from now on:

I had a "duh" moment yesterday. Marcel and I spent the day at Sky Ball Park in Soquel with our special friends (one of them pictured above with Marcel; we’ll call her Cutie Pie). I remembered to bring my camera with me. Later in the evening I recalled that I needed to find something for "Blue" Thursday. Well, let me tell you the reason that they call it Sky Ball Park…the backdrop is a hillside on which three humongous blue balls are perched; like the rock that Indiana Jones runs from "humongous". When we pulled in to park there was one staring us directly  in the face.  And did I take a picture? Take note; there isn’t one posted above. "Hmmm, blue. What can I find that’s blue?"

Here is the last thing that I did before I fell into a menstrual migraine hurricane:

I like making origami out of bills to leave as tips at restaurants. You can find the instructions for this one at MAKE blog.

I spent my birthday, June 2nd, at the emergency room with a beyond-unbearable-migraine. Did you know that it is common for the staff at ER’s to treat migraine patients as "drug-seekers"? Yes, it’s true. I had been treated inhumanely by ER staff so often, and didn’t know why until one night I happened to see a re-run of the TV show ER where they revealed this stereotype of the lowly, lower-than-low drug-seeker. Am I using too many hyphens for you? I say, to all you disgruntled and sleep-deprived ER workers, "Let them eat hyphens." Apparently since anyone can claim to have a migraine, people sometimes make false claims in order to get narcotics.

I mean really. It would not be my first, second, third, fourth…well, you get the idea…choice of how to have a happy birthday. Oh yeah, "Hmmmm, what would be the most pleasant thing to do today?" Ponder, ponder. "I know, I’ll go down to the ER and lay on the frigid linoleum floor in the waiting room for over an hour, with my kitchen saucepan full of bile, then get lead into the sanitarium, I mean exam area, and proceed to be treated in an increasingly degrading and hostile fashion by each staff person that I encounter in my journey that will span five hours, in order to get  the lowest possible dose of morphine (my request) and then spend the next two days recovering from the side-effects of the drug." Wouldn’t you want to do that for your birthday treat??

Is this too much reality? I dedicate this post to Aurora, who notes that many blogs can be full of fairytale fluff. I will be back in Cinderella form in no time!

I’m overdue in thanking Courtney, over at Style Court, for posting my latest room design. A big merci beaucoup! Below is a glimpse of Courtney’s living room. She has exquisite taste and a keen eye for details. See for yourself by visiting her blog.

After three months of near soild rain, we went straight into full-on sun and temps in the 90’s. Too much, too soon. So this weekend I’m grateful for a little rain, and I’ve seized the moment to do some artwork with Marcel. Here he is painting his version of Monet’s Poplars on the Epte (1891).

Marcel has journeyed to the site where the original was painted at Giverny. It’s a truly magical place.