Birthday Presents

Lucky, lucky, lucky me.

I'm a lucky son-of-a-gun. I work eight hours, I sleep eight hours, that leaves eight hours for... Well, actually that leaves about 5 hours for housework, chores, and errands, and about 3 hours for anything resembling as fun. But it could be worse, right? After all, we have birthdays! And birthday treasures! And even if you don't like birthdays, you just have to love the treasures.

* The compact says, "Never underestimate the power of a woman." So true.

Some things

Did I say free time? Did I set it down somewhere and forget where I put it? Did it escape out a window? At some point I will catch up.

Until then, a few things:

• Greek Yogurt may be the best food ever invented. I am not kidding. It is better than ice cream. If I had a readily available supply of this stuff I would weight 500 pounds in roughly three days. It is second only to heirloom garden tomatoes. Which brings me to...
• Heirloom tomatoes from the garden are the best food ever. Ours are not ready yet, but someone special brought some from California, and they made my week.
• Water balloons, while extremely time consuming to fill, are BIG FUN for all involved, even if "involved" means "just watching."
• You cannot make everyone happy all of the time, but you can make a ten year old very happy with a trampoline, a basketball hoop, and water balloons.
• My daughter is spoiled, but it is not my fault.
• Sitting in the shade, at a winery on a hill, sipping some good red is definitely on my list of top 10 places to be.
• Steak Tartare is probably quite disgusting.

Home Stretch

The Oregon Jamboree is this weekend. I can see the end in sight. Free time, here I come!

Counteracting the Mush

So, I have been working pretty much around the clock, whether in my head, or on the computer, to finish two separate lines of retail t-shirts, tanks, and hoodies. My brain is feeling mushy. To counteract the mushiness, I cleaned the fridge. Does this make sense to anyone?

Raised Beds

And here they are. The cause of much excitement around here. I watch the progress of the little beans, peas, and edamame with as much anticipation as Mary, Colin, and Dickon. My husband? He just likes to stand out in the yard, admire his handiwork, and talk about how great his raised beds look. I have to say, I agree.

***Progress***

Wine and Lakes

This was meant to be a post about my new raised beds, but when I plugged in my camera, all I found were the finished pictures, and not the in-progress pictures. This is not what I had in mind.

I did come across these lovely photos of a perfectly lovely day my husband and I had just last weekend... or was it the weekend before? Anyway, a bit ago we went to the Chateau Lorane Winery for their art and wine festival. It was a warm day with just a bit of drizzle in the air. There were 25 different wines to try. We gave it our damndest, by skipping over the white entirely, savoring the reds, and finishing off with their extensive selection of meads and dessert wines. Then we were forced to sit by Lake Louise until our heads had cleared. This is Lake Louise. It was very strenuous.

An Exercise in Creativity

Sometimes you just gotta get out the glitter and let the creative juices flow. Plus, we needed some coasters.

Studio Time

Photo via the Daily Heller

So, undoubtedly I am late to the party, but have you seen Daniel Merriam's work? It is amazing, breathtaking, inspiring... and makes me want desperately to pick up a paintbrush. I don't think my family will mind if I take over the kitchen for my studio, do you?

The Only Terry Gilliam Movie I Have Ever Loved

I want to love Terry Gilliam's films. They have everything: Quirky characters, witty bon mots, unique story lines, and interesting sets. Still, every time I sit down to watch, I find that I just... don't. Until now.

The truth is, of course, I am going to be biased towards anything with the word "imaginarium" in the title. Disregarding that for the moment, I have to tell you: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnanssus is just gorgeous. It is everything that I have ever wanted in a Gilliam film, and have never been given. I may never forgive myself for missing it in Theaters. The set and costumes are so fantastic and multilayered that it is a small miracle that they don't overpower the characters. Plus, Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell, all playing the same character. Can we just stop and think about that for a moment.

Ok, now that we are done with that. It is safe to say that even the 4 in 1 mysterious stranger did not diminish the other characters who were so mesmerizing as to appear larger than life even on my small screen.

This one is making the list.

Work Week

I took some pictures at work to show you. Last week we were scrambling to finish a mini-line of firefighter tees for the Fire show in Portland. Here are a few of the works in progress.

A layer of white ink.

Add some color.

Voila! Fiery wings!

Walking

A little bit of neglect can sometimes thrill me.

Corners of my Own

I won't play catch up. Not today, though I have pictures from as far back as Easter that I took to show you, but then did not. Mildly ironic seeing how my first post ever was candy colored Easter eggs, 151 posts ago. Instead I will simply show you a few corners of my own. Little almost vignettes that have been making me smile lately. A few special 25 cent purchases from our morning yard sale foray. Yes, that is an aluminum needle gauge. Yes, I did plop down a quarter for that pamphlet of lacy crochet edgings because the cover is so perfectly lovely. Yes, I am very pleased with the color combination of my morning 75 cents well spent.

This last one is for Lynda, kindred spirit across miles of land and ocean. There are more in my collection, but I am only showing the most organized bit.