Lemonade

A Law of Attraction Story

My son has moved out.  And he has taken my dog with him.

It is the right move for him, and the dog will be in a safer place.  I’m good with it.  Except that I’m – well – challenged to hold onto a positive attitude, and the son and the dog were a great comfort to me here.

I’m feeling very alone, with more challenges to come.

I am consoling myself with a project.  When my firstborn came along, over thirty-five years ago, I gave up my craft room to a nursery.  When the second came, I gave up my closet space to a second child’s room.  Now that my son is gone, I am claiming his space (the old master suite) as my own.  And have had a lot of fun planning my use and – more fun – my decoration of the space.

I have started by doing a major cleaning of the bathroom.  Think of it!  My own bathroom for the first time in my life.  No more checking for – well – residue from other users.  My own level of clean.  I’ve been scrubbing and repairing.  I discovered the wonders of a PUMIE, a very soft pumice on its own handle that not only tackled the ring in the toilet, but is taking down 40 years of stain on the bathroom countertop as well.  The medicine cabinet (my OWN medicine cabinet – I haven’t had space in a medicine cabinet for over a decade) has been disinfected.  Today I scrubbed down the shower and will be replacing some cracked grout this afternoon.

None of which has been as much  fun as planning the décor.

There will be faeries.  And my luxurious gift to myself was this shower curtain:

I was worried that it wouldn’t meet my expectations.  After all, they would be printing it onto a white polyester curtain, so I  expected the colors to be washed out.  Instead, they were even deeper and richer than the picture.  I bought an oiled bronze rod and hooks, and look forward to hanging it.  And then had to go select paint colors that I will use in both the bathroom and adjoining bedroom, which will be craft room and (I hope) guest room.

 

Before sharing that story, though, I have to share some backstory.
 

My favorite plant – I’ve been growing it for three years now, and have divided my plant and replanted it in multiple spaces in the yard – is a geum called “Totally Tangerine.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disney’s Sleeping Beauty came out in 1958.  I was seven.  Since then, Aurora has been my favorite princess.

Last Thursday I was running errands related to cleaning the back master suite for my own use.  I had decided that I wanted the rooms painted in shades of salmon pink and I was going to pick up paint swatches in shades of salmon.   As I approached Home Depot, I was stunned by the most gorgeous sunset ever over the Oxnard Plain.  With nothing blocking the view in multiple directions I was overwhelmed by the oranges to pinks in  horizon-to-horizon color, and I questioned whether I wanted salmon or orange.

No, I wanted salmon.

 
When I received the shower curtain I ordered, I was gratified by the presence of salmon in the art.  I had taken the curtain to my overnight visit to my Mother’s house, but forgot my paint swatches.  Back home this morning I pulled the swatches, but was drawn not to the swatches of salmon pink, but over and over to a card labeled Behr 210A.  Very pale oranges, not salmons.

 

None of the darker salmon shades coordinated very well with these favorite lighter shades, but as I shuffled through the cards I found a set of oranges that looked good.  And I noted the color number:  210B.

And then I looked at the names of the  colors.  The color I really liked from the light colors card was 210A-3 “Malibu Peach.”  The three that interested me from the darker colors card were 210B-4, “Sunset Strip,” 210B-5, “Tangerine Dream,” and 210B-6, “Aurora Orange”.

I smiled, knowing that the Universe had a role in pointing me in this direction.  But what about my dream of a salmon wall, a wall to match the salmon-pink of my Fairy Garden roses?  And I went outside to pick a rose, and brought it in to match it to the salmon pink color cards.

 

 
And the rose was a perfect match to the orange-pink colors. 
Choice made.