Quiet

We're still getting some rain from Tropical Storm Faye, and the sound of it falling on the rooftop is just so nice. I'm putting myself in time out tonight, closing up the laptop, curling up with a book and enjoying the quiet. Exciting, huh?

Wait . . . an e-mail just came in from Kirsty in Australia who's the first international recipient of a notebook. Yay! After I reply to her then I'll shut down the laptop, and be quiet. ☺ Have a good night.

[image © LeventeZone]

Glitches

I've been noticing some glitches with the blog, so if you see some strangeness goin' on please let me know. For a while there yesterday Mac users were unable to comment, and now my post titles have disappeared. Ah, joy! ☺

[image © M-Evolve]

Happy Birthday Erin!

Yay for the birthday girl!

[image © yellowbike]

Draw Your Face

Jeff over at Booooooom! has launched his latest endeavor, Project #3, in which you can submit a picture you've drawn of your face, with your eyes closed. Submissions must be hand drawn, but can be done by drawing while your eyes are closed, or from a picture of you with your eyes closed. I love it!
Be sure to send your submission in by September 11th, as Jeff will be randomly drawing a winner on the 12th, who'll receive a gratis order of 500 business cards.

I'm sure I have more than a few pics around here somewhere of me with my eyes closed (don't we all have one or two of those in our collections?), so maybe I'll be brave enough to recreate one for Jeff's project. Booooooom! ☺

[image © Jeff Hamada]

Wrapping Up The Week

I know there is history abound regarding Sunday being the first, or the last, day of the week, but for all Jude-like purposes I think of Sundays, specifically Sunday evenings, as the end of my week. The two day break the weekend affords is almost over, and the next day is back to work. Bleh!

This has been a good week, and although I've already used it to say a lot of thank-yous, I just wanted to end this week by saying a few more.

Thanks to everyone who's given me such positive feedback on the new blog design. It means a lot and I hope you're all liking it as much as me. One more dose of appreciation goes out to Ari for all her hard work in getting it up and running.

BIG thanks, also, to those who have generously helped with both overall and blog space support for Do Not Leave Unattended!, specifically to Erin, Krissy, Diana, Jeff and Terri who helped spread the word by posting about the project on their blogs. As of the time of this post, including those who've already or soon will receive a notebook, the total amount of participants is 94. That number, and whatever it ultimately grows to be, would never have happened without all of you. I can't wait until the contributions start coming in! I'm going to go ahead and give Unattended! its own blog, and hope to launch that within the next two to three weeks. If you're on the list of participants, I'll be e-mailing you with project updates until the blog is up and running.

And on that positive note, I sign off for this week with one final note of thanks ... to each and every one of you. ☺

[image © Samantha Lamb]

Making the House a Home - Part Two

While it arrived earlier this week, I finally took the September issue of Domino out of its shipping sleeve tonight and inhaled the article featuring the gorgeous Hampstead home of British designer Matthew Williamson. Bring on the color!

I've already shared these pics with some of you outside the blog, but because it's fairly color rich I thought this would be a good spot to let you take a look at another room of the house, the den I affectionately refer to as 'The Green Room.' The before shots here show the fireplace in real need of a face lift and a more than dated ceiling fan looking tired and weary:



and the room after I bathed the walls in Behr's Appletini Green.



Like the living room, this space came together one step at a time, with me tackling projects like refacing the fireplace as I could afford to do so. I think it, and the chandelier which came out of my Mother's dining room, are my favorite elements. I'm pretty sure she was of the mindset that chandeliers are for the dining room only so she would probably be less than thrilled about where it now resides, but I love it in this room and think it adds a delicate elegance to the pseudo modern space.



The room is adjacent to the kitchen and because we most often use that door to enter and exit the house, the green walls are usually the first focal point for me when I come home. No matter how bad a day I might have had, when I walk in that door I instantly feel a little bit better.



It's actually a fairly small space and is probably better suited to handling one or two less pieces, but for now everything has a home and it all seems to work. You know I love to say it: Go Green! ☺

[top image © Domino Magazine]

New and Improved!

Yay! The new design is up, and I can’t go any further without giving proper credit and thanks to Ari Moore for helping to take what I had in my head and turn it into code (since what I have in my head is usually a big mess it sounds like an impossible feat, but she did it!). I connected with Ari after stumbling upon one of her Flickr images, going to her web site and then blog, the tag line for which is ‘Adventures in making art and living sustainably.’ You all know what a zealous Tree Hugger I am, and with that statement and Ari’s work being so fantastic (all the illustrations here are hers), Shirari, the creative team Ari and her partner Shira have built, seemed like the right fit. Ari, I know I’ve ended every e-mail we’ve exchanged with a thank you, but let me just add as many more as you can handle!

The first item Ari crossed of the list was taking the header image I’ve been using for a while now and turning it into an illustration. I wanted to hang on to it for a just a teeny bit longer, so included it above for one more post. So many of you have commented or e-mailed me to let me know how much you liked this picture, and as I felt the same and wasn’t quite ready to let it go, I decided to keep it here but instead put it in a whole new light. The image, entitled Asleep, is an original by the very talented photographer Dorothy O’Connor, whom I’m honored to call a friend, and who was extremely gracious in permitting me to use it. If you miss seeing it, please contact Dorothy about ordering a print of your very own!

It’s probably going to take me the remainder of the week to get up to speed with all the new changes and for Ari to make a few tweaks here and there, but starting next week I hope to be back to updating daily. Here are my introductions to some of the new features I hope you’ll all enjoy:

Fresh Pic of the Day - Even if I don’t post each day, this feature will always be updated on a daily basis, Monday through Friday (unless I'm deathly ill and if that's the case I know you'll forgive me!). I'm really liking the new pop-up window functionality for this, so click on the thumbnail to check it out. Input needed: Would you like to be able to comment on these images, or is it enough to just view it and take from it what you will?

Inadvertent Eavesdrop – I’m kind of embarrassed to tell you I have stacks of little receipts rescued from the bottom of my purse, sad and wrinkly, on which I’ve written little tidbits I’ve overhead here and there, always in public places and mainly from people on their cell phones. I don’t ask to be a third party to their conversations, but what can you do?! If I hear something I find humorous, the pen comes out of my wallet and I jot it down. I have to do something with them, so I thought the blog was the perfect place to share. This will also include pop-up window functionality for the thumbnail so you can see more details on where and by whom. I hope to update this at least once or week, possibly more if I hear something really good! Obviously, kids, I’m easily amused (although sometimes I’m really not)!

Currently Listening and Currently Reading – The more I listen and the more I read, the more I'll update!

Do Not Leave Unattended! – This new link is really the one about which I’m most excited. Take a peek for all the details and let me know if you’d like to participate. I’ll be posting all updates regarding the project to this page, and it will also be the home of all contributions. Things are just getting started up and the layout for the page may change a bit, but it will always contain the most current information.

Faves – Of course the spot where I’ll link to my favorite blogs and artists. Both lists will continue to grow, but for now on the Blog Love list I had to share links for those I really do read every day, and to those of you who have so graciously linked here. I know I’ve needed to reciprocate for a while now and I’ve been waiting for the blog redesign to do it. Thanks to each of you!

For the actual blog posts, I’ve really thought about narrowing my focus, but as I’ve shared before I’m still trying to find my spot here in the Blogosphere and just can’t seem to get away from being ‘random!’ I’ll continue to feature artists, objects and ideas I love, mixed in with my personal ramblings, to which your response is always encouraging and most appreciated.

That’s pretty much it for now, so please bear with me this week as everything gets smoothed out. Thank you for sticking around! ☺

[image © Dorothy O'Connor]

Signing Off . . .

I know it's been another dry week for posts over here, but stay posted for Monday when I'm crossing my fingers and toes (and legs, and arms) I'll be coming to you with the new blog design. Even if we run into a glitch this weekend and things get pushed back, I'll be posting details on a new project I'm starting, and one of which I hope all of you will want to be a part. Until Monday!



[images © Richard Avedon]

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

When am I going to change? Very soon, I hope! If everything goes according to plan (ah, the best laid plans), by this time next week, if not before, the blog redesign will be up and running. This has been in the works since early May, and even though I've been of the 'It's just a personal blog, there's no rush,' mentality, I'm kind of anxious to see things finally fall into place.

After giving a lot of thought to switching platforms, I decided to stick with Blogger, so other than a whole new look with some bells and whistles added to the mix, it will pretty much be business as usual. I hope you'll like it! There will be a good bit of new coding for some of the features, so while I learn how to make changes and keep things updated some of the new goodies may temporarily be out of service, but I'll try to keep those instances to a minimum.

Almost a year into blogging now, I'm still kind of pondering my place in the blogosphere. Is there really room for me around here? Am I leaving electronic traces worthy of taking up space? I'm still trying to figure it all out (like a lot of other things in my life), and while I continue the process just wanted to take a minute to thank all of you (and you know who you are) who have made me part of your own corners of the blogosphere. You visit here daily, always take the time to comment, and have essentially become an important part of my days. In our virtual relationships we may be only scratching the surface of what each of us have to offer, but that scratch is an indelible mark and one to always be remembered.


Keep on the lookout for the new and improved, and THANK YOU so very much for being along for the ride.

[images © -Teddy and The Cat & Her Fiddle]