I've been Painting

The house, not canvases. It was a huge mess... here's an idea of what was going on:

First the yellow that was so very wrong:



Then the crazy spots everywhere:



So then I settled on the blue.





And here it is - done. Or... almost done - still have those triangles up by the roof to paint... and I might colorwash/glaze over it.

Front Door

I painted it black and I'm so happy about it!

Went to the Zoo

But all the animals were in hiding it seemed. The best shot is of Luke, of course. And some butterflies.



Also got him swimming afterwards. I think he looks an awful lot like me in this picture - there's my mouth which we knew he has, but also my chin and nose. Who knew my kid looked like me after all.

The New Dishwasher

It's been a couple of months now of hand-washing dishes - did you realize this takes about an hour out of the day, sometimes more? Crazy waste of time. I finally snapped and took myself down to the appliance store and picked out a new one. I told Frank I wasn't going to be picky about this like I would be a new stove or something - I wasn't going to spend a thousand dollars on a dishwasher after all, as long as it got the job done and was pretty quiet about it. Well it turns out I did spend a thousand dollars - though we get some of it back in rebates and energy efficiency incentives and stuff. I couldn't help it - it was the model that will last 20 years, it was stainless inside and out. It has only three settings and a fan instead of heat coils or whatever they are. And it is made in Sweden! So. I guess it did matter and I guess I did get picky. Though, as the salesman said, after the rebates, it's really only $100 more than the cheap models. So I'll just consider it a bargain and money well spent. And look how pretty she is! (btw, this is the brochure photo, not my kitchen. Though, I think I'm going to go purchase a faucet like that one. I'd love the farm sink too, but have you seen how much *they* cost? Crazy.)



PS. The next thing I'm going to spend some money on? This, I think. Do you think it would look good with a black headboard and blue walls? I've got the new black fireplace insert in there and I'm trying to find a way to make it fit in with the room - I'm thinking a black bed would do it. Or I wonder, if I could paint the insert silver maybe? Hmn....

Progress

The "hole" has walls framed in. Go Frank! Also, I ordered a dishwasher today and it can't get here soon enough. New copper pipe for the house is arriving this week along with a whole-house water filter... installation begins next weekend. Things are looking up again - moving in the right direction.

bee

Hair

Statue of Liberty Look:



The Jimmy Neutron Look:

Edmonds Waterfront, Today

Cosmos

Also, a good article on HDR at NY Times.

Modish

I'm excited to say I just purchased advertising slots for October through December on Modish! Now... I need to put some thought into a holiday line of jewelry, eh? And an advertising banner... and new business cards...

Six New Necklaces

Six new necklaces for sale now on the site. This one is my favorite - I keep going back and forth about keeping it... if it's not there, you know what happened ;-)

Old News

Did I ever mention that Luke has new wheels and there are only two of them? It's true, my baby is growing up so fast this summer. It's all good though, all good. Except for the skinned knees and elbows and the one time he went over the handlebars and had that bruise on his ribs... all good. You can't see it from this photo, but the bike has flames on it... a little influence from his pyro mother there, I admit.



I also managed to (sort of) get that photo thing to work - here's my first try. I like the way the logs came out.



And there is some pretty glass that has been sitting around my house for a week while I've been busy doing a web site job... they will all be online to oogle and purchase soon (if you like!). Stay tuned...