This story actually begins about a year ago when I first bought and moved into my house.
The second bedroom of my house is quite tiny and the paint on the walls when I moved in was more than hideous; light purple walls and ceiling and dark purple trim and cabinets. Something had to be done with that. It had been used as a closet/dressing room by the previous owner and I intended to use it as the same but wanted it to be a guest room as well.
My house is quite old and has a very traditional look to it and some classic character. Which actually works quite well with my style of decor . . . very simple and very classic. But I had this urge to do something funky with that one room. So, after consulting with my good friend Molly (the trained interior decorator) I decided that it needed to be painted my favorite funky shade of apple green.
So . . . fifteen (and I am almost not exaggerating) coats of primer and paint later I had a cute little room with bright green walls and white trim and cabinets. Now the question is what do you use for furniture colors in a room that is bright green? Kind of a tough call really. But as always (especially when on a limited budget) IKEA had the answer. It was an orange pull out sofa. It pulls out to a full size bed, but is small enough that it fits in the room without taking up too much space. Really I love the color too . . . it's fun.
But for the past year this room has really not been much of anything. It had the sofa in it, but when people are over it really didn't serve much of a purpose. Then about a week ago my good friend Molly called me once again about helping her unload a chair that a friend had given her. So I went over. This friend that had given her this gargantuan chair had also sent her home with a lime green chair straight out of the 70's. Once I got there and we were talking we decided that there was a perfect place for this extra little lime green chair and that was in my spare room.
So we loaded it into the Jeep and I brought it home. It sat in the Jeep for a few days and then made it's way into the kitchen and finally yesterday I rearranged the room a little and it made it's way in there. I had to text Molly a picture right away because this little chair actually accomplished a huge feat. It finally gave this room a purpose. It is now and adorable sitting room where all I need is a good table lamp and ottoman and I have my little reading room that I have always wanted. So here is the little green chair that could.
So if you have been reading lately you would have noticed my anticipation for the holiday season and my debate as to how much I plan to decorate my house. I have been looking around at ornaments and trees for weeks while shopping for work and have continued that debate in my head.
I got home from work early today and was cleaning and rearranging some furniture in my house and my mom called. She asked if I had my lights and decorations up yet and I said no, and I wasn't sure that I was going to this year. Then my mom "insisted" that I have a tree. So I went shopping and bought all the stuff and put up the tree and the few decorations that I have and this is the result.
This year I forgot to take the day after Thanksgiving off work. So here I am sitting at my desk wasting time, cause most people are off today and there is really nothing pressing to get done. So here I sit being a little depressed that I am missing out on one of my favorite experiences of the holiday season...Black Friday.
I guess that my love for this beloved shopping day started when I was quite young and we would go shopping with my mom to Fred Meyer. It was the one day a year when we would get new socks because they were 50% off that day. As I got older we would go through the ads on Thanksgiving day and see what we could find that we wanted to go get for people and then make plans for where we were going and when to get it all as quickly as possible.
In fact I remember one year my Aunt Marianne and some of her boys coming along . . . that was quite the experience. My cousin Greg (just to make a point and be nuts) grabbed a cart as they opened the door and pushed through the crowd and went running down the aisles. I got a real good laugh out of the whole thing.
Alas, this joyous tradition is just not the same without my mom and sisters to go with. And since I forgot to take the day off I guess it will have to wait until next year to enjoy it again. Maybe I will learn to plan better by then.
It is that time of year again. I love Thanksgiving, it is one of my favorite holidays. Probably not just because of all the yummy food, but probably more because it is the first holiday of the holiday season and I just love this time of year.I just want to let my family and friends know that I am thankful for them and love them and miss them when I can't be there with them this holiday. But I look forward to Christmas when I can be home sharing the holiday with my family.
But at least it's a funny story . . . so as usual I was driving around a lot today for work. I had to go to a bunch of stores to pick up all sorts of random supplies and so I stopped into this shopping center that had a craft store and a hardware store that I needed to go to. But as I walked into the craft store I noticed the pots out front (I notice these things cause this is what I do for a living). They looked really nice so when I came out of the craft store I made it a point to look a little closer at them. As I did that I realized that they were exactly the recipie of my winter display pots. I was shocked.
Not to toot my own horn, but my company and my department is sort of a trend setter in the industry for seasonal color displays like this. So it isn't unusual for me to see my competitors try to copy my work . . . usually I get a good laugh out of it cause they fail miserably at it. But this time it was exact! I really could not believe it. I went back to my office and had to tell Diane (the supervisor that works for me in Aurora) all about it. She was as shocked as I was and wanted to know where the place was so that she could vandalize them (she was kidding).
So later in the day my boss walked into my office and we were chatting and I had to tell her about this. We wanted to figure out which of our competitors did the work. She asked where the place was and I told her and she started naming off stores in the shopping center that I was referring to so I knew she had the right one. She started laughing and told me that WE maintained that shopping center and had arranged these planters. At that point they spread out and told everyone and we all got a good laugh.
I was a new job this Spring that I had heard of but never knew where it was. I tend to think that I know all the Aurora jobs since that used to be my job, but there have been some new ones that I have never been to cause I have been busy dealing with all the other locations.
In any case, it was the light hearted moment of the afternoon and I learned where this job was that I had not been able to place before. Sorry if it didn't sound as funny to you . . . but we were cracking up.
Today was another driving day for me . . . I made my circle all over the Chicago Suburbs and into the city and on my way back south and I passed a gas station and saw something that excited me. I was on the phone with my mom at the time so I shared my excitement with her.
I officially saw gas for $1.99.
It is below $2.00 a gallon. Honestly I never thought that I would see that again with how the prices sky rocketed, but was excited to see it. Then I thought, "why am I excited? It is finally getting closer to reasonable!"
This is a wonderful example of how capitalism actually works!! The prices rose until they reached a point where the market was no longer willing to buy as much of the product as they were before. It finally hit that threshold where people finally started to cut back their fuel consumption. . . not just you typical driver, but everyone one was cutting back including businesses. So then the market did what a free market does and it corrected itself. Oil stopped selling for $160 a barrel . . . it dropped to $54 a barrel. Finally!! And this without the government having to step in and freeze fuel taxes, or force the big oil companies to do anything.
I am grateful to live in a capitalistic society where a free market exists and the consumers actually control the market, not the government. Let capitalism work . . . it's a beautiful thing!
I have been so busy with work and everything else in my life that I didn't even realize that it was already November. I mean, I knew what the date was, but I didn't realize what it meant. Now all of the sudden it is November 13th and Thanksgiving is only two weeks away and Christmas is only six weeks away. The holidays totally snuck up on me.
Of course I didn't realize that until today. Granted I have thought about it a little bit, enough to think about getting a tree and buy my plane ticket home. But other than that . . . just put it off as if it was so far in the futureI spent a good portion of my day today tying bows for holiday decor projects for some clients. By the end of my day it looked as if Christmas had exploded in my office. And it got me thinking. I need to do some shopping . . . plan out my decorations at home . . . and maybe even think about doing some lights.
I am a true lover of all things Christmas, especially the lights. As a kid I loved to help my dad with the lights on the house. And now that I am all grown up I may even do some lights on my own house. I realize that I won't be able to do a lot this year, but I want to start making some of those purchases and get my Christmas decorations for my house started. And I really am kind of excited about it.
Growing up in Idaho and in my family I was taught conservative values. As I have grown up and become more politically opinionated I have continued to be fairly conservative in my political opinions. Although I am not offiliated with the Republican party I do agree with them on many issues.
Living here in Illinois, being young, especially here in this election season people assume that I am liberal like people here. I am grateful that today I was able to cast my vote for president without anyone telling me who I should vote for or looking over my shoulder. I feel very blessed to live in a free country where every vote counts. I realize that my vote for president won't really make much of a difference in the home state of one of the candidates, but it matters to me because I was able to vote for the man who I think will do the best job and best supports my values.
In case you are wondering who that is I did vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin. I still hold on to the hope that they win. Also, my prayers are with those in California that they will be able to pass proposition 8 and preserve traditional marriage.
