marvelous, magnificent mom

For those of you who marvel at my Energizer Bunny-like energy, all you have to do is meet my mom to know where I got it.  I don’t think we sat down once this weekend, other than to eat.  Seriously.  OK, except for when we were cleaning the fans–we sat down while doing that.

Andrew walked in last night at 11:30 to a painted entryway (one more coat needed) and a partially painted kitchen, and had the gall to ask, “So what else did you do?”

Mom and I looked at each other and asked, “What did we NOT do?”

Here’s the run down of our weekend, with photos:

-ate Thai food up at The King and I in Kenmore

-errands at Ulta and Bed (free eyeshadow–score!), Bath and Beyond (for an over-the-tank toilet roll holder and a 3M hook)

-I’m not sure what we did Friday night, but we didn’t go to bed until 1 a.m., so we had to have been doing something…

Saturday 

-reorganized the kitchen pantry, cabinets and basement “pantry”

-walked Hadrian and visited with the Nyes (always a pleasure)–Adam played in their backyard with Hadrian while Mrs. Nye, mom and I chatted over, what else–coffee and homemade cookies

-Lowe’s for a trash can, primer, etc…

-Target for 3M hooks, decorative towels, tool organizing bins

-broke down a couple empty boxes Andrew wanted to save

-unpacked all my pots and organized them on our chrome shelving (um, I might have a few more than I remembered…)

-bought and labeled trash can and a recycling bin

-unpacked and sorted through all the office supplies

-had dinner with the Layers and Abigail, then gave them a tour of the house

-identified the ‘odor’ coming from the laundry room and directly below it in the basement (it’s from “cheater pipes,” which is what we have instead of something that vents directly outside–gross)

-arranged and rearranged the office furniture about a million times

Sunday

-repotted an orchid I picked up on the clearance rack at Lowe’s (I know my track record with orchids is spotty at best, but an orchid aficionado we ran into while there told me it seemed like a solid plant and that he often buys them ‘on sale’ when their blooms have fallen off–cross your fingers!)

-cleaned all the gross dust from two fans, and mom vacuumed Hadrian’s bed (and attempted to vacuum him, but he wasn’t going to have any of that!)

-unpacked and (attempted to) organize Andrew’s tools in the garage

-taped and primed the kitchen and entryway

-scraped some of the myriad paint layers off the plaster on the wall along the basement (will have to wait to paint there until Andrew finishes with the basement door)

-Lowe’s again for paint, paint tools and another trash can

-Target to return decorative towels and try again

-ate Pasquale’s pizza and wings (mom gets HOT)

-sprayed the perimeters of the outside of the house and inside of the basement with bug killer spray (you know, just in case)

-painted one coat of ‘Sparkling Lake’ in the entry (note: all these paint photos were taken at night–interested to see what the colors look like today when I finish up!)

-tried out both samples I got for the kitchen

-I went with the one on the right–it is one shade lighter than the one on the left and called ‘Summer Wish’

-Proceeded to paint a couple areas with the winning color, but will have to get more today to finish

-Mom had an excellent idea for the extra kitchen paint–use it to spruce up the cabinets in the laundry room!

So, basically, what mom and I can do in an afternoon is more than other people do in a weekend…

I take mom to the airport this morning, then I’ll be getting more paint at Lowe’s and finishing the kitchen, entry and starting on the guest room, which will be the same color as the entry.  Mom’s motivation was exactly what I needed to move past unpacking and onto the next step: making this house a home.

One week until school–YIKES!

you’ll never guess what i did last night…

I sat for an artist friend so she could paint me!  How neat is that?!

Alix Martin is the owner of redFISH (a studio here in the village) and is also the one working on the mural for the co-op, which is how I met her.  After we’d gotten to know each other a little bit, she asked if I would sit for her.  Of course I would!  I was really looking forward to it and, finally, our schedules synced up enough to get together for a few hours last night while Andrew played rec volleyball at the middle school here.

(Before I get too far, can we just take a minute to check out my arms…I worked really hard for those!)

Such a neat experience!  We met at her studio–I LOVE it!  As you can see in the photo, there is color everywhere and it’s got a very bohemian vibe.

You can see a little of her work in the photos; she paints all sorts of “real” things (like birds or people or landscapes), but manages to give them whole new life with color and texture and movement.  It’s totally my speed in terms of art; I’m not drawn to traditional (think the landscapes 99.9% of the population have hanging on their walls), impressionism (while it’s beautiful and I like water lillies and ballerinas as much as the next person, it’s still not “me”) or super-modern (Picasso was brillant, but he’s not going anywhere in my house!) pieces at all.  Of the classical painters, I suppose Van Gogh is one I like, but more for his use of color than texture.

My taste in art is kinda like my taste in style–very classic and minimalist, but with unexpected and non-traditional pops of color or other eclectic pieces thrown in.  We recently had the Elmwood Festival of the Arts here in Buffalo (which is HUGE, by the way), and Alix designed the cover of the brochure–you can see it here.

And, in the interest of journalistic integrity, I DID take it all off….

…and it was SO EASY.  Seriously.  Although I’ll admit–with my background growing up (my mom often said, “Who cares? We’re all girls” in situations like locker rooms, or just changing clothes in general) and in the military (hello communal showers!)–my “shyness” is pretty limited.  I mean, you just do what you have to do, and anyone who showers and changes regularly at a busy gym can attest to that.

And Alix is a friend; I don’t know if I would have felt as comfortable with a total stranger.  We worked up to it; I posed with the slip for most of the 2.5 hour session, then she did some quick sketches au natural.  I’ll have to go back for her to finish the primary piece, and I’m hoping to do more in the future.  I mean, we chatted the whole time; it turns out she and her husband built a totally recycled/reclaimed house here in the village three years ago that’s going to be featured in the Buffalo News in a month or so, and we commiserated together about non-traditional families and the challenges they present.

To his credit, I think Andrew was more nervous about the whole “me-posing-nude” idea than I was.  (And he’s going to flip when he sees I used one of her snapshots of it here.  Sorry honey, but it tells the story and is very tasteful.)  The truth is, it’s art (heck, these iPhone photos are art in and of themselves!) and it’s beautiful.  I was so honored she asked me to pose and it was an opportunity for me to get out of my comfort zone and try something new.

I’m just glad I lost all that weight BEFORE she asked me to pose for her…