The Bougainvillea mentioned here is still inside, but I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to move it outside, or try growing it indoors. I like the idea of growing it indoors, but have never tried it before, so there’s some uncertainty. I’ve heard it’s messy when the paper-like blooms begin to shed, but I just want to follow that path of possibility.

I’ve been thinking a lot this year about what makes a house a home. There’s a difference between living in it and simply dwelling. When my daughter was here, she liked the pale grey paint color on every wall and it didn’t bother me, but it’s not my style. I’m more of the earthy tones that radiate warmth. Where she enjoys the bright light of the cool, while lightbulb, I always go with the warm white.

My friend Kendall, who owns a local shop is also a designer. I visited her last week to look at paint samples and we chose some pretty neutral tones. She helped me narrow it down to three and wrote the names on a piece of paper for me to take to the paint store for a better look. She suggested I buy sample jars of each color to brush them all on a wall that gets good light and live with them until one resonates.

There’s a lot of walls in this house, but I’m thinking about doing it during the warmer months, which is basically the rest of the year after our two weeks of Spring subsides. I’m not doing any gardening this year, but will continue on with my indoor plants, so I might as well use the money I’d normally spend on flowers to buy paint.

I’ll let you know more as we get closer to summer, but just like pondering my options with the Bougainvillea, I might have second thoughts about painting and there’s nothing wrong that. It’s rare that I place action behind an initial thought anymore. I give it time to simmer, but if it stays on my mind and becomes rooted in my heart, I’ll be dusting off paint supplies without a second thought.