my busy season

I don't know why I get a certain amount of satisfaction from the fact that Spencer is still learning things about me, even though we've known each other for almost 10 years. I really don't feel like I'm mysterious. But anyway...

So we have once again found ourselves in the craziness of tax season. Perhaps the fact that Spencer isn't home much, combined with the fact that it's cold and we're inside a lot, was making me a bit stir crazy. Add that to my sudden love for HGTV and he had to know something was coming. I never "nest" when I'm pregnant. I "nest" when life is full of stress. Spencer knew I was literally itching to do a project. He kept saying, "I can help you! Just give me a few weeks, and then we can do it together!" But he was totally missing the point. I had to do it on my own. I guess it's my outlet. I think women will understand this, and men might be baffled just like he was.

I've learned something about myself these last few months. I really like being in my bedroom. I like the coziness of it, being able to sit on a bed instead of on the couch where it's crazy and the kids do their homework and build Lego creations. My room might be teeny tiny, but I really like to be in there. As I've been in there a lot lately (feeding Tanner, folding laundry, etc.), I realized I wanted to change it. Don't get me wrong, I loved my room. Here is what it looked like from the day we moved in until just yesterday:

I painted it, along with two friends, this blue color, and I really did like it. And I still liked it even when I decided to be done with it. The blue was just too specific, and I needed to change my bedding (more on that later), and because it was so blue, it wasn't going to match at all.

So, because I lose my mind slightly every tax season, I decided to totally re-do my bedroom. That was going to be my project - my outlet. To prove how crazy I am, I even toyed with the idea of painting my bed! I'm glad I sort of came to my senses...

I found a great bedding set that I loved online at Macy's for $250. Yeah right.

So, I went and found it (also new) on ebay for $60. I won that auction, and instantly had a color scheme. I headed off to the hardware store to look at paint samples. It was my lucky day because their section of "oops" paint had exactly what I was looking for. I can't think of much that is better than a $5 gallon of Benjamin Moore paint, in exactly the right color.

At this point I decided to go all out and even order a print for a frame I've had for a long time. Did you know you can order prints from Costco? Pictures from a gallery of 20,000? Because my bedding had poppies in it (but not a whole lot of color), I found a picture of pink poppies, and I think it complements the room nicely. (Now to decide where to put it - above the bed or on another wall? Ideas? It's much bigger than it looks.)

I found a clearanced pillowtop mattress pad for $20. And lastly, the sheets we've had since before we got married finally got a hole in them (and my back-up set is pretty thrashed as well), so I ordered new sheets. As a sidenote, Spencer admitted to me two weeks ago that he has been completely converted to my insistence of buying high thread-count sheets. Thank you very much; that is music to my ears.

I had all my supplies for an entirely new room, and they all just sat in my laundry room while I waited for my opportunity to paint. It's hard to move furniture all by yourself, and Spencer rarely has any extra minutes to help me do that part. I finally talked him into helping me shimmy the bed out 2 feet from the wall, so I was able to paint that wall last Saturday while he was at work and while the big kids were home to help me with Tanner. As I didn't want it to turn into a weeks-long project, I decided to power through and paint the remaining 3 walls two days later (yesterday).

I baby-sat two girls in the morning, had to go to the school 3 times, had to deal with a baby, did the laundry, edited a paper AND painted the rest of the room! I had to move the dressers out by myself but doing it carefully and slowly was ok. And, even though I finished at 11 pm and Tanner was up shortly after, I love love love how it turned out. This lighter gray color (with a slight hint of lavender) matches the bedding, is very neutral, and also makes my little room feel just a little bigger.

Last night as I was peeling the tape off the ceiling (when he got home at 10:30) I said to Spencer, "I love it! And I'm not going to paint this room again." He instantly said, "I don't believe that for a second." I'm serious though. I just need to find a new project for this summer when he's really busy again so that his crazy work life doesn't consume mine.