GOALS: a casa de Gueller

How I love referring to our abode as CASA after two years of nesting in our former casita…The joy of homeownership wanes for me only when (1) it’s time to shovel, (2) it’s time to mow the lawn, (3) it’s time to clean, in any capacity, and (4) it’s time to plant our garden.  The last one is a bit tricky because I relish picking the fruits (and veggie and herbs!) of our labor in the garden, but last year’s “labor” resulted in a crying fit that I’m not proud of (really, who could be proud of stumbling about the yard in CROCS, slurring, “I hate gardening…” through tears? Not this girl.).

My goals for the home this year are as follows (and yes, they include dreaded cleaning – blegh!):

• Do not let either laundry or dishes pile up to the point that addressing them is overwhelming and Paul ends up tending to them. 
• Do not allow the fresh produce I buy to go bad; to this end, I’ll try to go shopping weekly and buy fewer items to ensure usage.

Wow – those are terribly boring goals!  I’m actually much more interested in my decor goals!

• Unite the wall color with the rest of the living room, as it’s currently just a background color and a few tealy accessories would really brighten it up:

• After looking at that picture, my second task is blatantly obvious: finally commit to artwork/portraits  for our main walls.  While we’ve put up a few items, the absense of the ones we’re dragging our feet on is glaringly obvious.  For the space above the couch, we’re thinking we need a couple of wedding pics and a large print of Milwaukee’s lakefront?
• Do a better job of matching reality to inspiration (I think the carpeted floor instead of the hardwood I crave and the dark vs. light wall color is in part to blame here).  For example:

REALITY

INSPIRATION

REALITY

INSPIRATION

• Stop being a slave to geometric printed textiles; I’m thinking a mod floral for the living room drapes!  Notice a theme…?

• Scour antique stores and flea markets with more regularity for unique finds.  My favorite so far is this mid-century modern lovely, with Paul was adamant would be much more difficult to fix up and install than I insisted would be the case.  I was right, and I think the change infitely ups the chic factore when compared to the original vanilla fixture.

OLD FIXTURE

NEW FIXTURE!

And since I just spotted yet another spot where we’ve recently installed a geometric print curtain (the window above is now covered with the panel below…I just can’t help myself!), I’ll end now and get back to thinking about my lifetime fashion goals, the definitely more fun post I’ve got planned for tommorrow.

The guilty curtain

More menacing than it looks…