Five Weeks In

Can I just say how grateful I am to have a job? Sure, I haven't been to the office in five weeks, but knowing that it's there when I'm ready to return is so awesome. I'm starting to count the days left--10 to be exact--with both anxious excitement, because I am bored out of my MIND being at home for so long, and certain dread, because I know that it's been crazy at work since I left, and I'm going to be working more than 40 hours a week right off the bat I'm sure. There was some shuffling of teams and what not while I was gone too, so I'll be returning to a slightly different dynamic. Hopefully the new peeps will be as cool as my old peeps. I'm sure they will be.

Anyhow. What have I accomplished in five weeks of free time? Well, mostly I've done a LOT of cleaning, and let me assure you that cleaning gets REALLY old really quickly. I also put up and partially took down the Halloween decor. The biggest endeavor was painting my sliding glass door, which I did around the first of October. As I intended, my condo was easily discernible for a while:

I love Halloween. I was going for a sunken pirate ship look, because I refuse to take down the fish I decorated with for my birthday :) You can't see it in this picture, but there are bloody hand prints in the porthole on the right. I love how acrylic paint just scrapes right off of the glass! For the moment my sliding glass door is clear, but rest assured that it will not be for long!

I've been to Idaho Falls once, and I made my momma a quilt for her birthday. Check it out!

Neato, eh? I like how the stripes go different directions. I did that on purpose. Mom took it to a Skyline Football game and received a death threat, apparently, because our rival's school colors are black and orange. In the shared stadium it's practically blasphemy to take orange onto the Skyline side, or blue onto the IF side. Mom pointed out the purple and was let off the hook, I guess. I'm thinking she won't take it to another football game anytime soon :) I've got enough material for a second one, which I will get around to actually assembling sometime between now and next Halloween.

Owning my house is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than renting ever was for many reasons. My favorite part about it, though, is the fact that I can decorate however I want. And that means painting my walls as such:

The fish aren't painted (I'm not THAT talented). I just loved how the turquoise I chose for that wall looks like ocean water, so I couldn't resist completing the scene with coral and what not. Took me all day, but I'd rather spend my time being artistic and creative than any other way!

Speaking of which, I have spent quite a lot of time at the pottery studio in the last five weeks. I've thrown a lot of useful things lately. I'm particularly proud of my salt and pepper shakers, which will hopefully be ready by Christmas so that I can give one of the two pairs away. As always, though, I'll be surprised if that actually happens. November and December are traditionally very crazy months at the studio, and I learned long ago not to expect too much as far as finished product goes during these months. I guess we'll see. I'll be posting pics eventually :)

So that's basically it. I am going scuba diving for the first time ever tonight with T at the scuba place in Holladay. I'm totally stoked on that. I think that it's something I could really get into. But for the time being there is yet more cleaning to do around here. Such is the life, I guess.