Let it rain

Am I abusing my flickr privileges?  Truthfully this is totally on topic because it’s raining here and I can’t take my own pictures because the lighting sucks.  So I have to expose you to other, more talented, well lit photographers.  This collage makes me want to start collecting Japanese parasols.  Not sure exactly what I would do with them but they are so delicate and pretty.  I love love love the picture in the bottom, left corner. 

Back when Rick and I were first married we lived in a two story townhouse.  Our decorating budget was very lean but we managed to exhibit our fledgling design sensibilities even so.  In the tiny, down stairs bathroom there was an ugly, standard issue light fixture above the sink.  I positioned an open parasol over it.   The sink was in the corner and I just put a cup hook in the very corner where the walls and ceiling met and wired the handle to it.  So the parasol covered the entire corner, light fixture included.

It was so pretty to turn the light on in there and have it filter through the pink of the parasol.  Nobody went in there without commenting on it.   What’s really funny is that I got the idea from my best friend’s older sister when I was a teenager.  We were visiting her and she had done the same thing in a bathroom.  I filed the idea away and then used it a few years later when I had my own place.  She came to visit and was exclaiming what a great idea it was and how pretty it looked.  I just laughed at her and said I stole the idea from her and she had absolutely no recollection of ever doing it.

I could pretty much tell you exactly how each room I’ve ever decorated looked like.  Even when I was a teenager and had Rocky Horror Picture Show posters up on my walls (I used to dress up as Magenta and even won first prize at a contest.  But that’s another post for another (much later) time).  My point is I can’t imagine forgetting a decorating element I did, especially such a unique one.