is to order

get different class keys
prep the garden for rain
brainstorm solutions for pigproofing kitchen garden
clean the laundrette
get books for classes
reorganize garage
reorder bedroom
look for a dresser
finish syllabi and print
superprep for classes
order pantry
work in studio (more doable than finish studio)
start organizing taxes (yes, it is that time)
organize desktop and drive that haven't been organized since last january (virtual clean is still clean)

it seems the best way to kiss a new semester is to order your home and life. all of this orderin' made me think of collecting my week by image.
if anyone has a brilliant idea for pigproofing a kitchen garden, please hook a sista up.

whitey ford & thoreau

coffee-fueled morning,
peaceable kingdom before
a cold front blew in.

trick or treat!

clementine in the garden

+/=

{click on the photo to make the love bigger.}

clementine + ralph

*sigh* the newest members of our family circus.

1) we are already crazy in love with these two teacup piglets. clementine and ralph are 10 weeks old. the sweet couple from whom we adopted them had them litterbox-trained already.
2) they were shaky at first yesterday on the tile and wood floors, but have mastered iceskating on high heels.
3) at some point this week, i promise to film them with a spoonful of peanut butter. they are crazier than shoshanna in this scene of girls from hbo.
4) clementine is mos def gonna get a pink tutu to wear.
5) the girl says that all we need is an elephant to complete our family.

washi tape and stars from pugly pixel. danke, katrina!

six more

as the thesis is coming along, we decided to get our babychicks yesterday to keep the girl happy while i finish up these next weeks. socializing is key for having them as pets so this scene will be on daily repeat for the next six weeks.


lucy mae would have made a fantastic mother or a sheepdog. she guards the box of chicks and does such a good job of it. this morning, she ran to my bed so i would let her in to check on her chicks. good girl, lucy mae.

weekend happiness

the sleeping porch

this summer was a biatch. no rain and the hundreds have just gone on and on. the idea of september doesn't even scare them away. the silver lining is you don't have to go buy hay if you have chickens. just go rake your yard and you got yourself a hay party.

the girls have kept cool this summer. the coop looks like this all day. passionvine (which has not skipped a bit all summer) has covered it and has shielded the girls from sun. every morning, i go out to change their water and to feed them and their coop reminds me of an oldfashioned sleeping porch. in my mind, that makes me bitch less since the silver lining is modern society's air conditioning.

its visible attitude

jean cocteau once said “i love cats because i enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul." i raise my coffee cup to that and have to add that i love chihuahuas because i enjoy my home; and a lot by a lot, they become its visible attitude.

a few months ago, boothe begged to keep picasso at his apartment. as much as i miss mr. peepers, i know that boof needs to have a little slice of home away from home with him. for Christmas, v gave me this awesome papier-mâché chihuahua that she made in honor of picasso.

we have been missing our visible attitude something fierce and adopted a fosterloved chihuahua yesterday. yes, another one. pearl is attitude galore and came home to a cat who thinks he is a dog, a cat who knows she is better than a dog and a sister and brother who already adore her.

love bounces off the walls here. the fur does fly, but that is why God made vacuums.

pearl

minnie pearl aka missy misdemeanor aka pearl

coupe

friday was booboo's 19th birthday. it is hard to believe that my little boy is nineteen years old. it is so nice to have him home for a long weekend and hanging out with his familia.

on saturday morning, i went out to feed and water the chickens and i saw something crawling in the hay in the coop. we have never seen a kitten this tiny. she was covered in fleas and we have no idea how she got in there.





after her first bath, we named her coupe and she is eating by eyedropper. berlin took one whiff and said "oh, hells to the no.", but he will have to scoot over and share a little bit with this little peanut.

baby berlin

this two-month old scamp has made himself at home and heart here at the houser house. aunt tipper had promised v a kitten and she delivered a little ball of sweetness. it is crazy how much berlin reminds us of our beloved shadowboxer.

i don't think that i have met a more content kitten. berlin is the perfect reading companion. he just needs to learn to turn pages with his tail.

for the daily accounting

never ever has there been room for a chair in any or one bathroom in my life. that seemed like an obvious given until this bathroom showed up on our bathdar. when we were rearranging our life, i immediately knew that a chair was needed for conversations in the bathroom. this is where the day's accounting all goes down, plus the he saids, the she saids, the don't forget to remind mes, the thank you Gods, the so help me hannahs and the i am too tired to get ups.

over two months ago on the day before new year's eve, our beloved shadowboxer was poisoned. finally, we can talk about it since we were blubbering fools over that beloved cat. he was the very best cat ever and raised the bar for the homeless kitten that is coming into our life this week. i have a feeling that this sweet chair will hold him all of time and capture a lot of mom, he is so cute!s.

this old chair has made the cut with every stoopsale and every garagesale over all of these years, yet she never had a place of prominence and daily ritual until now. good stuff happens here and she can finally say yeppers, i shaved my legs for this.

tomorrow for annie

well, i have committed to blogging for the month of august. the optional theme is tomorrow. today, i had to work, but tomorrow i am doing nothing but playing with a little hellion named theodore finn.

after work, i took a nap which i desperately needed and woke up to a message from my friend annie who was driving through. we got to spend a few hours on the couch catching up on the past year. our weekly stints on the couch at the dance studio was our luxury for years while our girls took ballet lessons.


oh, and this is why God made him cute.

the mister

lately, i have been in deepcleaning mode. i feel like i have so much to do before school starts and have to do it while i still have a little time. it is a time of consolidation and really making sense of the place of things.

with the pottytraining of theodore finn, i finally had enough and blocked the dogs from having the full run of the house. when they aren't in the yard, they are gated in the green studio. tough titties.

after loving on mrs. meyer's products for years, i am now smitten with mr. clean and his purple power. this new fragrance reminds me of the years of nightwalks in los angeles. you would breathe nightblooming jasmine & lemon blossoms and then turn the corner and smell someone's laundry in the dryer. there is something quite soothing about fresh laundry. anyway, that is what i am telling myself when i clean every inch of this house with the mister's purple drank and magic erasers.

in honor of milkpigs and birthdaygirls

theodore finn, our favorite milkpig, was three weeks on saturday.

it is hard to believe that lucy mae is two years old today. she came to our life with my daughter's simple request on the day that our life changed its course with 'mom, can i have a black puppy?' (she really was black when she was a puppy.)



lucy mae makes me very grateful that i said 'whatever babygirl wants is what babygirl gets!' happy birthday, lucy mae!

theodore finn

when you turn your head,
love comes knocking on your heart
and whispers 'mother!'

for the occasion of rain

when these photos came out of the camera, i was extremely tickled. their very essences are captured freezeframe. lucy mae, i am beholden to you.

we woke up to the sound of rain this morning. at first, i thought it was freeway traffic, but realized that it couldn't be that. rain after a horrible drought...i hope it rains all week. bring it on!



dmitri had never seen rain until this morning.

*drawing for a goodyprize is on saturday morning. don't forget to get your happy on and enter.*

orange you glad i said yes

my friend leesa kept chanting '08 is out the gate!'and '09, we will shine!' yesterday. ryan read the tibetan meaning and sorrow of a year gone and it really made me think about this year that is rapidly coming to a close.

08 was an incredible year of refining and redefining and i am leaning to the thinkage that 09 will pick up where 08 will leave off. the older i get, the more i truly believe in the intricacy of God's weaving skills. if i were to try to explain it, it is akin to sitting in the open and having a perfect orange drop into your lap. it gets to the point that you can't question it, but embrace it and run like hell with it. if you stop and think about it all, it truly is insane in the membrane.

ponder, ponder, ponder...and then i come home to a beast that fits in my pocket.