violetismycolor

a whole new look...

Click on the photos for enlargement...

The Furniture arrived yesterday and I love it...nice soft chenille sofa and butterfly pillows with gingham trim that I picked out myself.  The pillows match these cool gingham w/bees pillows that I made last year, so that was exciting.  

The shower floor is gorgeous.  I picked this nice tumbled marble, and got a new brass drain and everything.  Ah, it's the little things that can make such a difference.

The outside of the house is still being painted.  The painters got here this morning before any of us slackers were awake.  Hey, it's Saturday, so give us a break! They are getting the decks sanded for re-staining, too.  It will look like a brand-new place when we are done!

progress...

Well, the painting is progressing...that is about all I can say about it.  They are still not done priming (and they were here all last week) and I fear that the house will not be done by the time the relatives show up next week...

My laptop has been retrieved from CompUsa and taken to a local, small company (Memory Time) and they are having a look (for free) and will either let me know if they can fix it at a lower cost or if they will make me an offer on the parts.  Wait and see...

Heat in the 90's and I am melting whenever I am out of the house.  The AcryMed picnic is today and will only last a short time for me if it is too hot.  Should be fun, though.

Our new sofas arrive on Friday...we are renting a U-Haul on Sunday to cart away the old ones.  The shower floor is being replaced tomorrow.  Goodbye mold!  Everything will be so new soon!  Yay!  Will post pictures when all is in ready.

IF...tranquility...

Ah yes, I just love the tranquility of walking along a beach (especially a Caribbean one), picking up seashells, feeling the breeze in my hair, and putting my toes into the clear blue-green water every once in a while.  Pure bliss for me. 

My MIL used to live in Sarasota and, though I am not a big fan of Sarasota in general, the beach was divine!

Of course, Portland has a lovely harbor and yesterday the weather was absolutely perfect...about 80 degrees.  John, Ross, my MIL and I went out to dinner at the McCormick and Schmick's Harborside restaurant and had a fabulous dinner and then a walk along the Marina.  What a great way to spend the evening. 

After dropping my MIL off at home, John and I watched The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, with Cary Grant, Shirley Temple, and Myrna Loy.  I am in the mood these days to watch old movies and so have a collection that I have procured from the Library.  It is great fun.  This particular movie is Shirley Temple in her teens and she has her eye on a much-older Cary Grant (can't say as I could blame her).  Fun and funny...  Made in 1947.

new banner, dead computer...

Yes, it is that time again...new zodiac sign, Leo.  This is the sign of my lovely dtr, Bonnie, and three of my sisters...I am surrounded.  At left is what the total picture looks like but I am trying to do something new every month, so I thought I would go in for the close-up this time.

My laptop is dead, dead, dead and too expensive to fix...wah!  Now, I will have to break it up into parts to sell on eBay and then buy a new one.  I hate this! And it leaves me laptopless for a while longer.

Illustration Friday...karma

*click it for enhanced view*

I DO believe in Karma...and if it does in fact exist, my brother is in for it.

This past weekend, my brother (who is a Catholic priest) and I were having a conversation and let's just say:  arrogance and rudeness are two of his virtues.  Do I sound angry?  You bet I am.  While we were were having a discussion about our beliefs...spiritual beliefs, he actually laughed at me and told me that what I was saying was absolutely ridiculous.  I let him have it...told him that I might also find some of his beliefs strange and possibly even ridiculous but I would never be so rude as to laugh in his face.  Then I told my parents, "Next time he is coming into town, don't bother to call me."  I can imagine he is praying for my lost soul...

late, late Illustration Friday...metropolitan...

*click on the pic to see it better*

Again, I just couldn't let the IF prompt go by without doing something...even if it IS last week's prompt.  Metropolitan says to me 'big city', summer nights on the balcony with your Cosmopolitan nearby to sip as you want...so that's what I did.  I really thought this one was fun.

Now I have to start thinking about THIS week's prompt, which is Karma...oh, my!

late, late Photo Friday...candid...

*click on the picture for a closer look*

Yes, you're right, I am exactly a week late for last week's photo Friday.  I have been so busy this week that I never got around to it.

This is a great candid photo of Adam and Bonnie.  We ask ourselves, "How did she fall asleep in this position?"  But they're damned cute, no?  Bonnie has her 'Deedee' (her name for the Chinese silk pillow that became her comfort object) and Adam has his Teddy.  Funny thing...both of these came from their Grandmother Calhoun.  Adam's was, of course, intended to be his companion.  But the pillow was to be put onto our sofa and not carried by Bonnie EVERYWHERE (including the grand tour of Europe when she was 3) till it was mere shreds.  Kids get attached to the darnedest things.

They are adorable, though, aren't they?

Ways to piss off Voldemort...

My son, Adam, sent this to me in an email and I just couldn't keep it to myself.  It's just too funny.

Here are the ways:

Ask him why he 'doesn't have such a cool scar?'

If you ever need to say 'Like taking candy from a baby', be sure to add 'Of course, SOME of us might find that harder than others.' Stare pointedly at him.

Call him 'The-man-who-let-the-boy-live'.

Ask why the Dark Mark couldn't look like something 'more socially acceptable?'

Taunt him about his middle name. 'Marvolo? Whats that, a washing detergent?'

Magic-marker Potter-style glasses on him while he sleeps.

Mock his choice of Quirrel as a 'host'.

Buy him a stress ball.

If you're feeling gutsy, call him Voldie-poo.

Say he 'looked better under the turban'.

Start drawing outlandish parallels between his life story and 'Star Wars'. Talk at great length.

'Imperius' his Death Eaters into a rousing chorus of 'All Things Bright And Beautiful'

Throw him a 'care-bears' themed birthday party.

Tell him what Snape's really up to.

Remind him that he isn't even really alive.

Tell him Wormtail has a crush on him.

Finish all your sentences with the words "in accordance with the prophecy."

Begin any question you ask him with 'Riddle me this!' Emphasis on Riddle.

Ask him why he's afraid of a frail old man with a beard the size of a beehive and can't fight babies.

Follow a few paces behind him, spraying everything he touches with a can of disinfectant.

Be Harry Potter. Be alive.

hard work...

There are 15 bags of yard debris sitting outside, waiting to be picked up by the garbage company. This is the amount of weeds, branches, etc that Ross and I have wrestled out of my garden in the last 2 weeks.  Ross is wonderful at taking direction.  He just works and works, never asking for a break or if we are almost finished.  Amazing. 

The yard is looking good but we aren't quite done yet.  We have  a quarter of an acre and I have stuffed it with hundreds of plants.  Looks good but it is a massive amount of work to keep up with. 

Also on the home front:  the painter is coming with his crew on Thursday to start the prep work for the outside of the house.   The colors will be a sage-y green with cream trim and a brick-brown for the shutters.  I found a house with those same colors that I just fell in love with.  On Saturday, paint wheel in hand, I brazenly rang the doorbell of that house.  I wanted to see if the owners knew what paint they had used.  Believe it or not, someone I knew lived in that house.  We laughed over the coincidence and she said she was thrilled that I liked the colors enough to use it on my own house. What a small world!

21???

Today is my eldest son's 21st birthday!!!  How is that possible?  That I can have a son who is 21?  Just wait until it happens to you and you will know what I mean...

Adam is home from Uni for the summer (Uni...that's Britspeak) and we are so enjoying having him here.  He is alot of fun to go to the movies with, or go out to dinner with, or just to overhear him and his brother, laughing, upstairs when they are in the midst of a game of Super Smash Brothers or watching some anime.  These years are so precious because I know that my time is limited.  One of these days, he will be living in an apartment or house of his own, maybe in another state, and his visits will be small slices of his life and I will long for this time again.  But one can't stop time from moving on, nor should we want it to stay static...how boring would that be?

We are going out to dinner with my MIL tonight, to celebrate.  Then home for ice cream cake.  Later, Adam and John and I will go out to a piano bar and have a legal drink with him.  Since he has been at Uni in Scotland for a whole year, and their social life seems to revolve around the pub, this will not be a coming-of-age experience for him.  Nonetheless, it will mark something special for us.

Happy Birthday, Honey!

Fourth of July fabulousness...

We had a great Fourth.  The weather can be iffy here till the 5th (sort of the 'official' start of summer, weatherwise) but it was great...sunny but not HOT.

Adam rustled us up to go out and see War of the Worlds mid-day.  John didn't want to go but Ross and I did.  It was just okay, not great.  And I am sort of sick of all the Tom Cruise hoo-ha and so he sort of annoyed me.  Adam said that he played a good asshole and he is right; a natural, I guess you could say.  Okay, enough Tom Cruise bashing.

We went for a BBQ and fireworks at a friend's house.  He was the boys' 8th grade science teacher and they were forced to call him Thom, instead of Mr. Powell, which felt a little odd to them.  He had the greatest house, right near the Clackamas River.  He had all sorts of animals (dog, chickens, rabbit), tons of birdhouses with swallows that swooped in and out taking out all the mosquitos they could find and making it nicer for us, and tons of sports stuff.  A baseball diamond.  A badminton court.  A soccer field.  Croquet.  And a tree house that had a sofa and TV inside!  He had built his log house himself and it was awesome. 

The fireworks were amazing, mostly because folks brought all sorts of illegal mortar type things that they had bought in Washington.  There were 2 teams of folks setting off fireworks, simultaneously, and it went on for an hour and a half.  It was as good as the event they put on at the Portland waterfront. 

A good time was had by all but we got home late and John and Adam had to work the next day, but I think it was all worth it.

Illo Friday...sport...

*click it to see it better!!!*

So, yeah, I was a cheerleader and a dancer and I do consider it a sport.  Plus it was awesome fun and we got to wear cool outfits.