Domestic demigoddess.

We're settling in slowly but surely. Last night I went on a rampage: I unpacked everything that possibly could be unpacked (aka, everything but the books; the two boxes of paperwork that I need to buckle down, sort through, and organize; and Chris's film editing equipment), hung everything that could be hung (am still waiting on a few frames) and re-sorted the kitchen cabinets so that the food is above the sink and the dishes are in the hutch.

Does anyone know of a good place to get cute contact paper / even wrapping paper? I'd like to paper the backs of my cabinets in a blue and red pattern (maybe floral) but I've visited Kate's Paperie and Lee's Art Shop and Bed Bath & Beyond and haven't found what I'm looking for. I want something cute, but not too ornate or busy.

My mom is coming to visit the weekend after next and is bringing me a set of dishes that she doesn't need. They're white, with a blue border and little red strawberries on the side. Chris already had a set of Target dishes--white with a dark blue border--and Chris's mom gave him/us a bee-yoo-tiful aqua metallic microwave. So I think I'd like to get a retro red clock to hang in the kitchen, and some kind of little retro table and two chairs to put under the window.

Speaking of clocks, I know that I am going to wince when my credit card bill comes (where is my security deposit check???), but I couldn't resist getting the clock above on eBay yesterday. I mean, could you??? It was under $10, and the seller had 100% approval and claimed that it still works. I'm going to put it in the entry way on top of Chris's desk, under the silly gilt mirror that I found on the street my first year in New York and next to the Camelia art deco card we got in New Orleans and Chris's brown wooden vase, which I'll fill once in a while with flowers.

Speaking of decorating. (Sorry, I'm rambling today.) (And this is going to ramble on into another post about websites...I bet Erika is the only one here following my train of thought, because she and I are similarly RANDOM!) I love to look at design websites and magazines and drool over pieces of art on etsy.com and imagine how I would decorate if I had an unlimited budget. And a couple of my friends keep asking when they can come see the apartment and I keep putting them off, because I didn't want them to see it with no couch and with boxes piled in the living room and with the closet doors unhung. I didn't want them to see it in an un-featurable-in-a-magazine state, in other words.

But then last night I realized: I LIKE decorating with odds and ends that Chris and I have gathered through our lifetimes. I LIKE that most of the paintings and photos and prints in our apartment were either created or given to us by family and friends. Some of those include my mom's fruit still-lifes, my sister's engraving, his sister's photography, and my college roommate's photography, as well as posters or prints we've collected because they have meaning to us, like the old-fashioned print of a Maine potato field (Chris's family is from Maine) and the two pieces we got at an antique shop in New Orleans (my favorite trip together) and the vintage film posters that express Chris's love of movies and my love of noir and mysteries, and the African-made or -inspired pieces that reflect on my sister's life-changing trip to Ghana and the search Chris and I are undergoing in a quest for greater meaning (see next post).

So I'm going to tell my friends, sure, come on over. Because those picture-perfect design magazine homes? Those aren't me. I'd rather have everything in my rooms have a story behind it than it be something I got at Williams Sonoma (yeah right: that place is tres $$$).

(But I am still looking for the right living room rug, I must confess.)