In like puppy days, out like dog days

Can you believe July is over? It came in like a beautiful summer's day and it's leaving the same way, with added brown grass and sultriness. It's been hot here, sometimes too hot, but I know I'll miss it when it's gone. 

It's time for another Scavenger Hunt at Made With Love, so there are a lot of photos in this post. I hope you like them.

The first prompt is 9 PM. I'm always amazed at how much the days start to shrink in July, so I took a picture out our front door on July 1 at 9 PM and another one on July 30 at 9 PM to see the difference.

 9 PM

July 1

July 30

The rest of my photos were taken on a trip to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on the University of Oregon campus - I love it when I can scavenge all my photos in one location! Because I was going to the art museum I had plenty to choose from for ON THE WALL.

The last one also fulfills C IS FOR... crochet.

And the cookie from the museum cafe, well, it could be C IS FOR..., or DOUGH, but I'm using it for SWEET.

The museum has a beautiful little courtyard with both a tiny pool and a large pool, so I got POOL and LIQUID there.

And then I saw the STEM.

Just outside the museum was this sculpture, which was perfect for TOGETHER.

I couldn't believe my luck when I saw this, which gave me DOUGH.

IN MY BAG was the rest of the cookie that I hadn't eaten.

And to sum it all up was MY VIEW OF TODAY with the big O for Oregon

I missed getting LEVER. Or maybe I just missed getting a close-up. Check out the guy on the bike - I bet there's a lever there somewhere.

Come see the other scavenger hunts - there are always some wonderful photos from around the world!

Val

Toop Arties!

This is the most unplanned post I've done in awhile, but I want to go to Visible Monday and 52 Pick-me-up. Nothing gets me motivated like a party - unless it's two parties! *

The theme for 52 Pick-me-up this week is Orchid. I would have thought of the usual Pantoney Radiant Orchid, but Anne is breaking the mold and wearing YELLOW! And PAISLEY! It's her party so she can do what she wants to, but I thought I could probably get away with being a rare blue orchid.

Sort of.

This is my business attire on a hot day in the middle of summer in my home office - cotton shirt (old) from Walmart, denim skirt from JCP.

I don't subscribe to the idea that you have to dress professionally when you work from home. I'd much rather be comfortable, although I do draw the line at wearing my PJs to do work. Unless I have to get something done super early, like before 8:30, but I try to avoid that anyway. I love not having to use an alarm clock!

I don't wear shoes in the house, so I spend my day in my moccasins or barefoot. But if I'm barefoot it just makes me aware of how crunchy the kitchen floor is and then I feel like I have to clean it. So, moccasins it is!

And further to my last post about my home office space, I really did optimize my Craft Cave, without even throwing much away. Voila my new office! This desk is so much more comfortable and sprawling.

The lamp was a wedding present to my parents in 1951, and yes, it's pink! The wooden bowls and the clock came from the thrift store.

Thrift shop china on the wall - cabbage rose pattern, which I love.

The craft area (which includes the long end of the desk) is freakishly neat and unsloppy - for now. I can't wait to see how things work out when I need to spread out with glue and paint and more glue.

I keep water for paints in the old coffee pot. I did the red and green painting about 87 years ago.

The frogs are Djim (on vocals) and Django (on bass), and I got them from a co-worker who got them from a friend who found them in a VW van he bought. God knows what their life was like before that! I've had them since 1993, usually keeping them in my office because that's where they started.

Time to wrap it up for the day and get a nice cool drink at the party - which one should I start with (party, I mean, not drink)?

Val

* Post title inspired by the legendary Two Ronnies and Four Candles. 

Thanks for reminding me!

The lovely Maricel was kind enough to nominate me for a Liebster award - and I forgot about it.

This is my second Liebster (no brag, just fact), and I'm sure most of you have heard of the Liebsters by now - answer 11 questions, nominate 11 bloggers, pose 11 questions for them. I think the part that tripped me up is nominating others, because it seems a lot of them have already been nominated recently!

Patti was also nominated by Maricel, and she responded in her recent post. That reminded me that Maricel had some very clever "questions" so I wanted to do my best. Here we go!

1.  I see … my very lovely, new home office, which I'm probably going to move out of.

This is the dining room, which is open to the hallway, my husband's workspace, and the family room/kitchen. Since Mr. S also works from home, and he does multimedia production, I think I'm going to need a quieter space. That means optimizing (cleaning!) my Craft Cave to make room in here where I can close the door.

Wish me luck.

2. I find … that my husband and I get a little fractious with each other now that we're together all the time!

3. I have … one baby tooth still.

4. I wish … I could play the saxophone.

Teresa Cunningham

5. I miss … my friends and my brother who live in other places.

6. I fear … loss of autonomy.

7. I feel …like I'm in limbo. Unemployed? Self-employed? Pre-retired?

8. I crave … solitude.

an unidentified old photo my mother has, probably from Denmark

9. I search … for answers in my dreams.

10. I wonder … where I'll be living in five years.

Prats de Mollo in southern France

11. I regret ... not training to be a French translator when I was 19. I really considered it, but I couldn't buckle down to studying. So short-sighted.

So, now it's your turn. Patti nominated all her readers, and I'm going to do the same. You're all Liebsters (beloved)! Now answer me this - you're going out on a special evening where you can have all your favorite things. What car are you taking? Where are you going? What are you eating and drinking? Who else is at the table?

Val

Heroes and Villains

SpyGirl's 52 Pick-me-up this week is Fairy Tale. It ties in perfectly with Maricel and Selah's T3 prompt to dress like your favorite literary villain. So I'm wearing black and white to represent good and evil, and I'll tell you my own fairy tale that transpired this week.

Once upon a time there were a boy and girl who went to visit a little cottage in the country. They walked up to the porch, which was piled with old boxes and plant pots, and they pulled the clapper on the brass bell hanging by the door. A little troll opened the heavy wooden door and led them inside, then down into the cellar. The room there was piled high with books and boxes and shelves and tools. It smelled horrible, and there were cobwebs covering the windows as thick as curtains. The troll asked them what they wanted, and when they told him he said he could grant their wish for eighty pieces of gold. They left their computer with him and went away.

The troll is the hero in this story. He loaded Windows 7 onto my computer so I can work on my new client's cloud server.

The thing is, heroes look like ordinary people. (Although computer nerds who work out of their own homes are generally a little, shall we say extraordinary. I wasn't kidding about the smell and the cobwebs.)

My own knight in shining armor had already spent hours trying to install Windows 7 and then reloading all my other programs. As day turned to night, we found out that the copy of Windows 7 he had bought from eBay was counterfeit, sold to us by an evil villainess in North Miami Beach!

I imagine her with a bald head, bad skin and snaggly teeth (the bitch!), but she could just as easily look like a cheerleader or a soccer mom. Because villains can look like ordinary people, too, like Bob Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird or Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca or Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Villains suck.

If you want to know the ending of my story, the evil bitch, I mean the seller, responded after about 36 hours with a poorly typed message saying she's sorry for our "bad experience" and she'll refund the money in a few days. Doesn't matter what she does now, we've reported her to eBay and Microsoft. They can throw her in a dungeon for all I care.

Because good always triumphs over evil.

Val

Mercury Moving

Last month Mercury was in retrograde - did you notice? I think my skeptical husband now agrees that all kinds of  cosmic whoop-ass can occur when that happens. Even my muses fled the vicinity, no doubt taking refuge on Venus so they could spin backwards until Mercury straightened itself out. Thank the goddesses we seem to be back on some kind of course now, and the muses are back and adding stuff to my To Do list.

Of course, Muse Melanie has always been here, rallying humankind and rousing us to creative catharses for the next issue of VOGOFF. My own little muses finally whispered in my ear and started telling me sweet little stories. Then they described a dreamscape in great detail until I finally knew what to do. So, since I had the camera out to do some photos for VOGOFF, I also took these pictures.

tank top - JCP; jeans - thrifted; shoes - Chelsea Crew; cuff - Etsy (can't remember the shop name)

The capelet is made from a scarf that I never wore, cut in half and sewn together leaving a hole for my pumpkin head (like I did here). I can wear it at least three different ways.

no brand on the scarf; the end I cut is now left frayed

And see my cool shoes, which I almost never wear!

 

Since I'm not working, I've mostly been wearing shorts and tee shirts, but I played dress-up today. I'll wear this next time I have a chance to go out, although the mercury is a little high for wearing jeans.

What do you think of my hair? I'm letting the bangs grow and combing them back, but I'm not sure if I like it or not. I have a very crease-y forehead.

Linking up with Creative Mondays and Visible Monday - stop by! And linking up with Shoe Shine,too.

Oh, and I added a new tab at the top of my blog - Buy Me!

Val

'Tovers

In my house we usually have leftovers for lunch. Mr. S calls them 'tovers. Since I've been lax about planning new and flamboyantly entertaining posts, I'm going to use up a few 'tovers.

First, here's Kenji again. I'm encouraging him to do his own blog, but he said if he did that he'd do a street-style type blog. However, I think he needs to start taking selfies and posting them. I can't be there every day!

His purple plaid shirt looked really sharp with white jeans. And of course, his cool sunglasses. I don't know what any of the brands are - that's why Kenji needs to do his own blog.

The rest of these pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago when I went on a "sales trip." I thought I'd see if I could get a shop to sell my crafty boxes (see here and here and here and here). No one wanted them right now, although the place shown below said to come back after they've moved to a new location.

Unfortunately, the old house is falling apart - you can see the holes in the ceiling.

downstairs

But what a cool place! I love big old houses. And little old houses.

downstairs

upstairs

upstairs

upstairs - I'm wearing my thrifted SToned skirt. I had the place to myself. I may have jumped on the beds.

This was in a small town just north of Eugene - Coburg - which is brimming with cute old houses and an abundance of antique shops.

This one was empty, but what a lovely old building!

I got some good advice about selling my wares, and that was to do it myself. With the shops adding a mark-up, I wouldn't really get much if they sold. So, when I get around to it, I'm going to add a For Sale tab to my blog. Besides the boxes, there may be some clothes and shoes to sell, so watch this space!

In the meantime, I've got some freelance work lined up! I'll be writing marketing proposals, not editing lovely art books and magazines, but I'm my own boss. I'm also my own employee, so if I slack off I have to write that up for my HR file.

Have a good week, and be nice to your co-workers!

Val