on the wall, the little changes

The signs are up. The veggies/seeds sign is more vibrant than I could capture, and overall, I’m pleased with the size, vintage feel, and effect they have in the kitchen. Because I ordered 3 horizontal signs and 1 vertical (have been window shopping for these for over a month now, and what happens when I come down to the decision wire? wine.), and because they were actually just a little bit bigger than I imagined, we ended up arranging 3 on one wall, and 1 on another. Grouped the foodstuffs together, and then joined the one about the children with the other one about the children. They make a good team.

 

Also this weekend, in our bedroom, we made a few changes. J.Lo took down the TV stand that was hanging on the wall. The previous homeowner made it, and he did a good job, it had just… served its purpose, and we were ready to move on. It was a tad “hospital,” and I couldn’t stand looking at the wires hanging down from the back anymore. We put the dresser in the TV stand/hamper area’s place, with the TV on top. Shifted my dresser down and put the hampers where my dresser used to be. I also switched around two pictures on the wall. All of this sounds rather abstract and inconsequential, but my main point is that the little changes totally alter the feel of a room, and with each new choice made for your rooms, it seems like the house is even more of a home. Your very own space reflecting of You, and/or the Collective You. And so between that and a lunch out to Panera, along with going to see Gran Torino, which made me laugh a lot and cry a little, it was a very satisfying weekend indeed.

on a whim

I guess sometimes I don't even know I'm antsy until I take action. Today I rearranged our kitchen during naptime, but it wasn't at all premeditated. I couldn't have told you when I woke up this morning that today would include the following: Kitchen Rearrangement. Probably it won't stay that way too long, because we'll be adding a new cabinet in sometime this year, getting rid of the industrial-ish baker's rack, and it will all have to change again. But for now, the kitchen table has changed its orientation so that it's perpendicular to the deck doors, or I guess they're called "French doors," but that sounds so fancy for our house. Also, K.Lo's kitchen has been relegated to the downstairs play area, the butcher block has moved back to its original home, and K.Lo's table and chair set sits next to the counter. Unexpectedly, it opens up the room quite a bit, just like our recent living room rearrangement. To me, the rearrangement is successful if you look around and wonder how you lived up until that point, how your life wasn't utter chaos with your furniture arranged as such. Not that it won't change again, and give you the same feeling, rendering your former logic illogical.

I'm not even sure what overtakes me, or why. I've always been this way, always thinking in the back of my mind of how to improve? Or how to "settle" a space, iron out its uncomfortable quirks. And then suddenly I leap into action. Probably there is no "perfect" arrangement, just a better arrangement, or an arrangement with a different set of positives and negatives, and maybe at certain points in your life one arrangement will match better with what you require. I did this spontaneous rearranging with my bedroom growing up, with dorm rooms, and now with our own house, although I try to keep it to a minimum because unless it's something like the kitchen, where I can plausibly move the furniture myself, it becomes J.Lo's problem, not mine. Particularly where electronics and wiring are involved. And God forbid I change my mind again.

And then, I also do it on the blog, move the "furniture" around, i.e. the colors and layout, and drive mendacious nuts. Of course, after last month's mishap where I lost the entire sidebar in my Overzealous Quest for A Badass Template, I was self-banned from messing with it for a long time. Not that I care to, because um, look at it. It's awesome. And it was all done by m. The art, the colors and everything. Maybe someday soon she will come to my house and tell me what she thinks of my kitchen. That would be like, neat.