Too sensitive or not sensitive enough?

Is it wrong to take from your best friend one of her most enviably fabulous furniture pieces for your own selfish use?

Okay, now in my defense, in Nene and Woody's new house they wanted a big, round dining room table which Nene had already said meant she'd have to sell the dresser to make room for said big, round table with her wonderful Hickory chairs. I had already schemed that I would do a trade with her for a dresser which I bought, painted, and would stripe sometime in the next 4 1/2 years. I liked my dresser but, as you can see, nothing comes close to this beauty. I had already planted my evil scheme seed into Nene's brain and she was going for it!!!

Nene had found a suitable table base while we were out searching which she was working on. Then on Saturday, while out pursuing productive activities I decided I wanted to visit my favorite P at PJ's Antiques on my way to see my favorite J from PJ's. I walked into the store and sucked in my breath when I spied the perfect base and top for Nene's table. Perfect. When I asked Paul the price he quoted me a deal I couldn't refuse. I panickly called Nene who proceeded to ho and hum, I hung up the phone, and told Paul I would be back to pick it up with or without Nene's permission. I hadn't gotten far when Nene called me back and said okay and when and how much was delivery. I said in a couple of hours and margaritas. Delivery proved Woody and Nene quite happy with the table and, to get the new room arrangement kicked off, the removal of the dresser ensued. I drug that new baby into the house and staged it as soon as Paul went to tee off the next morning. I had to put the urn lamp that Nene had made (I think I paid retail for it) and, voila, I'm the happiest girl in the whole USA. I will feel so much better when they are finished with their new dining room design and love it. Until then there will be a little guilt but still much enjoyment.

Yahoooooooooooooo! Surgery's Over!!!!

Well the big girl panties stayed on long enough for me to get through my surgery yesterday. Big shout out to St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore; everyone there was so sweet and gentle and kind. And afterwards it was as close to a spa that I've ever been...what can we get you?...what do you need?...WARM TOWEL FROM THE HEATED THING? My favorite part was when they said, "You can wake up it's over."! Sooooooooooo fun. Thanks for all of y'all's well-wishes and sweet thoughts. I'm still not quite used to the idea that it's finally "behind" me after almost 4 years. Yippie!

Poopy Day Has Finally Come

Tomorrow my little Wally Polyp is taking his leave and moving into a jar and on a slide. I can't say that I'll miss his pesky ass but I CAN say I'll be glad to have it over with. He and I have been together for over 3 years and it's time for him to move on. Please pray and think of me and my needle phobia. It's "routine" surgery, but Webster's definition of "routine" is when it's someone else who's having it done. And wish me good drugs! Thanks!

Full Peek at the Aesthetically Finished New Workroom

I finally aesthetically-only finished my new studio work room. So here are the photos, well-edited so that you can't see how I've already got trash on the floor as I treated myself to some creative time in there yesterday and today. I moved along the beloved favorites, like Mr. Man lamp below, on acid today. One of many areas where I stash just one area of my little control problems, ribbon.

I gave you a peek of the setting up of my favorite artists still life but it's full now and ready for the complete view. We've got Hope Wallace, Mel Lobdell, Judie Bomberger, Glynnis Gelaro, Nicole Sayre, black apple, Duncan Todd, Becky Christian, and Whataburger (what a burger should be) all represented just here (there are plenty of other artists represented in other areas).

I got the cutie white shelf/planter from the cottage and the scale (as you may recall from last Sunday) from The Pink Cabbage (NAILED DOWN MELLIE!). I hope to soon turn Prince Albert into a lamp.

Another angle which includes some of the mayhem but also my wonderful "Nurse Nancy" costume from childhood.

My little cutie area which began with taking a book case and adding the old kitchen cabinet doors from Janine's house which she had decoupaged with John Derian prints. I begged them to salvage the ones they could for me and they sweetly obliged when they demolished the kitchen.

Below is the desk that Paul's dad made 40 years ago that I've painted who knows how many different colors until I finally got to my favorite-PINK-and recently found the cabinet on top, painted it to match, and filled it with goodies.

Here are my "gonna be's", all my little sweeties I've collected and restarted the process of making little home collages for them. The two pictures on the right are old faves of mine, one of me and one of Justin that he painted in 2nd grade.

And the requisite Texas vignette complete with my metal Texas Sheriff's gun from childhood.

Check out this hand embroidered linen hand towel I got in Oxford hanging from the drawer pull on my work desk. As if I would wipe glue and glitter on it!!!!

Ever the child, one of my favorite lamps, on my work desk. An antique pink girl on a swing with a fab shade from the cottage and a posie from Alicia Paulson. Below is what the old studio room still looks like. If only a match could just make that room go away! I do have a deadline as Paul has a friend coming to stay with us the second weekend in September so it has to be a guest room by then. A deadline can be a really good thing.

P.S. Little pictures of the other projects I was doing intertwined with all the other rooms I was working on which got me a little over the edge for a while. But now that most of the work is over I'm very happy with the outcomes. This is the second bath upstairs. I hadn't noticed for almost 11 years how dorky the crappy oak cabinets looked with the stupid toe kick the same. So I stained over the existing finish with black stain and painted all the trim the same color and voila!, what a crisp, clean improvement.

All I did in our master bath was paint the gross moulding and toe kick and covered the blind on the window with cheetah fabric. Oh how I love paint. And, fortunately, am very good and fast at it.

The next couple of days will be rest and filling my brain with inspiration through a big stack of mags, books, and blogs. Yippie!

My Annual Ink

On the heels of Matt's best summer ever this letter shows up in one of our local newspapers, The Baltimore Examiner. While listening to peels of laughter coming from all the kids playing outside in the evening I typed my rebuttal email to the Examiner. I was ripe for the baiting. Oddly, I couldn't get his to line up straight on the scanner, my machine just wouldn't accept his slant! The only challenge was the little note on the "To Add Your Voice" box, "We will consider publishing letters containing fewer than 150 words". It takes me 150 words just to get warmed up, as I'm sure anyone who reads this blog is painfully aware of. I think his is more than 150 words, easily, but I'm not so obsessed that I counted. Really. I wanted to say that I agreed with the uniforms idea very much. Especially when the kids get to middle school but an early start is good for getting used to. I like a level playing field, I have a two page op-ed saved in my computer from last year regarding homework and the uneven playing field it causes to prove it.

I'm hoping I wasn't too upstaged by the facing page's thought-provoking question, below, especially in places such as Darfur and Iraq. These are all copied in actual size...