Hitting the Wall

The title has everything to do with walls, but no, I didn't actually hit my beautiful, newly painted wall. I love my newly painted room(s) so much I hesitated hanging anything so I got the bright idea I'd create matching art. First, the lamp:

Then I wanted more of this design and I became obsessed. The wall space behind the lamp needed something hanging since there is a nail there already.

So I'm loving my Happiness Room living room and loving the crazy patterns I'm creating, but I look at my office with the old olive green drab colors and think, Oh! It's a small room! It wouldn't take long to paint! I WANT MORE HAPPINESS IN MY LIFE! I bought another can of Horizon non-toxic interior Latex. Never mind how poor I am. The woman at the paint store asked what I wanted to call it. I said "Pandemic Purple". She tilted her head and looked disapproving. "Virus Violet?" She said, "How about lilac? I really like lilacs." We started talking about our love of lilacs and I failed to notice she overrode all my naming suggestions and went with "lilac". OK. Like a crazed painting maniac, kept painting.

(Ignore the olive green checker floor. I hope to have it stripped and refinished next summer and look just like the living room floor. And the blue in the kitchen...that's be gone sooner than later.)

And, of course, I need to paint my bulletin boards to match. Oh! And my art table! I've always wanted to paint the top of the art table! I keep painting...

The problem with painting all these accessories is I'm using a lot of the Latex interior paint samples which are NOT non-toxic. I know I have an expiration on how much I can handle, usually about two weeks, but it's been over three months since this all started and I'm feeling fine and overconfident. I've been wearing my mask, using gloves and being safe. Then I forgot to wear my mask. And then I wore a mask not good for chemicals. Then I hit the wall. My body became overloaded and unable to function. 

It started with back pain (liver) and like a brain-dead fool I kept asking myself, Is it something I'm eating? Then finally after days of working on the art table, I'm hit with insomnia, nerve oddities, and I'm feeling exhausted but up until four in the morning and again, I ask, Is it something I'm eating? You'd think I'd learn by now.  I kept painting because it's almost done and I just want it done. This is my office so I need to finish and then offgas the room so I can use it again, but the side effects become unbearable and it's clearly the paint. I start experiencing incredible nausea, head spinning, lung pain, and my teeth start hurting. I also urinate all night long every hour, but I do that when I eat something toxic, too. The side effects get worse and wearing a mask longer makes a difference. This is a poisoning. I stopped.

I moved the unfinished art table and bulletin boards to the sealed Happiness Room to air out (I really need my office which is also my entertainment center), and air all the rooms with fans alternating with heat. Immediately I was able to go back into the office without being hit with nausea.

I hit the proverbial wall. I'll wait a few weeks to unload the toxic body overload. I'll take a lot of hot baths, drink a lot of water, drink lemon juice, drink and eat beets and apples, go for fresh air walks, and stay away from paint! Maybe. Eventually I'll have to finish the table and bulletin boards and a lamp for my office and switch plates, oh! the living room needs another painting...and...and...and! And I have one more room to go...the kitchen!! Painting is my addiction.

ARGH!

Three days without painting I was fine and vowed to be very diligent about wearing a mask and keeping safe: