While things are finally getting a little easier, they haven’t been great. New guy is getting there but needy and pointing out that all of our training materials are basically crap. We haven’t had a new hire in 5 years and a lot has changed in that time. And we are launching a website redesign and no one really remembered that staff needs to be trained, so “Merridee is good at training, she’ll do it.” Thanks guys! After months and weeks of stress and drama, I am desperate for a break. Thankfully I do the scheduling now. So I put myself down for a week off — and just in time for my birthday and the first anniversary of me in the house.

Her favorite trick is to rest her chin on the side of my bed and whine when she thinks I should get up. She HATES it when I read in bed before getting up in the morning.

So the first three days of my vacation it rained — a lot! Which was the perfect excuse to lay in bed, sleep and be lazy. Lily HATED it!  She was so confused when after she whined for hours, I would get up, take her out, feed her, wander around for 10 minutes and decide go back to bed. She would come and check on me every hour or so and I would try to explain to her that she gets to sleep all day all of the time and now it was mummy’s turn. I would manage, driven by guilt, to get up long enough to take her for walks when there was window when the rain paused. But for the most part, pile of lazy! Loved it.

But after 3 days, the weather and I had seemingly done our thing and was ready for reality again. It was still pretty soggy outside, so I decided I couldn’t tolerate another winter waking up in such a poopy brown depressing room. I had been hemming and hawing about what color to paint my room for months now and couldn’t really decide, which is why I hadn’t tackled it yet.  I needed something bright to battle the dark winter months. AND CEILINGS SHOULD BE WHITE. So I went with a color that had worked well in the other house — bright yet soothing — Chapel Wall, which is basically cream. Boring I know, but also bright yet soothing.

I strung out the painting process over 4 days. 2 days for ceilings and 2 days for walls. For a 9×13 foot room, that is really milking it. I took lots of breaks, made some lovely food and pondered future arrangements for after. Also contemplated decorations, since I basically didn’t do any decorating in that room when I moved in. By Friday of my vacation I had finished up, and managed to do all of the styling that was going to happen at this point. Not a decadent sanctuary, but a huge improvement on what it was.

Once again, my furniture doesn’t really fit the space but I love it all too much to get rid of it. The mirror was Grandma Hanson’s, the dresser I got in middle school, headboard I refinished, lamp and books were Grandparents Doman.

I took the closet doors off when I first moved in. I have hated closet doors for years. But I knew at times the mess inside does need to hide, so I hung the curtain rod I insisted on bringing from the Rex and then lost one of the finials for in front of it.

I don’t really like my standing mirror anymore but I don’t have room in my bathroom to do my make-up in there, so it had to stay and be inconvenient. The Renoir poster was a present from Kevin when he was an intern in D.C., so is 20+ years old and looks like it. The hanging lamp I inherited when someone left in the basement at the Rex (I have suspicions but that makes me want to keep it more — bitch owes me.) Blanket my mom made me, little table and then purple shelf.

Got the lace curtains hung at the correct height and then put the old bathroom shelf in the corner to hold all of the books and bed stuff. I don’t love this bit but am to cheap to shop for anything new at this point.

I am keeping my eyes pealed for something awesome to hang over the bed. Also contemplating the pros and cons of another hanging light, maybe something from Ikea — keeping my options open.