Category Archives: beauty shots

Obligation, complication, routines and schedules drug and kill you…*

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*Lyrics from Radiohead’s Little By Little from The King of Limbs album. Clearly, I’m obsessed. Try here for the remix. Also clearly, I have some more music shopping to do.

Days 2 & 3: Client Renovation

As predicted by Dave and Team Carpentry, demo and framing was done in two days. A full crew, fully caffeinated, fully focused and fully drenched in sweat ripped apart that room revealing ancient (ok, more like 90+ years old) lathe that was in good enough condition to be able to affix new drywall to. A bonus since that’s what Dave had hoped for. Also discovered (and expected, but not hoped for) non-plumb, non-level spots on the salvageable walls that will definitely make things trickier to install down the road. But, all in all, a successful two days of cleaning out the old to make way for the new.

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Open your mouth wide, the universal sigh…*

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*Lyrics from Radiohead’s song Bloom from their album The King of Limbs. I mean no disrespect by using the lyrics in this playful manner – the song, the album, both amazing. Worth every penny and every minute of listening. Every time.

There’s a light (shining at the Frankenstein place). There’s a ligh-hi-high-hi-high-hah-ha-hight (burning in the fireplace!). There’s a ligh-high-uh-hight in the darkness of everybody’s life. There’s also a light in my office now. So, woo-hoo!

Many moons ago I began compiling bits and pieces for my inevitable office transformation. Up until a few years ago I would have self-identified as a hair colorist who was struggling to find my place in the world. Now I’m not afraid to say I’m a budding artist and designer, and a student of interior design (albeit a former student). Before our kitchen renovation began I had a little tiny area of the kitchen that I referred to as my “hair studio.” Now I have a fully-fledged, proper office. With a portable drafting table, portfolio pieces, and countless implements for design and drawing. (Perhaps not countless, but who wants to count that sort of stuff?)

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Cupcake Monthly: July

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So, the only time I allow myself a blog title that’s not a song is for Cupcake Monthly. I’ll admit, I’ve missed a few months. I may have to start calling it Cupcake Quarterly though, since my plans for the future include reigning in my sweet tooth. Anyway, several weeks ago, our dear friends Dave (of Team Carpentry) and Abbie’s lovely son, Eli, had his first birthday. And I was enlisted to provide his first ever(!) cupcake.

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It’s a low, low road you’ve gotta roll down before you find your way…*

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*Lyrics from Grace Potter & the Nocturnals’ Low Road from their self-titled album.

I’ve said it before, and it’s still true: there is something inspiring about having teams of people at your house doing work that always makes me want to do more things. After Candy and the ladies (and gents) of Ladies Landscaping came to refresh our yard we determined that if we were ever going to stain the fence, now would be the time. Before any more plantings get put to bed, before the weather turned, while we had the vicarious energy boost from the Ladies’ day and a half microburst of yard beautification. It was time, and we got to it.

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She’s like the wind, through my tree…*

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*Lyrics from, well, if I have to tell you then you didn’t watch Dirty Dancing for three weeks straight when it played at the Calvin Theater in 1987. In which case, I can’t help you.

When we lost our beloved pup, Bec, we knew we wanted to bury her in the yard. It was where she was happiest, where she longed to be during all hours of the day, all times of the year, and where she took her last breath. She belongs to this place, if for no other reason than that she loved it, and we wanted her to remain here, even if we don’t. Of course I couldn’t stand the thought of actually digging a giant hole and chucking her into it, so we had her individually cremated. We also knew that we wanted to give her some sort of marked spot, so we’d know where she was, and be able to know she wouldn’t be accidentally dug up by any future owners. So we decided to plant a tree. A dogwood, because she was a dog, and one with pink blossoms because she was a girl. (My 8 year-old niece figured that rationale in seconds, so we knew it was the right choice.)

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Hot in the city, hot in the city tonight…*

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*Lyrics from Billy Idol’s Hot In The City.

Ok, so the lyrics are a cop out (even though that video is amazing). But it’s friggin’ hot out there! Brain = melted. So, in honor of summer’s full court press (or whatever expression makes you understand that summer is here, and she’s not taking no for an answer), I submit to you this recipe, as discovered in the lovely Canadian magazine House & Home.

Lavender Lemonade – makes about 6 adult sized glasses

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I won’t forget, I swear…*

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I am sad to report the passing of my beloved baby dog, Bec.

My beloveds.

May was a rough month. She was diagnosed with lung cancer on the first of May, and by May 30th she was gone (hence the blog absence). We are devastated by her loss, and are still adjusting to the new reality. We’re still coping, and trying to put our life into an order that has never existed. Until now I’d never known my husband without Bec – they were a package deal when we first started dating. It’s strange for both of us to have the whole house to ourselves… there’s no one to bark at the mailman, there’s no one to try to eat our dinner, or to get startled by the loudness of sound effects in movies, no one to get scared by the thunder and lightening, no one to greet us when we come home, and no one to curl up at the foot of the bed at night. We miss her dearly, and are doing our best to be grateful for our time with her, and to remember her in her healthiest days, rather than how sick she had become.

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I held my breath and said, “May I have the next one?”…*

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We shall now break from our regularly interior-focused blog posts to dedicate one entirely to the bloom of the month: lilacs. *Lyrics from Polkadots and Moonbeams as sung by a young, and dashing Frank Sinatra.

Welcome to Lilacland indeed.

Every year, as the lilacs bloom, we who are lucky enough to be near them, inhale their sweet fragrance with appropriate hunger. Lilacs do not last long, but they are powerful, delicate and abundant while they do. Last year my older sister shared with me the location (and knowledge) of lilacland, and this year my younger sister decided to make the journey home just to visit this place. I believe she said it was worth the bus fare. It was even worth the inevitable allergy flare-up.

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Late at night I toss and turn and dream of what I need…*

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Firstly, an update on the pup. Thank you guys for caring, and for sharing your own stories. Pet love cannot be underestimated, taken for granted, or fully explained if you haven’t experienced it. And I, for one, am among the lucky who get to experience it. The doggie had her visit with the specialist today who was pleased to see that the palliative care medicines that she’s on are helping. A lot. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that she’s got cancer, and that she’s not a candidate for surgery. After a long visit, and a slightly less-long conversation amongst ourselves, we’ve decided to just try to keep her comfortable for as long as possible. Chemotherapy, while possibly (20-30% chance at 20-30% improvement) assisting in keeping up her physical quality of life for as long as possible, would no doubt strain our baby’s nerves, thus degrading her emotional quality of life (vet visits are the bane of her existence and always have been). Short term problem, sure. But when we’re looking at only a couple of months (at best) for our little one, those short term problems really add up. So, for now, we’re on a hospice-like path. She’s regained her usual spunk, thanks to the steroid/painkiller combo, and has her appetite back. We’ll see how long the current drug therapy works, and adjust as we go. We’re hoping that if she were able to choose for herself, this would be the choice she’d make.

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I really feel that I’m losing my best friend, I can’t believe this could be the end…*

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I don’t know how my every-other-daily blog posts turned into week-and-a-half-ly blog posts, but there you have it. Things have been slow on the home improvement front. And it’s difficult to photograph paint drying. But, I can report that I have completed the painting of the cabinet and shelves, the second coat is on the wall, and a coat of enamel paint is curing on the countertops. I finally tackled the stripe treatment that I threatened (promised) to do, even if I did simplify it a bit (for expediency as well as design – sometimes less is more). Everything is coming together nicely, and the weather improvements mean that I can open the windows while I use toxic enamel paint.

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