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...

HDR, RAW, NEF... Hu, say what?

Oh! I discovered something amazing - it's called HDR Photography. LOVE IT! Wonderful effects in skies and landscapes, and more, much more, but the skies are what I'm drawn to at the moment. The photos are almost surreal. Not real. But more real that some photos turn out. Check out the HDR Flickr pool for some great examples.

So I went and downloaded the trial version of Photomatrix. And I needed some RAW file images. So I figured out how to do that with my camera, except since it's a Nikon, it's called NEF (RAW) Format, but the extension is .nef. So, ok. I have my new RAW photos, but I can't get it to work because obviously I don't know what I'm doing.

So now what? I guess more research... BOO.

Here's a jpeg from a raw/nef file. Kinda nice eye candy.

Book:13

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. A really great book, though it was confusing at times... but it all works itself out in the end and then you understand why it is so confusing. About love, and love lost, existence and survival, some Jewish history, immigration, secrets...discovery. Even the strange brother comes about in the end and fits in to the story.

Bravery

It was a tough week in the water for Luke - at first it was just really challenging being in the deep end of the pool for his new swim lessons - he really wasn't ready. Then the "ASSistant" swim instructor almost let him drown on Wednesday. I was just about to jump in and grab him when he finally was able to reach out and grab the side of the pool. It was scary for him and after that he didn't want to take his turns. When it was over I asked him if he wanted to go back to the first class in the shallow end and get some more practice in there for awhile and he said YES. So the next day we went back to the steps, but he was still nervous... and tired, he'd been up twice in the night with nightmares of deep water and sharks... but he got lucky and neither of the other kids showed up and he got the new instructor all to himself. They really worked on getting his confidence back and it was the best thing. He even jumped off the diving board into the deep end (with a life jacket on). Then today we had a birthday party to go to at a lake beach. With a shallow pool, a dock and then a floating dock with diving boards and water slides. I had thought he'd be sticking in the shallow end, but the other kids all had on their life jackets and could dog-paddle to the floating dock and were having a blast on the slides and jumping off... and so Luke decided he was going too - all his friends were out there. And he did it. He dog-paddled, and tried some of the swim class moves, and dog-paddled and floated on his back... and he eventually got out there and climbed up the ladder all by himself... and before long he was jumping off the diving board, sliding down with whoops and hollers... and running and jumping off the end of the dock. I WISH I had brought my camera. Priceless, the bravery he showed today compared to two days ago - like the water-boy I know he is... a fish, really. He didn't come out until he was blue and his lips wouldn't stop shivering. He told me afterward he felt safe because he was with his friends. Good kid.

Happy Flower Photos

Happy because I just have not been thrilled with the way my new camera takes flower photos - I think it's the lenses and today I decided to use the big one for these and they came out much better than usual. So, I'm happy.

Sailing

We spent the hottest day of the year in the best place possible - on the water, in the wind... sailing. I just love the San Juan Islands - they lift my spirit every time I go, and I always wonder, why does it take me so long to go back again? Too long. Will make a point of getting up there again soon.

New Jewelry

The first pair of earrings have gone to a great home, but the other ones and the necklace are up for sale today! Thanks for looking!

Starving...

Hi, my name is Kesia, and I have a serious problem. Yes, I'm on a diet. No, I'm not happy about it. My people say I'm not even close to starving, but I beg to differ. In fact, I just beg for food. All the time. I also watch for every opportunity for dropped food or a chance to move in on Zoe's bowl if she's eating too slow. If this isn't starving, I don't want to know what is. Today I finished off half a loaf of bread Mom left out by mistake. The other day I snatched a bag of lemon cookies off the counter - mmmmnnn, now they were GOOD! Way better than the dry egg noodles I once managed to eat a bag of all by myself... it took awhile, but they finally filled me up. Much better tasting than that dry starfish I found the other day - I didn't realize it was a 'decoration' and not a snack, really, I didn't! Anyway, to go with today's bread, I found an almost empty tuna fish can on the counter and snagged that before the cat could get to it - there wasn't much left in it, but I got every last drop of that deliciousness out of it. See - not a drop left!

Meet Mustang

Luke has a new pet fish. He's been asking for one for a month now and we finally decided he'd earned it with all the pestering he's been doing. Plus, he enjoys helping Frank clean out Rock's tank, and has shown enough sense and responsibility that we think he can handle one of his own. (Rock, short for UdaBuddahRock, a creation of Luke's, lives at Frank's office, and Luke considers him to be one of his brothers.) The new fish is named after Luke's recent obsession with the new Mustang cars... meet Mustang, our new Crowntail Beta:



Tyger loves the new addition, has even been seen poking his paw and nose into the water to get a closer look. I had to add a screen on the top of the fish bowl before any tragedy occurred. Mustang seems to be just as interested in Tyger as Tyger is in him... if he had a paw, I'm sure he'd be reaching out to give the cat a whack too. I'll try to get a photo of this, it's pretty cute. Also cute, is the Harry Potter-looking castle Luke picked out for Mustang's fish bowl. Mustang is one smart fishy as he figured out all the in's and out's of the castle and likes to sleep in the castle doorway at night. King of his mansion. A royal fish indeed.

In other news, my garden is coming along. More weeds pulled, more weeds growing in, more bark mulch down, not much more planting, though I did plant a strawberry patch which should be producing fruit next year.



I also read another book already, a quick read, fun and interesting, called "Riding with the Queen". A story about a woman musician who goes home to her family after 17 years on the road... interesting musician characters, artist characters, house-wife characters (well, she wasn't that interesting really) and a lot about mental disease/bipolar. Book 12, down.

Fresh New Necklaces!

Hot off the torch! Yes, I am up and running melting glass again! These five necklaces are a little on the wonky, obviously-handmade side, but too pretty to just toss in the wonky bin, so here they are anyway. Flowers and Sea Stars: $26 each.