A Strange After Effect Of A Weekend Of Painting Is The Texture Of My Fingertips. I Was Mostly Responsible For Cleaning Up Paint Spills And I Highly Recommend Using Plastic Gloves If You're Working With Certain Stain Removing Products. Apparently They Remove Your Top Layers Of Skin As Well As Unsightly Marks On The Carpet.

We painted the kids' bedrooms this weekend.  This may seem like no big deal, but it had become an issue in our house.   Although, I regret not getting to this sooner, I truly believe the rooms finally got painted because we found the right color.  After years of searching.  Plus, the kids actually cleaned their rooms and we didn't have a single sporting event scheduled.  The planets had aligned.

I loves me a white wall (although we painted our kitchen black).  I like our house to look a little like a funky art gallery or old schoolhouse.  I like wood floors, white walls, white cabinets, and black countertops.  Having a simple base makes it easier and more fun to jazz things up with a few interesting elements.  Our kids, however, want colored walls - as in not black or white (why do they not consider those colors??).  So we've been on a color hunt for about three years.

This painting delay isn't all my fault.  The kids haven't exactly had a clear picture of what colors they prefer.  We've sampled a lot.  We'd paint two or three swatches of color on their walls every six months or so.  Nothing ever seemed right.  The walls started to look like the back of someone who'd gone through one of those extensive allergy tests.  The one where they prick your skin with different allergens to see how red and swollen each area gets?  JD's wall was a checkerboard of greys and blues and Eliza's was a rainbow of bright greens and blues with one odd orange sherbet patch thrown in (where did that come from?).  I was beginning to have an allergic reaction to it all myself.

Turns out the paint colors we went with were never actually ones we sampled.  I credit Pinterest with our choices.  During one of my pinning sessions I found photos of rooms I loved and knew each kid would love too.  They have completely different styles so to find inspiration pics for each of them within mere days is nothing short of miraculous.  I knew in my gut that these were the right colors - after sampling 500+ colors you just know.  I did bring home a small sample of each color the day before I bought them to make sure no one was horrified by the shade, but there was no "living with it awhile" or comparing colors.  We just pulled the trigger and the results are fabulous.

I'm not the best at picking paint colors out of the blue (pardon the pun) so the key to success for us was to find colors professionals have successfully used in rooms themselves.  Turns out Benjamin Moore's Caribbean Coast and Hale Navy got the job done for us in a big way.  Even though I wish we'd been able to get to this point sooner, we would have never found these colors if we'd rushed or settled.  I'm not even sure Pinterest had been created when we started our search.  I don't know if this is a lesson in staying open and giving things time to develop or a testament to the power of good research.  Either way, the Highs are checking one job off the home improvement list and can now move on to one of the 6,493 remaining.

I'm wearing this.

What's with the weather?  I'm starting to dress like the sky.

gratitude:  Thanksgiving break, tasks completed, togetherness, machine washable faux fur throws

thanks and love.