a mottled window

This is our living room window covered in dew. I love the hidden form and colors. Our overgrown hedges and the neighbors house turn into abstract art.

A few random things:

We have a rug from Ikea in our living room that is shaggy and brilliant but it spreads fuzzy dust bunnies all over the wood floor even though I have vacuumed it several times. Right now one of the fuzzy bunnies is laying on Amelia as she sleeps.

I miss Shannon horribly right now. It has been so long since we have hung out and crafted or talked, times like these make me so happy to have a sister/friend like her.

Ron is taking a test right now to become a certified safety guy (the real deal in the safety world), I am nervous for him and can't wait to hear how he does.

I have so many things I want to make including: a quilt, needle holders, a bag, paper crafts, and tiny abstract paintings.

Things that make me happy

Its a dim pajama day for me and I feel oh so lucky for several reasons. First, for my stack of books and magazines in the navy blue lacquered tray on the coffee table.

Next for fresh flowers every week. So bright and romantic.

For my gorgeous boss who loves and cares for me every day.

For the two of the cutest puppies on earth.

On rare occasions I can get myself to step back and appreciate things in the midst of the mire of my self-entitled "hard time". How lucky to not have to work, to have an art room, to have freedom to do as I wish or as my illness allows, to have the most amazing man walking through the door to me every night, to have a house and family who I know would do anything for me. Today I appreciate it all and am thankful.

determined

No pictures today, I'm just not in the mood. The sun is shining brightly through the thin sheer curtains waking me up better than the dogs did this morning. Now the dogs are running about wildly, rumpling the carpet in the living room, they are very excited to be together and play and that makes me happy.

I'm frustrated at myself this week. Can't seem to get motivated to do things. I want to make my quilt, clean the house, go for walks, do yoga, meditate, write--for god's sake write, take pictures, but all these things seem far away and intangible when I feel like this. I feel so inadequate, so shrumped out. I'm terribly afraid my writer parts have died and am nostalgic.

I have the dentist this morning then nothing until Ron and I got out to see a movie tonight. Perhaps time to write or make something, emotions and motivation aside. Sometimes creativity can be a depressing beast, an all expensing urge that can't be dealt out.

maid

I finally have been getting to organizing the house. Well, I organized one area--our dresser by the front door and have bought some cute bins to organize our bedroom and that's about it. Today I planned on doing a lot of organizing but I've slept all day since I'm coming down with a cold. So the plan must wait. I love when things are nice and neat and tidy. Too bad its so hard to stay that way at times.

The laundry room is the worst, first of all it has bare plywood floors which I still need to get a rug for, and its a mess with laundry, cleaning supplies and every other odd and end. I have so much laundry to do its totally overwhelming. Then there is our bedroom which needs a little work and the kitchen needs to be reorganized, I hate how cluttered the pantry is right now, I want to get jars and such to make it easier to see what we have. Perhaps I will feel better tomorrow and get some time to work on this while the guys are putting up new drywall in our entryway. It will be a busy, messy day tomorrow so good thing I haven't cleaned too much.

But I love our living room, the daffodils and my stack of books and magazines.

Two monsters

First monster: Amelia has finally learned how to jump in the bed, she woke me up this morning with her sharp claws on my back and a waggly tail.


Second monster: I made this little stufty this morning. It took me about three and a half hours to make, sewing by hand is quite tedious, and she looks very, very, very handmade.

Her name is Echo and I think she is rather cute and fuzzy wuzzy. Now to getting out of my pajamas and starting the day.

back home with chipped nail polish

Hello. Its our third day back from Vegas and I am still hungover from the glory of room service and housekeeping and having nothing to do but craft or play poker. Now there is grocery shopping, budgeting, dentist appointments, picking up prescriptions, and cleaning oh wonderful horrible cleaning, and dogs who need to go outside in the rain every fifteen minutes. This is life though, strong-beat-throbbing life.

We had a nice Presidents Day. Went to Starbucks and read our What I Love About You books together, we were having so much fun a woman came up to us and commented on how our relationship was inspiring to her, one of the nicest compliments we've received. Then we walked around a bit, had lunch at La Salsa and broke down and bought Rock Band with our Vegas winnings. We came home and played all day, Ron singing and me playing the guitar. We are so dreamsong rock and roll now at least when we play our video game...hahaha.

So now off to a shower and then out to the rain and clouds to run errands. "Hello real life", and life says smugly, "welcome back Catherine".

bargain hunter in Vegas

Here are some of the deals I found in Vegas. The above vase is so cute and 1920's looking. I bought it for $7.95 at Anthropolgie.


I found this cute little ring holder for $1.95 there too.

Also this candle holder/vase for $8.00. I love the organic shape of it and the color.

I bought four monogrammed napkins to use as quilt squares, of course they only had strange letters but I thought the U's and Q's were the cutest. They were $3.95 each


I went to an everything is ten dollars store and got the above pink scarf, I have a yellow one already and I use it at least once a week so thought having one in another color would stretch my wardrobe. Below is the turquoise tweed purse I also found for $10.00. Its so big and cute and lightweight.

Its Valentine's day of course. And Ron is getting out of class around noon. We are going to just play poker and go to dinner at BLT Burger, mostly for the spiked milkshakes. I'm wearing red shoes though so that should make it romantic...

Wish us luck as our bankroll has gone from $1700 to $800 in one night. We were unlucky but at least we could drink bourbon and gingerale's while losing.

shopping girl and artwork

I went out to the strip to have lunch today. The Rio is off the strip so you have to take a shuttle to get there, after Ron and I met for a tasty lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, I walked him back to class and went to do some shopping.

Of course I went to Anthropologie! They had some great sales. I will post what I bought tomorrow.


Then I saw these gorgeous whimsical umbrellas.

So cute and dolly flower like!

One thing I love about the Rio is that they have some awesome artwork. I love the rose petals above, so glossy red and romantic.


This is only a section of the painting, it is about 6 feet long, something I would definitely have in my house.

Several Valentine pictures they have all year round.

Now I'm back in the room in my pajamas relaxing until Ron comes back around five. Tonight we are going to go to a noodle bar then play poker perhaps. Last night in poker I won about $800. We've been having a lot of fun at the tables, drinking and enjoying each other.

Relaxing and making gifts

I just finished making a gift for Shannon, a little hideaway tote for in her purse to keep things like lip gloss, medicine and makeup. Some of the stitches are crooked but I think it looks pretty good for being my second tote (the first one made of jewel blue felt and buttons). I will try to make another one perhaps tomorrow.

Now off to a nice short nap before Ron gets back.

Vegas day one

First things first, I took a glorious bubble bath and then painted my nails this cute watermelon pink color. Earlier this morning, I worked on filling out the book below for Ron for Valentine's day (don't worry its not a secret, he is filling out one for me too). I love the cover and the questions are quirky and unique.


Here are some of the craft things I brought in my handy carryall bag. Houndstooth fabric (nothing is to fancy for Vegas), a collection of swatches that Shannon and Kevin gave me for my birthday, and a bag full of gold and silver buttons. I also brought my art journal, markers, The Dream Songs by John Berryman and a few card making things as well as some of my quilt fabric so I can start cutting out my squares to sew together when we get home.

Now I am going to head downstairs and get some lunch at a little cafe', I have to bring a book because I hate eating alone in public. Books are perfect hiding places. More later and wish me luck as I embark on the big bad wonderful land of sin.

New fabric, Mark Rothko and the blues

On Friday Shannon and I went to JoAnn's fabric. What an evil-wonderful store! We found so many great fabrics including the three above that I bought to add to the quilt I'm working on (slowly but surely). I love how graphic and vintage they look together.


Saturday night, after we finished taking down the rest of the wallpaper in the house, Ron and I went on a date and I found a Mark Rothko art print for $14.99! This one is called Violet, Green and Red and I love how the silky blue seems to float on top of the painting. We also went to dinner at Pho Asian Bistro, which is so yummy and we saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button together which was a really good movie. Long, but worth watching, it made me feel passionate, happy, melancholy and philosophical.

I've had the blues the last few days. Everything has been hitting me emotionally, especially losing Granny. I feel so overwhelmed and exhausted and (as I like to call it) cry-ee. But I'm carrying on and trying to keep myself pulled together for the most part.

This week Ron and I are going to Vegas because he has a class to go to. I'm going to have a lot of time on my hands and here is a list of the things I would like to do:

Play poker

Go to the shops at the Bellagio

Make a little monster out of fuzzy white and houndstooth fabric

Cut out my quilt squares

Take lots of pictures and blog

Drink

Win some money

Write a page a day and journal

Re-plan my entire life (that's a big one)

Relax, take bubble baths and act like Eloise

Thank you, charge it please!

So I've started decorating the house a bit (finally) We still can't hang any pictures on the wall since we want to paint. But we did buy three wall shelves for in the living room to put cute collections on. I love the grass wallpaper behind it. The only wallpaper we are keeping in the entire house!
This weekend we should finish taking down all the wallpaper that we aren't keeping. Ron took the wallpaper down in my craft room when he got home from work the other day. Its so much fresher and less scary looking.
In other news, I am feeling pretty good other than just getting a root canal. Tonight Shanon and I are going to spend some time crafting and shopping at craft stores which should be so much fun. We are also going to Vegas next week because Ron has a class to go to. Since I will have a lot of time alone I want to do some crafting while we're there. What craft things do you think will be good for me to bring? Easy things that I can pack. Ideas welcome!

a dog's life

Having a puppy is like having a baby, except a baby doesn't pee in front of the television during the super bowl. Amelia loved the super bowl, Isabelle didn't care so much.

We took the girls for a walk yesterday morning. It was Amelia's first, and Isabelle's first time on the Iron Horse Trail (as well as ours), they did so good meeting new people, dogs, and watching bikes and roller skates zoom by. We were quite proud of them.
The girls are getting along quite nicely, although I think Isabelle may feel a little left out sometimes. At least she has us all to herself at night when we are in bed, she laid right next to me all last night.
As you can see my life has gone to the dogs, taking them outside every fifteen minutes, trying to remember to keep my shoes away from Amelia, and stopping her from chewing on the laptop is quite a bit of work. But worth it.