The latest from the back room.

Doesn't that sound a bit daunting? 'The latest... from the... back room." Dun dun duuuuuhn! And truthfully, pulling together this tiny space has been sort of a horrific experience. I don't need to list the various issues that have come up again, right? You've heard 'em all. But then, after last week's unexpected discovery of inspiration (cheers to the sublimity of Designers Guild!) and my subsequent resurgence of motivation I have been making strides toward the room that I see in my mind's eye... ahhhh and sigh. My bed (for those of you who were wondering) is scheduled for delivery tonight! And gurl, I am giddy with excitement! I cant wait to set'er up and then sprawl out! She has been nipped, tucked, put through a complete overhaul; and after weeks under the saw, she is ready to make her summertime 2010 debut. FIERCE mama! And, the light fixture is finally set to ship at some point in the next week(!!!!) AND, I have help to rehang the crooked TV this weekend... sigh (again)... I loves :) Now on to the next step- FRAMING. Which could be a VERY exciting process. BUT realistically, it's going to be a rough one. Why? Well friends this, actually, is our lesson for today: DON'T LET UNEXPECTEDLY BIG NUMBERS DETERMINE YOUR DESIGN. For our example we are going to use the process of having something framed. I recently took a series of 8x10 photographs in to be framed. Truth be told, I hadn't done this particular thing in YEARS! In fact that last time I was having something professionally framed it was a poster of Paula Abdul (and American Idol was not yet even an itch in an English man's pants- as my god-mother used to say- don't ask me! I don't know what it means either, I just thought it fit well there! Point is that the last time I had something professionally framed was a LONG time ago!)! So, I took them to a local, reputable framer for an estimate. Let me just save my fingers some typing and your eyes several lines of reading and tell you that I ended up going to SEVERAL, other framers before I realized, to have this sort of thing done, I was going to have to pay. Now, hear me: I'm not saying that it's right (or wrong) or that you should just accept the first bid you receive or any of that- what I'm saying is, to have the pieces framed as I wanted them to be (i.e.: a quality job per the vision in my mind's eye) it was not going to be cheap. In fact, I ended up settling on a place here in The WC that charged me nearly $100.00 a piece. ...! Keeping in mind that these weren't custom sized pics (standard 8x10's), mattes, or frames, does that sound expensive to anyone else? Maybe I'm a bigger cheap-skate than Id like to think I am, but in spite of the fact that that was the lowest price I was able to find, it STILL sounded high to me! But now, what were my options? To settle for something that wasn't quite right for the sake of cost? Blugh! Or, to attempt to do it myself? Ha! Or, to refuse to have them framed until the magical (and rainbow haired) framing fairy fell into my lap? Well, surprising as it might be, none of those options seemed acceptable to me. So, I did the only thing that I could- I embraced the reality that some things just cost more than I was aware of and therefore (after a respectable amount of shopping around of course), I selected the best man for the job and laid down my credit card. Now lets tie this all back to me and my room(because that's what it's all about anyway, right? RIGHT!). One of the final remaining pieces of my bedroom project is a series of framed works that will hang together on a wall across from my bed. So, my options (again) are to: embrace the fact that I will not get this particular piece of the room done unless I am prepared to spend more than $10.00 a pop, OR, to attempt to frame them all myself (did I already say, ha!, ?), OR, to wait for that damn framing fairy! Well, I've been waiting for everything else (including the fairy!), and gurl I'm TIRED! So I think Ill do a bit of shopping 'round and then bite the bullet, quit the bitchin and moanin, and gid'er done. YOU, may need to do a bit of shopping, you may need to alter the details to stay in a certain fiscal-ballpark, you might even have to postpone things a bit to afford it, but when it comes down to it, DON'T LET UNEXPECTEDLY BIG NUMBERS DETERMINE YOUR DESIGN. Besides, if you do (and your anything like me) it'll just be a matter of time before you redo what you've done and then you will've paid for the dang project twice!

You know you love me,
-J