Purple Palace

This week was fresh for me. It was my first week back to work since my return to the homeland :). I started waking up at all random times (the down side to jet lag). I woke up at 3:00 am on Monday and couldn't go to sleep. So, by noon I was ready to crash. Thankfully, I had some diet dew to uplift my spirits.

I made it through that first day back and slowly but surely my sleep began to regulate. I did, however, start waking up 30 minutes earlier than my normal schedule (pre-trip home). I decided while I was home that I was going to lose some weight when I returned to Germany.

Weight gain, unfortunately, is a secret that no one wants to reveal about the German lifestyle. A lot of women that move over hear gain weight mostly because of depression/stress/homesickness (my reason), lack of sleep and the food/beer. The latter was not the case for me. I have tried 1 sip of beer and have eaten very little German food since we moved here.

I decided to take matters into my own hands. Oddly, I am a lot less sad since returning. I feel like I had a revelation while I was home. So, I'm really trying to live it up and see all I can see while I'm living here. I have been doing excellent. This whole weight loss thing is such a state-of-mind type of battle. You have to be in the right mindset or your plans will crumble. I finally feel like I'm in that mind set, thank goodness...now back to the good stuff.

The best thing about this week was the progress I made on our home decor. From previous pictures, it was pretty apparent that I had taken some pretty big steps toward making this rent house our home. All of the rooms, with the exception of two, have all the wall art hanging, the decorative pillows fluffed and overall are quite cozy. The two rooms that are, or were, in question just happened to be the rooms that my husband, coincidentally I'm sure, inhabited.

The thing is that men, in general, don't care about the appearance of a room. My husband certainly would be satisfied without any decorations as long as he had a place to sit, food to eat and a computer/T.V. for entertainment. He'd pretty much be as happy as a clam. Needless to say, the rooms that he deemed "the man cave (s)" were just that. A bland, often times messy, excuse for a living space....until I took them over, that is.

Don't get me wrong, I am totally up for him having his own space. He needs it. When we moved into our house in August he decided that he would make one of the bedrooms on the second floor his office/man cave. I tried and begged and begged and tried to get him to decide on a theme or something to decorate his "man cave." This pretty much ended with him buying one poster, just one, that displayed how to order a beer in all of the different countries.

I was open to doing any decorations that he'd like; football, beer/steins, medieval (ie..suits of armor or shields), music, anything really. He didn't like anything that I was throwing out there. I'm pretty sure he just didn't want to exert the effort to actually look for things he might like to put into the room. He hates any kind of shopping including shopping for him.

Nevertheless, he decided (honestly, it was completely his decision) to move his man room up into our massive third floor. This way when we get a couch/T.V. up there he could multi-task while playing video games.

I was relieved because it was going to be a lot easier to decorate a room that was 12x12 than one that was 24x32 or something ridiculous like that (It is really big). So before I even left for home, I started looking for nicknack's and a bed. I found a bed a week or so before we went home. It is a twin bed but it will totally work as a guest bedroom, while we are here. I also had already decided on a theme and color scheme, the theme would be owls done classy and the colors would be purple/grey/white.

Owls are an obsession of mine and I have been obsessed with the color purple since I was very young. I had strayed a little bit from it because for years I had a purple room. I found the purple and grey pillows I wanted right before I left but didn't buy them. So, Tuesday I went to the Germany store to buy them. Unfortunately, when I got there they were gone. I did find some new ones that I liked so I went ahead in bought them.

In Germany, the stores have no ordering system. So, if you find something you like you have to buy it then or you may never see it again. My mom would have a huge problem with this because she likes to think about it (love you mom).

I bought all the purple and grey decor that I could fit into my car and came right home and put it all together. The room is not completely done yet but the bed is in good shape, the purple curtains are hung and the sitting bench has some definite potential. I bought stuff while I was home to make my own wall art (a new hobby of mine). It won't be here for a few more weeks because I had to ship it.

I am really excited about this room. I love decorating. It is definitely a passion of mine. Plus, my best friend Heather might be coming to spend the summer with me and this would make a perfect room for her. . . I can't wait!!