Surrounding myself with loveliness.

Since moving back into the house, I've begun trying to decorate and arrange according to my own tastes. No more blank walls because someone will get irritated at me for making nail holes. No more hanging back and letting things go. No more guessing at what he wants and then acting accordingly.

I want to surround myself with things that I love, things that speak to me of beauty and simplicity and goodness. And he will either like them or not. But mostly he will like them because he loves me. That's how it goes. Why did I not come to this realization much sooner?

In any case, I've been having a love affair with turquoise and red lately. This bland, blonde wood dresser from Grammy's house recently got a makeover.







I chose the color, bought the paint, sanded and painted the dresser and replaced the hardware, all by myself. So proud! I am sort of rethinking the coral pull, though. Not sure how I like it amongst all the round ones.

Also, I found a lovely set of owl bookends to hold my "to read soon" shelf. These live under a window in the bedroom.



My "to read soon" shelf spills over (not surprisingly) into a wicker basket that I picked up at Wal-mart and spray painted red. And I'll just let you in on a secret here: spray paint = fabulous! I'd never spray painted anything before and the instant gratification is wonderful. Wonderful! Sad little plain basket becomes snappy happy cherry red basket in a matter of minutes.



I might have to lose the basket liner. I think the bow is a little too cutey cute for my taste.

Also in the bedroom, we have the wall o' pictures:



Most of these were taken by dearest Seth at Gram and Granddad's estate auction, though there is also one of Mog playing naked in the yard, an old photo of Gram giving me a bath when I was a baby, and a strip of Eli and me from a photobooth in Vegas. Fun stuff.

Adventures in decorating shall continue as I try to find frames and homes on the wall for all the prints I bought at Renegade. Hip hip hooray! :)