The Green Room

On October 29th I decided that this was the year I was going to do NaNoWriMo. November is National Novel Writing Month and the NaNoWriMo organization offers a contest to see which writers can write a novel in a month. I've decided to unofficial try it. So my evenings and weekends and any other spare moment, will be spent working on my novel. They suggest about 50,000 words. I'm currently at 6,000. 

But my timing this year is perfect. My back bedroom is clean and ready for use. And to top that off, I decided to paint the place at the beginning of October. I had been talking about painting for months, as one of my friends can attest to. I debated between green and purple. I also debated when to do it. In order to paint, I have a couple of tons of books to move. So I kept putting it off. I had originally planned it to be a spring project, then a summer project, and finally a fall project. 

One Friday evening I came home and told Jeff that we were having dinner near the hardware store. We walked in after dinner and I picked up a lovely shade of green. It's called Lettuce Alone from Olympic paints. The woman at the counter told me it was an "interesting" color. I think she meant that in a good way. I came home that night and started moving stuff. I moved books and bookcases. I moved the bed. The next morning I got up and started taping and then I started painting. I spent the whole day painting and moving things. But by the end of the day, I had a green room. Along with a green paint brush, green ladder, green drop cloth, green edger, and partly green pants. I never said I was a tidy painter. 

A computer, green walls, and a thermos of coffee. All set to write. 

The end result is that I love the color. I love the room. It seems so much brighter and so much warmer. Most of the art I have on the wall doesn't really match but I've decided that I don't care. I love these walls. And I love my new place to write. I sit up here happily, basking in the cheerfulness. At least I have a good place to make my first novel attempt in over 15 years. Now if the book will only come out as good as the color.

 

The Straw That Broke the Camel's Back

I've finally managed to do it. I broke a bookcase. I knew it was just a matter of time. I'm nice to my books, hard on my cases.

I have five bookcases in my library: one for books I still have to read, one and a half for fiction, one and a half for nonfiction, and one for children's books. My children's book bookcase decided that it had had enough this past week. The second shelf, which holds picture books, broke and dropped its contents to the floor. Jeff was watching TV on Friday when he heard a loud crash and the cat come running down the stairs. He went upstairs to find my books all over the floor.

Here you can see where the shelf had been

He piled my books up on the bed we have in the library and called me. So now I have to go out and find a new bookcase. My idea is that this next one will be a quality case. Something that will move with me from house to house. Something I can show off. Not the cheap plyboard ones I bought from Target years ago. They've held up, but my bookcases have to be strong. I finally pushed one to the breaking point. Who knows how long the others will last. Particularly with this load.

I Want To Be A Pirate!!!!

I'm sure I've mentioned that when I was six, my life's dream was to be a pirate. Not a terrible rum-swilling, murdering, plundering pirate. Just the type that lived on a ship and sailed the seven seas looking for adventure and excitement. Now of course that I'm older I still want to live on a ship and sail the seven seas looking for adventure. I'm not as sure about the pirate part...or at least I wasn't until I saw this on Beautiful Life.

This is a bedroom. A children's bedroom. A very, very lucky children's bedroom. The room was designed by Minneapolis based design firm Kuhl Design Build for a client. There are two beds in the room, the first which you see in the picture is below, among the stone walls and fish. The second, and here's where it gets good, is above in the pirate ship. You can either walk along the bridge to reach the pirate bed or you can climb the rope in the closet to your perch.

I want this bedroom. I want to go to sleep perched up high near the ceiling. I want to wake up on the deck of a pirate ship and slide down a rope to breakfast. I love the fish and whales painted around the room. I just love the sheer beauty and whimsy of this place. I would gladly become a pirate if I got to sleep in this room. Or maybe I should just hire a design firm.

Order Out of Chaos

I'm am disorganized to the extreme. Some would say that I've turned disorganization into an art. I have piles of things stacked all over the house. I have books sitting on my stairs waiting to go upstairs to be shelved in my library. My desk is piled with articles I've meant to read, story ideas that haven't been fleshed out yet, and plenty of knickknacks. My laundry is either in the hamper waiting to be washed or in the hamper waiting to be hung up. I'm not what you would call an amazing housekeeper.

Most of the time I don't have any problem with my regular bits of chaos. Every couple of years though I decide that I need to clean house. And this is one of those times. Both Jeff and I are pack rats. We collect things. We buy things for hobbies that never get used. I wish I could count the number of origami books that I've bought over the years and never used. And it's the same with every other hobby I've tried.

So this week I'm going to start going through my books and my clothes and my knickknacks and hopefully getting rid of some things. I'm trying the three box trick (one box to keep, one to throw, and one to give away). Everything in the "To Keep" box has to find a place in the house. I guarantee that I will evaluate things quite a bit more if I know that I have to find a spot for them. There aren't a lot of spots left. Wish me luck. This should be a monstrous task.

Knitting Night Image

Here's something silly to celebrate Wednesday night on a short week. I had Monday off and have Friday off for the holiday. I love these long weekends. But tonight I don't have a ton of time. So you get a picture. I have absolutely no idea what he's doing. I've never seen a squirrel lay like this.

Lion Around

I've always wanted a lion. Like Patience and Fortitude (the New York Public Library Lions) I love the idea of having a lion guard the front door of my house. So for the last couple of years I've been looking at lawn ornaments to find just the right lion.

A couple months ago I went out to Created in Johnston, a local place where each statue is hand cast and custom painted. And I bought my own lion. He's beautiful. He was cast just for me and painted with my specified color. He's Victorian Rust, a purple-ish tinge that makes me incredibly happy although it doesn't quite match the red brick. They did a beautiful job. He's heavy and durable and will last a long time. I feel like he's now an enduring part of the house.

The cat is terrified of him. Every time she goes out she has to spend a huge amount of time smelling him to make sure he's not real. But I adore him. I love the idea of him guarding the house. And doesn't he look regal among the leaves? Next year I'm excited to see what plantings will look best surrounding him. I'm hoping for a jungle look. Perhaps he'll get me into gardening.

Right now I'm ready to name him. And I want your help. Any ideas? I kept thinking of something regal but I'm open to any suggestion.

My Side of the Sofa

I'm writing to you from the couch my parents bought Jeff and I when we moved into our house. It is a beautiful cream-colored micro-fiber couch that has to be one of the softest things I've ever sat on. I've slept on this couch, I've watched TV on this couch, I've eaten on this couch, and for the last nine weeks I've pretty much lived on this couch (you can see me on the couch in my profile picture).

From that night in early January when I came home from the emergency room, I have been mostly living in one spot on the couch. I sit on the right side of the couch so I can prop my injured left ankle up on the ottoman and still get up comfortably when I need to. The first week and a half I slept in this spot. During that first week I only left the couch to go to the bathroom. Jeff brought me clothes and food and entertainment. Nowadays I'm much more mobile and spend plenty of time in the rest of the house. But when I come home from work after a long day (I'm back to nine hour days full time) the first place I'm going to head is my side of the sofa.

This has worked okay except for the poor other side of the sofa. Jeff sits on the loveseat and works from there. It's nice that he's so close and it was just easier for talking or watching TV (which I've done way too much of lately). So the other half of the couch has been taken over with my things. From where I am sitting right now I can see: two blankets, a knitting project I'm working on, my coat, my bookbag, treats for the cat, toys for the cat, my towel that I use for my ankle exercises, the camera, some nail polish, multiple pens, a water bottle, and well over a dozen books. It's hard for me to carry things back into their place and I hate to ask Jeff since he already does so much running around at my request. Plus you never know when I'll need things again. So they pile up until I can't stand it anymore. Then I clean the whole couch up and start the process over.

My only hope is that all the stuff on the other side will balance out the fact that my fat butt has been sitting on one cushion for nine weeks now. It's starting to get flatter than the others. I should move. I should change things up after nine weeks. But I'm comfortable here. And the cushions are starting to mold to my shape. I'm claiming this side as mine always. Jeff can keep the loveseat. :-)

I Have Clearance

It's not everyday that I say words like this but...Yay, I get to go back to work!!! After a long week of being cramped up at home, I'm finally heading back to work tomorrow. I saw the doctor this morning and he cleared me. Actually what he wrote was "return to work as tolerated". Which may well be the greatest words ever written. What this means is that, not only do I get to go out into the world again, but I get to set the schedule for it as well.

I can tell you right now that there is no way that I would be able to work 9 hour days in the condition that I am in. I simply could not sit with my leg down for that long a period of time. Plus I've gotten used to mid-afternoon naps (if that sounds like bragging, it is :-) ) and the occasional pain pill. I've also gotten used to having my own schedule. This work release, along with the wonderfulness of my boss, is allowing me to go back to work for 5 hour days to see how it goes. The rest of my hours will be made up with sick leave. I'm incredibly excited about this.

You would think that getting to stay home for almost a week and a half without any pressures would be wonderful. You would think that getting to read, sleep, eat, and watch TV whenever you want would be nice. But it gets old. Quick. And more than anything it is a tad isolating. I've had a number of people stop by to check on me. I've run my phone battery out a couple of times with long conversations with friends. I've had my brief forays to the doctor's office. But other than that, my only contacts have been Jeff and friends through Facebook. I love Jeff and this week he has proved to me that I truly married the right man. But there is only so much together time we can take. As for Facebook, I've had a ton of wonderful well-wishes from friends. I was touched by how many people were worried about me. But typing on a website is just the not the same as face to face conversation. And even that, after a while has left me feeling restless. An entire week straight with little interruption and no where to go has made me a bit antsy.

So as odd as it sounds, I'm ready to go back to work tomorrow. I'm excited about having some work challenges rather than just getting around challenges. The crutches are providing their own issues but I'm ready to be with people again. I'm ready to be social. But more than anything else, I'm ready for a little normalcy.

Happy Fourth of July

Happy 4th all. 

I'm a day or so late mostly because I didn't feel like blogging yesterday. And since this holiday is all about freedom I figured I had the right to do so. :-)  

This was a bit of a strange holiday for me. I've spent almost the entire weekend indoors at home.I had an invitation to go out to the music festival in town (80/35) but really just wanted to be selfish with my time. I didn't even go out to watch fireworks which is bizarre for me since I love fireworks. What I did do was write and read and play and enjoy. The weekend felt like the right length for me without all the running around. I got a lot done and felt good about it. I baked bread and learned how to cook quinoa. I caught up entirely on laundry and read and reviewed multiple children's books. I played with the cat and spent good quality time with Jeff. It was a good weekend even without fireworks. 

Feeder

Jeff had mentioned to me that the hummingbirds were back at my feeder finally. But I hadn't really seen one yet. So today I got a chance to sit outside, let the cat explore the front yard, and read. And in the process saw about eight hummingbirds. It is amazing how often they come with me sitting not five feet away. I can hear their little chirps and even hear the buzz of their wings. Anyway, a hummingbird picture. Sadly this is not one from today but one I took at my parent's house one afternoon. I love the tiny gauzy wings and the total lack of feet when flying.

And a gratuitous cat picture. (I thought about using a different word but figured it would pull a very different type of traffic to the site.)