We've been having an amazing heat wave with temps up near 110 degrees F. The daily routine consist of orchestrating the dance of fans, air conditioners and opening and closing various windows on either side of the house in a battle against the sun. The players in our quest to keep the house cool, we have the mister and I, my mom who has come to visit, and then there is the fur covered bunny rabbit who plays the role of the sympathetic victim quite nicely.
I thought images of this Underwater Sculpture Park in the Carribean would be a nice cooling off trick. It's the work of sculptor Jason Taylor from England, who has a passion for creating fantastic and unique pieces of work depicting Grenada’s colourful history and folklore and placing them underwater. All of the sculptures are in beautiful clear shallow water easily accessible by divers and snorkelers. The sculptures end up creating artificial reefs, and enhancing the marine environment.
The response from visitors diving the site has been reported as nothing short of amazement and fascination on the whole concept. What I wouldn't give to be there now!
SeaHorse Hale Kai has been a fun client for me since they offer a ton of creative projects like this hand carved wood sign that will hang by the door of their vacation property, and the flag below:
The logo was inspired from a Balinese wooden "Seahorse" they had found and hung in the open stair entry of their condo cottage. Hawaiiana aficionados, "Hale Kai" literally translates to "Ocean Home" in Hawaiian. The clients also wanted to have business cards with directions to the property on the back, wire bound journals, and scratch pads. They fell in love with two logos and so wanted to do a similar yet different one for the journal (see below). The interior decor as well as my work for them are inspired by the gorgeous view from the multi level decks that overlook the Pacific.
Welcome Marlene and Gene to the Antonio Designs family with their new business Honu Hawaiian Shave Ice. You can find them at the Ridgefield Farmer's Market every Saturday.
The market will be open in downtown Ridgefield, Washington from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., July 11 through October , Saturdays. Look for the market on Mill Street by the community center and in Davis Park. The market specializes in local organic produce and...Shave Ice!
Gene and Marlene came to the mainland from O`ahu many years ago. And while you can take them out of the islands, you can't take the islands out of them. After a while of thinking about how to incorporate Hawai`i into a business, they decided to go for it and open Honu Hawaiian Shave Ice.
The design process was pretty fun as they are a delight to work with. They knew what they wanted, just didn't have the means to get it finished. Which is where I came in. Such clever folks, Gene even fashioned a clever banner holder with bamboo!
MoveOn's partnering with acclaimed artist Shepard Fairey — who designed the iconic Obama "Hope" poster — to offer a FREE "Clean Energy for America" sticker.
It's free (including the shipping).Should you so be inclined to donate $3 you get 5 stickers to share with close friends. $20 will get you 50 stickers to share with the whole neighborhood. Consider switching to clean enery as well through your local energy provider. Oregonians can go here to find out more infomation.
Other works such as Aung San Suu Kyi poster can be downloaded for free from Fairey's OBEY site or purchased in large poster size format for $35
Taking a cue from Henry David Thoreau who wrote "our lives are frittered away in details...simplify, simplify", I decided it was time to get my office in order so that I could concentrate on the work rather than the mess. No, I did not take before photos. I probably should have to compare but honestly, its embaressing and better to forget.
If you are so blessed to be a neat freak or have talented, lives-as-she-teaches friends like Meagan who take organizing as their mission and come to your house to get you going, then you'll know how amazing it is to see how much more room you have when you simply put everything in it's place.
Personally, I am a "piler" as in, I organize by piles. There are listed here: 1. the pile to go through, 2. the pile to let sit for a week and finally 3. the pile you pretend doesn't exist because thinking about it hurts your head and makes you break out in a nervous sweat. And sure, there are the varying degrees of other piles that fit in between those three main ones. All of it taking up every flat surface of my office which sometimes escapes to the flat surfaces in the rest of the house.
To illustrate my past bad habits, there was a time when Meagan and Gretchen (another dear organizer friend) came to help clean out my bathroom for a move to a new house I was about to make. Much to my absolute surprise (and horror) we filled two garbage bags - the big black hefty kind - with expired allergy medicines, vitamins, half used hair products, lotions and old make-up. It was grotesque really, what one can accumulate and shove to the back of a very long closet and forget. It was like I grew up during the Depression or something and just never threw anything away. Any mentions of the word "purge" puts me on immediate defense. "What do you mean I need to get rid of this stuff? I NEED everything I have otherwise I wouldn't have it." Sound familiar?
After the first bag of trash, I asked them if they thought I might be crazy person? To which they reassuringly replied, No - it's not like you're THAT one lady on Oprah. Oh good, well at least I'm not ready to be on a reality show yet.
With notebook in hand, Meagan made the categories:
1. Identifying the areas in need help in (a work surface area, filing,
job stuff vs home stuff)
2. Purging and cleaning (the hardest part for sure - asking am I crazy?)
3. Separating the areas into their groups (crafts, graphics, mementos,
office supplies, and then rediscovering things I didn't know I had)
4. Buying bins and storage compartments (fun!)
5. Putting it all back in it's place and labeling (whoa - a relief!)
Three slightly overwhelming hours later with Meagan continually reassuring me we were close, a miracle occurred. All of a sudden there was space. Everything needed was still accesible, but there were a lot of empty spots. Apparently, I have a lot of mementos which are all now in two huge plastic bins in the basement and magazines from my wedding which I will never really need again. Though I did manage to save a few for "inspiration" when I design wedding invites.
I'm still a little skeptical and think we are forgetting a pile somewhere but no - it's all there. Imagine that shelf above jammed packed with magazines, papers, papers, junks, crafts etc. and now, I could almost get of rid of the entire bookcase. I could barely use my paper cutter becasue of the piles and now - there it is! Weird!
Big thanks to Meagan for helping me on this project and once again reminding me why cleanliness is next to godliness.