It’s been crazy around here. It feels like Christmas. In fact, I’m feeling so overwhelmed with life at the moment that I shouldn’t even be here. I should be doing something much more productive, like, say, working. So I’m just going to scalp bits from an email I sent to my friend Kelly yesterday. (Hi Kelly!)
The Citizen photographer was here for about 45 minutes few hours last night. She was a very nice girl. And I coveted her lighting kit.
I’m certain I look totally horrid in Every Single Photo. It would be nothing short of a miracle if I looked semi-normal – that’s all I ask for – I want to look SEMI NORMAL. That being said, look for my pointy nose/double chin/cross or CLOSED eyes/non-lipglossed crooked mouth in your Saturday paper. Wah!
They told me not to tidy my living room, but there was no way that I was going to disclose my secrets to the entire population of Ottawa and Surrounding Areas. Do they need to know that there’s usually a coffee cup on the mantel? No. No coffee cups. And no pieces of Polly Pocket scattered all over the room embedding themselves into the bottoms of our feet either. But here’s the funny part. To make it seem more “real” the photographer requested the girls play with their toys, and they gleefully accommodated. The likely shot will be one of the girls playing amidst a sea of playthings that had just been put away while Mark is watching golf and I’m curled up on the sinkhole side of the couch, pretending to read a decorating magazine. You know, because that’s what I do all the time. Ha.
When you see the photo, know that I’m thinking: “please let me not have a double chin in this shot please let me not have a double chin in this shot.”
Tomorrow I’m meeting with The Team… four designers, two of which are students, are coming to my house to pity me. I do hope that the students are the best of the bunch, chosen for their brilliance and originality, and not because a punishment needed to be meted out. :)
The meeting is at 12.30. I suggested the time because it’s the only time I’ll be sans children and I’ll be able to think straight. I’m tempted to serve a small lunch, but that’s just plain crazy, right? As if I have time to whip something together. No, maybe I’ll just bring out some tea and cookies.
After the meeting it will all start from there. This thing is supposed to be done and published in the April 30th issue of the Citizen. Ha! I’ve been up for the last two nights pouring over old issues of Style at Home, trying to figure out what I’m going to tell The Team. And yes, Melinke, I’ve been staying awake at night just thinking about it all. It’s hard to put our style into words. I don’t want to tell them I like “cool lookin'” things and then be stuck with black and fushia polka dots on my walls. This kind of stuff is so subjective. Mark and I don’t go for mainstream-style furnishings (for lack of a better terms) but I also don’t want anything too crazy, like, say, hay pasted to the walls for the ultimate “down home country look.”
Mark is worried. And I think he’s even more worried than he lets on. But I’m not. I know what we like: light, bright, vague 1920s-30s deco look, with an artistic/eclectic edge to it. And when I say eclectic I mean OUR eclectic, not the eclectic of the guy who walks around Ottawa wearing a large sombrero and a parka sewn entirely out of multicoloured zippers. The magazines have called it “new traditional” and it appears to be a carefully orchestrated combination of flea-market finds and new items. The most important thing, to me, is that the room reflects who we are. That’s it. Easy huh? :)
Should be fun. But as I said, this week is hell. Did I mention that it’s Sarah’s fourth b-day party on Saturday? Have we bought something for her yet? No. Got a cake? No. Loot bags? No. Anything? No. Gawd. I’m crazy.
