a grecian sea in the living room

I watched Voyage of the Dawn Treader while I was painting. I blame that for the oh-so-brilliant title you just read.

And speaking of painting... guess what I'm done with now? Yep! No more painting for the foreseeable future.

Yes, Apples, I'm getting to the pictures. (Another slightly obscure reference, but Netflix won't help you this time. Sorry.)

So. Two weekends ago, after the first coat:

Last weekend, after the second coat:

And this week, after Keith and Julia helped me re-hang the curtain rods:

The paint color is Grecian Sea, from Dutch Boy, although I used two coats of a paint/primer from Pittsburgh Paints. And I love love love it. Keeping my fingers crossed that it goes well with the sofa that is set to arrive in the next few days!

it feels like I'm moving again

But don't worry, I'm not. In fact, today is reminding me why I hope to not have to move again for many, many years!

With that, a moment of silence please for my beloved red napping couch.

Which these people came today to pick up and take to their beautiful little home across the freeway:

And now my living room looks like this:

And my dining room looks like this (for the purposes of maneuvering oversized couches through teensy tiny doorways):

And this lovely friend will be picking up the love seat shortly.

And then the room will be empty.

And I will sweep and polish the floors, and tape the trim, and paint paint paint, and in less than two weeks, my living room will look nothing like it used to.

If things go as planned, maybe something kind of like this:

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Or this:

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Or even a little like this:

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Which is fantastically exciting, and also a little sad. I guess that's what the word "bittersweet" is for.

And I'm glad the red couches are going to good homes where I'll still be able to enjoy them once and a while :)

the first harvest of the summer

First harvest of 2011 is in!

Kale. Rhubarb. Chives (not pictured because they went straight into the pan).

And peonies. "Harvest" is quite literally the right word for these bushes - one day they're all green, and the next there are white and pink flowers the size of a baby's head just falling all over themselves in the yard.

The only possible solution is to cut them all off and fill every available vase in the house.

They're pretty, and they know it. Diva flowers.

But I love them anyway.

When I've recovered from being back from vacation (isn't the catching up the worst part of going away), I'll have more garden, kitchen and painting escapades to share...

a major(ly) spontaneous purchase

I accidentally pushed the living room project up by a few months/years today ... by buying a new couch. Over the phone.

A dark brown leather sectional, to be exact :)

This isn't the greatest photo (the color is warmer in real life), but it will give you the idea:



(To give you a sense of the size, it's eight feet by eight feet - a slightly smaller footprint than the current arrangement of couches in the living room.)

It was a spontaneous purchase of the best kind. I've had a picture in my mind for months about the perfect couch for the upstairs living room (where the red couches are) - 1) comfy, 2) genuine leather, 3) not too deep or too narrow, 4) armrests on both ends (shocking how many couches don't have this nowadays), 5) curved sectional with connecting hardware, 6) not too ornate or too casual, 7) not insanely expensive. The combination was hard to find. I'd shopped around in Minneapolis, and then given up for a while this spring because I wasn't finding anything I liked. So instead I focused on finishing the guest bedroom, and thought I'd start looking for couches again in the summer or fall.

Then, my cousin and I walked into a shop in the Old Market of Omaha, and that's where I found it - the perfect leather sectional. As close to the comfort level of my red couches as I think I'm going to get. Beautiful walnut-colored genuine leather. Zipper attachments for the pillows so they don't slide out of place. A curved corner seat. Armrests (and pretty ones at that). Best of all? A great price, and a steal on the shipping arrangements.

It won't be here for 4-6 weeks, which is just fine because I have to sell the red couches and paint the room first.

Did I really just buy a couch over the phone from a store two states away? (Not even a furniture store, mind you. Just a random store.)

Yes. Because when you find what you've been looking for, you go for it. Right?

in the garden grows...

"In the garden grows more than the gardener sows"

- Spanish proverb

PS - I love you, ma! Thanks for not only teaching me how to tend a garden, but how to love doing so. I can hardly wait until you can come see what I planted this weekend.

light jade and french blue

Ta-da! It's done*!

Before I dish on the details, here's a reminder of what the room looked like when I moved in:

And this is last summer, when I put up primer and sanded down the outlines of the polka dots:

Last weekend during painting:

I went with two shades from Glidden: Light Jade (on the window wall) and French Blue (on the other three walls). And I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Most of the furniture and accessories in this room are from my mom. The bed was hers as a child, and she brought the rug back from India in the late 1970s. She gave me the nightstand on my 15th birthday, and the vintage ivory bedspread last summer. (I've had the floral bedspread and pillows since I was six, the curtains came with the house, and the lamp came from IKEA in college.) It is really nice to have at least one room in the house that didn't need anything new :)

Confession: I put up the trim tape over a year ago, and even when I knew I wasn't going to paint the room for a few months after priming it, I still never took it down. They say it shouldn't be up more than a few days, or it won't keep a seal against the paint. But... it was totally fine.

*Almost done, that is. I have a few things to hang on the walls, but I need to paint some of the frames first. And figure out some sort of closet solution, since this former nursery doesn't have one of its own.

So, who wants to be the first guest to stay in the newly-finished room?

what shade of blue?

It's a great question. I started painting the second guest bedroom (aka blue bedroom) this past weekend. What shades did I pick? Well, since it took me six months to buy the paint after deciding on colors, I figure I can keep the secret a few days longer.

In the meanwhile, enjoy these gratuitous pictures of my blooming bulbs. Aren't they purty? And how about some Easter brunch action? Yeah, I know that's what you're all here for...

Thanks to my friend Lindsay for bringing the strawberry and cream scones, clotted cream and carrot muffins! Between those and my brother's french toast (and, it's true, my usual obsession with hash browns and sausage, which of course made an appearance) we had a lovely Easter brunch.

And then I painted some more. If all goes well, I'll have a new before/after post for you in a few days!

Happy spring, dear friends. Isn't this just a wonderful time of year?