And we're back in action!

"Let us first be as simple and well as Nature ourselves, dispel the clouds which hang over our brows, and take up a little life into our pores..." - Walden, Henry David Thoreau

(Above) Anna Karenina, Bar Harbor Blueberry ale and a view of Knickerbocker Lake -- where we spent a lot of time in kayaks... (below)

After a simply beautiful and relaxing week in Maine, S and I are home and trying to get reacquainted with real life. (Throughout the week I plan to post some more pictures from our trip, so stay tuned!)

Now that we're back from vacation and have access to our loan funds, the pressure is on to make some decisions about various details around the house. So, after catching up on some work emails this evening, I decided to take a break and do a little online shopping.

The living room is our next big focus (finally!), and the one purchase we've been putting off was the track lighting fixture that we plan to install to add some accent lighting over the tv/bookcase. We've been looking for affordable alternatives to the Photographer's Spotlight fixture from Pottery Barn, because most PB stuff doesn't usually jive with our budget.

Unfortunately, nothing I've seen throughout my search really compares to the overall look and quality of the PB version... hence the delay in buying anything. So how excited was I to find out tonight that it's on sale?

And yes, I bought it just a few minutes ago, with S's wholehearted approval. We have some really neat (in our opinion) ideas for the living room, and this fixture fits in really well with the theme so far. I can't wait till it gets here! Before we can install it, though, first we'll need some drywall...

OK it's time for more unpacking/settling in/crying that vacation is over. I'll admit it's pretty nice to be back, but getting up for work tomorrow will be a little tough after a week of sleeping in, kayaking, antiquing and eating lobster.