it's almost october...

But here are some pictures from September-- just a few little things that have piled up on my camera. It's been a nice, quiet month.

A mysterious cat came to visit our backyard! [blurry effect thanks to the window screen]

The cat was gone by the time I went out to meet him, but I rediscovered the amazingness of our big tree.

Spying on Robert through some flowers.

Finally framed this print, which I got for my birthday. It's in our bedroom, and the green sky matches the wall.

I drew this monkey and was really impressed with myself. You can't see it, but he has glitter highlights. Been working through this book about drawing (which was also a birthday present)!

And finally, the new friend who's gracing the walls of our hallway. Another birthday gift -- it was a good birthday!

The weather is getting nice and cool here! My sister and her husband will be coming to visit us at the end of next week, and staying for a few days. I'm fairly excited about everything. How have you all been? I think this is a really fun time of year, when the seasons change.

book review: the people of paper

It's finally time for another book review for the Slow Readers! We're just now finishing up our 3rd book: The People of Paper by Salvador Plascensia. I've been reading along the whole time, but I was too lazy [/didn't feel very compelled] to post a review for the last book. This one was worth writing about.


The book is written from many different points of view: sometimes a character will get an entire chapter, while other chapters are divided into 3 columns on each page, all focusing on different characters in the book. Once you get into that flow it's not too hard to follow, even though new characters are introduced throughout the book. There were some very exciting characters, like...


The literary structure isn't the only interesting thing -- there are also a lot of neat formatting surprises tucked away in the book. I was always happy to discover them.


I won't go into the plot, because it might give away too much for anyone who hasn't read the book and is planning on it. It's definitely something that makes you think quite a bit. Some readers on the forum were talking about taking notes and trying to read it again to gain more insight. I think it would definitely be worth a second read, once you understand everything that's going on in the book.


One of the biggest themes I noticed in the book was sadness, and how each character seemed to have their own cure. But the cures all seemed self-destructive, as if there's just no escaping the sadness. Overall, it could easily be said that the book is about mourning.


But it's very surreal, and that's what kept my interest. I don't think I could read a book about lost love if it didn't include binary code by a mechanical tortoise.


There were some sweet parts, and there were a lot of not-so-sweet parts [even some very ugly parts], but all in all it was enjoyable and thought-provoking. I can say no more since Robert is reading the book now, and he already informed me that I spoiled it by telling him some other things. Oops!!

Can't wait to see what's next for the Slow Readers!

lately

New record: almost a month without blogging!! Sorry, everyone: it just sort of happened. I've been out of my online habits lately, and I think that's actually a good thing for me. When I'm keeping busy in real life, I don't feel like I need this outlet. But now that I actually have a day off with no plans, I'll share some pretty pictures from the last few weeks! Just a tiny peek.

Recently I have...

...let some giant sunflowers take over the kitchen

...had some zinnias hanging around in a jar

...discovered a fallen robin's nest

...spied a giant butterfly

...attended a gorgeous wedding

...blueberry waffles!!

...been moth-watching...

...AND MORE! Much much more. Those were just the pretty bits. Now for the apologies: sorry I haven't been around to visit everyone! I actually haven't been reading blogs, because I know I won't have time to comment in any sort of meaningful way. Didn't mean to disappear like that, but I just haven't felt too much like talking lately. Everything is good over here. I'm being contentedly quiet.

good neighbors

Hello! Hope everyone is having a swell week so far. I can tell this week is going to be another tiring one for me. Thankfully all of the moving is done now, but there is still plenty of unpacking to do and annoying paperwork to make sure our address is updated everywhere. It will be nice when things have settled down!

It DOES feel like we live in the house now, though it's still a big mess. But I love it here and I just wanted to let everyone know that we have some amazing neighbors. The day we started moving in, we met 4 of our neighbors. This past weekend we found ourselves inside one of their houses, sitting and talking. Yesterday afternoon, I peeked out the window and saw a couple headed my way with...

these flowers

and a pie.

THE NEIGHBORS BROUGHT US A PIE. There's pretty much no better way to win my friendship -- you have to be nice and friendly of course, but a pie basically seals the deal. (Any sweets, really.)

I've never been fond of chocolate pie, but this one is like a cross between brownies and pudding. And reminiscent of cookie dough. I don't know, it's amazing. I see a bright future ahead for us in this neighborhood!

complaints

A little rose plant I bought for the new house last week... which is still not in the house.

All of that optimism and problem-ignoring last week didn't really help me out -- we still haven't got our house. Thursday afternoon we were informed that there was going to be a delay because of some paperwork, and then Friday we found out it wouldn't happen until the next week. Yesterday we were led to believe that it might occur, but now it's been pushed back to this afternoon... and still there are no guarantees.

You can imagine what a nuisance it's been. This past weekend we had so much planned, and we had to cancel everything. Now, if we get the house today (or tomorrow, or whenever), instead of Robert's family coming up on the weekend to help like they'd planned to, it will be during the middle of the week. So unless we get any volunteers who don't have to work normal days, it will be just me and Robert moving all of our furniture. As my mom says, I'm "weak as a kitten" so this should be really exciting. Oh, not to mention it was a beautiful, WARM weekend, and now it's rainy and cold again. It would have been lovely to move a couple of days ago.

Unfortunately, since we're so good at organizing, we're already paying the utility bills for the house and our mail is going there as well. The only thing getting in our way is, y'know, paperwork and the fact that we don't have keys to the place. It's all fairly set in stone, but this scheduling and rescheduling is starting to get quite outrageous.

SO, hopefully I'll have some really neat pictures to share with you soon, but until then I'm just going to be sulking around our apartment and being continually disappointed while the title company leisurely screws up our schedule every.single.day. If it happens again today, I'm not sure what I'll do. Probably more of the same, since I've come to realize that my attitude can in no way affect the outcome of this situation. Agh, bureaucracy!

Sorry for whining. I've been trying to hold back in hopes that I'd have nice news soon, but.. nope. The reason this is such a big deal is that we're supposed to be out of our apartment by the end of this upcoming weekend. So each day this is delayed means a bigger time crunch for us and the moving schedule.

One good thing about today: I just figured out why my pictures have been so blurry lately when I make them big on here! That shouldn't be a problem anymore - if you feel like it go back a bit and look at how much clearer my pictures are now (for example: this post was totally blurry before). This post by Pip at Meet Me At Mike's is to thank!

flora and fauna

Orange Zinnia!

Although this past week has been fairly rainy, the weather today is absolutely beautiful! It's cool and breezy, which made our weekly visit to the farmers market very pleasant. I already mentioned how much I like the Franklin Farmers Market, but I think I'm in love now. It's so nice to walk around and have a treat; this morning we snacked on an amazing lemon bar. Sometimes we get fresh chocolate milk or this amazing kettle corn... mmm! It's such a tasty place, and so many of the vendors there are fun to talk to - we're already making some new farmer friends, which is a nice: we miss a few people from the farmer's market in Houston.

I'm having a great weekend so far, and I hope everyone else is as well! My birthday is Monday, so I'm getting very special treatment around here. :) Robert just ordered a new computer monitor for me, which is GOOD NEWS because I've been using a big clunker from a thrift shop ever since my regular monitor went out a few months ago. That'll be a welcome change!

Oh, and let's not forget this little guy. I felt like making something yesterday afternoon, and this is what happened! I think he's a cross between a panda, a rabbit, a t-rex and a turtle. He was a welcome-home-from-work-HEY-it's-Friday!! surprise for Robert.

weekend flowers

I don't consider myself much of a flower person-- at least not the typical kind, who finds roses beautiful and enjoys bouquets made by florists; I don't even own a proper vase!-- but lately I've enjoyed bringing fresh flowers into our house every week or so. This morning I came home with a zinnia and a sunflower from our CSA pickup. The couple who runs our CSA is adorable; their son, Ira, was selling sunflowers for $1 each this morning. I had to have one!




For some reason, using the macro settings on my camera to take closeups of flowers is irresistible to me. There are so many neat textures to explore!



And of course, I'm getting pollen everywhere. I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!

my weekend

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend - I definitely did! On Friday I became a bit bored with unpacking, so I decided to go for a walk. The short trip to the thrift store really cheered me up; it's good to know that I can get around, even when Robert takes the car to work!

I was careful about what I bought, because I didn't want to add to the clutter at home. My only purchase: the above dress. I think it's adorable, but I'll probably add it to my Etsy shop soon - I'd be keeping it if the colors were a bit more muted! As it is, I don't want to wear hot pink. See the way I'm staring at the ceiling in that picture? I was watching a wasps' nest. And very shortly after, I had a little fit because one of them flew at me. It was both hilarious and disheartening, and I gave up hanging out on the balcony until the next day, when we killed all of the wasps!


Saturday was all about food. We picked up our CSA share [see above - the basket was so full!] and then headed to the Franklin Farmers Market. It was our first time to go there, and it's going to become a weekly routine. It is amazing - the best farmers market I've ever been to! We bought fresh milk, eggs, cheese, lamb, and even some unnecessary carrots. That's the great thing about shopping at a farmers market - even if you buy something you don't need, it's nearly impossible to feel guilty about it. We'll just have to work some carrots into the menu this week [most likely in bread/muffin form]. I also don't feel guilty about buying meat there - you can talk to the people who raise the animals and it's very apparent that they all had happy and healthy lives!

The Zinnia that came with our CSA basket, wilted after the drive home

After doing our regular grocery shopping, we headed to Nashville to meet some of Robert's family for lunch. We ate so much food that we didn't even need dinner that night. But it was a good time!

The Zinnia perked up after a while in some sugar water!

We also accomplished a lot of unpacking this weekend. Robert is excellent at finishing big projects quickly, so he was able to clear the living room and office of boxes, while I spent a lot of time doing laundry and putting books on the bookshelf. I like little projects and I like to take them slow. :) The apartment is starting to look decent, so maybe some pictures will appear here soon!

By the way, don't forget to enter the mirror giveaway! You have a few more days.