In praise of new beginnings (and get the party started already!)

Is it just me or is everyone just a little bit excited about the start of this new year?

I can't remember a time when I have felt this eager to get going, reach new heights, make lists, clean and throw away, start new projects. In fact, for the first time ever, the day after Christmas I was ready for all the Christmas decorations to GO! And as I took them all down and disassembled the tree, I reduced the bins and boxes by one HUGE bin! Yay. Did that ever feel good. So now it's on to real jobs, the paying kind  ...

I was discussing new directions with one of bestest friends today and she said maybe our newfound optimism comes from just being glad 2010 is OVER. That is how I felt about 2009, the year we were forced to come to terms with the fact that the gravy train was slowing down. My friend likened 2010 to a bad hangover.

Come to think of it, last year did feel a little bit like dehydration (monetary) and a pounding headache (fretful indecisive immobility) at times. Like hangovers, those bad feelings came to an end. We just put our noses to the grindstone and worked (drank) our way out of it. No whining allowed. Who promised the gravy train would chug on forever? We just have to be better and smarter now. I know I learned a lot last year and I'm ready to put that newfound knowledge to work!

Today, I found some pictures today of a little job I did in New Braunfels a while back and thought I'd share them. This is the kind of thing that blows my skirt up and makes me really, really happy:

Crystal and plaster and antique mirrors! Can I get an amen? Let me just say, this massive mirror is to die for. That's what makes this teeny tiny bathroom so fabulous: The mirror is enormously out of scale and some snooty designer type might snort that it's too large for the space. Someone else might say the chandelier is going to clonk someone tall right smack in the forehead. I sayWHO CARES??? I say the chandelier is rich and drippy crystal fabulous and the enormo mirror enlarges the space and distributes good energy all over the room!

If you can have this chandelier and this mirror and me to create warm and yummy champagne-colored plaster walls, why the heck not? Life is too short to live with mediocrity and it's really waaaaaay too short to worry about all the rules of convention!

Here's a close-up of the wall, the corner of the mirror, and the bead board below. I painted the bead board and trim a gorgeous warm cream from Benjamin Moore. It had been a cold, stark white with no soul.

What's worse: Above the bead board, where you now see the beautiful champagne plaster, was blue and white striped wallpaper. It was lovely and cheerful in the 90s, but we've all grown up since then, haven't we?

Love it!