Painting

So today, instead of reading or watching Avatar or doing whatever after writing my review of The Count of Monte Cristo, I painted. Working mostly on those angel paintings I started awhile ago and will probably hate soon (come save them before I give them flying lessons, mom, because I'm running low on unused boards and canvases and Hated Paintings are almost as good) and a new one, which is mostly finished because its small and simple and was basically just a "I haven't painted in awhile so I'm gonna take things easy to get into the swing of things" painting.

Lisa watched most of the time I was painting and I was actually able to mostly forget she was there, which was a good thing, or I would have been all self-concious and stopped painting. Though apparently watching me paint is rather entertaining...?

I took this picture and sent it from my new phone, just by the way. I'm still trying to get used to the new phone.

Whatever flips your cookie

So now that it's summer I have time to do all sorts of things that I didn't really do much of during school. I've been using most of this freedom time for drawing and reading and watching avatar and hanging out with roommates and such. Today, I decided to do something I love but haven't really done much of recently--bake!













Macaroons and Chocolate Chip Cookies! The recipes I'd usually use for these are in recipe books at home and not in my recipe box, so I searched online for recipes. I'm really happy with the results, I need to keep these recipies for future deliciousness.

http://www.joyofbaking.com/CoconutMacaroons.html
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Best-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies/Detail.aspx

Wear the old coat and buy the new book. -Austin Phelps

Yesterday was payday. Today was a bookstore day. I spent less than twenty dollars. Only got three books. I feel pretty good about myself.

Todays haul:

The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Barnoness Emmuska Orczy. Because I loved this book and read it a few times growing up and I need my own copy that ISN'T the Readers Digest Version. No, I'm not joking--the copy we had at home was part of the "Readers Digest Abridged Classics" series. And all fiction was 25% off, so it was only $3.71 even before you also subtract my employee discount.
Crown (and Court) Duel, by Sherwood Smith, because I've been wanting to re-read it for awhile and I wanted my own copy and it was paperback and therefore cheap.
Amulet: the Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibushi, a graphic novel, because I read it awhile back and I really liked it. And it has nice colors. :D


While we're on the subject of books, I'm in the middle of Too Many, but I'm mostly enjoying myself anyway. Nausicaa and Harry Potter are paused while I finish Poisonwood Bible, which is quite good, and King of Attolia, which I'm marking. Since Deidre seems to be in a similar situation as far as reading too many books at once, Thief is also paused. Count of Monte Cristo is going well, but I'm not sure how much I actually like it. There is cool intrigue and such, but I just really don't like the Count at all. I'll expound upon this subject more when I finish the book, so keep checking the book blog.


And, if you haven't already, check out my art blog to see what I've been doing at work these last couple weeks.

So

I haven't posted anything in awhile. This is mostly because I haven't really got much to say.

The job is awesome (as I've said) and I'm still getting used to, but rather enjoying, my free time (see book blog/list). Except for the fact that the hours of the MAC lab in the summer are cut short. Which means its only open for an hour after I leave work. Which is barely enough time to do anything. And I was going to develop my Drawing On The Computer Skillz this summer (*sigh*). I've been doing ALOT in Illustrator for Work (speaking of, I want to check with my supervisor to make sure its fine to post it in my art blog--it probably is, but just precaution, you know) but nothing in Photoshop. So me and the Pen Tool are good friends, but me and the Brush Tool & tablet.... eh, not so much. I guess I could draw here, but that would require borrowing Annie's computer and Jocelyn's tablet at the same time. Which is just... kind of alot of Simultaneous Borrowing From Roomies for Quite Awhile? Which I might do if I start to get desprate.

One day (*waving prophetic finger*) one day I will own my own MAC (complete with adobe suite) and tablet! And nice camera (that shoots raw but isn't too coplicated)! ONE DAY THEY WILL ALL BE MINE.

Anyway.

Shanelle is coming over tomorrow and I'm excited!

Shannon Hale is going to be at the Provo Library this Saturday and I'm excited!

Life is good and mostly stress free and I love it!

Realization

So I realized something today while I was working in the bookstore. (Which was very nice, just by the way. When I'm not there for hours every day I don't get sick of those shelves that I have practi-mostly memorized...)

So all the time I'm doing in the bookstore is alternate Saturdays, and then I'm on call if someone goes on vacation or something.

Paydays are alternate Fridays.

Yesterday was payday.

Today was my day in the bookstore.

This pattern will continue. Payday Friday, followed by Hours in the bookstore I haven't been visiting as much lately the day after.



Do you know what this means?

This means that the day I feel rich is the day I'll be spending my day surrounded by books. Books for sale. Beautiful, beautiful books for sale.

Today I only got five. And they were all from the bargain table. And they were all worth it. I am a better, happier, more fulfilled person for owning these books! Ok, well, you know what I mean.

Todays haul:

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale, because the hardback was on the bargain table for less than I would spend on a paperback
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusac for the same reason, even though I haven't read it yet (and I DON'T BUY books I haven't read as a general rule) because I fear Dire Punishment from Shanelle if I don't read it soonish
That Book Woman, a picture book with a great story and pictures--wonderful gesture in the drawings, *love*
We the People, a kids history book that I needed because the watercolor illustrations are phenomenal and the illustrator is Officially one of my All Time Favorites.
Cheyenne Medicine Hat, a book about Native American horses with Really Boring Text but gorgeous illustrations.


All of these, hardback, for less than twenty dollars. Oh, and I grabbed three ARCs for myself. I mean, seriously, how could I resist?

Oh Yeah. I have a Blog.

This week has been a good one. I started my new job, and it is wonderful. I'm being paid to look at and make pictures. Sweet. There are some catches/difficulties--I can't just draw whatever I want, of course--but thinking of ideas to fit the assignment is kind of fun in its own way. Challenging, yes. But enjoyable.

Though I did make a rather stupid mistake yesterday. Or this week, I guess.

You see, I've stayed On Call at the bookstore--not because I wouldn't want to work my other job full time, but because they asked me to. And I rather like the bookstore's employee discount. And having access to ARCs. And books in general.

So anyway, my bookstore supervisor asked me to help in the bookstore Friday evening because of Womens Conference. So I tried to calculate the hours I worked that week so that I could work that evening without going over 40 hours. Unfortunately, I didn't count the hours correctly. I was thinking of the week as starting on Monday... forgetting the fact that I worked Saturday, and Fridays are pay days. So Saturday was part of this work week.

Fortunately before clocking in at the bookstore I went and asked how many hours I had, just to make sure--and I found that I'd already worked all my hours, because the hours I thought I'd kept free to work that evening I'd worked on Saturday. Ugh.

So I went and told the General Book people what had happened, feeling immensely stupid and apologetic. Then I walked home to eat.

As I walked I was thinking, now what am I going to do? I feel stupid and guilty and just plain bad for letting my supervisor down, I didn't plan anything for this evening because I was going to be working.... I guess I could just read... thats it!

I hurried and ate at home and headed back to the bookstore. I told the people at the general book desk that I wouldnt be shelving or anything and wouldn't be technically working, but I would be reading against the back wall in case anyone needed help finding stuff in the Childrens Section.

I had brought Dandelion Wine and The Poisonwood Bible with me, but I decided to read something else. Shelves of books were at my disposal. Having talked to my mom about the book The Perilous Gard the night before, I had that book on my mind, so I went and grabbed Elizabeth Marie Pope's other novel, the Sherwood Ring, which I read 2/3s of while I was not-really-working-but-avaliable-to-help at the bookstore (I only ended up helping one person, but I felt less stupid by being able to slightly make up for my stupid mistake) and I finished it when I got home afterward.

But sitting in a bookstore not as an employee for a few hours is not really such a good idea for me, or at least my bank account if you know what I mean. I went home not only with a shiny new copy of the Sherwood Ring, but also a pretty copy of Jane Eyre (There are four or five editions in the bookstore, I chose the one that didn't have an ugly painting on the front. I'm one of those shallow people that judges books by their covers) and a hardback copy of The Princess Academy from the bargain table (one that they forgot to put the Newbery sticker on. I was looking for one that had a less-rumpled sticker, and I was very happy to find one with no sticker at all.)

I've got to take advantage of my employee discount while I still have it, eh?

Speaking of books, Emily and I are starting a Book Review Blog. We're still in the process of getting it up and running, but we've both got a book review up. Predictably, mine is much more rambly and much less to the point than Em's, but what can I say? When it comes to books, I get pretty rambly.