Regret

Until this past week when I dropped a little bomb on the hubs, I had been living with a secret. A regret. I hate the color I chose for our dining room walls. I knew almost instantly when it went up that it wasn't the color I was hoping for. The deep, warm, glowing, tomato soup ember that I was hoping for, looked much more like a freshly sliced tangerine. It made me cringe. It made me want to wear sunglasses. But if you know my hubs, you know I could never admit it was the wrong color. Oh, you don't know my hubs and "it's just paint", so why, you ask? For a couple reasons which I'm happy to outline below:

1. It took me forever to convince him to paint the dining room orange in the first place
2. he hates to paint and wasn't going to be a party to any do overs
3. he's never uttered the words "it's just paint, it can easily be changed"
4. and he really hates to paint. Wait, did I already say that?

So yes, I kept that regret all to myself. For years. YEARS! But I think years is suffering enough, don't you? IT'S JUST PAINT, RIGHT?!? And now I am just dying to re-do the walls, and everything else, about our dining room. We've had a lot of disagreements about this room: we used to have a rectangular table and wicker chairs that I swapped out for the round table and cane back chairs which he hates. In his defense, at the time of their purchase I had promised to re-paint the table & the chairs. I DID reupholster the chairs though! I'm blaming it on my spark. It had gone out. I had no motivation to do any decorating. But now it's back, and I want to start with paint.

Initially I wanted black walls. Of course hubs immediate reaction was NO! But I've thought about it some more, and I'd actually love to use the navy I used on the nursery ceiling on the walls in the dining room. It's one of the few colors I feel like I got exactly right, and I just know it would look amazing in there. The room gets tons of light, and doesn't have a lot of wall surface space because of door casings & windows, so I feel like it's the perfect place to try out a dark moody navy. Yes??

In an attempt to convince the hubs, I tried a little color visualizing on Sherwin Williams. Obviously my online painting skills have room for improvement, but nice, right? Who's with me? Who has a paint brush?

And just so you get a feel for the room from every angle, here you go. Now really, who has a paintbrush?! Can you come over tomorrow?!

My Spark

Something amazing happened today. I read this piece on Facebook early as I laid in bed. I saved it to read again later, because it resonated so strongly with me. We went about our morning- homemade waffles and relaxed family time, and the hubs & I watched a little HGTV while the kid(s!!) played & napped. A new show came on that seemed kinda cool. I recorded it as it began, thinking I might not be able to get through the whole thing and would want to watch it later (life with kids!). At first I really liked it. Then I kinda liked it, but wasn't sure about the hosts (Too hipster, I told D). Midway through as Erin was sewing drop cloth curtains, I looked at D and said "drop cloth curtains. DROP CLOTH CURTAINS!!" while giving myself a chest bump. I certainly didn't invent using drop cloths for curtains, but I made some for our home a few years ago. That moment caused a little stirring in me. I watched as Erin shopped a junk store for cool finds and asked D if he remembered how much I loved doing the same. He said let's go. Really? REALLY?! You don't have to tell me twice.

We packed up the kiddos and headed to My Favorite Place. R kept asking where we were going, and I said, "mama's favorite place". "But what's it called", she pleaded. My Favorite Place! (so confusing!) It had been ages since I'd been- certainly not since having both kids- and the last time I was there it was sorely disappointing. But I was excited. D was into it. It was awesome. R found every darn animal object in there, and when things started to get boring and she declared she was ready to go home, we made a scavenger hunt out of the store. "Find a snowman. A lion. A clown" Might seem like an impossible task, but not at My Favorite Place. We were finding multiples! A fellow customer in the store who had overheard us for some time laughed as she passed us in an aisle and said, "I've been able to find every one of your items except the whale" (Yeah, I mistook a shark for a whale- we didn't find one either, but I bet there's one in there. Somewhere.)

It was fun. It was different with two kids. But it was a good different. And it was invigorating. My spark! I feel like it's back. I know me- I have to be careful. Guard it, and make sure the ember doesn't die out again. But goodness, it feels amazing to have that spark warming my soul again.

Oh and this. Because, Yes!