I’m going back to blogger! 

wishingbee.blogspot.com

wishingbee.com is undergoing a bit of a transformation.  Eventually wishingbee.com and wishingbee.blogspot.com will be one and the same,  but I’ve got to get some server side things figured out before that happens.  And yes, it’ll be a bit ugly for a while- but in the meantime, head over to my new blog and take a look at the new wallpaper I just ordered for my closet office.   Yay, wallpaper!

Bedroom walls painted a glorious shade of blue?  Check.

New bed ordered?  Check.

Custom closet?  Designed and on its way!

Operation Make Bedroom Awesome is a go!

Everyone who knows us knows how small and tiny our living space is.  It’s in a great location though,  equidistant from Redmond to Seattle.  It’s right by the Burke Gilman trail, and only a 5 minute bike ride to a park on the shore of Lake Washington.  I forget these things when I whine about not having land- and truth be told I’m beginning to love my little place.

But now that I’m going to be working from home, I really need a designated spot.   A real office is but a dream, as we have one bedroom (and a tiny one at that).  I lamented my tiny home until I discovered this on Country Living:

Behold- the closet office.  Small, efficient, adorable.  I’m so in love!

And in the spirit of renovation, I’m painting the bedroom today.  We’re going from a lemon buttercream to behr’s bleached denim.  Will be painting the furniture white, and hanging up black picture frames to display our best photography.

We finally bought a new mattress set yesterday- delivery is for next Sunday.  I was contemplating dressing our bedroom up a bit and buying an actual bed set.   But I found this clever idea on Martha Stewart that I might just have to steal instead.

It’s a door… into a headboard.  I have a door hanging around- might as well put it to good use!  And I simply cannot resist a good project.

Survived my finals.  Was pretty exhausted last night, wasn’t looking forward to yoga after sitting through 6 hours of presentations.  Yoga teacher canceled, proving the universe loves me.  I, in turn, fell asleep on the couch.  Woke up to the husband trying to feed me.  Ate dinner, watched Up (and cried through almost all of it), drank too much absinthe.  Slept in until 10:30, now hungover and still feeling exhausted.

But.  I’m done.  For now.

Artwork:

Photoshop II.

Illustrator II.

I can’t believe how far I’ve traveled in one year.

I don’t know if I agree or disagree with the death penalty.  It makes me tremendously sad when someone loses their life, and even more so when it’s from a violent act.   I guess like everything else in my life, it’s all shades of gray.   Today a man named Gardner was executed by firing squad after 25 years of being on death row.  And while I do believe in karma and the whole “eye-for-an-eye,”  my heart hurts not only for his victims’ families, but also for his own family.  I can’t even begin to imagine what it must feel like to have a father on death row- to know that his life will violently come to an end because of his own violent acts… It must be very difficult for all families involved.  I hope both families receive the closure they need to heal and move on from this ordeal.

Val’s dad is still in town- which is awesome.  It’s nice having a parental in the area to have dinner and visit with.

Pictures of our tide pooling event:

More Pics Here.

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It’s finally the last week of school.  In 7 days, I’ll be finished with this quarter and enjoying the perks of having a very tolerant husband.   No more classes, at least not until the fall… and even then only if I deem them classes worthy of my attention.  I have so much work to do to get my little Wishingbee off the ground.  I am so excited to make it happen though.

I’ve had so much fun this last week- it’s been crazy but amazing.  Val’s father is in town, so we spent all weekend rushing around exploring.  And taking many, many photos.  I. Love. Photography.  I wasn’t even that interested when we started our class together, but learning the rules (and then learning how to break them) has really opened my eyes to how much of an art it really is.  Watching us grow as photographers has been incredible.  Val is so technical and so sharp, he’s very analytical and focused… and I’m so whimsical with my compositions and intuitive.  We balance each other out so perfectly- it is such a rush working with him.

Every week we have a challenge in class.  Last week’s challenge was to mimic someone’s portrait photograph.  I decided to go with Irving Penn’s shot of Picasso.  Here’s the result:

While we were limited in the hat selection (and the requisite “crazy eye”) I think I caught the mood and the lighting almost perfectly. I love how Picasso, of all people, had the light cast halfway across his face- being familiar with his work, it makes you wonder if his face has any symmetry. Awesome picture, Mr. Penn. Well done!

1. Bird has been sick since last Thursday.  Two different infections.  Thankfully he’s responding well to treatment.
2. Doctor’s Appointment Wednesday was a success.  I’m healthy!  BP is finally normal.  Thanks, Bystolic! <3!
3. Turned another year older Saturday.
4. School is crazy busy.  All I want to do is sink into my new Kindle.
5. Val’s father is in town tonight.  Cleaning house today.  Condo smells like lemon and lavender.
6. Low tide this weekend. Going tide pooling with ridiculously expensive camera gear.  Hoping for amazing pictures.

Better get back to cleaning.

Spent the afternoon (once the sun broke out) at Gasworks Park with the husband. Despite the unfortunate name, it was a quintessential park- quite possibly the loveliest one I’ve ever been to.

Greatest joy of going to the park:  Watching a little girl (maybe a year old) freak out about seeing her shadow.  Her dad saw us laughing and mentioned that she was a true Seattle child- not used to seeing her shadow.   Adorable!

I’m not really a music fiend, but I’m trying to be.  I feel a little left out when people are discussing apparently famous musicians and I’m looking at them with glazed opaque eyes.  I remember having the same situation happen when I was in the fourth grade.  I ended up getting a walkman (oh yeah) with a FM radio on it (it was the fancy model) and forced myself to listen to it.  I could recognize songs, but I really didn’t care enough to buy the cassettes.

Our gym teacher (also 4th grade) made us run around the gym listening to MC Hammer.  And when my mom asked what I wanted for Christmas, all I could think of was MC Hammer.  Because, you know, it was a musician I knew and he was apparently super cool.

And I can’t help but laugh a little because so much of my life has been dedicated to trying to be something that I’m not.  I enjoy music, but I can sit in silence for hours and be content.  I don’t feel like I’m missing anything without it.  It’s kind of like alcohol- I like to drink it but I don’t really care what it’s made out of, and I’m not going to be heartbroken if I never have it again.

I discovered Pandora the other day and I’m having a blast with it.  I can plug in songs that I like and it picks out other songs and genres that I might be interested in.  The greatest joy of this discovery was how Rex the Parrot has reacted- he seems to really like  music.  If a song comes up that he likes, he puffs up and struts around, singing his heart out.  He has eclectic tastes, too- I’ve started a list of songs that he seems to enjoy-  He seems to love Lady Gaga’s Poker Face, Blue by Eiffel 65, Orinoco Flow by Enya, and Sexy Bitch by David Guetta.  Orinoco Flow, especially.  Sail away, sail away, sail away… is it the repetition?  Or maybe Rex doesn’t want to be a pirate’s parrot- perhaps he wants to be the pirate.

Today marks two and a half years since my father’s passing.   And I could only imagine his joy if he had seen this.

Brilliance Found Here.

I have never seen anything so beautiful.  I hope the artist creates prints, as I would scoop one up in a heartbeat.  Seriously.  Be sure to click to see the miracle of this guys work.