Morning tea

[movieman1957]

I had a morning Pepsi Throwback because I was up all night. Someday I'm going to have a good night's sleep.

[JackFavell]

Oh, I 'm sorry to hear you were up!

I like the pepsi throwback - no corn syrup. But I drink water now mostly.

MissG - that video was very informative and a little sad, looking at the poor people standing in line during the war for tea.


[youtube][/youtube]

[MissGoddess]

I'm so out of it...what is a "Pepsi throwback"? It sounds like an upset stomach!

[JackFavell]

It's a "throwback" to the old days when they made it with sugar instead of corn syrup. They should call it Original or something like that.

[MissGoddess]

Oh, thank you for the explanation.

[Rita Hayworth]

Oh, thank you for the explanation.

Jack Favell beat me to it. I was racking my brains out and I remember my great-grandfather told me that in the good ole days they use sugar to make soft drinks and now they use corn syrup to sweeten it. My great-grandfather works in the restaurant business and that's what he told me about soft drinks back in those days. Just to let everyone here to know that.

[MissGoddess]

I saw this blog and thought of you, Wendy, I know how you love to experiment with color schemes:

http://www.houseofturquoise.com/2011/01 ... ation.html

[movieman1957]

I love blue. I even claim to be "Bluish." I wear blue and most of the time I am blue but I'm not sure I'd have that much blue. Well, maybe a different shade.

[MissGoddess]

I love it too, it's so soothing and cooling to look at. My mother's favorite shade is turquoise, she even painted the woodwork in our living room that color. It was a little brighter than she intended!

[JackFavell]

Oh my goodness! How did you know I am on a turquoise kick right now?

How beautiful that place is! I'm dying to go there and sip some tea. I love grey too and am thinking of going with a cloudy white for the basement, with grey accents, very Swedish.

After we painted the living room a nice buttery cream color, I had added some bright lime green pillows to our yellow and white furniture. Something about it wasn't quite working. We have a wall clock from Europe, a gift to us from Andrews brother and sister -in-law, very sophisticated and modern, in a deep ocean color with the numbers flying around the dial like white seagulls. Looking at it, I remembered I had some turquoise pillows in the basement, I brought them up and the lime green and turquoise jewel tones really made the whole room look fabulous! It's all warm tones in the living room, and the cool aquas and bright greens scattered informally around really made everything look so beachy and summery, like cool water on warm sand. Sometimes the oddest combinations work the best, and it really made the old fashioned furniture look stylish.

Then, since my dining room and living room are adjacent, pretty much open to each other, I changed out my dining room curtains to breezy white ones, and white placemats, then turquoise wide ribbon wrapped around parts of my chandelier that aren't close to the bulbs and white candles on the center of the table with a turquoise tray underneath and more wide ribbon around each candle base (far enough from the top that it won't burn). The dining room is so simple now, all white and turquoise, I love it, don't know why I didn't do white curtains before. it makes selecting table settings so easy.

I can't stop looking at that blog! That stone wall with the teal hutch against it is to die for! Have you looked through the other posts?

[charliechaplinfan]

I'm loving turquoise too, I've done one of the bed rooms in that colour, I'd use it other rooms but Chris seems to be allergic to it. I'm loving the blog, I just hope it doesn't set off a decorating bug now, Chris won't be happy. I'm the wife who has a long list of things that never ends of things to tweek and change and I daren't get the paint out myself, I love to paint but hubby is a perfectionist and I'm the splash it on kind of girl.

[Rita Hayworth]

My Morning Tea ... (are we talking about the first thing we drink in the morning?) is always two cups of Starbucks Coffee!

[JackFavell]

Honestly Alison, that is totally my predicament as well.

I am not the most careful painter, fixer upper or renovator. Andrew is a perfectionist who likes to control things - he's not mean or anything, but he wants to control how much is spent (he grew up with a mother who lived through the war, and so he's incredibly frugal, always trying to do things the cheapest way possible, which is good and bad at the same time). He takes lots of time to think about any purchase or renovation. I am the kind who simply must do things at the moment of inspiration, or I lose heart. This is where our major battles take place - how things are done in the house, and so nothing actually ever gets done. The few times I've ever taken things into my own hands, he has complained, but if I wait long enough, eventually he settles in and deals with it, or sometimes if it seems to really disturb him, I cave and let him have his way.

He got upset when I moved his favorite chair a few feet to the left, making the living room look yards bigger, yet he was unhappy there because his chair was next to the window.... I ended up movie him back to his original spot, and switching the rest of the furniture around it, it's not as nice looking but it works better than it was at first. He doesn't experience change well.

And so, half of our house is fixed up, and half lies there, unfinished. Like the windows we replaced a couple of years ago which haven't actually been painted yet (I am too messy to do it, apparently, and of course, he may be right), or the kitchen toe kick board which hasn't been installed (something I really can't do, he has to cut the boards to size), or the wall that runs from the hallway into the kitchen that is unfinished lumber which we discovered under the drywall, and would look good if we sanded and stained it a lighter color, to match or contrast to our kitchen cabinets... but that continues to sit their, rugged looking and dingy, because we just don't really want to start it... and a million other things that I say I am going to attempt in a fit of pique but I never do because he would be upset with me for messing them up....and I probably would.

[movieman1957]

I am king of not being able to do anything around the house. I can paint but anything else is an adventure that usually has tragic consequences. Luckily, my brother-in-law (good guy) is taking on some of the bigger responsibilities and I have some friends that have offered to do other things.

It is the cost of living in a house for 21 years when it all catches up with you. Money saved for one thing goes to another. Or money saved for something else goes to your children. I tell The Bride I hope we live long enough to see it all to the way we want it and need it.

I hate that I have no talent for it.

[CineMaven]

Alison, Wendy...your posts warmed me and made me smile. I'm a city girl...always rented apartments where changing paints were not permissible.Wendy I swear you could write for Home Beautiful or some such esoteric House & Home magazine. Your description is sooo vivid I can actually almost see it. I can only hope both of you gals' husbands appreciate what he has in you. (Father's Day just passed, but hope you got treated well for Mother's Day. I know they don't celebrate that in England, though). Yeah, splash it on...move things around...never ending chores that if they were tackled from the get-go, would be over already. Big deal. Your husbands have married two ladies, who have borne their children and all you want to do is create a nest that is nice and comfortable and homey. You guys cook. ( I don't even own a microwave, which one of my pals thinks is sacrilegious. ) You bake, have "messy kitchens", you're home with the kids, you want your home to look organized and welcoming. Sounds like the dream all men want. Surely they can "humor" you and let you get a new rug or hutch or whatever you want to make the place a place you want to come home to.

Now me...I think your strong suits are knowing classic films. But then again, I am not a man looking to get married.

I'm seeing "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" and "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" in your posts. Just a warm feeling you've given to this plain old spinster urban city girl, that's all...wanting to say "that was nice what you wrote."