My childhood bedroom had wallpaper that was printed with clouds and rainbows.
Brad Goreski
In between grade 3 and 4 I spent the summer here, in Penticton. While I was gone my Mom and Dad moved my Sis and I into our very own bedrooms and Mom decorated them to suit each of us. My bedroom was a pale blue and it had a white wallpaper border around it with clouds and rainbows. I loved it. It made me believe in magic and happy endings. They even bought me a fancy daybed just like my best friend/nemesis Debra had! Mom let me pick out my bedding and I picked a fluffy white comforter with a giant white pillow that had a pastel rainbow splashed across it! Every morning I felt like I was waking up in a cloud!
When I moved out with WpgBesty by bedroom was a dirty cream colour that may have been white when it was originally painted, a few decades before. It was a blank slate. I didn’t even put anything up on the walls. I was just learning who I was and my room reflected it. When I moved into my CharleswoodBesty’s place I lived downstairs and the room was bright orange! I felt like I was living in a pumpkin 😂.
Ninja and I turned our first bedroom together into a beautiful bright and fun room. We painted the walls a cream colour, the frames and baseboards a chocolate brown and the wall behind our bed… lime pop! It was amazing. We loved it. It was comforting and yet fun!
When we moved here, Ninja and I took over the primary bedroom. My grandparent’s bedroom. It was light blue with a wallpaper border dividing the wall in half. The wallpaper had birds on it 😳. I wanted to change it right away. I picked grey. Chelsea Grey. It was oppressive and suffocating and dark. I hated it. I promised myself that the next time I picked a bedroom colour that it would be light and beautiful and sexy and would make me feel joyful.
I was so afraid to decorate the house when it was being built. I had only ever lived in rentals or other people’s homes so I never had a chance to decorate my own space before. I really had no idea what my style was and neither did Ninja. I walked into the paint store and I was completely overwhelmed until I saw it. The most beautiful colour I had ever seen. It was called First Light and it was the softest pink, like the hint of the new day upon the horizon. As soon as I saw it I wanted it. It reminded me of these gorgeous thank you cards I bought at Micheals years ago. They were pink and black and had a woman in stiletto heels walking down a French boulevard looking chic and sophisticated. I loved sending those fancy little thank you cards to my friends and family.
Once I had found the paint my dream bedroom began to really start coming together. I knew I wanted wallpaper as a feature wall behind our bed and I knew I wanted it in the ensuite too. As a cleaner I knew I wanted tile up the walls in the bathroom, it really is SO much easier to keep clean and fresh! I also knew I wanted wallpaper on the top half of the walls but I didn’t know what kind. I looked through books and books of samples and saw this elegant raised black wallpaper that I just knew was perfect for my vision of the bathroom. Once I found that I told the lady at the counter, I want black wallpaper with water painted pink peonies for my feature wall! She blinked at me and said, “ummmm I don’t think we have that.” They didn’t. In fact, no one did. It seemed to be something that only lived in my imagination. I was brokenhearted. I found a crazy expensive print that had cherry blossoms on it and I brought home my new vision to Ninja. We stayed in a theme suite early on in our relationship and it had cherry blossoms as the feature of the room. It was so pretty. Ninja was totally into the pink and black aesthetic with glossy white double closet doors but he wasn’t blown away by the cherry blossoms. However, he agreed that it would be the next best thing and he started putting up our new wallpaper.
We liked it but it wasn’t the Emily in Paris (before Emily in Paris lol) look we were going for. The cherry blossoms and the grey made it seem more country farmhouse than sophisticated floral garden. Over the years Ninja has asked me what I’m planning on doing in our room. But I continued to leave the walls blank. Every morning I would open my eyes and see nothing but pretty pink and it made me smile. No walls filled up with pictures. Just pink. It made me happy to come into our room at night and leave the clutter and busyness behind and just sit in my clean, blank bedroom full of pink possibilities 💗.
Until I began spending ALL my time in our bedroom. All of a sudden my bare walls made me feel sad instead of light and happy. Slowly I began filling our walls and looking for the paper that we really wanted. I finally found it on… Amazon! Whaaaat? Who would have thought to look there? Not me! I had looked at every wallpaper store in Canada and finally found a black wallpaper mural with big beautiful pink peonies on silk paper and it was WAAAAAYYYY cheaper than the cherry blossoms! I showed Ninja and he was all in! Minus the whole putting it up part 😂.
He was a trooper though and got after it while we were at dress rehearsal this past weekend. He had to paint over the old paper so it wouldn’t show through, it was a lot of work but it was SO worth it! I absolutely LOVE it! It is the perfect match with our ensuite and I feel like I am in a luxury hotel room, which is exactly how I wanted it to feel!
It looks so good with my Mixtiles that I made black and white and put up a little while ago! I also convinced Ninja to get his hats and work clothes off the chair he keeps beside our bed and bought him a super cool hat rack to put up on the wall! It’s not finished yet but it is truly starting to feel like the bedroom of my dreams 💕.
Check out How Was Your Week, Honey? Episode #279: Short Dick Man HERE! This week we get together after a date night that was a long time coming. Topics: Lake Mead, Brentcliffe, another traffic incident, modern sleep-overs, wallpaper, Top Gun 2, Queen’s Jubilee & more punk.
They had a sale on chicken breasts the other day. That doesn’t happen very often so I stocked up! I guess this is my warning that I will be having lots of chicken recipes coming up! We love stirfry but I hate bottled stirfry sauces. Either they’re too spicy, too sweet, or way too salty! This recipe has a lot of spice but in a good way! The spice comes from the ginger and the garlic and has zero cayenne or chilli pepper, which is always the issue with both of my children! This sauce wasn’t saucy, it was more of a sticky sauce that coated the chicken and the vegetables! It was absolutely delicious and tasted even better as leftovers the next day! I’m sure you could use any vegetables that you have in your fridge, that’s what I did and used up the broccoli and cauliflower in my crisper. We made it with my basic rice recipe and everybody cleaned their plates!
Ginger Garlic Chicken Stir Fry
Adapted from Barefeet In The Kitchen
3 chicken breasts, cut into cubes
1 tablespoon coconut oil (or olive oil)
2 tablespoons ginger, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups broccoli & cauliflower, cut into small florets
1/4 cup white wine
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Whisk together the oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil and cornstarch. Set aside.
In a wok, warm the oil over high heat. Add the chicken and cook, flipping frequently, until it is cooked through, about 6-8 minutes. Remove the chicken to a plate and set aside.
Add the ginger, garlic, broccoli, and cauliflower to the wok. Cook, stirring constantly until the broccoli turns bright green, about 2-3 minutes.
Add wine to the wok and use a wooden spoon to scrape up all the browned bits. Pour in the soy sauce mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until it thickens, about 1 minute. Return the chicken to the pan and stir to coat. Serve over rice.
Happy Pride Month! This month and EVERY month let’s celebrate diversity and love by choosing to be an ally to the LGBTQ+ community! SBean made it into her school newsletter this month! HBear enjoyed a day at school that consisted of dungeons and dragons in the morning and a school dance in the afternoon! Super great day! That same day was SBean’s very first track and field meet! She was so excited until she actually had to compete in the races 😂😂 she had a ton of fun but realized track and field isn’t her strongest sport! 😂 She was happy to have me, Grandma and Grandpa there to cheer her on though! When I got home Oliver left me a little mess as he has been getting into a bit of mischief when I leave the house these days. He liked it so much better when I was in my flare up and never left his side 😆. His training classes have been going so good though! He graduates today! We will keep on reinforcing his good behaviour and buy him more chew toys for when I’m out 😆. Speaking of buying, Ninja picked me up the most beautiful pink roses this week and we finally drank a fantastic bottle of wine that my Sis bought us last summer! Winemaker’s CUT, absolutely delicious! I have been promoting my plank challenge through my Facebook group and eating healthy lunches as we move into the summer season. Dad had the Kids over on Friday for dinner, and they used his new hot dog toaster! They had a blast!
While they were eating hotdogs, Ninja and I went to Slackwater for a flight of craft brew, a delicious dinner and then we went to Top Gun Maverick to top off our date night! It was amazing! This weekend was non-competitive dress rehearsal which means it was a weekend for SBean and I to spend together doing her dance stuff! She sparkles up there! It was so great to see her on stage, having fun, and working hard! HBear had finale practice on Sunday but I didn’t have to do much as she has become so independent 💛. SBean was looking pretty rough by the end of the weekend and it’s 2 days later and her legs are still aching from all the dancing 😂. I can’t wait to see them both at finale next weekend showing their moves off to everyone!
