I have been sick for the past couple of days with a head cold. It's really annoying, but luckily I didn't have to babysit today, so I was able to get some rest. I've been feeling kind of restless though, I haven't been able to do any painting since yesterday morning. All of the walls have been painted in the library, and now I'm working around the trim. Time has become more of an issue, because we moved all of the books out of the room, and Jason doesn't like them sitting out for too long. But, all the work is SO worth it, the new colors look great. I was worried initially that the Rice Pudding color was too close to the color that was on the walls before, but now that I'm painting all of the trim ultra white, the color looks exactly the way it looked on the paint chip. So now all I need to do is finish the trim, paint the ceiling and the doors. After that we just need 2 more bookcases and a new light fixture and the library will be done. Before I start the next room, which will be the upstairs bedroom, I'm going to work on some of the smaller projects I have, like hanging the curtain rods in the living room. For the bedroom, I have picked the next darker shade from Rice Pudding, called South Sea Pearl. These are all Martha Stewart Valspar colors, I love them. Then, for two small accent walls that form a corner between the closets, and probably the insides of the closets themselves, I'm going to use Sewing Basket, which is a light orangey color with some yellow in it. I wanted to go for warmer colors in there, since we tend to lean toward blue and green a lot. The trim will be ultra white in there too. After the bedroom, I'd like to move downstairs to the mud room, because I've had a great idea for painting it. I talked about the color I want to paint on the ceiling, and I was thinking about grey for the walls. But, instead I've decided to go for a lighter version of the ceiling color, called Lustreware. They're both rosy grey colors, and they're really pretty. That's all that's been going on with the house right now.
On a far more exciting note, can we all breath a collective sigh of relief now that the Bush years are officially over? Haha, I am so excited about President Obama, for the first time in a long time I have hope that our country will have a bright future.
Jason did a typically romantic thing for Valentine's Day, and offered to buy me the pink chinos from J. Crew that I've been wanting haha. He hates Valentine's Day, so I'm just happy he did something. And, when I went to buy them, I discovered that they were $15 off! Yay! He's asked me for the Planet Earth series on Blu-ray, so I'll pick that up at Sam's at some point.

I just thought I would share a few of the funny things that have happened to me and members of my family since Xmas. This first one doesn't sound funny at first, but stick with me haha. Bob slipped on the ice on our porch stairs and fell down them, breaking his rib. We were sitting in the house when we heard a crazy noise (Cory does a great impression). Running outside, we found Bob sitting at the bottom of the stairs, waving us away. Then he stood up, lit a cigarette so he could "catch his breath" haha, and started chiseling the ice off the steps. Don't worry, he's fine, and I'd like to say that we waited until we were sure of that before laughing, but if there's anything my siblings and I share, it's a need to laugh at inappropriate moments, especially when someone is hurt. Then, later on we went to Panera. My mom was in the bathroom, and when I came in I heard her say something, sounding shocked. It looked like her purse had gotten too close to the sink and had gotten splashed. In reality, she had, quite brilliantly, decided to set her purse in the sink while she fixed her makeup. It was a sensor faucet, and it FILLED her purse with water, which she then proceeded to dump on the floor in the confusion. Her phone was messed up for the next day haha. It was crazy, her purse was like a bucket. Then, even later, we were at Wegman's getting stuff for holiday meals. We got some olives at the olive bar and I put them in the cart. But, when I went back to the cart, I realized that it wasn't our cart. By the time I figured that out, the women whom the cart belonged to had returned, and I let her leave with our olives. We kept seeing her around the store and cracking up that she was going to have some surprise olives in her cart haha.
After everyone left, last week I was in my car when I realized that the windshield needed to be scraped. When I put my foot down to get out, I slipped and fell out of the car. I slipped on the ice while in a sitting position haha. My forearm in still bruised, which has made working out a challenge. Anyway, I thought I would share all the hilarity that has ensued lately.
I'm excited, today I got the books in the mail that I ordered with my Barnes and Noble gift card from Xmas. I decided to get some books from newer authors, since I tend to read mainly classic books. I have so many books to read it's ridiculous. I got about 15 total for Xmas, I have 3 that I didn't finish over the summer, there are several Megan wants me to read, and that doesn't even count the library upstairs, which has untold numbers of books I want to read (we're allowed to read books from certain bookcases, the others are too valuable, sigh). I got Miranda July's book "No One Belongs Here More Than You". I had no idea she had written a book, I'm excited about that. I also got
St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves and Eeeee Eee Eeee. I also bought The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and read in one night. I really liked it. I've been really into short stories lately. I'm also reading some Virginia Woolf, since I can't give up my classics completely.
I also got some iTunes gift cards. Instead of buying full albums, like I usually do, I've been trying to buy just a few songs from each artist, so I can explore more music. So far I've picked up some Deerhunter, Shocking Pinks, Tiger Trap, Amusement Parks on Fire, A Sunny Day in Glasgow, M. Ward, Vivian Girls, Yeasayer, Caribou and Ra Ra Riot. And I still have $15 left to spend!

Finally I have new pictures of house stuff! I bought quite a bit of things for the house over the last couple of months, mainly things to hang on the walls. Jason bought me these decorative plates at an antique store. I like the one with the dog, he looks like our old dog, so sweet. Those are in the future guest room upstairs. I hung more pictures up there, but I'll post them later. Then I finally, FINALLY hung the deer canvas I bought in July up in the living room. We've finally resigned ourselves to having crumbling walls until at least summer, so we hung our pictures back up in there.
I have also finally started painting the library. I did the "green wall" last week. The pictures make the color look lighter than it is, it's more of a lime green in reality. Next I'm going to paint the alcove area with "Rice Pudding", which looks exactly like you would think a color with that name would haha. And don't worry, all that awful trim and the door will be ultra white, and that light fixture on the ceiling will be going soon. It's going to take a long time to finish the room, so I'm doing it in phases so we don't have to disturb the books until absolutely necessary.
I just realized that the way the pictures posted is the opposite of the order I'm explaining them in. Oh well. Anyway, next up one of my many new framed prints. This one, the rabbit on the left, was a freebie from Elle Moss. That's in the mud room. The mud room is also the location of my latest paint related idea, courtesy of the Domino decorating book. I'm thinking of painting the walls a light grey, and painting the ceiling with this amazing Martha Stewart color I'm in love with. It's a light purply-grey (it's hard to explain). Jason hates the color, I originally wanted to use it in the kitchen, but he agreed that, since no one cares about the mud room anyway, I can use it there haha. I'm so full of ideas, I wish I could do them all at once. The round frame has silhouette stickers (also freebies with my Xmas gift from Megan), from Elsita. The prints that weren't freebies are in the upstairs bedroom and our bedroom, respectively. More pics later. Anyway, that frame was on sale at Anthropologie, and I love it. The frame is so pretty it didn't really even need anything in it. That's in the living room. The mirror is at the top of the stairs. I got it on sale at Urban Outfitters, where it was originally WAY too expensive. I know it, and some of the other pics, look crooked. I think it's just our wavy walls haha.
Well, that's all for now. Up next is the next phase in library painting, putting up the new house number I bought, hanging the living room curtain rods that I bought last summer, making shelves out of some vintage trays I bought, spray painting the frame on an old mirror Bob bought us at the flea market, and put in the light fixture at the top of the stairs. I'm having so much fun getting to pick things like paint colors and seeing how they all work together. I'm also thinking that this year is going to entail my learning much more about using tools and such. As much as I think Jason is a great guy, he has this one flaw that drives me crazy haha. It takes him, months, sometimes YEARS, to complete even simple tasks that I ask him to do. He is the ultimate procrastinator. So, instead of waiting around for him to do things he will never actually do, I'm hoping to learn to do most of it myself.