Getting Rid of Color

This was a busy weekend for the weekend warrior known as Doug.

He decided that he needed to do something on the house. But he didn't want to spend any money. Both very good objectives. So he looked around and decided to prime the colored walls in the front room and the kitchen, which were dark chocolate brown and dark red, respectively. There was, after all, a half gallon of primer left over.

The chocolate brown.
Unfortunately, no pictures exist of the red...or maybe that's fortunate?

Normally I'm all about color. And I did actually like the chocolate brown and red, but not on these walls and not in this house. I like the primed look better, actually.

The red used to be on those strange triangular walls above the kitchen.

And here's the wall - primed just in time to be a backdrop to Christmas!

For those who have visited in our other homes, you might say this is just because I feel at home with primed walls. You might be right.

Now I get to actually paint a color. Or a non-color, since Doug officially vetoed the yellow idea (see my post on colors here). I pouted for a day, then decided I would move on. 

Maybe I should go for texture, since I'm denied the joy of a bright color? It's more work, but I've never tried it before and really want to see how it works. Perhaps the linen look. I'm now grinning again. Be very scared, Doug. Perhaps you should have let me go with the yellow idea!

Lovely textured walls - do you think crayon would be hard to get off?

Bwah hah ha! (That's the evil witch laugh, in case anyone missed it)

It's Beginning to Look...

...well, a little like Christmas.

As stated before, I am kind of a control freak. Doug and I got all the Christmas boxes from the garage and moved them to the house. While we were doing this, the kids were unpacking anything we left unattended. So Collin was swinging around the Christmas stockings, Malena was "trying" stars on the tree (we have two), Jack and Sophia were just happily taking things out and trying to figure out what to do with them, and Bonnie was looking through some of our Christmas books - which we also pack with our Christmas stuff.

Mayhem.

We got the tree up on Friday after Thanksgiving, but didn't get anything else out because Malena wouldn't stop asking about decorating said tree. Saturday was the mayhem described above, but we still didn't get the tree decorated - for the same reason as Friday.

I did get a few things done, though. Outside lights, kept to a minimum this year - only snowflakes over the porch. Inside lights and garlands. Bows on our little spruces on either side of the driveway, and a tree next to the front door.

I did let Malena decorate this one, even though
the tree inside is still not done

The snowflake lights, ethereal against the blue sky

Oh, and fake poinsettias in a pot outside between our porch chair and sofa. I can hear the groans from here. Fake poinsettias? Yup, there they are.

Our decorating budget is zip this year, which is sort of okay, since we are consolidating our Christmas stuff from at least three locations. But I still didn't really  have anything to put in this empty pot. So I took the poinsettias that have been in storage for ten years, and that the kids have been running around tickling each other with all day, and plopped them in the pot. Hopefully they won't look as horrible from the street as they would up close and personal in the house. Hehehe.

Thankful for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wonderful this year.

I woke up late (okay, 8:00 am) and ate a leisurely breakfast while reading the paper and watching Doug prep for dinner. Then, as I was still plowing through the numerous ads, Doug looked at me and said pointedly, "I've gone as far as I can go without CELERY and YAMS!" I laughed.

But I did quickly make my leave to go to the store. The store was hilarious - there were stressed-out wives, but mostly husbands who had obviously been sent out for that last minute "thing". Many of them had their kids with them. You could almost hear their wives shouting, "I need XXX! Go to the store, and you are Taking the Kids With You!". I was strolling happily through the aisles just grinning at people. Yup, not cooking today. Yup, kids are at home, doing the cleaning. Life is good.

Doug was rewarded with a huge smooch when I got home.

For dinner, Doug's brother Rich and his wife and daughter came over. We had a lovely time stuffing ourselves, then playing games and generally relaxing.

I'm so thankful for Thanksgiving! And for the husband who made such a relaxing day possible. With such great food, I have to add.