oh boy do we have projects...

I'm posting this picture so that every time I come check up on my bloggy, with the intention of checking on the blogs listed down the side over there, I will be reminded that there are more important things to do. Like finishing tearing down the wallpaper. And folding the laundry.

World Cup or Final Destination?

Kerr Smith of Dawson's Creek/Final Destination fame and USA world cup star Landon Donovan, separated at birth?

No, but c'mon, look at that, I bet you don't even know which one is which. Actually, knowing who actually reads this thing you probably didn't know who either of these people were to begin with. Uninteresting little fact though, they were born almost exactly ten years apart and are both Aries. The more you know...

today's completely useless facts brought to you by, well, me. I'm full of them, just ask.

living in glass houses...

Today was terrarium day at casairlanda!

gooooooooooooooaaaallllll...

In 1998 I watched the world cup on a VHS in a dorm room. A friends parents had taped it for us and we watched it a week later when we received the tape. Back then you could do that, the U.S. news wasn't as on top of what was going on as it is now. There was no internet in the way we have it today either, no smart phones, no google news updates, no msnbc home pages, and no constantly updated Facebook statuses. All we had to do was avoid the newspaper and we were fine.

Not anymore. This morning we had some friends over at 7am to watch the U.S./Algeria game. We couldn't have them over at the more reasonable time of 9am when CBC was replaying the game, because by then facebook etc would have alerted us to the outcome. And most sporting events lose their appeal if you already know the final score. Turns out the only channel (besides espn3 which we don't get) that was playing it live was Univision. Which was amazing. Even with only understanding bits and pieces of what the broadcasters were yelling, they do so with such enthusiasm and heart that it elevates the excitement to another level. For 91 minutes the game was scoreless, and for 91 minutes we were all hooked to the television. And between the pelotas, the corazones, and the arribas we had breakfast. A breakfast that happened to be perfectly fitting for a Univision World Cup: Chorizo Breakfast Burritos with pico de gallo, and strawberries and mangoes on the side.

(I forgot to take pics of our sabrosa breakfast, but it looked a lot like this one)

Oh yeah, and we won, by 1 goal scored in stoppage time. It was awesome, you should've seen it.

'cuz I'm blue daboodeedaboodie!

I didn't get a chance to paint yesterday. We had an excessive amount of dishes leftover from our rib dinner fest the night before. And I decided my one to two things would include a lot of yardwork! I mowed the lawn, I pruned back the bamboo, and I cleared out one of our beds that had been taken over by ferns (the kind that take over). Instead of me painting, I had my nails painted! Blue! I am making it a mini goal of mine to completely revert back to my high school sartorial self. It's therapeutic, on many levels. In my last job it was against dress code to have your nails painted anything but french manicure style. So this was one of the things on my list of things to do that I couldn't do before, another one is going to see my parents, ON THE WEEKEND!!?!? Which I will be doing tomorrow! So far, so good.That totally counts as one to two things...

PASSIONATE ABOUT FOOD.

Do you see what the God's do to you, when you declare to be more passionate about cooking? They toss one of these whoppers on ya! Via a friends facebook post...this has got to be, next to the bacon maple bar, one of the greatest things on this planet. If there was ever a time to get passionate about cooking again it's a giant flippin' griddle with bacon-cakes sizzling on it. I am A) Jealous that I can't do this with 'real' pancake batter, and instead will have to try it with GF batter, B) Hungry all of a sudden, C) ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?! and D) a little bummed I didn't think of this earlier...I mean, we are all aware of Toad in a Hole and Egg in a Basket and Pigs in a Blanket so why didn't we think of this sooner?!?!?

hearts. hearts. hearts exploding.

I'm not the only one...

This was, ironically, a blog posted today at hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com...our little one to two things works well for all kinds of people.

One to two things

We have a family rule around here...it started with my brother, Houston, when he lived in Tucson the first time around. He had left school, was looking for a job, was 21 and just chilling. He made a point to do one to two things a week, if he accomplished that he would be happy. Here at casairlanda, we've adopted this rule and adjusted it to 'one to two things a day'. We feel pretty good if we can do one to two things daily around here. Everyday things don't count, waking up, going to work, eating, dishes, laundry...those sorts of things. We are talking big things, out of the ordinary things, or things that have needed to get done for awhile. Yesterday I cleaned out my car and I did a goodwill run! One to two things! Today Jesse is finishing a slideshow project for work and getting his haircut! One to two things! It feels especially wonderful when you add a third and a fourth thing to your list, but you don't have to as long as you hit one or two you can feel pretty good about yourself.

Today, I had a job interview and I'm making ribs for the first time.

Oh yeah, and I painted. Again. Yesterday, and the day before, and today, and tomorrow. Can you believe I've actually painted a little every single day, like I said I would? Pretty stoked. Here are one to two of my little sketches....gouache again!

mi casairlanda es su casairlanda

A lady in waiting...

It feels really, really, nice to have a paintbrush in my hand again...it has been, no exaggeration, years. It's nothing really, a little sketch, with my new gouache and some new brushes, figuring out how paint moves again, the way colors like to play together. And on top of that, gouache is something I've never worked with before. It's like watercolors and acrylics made a baby just for me. So much fun, it's quick and immediate and rich like acrylics, and flows and dances and melts like watercolors.

It was strange though, picking up the brush, finding the scrap piece of watercolor paper, grabbing an old book about the pacific northwest...and sitting down and painting....this is not what I expected to happen. Part of it was automatic, came back to me like I never left it. But it was also awkward, like running into an ex boyfriend, so much intimacy once shared that seems so irrelevant and slightly embarrassing now. I had to get over my own rules, my own criticisms and just leap. And in the end, it was exactly what I needed to get out of this slump...to get out of my head.

Being unemployed is both scary and amazing. It leads you to do things out of the ordinary. I went dancing with a couple of sisters I kind of know last night. An invitation I would normally turn down because it might be awkward, dancing always is. But I had nothing else to do so I went, and I had a lot of fun. And today, I painted. I am going to escape the shells I have crawled into the last couple of years. I am going to paint, everyday, and I am going to dance, and I am going to cook in the way I used to, with passion and love. I am going to be in this home that we have built and appreciate the walls and the structure and the power of it all. I am going to look at my husband and really see him and be aware of all that we have. I am going to be adventurous with fashion and with decorating and in literature. I am going to find the person I used to be before I allowed my fears of inadequacy in the workforce, my fears of failing, my fears of not being good enough take me under and bury me. "Up there, up there it's their time, but down here, down here it's our time"

Well, that's how I'm feeling right now anyways. Check in with me in another week when I am freaking out that I haven't found a new job yet. In the meantime, let's just enjoy this little painting and this little epiphany I am having...

corn?

When did I eat corn?

suki desu!

I want one of these, in front of casairlanda...it's a Japanese Snowbell, even the name is romantic. Plus, it's one of those trees that turns rusty red in the fall...I love a tree that recognizes seasons...

For some reason, as I lie here with a sore throat, achey joints, and no way to breathe through my nose, I had this sudden urge to landscape. Not garden, landscape. I need to move some dirt and plant some trees....

Summer is making up for Winter.