A dilettante's dither

Last Sunday morning, we had an unhappy surprise:  we discovered we were out of checks. Using up the last of our checks is not a bad thing, considering we moved back in May.  (We only write one, maybe two checks a week, so it took a while to whittle down the last of the old ones.  But somehow I missed the important REORDER NOW reminder when I snagged the last batch.  Oops.

Checks are fast becoming a throwback to the good old days.  Our adult children have checks, but they almost never have to write one.  Everything is swipe-and-go these days.  Except writing one on Sunday morning, and the occasional check to a friend for something-or-other.

But I still like checks - I always have.  At least I like picking out checks. Before it was de rigueur to personalize every. stinkin. thing. you own, your personal checks were one way to express something unique about you.  We have never had plain blue security checks.   I've always tried to take into consideration that Mr. Official has to use the checks, too and pick out something that was expressive but not too girly. Pre-internet I would hold onto the glossy Sunday newspaper inserts and pore over them until I found the "right" design for the next order - that was back in the day when I actually had to write a half-dozen checks each month to pay our bills.

The internet has made it simultaneously easier and more difficult to choose a design; there are dozens of places to order from, and they all have a plethora of designs to choose from.

This time, I vacillated between some gender-neutral graphic design, a landscape scene, or just a monogram.  But in my heart I really wanted something more "me."  Like Twitter-page swirly branches.  Or owls.  Yes....owls.  But Mr. Official is not a lover of swirly branches or graphical owls.

And then I had an epiphany.  We have a joint account, but where is it written we have to have just one kind of check? Move over, "his 'n hers" checks.  Make room for "his checks." and "her checks."

I  can't believe it took me this long to reach that conclusion but it certainly opened up a whole world of wonderful possibilities. And so I dug around and found these checks:

Referee checks from checksadvantage.com

But after looking at the 2nd and 3rd checks, I knew were really too European and/or Canadian football-looking.

So I chose these instead for him:

Collegiate checks from currentcatalogchecks.com

And for me, I chose these:

challis and roos design from bradfordexchange.com

So no more dithering. The checks are in the mail and hopefully one set or the other will arrive by Saturday!

Happy self-expressions,

The fall dining room: proud as a peacock

It all started with a Pier 1 fall catalog that arrived in the mail a few days ago.  I should have known better than to open it (sometimes I do toss 'em sight unseen.)

They might as well dangle a pork chop in front of a starving dog (I would be the starving dog in the metaphor.)  I think I may have actually drooled on one of the pages.  Companies like Homer Laughlin, Crate & Barrel, World Market and Pier 1 know where my weak spot is:  brightly colored pottery and dishes.   Of every shape, size, texture and color imaginable.  I would need (yes, N.E.E.D!!!!) a dish pantry if I bought all the dishes I have seen and intensely coveted.  

But this time I stiffened my resolve and flipped past the dishes to find...this.

Peacock blue, arrayed so artistically I practically swooned.

Well, okay, it wasn't really a swoon.  More like a squeaky little squeal of delight.

Because I had been mentally struggling to see my blue drapes and cocoa brown walls of my dining room mixing it up with traditional fall colors - it just wasn't happening, at least in my mind's eye.

But this.

This was the answer to all those niggling questions and pesky doubts.

It was a sign. I could practically hear Handel's Messiah (you know, the "Hallelujah Chorus?") playing.


I showed great restraint and waited a whole week before I allowed myself to even start down this path. My heart was still going pitter-pat when I hit the circuit:  Stein Mart, Hobby Lobby, Old Time Pottery, revisit to Hobby Lobby.  By the time I got to Pier 1, I was steady and steeled...until I found out they no longer had the owl-shaped pumpkin I had my heart set on - he's in this photo to the right  Isn't he cute?

I'm still on the prowl for the owl, so if you spot one at your Pier 1, give me a hooty-hoot, please?

I can count on both hands (with some fingers left over) the items that transformed the dining room from its cool-as-a-cucumber summer look here:

view from the foyer

to this new look, just in time for fall:

Same doorway view.  And yes, those are new seat cushions.  Thanks for noticing!

In terms of cash outlay, it was a modest transformation:

1. Three glass candle holders on the table ($3.50 each - they were half-off at Hobby Lobby)
2. Two ceramic pumpkins (one white, one blue, also half-price from HobLob - $30 total)
3. Two peacock blue candles (on clearance for $3.50 each from Pier 1)
4. A new wood tray on the buffet (under $10 at Old Time Pottery)
5. A glass vase (well, two - the first one cracked, but Hobby Lobby graciously replaced it - $15)
6. A handful of foliage and peacock stems for about $12, also half-off at Hobby Lobby) and
7. One little woodland owl from Pier1 ($9 - he's my consolation stand-in for the one I wanted.  Sniff.)

Seriously, that's it.  If my math is correct, total damage was just under $100 with tax.  Everything else I pulled out of my attic tubs of autumn stuff or from other places in the house   Not bad, eh?

Oh wait...there is one more item; check out the new painting below.  Does it count?  It wasn't a deliberate acquisition, but the product of girls' night out last Saturday at Faithful Strokes.  (And here I was giving my friends a hard time that I didn't know where I would hang this painting if I painted it.  I'm glad they guilted me into going!)

See the little owl?  He's cute - just not as big as the one I had my eye and heart set on

I know we're barely one day into the official fall season, but I'm already envisioning these deeper blues paired with shimmery silver when it's time to decorate for the winter holidays.  For the next several weeks, the peacock blue and orange theme will reign--all the way through Thanksgiving.  It's always exciting to see the seasons unfold outdoors, and fall is definitely the season for colors to unfurl both indoors and out...much like a peacock proudly fanning out his iridescent plumage.

Happy fall!