Tagged: Whales

happenings: a photo cache

in the last two weeks:

broken street and caution tape (post water main break)
surveyed damage from the water main break around the corner

pedro the magnificent - painting in the sun
savored the sunshine and began a painting of Pedro the Magnificent, taking advantage of the rare window light

pink boots and white snow
frolicked in the snow, including some tobogganing

winter and its wisdom
spent time reflecting on the beauty of winter and the value of silence on a newman club retreat

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And Ash Wednesday yesterday marked the start of Lent: a season of repentance and renewal, a season to break bad habits and form new, good ones. For my Lenten promise I am giving up facebook, and since that will add lots of small pieces of time in my day, I am trying to be more available to people around me who may need little pieces of help. I figure there are so many little things that I think I’m too busy for… yet I have time to check my facebook once every hour for five minutes at a time? Time to switch up my priorities.

settling in

winter whale sale! all plush whales and mousies 25% off!

new routines, new schedules, new faces, new books… trying to wrap my head around 2010 and the start of spring semester. in the meantime, order a whale!

and the winner is….

giveaway winner - number 6!

Tig! Commenter number 6, whose favorite color is kelly green. Congratulations, Tig!

It was fun to see what everyone’s favorite colors are! Lots of people like purple, which was funny to me since I am not a purple person. Although apparently, purple is the hot color for fall! And it has been growing on me lately.

My favorite color is turquoise, really any shade between blue and green (but closer to the blue side). When it comes to a second favorite color, though, that’s tricky. I love green and blue and orange and yellow… I have pink days, too. It all depends. I love colors!

Yesterday I finally got around to fixing up a little shelf unit I picked up at the Goodwill more than a year ago. It was a bathroom fixture, a little cabinet with a towel rack and shelf. It was quite beat up, wobbly, and dirty… but it had potential. So it came home with me.

white shelf before

I first bought it because I loved the knobs on the doors. I wanted to paint the unit a solid bright color, and leave the knobs white. But cabinets are rather impractical for me, because then the space in front of them can never be blocked.

The back piece was flimsy cardboard-like stuff, and it was starting to mold. It was the first thing to go. I took off the doors, figuring it’d be easier to paint that way, and realized: this is a cute shelf! Little shelf sat in my room lodging fabric during the school year, growing steadily weaker since it was missing a proper back.

That is, until yesterday! My wonderful brother Ben helped me use the circular saw to chop off an appropriately sized piece of pegboard that we had sitting in the basement. I decided to paint it… considered white, then light pink, until I realized: this can be whatever color I want it to be, really and truly. It doesn’t have to match, it just has to be awesome. That’s when I pulled out the orange bottle.

And I’m glad that I did!

orange shelves

Little shelf is quite happy now, with a solid back attached to all of the shelves and the wobbly shelf re-nailed to the sides. It’ll be perfect in my dorm room for holding all my little shoe-box sized bins of whales, mousies, pouches, and supplies. Hurray!

Speaking of moving into the dorm… I’ve still got quite a few whales who would be much happier with real homes than crammed into these plastic bins. Wouldn’t you like to have one?

busy little bee
buzzing flower to flower,
sustained by its work.