Rain, rain, do NOT go away!!!

I have never been so happy to see steady rain in my life!!  My allergies don't normally bother me until the fall with the leaves and mold, but this year, the spring allergies hit me like a brick wall.  I've been laid up all weekend fighting hideous allergies which have turned into a cold.  No infection (yet), so here's hoping I don't need to take a trip down Antibiotic Alley, which is usually where I end up.  I can never have "just" a cold.

Whilst being laid up on the couch, I haven't felt so bad that I can't multi-task while watching some of my favorite shows (The Golden Girls and Frasier reruns have kept me going.  Hello hilarity!!).  I decided to work on something for me, so this is what I was able to accomplish this weekend --

It's called "Coffin Buzz" and it's a freebie from Paulette Stewart, designer of Plum Street Samplers. I'm a coffee fiend (if you couldn't already tell...), so this is just perfect.  I stitched it on 40 count Antique Almond by Silkweaver.  I plan on finishing it in a rustic frame and hanging it at work to add a little character to those battleship grey walls that surround me for 9 hours a day.

My house is coming along, slow but steady.  Most of the painting is done on the first floor, with the exception of the woodwork in the den and dining room.  I started painting the trim in the living room this past week with the most important part -- the bookshelves.  I can finally put all of my books on the shelves, and I interspersed some pictures and fun knick knacks up there, too.  I haven't gotten to any of the molding yet, though, thanks to this hideous cold.

Now, before I bring you along to what is now my beautiful living room, I must remind you of what it was.

Remember this?

Horrifying.  That green is just...ugh.  Initially it didn't seem so bad, but once I got a really good look at it...bleh.  Also, what we realized (we meaning my family and I -- I had a lot of help with all the painting on the first floor) is that the paint above the chair rail all throughout the house isn't just a pale blue...it's a pale bluish-purple.  In addition, the former owners must've painted in the middle of the night with sunglasses on, since they made a MESS with the paint.  MESS.  Not to mention the fact that they painted over wallpaper, and the trim has never been painted white.  Ever.  UGGGGGHHHHH.  Anyway.

THIS is what my living room looks like NOW --

Isn't it SO much better and way more amazing?!?!!!  It took 3 coats of primer to get rid of that horrific green, but it's gone!  The handles on the cabinets under the bookshelves got thrown out, so I'll be on the hunt for something to replace them.  I did deviate from my original painting plan -- the color I ended up choosing for the living room is lighter and has a little more peach in it than the color I had originally wanted in there.  I think this is much better and lightens up the space more so than the other darker color I'd initially chosen. (And yes, that is my crazy black panther on the hearth.  Apparently she wanted in on this photo op, so she coyly entered from the bottom left, pretending she'd never sniffed this area of the living room before.  She's lucky she's cute.)

Here's a close-up of my bookshelves --

To die for, right?!?!  Especially after what they once were!!  OMG.  My vase (which is handmade from Spain - my professor got it for me while I studied abroad during the summer of 2001, since I celebrated my 21st while we were over there) looks so small on top of the mantle!  I guess I'll have to move it into the bookshelf so it doesn't get dwarfed by its surroundings.  

Anyhooter, that's all I have at the moment.  Time to take more cold & sinus medicine and make either tea or coffee...something hot to break up this gunk in my head.  Yuck.