Orange and blue

dining room with orange and blue wallpaper with my orange flowers

Orange and blue glass in the window

My new lamp set against the offensive wallpaper

Nothing screams 70s more than orange decor. Our house was once a model for the subdivision. Everything was wallpapered. Our bedroom had yellow and green paisleys all over the wall with special arches built in. One bedroom had mainly black with gold threads throughout. Our living room, with its cathedral ceiling and skylight, has blue and orange wall paper along with the dining room. Most of the bedrooms and the living room and dining room had orange shag carpet to match. This stuff is gone. Underneath were beautiful red oak floors. There are built in cabinets and shelves in both the living room and dining room that are a dark cream. The walls that aren't wallpapered are light cream. We have a large blue couch in the living room and a cream  colored chair that looks badly worn out (couch is in OK condition). All the furniture is oak of some sort.

Since moving in, we have remodelled the country kitchen with its harvest gold appliances and copper back splash. It is now white, black and gray. The faded vinyl floor (large south window bleaching it) was replaced with black speckled gray ceramic tile. Three of the bedrooms have remodelled at least twice apiece. Only Josh's with its cream walls and under the wainscoting, brown patterned wall paper remains untouched. It remains a shrine to his and Naomi's athletic  achievements with the shelves full of trophies and various memorabilia. Our own bedroom is bright peach and purple with sage green accents. I have a rug that matches the green, purple and peach. I know that sounds hideous and it will have to go when we sell the house in favor of something neutral but I like it.

So the moms came over the other night in part to see Shanna and the boys. I tried to make the dining area nice with an ecru lace table cloth, a black and gold tea lamp set all lit on the sideboard, my blue dishes, my orange candles, my orange flowers in a blue vase etc. I also had my new lamp on the sideboard instead of what was previously a nice lamp that I had paid big bucks for at an art fair but doe not work any more. I had considered using my grandmother's stuff: fine china, silverware, crystal etc but the boys running around made me decide to postpone it. But my stoneware is pretty and it matches the decor. I thought things looked nice but the evening sorta turned into a fashion intervention with suggestions on reupholstering the orange seat cushions (bought when we were married 33 years ago) and of course, losing the wallpaper. Well I know the living room is unsalable but it was way down on my list for things that needed to be fixed. I ended up a bit sad; so much to do and not a clue on needs to be fixed first. I am still hell bent on fixing all 3 bathrooms, untouched since they were built.

My food turned out at least with the grilled curried scallops, the coconut rice with petit pois, stir-fried veggies and the artichokes for an appetizer. My friend had red velvet cheesecake which she placed on orange leaf shaped doilies that looked nice against the dark blue plates (and matched my wallpaper!) We went through lots of wine. These ladies were part of our post partum support group formed 31 years ago so they all have babies Shanna's age. Now Shanna has her own babies. I wish she'd join a similar group in Boston but she seemed to enjoy being one of the moms the other night. Also joining us was Ms. Maya as Naomi and Dontae had a 'date-night". Not the best night to choose that and Ms. Maya was very unhappy for some reason.

Later both Oliver and Daniel got sick and cried alot of the night. Shanna did not get much sleep. When Daniel is ill, he refuses to let Shanna out of his grasp. As she took her shower, nothing I could do would console him. They are gone temporarily to visit the other side. Tonight we will have a big family dinner at Josh and Julia's and I hope to take pictures that don't suck.

Right now it is 70 degrees. Can you believe it? Although there was a frost the other day, my flowers weren't touched. Since Shanna has been gone, I've been running. When she's here, I don't want to miss out on being with them as it is so rare now.