Hey-ya!

[lizblackdog]

Wow - three hundred dollars = £164.02, which is about £20 more than I thought it would be. That will cover my coach fare for tomorrow's planned adventure very nicely without substantially taking away from the "Paint Liz's Flat To Look Like Terok Nor" fund. I'm going to need to borrow someone with a car for that - B&Q may only be five minutes' walk away, but lugging cans of paint and rolls of vinyl - it might as well be ten miles, I couldn't do it.

Hmm. Need to measure walls and work out how much paint to buy, need to decide on the shade of grey... what about the ceiling? It's blinding white right now. Is that going to look odd with grey walls? Maybe I need to get some of those little sample cans and mess about a bit - or load photos of the flat into a graphics program, that might work.

I've painted walls before, but I've never been responsible for the whole thing, never been the one making the decisions - shit, what if I get it wrong? Eeek, wibble, help! Anyone on my list good at decorating, please feel free to tell me anything a decorating virgin ought to know...

On the way home from shopping and money-changing, picked up a clean carrier-bag I saw on the ground (I use them as both poo-bags and binliners, and hence I never, ever have enough of them) and discovered a fresh, still-wrapped pork pie in it - a small, greasy gift from the universe.

Life is, after all, pretty damn good.

Comments

[huntingdon.livejournal.com]

You ate it??

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

Not yet, it's in the fridge. I will though.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

I've eaten it now. With onion chutney. Pork pies aren't a thing I buy but food's always better when it's free!

[huntingdon.livejournal.com]

I'll have the stomach pump standing by.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

Feh - this is me you're talking to, dear. I've eaten things that would give a Klingon nightmares - do you imagine a mere pork pie could do what the three-week old sausage rolls couldn't?

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about decorating at all, but one thing that I do remember: paint will always look darker on the wall than it does in the sample. It will surprise you. So go for something a little more subtle than you think you want, even though I know subtle isn't your style. ;)

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

That's worth remembering. I do want it dark-ish, but not so dark I can't see what I'm doing...

[entorien.livejournal.com]

Here's another little snippit of advice. If you are using matt paint, then masking tape is your best friend! It stops paint getting anywhere, and keeps dust sheets still. But a word of warning, never leave it on too long, or it will pull away the paint behind it, and never use it with gloss paint, the paint will pull right off with the tape! Since micavity and I are painting our own place, we have learned a lot!

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

I may want to draft you to help - not so much with the donkeywork as to have someone about who knows what they're doing. Will that be all right?

[entorien.livejournal.com]

go right ahead, I enjoy it!

[grave-medicine.livejournal.com]

When I found some Klingon artwork, I tried to find some Cardassian stuff for you. No dice. Then, while watching Trading Up, I had an idea -- get crafty and make your own. Cardi art is, afterall, very much like stained glass and follows a somewhat predictable pattern. By law, almost, since art is under a mandate. You could infuse huge, tailored swatches of Cardassian style and colour into your place with just a wee bit of effort. You could even sign it Ziyal!

I, on the other hand, wouldn't mind a Bajoran look, if they weren't so damn fond of that peachypinkyorange colour. Blech.

[grave-medicine.livejournal.com]

PS - Walk with the Prophets.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

I thought I'd do one of the bedroom walls as this mural. And the floors are black vinyl, and my strategic combinarion of black wire mesh dog cages, black wire mesh couch and desk lamps on the floor has already produced a pretty good Terok Nor-ish lighting effect (you know, the grid patterns) which pleases me immensely.

Yes. The art is, in fact, very, very like my own style of painting anyway. I also have odd touches of jewel-bright colours in amongst the black and grey - Dayglo pink, blue and yellow salad bowls on the floor serving as dog bowls, bright coloured sheets... I'm also thinking of DS9-ish roundels as the light fittings, stuff like that. And the doors painted with that criss-cross pettern the DS9 doors have, dark grey on grey... (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/Lizblackdog/flat/quark01.jpg)

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

oops, forgot to close that link.

[grave-medicine.livejournal.com]

That would be so cool! If I ever fly out there, I'll have to come visit you just to see your place and your doggies.

Speaking of dogs, have you ever read any of the books? Particularly ones that mention Toskanar dogs?

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

I haven't come across that term for them, but I was aware of the riding hounds - and a slightly enlarged Spike makes an appearance as one in my Mary-Sue erotic fantasyfanfic. (http://www.livejournal.com/users/lizblackdog/136883.html)

I haven't read all the DS9 books but I've read all the Relaunch ones (everything that takes place after the end of the series) religiously. Those are brilliant - so much better than the older Star Trek books that gave tie-in fiction such a bad name...

[grave-medicine.livejournal.com]

I'll have to ask Red where she saw the Toskanar dogs, then, since she's an avid ST reader. And I'll send along a sketch she did of one of them -- great big beardogs with saberteeth used by the Cardassians as hunting dogs. That's what you should dress the boys up as for Halloween. Narf.

[mandrakescreams.livejournal.com]

oooh pork pie,nice find! I walked around for ages looking at the floor today hoping to find something good like that,lol!

I'm not the greatest person at decorating,all I can suggest is get lots of people in to help,then sit on your ass and advise them on what to do!
xxx

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

Well - it was fresh, still fridge-cold (I found it fifty yards away from Asda) and sealed in its wrapper still, so someone had clearly only just bought it. A lot better'n nothing.

I might go eat it now, in fact...

[helensaysping.livejournal.com]

yay for tatting with strange results (pork pie, eh??)

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

I should have photographed it for found_objects before I ate it... bugger, didn't think of that till just now!

[helensaysping.livejournal.com]

you ate all the pie(s)