One Red Dot

Joanne and Eric, our American grandparents, gave us this wonderful book a few years back. Like it says on the cover, it's a pop-up book for children of all ages. It's almost hypnotic. The idea is to find one red dot on each page.

On the back cover it warns that it's not suitable for children under 3. It is quite tempting to rip the pop-ups.
Three burning baskets.... and one red dot!
One perplexing puzzle box... and one red dot.

This book gave me an idea for our home. Each room should have one red dot. Something that draws your attention in a positive way, not like an acne spot. It started in the living room after Christmas. The room looked colourless and dull after we took the Christmas tree out. It needed something green! We had a long discussion, DH and I, about the red pot, but I managed to convince him of the color choice. He did admit that it looks good. But the poor palm tree doesn't. This picture was taken a month ago and now the poor thing looks even worse. Somehow thinking about watering it doesn't help....

One red dot in our living room.

The next red dot was placed in the kitchen. We asked a carpenter near Auntie P to build us a shelf for our cook books and stuff. I wanted it to be bright red (surprise, surprise), but this time DH said a very firm "no". It's easier to move a flower pot (or accidentally break it) if you don't like it, but a shelf screwed to the wall is another thing. Besides it was me who put it up. So, this blue shelf is the red dot of our kitchen.

You've probably seen those black board walls in magazines with menus, names of wines, herbs written on them in beautiful handwriting. This is far from it.

The idea for my (oops, our) next red dot I got from the blogosphere and DH kindly ordered it from here. This time it's red.
I think it looks great next to the stairs. I wish I would remember to obey the command!
This chair was also bought from the carpenter near Auntie P's. We didn't exactly need another chair, but it was sooooo comfortable that I wanted it. DH said it out loud before I even had the chance to open my mouth:"If you're thinking of painting it red, forget it!" But I want it to be "a red dot", something that draws your attention. I'm picturing lime green or pale pink (totally not my colour!). What do you say?

Fridge magnets

In August 2000 DH and I were visiting friends in Scotland. DH played a lot of golf, but we did some sightseeing, too. Once after a lovely walk in a beautiful garden I wanted to stop at the tourist shop to have a look. DH wanted to move on and said something about them selling just "stupid fridge magnets". Being a woman I got really upset that I can't spend 15 minutes just looking around and he can spend 5 hours on the golf course. Hey, it was almost 7 years ago and I still remember!!! And so does my friend. I told her about this "amicable" conversation we had and ever since whenever she and her husband are travelling they do their best to find the tackiest fridge magnet possible and send it to us. Ooh, it's so funny.

This is what my friends husband gave to me. Hmm, it made me think.

This fridge magnet was made by some Scottish artesan. It's made of steel. In my opinion it looks like some kind of a "pet" you could get in the hairy parts of your body. Itchy. And this is what I want to see on my fridge door...

We also have a genuine Spanish bull, a dolphin, a daisy, a Highland cow, a Scot playing the bag pipe, a beer can, a shark, a frog ..... all from our friends in Scotland!

This one I bought myself. I could use a few of these pills.