So Many Questions

All I've been doing this week, whenever I have a free moment, is wander around the house looking at all the little things that need to be fixed.  The problem is that the little things add up so quickly.  We wanted to do one room at a time to be able to focus and not become too overwhelmed.  But even the room we did, if you can call it a room, the entryway, is not "done".  Is there such a thing as "done"?  I painted the window and the floor trim at the top of the stairs last weekend, but I still need to paint the trim around the door.  Does the door itself count as part of the entryway, or part of the library? And if it's part of the entryway, does that mean I must strip the paint off the crystal doorknob and add another coat of paint to the door downstairs?  And speaking of doorknobs, the ones upstairs (and some downstairs) are scratched, as well as being made of that special kind of shiny brass that was so popular in the 80's.  I have made it my mission to rid our house of every last bit of shiny brass, even if it means using spray paint in some cases.  Antique brass is alright though, especially since our beautiful original crystal doorknobs downstairs are made of brass, somewhere underneath the layers of paint.  The other thing that I didn't really think of before that has become a problem is the question of metals.  In the entryway I have brushed and satin nickel, silver, and pewter.  But the lamp in the library is antique brass, and I think that will look better with the paint.  Does the metal all have to match in each room?  And if it does, where do you draw the lines for each room if the metal in two adjoining rooms is different?  And what about the ever present brass doorknobs?  I'm sorry for all the questions, and they're rhetorical for the most part haha.  I've been to Lowe's twice this week, furiously grabbing paint chips and counter top samples for a file I'm going to create.  That way I can put things I like in it, and when we get to a particular room, I can pull them out and get ideas.  But so far it has just clouded my head with ridiculous questions.  I had people out last week to give us estimates on the living room, but we've decided that it will have to wait until after Christmas.  So, to console myself, I've been focusing more on these little things.  We also might start painting the library, if we have any time.  So that's all on the house, I have no batteries for my camera, but I'll post pictures on any progress we make when I get some.  We bought a new sconce (in brushed nickel haha) for the top of the stairs last night.  When (or if) it's up, I'll include that.  In other news, I have an appointment on Wednesday to get my hair cut off.  I think I'm going to get it cut a little above my shoulders, with some layers.  I'm going to keep the part the same, but get my bangs cut.  It's just driving me crazy, it's always in the way, and my bangs are at such a terrible in between stage.  Also, since it's been so long since I've cut a lot off, I'm getting split ends.  I can't believe I've had it long for this long, I usually change my hair all the time.  I'm sure I'll miss it, but I'm excited for a change. But I really need to get going, tomorrow Jason and his friend from work Andrew are continuing their cooking club at our house.  Everything is  a mess, and we need to buy food.  Jason's making his South American pork dish, Andrew's making a casserole, and I think I might make pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese icing.  I made them last year and they were very yummy.  Also he wants to meet Mortimer because he likes chinchillas, and his cage is less than presentable haha.  Last night I let him run around the bathroom to get some exercise.  This may sound strange, but it's the only chinchilla proof room in the house.  I just have to make sure the toilet lid is down, they've been known to jump in and drown.  He ended up in the tub instead haha.  It went well until he kept chewing on the pipes connecting the toilet.  I would yell at him, he would turn to me with an angry quack (which I've actually decided resembles the sound that Penguin makes in the Batman movies more than anything haha) and then turn around and keep chewing.  We think he's going through puberty right now, so I guess this is typical teenage behavior haha.  Anyway, that's all for now, except that I'm sad that Paul Newman died.  Great actor, and equally great salad dressing.   

A Refreshing Change

I don't have a lot of time to post tonight, I've been busy all day and still have a lot to do before bed in a few hours.  But I thought, as a break from house stuff, I would post a picture of the boots that I'm currently obsessed with.  Unfortunately, I have no idea how to upload an image from Anthropologie.com, so if anyone could help with that for future reference, that would be great.  Instead I'll post a link.  We're trying to be really frugal right now in order to prepare for the spending explosion that is the holidays, but they're sooo beautiful.  They would look great with skirts and dresses, but also with jeans.  ::Sigh::  I guess it is not meant to be.  But one thing I would like to start picking up are more pretty socks.  I have a huge collection of socks and tights, but there aren't enough that are functional.  Unfortunately I have terrible circulation, so my toes spend several months out of the year being completely numb.  I am not exaggerating, I often wear two or sometimes three pairs of socks.  I would like to get some that are both cute and warm.  I've found some really cute over the knee kinds online, that I'm hopefully going to pick up soon.  It's too bad, they would go really well with those boots too...

I guess I forgot to title the last one...

I started to feel really gross again last night, so I didn't get a chance to upload the rest of the pictures.  I'm still pretty congested, but I feel better today. These are all of the new entertainment center.  I really like it, I'm just not loving the knobs and handles.  Hopefully, when we have the money, I can upgrade them.  I also wanted to put up a picture of our new Halloween tree that Cheryl got us.  It's so cute and festive!  I spent most of the day doing a lot of yard work, and painting the trim at the top of the stairs and around the window.  I'm going to do the door too eventually, but it may be a while since I can't reach it and need Jason's assistance.  I have a lot more to do, but I just wanted to put these up.

Here's today's first batch of pictures.  I think I'm going to split them up since there's a lot.  The first three pictures are from the entryway, on the opposite wall from the sconce.  The large print in the middle is a Ralph Stedman picture of Freud and his wife on the last day of his life.  Jason thinks being in the middle of what I call the "hello collage" takes away from the depressing nature of the picture, but I think that's probably a good thing.  This is my attempt at a creative welcome sign.  The postcards are from The Black Apple.  I know it seems strange to put 10 of the exact same picture up, but I like how it makes the frames themselves stand out even more. Then we have the old entertainment center in its new home in the library.  I realized that I have quite a large collection of vases and milk glass, and most of it was hiding in the kitchen cabinets, so I decided to display some of them now that we have the room.  The dark blue glass was Bob's gradmother's, and Megan bought me the light blue Anthropologie vase.  The yellow one is from Jason.  And last but not least, the new reading chair.  We actually ordered it from the Wal Mart website, which is the second piece we've gotten there.  It's kind of crazy, since the majority of their furniture is really dated and ugly haha.  We got the lamp a few weeks ago at Lowe's for really cheap.  It was originally meant for the living room, but we couldn't find a place for it.  Behind it is the Catcher in the Rye print.  I have a cold.  It's been slowly coming on for a week now.  It sucks, but I'm so grateful that the brunt of it waited until I had handed in the two papers I had due this week.  Last night I was embroidering and I started to feel achy and dizzy.  I decided to lie down in bed to watch tv at 9:30, and the next thing I new it was one o'clock and Jason was coming to bed.  Today I woke up with a horrible headache.  But luckily I felt well enough earlier to run the large amount of errands that are necessary to keep our little family going.  On Monday I have two contractors coming to give me an estimate on finishing the plaster in our living room.  Since we already have the paint, the plaster is going to be the last big house expense for a while, since we're trying to focus on paying down our credit card before Christmas shopping begins.  That has been made more difficult since Harlock went the vet on Monday for her yearly checkup haha.  She's all caught up on her vaccines, except the Lyme Disease, which they forgot, ugh.  She also got a microchip.  They said she's perfectly healthy, which is great news.  Recently we've had a new "pet" join us.  A couple of weeks ago we noticed a little bird in our yard who doesn't seem to be able to fly.  For many days it's mother flew around chirping back and forth with it, but we couldn't catch it to see if we could get it back to its mother.  After a while he left through the fence, and we didn't see him for a while.  Now he's back, and I have left a pile of bird seed and Harlock's water bowl for him.  Every morning he's out there eating.  He eats a lot haha.  He still doesn't seem able to fly, but he's fatter and his chirp has gotten louder.  Last night we had a freeze, so I filled a shoe box with washcloths and put it out there for him.  Jason thinks I should let nature take its course, but I'm hoping that if he gets stronger, he'll be able to fly in time to head south for the winter.  I guess all I can do is feed the little guy and hope that happens.

More home pictures for your enjoyment.

Right now I'm really stressed out.  I've been reading on and off all day, but I'm nowhere near done and I have 2 papers to work on tomorrow.  Also the house is a disaster.  But I did manage to pick up a Halloween wreath and fall door mat, so I've got that going for me.  Here's some new house pictures.  The first is of that pillow that I embroidered, using Sublime Stitching patterns.  I need to cut some of the threads from the back, but I'm pretty pleased.  I'm working on another one with animals on it, but with school it will be a while before it's done.  The second picture is kind of sucky, but it's of the sconce that was originally on that wall when we bought the house.  It was brass and had paint all over it, so I stripped the paint and spray painted it silver.  The pictures surrounding it are from esoule on etsy.  They're from a series called The Little Zoo, but they're greeting cards, because I couldn't afford the originals.  They're of little animal figurines and I think they're lovely.  The rest are pictures of my mom's magic in the backyard.  Unfortunately, although it looks a million times better than it did, other than mowing and a little weeding once a week, I just don't have time to keep up on it.  That will change next year hopefully, when I'm a housewife and spend my time watching soap operas and eating bon bons haha.  I got the first season of Curb Your Enthusiasm from Netflix.  I've never seen it before, and it took a few episodes for me to get into it, but I'm really liking it.  Right now I just don't have time for a movie, so tv shows work better.  But I did see Valerie and Her Week of Wonders last week, and I loved it.  I have to admit that my knowledge of film is relatively limited, but I'm working on changing that.  It was my first Czech New Wave film, and it won't be the last.  Visually it was incredibly beautiful.  It kind of goes along with my Modern Art Seminar, which focuses on avant-garde film.  Last week we watched a film by Man Ray, and Ballet Mecanique, which was directed by Fernand Leger.  It was really exciting to watch films made by artists whose paintings and photographs I enjoy.  Now I'm really excited to see some of Duchamp's films, because he happens to be one of my favorite artists. 

Spiny Sea Urchin, hooray!

I haven't posted in a while, because all I do now is read for my classes.  Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but it has been taking up a lot of my time.  Yesterday we blew a fuse.  A really important fuse which knocked out power to the kitchen, half the living room, the bathroom and half the guest room.  We've never changed a fuse, because our house doesn't have a breaker box, it has an actual fuse box, and it's kind of frightening.  Luckily we found it and Jason only got a little shocked when he screwed it in haha.  Dad and my grandpa are planning on coming after the first of the year and installing breaker boxes, which will be great.  While we were down there I grabbed a few boxes of Halloween decorations, since I don't like spending any more time down there than I have to, it's so icky.  I bought candy corn lights at Lowe's last weekend, I'm pretty excited about those.  There was a pretty sconce in our entryway that we decided to keep, but it was brass, which I'm not fond of.  So I spray painted it matte silver.  While I was at Lowe's I decided to look at the Martha Stewart colors, since we're thinking of painting the library once the living room is done.  For some reason one color immediately caught my eye.  It's called Spiny Sea Urchin, and it's kind of a subdued lime green.  I found another color called Chamois Cloth, which is a really light neutral, to go with it.  And, since Hell has apparently frozen over, Jason actually liked them haha.  It's really his room, so it was important that he agreed.  We're going to do one wall with the green, and then paint Ultra White on the trim, windows and doors, since they're not very attractive as bare wood, and I want them to look like the downstairs.  I found colors for the upstairs bedroom too, but Jason wasn't as fond of them.  He agreed to let me use South Sea Pearl, which is a light taupe kind of color, but darker than the Chamois.  I was going to post pictures from the Lowe's website, but the colors were way too different to be of any use.  He didn't like the golden yellow for an accent wall though.  That room will eventually be the guest room/craft room/ writing room/ music room.  Luckily it's a very big room haha.  We bought a poster print of the first edition of Catcher in the Rye for the library.  And we would have ordered a reading chair, but we can't figure out what color the one we want is, since it doesn't say on the website.  Ugh.  That's all the house updates for now.  Next week I have to see if I can get someone to come out and give us an estimate on finishing the plaster in the living room.  I'm hoping to get it done during the Jewish holidays at the end of the month, when I'll have more time to stay at home.  Then we can begin the daunting task of painting the living room.  I want to get it done as soon as possible, so we can start the library.  I'm really excited to see all the colors together.  On a different note, I went for a 90 minute massage on Friday.  I haven't had one since May, and this is the first time I've had a 90 minute one.  It was nice, but painful, because my back is such a mess.  I've been having a lot of tingling in my upper back.  She said I'm having muscle spasms, and that I should ice my back to help.  Between that and my jaw, sitting still in class for 3 hours a day is torture.  Dealing with chronic pain is no fun, but I've been feeling somewhat better since the massage.  I started babysitting last week, which has been fun.  Mainly it consists of my playing the Lego Indiana Jones game on the Wii with the 5 year old while he gets very annoyed with me. Apparently my special brand of suck is frustrating him haha.