EVERYTHING'S FINE

So Ray's dad, Julius, had open heart surgery on Monday....he is 93 just to remind you...anyway, all is perfection today...WHEW!!!   Wayyyy to emotional a day for me, as not only is this the same hospital I sat vigil in for almost two weeks when my best friend Pat died a year and a half ago...so the memories were brutal, as his death was extremely unexpected...this is also near enough to the anniversary of my own father's death on March 18 of last year.   The same worry, and the visual of the his father with same heart pillow he holds onto in recovery...too hard.  Here he is just going into surgery...he's now walking about and every one at the hospital can not believe he is 93...!!  So YAY for that.

Nice hat!

And here is the pretty close to finish remake of our breakfast nook...if you recall, when I first moved in the entire "clan" that lived here used this tiny little room to squish up around a large orchard table and eat every night...and the living room and dinning area was filled with a pool table, a set of drums, a grand piano and a large screen tv....yes, it looked like a frat house.

So of course I needed a dinning room and a real living space.  In the meantime I had no place to paint and set up my easel.  I remember crying, "I have no space of my own here, where am I going to paint...I need my own room."   And that's when Ray said, "Well, just use the nook."  So that's what I did for three years.

Not a clear photo, sorry, I actually took a photo from my website as I cannot find the original....but you get the idea...beyond yellow and white.  This was already after I moved out another cabinet in the opposite corner...everyone literally filled the room, you couldn't move.

The first incarnation was a sitting room...cuz that's what we needed!  But I at least had my green, blue and gold stripes and wood painted casings.

The last change led to being my complete studio..what you can't see is a book shelf on the right and a tall chest on the left with a little cabinet on the wall above it all holding every art supply I had...with exception to the ones in the laundry room...ha!  I had my easel in front of the chair to work.  So if I had a painting set up I could barely maneuver around the space to get in and out.  Not fun...but again, at least I did have a space.

Unfortunately this space is directly off of the kitchen and on it's way into the den...so everyone passed by constantly.  At parties we kinda kept the light off because it was an art studio....you know..a bit of a mess.

Finally right before the holidays I was talking to Lisa, who made the comment... "to bad about the giant pool table in your den...the room you could have would be awesome."  And I of course agreed with her immensely, as it had been my dream to turn this space into a library someday.  With walls filled with builtins and a huge desk to sit and write my book.  And a space on the other end to paint.  So I broached the topic with Ray...and before I could finish my point he said, "let's take out the pool table and move you in there."
What?
See, unfortunately as cool as it was, and is, to own a pool table...our family was changing and no one used it anymore...it literally sat empty for the past two years.  I played a couple of times by myself, as in the old day I was a pretty good player...and I really enjoyed it...however, the only time it was used was during the holidays...and the last one Ray, Mark and myself played one game.  So we decided to store the table for now and have the plan to add on a room off of the living room that will be the big family game room, big tv, pool table etc...room...and there you have it.

So, no pics of the almost finished library/studio...that needs a bit more time to say the least....but here is the new breakfast nook.

I really wanted turquoise in there, something brighter...so that's what I did...I changed up my green and blue stripes to more vibrant  green and blue and painted out the wood to my gold...which is still not aged down a bit..but still looks cool.  We had some seriously outrageous tooled leather chairs that I used and exchanged that thinner antique French orchard table for the big thick vintage wooden one that has that Spanish flavor to go along with the chairs and the turquoise.
Oh, and the chandelier needs to be lowered...enjoy!
Oh and ps. we haven't sat at the dinning table in a month..this is our cozy little nook and we love it!

So everything is fine at the moment...when I get a chance I'll get some photos of the library going...but still in the beginning stages.   
Hope everything in your life is fine today as well...mucho love to my besties...xoxo juners