Obsession

A couple of months ago the man and I were walking through a local neighborhood after meeting some friends for brunch. The neighborhood is filled with unique shops that I love. On this particular visit, we passed a small furniture/home goods type store and as I glanced in the window I was immediately drawn to a glorious colorful lampshade. yes, folks, a LAMPSHADE. We kept on walking (it was COLD! outside) but I never forgot about the lampshade. I loved the lampshade because it was so different and unique. As I sat at home thinking about it, I couldn't help but look around and think, why isn't our place more different and unique? I've always had rules about the things I hang on my walls. No mass produced art hanging on our walls, no pictures that you can find at a big box store. I've enlarged photos from our travels (well, mostly my travels, but hopefully that will change over time) collaged photos of family/ friends/ etc. I love things that are unique to us, things that might create interest and perhaps even start conversations. Something more interesteing than  "Hey, is that big flower by Georgia O'Keefe?"
In my search to find ideas on personalizing your own space, I turned to the internets... because, obviously. I found some great articles on turning boring unfinished furniture from ikea into something super cute and more personal and lavish, which seemed like a good start. However, while catching up on the blog of one of my favorite authors over at http://www.jennsylvania.com/ I read about some of her own home improvements and followed a link to THIS BLOG with which I have since become obsessed. Kids, I'm talking O-B-S-E-S-S-E-D! I now want to go buy old things so that I can re-paint/stain/cover them. I want to buy paint/primer/spray paint. I want to remodel a bathroom, pick out fixtures and tiles. And if I'm 100% honest here, I want to birth a baby girl so that it can wear a "Little Sister" shirt and Cisco (our dog) can wear a "Big Brother shirt" ala their own baby girl, and family pet. Don't worry though, that birthing urge has passed, but rest assured I'm storing that idea away for later.
Since my obsession began, I've been keeping a list of "projects" that I want to take on and it's growing at a rapid pace. I even added something to my 2011 bucket list! Did I mention that I bought fabric to "re-cover an old lampshade"? Perhaps I should tell you that I do not even own an old lampshade! But maybe one day I will! I've been talking about finding dining chair and recovering then/ re-painting them to go with a new dining table that we have yet to even pick out. (Don't get me started on my recent obsesion with place mats, either. That's a whole other post for another day!)
I'm really not sure if the man is trying to humor me, or maybe he's starting to be on my side, or perhaps has a completely different motivation all together, but he suggested we look up some thrift stores around the city and hit them up this weekend. This whole obsession could truly raise me to domestic godess status... or make me vow to never stray from Ikea again.
Stay Tuned.