Autumnal (Couple's) Therapy

I almost didn't upload this card. But since I have been sitting here and *&%^& around with this thing since 8 AM THIS MORNING (7 hours ago, mind you) I decided I would put it up here for the sake of having SOMETHING to show for my time. I also felt that since this card and I have had such a long and troubled relationship, we could engage in a little couple's therapy, in hopes we don't make the same mistakes next time. I cut the leaf out of hot press watercolor paper, so I could drench it time after time with gorgeous color. I'm pretty sure I got carried away with said color, but c'est la vie. I used my air spritzer to hit it with some black soot from my marker and UTEE'd it to death. The I took my Wink of Stella gold pen and traced around the edges. All of this fabulousness took all of a half hour. Seriously. 30 minutes. The next 6 and a half hours were spend figuring out what to do with it. Granted, I surfed for other projects, paid some bills, etc, but I had no idea how to showcase this fab leaf. So, I cut the card down, thinking the A2 size was a bit daunting. I went with 4.25 x 3.75. I used the SU! Blackberry Bliss behind the embossed white paper and it was GORGEOUS. But it wasn't enough...for EITHER of us. There was something missing and we both felt it. Sure...we had everything a relationship between a card a crafter SHOULD have....a beautiful focal point, the perfect sentiment (both in size and relative to the time of year) but the gap was apparent to everyone. The question was, what were we going to do about it? While the blackberry bliss was fantastic, I had no ribbon that looked quite right. The satin ribbon I had wasn't a match for the paper, so I tore it out. Spotting some gorgeous eggplant ribbon, I tied it on, then created more problems in that I couldn't find the right mat. We talked...well...I talked for hours. I tried everything I knew. But it wasn't enough...we had run out of answers. About that time, my DH (who was working from home and deeply disgusted with everything by this point) came stomping down the stairs. "Here." he said, shoving a scrap of paper at me. "Use this. It'll look good." I looked down at the pumpkin pie cardstock. "Umm...are you sure?" I said. He sighed, deeply. "Well, personally I think you need something like a yellow or gold, but I don't see anything here that I particularly like. But the orange holds its own with the leaf and the ribbon works. It's not perfect, but unless you change the ribbon, I don't know what else to tell you." With that, he left the room. After that, I almost asked for couples therapy for me and my DH as well...who WAS this man who came into my craft room and made salient points regarding focal points and color balance? Where was the guy who hated glitter and claimed he got nauseous every time I turned on the hot glue gun or teared up every time I started a sentence with "I need...? Who was this man and what did he do with my football watching, rear-end scratching, former Marine husband? And if this man WAS my husband, did I need to worry about having to become the man of the house??? Sorry...that got away from me a little. Point is, you almost had to deal with BOTH today. But took a step back and realized you would be significantly more helpful (and probably more comfortable) with working out the issues between me and the card. So, please...by all means...discuss.