Currently: October 27, 2005 Poor blog, poor, poor neglected bloggy-blog. A few updates. Things are starting to slow down a bit at Casa Mulherin-Bland. Some photos: This is our neighbor, Master Kim, standing in front of a statue of the Goddess of Compassion. I went out to take a picture of the progress of my garden and he saw me out there and wanted me to take a picture of him in front of the temple. "Waist up, please." He said. He is from Vietnam and has been in the US for about 5 years. He used to live up in Seattle at a Buddhist Temple up there, but now he is head honcho here at a temple in Oly. He is very nice and really interesting. I went to Sherwin Williams a few weeks ago to get some paint samples for the living and dining room. You can get a pint of a sample color, which they call "Colors To Go..." for about 5 bucks. Here is my wall test done according to an article ripped out of a Martha, sorry for the blurry photo. The lighter one on the left is called Smoky Topaz and the color on the right is Leather Bound. I think I have decided on the Smoky Topaz for the living room and the Leather Bound for the dining. That or both the living and dining will be Smoky Topaz. I am also having a curtain dilemma, but that is another post entirely. I just can't even think about it right now. What else...ah yes. This past week was the last one for our Vegetable CSA through Kirsop Farms. It was wonderful, and the vegetables have been amazing. I just couldn't get over how gorgeous they looked on my counter: It almost looks like a still life, if you block out the cord from the espresso machine. And the ugly salmon walls. And the linoleum countertop. Speaking of still life, my painting class is chugging right along. It's half over, I can't believe it. Here is progress thus far: Still lots to learn. I am not sure what I am going to do once class is over. Keep painting and keep practicing I guess. October 7, 2005 I am sorry I didn't update last Friday. My mom was in town visiting and we were busy running around spending a bunch of money. Primarily this was at IKEA. We finally, finally..have a dining room table. I love my red chairs. That fabric is eventually going to be a table runner (it's just pretending right now) and the walls will be painted a similar shape of brown you see in the background material. Sort of a peanut butter color. I bought all new red curtains, which I don't really like. Mom tried to convince me to buy some REALLY pretty dark browns ones with a lovely floral pattern, but I thought they were too spendy and I was starting to get anxious about how much crap I was buying. After we got home I really wish I would have listened to my mother! We also went to a lot of the antique/flea market stores in town and I found a fabulous coffee table that was practically free. I really love that 1950's shape. I need to refinish it as it's a little banged up, but man, you should feel how heavy it is. Mom and I were exploring my backyard and we were looking a some bush-type-tree-type things that are growing up around another, larger tree in the backyard. Mom mentioned that they were probably suckers that had sprouted up from a tree that was cut down. She said: "Look! There's the stump!" I said: "No, that's just a piece of junky wood" For you see, I had seen it before and decided not to deal with it quite yet. These bushy saplings are bout 8-9 feet tall, so it's quite a thick little jungle. The mystery stump/old box is located where the arrow points. I wasn't about to go in there and check it out, but Mom is a little more brave so she parted branches and charged in there. Look what she found: Can you tell what it is? It's a little wishing well! The saplings are growing up through the hole out the little roof! It's completely engulfed. I'm going to have to snip those saplings down and dig that little thing out. I don't know how long it's been in there...long enough for a little forest to overtake it. It was such a pleasant surprise! What else...this past week has been EXTREMELY hectic. It was nice having Mom around but I had a lot of work so I could spend as much time doing fun stuff as I wanted to. My first painting was sort of due yesterday. He wanted us mostly finished with them and I was mostly finished with mine. I still have A LOT to do, especially towards the bottom. Mr Frog sitting on a log. It's been so interesting to learn this medium. I am still a very long way from getting to the point to I know what I am doing, but each time I paint I feel like I am getting closer to understanding how oils work. Tomorrow I am taking a class at the scrapbooking store downtown. I am really excited about it. The teacher and store owner is going to teach us how to make little books. I can't wait! September-->