Boxes of Happy

I've got two boxes to talk about today - both of which made me very happy!  It's always nice to receive something in a package in the mail....there's something about opening a box or package that is like unraveling a little mystery.  Sometimes you know the box is coming, and sometimes you don't!

The first box of happy was one that I knew was coming.  A looooong time ago, Millie the goat at Eden Hills had a lovely giveaway for her human's new online shop!  I was the lucky winner, and I was able to choose 2 products from her bath and body selection as my prize.  It was difficult to choose from all the yummy choices, but I selected the "relaxing" scent soap (because I need to relax more) and the "earthy" scent bath salts, because I do love a nice warm bath in the winter, and I'm a bit of an earthy girl.

It was very exciting to receive a box in the mail from a goat!  Yes, Millie Ann herself sent it!

It was very nicely packed with packing paper so nothing would get damaged.  And as I opened it, it just smelled wonderful!

 Here was the source of the lovely smell - this is the soap!  What an elegant label.

I tried to encourage Fezzik to take an interest in the soap - I thought he might like to consider daily showers with it so that he smelled less goaty.  He briefly stopped to consider it...

 ...but decided his goat chow was MUCH more interesting.

Well that's just fine by me, because I want that soap all to myself!  It's a lovely scent - not too strong, and just right for me or for Richard, since we both need to relax!

The bath salts come packaged in a lovely little jar - so pretty to sit on the edge of the bath!  Do you see that I finally got the tiles grouted?  They actually look quite nice and I'm pleased at how the bathroom is progressing, even though it's a bit slower than I'd like.  My Dad is working on a nice front piece for the tub now, so that'll be the next stage!

In any case, I think that the bath salts look so lovely in their little jar, coordinating with my tiles, that I haven't actually used any yet.  They smell fabulous and I keep opening the jar and smelling it and then putting it back because I don't want to lose my pretty bathroom "ornament" yet!

I do encourage you to visit Millie Ann's human's shop!  She makes lovely bath products!  Not only that, you can buy popcorn from her farm!  And, guess what?!  You can lease a GOAT!   Go check it out!  A huge thank you to Millie Ann Saanen and her lady in Iowa for hosting the giveaway!

The second Box of Happy was completely unexpected and a lovely surprise!  Isobelle's lady sent it to me! What a wonderful treat!  She knows that things have been difficult here with all the craziness due to the former owner's disregard for his promises on helping us carry on his wine business.  It has made me so unhappy and she knows that I've been trying very hard to find at least part time employment with no success.  She sent me a box full of "happy" to make me feel better.  I was completely surprised!

There were two lovely reversible placemats for our kitchen table!  There was a gorgeous skein of sock yarn that I can't wait to knit!  It has the very funny name of "Bite Me" for the colourway, which gave me a good giggle.  She also sent a lovely card with her very own hand drawn characters of her barnyard residents.  What a sweet thing to do!

She also tucked in two pairs of these lovely warm socks.  I can only show you one pair because the other one has already been worn and it's in the wash!  They have sheep on them, of course!

Thank you so much to my special "goat-sister" in New York for this virtual hug!  You really made my week!

*Special Addition (after original post)*
Since Marigold asked, even though Isobelle's lady will probably have a fit, here are her lovely drawings of her critters from the card.  I think they look super!  You can see Tuuli and Wickery the sheep, beautiful Number in his blanket, the mini-horses, and I do believe Thistle is scampering across the card.  Isobelle is lovely of course, and she would not be horrified at all!  An artist at work, here!

Goats! Trees! And an Impending Project!

The goats have been very happy for the past couple of days because they were given a special treat!  Or should I say treet?

The road on which I live had a large machine go by a few weeks ago that did some pretty major trimming along the side of the road.   Unfortunately, this trimming involved a lot of trees with pretty wide trunks, including a lovely old apple tree.  I don't know why the county felt a need to get quite so vigourous with their brush cutting, but the outcome was a massive mess of branches and lots of young spruce trees that were cut off at the base.

I gathered quite a few of these felled trees and dragged them up to the barn, because the goats love spruce, so it was a free food source that was pre-cut for me to haul up to the hungry herd!  As you can see, they are very pleased.

Oh wait, no, I guess you can't see.  Word to the wise.  When you're trying to take pictures in a cold barn, you can't breathe out at the time time you snap the picture, otherwise all you take a picture of is a plume of breath that is making a little cloud in front of the lens!

Here we go - wee Westley to the left and Fezzik to the right, along with the sheep in the background, all having a good gnawing on a spruce!

Wee Fezzik has been doing well with his winter turtleneck-coat on and seems to be at least maintaining his weight despite the cold, which was what I had hoped for.  He still gets his special molasses oats treat every day to keep the weight on him as much as I can without giving him a case of the runs!

Moving on, you may recall, if you are a regular reader, that a while ago we bought cabinets to re-do the kitchen here.  We're not quite ready to do that project yet, but when we bought those cabinets, we bought a few extra units so that we could install some in my upstairs "studio" area, giving me places to store yarn, spinning fibre, dye materials, and other goodies.  It is with much excitement that I can tell you that the project to install these cabinets is set for Sunday!  Woohoo!!

Here are the cabinets that we have moved upstairs in preparation for the project!  There are two like the cabinet facing the camera on the left.  Nice big drawer and cupboard.  Then there is a smaller one (narrower) that is the same height.

 This is the sink cabinet unit.  Eventually we will get a nicer sink but one thing at a time!

Here is where they'll be installed (the chaos zone). We'll get rid of this grungy old half-baked plywood counter and put in the cabinets and a nice piece of second hand countertop (which already had a sink hole!) that we were able to get.  It is a nice dark greenish looking laminate.  Easy to clean.

All those bottles under the sink are my fibre dyes and detergents, etc.  The microwave is for dyeing also.  All our bathroom stuff is also there because our bathroom doesn't have a sink yet, so we have to use this one for that too.  Anyway, I can't wait to do the project and get things put away in their proper, organized places.  I'll be sure to show some pictures after our work!

Keeping on keeping on

I have been a bit remiss in blogging, but I guess I haven't much felt like it lately.  Sometimes there just seems to be a bit too much on the plate these days, and I get a little bit grumpy about the situation with the house and everything.  Still, it's not as if I'm just sitting in the corner bemoaning things.

This past week, I built a shelf for the temporary bedroom.  It's the temporary bedroom because the master bedroom is a long way off from being finished, let alone started, really.  So the temporary bedroom is a small, cramped room with limited options due to the sloping ceiling.  It scarcely fits the bed and there's no room for nightstands or other useful furniture.  There is a closet but much of it is blocked by the bed, and the part that isn't blocked is used for Richard's clothes since it's more important for him to use the hanging space since he needs to look nice to go to work.  Can't have him looking like he slept in his clothes!  As a result, I had a small shelf on which all my clothes were going, and it wasn't enough once winter came because winter clothes are bulkier and take up more space.  Thus, I had a large heap on the floor that became my closet.  Not a good option!

I decided to remedy this problem by making a shelf out of any materials I could scrounge up around the house.  There was a bifold door that we didn't like that had been presumably bought for the closet door but it won't work for that closet because the bed would prevent the door from opening, so I took it apart.  I used the two pieces as the sides of my shelf unit.  I then found another bifold door that could be chopped open to make a top and bottom shelf.

I scrounged up some boards to use for shelves but some weren't wide enough so I had to use 2 boards for some shelves.  The shelf wood was pretty nasty all around - splintery and in bad shape.  I considered sanding and painting, but that seemed like a lot of work for what will hopefully be a relatively short-term solution, so I got out the staple gun and covered the nasty boards with scraps of cotton jersey that I'd found in the mouse-infested boxes when I was cleaning out the junk earlier in the summer.  I'd washed the pieces twice, thinking they might come in handy, and sure enough they did.

Anyway, it's not pretty or fancy or anything, but it does the job.  I'm constantly kicking myself for all the furniture I sold and/or gave away in Iowa before I left.  I didn't think I'd need it, but I sure do!

I've also continued working on improving the bathroom and the most recent effort has been putting some tile along the bath edge that I previously showed - the one my Dad designed for me.  I'm waiting for the adhesive to dry fully.  The package says 72 hours but I want to leave it for an extra day because the temperature of the house is quite cool so it may need a little extra time.  Then I'll be grouting.  I like the soft blues and whites of the tiles - it will lend itself to an aquatic-themed room.

I'm also still working on finishing the home-office room.  I've been moving stuff around and painting in sections.  It wasn't practical to move stuff out of the room so I just keep moving it around within the room.  Still, it's getting done and I begin to feel better about it - there's still a way to go on the trim and the wall behind me in the picture.  I love the warmth and the colours and it begins to be the first room that actually feels like a home.  Ignore the bare bulb.  Light fixtures will be forthcoming someday...

So, I'm still here, I'm still working on things, and I'm really going to try to blog a bit more often.  

Transformations

I have said it before, but here I am, saying it again.  I have....THE BEST PARENTS EVER!!!  I'm not saying that because I'm biased.  I'm saying that because now, at the age of 42, when life has taken some unexpected twists and turns and all seems to be lost, they are still always there for me.  Without fail.  I love them so dearly, and would be quite lost without their unceasing love and care.

It's really difficult to make much progress around here.  Richard has to work a lot of hours in his new job, even though it's only a 35 minute commute instead of a 1.5 hour commute.  He works late nights and by the time we eat supper, it's time for bed.  This means that it's hard for me to make significant progress here by myself.  I go slow and steady, one day at a time.  Then, suddenly, my parents will visit for a day, and massive progress is made!  Let me show you some of the progress!

We have a bit of an issue with water when showering.  You see, the bathtub that was installed by the former owner is not the type that is supposed to be used with a shower.  The side edges are not designed to guide water into the tub and down the drain.  Therefore, when the shower is used, water accumulates in the corners of the tub surround and it gradually fills up until it pours out onto the bathroom floor.  Not so good. We have been making-do with towels stuffed into the gap.  Here you can see on far left side and on the right hand end, there is nothing to stop the water pouring out as it accumulates.

As a result, we had to figure out a way to prevent this problem - Dad to the rescue!  My Dad, woodworking genius that he is, took some very careful measurements on his last visit.  He then went home and built a wooden surround for the two sides that have this water accumulation problem.  It fits exactly in the space that is available.  

He also installed a sloped side on the far end of the tub so that water will simply drain back into the tub from there too.  A simple but elegant solution.  

The next step is for me to use the tiles that we bought to tile the surface of the surround, such that the water that accumulates will not be able to go anywhere but back into the tub and down the drain.  Even though the wood barrier has several coats of primer, it is still vulnerable to water, so we need to finish the job properly.  Of course, I'll be showing you pictures of that when it's complete.  Stay tuned!

While my Dad was working to install this useful improvement, my mother and I were working on the future office space.  Remember that dreadful space with the dog-pee soaked carpet and the vast swaths of dust and grime?  Oh yes, it was unforgettable!  As you may recall, I had begun painting it and cleaning it out for our eventual use as a home office.  Now, my wonderful bookshelves have been installed.

First, she and I worked on installing a piece of carpet (I had to buy carpet remnants because at the moment, due to the fact that the winery plan is non-functional, thanks ever so much to the previous owner's failure to follow through on his promises, we don't have enough money to buy full carpet for the room).  I was getting ready to install the remnant with the cut side that was the most even-looking side snugged up to the wall.  She pointed out that with the space under the baseboards,  we could put the raggedy side up to the wall because it would disappear under the baseboard, and thus have the better side facing out!  My mother is full of energy and good ideas!  We then cut a space to just perfectly fit the old fashioned vent for the wood furnace - she helped feel around for the vent while I cut the carpet.  I will later be stripping and re-painting all the vents.

We'll need more carpet to finish the room, but for now, at least we could stabilize the shelving by using the carpet to compensate for the warped floorboards.

After we installed the carpet section, my mother and I assembled some shelves that my Dad made for me when I was a small child.  These shelves have traveled far and wide with me, and been dis-assembled and re-assembled more times than I can count.  Still, they go together like clockwork, and they are an old friend, carrying loads of books no matter where I live.  My mother and I not only assembled them....we unpacked countless boxes of books to rest on those dear shelves.  All this, coupled with the background of my new goldenrod-coloured walls and green trim...well, it was enough to bring me to tears.

The difference between the former room and the current room is that my books are not weighed down with dust and dirt and lack of use.  My books are cherished, loved, and treated with respect.  This....this is how it should be.

We even found some places for well loved friends!

Also special places for my green glass bottles, which I just adore, and for the wonderful cocobolo wood pear that my father turned for me on his lathe.  I have always loved that piece!

Since the large mound of book boxes has been reduced, I can now paint the remainder of the office more easily.  These things can only happen in stages!  After I have finished painting, we will try to use the remnants to go around the outside of the room and then try to find a dark green carpet remnant for the centre of the room to tie the colours together.

I unpacked more boxes of books today and ran out of room on the shelves.  Fortunately we have more bookshelves, but they're not in place yet, so many boxes will remain unpacked for now.

Oh, and in case you should wonder, we were well fueled in our work!  My mother, supreme chef that she is, brought her excellent split pea and ham soup to give us all strength, and we enjoyed her homemade smoked salmon spread on fresh baked bread, along with a cool glass of sparkling pear cider.  Really, in the face of adversity, who could ask for more?  These are the things that matter....not the pain of the failed hopes, the hurt caused by someone who would not follow through on his promises.  It is the love of family and the care that we show for those that we love....these are the things that get us through the hard times.

The Gold Stamp of Approval

Maaaaaaaah!  It's me, Lucky Nickel!

We got a gold stamp of approval from Millie the goat!  We love Millie and her herd of friends.  Four of our former friends are there - Opal, Lotus, Coffee and Osmo.  Millie sometimes says that she will feed Opal to the chupacabra, but we know she's only joking.  Who wouldn't love Opal?!  Right, Millie?  The Gold Stamp comes originally from Tayet's goat, named Gold.  How perfect!

Here are the rules:

• If you are awarded The Gold Stamp of Approval, you must tell everyone 3 silly things about your goats.
• Link to your favorite goat or farm blogs and add a nice tidbit about why you like them!
• Please make a link back to the person you received the award from.
• Inform the award receiver that they have an award, by comment on their latest post or email.
• Have fun!

So, we are now going to tell you 3 silly things about us, the goats.  

1.  My lady comes up with very silly names for us goats.  Mine is the only good name.  I am named Lucky Nickel because the vet who delivered me was Dr. Nicholson, and I was lucky he was there, or else I would have died, so she put Lucky and "Nickel" from Nicholson together to make my name, which is just right and a good name.  Inigo, Westley and Fezzik are named after 3 characters from the movie called the Princess Bride.  This is silly because none of them are princesses or brides and they haven't been in a movie, so I don't think she was thinking straight.  Also, when she is talking to Inigo, sometimes she says "Hello, my name is Inigo Goatoya, you sheared my father, prepare to die" and then she laughs.  Clearly, she is completely silly, but she says people who saw the movie will "get it."  Caramel kept her name from her previous farm.  I still think it's silly because a caramel is a food and we don't eat goat here.  My lady is silly and that means her goats get mostly silly names.

2.  When I was little, my lady would let me ride on her back.  That was silly.  I should have been riding in a golden carriage, encrusted with jewels, wearing a tiara.  Why did my lady think that I should be riding on her.  She is so silly.

3.  Sometimes, my lady makes us wear clothes.  This is completely silly.  

Here is a picture of me from back in Iowa, when I was wearing her exercise shorts.  She said it was to keep the diaper on.  I know better.  She just likes to play dress-up.  

See?  Quite silly.

Now we are going to list our favourite goat blogs.  Here they are, in no particular order:

• Of course, we love Millie's blog because she writes so often and always has great pictures, and she lives with our former herd mates in Iowa.  We also like Millie's lady's blog - she writes very nicely and my lady likes to read about her thoughts and adventures.  And hey, while we're on the subject, you should check out Millie's fabulous new farm store where you can buy lovely soaps and popcorn from her farm and tree ornaments and all sorts of fun things!
• We love Isobelle's blog because she is very astute, and has good observations.  She also has a lovely herd with Number the horse, of whom my lady is very fond, and some sweet mini horses and 2 little sheep, and my lady says Isobelle's lady is super.
• We enjoy Tayet's blog about her goats in Wisconsin, and she was clever enough to come up with the Gold award, so we think you should visit her too.
• Darla's blog, by her lady Mimi, is such fun to read.  We are looking forward to seeing Darla being the Yule Goat in her special Capra coat.  
• We think Marigold's blog is always worth reading.  She has lots of reasons to be cheerful, and words of wisdom to impart, and lots of important information about peanuts.
• Baby Belle, also called Millie, has a very funny blog.  My lady usually cracks up when she reads it and always gets a chuckle from Millie's stories.  It's one of our favourites.
• We like Goat Berries, because it's exotic since it is about some goats in Italy.  We have not been to Italy, but our lady has, and she says they have very good food there, so we think we should go.
• Finally, we like our friend Kaori's blog, in Japan.  She doesn't speak English and my lady doesn't speak Japanese, but they interact using Google translate and my lady gets the general idea of her blog.  Kaori has two goats - Nana and Ran Maru.  Even if you can't understand it, there are lots of good pictures and it is fun to see goats in Japan!

I think that is all for now....there are so many good goat blogs out there, but these are our favourites!  If any of them have not already received the award, we are awarding it now!  We think you are all golden!!

Now, I must go and perfect my Snow Queen look.  I am practicing so I can be in a movie.  I already have the imperious look perfected, but I need to improve my stomping.

Eggs! Eggs! Eggs!

I have been negligent in blogging!  I have been sooooo busy!  I had much preparation to do for a craft fair event and have been busy with a whole host of other things, and it just seemed like I would never have a moment's peace.  Today, I have a brief moment to report exciting news!

We have eggs!

Let me just repeat that, for the sheer joy of it!  WE HAVE EGGS!

This is very exciting for me.  My very first farm animals, back in Iowa, were 3 lovely chickens.  From there I branched out into sheep, goats, llamas, angora rabbits, and ducks, not to mention geese and donkeys.  It was chickens, though, who got me started on so many changes in my life, and they hold a special place in my heart.  There is something quite charming about a little feathered creature who lays eggs, like little gifts in the nest box, just waiting to be found.  Orbs of perfect goodness - an excellent protein source and a base for so many recipes, both savoury and sweet.

When I left Iowa, my hens were dispersed.  Some went to friends in Iowa.  Some went to live with Isobelle the Beautiful Goat, in New York.  None came with me.  They are quite an ordeal to bring over the US/Canada border, requiring quarantine - even Lucky Nickel didn't need quarantine!  So it was with much sadness that I started my new life here without my hens, without any eggs.  I managed to get some chicks in June and somehow lucked out with my picks from a straight run batch, choosing 7 hens, but of course they were too young to lay yet.  I then got a breeding pair of cuckoo marans from Hidden Meadow Farm on September 2, but she immediately decided to moult, so I had no eggs from her either!

This week, finally, we had our first egg!  And our second!  And today, our third and fourth, in one day!!  It is just about perfect timing because my Dad made me 6 beautiful wooden eggs, turned on his lathe, for the purpose of enticing the hens into the nest boxes.

Hens like to lay in places where other hens have laid eggs, so fake eggs are often used to encourage first-time layers to lay in the right spot.

One of today's two eggs was successfully laid in the nest box beside two wooden eggs!  Hooray!

I think that one of the Rhode Island Reds is laying, and I do believe that these are her first 3 eggs.

You can see that the sizes are different, but I think the smallest one was her first, and now she is "ramping up" to size.  If that is the case, she has laid 3 eggs in 4 days.  Hooray!

The other egg is definitely different.  It's rather an unusual shape - quite pointed on one end.

It has lovely darker speckles on it.

I suspect the copper maran, but I may be wrong.  I suspect her because I actually caught her in the nest box later in the day.  Perhaps she was checking on her earlier offering?

Either that, or it's another hen's egg and I am just not sure whose!  It didn't come from either of the two Polish hens, because they lay white eggs.  The other breed possibilities are the second Rhode Island Red (doubtful with those speckles), the light brahma, or the silver-laced Wyandottes.  Time will tell!

For the moment, I'm just terribly excited to have my own eggs again, so I don't have to buy from the store.  Three cheers for the hens!

Painting: Advice that didn't work for me

A while ago I posted about my plans to decorate my studio.  No, I haven't done it yet.  Sadly, it's close to the bottom of the list of priorities right now.  When I did that post though, I received a lot of sound advice and helpful tips from those who had been there before me.  I appreciated all the advice.  For example, using primer to cover up old dark colours or other faults is a universally good plan.  Also, using good quality brushes and/or rollers is another top tip.  But I digress...let's start with where the painting was going to occur.

Remember this room from my blog post about turning a desk into a chicken nesting box?

Well, that room is our "home office" and it was one of the most disgusting rooms I have ever had the displeasure of cleaning out.  The clutter was incredible - the dust on the bookshelves was literally measurable...and the chaos of books turned out to be mostly obsolete catalogues for tractor parts, wine making supplies, and phone books, back into the 1970s.  Definite hoarder material!

And the stench....oh my word, the stench.  You see, the former owner allowed his dog in the room, and his dog apparently chose the carpet as a potty area, and I don't think it was really ever cleaned.  When I finally got all the stuff off the floor and shelves, I ripped out the ugly brown carpet.  It was (a couple of months after the dog in question had moved out) still very damp, and the underside was so severely stained with yellow, it was like a bad art project.  Utterly disgusting.  After the carpet was removed, and the stinking, moldy, horrible underlay, the room began to smell much better, but there it sat....waiting for the next phase...which was removing the filthy, stained floor tiles underneath the disgusting carpet and underlay.

They were so filthy that the dirt was literally ground into them.  They were nailed through a layer of masonite and into the subfloor.  I used a crowbar and removed them all.  It took days of really hard work, but then the room finally started to look like something one could use.

After that, I washed all the walls, which were a mess of dust, dirt, and spider webs that might have been old enough to be in a museum somewhere.  I also washed the nasty reddish stained baseboards and odd ceiling decor in the same colour, and then began to consider what to do in terms of decorating.  One reason this room is a higher priority is that we will be putting bookshelves in there.  Between us we have loads and loads of books - boxes upon boxes of them.  All these boxes have been sitting around for months now, because there is nowhere to put books.  Fixing up the office will allow the books to have their place so that the boxes can be put away, thus giving me more room to do other projects.  Yay!

Soooooo, we decided that the reddish baseboard and ceiling decor would have to stay for now, because changing all that would be another big project, and other things were higher priority.  Instead, we would paint it a lovely deep hunter green.  Since it was a trim colour, I went with a bold dark green that made me think of forests and lush foliage.  As you can see, some of the walls have this odd wood horizontal paneling thing going on, only to about chair-rail height.

For the rest of the room, I thought a bright an energetic green would be the ticket.  We put up little colour cards and hemmed and hawed for days.  Here's where that questionable advice comes in to the picture.

One thing that I heard from a great many people on the blog, on Facebook, and from in-person conversations, was the advice about choosing the colour you want, and then going a shade (or two!) lighter.  I'm telling you....if you're anything like me....nod, smile nicely, and slowly back away from that piece of advice.  That's MY advice, which will prevent you from having to re-paint with the colour you originally wanted, or something even bolder!

That's all well and good - but how would you know if you are "anything like me" and whether you ought to back away from that advice?  Here's a few things about me that you may or may not know.  Perhaps they'll help you figure out if that piece of advice is designed for you or not:

1.  I am an introvert.  No, that does not mean that I'm anti-social.  What it does mean in the psychological sense is that I am energized, or "recharged" by being alone, whereas spending time around other people tends to drain my energy.  Any number of personality tests and career-aptitude tests I've done over time have shown me to be a classic introvert.  It doesn't mean I don't have friends or don't like people - it's just that I need my alone-time to recharge my internal energy battery.  Extroverts, on the other hand, actually gain energy from being around other people, and find that being alone can be draining or exhausting for them.

2.  Colour in my clothing has a significant influence on my mood.  When I was young, my mother would encourage me to lay out my clothes for the next day before I went to bed.  I used to find this quite difficult, but didn't quite know why when I was young.  As I got older, I realized that the mood I was in the night before wasn't usually the same as my morning mood, and that the clothes I was wearing, notably their colours, either fit my mood, or not.  If they didn't fit my mood, I simply wasn't comfortable in them, and I often didn't put on what I'd laid out the night before because it didn't feel right.  I have items of clothing that I love, but there are some days I can't wear them because they don't "feel right."  That's just me.

3.  Room and space colour has a huge influence on my mood.  I think this ties in to being an introvert as I outlined in my first point.  When I want to feel energized, it is much more difficult to do so in a white or pastel coloured room than in a brightly coloured room.  Pale walls remind me of places I'd rather not be when I want to be energized, such as classrooms or hospitals or bland institutional-style buildings.  When I was in my teens, my parents allowed me to paint one wall of my room a gorgeous bright green, and I had a diagonal white stripe the full length of the wall, about a foot wide.  I loved that look!  It was a bit crazy but it made me feel good.  I didn't really think about why at the time, but now I know it was the colour and the quirkiness of the stripe.

So, to recap, for me...bright colour induces energy, positive feelings and general happiness.  Pale colours and white induce quiet reflection, a more somber mood, and do not energize me.  This, in a nutshell, is why I do not recommend the "one/two shades lighter" advice in paint colours.  I should have known this, because I've made the mistake before, but darn it all, I listened to the advice again (oops) and now I'm repainting.

For the office in question, I chose a shade of green that was lighter than what I really wanted, by at least one shade.  It is a nice green, but it's not even close to what I needed for that room.  Frankly, I found it to be insipid and boring - too pale and too weak.  I could tell very quickly that it was the wrong choice, and Richard agreed.  Too pale.  Ugh.  (excuse the mess -- there's nowhere to put anything around here, so I just have to move stuff around as I paint.  It's annoying, but it's the way it is for now.)

Back to the drawing board, and new little paint colour chips were stuck up on the wall and the hemming and hawing was once again in progress.

Finally, we decided on a lovely, deep and rich caramel colour.  I didn't go two, or even one, shade lighter.  And here it is...

Not a pale colour, but not a dark and dismal colour either.  It's warm and comforting.  It's like a sweet, toffee-flavoured hug.  I love it.  It makes the room feel warm and welcoming.  I've only done one wall and bits of another wall so far, but already, I'm happier when I go into that room.   Around here, that's a first!

We also had planned on leaving the wood trim around the doors and windows as is, but on closer inspection, the wood trim had a lot of nasty wood-filler repair jobs and other damage and/or icky bits.

We decided to paint it in the dark green trim colour.  We also chose a shade called "Toffee Crunch" for the ceiling.  I just did a little bit of it to see how it would look, and I like it very much.  A couple of coats will be needed all around, but it's really going to be lovely.

So, my advice to you is, choose the colours you like, and go for it!  If colour has a strong effect on you, and you are using it to change the feel of a room, don't be shy.  Go bold!  Go bright!  Go colourful!  You'll be much happier that you did, and you won't have to paint twice.

I'll do another post when the painting is complete so you can see how it all looks.  For now, I'm just reveling in the feeling of having made a choice that feels right.