Monday Meanderings

The day is more than half over but I'm going to see how long I can blog daily before something comes up and messes up my perfect attendance record. No, this was not a New Year's resolution, just a little personal goal. I really don't expect to get very far along with it because sometimes we end up in places with little or no internet.

Meanwhile though...

It's another hot one in sunny Argentina. I was busy cleaning the fridge and pantry shelves this morning and forgot to close the windows until noon-ish. My bad. If I had done it at 10 a.m. it would be a little cooler in here now. Fans are all as high as they'll go.

Ivan's practicing his welding on the back patio with a little project for my Spanish tutor. The man is dedicated to improving his skills: hot outside temperature + hot welding job = really, really hot activity.

Tina's comfy on the couch, watching West Wing (season 5) with me and working on improving her skills (HTML and CSS) as she launches her new blog.

[BTW, I'm so happy she and our son have decided to phlog the year!]

I'm not improving anything. Just getting up periodically to do a little cleaning, then plopping down here in front of the fan again to catch my breath. Normally it's pretty dry here in the foothills of the Andes but the last few days it's been really hot and humid. While I much prefer warm over cold weather, the muggy just wipes me out and I move at a much slower pace.

While sitting in my chair I get to enjoy the Christmas lights. We won't be taking the tree down until the 6th (or later if I have my way).

But even while surrounded by Christmas decorations, I'm looking ahead and thinking about future interior decorating ideas. Which, considering how little we've done so far, means everything is wide open.

During the thinking stages I spend a lot of time contemplating what might work. For many years I bought scads of magazines and tore out pages of things I really liked. These were organized into a binder... which eventually grew into two binders. The original binder was my guide to decorating the parsonage back in 1998, on everything from the wall colors to the backsplash in the kitchen and the special paint treatment in the bath.

But now I just hop online and cruise the internet highway, looking at great and wondrous things. When something catches my fancy, I bookmark it. Some photos are so stunning I clip, paste, print and add to the binders.

The entire experience reveals how much my tastes have changed over time, both in terms of style and colors. I've always loved a white kitchen, being drawn to the crispness and clean lines, but this kitchen on House of Turquoise nearly caused me to swoon.

Please note, nothing white in sight! Not that there's a chance of doing anything remotely similar in my current kitchen, but a girl can dream.

When it comes to decorating ideas, one of my favorite sites is apartmenttherapy.com, mainly because it links to so many other great blogs. An abundance of inspiration!

Which led to spending an hour last night jotting down ideas for each room, even the bath (a nigh unto hopeless project, imho).

Of course at the rate I'm going we'll be moving out of the house before I get anything on the list done. Not that we're planning to move anytime soon, just making a point that I am moving.very.very.slowly. It seems all I can do to (sort of) keep up with basic housework.

But hopefully I'll have a plan -- and more energy -- when cooler weather hits...in May or June.