29 posts tagged “olive”
In spirit, anyway.
Let's hope he doesn't claim to be a donut while he's there.
I actually drove to work on Thursday. I had a meeting downtown and didn't really know how to navigate my travel needs by bus. It was also raining cats and dogs, but that doesn't scare me off - I usually float.
I nearly forgot how to drive to work, actually. I got there alright, but it was a bit surreal.
After work and my meeting, I headed home for a moment, then to the big-box home improvement store to get paint for the house (this, you see, was my weekend project).
Still raining, I decided to paint the back door first, as I could do that from inside. Not too easy, actually, as furry critters were very curious about my activities.
Friday morning, the plan was to wake early and start painting outside. Not so fast, though. More rain:
By the afternoon, the rain subsided enough for me to get to the back of the house and to scrape the west side windows. They really needed it (the scraping AND the paint):
Saturday, I was painting by 7 am. I had a brief emergency, when, at the top of the extension ladder with a paintbrush in my hand, Olive trots past me and into the street! She has no fear of cars and I have never trained her to be in the front yard on or off the leash, so it was a heart-stopping moment. I collected her, calmed my nerves, and got back to work. At 2 in the afternoon, I decided that was enough swatting mosquitoes for one day and came in to shower. On Sunday, I was out painting by 6:30 in the morning and finished up by 9:00 or so. By finished up, I mean the first of two coats was on the whole house - even though the paint can said one coat. Don't believe it! I intend to touch up or do the second coat next weekend, and scrape the glass, as I don't bother to tape windows. MUCH easier to paint and scrape.
Sunday afternoon as I got in the car to run an errand and to visit some kitties in my care (sorry about the confusion to the Mommy of said kitties), I discovered that Otto did not want to start. My suspicion is that a new battery will do the trick, but I have surmised that while a car battery will fit in my bicycle basket, I may not be able to steer it with such a load. It's used to produce and library books.
So... I decided to come in the house, cool off, and watch a little Wimbledon.
OH.
MY.
GAWD!
My high school BF was a pretty good tennis player, but aside from occasionally watching him play, I rarely saw much tennis. I can't remember the last time I watched Wimbledon - Boris Becker, maybe? I did name a cat after him (and Boris Karloff and Boris Yeltsin, perhaps).
The 2008 Wimbledon final was unbelieveable. I have a newfound respect for the athletic ability of tennis players! I couldn't take my eyes off of the screen!
Congratulations! You have to love a guy named Rafael! And what extension!
A quick jaunt on my bicycle (before it got dark) to return a housekey and have a cold beverage (thanks, cheekymonkey!), then home to try to cool off and go to sleep so that I can start all over again this week!
The semester is almost over.
I'm almost ready to start my summer classes.
It's almost tolerable in my makeshift office, into which I moved yesterday - the first of three moves by August.
It is almost possible to get through the day without eating some sort of chips.
It's almost June and I have two wearable art pieces to construct for my juried exhibition.
My BFA Advancement Review is in two weeks. I am almost ready.
I almost didn't wake up this morning (reference homework photos with Black Velveteens).
I think this weekend will be almost enough time to finish my final painting:
Yesterday, I was worried I had ruined it. Almost.
Okay, I just posted the video because I love it so much and it makes me so very happy. AND it was filmed in New Zealand. That's just a bonus. After I posted this video, though, I thought about something else that made me exceedingly happy, even joyful, yesterday.
My good friend came over to go on a walk with Olive and me. We were planning on a hike, but geesh! You just can't imagine the mud! So, we instead took about a 4 mile hike on the local Rails-to-Trails trail in my neighborhood (I am pretty lucky about that). I wish I had thought to take a camera, because Olive was so happy she could hardly contain herself! Not just Olive, but every one of the GAJILLION dogs out on the trail were loopy and peeing themselves. I think I might have peed myself a little, too. This winter has been hard. And depressing. A nearly 70-degree, sunny afternoon was just what I needed and I think Olive did, too.
After the walk, my friend and I enjoyed some Black Velveteens on my back deck. OUTSIDE! In March! That might have been when I peed myself a little, actually. Cider and Guinness, outside! and a pooped dog flopped at our feet. Awesome!
This morning when I thought how I wished I had captured the look on Olive's face (and all those other dogs), I saw something that was almost exactly the look I would have captured:
Every face. Just like that, sans snow. Good luck on the Iditarod, doggies! Have fun and be safe!
I am so happy to have a weekend. Too much is going on to mention everything here, but I will touch on two things.
First: I have a new niece. She was born at home this morning at 7:11. No complications to my Sister-in-law, the baby or my nephew. The jury is still out about my brother. Home birth had to be, at the very least, exciting!
Second: Work and anguish continues with regard to my schoolwork. It's nearing the end of the semester and I am getting that knot in my stomach that won't go away until after the grades are posted. Subjective grading is a really tough thing. My current project is coming along, though. Here are two photos to show my progress. How far I need to keep going is still a mystery:
A Saturday, in fact.
I'll be up early and headed to my parents' house for a little wrenching on Otto with my Dad. Yes, not only is he my Dad, but he is also a superhero shadetree mechanic (amongst other things). After this week's emotional rollercoaster ride, I will be happy to get something necessary and gratifying accomplished. Tie-rod ends. Both sides. Inners and outers.
The cute ones are usually a little high maintenance.
When Otto is buttoned back up, I am helping Daddy-O with listing his Goldwing Parts on eBay. It seems he prefers his motorcycle to be naked. Wild streak. It's hereditary.
I'm also going to use my Mom's whiz-bang computer to make labels and cards for my etsy shop. While Olive has been ultra-patient with my crazy schedule lately, she and I do rather enjoy the company of our Tiny Painting friends of late:
Shameless Plug:
The Holidays will be here before you know it, and there's my FAVORITE gift-giving occasion, "Because I Wanted To." Original art on a tiny budget!
I am simply exhausted after a weekend of running around at school, upstairs and down, all crazy-like.
Lucky dog, that Olive.
Add to my exhaustion a rather non-inspiring critique in class yesterday. The satisfaction I gained from the critique is that the piece I was instructed to start over on (what did yew say? them thars fightin' werds, they are!) turned out to have the most impact of everything I had done in that class to date. I am having personal struggles with the medium, but I have that fairly under control. I think. Whatever. Sniff. Do you have a Kleenex?
Add to my exhaustion and non-inspiring critique a rather emotionally frustrating class today. I have no idea where I stand with the Professor, but I feel like I am doing better than average work. Thankfully, and sometimes not, the Professor has a mini-critique at the end of each class. The emotional frustration comes in when I feel like I am getting somewhere on a painting, the comments I get from the instructor during class are positive, then the mini-critique leaves me with the sensation that the boom has just been lowered. Onto my head. Oy! It's completely possible that I am expected to do more because I show motivation in the class. I ask what I think are very good questions. I just don't know.
Art school isn't the place for a person who requires constant compliments. I know that. It's just a bit of a struggle lately.
I'll get home tonight and take Olive for a walk. That should calm me down a bit. After that, I will stretch some watercolor paper (or maybe cop-out and use a sheet of 300-lb. paper that must certainly taste like ice cream, but it's so expensive I don't dare find out). I will then make myself a pot of tea and commence any painting for classes I can do, and work on some Tiny Paintings for my etsy shop. By the way, if anyone who is expecting a Tiny Painting has found their way over here to Vox, I assure you my student painting frustration has not tip-toed over to my Tiny Paintings. So, rest assured Mommies of Sam, Oscar, Woody and Ollie - the Tiny Paintings are coming right along! My goodness! Bailey's Mommy sure has lots of really nice friends!
Show us something you made by hand.
Not Olive... Olive's blanket. I make lots of stuff:
Do you ever have one of those days where you leave the house and just do what you want all day long until you're ready to come home? That was my weekend.
Before cellular phones, these days were slightly different. I can remember going to pay phones to call home and check the messages on my answering machine to see if anything interesting had presented itself while I was out. These days, my silly phone rings and I dart off into a different direction with very little provocation.
Friday night is the time I consider to be the start of the weekend. In fact, turning the key in the car after work on a Friday night makes it official. Because of the renters next door having a loud, outdoor party until 3:00 am Friday morning, I pretty much passed out as soon as I got home. Lack of sleep makes me cranky and crazy.
Saturday and Sunday were both days which found me setting out in different directions and doing as I pleased all day. I did come home early enough yesterday to complete a homework assignment and to lounge around with Olive. She needed it. I was pretty unhappy with her Sunday morning when I woke up to the sound of her gnawing on one of my vegan Earth shoes! Olive has issues, all right, but eating shoes has never been one of them. Lucky for her, I think, is that my reaction to her mistake was to say to her, "Oh, I am so mad at you!" She looked at me for a split second, then bounced into the living room. I watched her lack of reaction to my statement, then shuffled out into the kitchen and made some coffee.
I was invited to a birthday party of sorts on Friday night, but as the hour approached, the skies got heavy and dark and a crazy storm whipped through town like it was picking up found money. I looked at Olive and Lys, neither of whom appreciate thunderstorms, considered the energy it would take to drive back downtown - and opted to stay in for Girls Night.
This isn't them during the storm, but it sums up a lazy night in. Looking at this picture now makes me want to race right home and shower them with attention. Olive soaks it up, Lys would rather not.
Saturday morning the weatherman didn't have very good news. I was planning to go to a local Feast of Lanterns in the evening and the Doppler radar looked a bit too colorful - forecasting thunderstorms all day and evening. I went to the Farmer's Market in the rain and came home to sort supplies for my classes. By not thinking about the weather, I thought it might be fine. And it was!! Prior to leaving, I asked my friend if she was interested in stopping for dinner before the event. Lucky for me, she agreed and it was delicious. Then the Feast (we had just eaten, so we considered it a Feast for your senses - Feast your eyes on THIS, that sort of thing):
We walked around at the Festival, I took a few snapshots of another friend's daughter on the swings in the park, and we stayed just long enough for the lighting of the lanterns. A girl who is not-yet-three has a lot on her plate staying out until 9:00 pm, but the look on her face and her shrieks of excitement after the countdown, when the lights came on, was priceless!!
Sunday I finished a little painting I had started Saturday. When I say "little painting," I mean it:
I'm mostly just using up paint that I mixed months ago, knowing that it's going to dry out eventually anyway. Better to dry out on these tiny canvases than in tiny film canisters. What am I going to do when I can no longer get film canisters, anyway?
