, there was very little bleeding at all.

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I need to hang some curtains, get a nice guest chair and a proper bedside table, and we’ll be all ready for guests! (I guess it might look nicer if I actually made the bed…) I think that maybe the lamp will get a new shade, too…

For now, the room is ready for our Christmas guest! (Who is an interior designer, though one who is too polite to tell me she doesn’t like what I’ve done!)

Hold me…

What the hell was I thinking? In about two weeks, the guest room will need to hold an actual guest. So today I decided it should get painted.

In fairness, I decided this a while ago if we’re going to get technical. And then I procrastinated.

Cuz that is what I do.

Remember the headboard? That is still attached with just one screw because I had some, uh, issues attaching it? Well, it makes it significantly harder to get the bed away from the wall to paint. Because of the not-being-attached properly thing. And also just because it is bigger. And more unwieldy. And stuff.

So here’s the plan — I’m taking the green paint that the hubs wouldn’t let me use in the front room, and stenciling it on the wall behind the bed. (this despite my previous stencil FAIL, which I have not posted because it is part of the dining room debacle, and that will be several posts, and did you know it is Christmastime??) But I can’t do the feature wall until I’ve repainted the whole room my favorite neutral Navajo White… and that’s really no fun at all, painting neutral. So I’ve put it off. Like forever. But this weekend? We’re getting some white on up in this place.

I know. It isn’t exciting, no matter how you talk about it. I’ll post the exciting photos of the white walls when I’m done. Yay.

(I did, however get to do some caulking where the trim had separated from the walls, and that is always fun. Mostly because of how you get to talk about it later at work. I like to tell people, “so last night, I was playing with the caulk up in the guest bedroom…” Use your imagination. “I’m a master of caulk,” I say. “You have to just smooth the caulk out, in just the right way…” you get the idea… Sorry.) Okay, signing off now. Apologies all around.

Slowing down the Christmas Crazy

The last few months have been crazy. I once had a small non-stressful contract with a digital publisher that never pushed too hard for crazy revision or overnight edits, and self-published on a somewhat ridiculous schedule… but then I signed with an agent. And while that has been a relief in some ways, it brings a completely different kind of stress. Now I feel like it’s been FOREVER since I’ve had a release, but I’m working twice as hard behind the scenes.

And things are not getting done.

And my kids are growing up so fast.

And a lot of days I wonder if maybe I’m being selfish, trying to get this dream launched when I should be present. And available. And not stressed out because I’m trying to do ALL the things.

But I think I’m too selfish to wait. It took me almost 40 years to get the guts to follow my dreams (I think about 35 of those were spent figuring out what my dreams actually were! Okay, maybe five of them were spent just having fun and running around NYC with my girlfriends…)

Right now I have a book to revise. And there’s a part of me that wants to run around with my hair on fire and get it done right effing now. Because that’s kind of how I am about everything. But the problem with that is that I have so many other PLANS. I want to finish the guest room before Christmas. I want to redecorate the front room… I want to make curtains for the front room. I want to continue nagging the hubs to hang our new dining table light and to set up the home gym in the basement. (Because it turns out I’m supposed to like, exercise, sometimes.)

But for a little while, I’m trying to just BE. To be a mom. To be a person who loves the holidays. To be a grateful wife who knows that these days will not last. More crazy and crisis will come our way. Christmas is only a short time — a month, really, if I get the tree up soon after Thanksgiving. And I know it’s just shiny lights and jingly bells, and that isn’t what the season is about.

But you know what? Those fleeting shiny decorations are representative of so much more to me. They are joy and light, innocence and peace. The sheer mad helpless excitement that my children feel during this month is priceless — and like the season, it is fleeting. I know that they won’t be eight and six forever. Cynicism will set in (after all, they are my kids). And soon the magic will fade. Reindeer won’t fly anymore, Santa will be just a guy in a cheap velour track suit with an unconvincing beard. No one will be wildly excited about a candy cane or beg to help me set up my little village. The glitter will be just shiny dust, and while they’ll always love the tree (because they are my kids), they’ll turn to being excited about different things. Material things.

And so I’m going to pause in my frantic efforts on the publishing treadmill. I’m going to get the book back to my agent in a timely fashion… but before I do, I’m going to hold my children on my lap and read the holiday books they bring home from school. I’m going to light a fire, pour hot chocolate and talk to them about their stockings, muse about where the elf might pop up next, and plan what little treats to stick behind tomorrow’s door on our advent tree. I’m going to take this month and live with my beautiful family, basking in the knowledge that what we have now is good. Is magic.

And this tree–my shiny glowing Christmas tree–makes me think of all of that. I’m sharing it with you in hopes that you will remember to slow down and reflect a little bit this month, too. IMG_1726

Celebrating the Corps

This year I attended my tenth Marine Corps Ball. We missed one when the hubs was in Iraq in 2004, and another when I’d just had Lunchbox in 2009. (His birthday is in early November, so getting to a ball on the 10th was not happening!)

But we made it this year, and kid-free to boot!

I talked about the ball a little bit last year, and it still strikes me as an important way to remember what the Corps stands for. But this year was a much more festive event for some reason, and I had a really good time. (and, for the tenth year I was able to stifle the urge to scream out inappropriate things during the ceremony… does this happen to anyone else??? I seriously can’t take the quiet, and the ceremony. I get the same urge at weddings… it’s like when you’re on a tall building and you think, “I could totally jump right now!” Oh, that’s just me? Okay… well, then…)

So here’s the required shot of us in our ball attire! 🙂

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