Home Improvement

Another big strike project was painting.  I painted the entryway and stairway single-handedly using an edging tool on a telescoping pole.  I was sure I'd break my neck on a ladder or scaffolding getting that area done but I hardly had to step higher than a chair using that pole. 

We chose satin paint in a lovely taupe, kind of a cappuccino-with-cream kind of color.  It looks so much nicer than the flat pale cream color that was throughout the house when we moved in.  It showed absolutely every mark.  You'd walk by it and it would leave a mark.

Between the entryway, the foyer, the living room, the dining room, the hallway and the kitchen, it took about 3 and 2/3 gallons so I've got plenty left for touch ups. 

I love this picture of all my rosaries.  I took them all down when I moved my shelf and it reminds me of Pope John Paul's childhood church, the Basilica in Wadowice, because visitors hung thousands of rosaries on the gate inside one of the chapels.  They look so pretty all draped together.

On the subject of religious items, I was excited to finish painting so I could finally hang up my mezuzahs.  Mother brought me this one from her last trip to Budapest.  It hangs between my bedroom and sewing room doors.

This one I bought in Krakow and was particularly excited about.  It is hanging inside our front door which I'm aware is technically incorrect.  I know it should go on the outside of the house but there is vinyl siding out there and nothing to nail it to.  Also, I wanted to see it every day and protect it and the prayer scroll from the elements.  I'm so happy to finally have them hanging up.

Mom came to stay with us for a week and helped me paint my bedroom and put up this "headboard" made of mock tin tile back splash panels.  She bought them for us as an early Christmas present.  The color of the walls was inspired by Clementine Churchill's bedroom at Chartwell which was painted "duck's egg blue".  This was the closest we could muster and I love that it goes with all my textiles and a print I'm going to have framed when I have some petty cash.

Mother remarked that the space above the headboard needed "something".  I then remembered I had a real Marimekko panel I picked up in Finland years ago that had been sitting in a box in my sewing room ever since the trip.  Mom and I visited Stockmann's which is Helsinki's answer to Harrod's and patronized the fabric/wool/haberdashery department.  Marimekko is THE fabric souvenir to bring back from Finland but it is very expensive, as in $30/yard so we quickly found the remnant bin.  I spotted this piece, only 32" long, but I loved the colors and knew that some day I would do something with it.

Mom had the very good idea to make a casing at both the top and bottom of the panel so I could hang it both ways and quickly give the room a new look by turning the panel the other way up.  I love that I'm slowly bringing things out of my stash to decorate my home.  I've been traveling for 15 years collecting objects along the way and now that I have a house, I finally have a  place and means to display and use them and that makes me very happy.