I’ve added a new original artwork to my Etsy shop. This is from a few years ago and has actually been hanging in our hallway, mainly because I haven’t had time to sell anything for so long. But now that I’m home full time languishing in 9th month sluggishness, I’ve had time to get my shop up and running again. Yay!

11x14 watercolor and color pencil

Who’s that?

I said something was brewing! And it’s a grub! Due September 17th… oh boy.

20 week ultrasound

Crazy contour ultrasound - is he sucking his thumb?!

Life is good in fur house. I have been building a built-in unit in our den, which will pretty much take up all of one wall. It is oak and oak plywood, inset doors and drawers. Beauteous it is. But I’ve run out of funds and now have to make money to spend money. Damn the rules of life!

Other things are also brewing. Secret things. If it all works out, I shall enumerate soon.

Today I sent the Sierra Club newsletter to print and made some Walnut and Cherry star ornaments for relatives. It was actually a trial and error process in the wood room, and a lot of fighting with the scroll saw (chatter HURTS), but eventually I just ended up with simple stars.

Bid Ornaments

Star Ornaments

Nearly a year and a half since my last post, but the blog is still here. Horray for the interwebs, saving my dusty little corner for me to come back to when I have the time.

I’m sure it would be impossible for me to write about everything that’s happened, but hopefully I’ll start up again from here. I have a lot more time on my hands now – my (nearly) three year stint as a working stiff is finally over, and I can finally get back to… whatever it is I do. Everything?

I’ve taken up woodworking. There is a woodworking room downstairs – cohousing is feeding my addiction (to making a doing, not community). I’ve made a bit of furniture, some toys (spent four hours researching food safe finishes, apparently Shellac – from the Lac bug – is food safe, but there is no legal solvent that is). I’m trying to work out what to make for my parents for Christmas, without having finished their presents from last year. The giant painting is still on the easel, a light wash of sky on the top… and that’s it.

So I’ll start from today, and maybe backtrack tomorrow. Today I worked on the Sierra Club newsletter. It’s due to print today, in fact, but I was promised articles I never received. I’ve gotten pretty used to the down-to-the-wire nature of graphic design, though – I’ll get it in tomorrow.

January Newsletter - Beautiful, beautiful

In fact, I think that’s nearly all I did today – besides the dishes, pick the husband up from work, and go to Woodman’s. I need to do more tomorrow, that’s simply not enough for a go-go American housewife. I have a GQueues list up and running, though I think I’ll have to knock everything back a couple of days or else it will all be marked “overdue,” and whether or not what has to be done is of any relevance, ten “overdues” is overwhelming.

I need to go through the photos from China. I’ll put that on the list….

I am writing this from work because I’m so freak’n bored. It’s not that I don’t have anything to do, it’s just that everything I do have is so unbearably monotonous – updated text on ads and invites and then printing them, checking stock items, and even *gasp* adding an FDIC image to our logo. Sometimes I feel guilty – I mean, a lot of people would kill to have a full time job as a designer. But seriously, the time I spend actually being creative is about 5% of the week at most, not to mention the fact that I haven’t learned anything new in the past year and a half. Ugh.

But on to happier news. Let’s see…

Garry and I bought bikes last Friday. They’re two year old models, but because they’re 25” frames no one had bought them. They fit us perfectly, though, and last night we road to MadCat and even made it up the big hill by Edgewood without having to walk them.

Yesterday I went to the Fair… with work. Weird. We went over lunch (though we were there for over two hours). Some of us split off to go visit the animals, which was fun. I got to pet horses and cute mini goat babies. I know it would be a lot more work that my idyllic brain-view makes it seem, but I really wish I lived on a farm. Growing produce, having animals, and making food from what I grow seems so fulfilling. And I could have a horsy and name her moonbeam and ride her everywhere and put pretty little bows in her hair. Yup.

We got a free 20+ year old freezer from someone my mom knows. I’m interested to see our next electricity bill. But we were able to “put up” some peas from the Wednesday farmer’s market. Mmm, peas.

I’ve been typing up my diary entries from last December, and realizing that my idea of a busy weekend six months ago has become what I would consider a relaxing weekend now. I’m not sure if it has to do with living in cohousing… though I suppose that must have more than a little to do with it. And yet I still feel that we’re far less involved that most.

Yesterday was “Pie Day” at work (in fact about pie day times two, as official “pie” day is 3.14). A total of 12 pies were brought in for judging. Unfortunately, the night before I had gone with my mom to our first “Meditation for Stress Reduction” class, and hadn’t had time to bake a pie. So Garry had bought a berry crumble at Trader Joes, which consisted of no less than 6 types of berries, including cranberries. Needless to say it was a little tart, and came in tied for last place. =D

Misc Spring Photo

After work we had to go meet Reese at her unit to help her plan how to stage and sell the place. A typical Arbco conversation, we spent the first hour talking about holistic cat medicine, and only managed to spend the last 15 minutes creating a plan of action. We have to go over there again tomorrow morning to help her stage things and take pictures.

Then it was the birthday pizza party for Karen E. and Janet K. Of course I had had pizza for lunch (pizza “pie”, get it?) but one can never have too much pizza. We sat with Sheila and Oscar and discussed marriage and the insanity of the modern 300-people wedding (one of my coworkers just had a huge wedding and another is planning one, so I’m surrounded by blindingly garish engagement rings and discussions on brides made dresses from J. Crew.)

After we got back to the unit, we took Baxter for a walk, and then my parents called asking if we wanted to come get donuts and watch the sunset on Observatory Dr. Even though we were stuffed, only an idiot would refuse donuts. =)

That was yesterday. Today we woke up at 7:30 and ate our donuts for breakfast (there are benefits to being a squirreler), then off to the Saturday farmer’s market. Today’s shopping: green onion, mushrooms, strawberry jam, cheese, and new potatoes (I love eating local!). And as a donut is apparently not enough fuel for a husband, we had to stop off at the Sunprint café for Garry’s second breakfast; eggs, potatoes and toast (don’t ask me where it all goes).

Only $12 for three future skirts!

We returned home for a bit, then out again and a bus trip to the fabric store to buy some skirt-making materials (I have no skirts!). My parents picked us up from there and we went to Carendale for 24 quarts of strawberries. We had lunch at a nearby diner – the place was nice but my salad was pretty bland. Then a quick stop a Jung’s for more bean seeds (it’s been a bad year for beans, and none of ours sprouted), and over to my parents’ to “put up” strawberries for the second weekend in a row (last weekend we did 18 quarts).

Afterwards we ran a couple errands with my mom – dog food and tomato cages – and returned home for a little rest.

Our few minutes after sitting down we wer interrupted by Linda knocking on the door asking if we remembered the community meal was tonight. Yes, we said, but we had eaten lunch at 3pm and weren’t hungry. But of course we would still have to pay, so I convinced Garry we should brave the curious looks of our community members and do some quality squirreling. After gathering chicken, salad and fruit tart in self-supplied Tupperware, Garry announced that he hadn’t been hungry until he had seen the chicken, and proceeded to scarf it down (he did give me a couple bites, and it was delicious.)

So there you go – a typical weekend day in our new community life.

What’s been going on, hmm…. Well, since March, Spring has turned into Summer has turned into walking home in hellish 95 degree heat by a lake them smells like piles of dead carp covered in maggots and getting bitten by a mosquito on my finger (finger blood, yummy). Ugh, it’s hot. The garden we planted down in the community area isn’t doing very well, but then again none of the ones down there are… basically it’s construction infill covered in about ¼” of dirt, so nothing is going to grow more than a few inches. That said, we do have a few sad snow peas, though the plants are now dying.

View of the raised bed from our bedroom window.

Since the dirt down there is basically sand and bits of metal, we built a raised bed behind the house next to our unit (they said we could) to grow tomatoes and peppers. Now those are doing very well; in fact we already have a cute little poblano pepper that’s growing about half an inch a day. Apparently plants prefer dirt over construction junk. Who knew.

Fainting couch from start to finish.

Let see… going back in the photo folder, there’s the fainting couch we recovered. Here’s the before and after shots. Not that the before isn’t so bad for a grandma’s bedroom, but we wanted something in the window of our living room for the cats and dog to flop on.

The beast (with dog).

Dog, you say? Yes, indeed. His name is Baxter, he’s 55lb of Beagle and unidentified other canine (Collie, they said), and we adopted him from the Humane Society about two months ago. Two years old, loves to knock people over, and his favorite chew toy is a remote control (he’s destroyed three so far). The kitties have gotten used to him, but I’m not so sure we have. Oh, and he howls, poos in the house, and doesn’t understand personal space (as in, it’s 90 degrees and the overheated furry slug won’t budge off your lap, no matter how hard you push). But, you know… he’s cute.

Goose family in front of lake Wingra.

Let’s see, what other photos do we have… random pictures of walks we’ve taken, through the arboretum and such. It’s amazing watching the seasons change in this neighborhood; there are so many flowers and animals and baby animals… I think it’s been a bumper crop of goslings this year, unless geese normally hatch about 20 babies a piece. They sure are cute until they start hissing at you.

Photos most random.

Garry has been looking for a job since school finished, but the recession isn’t making it very easy (apparently my mom has “never seen such a small classified section”). I’m plugging away at Anchor… I’m going to try and remember to bring some of my work home tomorrow so I can post it. The past few months have been brutally slow, though it seems to be picking up a little. I’ve been doing a little volunteer design to keep my brain from shutting down; last week I created a brochure, poster, and business card for a guy next door. I will be getting paid in “Time Dollars,” which lets you log your volunteer hours on a website called the Timebank and then get stuff back for it, like hair cuts and junk.

Anyway, going to try to start posting more. It’s nice to read back on what I’ve been up too, especially since I seem to have the memory of a 90 year old.

The journal has been packed for the last few days. On Saturday we woke at 6 a.m. to try and finish packing, but when Jon and Erin arrived we still had the kitchen and bathroom to do. The kitties were locked in the bedroom, and all the boxes and furniture were piled in the family room.

It took about three hours to do the first load. We stopped and had take-out Rockies for lunch at the condo, and while we were eating a woman from upstairs came down and volunteered her niece and two nephews to help us move. They didn’t seem to pleased, especially as it was raining pretty heavily.

After the second load was done, we picked up some litter from MadCat and then came back to collapse. Pookie took a lot of time getting used to things – I sat with him in the closet for an hour while Bailey explored. After awhile he ventured out. We were able to get the bedroom together and then fell straight asleep.

On Sunday my dad picked us up at 7 a.m. to move the couch, a chair, and some other bits from their house. The uHaul was frozen shut and we had to poor hot water on the door to open it. After we had gotten everything back to the condo, we unpacked for awhile and then headed out around 11 a.m. to catch the bus to the fabric store. The walk to the bus took us through our little park and by the zoo – I love our neighborhood!

At Westgate we bought some bedroom lamp and a different shower curtain at TJMaxx, then spent $100 on fabric for curtains. My parents picked us up and we went for a nice lunch at the Tutto Pasta in Middleton, then to Whole Foods for some especial, and back to the condo to do more unpacking.

First floor window = kitty TV

We tried out the bread maker and had some… interesting first results. Apparently “vital wheat gluten” is indeed vital when using whole wheat flour, or you end up with a lumpy, rock-hard poo.

I also managed to make curtains for the bedroom and living room before we went to bed. Oh, and our shower rocks!

Today it was back to work as usual. Garry came with me and then headed to the apartment to clean, clean, clean. The #4 bus isn’t exactly high-class since it comes from the South transfer point, but the stop is less than a block away.

I went out to eat with Jon and Holly, and I paid for Jon as a thank you for helping us move in the cold and the rain (I’ve promised Erin I’ll help her paint her new house).

After work I went to Cap Foods and picked up some vital wheat gluten and some bread flour, then I met Garry coming back from the apartment and we went home together.

This evening we did yet more unpacking – I put away about half the clothes and Garry put the den/computer room together. Man, do we ever have a lot of crap! I managed to make a real loaf of bread (sooo yummy) and I used our stove for the first time to make dinner.

A Work of Art

So here we are in out beautiful new bedroom with stripy new curtains, listening to the dishwasher running (a dishwasher!), and getting ready for our third night in our new condo. Yay!

What an insanely exhausting day. We had breakfast at Sentry and shopped to scant “After Christmas” sale at Macy’s for some new towels and slippers for Garry. Then we got some curtain rods and painter’s tape at Ace, where my mom picked us up and drove us to the condo for some super-crazy painting time. Man, is painting ever a workout. We barely stopped except to eat the lunch my mom had packed for us (yumyum). And seven hours later my dad drove us to their house for take-out fish, then back to the apartment to collapse. Last night here – yikes!