Amazing how the time passes in...

the yarden. We have had buckets and buckets of rain, and in my opinion, not nearly enough sun, but the yarden and its bounty marches onward. We in that lull between early spring flowers and late spring, early summer flowers. Everything is lush and green.

 E and I planted marigolds and some other flower in the porch boxes. These poor guys normally have to endure an amazing amount of sun, but this week, they have been misted daily. We planted last Saturday.

 My beautiful Iris. This is the most blooms we have ever had.

 My mother in law, when E was a baby engaged in some clandestine planting. She brought the Iris from her yarden to our, putting it in a bare spot in our front flower beds. It has slowly grown and taken over that section. I love the Iris and this one is especially pretty and purple.

 This will eventually bloom yellow. The deer don't eat it and it is hardy.

 I invested in this over the rail flower box. I am testing out some purple basil and some other little vine like plant. E and L picked the flowers. If this works, I likely will buy another flower box or two.

 My herbs. The catnip seeds are slowly sprouting on the left side of the planter.

 Peas. I am hopeful for peas in a few weeks to a month.

 What is left of the lily of the valley.

 My pink daisy is so big this year and the lilies on the right. Last year they were munched to the ground by deer or other animals, but not this year.

 I planted glades this year - the bulbs are already sprouting. I am so hopeful for some beautiful glades this summer.

 The lambs ear. Soon it will bloom purple and attract a ton of bees.

 L put this together. She likes the colors. I told her it is her pot and she will have to water it, once the rainy season is over.

See, aren't they beyond lovely. They bloom now, after the riot of tulips and daffodils. Smart Iris, bloom at a time when the others are fading or not out yet!

Music Monday: Duran Duran - Notorious

It would seem we are about to enter another election season - do we really ever get out of that cycle - and I have been thinking about what it means to be known, to be a household name, to be celebrated, to be a celebrity, to be a manageable commodity. Is the flip side then, notorious - the unmanageable celebrity?

About 10 years ago, I saw Walter Cronkite speak at the Franklin Park Conservatory. It was before the fundraiser masquerade ball. There was something about that generation of journalists. I think now, we haven't many solid journalists among us. We have TV personalities. We have pundits, we have news readers, who are reading from scripts written by people we do not know, I think the true investigative, independent journalist went the way of the dinosaurs.

I don't watch the news, something my grandparents did regularly. My family does not watch the Nightly News. In fact, other than a quick glance at the NY Times or whatever paper H brings home from his travels, I don't read the news either. I have decided if it is important, it will hit my Twitter feed (and no I do not follow any news outlets on my Twitter feed - they tweet entirely too much bullshit, so I rely on my tweeps to retweet the important bits.)

What happened to fair and balanced. It isn't on any network that I have seen. We might well have both sides represented, but it is a circus, not news. The most fair and balanced "news" I have seen is the series Lisa Ling does for Oprah's network. She really digs in and asks the hard questions of both sides. She isn't afraid of tough topics.

I am not sure where I heard it or read it, but someone was accusing someone of trying to be the next Woodward and Bernstein, um, we could only hope. Investigative journalism is a dead entity. We have 24 hour a day information over saturation. Leaks aren't rare, they are staged regularly, they are managed. PR firms have a formula for building buzz. An investigation is hard work, expensive and frankly takes too much time, when the clock is delineated by sound bits.

I wonder, is it even possible to be notorious any more?

From Dictionary.com:

no·to·ri·ous

 [noh-tawr-ee-uhs, -tohr-, nuh-] Show IPA

–adjective

1.

widely and unfavorably known: a notorious gambler.

2. publicly or generally known, as for a particular trait: a newspaper that is notorious for its sensationalism



The line between celebrity and notorious these days is rather blurry. We not only want to build people up and turn them into celebrity, on the other hand, we relish tearing them down and destroying every illusion we have created. The public appetite for sensationalism and the airing of dirty laundry is unending.


I mean could Zorro even exist today. Robin Hood? Superman and Spiderman? These characters banked on mystery and being able to manage a persona.


Notoriety it seems to me is grounded in part, in some sort of mystery. There is some sort of unknown, even being notorious - it is generally for one set of traits. A notorious gambler is known for his or her card playing skills, defiance of chance, skill at games.


On the show Nikita, she is a bad ass, she is notorious, as a persona, we have no idea how she takes her coffee and this is something her enemies would love to know I am sure - but it is to her advantage to remain notorious yet unknown.


The misanthrope in me, thinks there is real value in this concept. Being notorious is, I think, in someways preferable to today's penchant for putting it all out there and yet I am an advocate for transparency.

Music Monday: Ke$ha Blow

Ke$sha - Blow


She sings of going insane - Throwing glitter and making it rain. I am not sure about you, but glitter makes me insane. It goes everywhere, sticks to everything except what you want it stuck to.

Which is why I had to be a class A nut job to agree to help with L's dance costumes for her upcoming Wonderland show. She is a mad hatter and making the glittered vests nearly drove me mad.

It is no secret that I have been getting my craft on more regularly and that I do have some talent in that department. So when the dance instructor asked for help, I agreed, reluctantly to tackle this glitter project.

It was a bigger project than I ever imaged. She suggest I free hand the checker board pattern. I have to say that would have been a disaster, so I created a template using 2" lightly tacky painters tape. My friend and proprietor of Rogue Bakery watched as I taped out each vest. (6 in total)

Then using glitter and gem glue, I painted each square and dusted it with black glitter. This was not without its challenges. The glue ran, causing fabric discolorations. Keeping a handle on piles of glitter is a challenge, I used a cookie sheet and wax paper, but still, it is messy business.

The glue dried very quickly, so even working efficiently, I struggled.

When I removed the tape, I will say the squares were very square, which was nice, but it did not look right.

After sleeping and mulling over the problem, it occurred to me, I had to complete the checker board, so I went back and free-handed the remaining squares.

All was going well until I ran out of glitter.

The store was out of glitter and I was out of time to shop the free world for the same glitter, so I bought something similar.

It yielded mixed results.

But I finished. They looked fair, to poor to ok. I was not in love with the results. Everyone has said, it won't matter on the stage.

That said, if I were to do them over and there is no chance that is going to happen, but if I were, I think I would have used black fabric paint and then gone over that with some glitter glue. The fabric was satiny and it seemed to absorb the glue like crazy.

I do think using the tape was smart, at least to get the pattern going.

In general I do not allow glitter in the house. L was never allowed to have glitter in any of her art kits. I threw that stuff out. While I have some glitter-y make up, I seldom wear it. I once had lotion with glitter in it until H said one day, "Just throw that stuff out. We both end up with glitter everywhere when you wear it."

Just like I posted to facebook, glitter really is the spawn of the devil. I thought I had it all cleaned up, only to find more of it Saturday morning and L,  late Saturday, after her dress rehearsal came home caked in it. Even a shower couldn't shake it all loose and now, as I type, I am picking pieces of glitter out of my hair.

Go Insane, Go Insane, Throw some Glitter, Make it Rain...

Music Monday: I can ride my bike with no handle bars

well not really.

(Flobots)

I did take a great bike ride Friday, the first of the season. Went with a friend who is new to town and I was showing her the trails which wind through my area.

This song is one of E's all time favorites. When it first hit the airwaves, I think he was around 3 years old and he had shown us no signs of being music obsessed the way his sister was from birth. When L was a baby she refused to sleep without her CD playing. (Now she refuses to sleep with the CD playing.) E as a baby refused to sleep with a CD playing, now he refuses to go to sleep without his music.

I digressed. So one day sitting in traffic, this song comes on the radio and I hear his little voice, singing along to the song. Later, I would hear him playing with his toys, humming or singing the refrain to this song.

We generally bike a good bit in the summer. This summer I think will be the first summer we will not make use of the Burley baby carrier for the bikes. I suspect E will ride the bike attached to mine or will finally be ready to go under his own steam. (One can hope.)

Today my friend and I took a tour around the area and then checked out the O’Shaughnessy Dam. There is a new park and observation area. The heavy and sustained rains have filled the rivers and the water flowing over the dam was nothing short of awe inspiring. So much water.

We watched some cranes cruising the area, saw a lone Canadian Goose swoop overhead and then watched some small birds, maybe sparrows, race and chase and come very close to being swept away. With it being spring and all, they seemed rather amorous, and sadly, the joy of spring led to the death of one of the birds, I think. In all their flapping and dancing and picking what has to be one of the most dangerous spots to mate, one little bird appeared to be swept away by the rushing water.

Such is life I suppose.

Friday started out grey and raw but the afternoon gave way to some beautiful sun and crystal blue skies. It really was a wonderful day to break back into biking again.

And just in case anyone wondered - yes I can ride my bike without holding on to the handle bars BUT I am of an age to know that it is best I hold onto the handle bars.

DIY - Laundry/Mudroom redo

H and I have been busy this winter. First we painted the hallway off the kitchen. That took us some time, as we had to patch some dings and this was brought about by the installation or rather pending installation of some new doors. Our house is just about 24 years young and as such some things like, doors, need some attention.

When we first moved in, I bought this. A wonderful hallway system. Perfect for coats, storage of umbrellas and shopping totes, the diaper bag (which we gave up about 4 years ago), my purse and a great place to sit, to take off or put on your shoes. It was also a good place to set a kiddo. Across from it, I had a shelf for storing our shoes. When it was just H and I, and one little person with little tiny shoes. This worked. When it was H and I and one small person and one tiny person not wearing shoes, it worked. Now that it is H and I and two reasonably sized, not so small people, it has turned into a mess of coats, shoes, book bags, school papers, tote bag, cars, Lego pieces and so froth. It is a circus, pure and simple and it has slowly been driving me mad. Right over the edge.

Right down the hall, is the laundry room, which is nicely sized, if not oddly arranged. It once had a strange and random desk unit in it, which when we bought the house, I thought was a splendid idea, only, there was no phone jack and pre-wifi, no way to link up to the Internet. Also if the washer was chugging away, it was far from a peaceful work station. Also, with toddlers in the house, the laundry room  is as far away from the family room as possible on the first floor. Not good for keeping an eye on busy and inquisitive hands.

So we eventually took out the cabinet and counter top, which comprised the desk leaving some damage to the wall and clearly showing that the contractor who built this house, cut some corners. Like not finishing the entire floor. For a bit, we had a pine entertainment unit of my parent's functioning as additional storage in its place.

After tripping over more shoes than I can count and having nowhere for guests to hang their coats, I decided we needed to make some changes.

After looking at blogs, considering closet systems, paying attention to HGTV shows, I decided the solution was to convert the laundry room, to a laundry/mudroom combo. I don't fold or iron in the laundry room, there isn't room really. It is close enough to the door we enter and exit all the time, with a small change in traffic flow, and it would work.

So I convinced H we needed to go this route. This was the working theory this winter. H was less excited about the idea, but I was determined. Then we all got sick and that pushed the project back a bit. I shopped around, pricing out options. It is not a big space, but I wanted four cubicles or lockers, one for each of us. The room is not that big and I have to deal with the various doors, the window and the function of the space.

I also did not want to "over" do it. This is not the designer show house. This is about function. This is about teaching little people, well ok all of us, the discipline of putting out stuff where it belongs, every time.

I also, really wanted something not shipped here from China. I complain about globalization but I participate, we all do. So I did some searching, finding Sawdust City. An American company, making furniture to order, in America. Plus they will paint it a rainbow of colors. I was sold.

SawDust City was an awesome choice! I found them in a random google search one morning. They are a family owned business in WI. The customer service was A++. I custom ordered and they were awesome. They even called, letting me know the item had shipped when expected and that it should arrive in the time frame I had requested. It is the kind of service that says: we appreciate your business. I am not a country/cabin look kind of girl, but in this case, this is exactly what I was going for. It just worked. Some of their systems, their closet type systems are fantastic. I just don't have the space, but if you do, I think you need to give them a good look. They are also on Facebook.

I might have been able to find a carpenter local, but my limited searching had not produced much and this was close to what I had pictured in my mind. It also fit the budget if H installed it. He had said he was not up for this project, with so many of his own, lingering over the overly long and overly cold and snowy winter.

I convinced him.

He prepped the wall.

I cleaned up.

I primed.

I taped.

I painted with the assistance of my BFF.

We had to paint the entire room, we did not have any paint left, which matched the existing color. We also did not want to buy more paint. We have so many left over cans from the previous owners, so we went with this off-white color, which works. I agree with H, it brightens the space.


I ordered.

It came on this truck Thursday.

H unpacked it.

I took pictures.

H installed it.

I am happy. I need to clean up, shop for a rug and get things arranged. I am thinking extra storage baskets on the top shelf. We are not completely done. I am thinking of painting the existing cabinets and we have considered a new washer, but for now, we are well on the way to a more functional and organized entryway, mudroom, and laundry room.

I will post finalized pictures when I get done. For now, I see light at the end of my organizational tunnel. There will be incentives to get on board with my plan and trust me their will be consequences if people fail to get on board.