I found this little bench about a month ago. I got it for Trent because I had ruined our other one as I tried to use the pieces to build my own ottoman last summer. I recovered it with some of the pendleton wool scraps I had gotten for my second attempt at making my own ottoman. I was really happy with how it turned out, though I still feel bad about ruing the other bench. I guess when your tinkering with furniture the ideas can't all be winners, but I sure want them to be.

  Some pattern inspiration from Leslie.

I've still been going over each wednesday to work on my skirts, but the last couple of weeks we've just ended up talking, which has been really wonderful in itself because each time we do Leslie brings out piles of books from her bookshelves which I find so inspiring.

Last week we looked at children's books and this past week we looked at books on decorating as I've been trying to figure out what color to paint the cedar chest and how to pull all these projects for the apartment that I've been working on into something I'll be happy with.

Leslie is the type of person who puts a lot of thought into her home

so it's nice to have someone to bounce around ideas with, since Amanda moved I havent had that.

I didn't want to face the day ahead of me this morning.

 Mostly because the weekend was so busy at work and I just wanted to hole up in the apartment and lay in bed and read. 

So much still needs to be done to finish getting the apartment set up that I made myself go and run the errands.

However many hours later, here I sit at the little house, all showered, typing this, and still doing laundry. 

Much of the day I was covered in dust from sanding down an old cedar chest I brought from WV in the front yard.

One of the bartenders at work lent me her sander. 

I might not have ever gotten to this task if it hadn't been for the power sander.

So I  sanded

... and sanded

..... and sanded some more

And realized that no amount of sanding is going to remove the design on the front of this to make it the simple beautiful wood chest I wanted to make it into. 

At first I thought maybe I'd get a wood

burning tool and make a new design from the old, but I'm thinking I'll probably just paint it instead.

It's always nice to be surrounded by color.

I went to the farmer's market on Saturday. 

It was the first time I've been since I went with Clara last fall.

The CH farmer's market takes place right across the street where I live.

 I couldn't think of a good reason why I shouldn't be buying my food there, 

so now I'm going to start going everyday Tuesday and Sat.

I had forgotten how much I like going to the farmer's market.

I made some radish leaf pesto this morning from a recipe I got from the lady who sold me my radishes. 

I haven't eaten it yet So I'll report back on it's deliciousness.

In completely unrelated news

I found a rug at the thrift store for the living room.

Rachel loves it.

 I took this  picture

when I was seeing how it looked and as you can see it was pretty dirty.

So I brought it over to the old house and hosed it.

 As I was washing it out I looked up at the yard, how beautifully green and peaceful it is.

It made my heart hurt.

But it made me feel better when I came home and saw my tomatoes resting on the sill of the funny little octagonal window to the living

room.

It's graduation weekend. The madness starts tonight at the restaurant.

 I dread the chaos in front of me, but I'll be glad to get through it.

I may have done something foolish, we'll I guess we'll see.

I gave up my lunchtime hostessing shifts. 

I recently picked up an additional bussing shift and my hope was that if I worked in the evenings that I could use the daytime hours to start working on my paintings again.

It's a gamble because all of those shifts equaled financial stability, 

but it was making me feel so depressed, because while where I work is beautiful

I don't seem to be making any friends there.

  I was just working a lot and scrambling to buy clothes.

Clothes that weren't even that great.

When I'm not making things I get depressed.

 If I can just make it my routine to paint during the day before I go to the restaurant I'm hoping I can do something with my own work.

It's all theory at this point.

But I feel optimistic ...

I've been working on the apartment as much as I can just to get it finished so that I can make it comfortable and not think about it anymore. 

Sewing curtains for the living room from vintage kimono fabric. 

Finding fabric to make curtains for my bedroom,

Painting the hall closet, repainting the cabinetry in the bathroom because I didn't like how the color I chose made it seem humid in there.

It's been a lot of work.

But one of the things that I am starting to really like about living in an area with so many arty creative people is that it really causes me to work on upping my game.

I like the challenge.

I still dream of moving somewhere more rural.

I saw this house tucked away behind the bushes on my walk back to the car from Leslie's house.
and  I thought it was so pretty.
It reminded me of another house that I used to walk past each day when I was in art school in St. Paul.

 I was telling a friend how I was planning on making some paintings of some of my favorite illustrators work.  The goal being to try and work in a different way. Almost as soon as I told her she asked me if one of the paintings could be from Antoine De Saint -Exupery's The Little Prince.
She wanted to commission me to make a painting from an illustration of the prince and his rose.
 I have a copy of the book, but I was realizing that I hadn't actually read it since high school.
Yesterday while I was hostessing during the slow times I started rereading it.
I loved it and wondered how I could have forgotten it?

This morning I was going to take a photo of my old copy of the book, but as I was looking through the images online I found this photo of a sculpture some one had made. People can make such beautiful things.

  Lately,I keep thinking that I might give up on the blog altogether, but then I dont let myself do it.
 I've been working on it for so long now though that I hate to let it dwindle to an end and just say bye!
It was always meant to be a place that helped me to grow, to work on my writing, take better photos, and to share the projects that I've been working on..
At the moment my biggest project seems to be figuring out who I am.
 I don't think that's the journey that my dedicated few readers come here to follow .. and I am planning on working on some drawings and paintings soon,
it's just been a strange feeling to look in the mirror and not to see myself anymore,
or to have any kind of plan what to do with my life.
And honestly, right now I have no plan.
Today while i was at work  I kept thinking I should just work really hard to get out of debt  and talk my landlord into letting me get a dog.. but I always think of things like this.
It's hard to believe that tomorrow is going to be the first day of May.
In one month we will have been in NC for a year. How impossible that seems and yet our lives in WV feel so much farther away.