Donna wins the amazing friend award of the year.

I invited her down to Omak today because I wanted to go pick up something at the Walmart. It was a quilt. I’ve been looking for one for a few years and had thought that I would get my colours scheme from it. Time passed and I had to press on with getting paint and whatnot. Thankfully, when I finally found what I was looking for, it still worked with my paint choices.

Before Walmart, we had a Mexican lunch at Tequila’s. YUM! 😀

Once I had the quilt, it was time to make a final decision on the rest of the fabric: curtains in the study and library, a curtain to block off the cab and loft, something to recover the sofa in the study, and scraps for the kitchen stool. I had looked at all sorts of stores and decided that if I found my dream quilt at Walmart, then I was going to be satisfied with what else I could get there to cross everything off that shopping list.

I lost track of time as Donna and I scoured the bedding and bath sections, then the fabric. I changed my mind a million times and when we finally found suitable curtain fabric, there wasn’t enough. I was going to concede defeat and go with the cheap linens I got in Campbell River, even though they were never intended to be a permanent solution, but Donna persevered and found a solution in the curtain rod section (of all places! :D). She was so patient, listened to me, and was an amazing sounding board. Thank you so, so, so much for your help today!

Two of the things I decided were:

• Reducing the colour palette

Originally, the kitchen, library, and loft were going to be different colours. I have decided to have my dominant colours be green, pink, and yellow. Accents are chocolate brown, and I will have one orange statement piece. The toilet room, being its own private and closed off entity, can stay purple. But the three rooms that flow into each other need some sort of continuity.

• Curtains

I’ve been trying to come up with a good idea for window treatments and have decided on plain old curtains to be combined with privacy window film (which I hope to pick up tomorrow). I bought curtain rods, so window treatments are ready to go.

I am a long way from installing all the things I bought today and showing them off properly. I need to get the rooms painted first, for one thing. But here’s a sneak peak of the fabric as well as the paint I bought yesterday:

Next, we headed to Home Depot. I recently found a two year old gift card and couldn’t for the life of me figure out why I hadn’t spent it yet. It’s because it was only good for the US stores! Ten bucks (and 13 cents change) got me a can of spray paint for my living room chair makeover project as well as an angle measuring thingy for my trim. Thanks again to Donna for thinking of that and finding it for me!

We made a quick stop at Princes in Oroville where I stocked up on Baby Ruth bars, a treat I haven’t had since I went to Chicken. Then, it was time for the dreaded border crossing. Since I was well over my daily allowable limit, I expected to have to go into the customs office and pay tax and duty on everything. This fear was reinforced when I was asked to turn off my engine, a first. The officer was a bit incredulous that two women our age could afford to winter somewhere without working, but saying that we’re writers seemed a satisfactory answer. He asked for a rough breakdown of what was purchased and then sent us on our way! I was shocked!

It was an incredibly productive day and I am now highly motivated to get this rig DONE. 😀