hale pupule

I'm not even sure about pricing or anything, but I'm looking for a relatively inexpensive and unusual way to add a certain whatsit to my kitchen wall. I have a blank space that's about four feet high by six or seven wide. As far as color is concerned, anything goes; the tile is baby pink, and the wood cabinets are stained so that they're a bright, orangey-brown. It's like when a red-haired person wears pink; the effect is ghastly. I can't match both, so I'm not going to try to match either. (Walls, ceiling, stove, fridge, and floor are all white.)

I have a few ideas in mind, but I'm looking for something that grabs my attention. Ideas that I'm already mulling over include a world map in sepia, a few of Lautrec's Folies Bergere and/or Moulin Rouge posters, album art or rock posters, or wall art of food.

It's gotta be cheap -- posters will go in boxy, clear plastic frames, for example -- and it's got to have energy. My living room will be the picture of serenity, with places to sit, one wall that's dedicated to books, no TV or computer, and wall art that shows sea and sky. But when you step into the kitchen, I want there to be color and movement. I have a dining nook that is an in-between place -- it's part of the kitchen, but it's visible from the living room, and the piano will go there -- and I've already decided that a sepia-toned photo that I received for Christmas last year can harmonize with just about anything I put in the kitchen as well (and it's calm enough to be visible from the living room). The other stuff will only be visible when you're in the kitchen itself, so it can have a completely different mood. I want it to be energetic without being obnoxious.

So, after all that babbling, what I'm asking for is ideas. If you like something I've suggested, please cast a vote for it. If you can think of something else that has the color and/or energy I'm looking for, please suggest it.

Blue blue blue! Not white! Blue! (Though the ancient Greeks would call it bronze.)

It's drying darker than I expected, but it's really quite nice. Slightly on the yellow side of sky blue, but nowhere near aqua or light teal. Pretty pretty pretty.

I kept the swatch of color from the store where I bought the paint, so tomorrow I can put the swatch against the wall and compare the sample against the finished product. Then I'll have an idea of how the other paints will turn out when they're actually slapped on the walls. What I'd really love to do in the living room is blend a medium blue at the bottom with a light blue at the top, but I can't see Robert doing that. Nor do I think he's going to like the idea of me trying it myself and taking a quarter of this gig away from him. I'll just take a risk and do the whole room in the medium blue, since I already have light blue in the bathroom.

Two weeks to the kitchen, dining nook, and hallway. All of those are going to be in white, so I don't have to buy that paint, but I do need to put my books away so that the bookcases can be detached from the wall. This is a very good time for me to weed through my stuff, because I have so many freaking books and CDs and VHS tapes and DVDs. At least with some of those, I can get rid of them using Swaptree. (And get more stuff that I don't have room for.)

Bubba the Hutt has emerged from the bedroom, but he's still slinking around a little bit. Haven't seen Boo-Boo yet. The smell is probably offending their dainty little noses.

It took Robert six hours to do the bathroom. I'm sure he's going to be here all day when he comes to paint the kitchen and hallway (cupboards and drawers and closets and all) in two weeks.

Edit: Rather than making another post, I'll just add onto this one.

I need a shower curtain, I keep finding places where dust is hiding, and the room still reeks of paint. But I have a warm brownie in one hand and a cold flute of Martinelli's in the other; I am on my way to a nice, long soak with my yummies, a dozen candles, and the laptop with a QI DVD inside. If I have any energy once I'm all pruney, I shall get caught up on reviewing WIPs; I'm at least a week behind on Leap of Faith, and -- *GASP!* -- I read but never reviewed the latest update of The Love You Take. (I know. I'm awful.)

Have a good night, loves.

( am exhausted, going to bed, good night. )

Early choir practice in the morning, since we're singing tomorrow. My eyelids are drooping, so it's past time for me to hit the sack. I hope everyone had a good Saturday!

Go ahead and tell me how gullible I am, but once again, I believe it. Mostly. Well, I'm hoping, but I've learned that things don't always go as planned.

I heard a knock on my door half an hour ago, and even though I had no way of knowing, I thought, That's Dave as I walked to the door. Sure enough, it was Dave the Landlord. He and his wife and his bro-in-law have been embroiled in a legal mess -- Dave and Wife (can't remember her name) have split up their partnership with BIL -- for eight months. They thought it wouldn't take much time to divvy everything up properly, but it's taken a little longer than they anticipated.

Finally, all the legal mess is done, and Dave has informed me that he's going to line up the plumber, plasterer, painter, and carpet company. If all goes as he says, improvements will start in three weeks and be done by the end of September. If all goes as it usually does, it'll be more like Thanksgiving by the time everything's finished, but I'm a laid-back person. It'd be nice to be able to have friends -- or even just family -- over this Christmas, but I'm not counting on it.

If it goes through, I shall be utterly delighted. If it falls through again, the next time Dave raises my rent, I shall include photos of the hole in my bathroom ceiling and say *points to icon*.

I'm asking the family for one of my birthday/Christmas presents ahead of time: paint. The theme of my Christmas/birthday wish list is Pimp Mah Flat.

After Mom moved out, I didn't set foot onto the patio for four months. I finally went out there today and took stock, then yanked everything out execpt the lavender bush, since that's the only thing that's still alive. Swept up all the dead leaves and sighed over the mint and cat grass; the roots were so dense, it was impossible to shake any soil from there. Bad me. The cats are having fun, though. They like any new smells -- or, at least, smells they don't get to experience every day -- so they're on the patio, rolling around in the dirt and smushing leaves that I missed when I was sweeping up.

Now I have four empty pots, in which I shall plant herbs in another month. The only problem now is that I don't know which herbs I shall plant. I know I want parsley and thyme, since I use them in recipes, but I don't know about the other two. (If you say sage and rosemary, I shall thump you.) Maybe I'll just plant flowers, but that didn't turn out very well last year. Roses, perhaps? The two large planters are almost cubical -- the sides slope a little bit, so they're bigger at the top -- and each side is about fifteen inches in length. Is that large enough to sustain a rosebush?

The only other thing I know I want is a cutting from Nana's plumeria tree. It's looking kind of sickly, however, and the mother of that tree is at Aunt Jo's house, so I think I'll be asking permission to take a cutting from that one instead, once the weather warms up enough. I'll have to purchase a pot and soil and stuff -- the pot I'd gotten for the tree now holds the lavender bush -- but I really will do it, this year!

Dave is showing up in two hours to wreak havoc in my kitchen. I'm packing up the laptop now; electronics plus tile dust equals disaster. Hopefully I'll be online again today; if I'm not, have a good weekend!