where the magic happens

remember MTV cribs? (does that nonsense still happen?) every stupid celebrity would be showing off their tacky-ass mansion, and when it was time to show their bedroom, they would say, "and here's where the magic happens!" and think they were so clever. because of, you know, the sex.

so if that's magic, then i guess harry potter got a degree in the art of "random hookups with scores of strangers who only care about my fame/money/status."

yikes... so i guess day #13 of my menstrual cycle is clearly the "jaded, cynical, snarky" one. noted.

annnnnnyway, have you ever seen our bedroom?

it's so totally my favorite room in the house and has been for years.

my friend debra joy came over to my house for the first time a few months ago and reminded me that she had never seen our bedroom before because i hadnt blogged about it.

well dang. it's the shining star of both my house and my heart, so it's time we changed that.

ok, so maybe i should cut those celebs some slack. being all, "hey, here's our bed, everyone" does make it all too tempting to make sexy times jokes.

-the bed is from ikea and is the MALM in king size with the attaching nightstands.

-the red linens are also from ikea. we've had them on there for years and they had gotten a few holes (we'll chalk it up to raucous lovemaking, mmkay?). well, my heart broke to see IKEA had phased out this design, but good old ebay came through and we got a brand new replacement set.

-the shelves are IKEA too as are the little postcard art print betwixt them and the lamps.

-it was totally jesse's idea to paint the stripe along the side blue walls and i LOVE it so much.

-the painting.

oh, the painting. this story is hilarious and awful. ok, so you see how it matches the room to almost an uncanny degree? well, would you believe that the room was 10)% already like that when we discovered the painting?

we had another print in that place and were perfectly happy with our room when we went out to dinner during the summer of 2007. we were foolish DINKS (double income/no kids) at this point so when we saw the work of some local artists for sale on the restaurant walls, we thought we might get something if we fell in love with one.

well, when we saw the freaking red trees in a couldy sky painting, our jaws dropped. it was PERFECT for our room. i was sitting at our table and sent jesse over to check out the price and info tag on the canvas.

he came back and was like, "eighty dollars! we should totally get that!" i was dumbfounded since big canvases can cost that much BLANK, but whatever. we gave the manager a check and toted that bay home.

it looked so meant-to-be in its new home that we looked up the talented artist and sent him a picture of the painting in our room and raved about how talented he was and how in love we were with the painting.

well, a few days later he writes us back. he had gone to pick up the check and there had been a mistake. the painting wasnt eightY dollars, it was eight HUNDRED!!!!

i almost passed out. even in full blown DINKage we could not afford this by any means. but, oh we were crushed, having spent the past few days utterly in love with "our" painting on our wall. we wrote him back and explained that simply could not afford that and was there anything we could do to possibly work something out so we could keep it?

he wrote back and said he would knock a few hundred off the price and we could pay over 6 months. so in the end the total price would be $580. we could make this work.

even still, we are not art collectors and have much trouble spending money on things that do nothing but look pretty. especially since we love jesus and want to be good stewards of his money and love.

we decided that if we could scrimp to make the painting affordable, we could do the same for our giving. so we decided to double down: every time we made a payment to the painter, we had to give the same amount to someone in need (on top of our monthly tithing).

well, 6 month later we had given away $580 and spent $580 on the painting (making it far and away the most expensive non-appliance or furniture item in our lives). whereas it would have given us guilt every time we looked at it had we just bought it straight out, it's now a reminder of how blessed we are and how much we really can give out of our abundance (even when it might not feel abundant).

and that's the story of how we accidentally bought an $800 painting. 

it's turned out to be win-win situation (and the painting wins too since it gets box seats to all the sensuality that goes on below).

here's the view from the bed:

all the furniture is IKEA malm

the tree stand is ikea (intended for jewelry i think, but i just like it bare)

the art prints are from urban outfitters

and here's the thing that MAKES the room for me:

the gallery lights above the bed!

i am 100% dependent upon reading at night. i havent fallen asleep without a book in my hand in YEARS. i dont know if i even could. growing up i always has a bedSIDE lamp. this meant that i would have to un-drowse myself and reach over to turn off the light (god forbid i was facing the other way) OR it meant falling asleep with the light on a lot of nights.

in college, when we would travel for volleyball, we would stay in hotels and share a room with another player. this meant that if i needed to read to fall asleep after my roommate was asleep, i had to wear my headlamp.

my team mates found this hilarious for some reason and thought it worthy or photo ops:

i'm just straight chillin' on the order of the phoenix, what?

good times.

so when we were shopping for our married life, i grabbed these and clung to them like grim death, insisting that we MUST have them within reach about our heads, or else the wedding was off. it actually didnt go like that because the idea is so prime that, duy, m'soulmate instantly got it.

there you have it. do you feel special now that you have seen our bedchambers. it's very "song of solomon" up in there, let me assure you.

bonus question: which side of the bed do i sleep on? (dont let the bottle of lotion sway you either way...that is laylas and she carries it around to lots of locations in the house, moisturizing her hands like a nut. she put it on that side when i took these pictures).

i'll have you know that i am a very firm believer in assigned sides. i have only slept on jesse's side of the bed 3 nights in out life and that was due to medical reasons. when we travel, i dont necessarily stay on the same side, but i do have strong opinions as soon as i walk into the hotel room as to what side is "mine," even if it's on a different side than at home. maybe i am aligning with some constellation or something.

i have a nameless friend who says it varies almost every night which side she and her husband pick. those swingers!!! that is positively torrid!!!