Sweet Madeleine

LightBright

Change is afoot.

This weekend I painted our kitchen Robin’s Nest by Benjamin Moore.

It’s a light, almost transparent feeling blue-green. I think of it like Tiffany Blue’s flaky younger cousin, with long sun-bleached blonde hair, moccasins and mala beads, prone to zoning out midsentence.

The walls were in rough shape and I spent a lot of time patching the holes, I did my best with the rough plaster and uneven trim and tried to breathe new energy into these old walls.

It’s such a BRIGHT, light colour that halfway through when Adam came home and (after initially not even noticing) declared it “Seafoam green”, I panicked, had that “Oh shit, what IS this colour?!” moment that I always have halfway through, where the old hasn’t receded enough and as a result the new looks strange in comparison.

But once all was said and done, paintbrushes washed and tape removed (hahahaha are you kidding? I don’t use tape) it felt so bright and airy I couldn’t help but love it.

And when it came to putting back some of the things I took down to paint, I just…didn’t.

I like the space. It fits.

In between coats, we went shopping. And I found these little darlings

and then I discovered that they were named “Ruckuss” and I loved them even more and I bought them and haven’t taken them off since and Adam’s been complaining about the heel-marks in his shins from me kicking at night, but I just make hilarious jokes like: “Oh sorry was I making a RUCKUSS wearing my boots in bed again ?” Hahahahahahaha!

(Seriously though never. taking. them. off. Ever.)

LOVE THEM. Funny how a pair of tall boots the colour of caramel can bring my mojo back.

Tonight we leave for a three day weekend. I’ll divide my time between freezing my ass off on arena bleachers cheering for my mans, (a uniquely Canadian pastime) and breathing in sister time, city time, mom time.

We are only able to do this because Adam’s parents graciously offered to come stay here for the duration of our trip, and I don’t know if I’ve gushed about this before (and somewhere in coastal BC, my brother-in-law Chuck will be rolling his eyes at my ass-kissery) but if I haven’t gushed I MUST gush, about the wonderfulness, the explicit wordless selflessness of my in-laws.

Friends of ours are contemplating divorce because there is such tension between the spouse and the in-laws, and while this is an extreme example, I know from anecdotal experience that unfortunately ours is not a typical situation- it’s not, strictly speaking, “normal” that Adam and I truly enjoy and adore each other’s family as much as we do.

Seeing my siblings interact with Adam and the joy they get from him (and very much vice versa) is, for me, always one of the best parts of our family get-togethers. It reaffirms my sense that despite the sometimes difficult times, despite the moments when I look into his eyes and wonder how I could have possibly married a man who can eat McDonald’s for breakfast, despite the kilometres-wide chasm that divides our interests and opinions and feelings on how many times one should wear a pair of underwear between washings (Once, Adam. ONCE!), despite all this when I see him with my family I know I picked a good one.

And he came with a bonus, a big one. I love them not just in a generic “they’re good people” way, but because I know that they desire, simply and intrinsically, the best for us- whatever that might look like. They happily help when asked and, perhaps even more importantly, they offer without being asked. And they genuinely want to help.

I am used to this from my family, but it never fails to amaze and inspire gratitude when I see how fully this grace has been extended to me, how quickly (from day one) they reached out to include and welcome and love me.

I couldn’t be luckier.

(cue Chuck vomit)

Ol’ Painty Can Madeleine

Good morning afternoon!

Yesterday my mission was to paint, specifically walls. More specifically, all of the walls that exist in our bedroom and our spare bedroom.

Here’s what happened: When we first moved into this house in February, I don’t think the walls had been painted in at least thirty years. They were scuffed, dirty and pockmarked with holes from all of the other people who had inhabited these rooms before us.

The living room was in the worst condition and is also the first room you see when you enter the house, so we tackled that one right away. I desperately wanted to paint the rest of the house but I wasn’t sure if we would be here long enough to warrant investing that time and effort and money.

And then BOOM, “We’re probably going to be here another year at least” says Adam. Obviously, as evidenced by my passive aggressive list, I wasn’t very happy to be receiving this information.

But after a few hours that unhappy started to turn into really, really happy.

I FINALLY HAVE A PLAN! A timeline! For the past 4 years I have been living month to month, never sure if we were going to be in this town to see the next season change.

The number of times I’ve avoided planning something or getting involved in something or starting something because I wasn’t sure if I’d be here is off the charts.

This might not seem rational, but it’s how I operate. I don’t like uncertainty. And so, even though I would certainly choose to live somewhere else if it were left up to me, at least now I KNOW that we are settled, for at least a year. With this knowledge decisions can be made, I can PLAN, I feel somewhat settled and I feel happier than I have in a long time.

And so I painted! I decided that Sunday I would paint both of those rooms to completion if it killed me (and it nearly did). It was exhausting, Adam thought I was crazy, but I had been staring at those busted beige walls for six months and hating them every time I did. It was time.

SO! A little before and after for ya:

I’m really in love with the idea of grey as a neutral, so I chose Chinchilla by Martha Stewart. It’s a really soft grey that morphs into shades of lilac and blue depending on the light. I absolutely adore it and really, anything is better than band-aid beige.

Incidentally, and hahahahaha TOTALLY unrelated to my weekend activities, here is a list of helpful tips about what to do if you accidentally spill half of a can of grey paint on your carpet after ignoring your husbands suggestion to use a dropcloth (hypothetically):

1. Panic. This is a necessary step, it will give you the rush of adrenaline needed to complete the next seventeen tasks in record speed. PANIC I tell you!

2. Thank goddess that your husband is distracted in another room by pizza and back-to-back episodes of ‘How I met Your Mother’.

3. Run to your laundry room and grab the entire stack of dog towels, run back. But make sure you run quietly so you don’t arouse your husband’s suspicion - he knows you never run. Ever.

4. Use one entire towel to sop of the top layer of wet paint.

5. Mutter “OhshitohshitohshitohshitohSHIT!” several times under your breath as you see the magnitude of your mistake.

6. Use another entire towel to frantically rub at the stain, now (fittingly) the size of a paint can, on your cream coloured carpet.

7. Get a few cups of hot water. Pour onto the affected site and rub frantically some more.

8. Use another towel to blot.

9. Repeat several times until you run out of towels and have to go scavenge more (QUIETLY) from the dirty laundry.

10. Rummage through your cleaning supplies until you find a half-empty can of Spot Shot. Douse the entire area in the thick salvation of chemical foam.

11. Repeat.

12. More hot water.

13. More blotting.

14. MORE PANIC! Reply “Just moving some furniture!” in a bright, steady voice when your husband asks why you’re breathing so heavily.

15. More Spot Shot.

16. More blotting.

(At this point (hypothetically) the spot should have disappeared enough to bring your blood pressure somewhere near the normal range.)

17. Casually drape a tea towel (the only remaining item of clean, absorbent cloth remaining in your house) across the damp spot.

18. Never, EVER admit to this. EVER. Even if your husband reads the list on your blog and asks you about it. HAHAHAHAH I thought you didn’t read my blog Adam? Now YOU’RE busted too! OH MY GOD THIS IS ALL HYPOTHETICAL! Hahahaha oh man do I tell tall tales! Where do I GET these crazy ideas? Hahahaha (PANIC).

So yeah, unevenful weekend! Nothing major to report! No reasons for spouses to gloat or say “I told you so” or anything. Just thought I’d make that clear.

Good day.