Let the Wild Paint Start

OK, so I think I scared everyone off with the last ranting.  Sorry - I am calmer now.  Lara's suggestion was well-taken.  I postponed the carpet for our bedroom until the 7th of June.  I am taking time to plan the paint, etc.  The other two rooms will get carpet this Tuesday, which we can deal with.  Those rooms don't need paint for now.  I will then paint our room myself.  Yep - me.myself. and I.  I got a paint estimate that was more than the carpet, so I will do it myself.

  In fact, in preparation,  I am painting this - the only room in our house that has NEVER gotten any attention and still has the icky builder beige on it.  Our teeny master bath that I hate.  I think I have allowed MAYBE one or two friends to ever enter it's doorway.  It IS Gross:

NO cupboards, shelves, or cabinets.  What builder designs a room like that?  Craziness. I have plans, though.  That's why I'm showing it BEFORE.   I took out everything to prepare for painting.   Ok, a bottle or two remain.

Here is the best part, though:

NEW FLOORING!

Yep - lovely stone.  Ok, not really stone.  Fake Stone.  It's Vinyl made to LOOK like stone.  I love it.
So, we are getting there.  Baby steps.  I should be gardening.  Ahhh... my little gardens.  Haven't done a thing to those boxes except let the tomato plants regrow from last year.  Great.  I should have been painting during the BLIZZARDS!  Silly me.

I"ll have to wait a while....

Carpet Crazy

So, I am stressing.  Seriously stressing.  I should have talked to Kellie before I made a move.  Kellie was stressing over her oldest son and his new fiancee coming for the weekend.  She has great wisdom.  I started stressing a couple of weeks ago about B's "friend girl" coming (I hope she doesn't read this blog yet.... :) ).  Our house is about 16 years old and the carpet upstairs is horrible and old and needs replacing.   When I found out "she" was coming, I got this BRIGHT idea that I needed to finally get new carpet for the upstairs.  Great idea.  I even picked it out quickly!  Unheard of for me.  I even paid for half of it already.  It is written in stone.

So, then I get another GREAT idea that our bedroom needs painting.  It really does and has needed it for a while.  I thought - OOOH, I'll get a estimate for having it painted.  It's kind of a dark color currently.  Yea - the painting would cost more than the carpet.  So, I continue to stress.

I mean, who gets new carpet FIRST before painting?  I have spilled many a paint can in my days on new carpeting.  The first time was in high school when I helped the mom of my boyfriend paint walls at her daycare center.  Yes - Clutzo tripped over a HUGE 5 gallon paint can and.....you can imagine.  Embarrassment and carpet cleaners called.  But I digress....

So yes, now I am stressing over the fact that I will have to do the painting.  I don't want to do it, nor do I have the time before "she" comes and before the carpet is scheduled.  Hubby says to breathe and to quit worrying about it and just get the carpet.

BUT, just the carpet - do you know what that entails??  We have a small upstairs.  There is no way that we can move all the S T U F F  from 3 bedrooms (one with a large sitting room with all my craft, sewing, and office S T U F F ) out of the way for the carpet guys to come all in one day.  I need to divide it in to two days.   But, then, which room goes first?  And, how do we get it all back together before "she" comes? 

And, besides all THAT, I don't even know what colors I would paint!   Who paints when they don't have the whole plan together of the "look" they are going for?  I don't have " a look" decided on.   What the heck was I thinking??

And, I am also thinking, "she" really wouldn't have cared either.

So why did I??

I thought being 50 and all, I would have figured this out and not be losing my mind.  Wrong.

(And, if "she" is reading this, please don't tell me for about 5 years....if "she" is still reading then).

Prom Packaging

L is a Senior.  Last night her prom was held.  It was her first.  She looked like a slightly "punk" Cinderella.  Gorgeous.  She didn't leave school early to attend a spa or have her hair and nails done and her body scrubbed.  Many girls do that - I don't really get that, and she doesn't either.  "This isn't a wedding" was our mantra.  Thank Heavens - on multiple levels.   

We started prom dress shopping in March.  She has no problem keeping the standards of dress that our church follows.  Finding a dress on this side of the country that honors that is much more difficult.  While I could have sewn one for her myself, or ordered one online from some companies who support dressing modestly,  we decided to shop for a dress and see if it would be fairly simple to modify.  I have several friends who have done that, so I figured I could do that as well.

L is wonderful to shop with.  She knows what she wants and when she sees it, she's done.   When she was  younger, that bothered me - I wanted more of an  "experience" shopping with my daughter.  You know - "hmmmm.... well, let's see what the other 50 stores have before we get THAT one".  Nope - she wasn't having it.   I now appreciate that talent in her very much.  I wish I had it.  When we walked into the first store the first time shopping, she saw it, loved it, tried it on, and we bought it and were done!  Sweet.

Here is what it looked like before:

And here is the after.  I like the black satin sleeves - I think they "add" to the look, besides covering up my daughter:

They were pretty easy to slip-stitch in.  Because L is only 5'1", I had to also take up the length.  I did that by just folding up and matching seems and layers that were already in the dress, and tacking them in place.  The affect it had was to make it much more poofy and "cinderella-ish".  Worked for her!

She looked like a princess and had a wonderful evening.  Maybe we'll add a photo of her and the "boy".... and,  maybe not.  You'll have to WAIT and see.... :)