Okay, here is the new and improved dining room. It is so nice to be rid of the sterile white that was in there. I suppose technically it isn’t really much of a color, but I love the way it adds warmth and a little formality to the room. I have curtains that I need to hang to soften it up a bit and I have another sofa that I want to reupholster that will go around the corner so we can sit and enjoy the lake view. It took me a while to get this posted because I have been recovering from what I think is paint fume induced dizziness. It is a weird thing to suffer from because it is totally incapacitating and yet your body and mind feel just fine. I am glad to be feeling a bit more normal, and really thankful the weekend is almost here.

Today I am painting the dining room/front porch. It has been white, white, white since we moved in 9 months ago. As you can see from this picture I already painted the living room red. And I am determined to fill the house with MORE COLOR before winter comes with it’s blanket of whiteness. I think the powers that be have decided to have mercy on me this time around. The color went on in one coat and I just had to do a second coat on some of the cutting in. A two hour paint job is such a relief after the 3 days and 6 coats it took to put up the red paint. (Side note: When the paint can says “gray primer recommended” it actually means “you damn well better pay us for our gray primer or we’ll make your life miserable!”) So here is the before picture. New and improved dining room pictures are coming soon.

I have been really inspired by seeing what other creators are making. I love Carol’s embroidery work and love to see her progress on projects. It made me realize a website would be a good place to share my projects with friends and hopefully create a little accountability. Actually, as the years have gone by, I have realized what I used to call “self-motivation” is actually a motivation to fulfill what I perceive are the expectations of others. Though I am not proud of this realization, I also know that left to my own devices I don’t get much done at all… so I am learning to work with my weakness and use it to my advantage. And so I will blog. And show friends what I am working on in order to be motivated to stay creative. I will start with this shirt that I embellished the other night. I am feeling like my clothes are so boring! So I started stitching and this is what I came up with. I am trying to decide if it is too “country” looking. I love Sharon B’s site as a resource for finding illustrated stitches.

My family has gone bloggin’ crazy! It seems like everyone has a blog. There are many things about blogs that I’m not crazy about. Mostly, I don’t like the idea of this kind of public exposure. But recently I was tuned into some sites of some very creative ladies and I have been totally inspired! Many of these women are at home with small children and I love to see the way they juggle the work of being a mom with their creative impulses, since that has been a great challenge for me over the past few years. So after all my anti-blogging rhetoric, I am swallowing my pride and joining the blogging world. I owe a big thank you to my husband who jumped on it as soon as I mentioned even being interested. I am finding it pays to share a bed with hot tech support!