It’s Not Multitasking Or Is It?

I ran across a picture of me taken in a long ago time showing me holding a baby (I don’t recall which one) in my left arm, feeding the child from a baby bottle in the left hand, and stirring a pot of either oatmeal or grits on the stove with the right hand.  I know it had to be either one of the two because I’m wearing a robe so it had to be breakfast.  That’s what I used to call multitasking.  These days I’m more apt to be reading a novel or a design magazine, perusing blogs, thinking about the next blog post, and starting a grocery list in rapid succession while stifling worrisome thoughts about the on-going oil spill that are ALWAYS deep in my mind and my gut.

I like Frances Mayes’ way of looking at multitasking as stated in Every Day in Tuscany. She keeps four project boxes of different subjects she’s dreaming of writing about.  She says it’s a good way to cook, too: “several pots perking on the stove while rolling out the biscuit dough, chopping celery and cleaning out the fridge.”  She says multitasking is “a nasty word that reminds me of driving down the freeway while polishing your nails and talking on the phone, nothing relating.  Instead, I like taking advantage of overlaps in activities that connect.”  So that’s the kind of overlapping multitasking I’m doing today.

I often visit Maria Killam’s Color Me Happy blog because, well, it makes me feel happy!  Sometimes it gives me inspiration for related projects.   I bookmarked a post from last year and knew I’d use it one day (similar to Frances’ project boxes).  It’s all about how to pick the right wallpaper.  Maria points out that If you are working with fixed elements in your room you have to first establish what you have to work with, what goes and what has to stay.  Next, determine which fixed elements you can ignore and that will narrow your color decision.   Your wallcovering and paint color should pull your space together.  To make this easy, did you know that we can customize our Casart removable wallcovering to your color choices?

Since the bathroom in the picture below had pink fixtures and a green-beige counter top, the decision was made to ignore the out-dated pink fixtures.  The creme in the selected wallpaper was matched for trim color.

Maria recommends that every woman have a paint chip fan.  You can usually get these from a paint store like Benjamin Moore.  You will have to hold the paint fan chip beside the color you are trying to match on the wall where it is to achieve a correct match.  Once you have determined your paint color, take your fan with you to help select the correct shade of wallpaper.

Sometimes colors will change from wall, to wall, to wall, to wall; depending on the light source at any given time of day.  Because of the intensity of the morning sun streaming in from an eastern expanse of glass, it took three paint samples on two different walls before I got the right shades of yellow in this room.  I suggest you view the selected color in the room at different times of day.  It may be too bright in the morning, but too dark as daylight fades in the evening.

And finally, the grocery list made, another chapter of Everyday in Tuscany read, and this post written, my thoughts are set free to wander to that deep down agony and anger and I wonder who will tell the migrating birds to find another flyway this fall because this one that’s been used for so long is no more!

DAY 53- Yesterday the Times Picayune reported that in less than a week, the rescue center at Fort Jackson had received more than five times as many oiled birds as it received in the previous six weeks since the oil spill.  Don’t you know that the helpers are multitasking in their clean up effort and we can’t thank them enough!

The numbers: 415 birds since the April spill, 66 by last Thursday and 349 since then with 61 added since Tuesday.  633 dead birds have been found since the spill.  Here are some other figures.  As of Wednesday 37, 691,000 gallons of oil have been spilled, based on high range of government estimates, and 3,645,000 gallons have been collected.  For simple, safe ways to donate or volunteer to help affected areas, contact well-established charities and beware of online scams.

–  Lorre Lei