Talk me out of this rug

I am getting a new rug for the great room. I fell in love with this one. I just love it and all the colors work with the colors I have in my room. But I am worried that the black might make the room darker. I need help. I am ordering the runner before I consider ordering the size I want. But I want this rug badly. The picture is an oval but I am getting the rectangle one 7' by 10'/9"

I love all things bird

I am collecting birds,and have started a white bird collection on my table under the window next to my fireplace. Next to them I havce a green bird and vase and under them I have my green runner which matches my green slip cover on my couch. Every other week I change the slip cover to red and the runner to red and change the vase to red and the bird to red. I am so anal it isn't funny. But I love doing it.
I am now on the look out for pillows that have green and white birds on it and pillows with red and white birds to go with this display. How anal is that?

Here is my white and green display. Next week will be my red and white display.

My home

Do you have a spot in your home that your friends or company gravitate towards. This is the spot in my great room.





I suspect it is because of the view from the window that they see before they sit, especially if the blinds are up.

We started off with a sunny day in California but ended up with a hail storm

All these pictures were taken through the window and as you can see the yard is still a work in progress but I wanted you to get an idea of how much hail was still on the ground after 10 minutes of me cleaning up after falling down, slipping on the hail before I hit the gate. That is what I get for wearing my cute new 3" wedge floral slide shoes on a seemingly spring day out to breakfast and to grocery shop.The song "I am so vain" comes to mind. Or is that the name of a song? Oh well, senior moment there.