decorating

I was talking with a friend about houses and what we want in them.  She said that she likes to see what other people are doing and get ideas.  She mentioned that she tried to do a few ideas in a less expensive way than the person did who she got the idea from.  She found that they came off looking cheap for the most part and decided when she does something she will spend the money.  I have found this to be true for many things.  It is a rare occasion that one can really get the high quality for cheap.  For example, when I buy cheap clothes, they end up falling apart much sooner.  Getting higher quality on sale however, that is possible, you just have to know how to do it and be patient for sales.  I am a Gap/Old Navy girl, but I never have to buy things full price because I have a Gap card and I wait for the sales in my email box (and ALWAYS pay the bill on time or early).

But, going along a similar topic to that which I started, decorating is involved!  Especially for someone like me who has never picked where she gets to live and has never been in a place that is really hers.  When I was a child, I lived in my parents house.  When I was in college, a dorm or apartment (for too short a time to really paint or decorate).  When I got married, I moved to a house my husband bought before he met me and had to beg whenever I wanted to change something.  And then we moved overseas and packed both our attempts to decorate up in big plastic bins.  And now, overseas, we live in a villa our company chose for us with furniture that is not ours and walls made of concrete (very difficult to hammer a nail into for pictures :-).  If I ever am able to live in a place that I get to help pick and my husband and I own, I would love to decorate.  But I don't think about it much since I don't know if or when that will ever happen.

But if I were to think about it...  I'd want a big kitchen.  One with an island in it.  It would be tiled with Turkish style tiles.  Bright and lots of natural light.  The theme would be old eastern American barns, emphasis on the red.  Hmm, I sense a clash between the Turkish style and the barns.  I would be light on the Turkish tiles, but I have to have them.  A yellow maybe to compliment the red.  If I can get the right color of blue, a few blue tiles too.  I want a kitchen table to match, preferably the one that my grandma said I can have, that is in her basement.  Though she said she might get rid of it since I won't be taking it in the foreseeable future.  But this is a day dream, so I can have whatever I want.  You know, I don't care much about the rest of the house.  I just love living in the kitchen.  Someday, maybe when we are 70.  Or maybe I should just let go of it now and concentrate on the wonderful things God has given me, which is already more than I ever imagined.