On the List of Books To Read

On the list of my books that I need to read is everything ever written by Tate Hallaway, because I used to work in an Occult Book Store. Now she's been features in MN Women's Press under her normal name, and the one that I know her by, Lyda Morehouse.

"I guess I'm fascinated by the darker side of people," Morehouse said. "I really wanted a character like Garnet who chose to call a dark goddess to defend her coven, and she wound up-with some complicity at least-engaging in murder. I wanted to pair her up with a parasite of humanity. I wanted her to have some darkness to go with his darkness."

Yup, Lyda knows how to take things to a new level. I am already a fan of hers with her SF books, and I've started reading a little romance lately, as a book was loaned to me to read over my lunch break. I'm a regular reader of Lyda's Live Journal, and I really need to keep up with her books. It takes a lot less time to read a book than to write one, so I'd better get started right away!

Also, I sadly missed the deadline for pre-registering for CONvergence, so I'll be paying the at the door rate. That really sucks, I thought I had until the end of May, but noooooo the cutoff was May 15th. So now I find myself wondering if it would be worth it, especially since we decided to save our pennies and not get a room. Decisions can be so tough sometimes!

House as Art Project

I'll be completely honest with you, it's been ages since I sat at my drawing table or easel. But that doesn't mean I haven't been painting, I have, mainly walls. You see, I'm working on the biggest art project of all...my house. And I have a vision of how it will look when it's done. It will be beautiful and warm, an old house that Elrond himself would find comfortable. That's right, I'm creating my own Elf Friendly Hideaway here in Minneapolis. I have dreams of parties with live music and laughter, art on display everywhere and someone playing one of MacGregor's games in the corner, someone else is getting a tarot reading or maybe some Reiki in the studio...ah yes that is my dream. And the gardens, don't forget the gardens! We have a brick patio with a lamp post in the backyard, just like in Narnia. Along with the hedge of Lilacs, what more could a person want?

Well anyway, I've been busy painting walls, and pulling up carpeting in the upstairs hallway, as well as on the stairs themselves. The hardwood floors underneath are in beautiful condition, and I know just how I'm going to decorate the hallway. I still have to pick out the main wall color for the stairwell, and then there's wallpaper to take down in the spare room that we will be renting out. So you can see why there hasn't been much time for painting on canvas lately. Oh I have plenty of ideas that I would like to get to, but I need to get this house decorating business out of the way first.

And the stairs are solid wood, I'm guessing Oak like the rest of the walls. What more could a girl ask for? My husband doesn't quite understand my love affair with the hardwood floors, it was like Nirvana taking them up. I feel like hundreds of fairy folk were trapped underneath of the carpeting, and taking it up released them all. This is the first time I've worked on a scale this size, and there are always more details to get taken care of. Like all the staples in the stairs that have to be pulled by hand, and then there will be the cleaning and filling and polishing. You get the idea. Weeks of work ahead of me and me having to work to pay the bills too. But I love what I'm creating, and since we're planning a big party in July I want to get as much done as possible before then. So I trotted across the web over to Amazon.com to get myself this nifty Wallpaper Steamer so I can start tackling the wallpaper around here with a little more than just my muscles. But I might just have to sneak some art time in there somewhere, between practicing songs with my sister to sing at the Bardic Circle maybe. The creativity is still flowing, just in some different directions.