my mother will be so proud

i received a magazine in the mail the other day. (actually, i receive far too many magazines these days, thanks to airmiles, they're free.)i peruse them with my daily morning latte... conde nast traveler, harper's bazaar, W, anthropologie catalogs, jcrew. i don't really shop at jcrew. i usually idea-shop, but i did buy my wellies from there last year, and they've served me well. this catalog came with a girl on the back sporting a hot pink scarf. and i thought: "wow! i like that scarf." and then i thought it was a strange thought, because the scarf was pink. and to those who know me, i'm not really a pink kinda girl. more of a black and blue and brown and olive green kinda girl. my mother is the one who loves LOVES pink.

not many people would know this by looking at me, or my sister rebekah for that matter, but we spent our childhood surrounded by pink. drowning in pink, if you will. (no offense, mom, you know we love you!) we shared a room until 7th grade, and in that room: was pink carpet, bright pink walls, seer-sucker lampshades made by my mother with tiny pink polka-dots, british duvets covers with pink floral pattern, and pink floral curtains. i kid you not. my mother LOVES pink! my mother didn't have the whole reign of the house decorating wise, for my dad exuded a very masculine influence, lots of dark wood, and dark brown couches, etc, so i think she gave herself to full abandon in our bedroom. it's something we get a good chuckle over. good times! i wish i had an old photo to show you.

so, keeping this in mind, when i saw that pink scarf, i thought how my mother would be "tickled pink", (sorry about the pun, just had to use it) to know that her army navy daughter was actually desiring a pink object. and then, when i was brushing my teeth, i noticed: hey, i have a pink toothbrush. and then, in the living room, i noticed: hey, i have pink pillows! (not that their color escaped me when i bought them, but i didn't buy them because they were pink-- they were cheap ikea pillows that i used to cover with, yes, brown pillow covers) and then, wouldn't you know, i started seeing pink everywhere!! it was enough to make me smile...

so i thought i would share this journey with you, as you can see -if you go to my flickr page. and yes, this is what i have been doing instead of what i SHOULD be doing, like washing the summer clothes and packing them away, deep cleaning the kitchen from top to bottom, weeding out the closets, etc etc...all in all, being a better housewife. greg never dreamed that when he bought me a camera cell phone, it would aid in my tendency to procraste, like taking useless photos of all the pink things in our possession.

lest you think me totally lazy, i will say i was inspired to tackle the kitchen last week when i found -yuck! bugs in the cupboards. again! i just deep-cleaned last fall, and i found them again. so either i didn't clean well enough, or they are a pest problem related to the old building we live in. well, this time, i went a bit crazy, and took everything out of the cupboards, washed all the dishes, pots and pans, bleached the cupboards, and lined the food cupboard with that sticky paper that makes me want to scream (i lined it tops, sides and bottoms, and had the initial intention to do the whole kitchen, but after that one cupboard which took hours, i decided: doing the food cupboard was all i needed because we're not going to live here forever!)


then, i went about throwing away all old and opened food, about three groceries bags full, because i found a colony of these horrible horrible things thriving in the donut mix i bought over two years ago, when i made french beignets with my sister. (sigh) (was it really two years ago?) i then went out and bought containers, plastic and glass, for EVERYthing, and this is the new way we are going to live.


a new habit. it's a bit strange tho. i look at my cupboard and it doesn't look like mine. i've lived ten years of our married life, with the color of boxes... and now, everything in glass, uniform, organized, seems...i don't know, like it's some other woman's cupboard. so, i'm hoping it will grow on me.

in other habits...we have recently tried another go at water containers. after my son and husband kept losing our nalgeen bottles and our bicycle bottles, it seemed much easier to buy the 24-pack from safeway of water bottles and then not care if they got left behind. but i've recently become convicted by those news stories tauting how many billions of dollars americans spend on bottled water, when many countries don't even have good tap water. so we're trying the containers again. it's a pain, a new habit is...i feel like it's just one more thing i get on francis' case about: "do you have your water bottle?" "did you forget you water bottle?" "do you remember WHERE you left your water bottle?" jeepers! the poor kid! i had gotten myself a bottle from tully's, just for starters, and francis was so into it, that we decided it was time for him to have his own. we saw a klean kanteen in a store and bought it at 20 bucks a pop, and he was very proud, and we told him it take good care of it. so, we're trying. i don't mind reverting to the olden days, in fact, i like our bottles. so here's hoping they last a year...


well, enough of this rambling. i need to go wash the dishes. and tidy up. and get dressed. and go pick up francis from school (greg went in later today, and so took him to school. so i go walk and pick him up, and our new thing when i do that is: to stop by the market on our way home for a fresh french baguette and some fruit, and then we have that for tea-time afterschool) but now it looks like it's raining, so i also need to go dig out my wellies! oh, fall is here! i REALLY do need to wash my summer clothes, and put them away, and take out my winter ones, cause gray is here to stay...

and a little bit of pink actually does brighten the day...