Garden Sheds

I covet garden sheds. It's true.

All I have to do is catch a glimpse of one and I start salivating. Almost uncontrollably. I just can't help myself.

Give me a shed, throw in a window or two and adorn it with shutters and I am in love. Love, love, love, love, love...

Sadly I do not have a garden shed. At least not yet... Oh but a girl can dream.

Sunday's

You take a few days off and then when you try to figure out what to write about, you stare at your computer for twenty minutes and shoot down every idea that comes to mind. That being said, it's time to simply jump in and wing it. I'll keep it simple.

This weekend I...

Mowed the yard barefoot. And spent most of my time worrying that one wrong move on my part would end up with me lopping a toe off.

Purchased a new bedspread because it was far too good of a deal to walk on by. The downside? It doesn't match the current paint color of my room which means I'll have no choice but to change the color out. Not really a horrible idea really since I wasn't the one who picked the current color in the first place. Life lesson, don't switch bedrooms with your teenage daughter after you've already painted it in a color of her choosing.

Wrapped chicken wire around my light post to help my morning glories climb to their full potential. I'm thinking I've come up with this brilliant plan a little late in season but it's still worth a try.

Once again resisted the temptation to bring another Italian Greyhound into our home. Honestly though two is just not enough. It is however enough for me right now...

Made coffee and listened to the birds outside my window feeling lucky indeed to have my little cottage to call home.

My Name Be Not Grace

I took a face planter earlier tonight in a parking lot and saved my face with my hands. To say my hands hurt would be putting it mildly. One hand is torn up from gravel ripping apart my skin and the other hand is mostly numb with sharp stinging sensations of pain pretty much whenever I move it. Save for my thumb that is because I can't currently feel my thumb.

There may or may not be medical attention needed at some point but for now Advil is my best friend...

Sleepy Head

When you need to go to bed and you insist on staying awake, it doesn't really work out all that well. So I'm going to take my own unsaid advice and call it a day and indeed a night as well.

Goodnight. Goodnight. Goodnight.

Sketchbook Thoughts: If You Lived Here...

At some point I'm going to have to put pencil to paper and start my sketchbook. Until then I'll just jot my thoughts down here until I've the courage to mar its clean white pages with whatever it is I come up with to write...

I'd like to take credit for coming up with my topic all on my own, but the truth is that there was a list of choices to choose from and of all of those listed, this is the one that immediately said yes to me. It's not hard to explain why given my penchant over the last few years to talk about homes and what they mean or have meant to me. It was actually a no brainer, as most of my choices usually are, although rightly so some with better consequences than others...

I thought about how different my answers might be depending on who the You was... These are a few I wrote down earlier today. (Names of the guilty parties have been omitted for good reasons.)

If You Lived Here...

I wouldn't have to drive hours and hours through endless mountain regions to see you... (Mom)

I'd take up sky diving with parachutes as an option only.

I might consider moving.

I'd have to rethink storage.

My heart would be filled with J O Y !

I wouldn't waste a moment. (Have I mentioned how much I miss my Grandmothers?)

We'd have tea and scones regardless of whether or not you like tea and scones while having the most fabulous conversations. (This ones for you Karl.)

I would probably want to throttle you 98.9% of the time.

I would kick you out after four hours.

An Eye for Caution

Sometimes I sleep with the lights on. On the nights when I need them I like to take a book to bed. And even though my eyes are already closing before I've even managed to read the first word of the first sentence on the first page, I always open the book as if I'm really going to read. The book however is an excuse to leave the light on without having to admit to needing a night light on to fall asleep.

And then there are the nights when I absolutely need the light off in order to go to bed. Nights when the light is a beacon calling out my place in the world when all I want to do is hide. It seems that regardless of the lights being on or off, I rarely feel as safe as I know I should considering my penchant for checking every window and locking every door behind me. When it comes to being cautious, my motto is you can never be careful enough and I drive both myself and my daughter nuts with my need to keep us safe.

My daughter has learned to roll her eyes each time I recite the rules to her whenever she leaves the house. Her answer, usually said with a sigh, "I know Mom... I'm not stupid." How can I explain to my daughter that I can't help but be a bit too much when it comes to making sure there's nothing I've missed to keep her safe. I'm always nervous that there might be something that I've missed, something that I've forgot to say, some instruction that I didn't give to tell her what to do if a situation should arise.

But these are things I know she needs to know. And while I do not believe in teaching fear, I do believe in preaching safe.

Blogging 101

There is absolutely no blogging while on vacation. Except for right now. Because now I'm blogging and I'm still on vacation. Although today is technically the last official day of vacation so I guess since I made it all the way through without saying a word, these few lines here aren't going to hurt a thing.

That being said, I need coffee. As in massive amounts of it. And then maybe a shower. And then after a shower maybe just maybe a trip to Barnes and Noble's because word on the street is there is a book there waiting for me to buy it.

Joy!

Sketchbook Thoughts

IF you lived here...

We wouldn't have to talk about missed opportunities.

Fork In the Road

I don't lie.

I don't lie because I can't lie. I am what they call obvious. As in obviously lying.

So I don't lie.

Not because honesty is the best policy - although it truly is 98.9% of the time. But because I learned a long time ago that me trying to lie normally wasn't (a) successful or (b) worth the time it took to serve whatever punishment was measured out to make up for the lie or (c) going to get me much further along than just telling the truth.

So I don't lie.

This doesn't mean that I don't like to occasionally stretch the truth. I've done that. What girl hasn't? But no, I never did kiss that boy like I said I did on the back of the hay wagon when I was twelve. He did however give me a piece of gum and to this day I'll always remember it as one of the best pieces of gum I've ever had. Not that this has anything at all to do with what I'm trying to say...

What I'm trying to say is that I don't come out and say things just to have something to say. I truly believe in what I say and I honestly hope my own personal actions can and do back me up. When you live as far away from perfect as I do, you don't go around throwing stones at other people's homes whether they're made of glass or not just for the sake of having something to throw.

And there have been times when my honesty - or my stubbornness - has set in motion a series of events that will sometimes by my own choosing (as well as not by my choice at all) leave me standing at the sidelines while life continues on around me. The truth however is not that I am standing still but that I am in motion towards something better suited for who I am and what I believe. Beliefs that no matter how far I run or even how far I stray never lead me blind.

Creepy and Crawly

I killed this ugly little bugger just a little while ago... I wasn't quite sure what he was and to be quite honest wasn't too thrilled about finding out but decided to google his description anyway.

It turns out he's a house centipede. And on top of that a beneficial bug. Now let's backtrack on that statement because as far as I'm concerned the only beneficial bug I'm aware of is a dead one. This little guy however is said to be a big fan of eating other household pests such as spiders and whatever other sorts of creepy crawlers you may have creeping around.

Rules however are rules. And in this house any bug who violates the you shall not enter my domain rule gets squashed or flushed down the toilet.

So long sucker...

When Going Back to Bed is Not an Option

I am trying to find the motivation to get off the couch and into the shower knowing full well that the longer I wait to move is the faster I'll have to get ready once I've started.

I'm already fifteen minutes behind schedule and beyond the yawning that I just can't keep at bay, I really could care less that I'm about to be late for work.

I need coffee.

I really wish someone would bring me some.

Things That Don't Belong On Waffles

Shrimp.

Really. It's just wrong.

Smarmaliciously Yours...

Some things are just too long. Take for instance the parent meeting I attended tonight. Pretty much everything that needed to be said could have been summed up in twenty minutes. And I really do mean twenty minutes. Not an hour. Not an hour and a half. Twenty minutes from start to finish complete with starting up my car and driving home.


Why on earth some parents have to make things both overly complicated and difficult is beyond me. Tell me what I need to fund raise, where I need to be and when and I'm pretty much a happy girl. Read me your proposal line by line by stinking line when the damn thing is three pages long and prepare yourself for more doodles than I can draw and an occasional yawn that I won't even bother to stifle.

I just don't have it in me.

And to be honest I don't think any of you do either. I think it's more of a contest to see what parent can be more involved than another. Just for the record, I happily bow out of that little rat race and award you all the honorary title of kiss ass. Granted I'll volunteer when I'm able and I'll attend as many of the shows as I can but let's get this clear right in the here and now... I have a life. And I have a job. And if there's not a paycheck coming in from your bank account to mine than chances are I'm not going to devote every ounce of my energy to help move all sorts of things along just for the glory and a little applause at the next parental meeting.

So really if I sit by myself at a table it's because I want to and not because you won't let me into your little click. Besides when all is said is done, I'm far younger than all of you and my kid is cuter...

The Sketchbook Project

KC and I signed up today for the 2011 Sketchbook Project.

And while my daughter is the visual artist of the family, I'd like to think I'll be able to dabble my way through with some well chosen words and some horribly awesome doodles.

Taking my Mom's advice, I've decided to base my project on the theme of "If you lived here..." Believe me when I tell you that I've plenty of fodder to fill my little book.

So check it out and join in.

The world is your stage.

Laundry Notes

5:42 A.M.

Presently listening to the washer spin round and round while trying to think of creative and yet plausible excuses to not go to work today. Nothing however sounds believable save for the truth and telling your boss that you simply don't feel like coming into work doesn't exactly fly too well...

And while I know I should be thankful in this present economy to have a job - and a job that pays marginally well and allows me to flirt with a vast majority of the male population on a daily basis - I can't help but wonder if there are people out there who get up most mornings to say, "I really love my job." Because I don't... Really love my job that is. I fly far closer to the loathing it but damn glad I have it category.

In other news, I have decided that four IG's in one house is about two too many... I babysat Dad's dogs Saturday while he was out and about town with his date - aka my next door neighbor - and honestly, I should have thought that one through just a tad bit more considering how well they've hit it off as I now live in fear that someday soon Dad is going to be much closer than twenty minutes away and I've no one to blame save KC and myself for putting that idea on the table in the first place...

Anyhoo needless to say four greyhounds barking and running and leaping and snuggling, though the snuggling part was cute until it caused me a few hours of lost sleep as I tossed, turned and tried to get some small space of my bed to call my own proved to remind me that small house and small dogs while normally a good mix does have its limits. I'm actually relieved to know I can check animal hoarder off of my list of things to become in my old age. Bonus!

Finder's Keeper's

Believe it or not, I found this today in a parking lot of an old stone quarry with a sign in front of it that said free. Perhaps not everyone can see the beauty of a broken sculpture but there was little doubt in my mind that this would be perfect for my garden.




Sometimes the best things in life really are free...

Baby Squirrels Evidently Look Like Baby Gargoyles

Found this little guy fast asleep in my garden earlier today... At first KC and I were a tad bit worried that his Momma had forgotten all about him but after a little while she came back to take him home... My guess is she must have been out foraging and decided to leave him in a delightful (if not exactly safe) spot.

Always With the Headaches

I am the only one on the planet that I know of who in the midst of having yet another terrible headache can say to herself, "Maybe now would be a good time to hammer a nail into this wall and hang this picture." Or as the case may be to write about thinking about thinking of doing something about a picture that has spent the past few months leaning up against the wall in my bedroom while a blasted migraine throbs at my temples when really what I should be doing is lying down with my eyes closed and a pillow squashed over my head demanding everyone - from the TV, to the dogs, to my child to be quiet!

And if I knew where my hammer was - and at the moment I am guessing that it is somewhere downstairs - I most likely would be impromptu picture hanging at 6:30 on a Saturday - I have no dates and no life - night.

Thankfully I can blame my child for having no life. She is after all the best excuse I've come up with in 15 years to stay safe at home while the rest of the world is busy doing new things and seeking some form of adventure that I'd rather not try out. One could say that I am old before my time and they are most likely right. Although from time to time - possibly blamed on a full moon or simply my true self escaping from me being me - there have been moments when not so shy but overly cautious me smells temptation on the wind and decides to follow.

Tonight however is not one of those nights.

Tonight is take Advil night, curl up on the couch, read a book lent from the library earlier today and hope that maybe for tomorrow there might be a little bit something more.

Rescue Me

In the copy room at work there is a list of names under the heading of first aid responders... I can't help but smirk every time I walk by because to be quite honest, there's not a single name on there that I'd want to be locking lips with should the situation ever call for it. In fact, the phrase just let me die is pretty much the only one that goes through my mind. So I've made my own list. A list of those I will allow to resuscitate me - CPR training or not. Unfortunately management has put the kibosh on my posting it any place where anyone can see. Evidently there are those who lack the creativity and sense of humor to find it or me amusing...