I'm back!

Not in the creepy 'Shining' way, but in the good, "Hey, I've missed posting and now that I have a few minutes I'm going to do just that" way.

So, some really sad news... Our dog passed last weekend. She came to us when she was 7, from a family with a young son who developed dog allergies. She was sweet, silly, stubborn, curious and fun. Ahhhh, look at that face. We loved her very much. It's been quite a blow. The worst is when out of total habit, you are expecting to see her and then remembering that won't be happening. WAAAAHHHH. Do I regret all the time before last Friday just because this part sucks? No. We loved her and loving her is wonderful. Missing her sucks. That's really all I have to say about that. It's been a weepy week and I'm exhausted of and by the weeping.

Some good news. We bought a new mattress and box springs and it is arriving any minute! It's been 21 years since we bought our last set. 21! The old set is hard as a rock and one wire pokes, just a little bit, out the side. Not enough to actually be noticeable, but enough that it will scratch you good if you're not careful. The new bed is a king size and we are excited! Looking forward to the extra room. Of course, going from queen to king means all new bedding. I now know more about bedding than I ever cared to know. Seriously!

So, because we rarely ever do anything simply, a new mattress set has become a complete refresh. It all started with choosing King over Queen. If it were another Queen, it would have been so easy to keep the old stuff! Ah, hindsight. But, we chose King and needed new bedding. New bedding against old walls... so, we decided to paint. Which is a very good decision, because it's been years since we painted and the room needed it. For inspiration, I found these decorative pillows.
 

They are simple, cheerful and modern, which is my current decorating style. It's been a week of shopping, not my favorite thing, and painting, not my favorite thing. We decided to split the effort. Hubby painted and I shopped. It took two tries to get the paint right. I know. We originally chose pale gray, but it was so cold that neither of us liked it. So next we went with a taupe-y stone color. It's awesome. It's a version of the color of the inside of the dark gray shape on the left side of the floral pillow. Love it. It's a perfect neutral that will compliment this palette and whatever strikes my fancy later.

I find sheet shopping a challenge. It's not that I'm particularly picky (I say just a tad defensively) it's that I don't really want solid sheets. That and I've been burned before by the lure of high thread count, only to discover that the sheets are so thin they wrinkle like mad and don't last. I am certain I want cotton. I don't want 1000+ thread count, but do want more than 200. I like patterned sheets and the pattern matters. So that's my dilemma. Oh, and I absolutely refuse to pay over $100 for sheets. Okay, so I'm picky. In my pickiness I have been everywhere once and some places twice looking for what I want. So far I have sheets in solid colors I don't love, a down comforter that I do like, a duvet cover that while it is beautiful, is going back and a soft fleecy throw that I'm still considering.

The duvet cover that is going back is primarily white. I just feel so uncomfortable about that. I don't think I'm pristine enough for a white duvet. I mean you couldn't touch it is you had one little bit of cheeto on your person. And the fact is my husband is a cheeto addict.

The last duvet cover, I made from two top sheets. You see, I don't really like sleeping with a top sheet. Between my need to be able to put my foot or feet out and my husband's sheet stealing ways, the top sheet never stayed put. So the last time we needed sheets, I purchased two sets, used the tops to make the duvet cover and had four cases and two fitted sheets. It was AWESOME. Of course, because it was awesome, I want to do that again. But not with a solid sheet! Dang it!

So the search continues.Once the bed arrives, we are going back out into the fray, to find and purchase the perfect sheets! Oh yes, we are.

When it's finished, I'll post some pics.

Until then, if you are a pet owner, give your pet some extra attention today in honor of Daisy. She was such a sweet soul and she is missed.