Two blissful and refreshing days off and all I got was this fantastic half-decorated living room. That I LOVE!

So I’m back at work after two blissful days of leave. I got up to feed Sydney at 4:45 both mornings, we went back to sleep until 9, then were up again to eat and head off to daycare. After I dropped her off I went to HomeGoods, Pier 1, and Target to pick up a few things for the living room, which is in desperate need of brightening up.

Here is the before picture. Witness the catastrophic glory of our smoker teeth yellow walls, rust colored curtains, and matching plaid couches. Yes, they are comfy couches, but over the years have faded and are no longer bright and cheerful. Take notice to all the clutter and toys everywhere. Is it any wonder I came home everyday and wasn’t all cheery? Would this not drain your mental health too? Yes, I was taking pictures at 10:00 Monday night while watching South Park and getting inspired to clean.



So here is the after picture, really the mid-transition picture of our living room since we have not painted or hung curtains yet (I thought I would let Doug decide what color paint he likes, if any at all, since it apparently hurt his feelings that he was not included in the decision of the slipcovers and pillows). But the pillows are totally hot and I love them and it makes me happy knowing I am coming home to something bright and fun and not drab and depressing and mentally draining.





You'll have to excuse my very poor attempt at "tucking" as I am new to slipcovers. You have my word that the time will be taken to ensure a proper fit now that I know what I am doing. Well, kindof :)

Here are the curtains, which we will hang after we paint.



My plan is to brighten the walls with two of these colors (Top left – Morning Breeze, Top right – Bridal Blue, Bottom left – Sunbeam). One will go in the living room and hallway. The other color will be used in the dining room and kitchen as they complement each other fairly well. Or at least I think they do. Why can’t Vern Yip come to my house and do the decorating for me? Better yet, send me Neesy, Trish, Mark, and Matthew from Clean House! Lord knows we need to get rid of stuff that is “not essential”. I think if we ever did go on that show they would need to bring in security from Jerry Springer because Doug would probably pounce on them if they tried to get rid of anything (and no, I don’t mean your cars because I know you collect those and would never ask you to get rid of them). But I digress. What color do y’all like?



Oh, I also spent a good amount of time condensing our dvds into two tiny pretty silver cases that hold 200 movies a piece. So quaint. So unobtrusive. So compact. So uncluttered.



No, your eyes do not deceive you. There lies 400+ movie cases that were taking up cherished space all over our basement and slowly starting to take over our upstairs. I figured we could keep a few cases, you know like boxed sets and ones with sentimental value. Other than that, do we really need to hold onto them? Yeah, I don’t think so either. Sadly, we need a 3rd case.

Now for something completely random - the joys of public transportation. Let’s begin with Metro. I once sat on a train next to a guy carrying a rather large handsaw. I have had people not give up their seat when I was very noticeably pregnant. I have seen ginormous spiders crawling on the window right next to me on a crowded rush hour train where I was lucky to have a seat at all. I even once saw a kid lick the window on New Jersey Transit!!! I wonder if he’s still alive after contracting who knows what. Disgusting! A few months ago I started taking a local commuter bus and until this morning I have had a pretty uneventful ride to and from work (unless you count my regular morning driver honking and waving at the prostitutes leaving the park as they are presumably making their way home at 6:30 in the am). A woman got on at the stop after mine and sat down. She did not sit on top of me (as some people feel it is their God-given right to do), said good morning without scowling at me (as some people also feel is their God-given right), all was right with the world and then I fell asleep. Somewhere mid-commute I woke up and looked over to see this…



Um. Okay. It almost makes the handsaw guy look normal.