2.24.2010

Pink Toe*

Lara and I took some time today and painted her toes a lovely shade of pink {her choice}:

 

When I tried to take a picture, however, she would not hold still, and since I refuse to use our camera's flash, every picture came out blurry.  "You have to hold perfectly still," I said, about fifteen times.  I would even demonstrate for her, holding my hands on my knees, my fingers extended and motionless.  "You have to hold still.  You can't move at all.  The pictures are blurry right now."  "I want to see blurly," she said.  But showing her the unfocused pictures I'd already taken had no impact.

I think maybe she couldn't comprehend holding perfectly still.  I think she felt the attention on her and squirmed to relieve the sense of pressure, because her toes, especially, were in constant motion.  I tried holding them down, even, while snapping the picture, but anything less than painful force {I'm guessing} was insufficient to keep her still.  Finally, I found a position that worked for us:



*The title of this post refers to an inside joke that Laura {my little Lara's mother} and I shared when we were both little.  We had these phrases that we could say, at any moment, and for any length of time, and it would make the other laugh hysterically.  Phrases like "pink toe," "Telly," and "elbow" {pronounced "el-a-bow"}.  It's a phenomenon that remains, to this day, completely inexplicable.  My three-year-old self would give you the same answer as my 23-year-old self, which is that we just thought they sounded funny.

2.22.2010

10 More Happy Things

{photo via PaperTissue.}

1.  Listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks on my iPod.
2.  Telling Christian I've been to the gym.
3.  Leaving my coat in the car because it's a beautiful 64 degrees and sunny outside.
4.  Welcoming Christian home with big hugs and kisses.
5.  Having several hours in a row free to read; wanting to read; having a good book to read.
6.  Knowing what to make for dinner.
7.  Hearing my little Lara say a blessing on our breakfast.
8.  Huge spoonfuls of peanut butter.
9.  Knowing I have something waiting for me on the DVR.
10.  Planning for and fantasizing about the future.


More happiness...

2.01.2010

Dining Room Victory!


I have to say, I love it.  I'm so happy with how it looks.  I love the color, I love how it turned out.

When I first painted, I taped all around the ceiling to keep my lines nice and straight, but when I took the tape off, the line was crooked {I blame the warped nature of our walls and ceiling}.  I disliked the crooked line, but I was out of gold paint, so I got some more gold paint and did touch-ups.  The new gold wasn't the same color as the old gold, and it looked just so awful.  Like the walls had water damage.  I moped around and whined about it for a week, and made Christian thoroughly tired of me.  Then on Friday, I manned up, did some more taping, and made a white border around the top of each wall.  The lines were straight this time, and again, I'm just so happy.  It's my favorite room in the house.

I'd like to thank my mother and Alice, who talked me into believing that I had the skills to paint in the first place.  I'd like to thank Christian, for being wonderfully supportive, for putting up with me when I was awful, and for being my favorite awescredible husband of all time.  I'd like to thank my instincts, for knowing that I would enjoy gold in the dining room more than brown.  And finally, I'd like to thank the nice man at Lowe's who helped me find the white paint I was looking for {but I don't thank his paint machine}.