Haunting in Connecticut

I feel like the release of Haunting of Connecticut is especially well-timed given my trip to Hartford on Sunday. I've spent an inordinate amount of time in Connecticut as it is... do I really need another reason to not want to go?

Paint, Glorious Paint

It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint will do-- we're on the final stretch of home renovation (I promise to post photos soon...), and there's just one full room to paint (and lots of touch-ups) to go... but it's really pretty impressive what a coat of paint will do. It can transform a room-- brighten, design, all you can imagine-- just with a little color; a refresher. We're sticking to a single color throughout the house (with the exception of chocolate for an accent wall-- in this case, our fireplace)-- it's a small house, so one color made sense... and even though MRN has painted the whole house (magnolia) within the last year, the fresh coat of "Natural Hessian"-- a tan color, has made a world of difference. We figure it's a matter of more expensive paint... so, note to self (or home improvement people everywhere: cheap paint isn't necessarily good; consider the same color throughout the house, with accent colors in select locations; and... I'm sure there's an and... but it's late, and I can't think of one..

Happy painting!

Pink Books for K

Ahhhh, Tesco. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

My dear friend, K, teases me about my love for "pink books."
Translation? Chick-lit. I must admit, this genre is a guilty
pleasure-- a totally brainless read that is entirely satisfying. Two
hours? Check! And longer than US magazine so all the more happiness in
the making (I have, by the way, found one retailer-- a magazine stand
in a train station in Birmingham, that does sell US).

Tesco has a HUGE section of pink books! I think this really is
the magic store. It's no Target, but it's up there.

Paper Snob

I'm not sure from where this love originated, exactly... perhaps it started with stationery because even as a child I loved to write letters... and it then branched out to include every which kind. I have a big box of notecards, paper, cards of every size, color and shape; envelopes, paper and templates to create custom envelope liners... and all the acoutremonts to go with it (fountain pens, ballpoint pens, inky pens, pencils, stamps, and more). I still use a paper planner-- even though I've had a palm pilot and now iPhone, there's something eternally satisfying to putting pen to paper. I have lots of fancy notebooks, which are are a combination of my oldest (miquelrius) and newest (russel+hazel) obsessions.
Russel+Hazel I owe to my sister (or, curse my sister for?). They are "office products for the soul." When I found out I was going to move to working at home full time, I wanted to make my home office an extension of me, not of my work... so beautiful paper and supplies were a must. I'm still getting there, but it's coming along. R+H has a genius binder system that offers the nostalgia of back to school days (yes, I was a nerd who looked forward to back to school-- as much for the friends and books as for the school supplies), but with a chic and sophisticated twist that's certainly not kid-like. The beautiful patterns and mix-and-match paper, dividers, post-it notes and other tools, as well as accessories like file boxes and folders and more give endless choice to make your office effortlessly stylish. I'm still outfitting mine and the biggest disappointment is that R+H doesn't retail in England, and they don't ship internationally either. So I have to covet from afar and when I go to the U.S., have things shipped to my location to hand carry back here. *Sigh.* Even the price of paper keeps going up.

My sis gave me the ultimate R+H planner recently-- their wedding book. I finally broke it out and threw away my ratty old plastic binder for this beautiful gem. It's so pretty I don't want to ruin it by writing in it. Haha-- but I will. Vendors are going to think I'm nuts when I walk in with this thing, but my friends and family won't be too surprised... I'm nothing if not organized-- at least, on the surface! Now I'm prepared to actually start planning the wedding! (it's about time, right??)

Mahalo for removing your shoes-- no hu hu!

Growing up, we had a sign (the title of this post) hanging above our doorbell-- reminding visitors that we were a "no shoe house." It's typical in Hawaiian and Asian households, as well as some Scandinavian countries and in Alaska (who knew?). According the The Daily Om, the custom is born out of both practically and respectfulness-- the former most obviously in keeping dirt from being tracked in the house (and you all know how I feel about dirt); the latter being a way of showing respect by keeping the house clean and maintaining quiet. It also has symbolic roots-- of leaving the world outside. "In removing your shoes, your body lets your mind and spirit know that you are transitioning from work and other concerns to the sanctuary of your home."

Unfortunately I also work at home. Drat.

In any case, we finally finished all the flooring in the house-- months later than expected. But in addition to the wood downstairs, we've added beautiful cushy carpet to the stairs and upstairs landing and bedrooms-- making our house officially a "no shoe house." I've been anxiously awaiting this day and as I told MRN last night, for the first time, I really feel like I'm home. I can't tell you how nice it is to walk around barefoot because the floors are clean enough to stand on (and sit on and lie on) without shoes. I've always preferred sitting on the floor to furniture (an odd quirk, I know)-- and it has been irksome to not be able to do so in my own house because the floor and carpets were so disgusting (despite multiple diverse attempts to clean them) that you quite literally didn't want to walk around without shoes. In fact, I'm sitting on the floor next to the very comfortable new bed, just because. Ahhhh-- bliss!