I Did It My Way
Today felt like it was over in the blink of an eye. We had no plans, which turned into spending a huge amount of money anyway. Funny how that happens.
We went to breakfast and brought along that Audubon turkey picture and the Art Deco style space travel pics I've had for years with the intention of seeing the lady we have worked with before at Michaels about framing. I brought the space pics along just for an estimate, but it was probably pretty obvious we were going to get them framed regardless. Sadly, our usual lady wasn't there but we decided to just work with the girl who was... who seemed initially annoyed with everyone asking for the other lady.
The turkey picture was only about $180 for the frame, glass and matting. Not too bad.
There were six of the space prints. I knew almost instantly which frame to choose for them. I'd wanted something in an Art Deco style, but also wanted to not break the bank (but did anyway). My first choice was this metal, slightly rounded champagne colored frame, on the thinner side. The girl at the counter was quite impressed with the choice, as it turned out to be the best color option with all the prints while maintaining a hint of that Deco style, versus the black or silver which she and the Sparrow wanted to try.
This, of course, stroked my ego since I do feel I have my own personal style that works (though I've been all too often doubted by everyone around me... childhood traumas, anyone?).
There were slight variations in the sizes of the prints, which in the end meant we were going to go with a velvet black matte and have all the frames match at the largest size. The variations were only within an eighth of an inch or so, but going with the smaller size would have meant parts of the larger prints would end up covered. I felt, as long as all the frames were the same size, if the images within were slightly different it would be irrelevant.
In the end, the total came out to over $800 for the six prints. But, I justified it by saying it was "only money" and that I'd had the pictures for ten or fifteen years and this was my way of fulfilling my "dream" of finally getting them framed. I mean, we aren't irresponsible with money. The exact opposite. But, purchases like this make us both feel guilty.
It'll be about two weeks before they're done.
When we got home, we moved a couple existing pictures we'd wanted to change around, and added two pictures we got thrifting to the left end of the gallery wall. The Sparrow was insistent initially that the gallery wall in the living room only span to the end tables, after months of hesitation on doing the wall at all. Once he saw my layout, and then having it come together, eased his mind. I think he was more impressed than he expected to be with how it looked.
Since then I've been hinting at expanding the wall across the remaining four or five feet to the left corner of the room. The idea had been making him twitch and complain for a while. He does like things to be a certain way when it comes to decorating. I, on the other hand, enjoy overdoing it and being as outrageous and cavalier as possible. I don't give a damn about following style rules, or doing things a "proper" way... except how my mind sees things in a way that translates to "proper". I find nothing more suffocating than the idea that how we decorate our house has to fall within parameters set by some designer snob or mob of normies.
I don't care about themes or matching colors in framed pictures with wall colors or pillows or any of that. It's boring. Do what you want. Buy what you want. Who cares if it is vintage or modern or expensive or cheap. I do not care. If it looks good to me, I could give a fuck what anyone else thinks of it. THAT is the number one thing I've learned in life when it comes to setting up my home (and good advice for being a self-confident person overall).
Yea, so we are out a thousand some dollars because of this latest trip to Michaels. Though I kept reminding the Sparrow we are still paying almost $2500 extra in principal above the regular mortgage payment every month. We shouldn't feel bad about treating ourselves once in a while.
Speaking of, I did some very, VERY loose math on the current state of the mortgage. It looks like between the regular payment and the extra, that we pay down the total by about $3930 a month. That's just the average. Some months it's less and some it is more. But, based on that number I think we can safely project that by December of this year, barring any emergencies or unforeseen issues, that the mortgage will be at the $100,000 mark if not below. And I do think below is more likely, since with every month's extra we are dropping the interest down ten or twenty some more dollars. This is pretty huge, but I think 2026 is still going to be the year we're done. Unless we have some miracle influx of cash.
I'm not much in the mood for work tomorrow. What with projects I'm ignoring and one particular backup project that was completed last year that is causing me grief now due to space issues. Could be worse I suppose. As it has been before.
We went to breakfast and brought along that Audubon turkey picture and the Art Deco style space travel pics I've had for years with the intention of seeing the lady we have worked with before at Michaels about framing. I brought the space pics along just for an estimate, but it was probably pretty obvious we were going to get them framed regardless. Sadly, our usual lady wasn't there but we decided to just work with the girl who was... who seemed initially annoyed with everyone asking for the other lady.
The turkey picture was only about $180 for the frame, glass and matting. Not too bad.
There were six of the space prints. I knew almost instantly which frame to choose for them. I'd wanted something in an Art Deco style, but also wanted to not break the bank (but did anyway). My first choice was this metal, slightly rounded champagne colored frame, on the thinner side. The girl at the counter was quite impressed with the choice, as it turned out to be the best color option with all the prints while maintaining a hint of that Deco style, versus the black or silver which she and the Sparrow wanted to try.
This, of course, stroked my ego since I do feel I have my own personal style that works (though I've been all too often doubted by everyone around me... childhood traumas, anyone?).
There were slight variations in the sizes of the prints, which in the end meant we were going to go with a velvet black matte and have all the frames match at the largest size. The variations were only within an eighth of an inch or so, but going with the smaller size would have meant parts of the larger prints would end up covered. I felt, as long as all the frames were the same size, if the images within were slightly different it would be irrelevant.
In the end, the total came out to over $800 for the six prints. But, I justified it by saying it was "only money" and that I'd had the pictures for ten or fifteen years and this was my way of fulfilling my "dream" of finally getting them framed. I mean, we aren't irresponsible with money. The exact opposite. But, purchases like this make us both feel guilty.
It'll be about two weeks before they're done.
When we got home, we moved a couple existing pictures we'd wanted to change around, and added two pictures we got thrifting to the left end of the gallery wall. The Sparrow was insistent initially that the gallery wall in the living room only span to the end tables, after months of hesitation on doing the wall at all. Once he saw my layout, and then having it come together, eased his mind. I think he was more impressed than he expected to be with how it looked.
Since then I've been hinting at expanding the wall across the remaining four or five feet to the left corner of the room. The idea had been making him twitch and complain for a while. He does like things to be a certain way when it comes to decorating. I, on the other hand, enjoy overdoing it and being as outrageous and cavalier as possible. I don't give a damn about following style rules, or doing things a "proper" way... except how my mind sees things in a way that translates to "proper". I find nothing more suffocating than the idea that how we decorate our house has to fall within parameters set by some designer snob or mob of normies.
I don't care about themes or matching colors in framed pictures with wall colors or pillows or any of that. It's boring. Do what you want. Buy what you want. Who cares if it is vintage or modern or expensive or cheap. I do not care. If it looks good to me, I could give a fuck what anyone else thinks of it. THAT is the number one thing I've learned in life when it comes to setting up my home (and good advice for being a self-confident person overall).
Yea, so we are out a thousand some dollars because of this latest trip to Michaels. Though I kept reminding the Sparrow we are still paying almost $2500 extra in principal above the regular mortgage payment every month. We shouldn't feel bad about treating ourselves once in a while.
Speaking of, I did some very, VERY loose math on the current state of the mortgage. It looks like between the regular payment and the extra, that we pay down the total by about $3930 a month. That's just the average. Some months it's less and some it is more. But, based on that number I think we can safely project that by December of this year, barring any emergencies or unforeseen issues, that the mortgage will be at the $100,000 mark if not below. And I do think below is more likely, since with every month's extra we are dropping the interest down ten or twenty some more dollars. This is pretty huge, but I think 2026 is still going to be the year we're done. Unless we have some miracle influx of cash.
I'm not much in the mood for work tomorrow. What with projects I'm ignoring and one particular backup project that was completed last year that is causing me grief now due to space issues. Could be worse I suppose. As it has been before.