Staycation

Less than no cash. Yes, me and the rest of middle America -- or maybe the lower middle class of America. I still have a paycheck and should be abundantly thankful, but I love traveling more than anything. Well, I actually love shopping most of all. Neither of those is happening here.

I have stayed home a full week and managed to get a few chores done. I trimmed all of the rose bushes -- a dozen of them, full of dead blooms that were really amazing after some huge rain in May. Okay. Roses trimmed. Check.

I have watched a lot of movies including How to Train Your Dragon, Rabbit Hole, Too Big to Fail, How Do You Know, and Blue Valentine. I took my favorite intern out to dinner at North Woods Inn for a decadent dinner where I had Gin & Tonic and Fried Scallops along with their awesome salads (lettuce drenched in real blue cheese and red cabbage covered in oil & vinegar). Oh, and don't forget the sinfully awesome CHEESE BREAD. (Still lost 0.6 pounds this week. Next week, there'll be hell to pay, no doubt.)

My big outing was to The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills (formerly the Museum of Television and Radio). I got to see an amazing display of a portion of The Debbie Reynolds Collection of movie costumes, set pieces and memorabilia. I will post photos in a separate entry. I was in heaven with all the other movie geeks, gays, costumers and old time movie hands. It was delightful.

I have two days left for my other big goal -- to add some color upstairs by painting. I have been to Dunn Edwards and managed to procure two quarts of beautiful accent colors: one for the wall I see when I wake up or before I go to sleep, and one for the wall behind me when I sit at my vanity. I picked these walls because no part of them is 20 feet high. I have crazy condo angles with some high cielings that are insane to reach.

Peace River

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm a sucker for blue. The only bedroom paint color I've ever chosen is blue. I was in grade shool and my mom let me choose the color of my room. I chose baby blue. When I chose my daughter's linen colors for her crib, I picked red, white and baby blue (mostly because of the Disney Babies print with them playing band instruments on the crib bumper pads). When I painfully remarried in 1999, we painted a HUGE room with high cielings a French Blue.

Now, I chose Peace River. Yes. Peace like a river. I look forward to opening my eyes and seeing that soothing peaceful pale silvery blue. Okay, not the whole room, but the one short wall opposite my bed. Of course, I already have blue/gold/green/taupe paisley Hilfiger linens with ivory suede trim. I have a treasured Van Gogh with swirls of blues in the sky with wheat fields and cypress trees. All this room needs is new knobs for my boring mission oak furniture. How about painting them gold?

Weathered Coral

I'm not sure who has seen weathered coral or where they were. This is actually a pale, buttery gold color and it will reflect on me in my big vanity mirror area. It will transition between the blues, greens and golds of my bedroom and those of the bathroom. I just realized as I was masking the first wall that the blue and gold will meet at one corner, but not really visible at the same time. I hope. Uh oh. Is this a goof. Not if I love them both!

Tried to cut and paste these lovely shades from the Dunn Edwards site, but no luck. They do have a nice site. I'll see if it will work with me.