Martha and Daisy

It's very fashionable to diss Martha. Even before the trial and jail, everyone smirked when the subject of Martha came up. And when someone coos "oh, that's so Martha of you to do that!", that's a sharp object being inserted in your back.

Few people admit to liking Martha. Well dammit, I do.

Actually I don't know if I like Martha, the person. She sounds like she needs to relax a bit. I imagine I'd hate knowing her, living with her, or (heaven forbid) working for her. But she's done a 'good thing' for North America, single-handedly attempting to drag the American psyche out of the country kitsch where it's been mired for years.

I've been a magazine subscriber on & off for years, and I own a number of the cookbooks. I think the magazine suffers from a surfeit of 'what can we make with a glue gun and glitter and expensive ribbon?'. I hate most crafts so lots of that is lost on me. But there are usually some nice decor and gardening ideas and it's visually pleasing. Amelia likes cutting up the magazine into all kinds of collages and origami.

But the absolutely best thing Martha has done, is these:


See those paint chips at the bottom, the ones with the 4 co-ordinating colors? They rock. I love them. Her colors are gorgeous. Rich, deep, and edible.

You find a color you like, and when you flip the card over, it'll direct you to a matching chip on which it will be shown with three other complimentary or contrasting colors. The thing about this is that you can paint your whole home in this gorgeous palette of colors which go together beautifully but which still let you give some individual spark to each room. It's bloody brilliant.

And it's no longer carried in Canada. Now, the paint, I'm not sorry about. Frankly, Martha's Everyday Paint sucked. Not my idea of a good quality, hard wearing paint. After one try, we took her yummy colors to Home Depot and discovered they had all the formulas in their computer and so they mixed it up for us in Behr Paint, which is much better quality - especially their new 'washable flat'.

Martha has pulled her paint line out of Canada altogether and so that supply of paint chips which I've been stashing away for years is all I have. I might have to drive over the border one day and replenish my stock.

But I have most of my favourite colors here. As you can see, mostly blue, green, gray - the colors of the sea, with a healthy splash of cafe au lait. Somewhere in that stash is B29, Atlantic, the color of our master bedroom in our old place. It will be the color of our master bedroom here too. I haven't decided yet on the living space colors. The kids get to pick their own colors. Amelia is going for a really cheery, clear, lime green. Hugo wants a dark shade of royal blue. Good thing I can close their doors (and the doors will be painted MY shade of white, the one which will coordinate with the living space).

(oh, btw, that book in the photo? Nice to look at but not terribly helpful because it doesn't list many paint chip #'s. It is great for ideas and for seeing the various moods colors can create. And yeah, I know about the computer color matching but we've had mixed - hahaha - results with that. Sometimes the color matched color just lacks the real depth of the newer color formulations)

Other than playing with paint chips, organizing them in numerical order, reorganizing them by favourites, sticking them on walls with scotch tape to see the effect on the walls throughout the varied lighting of the day, we've been doing this:



We've been having a heat wave. Since we don't have patio furniture yet, we raided the pile of crap in the basement and came up with two little tables. Then we stole the cushions of the couches and presto, school outside. The blue deck chair is mine. With tethered cat because she's adamant about running away and I'm afraid she's too stupid to make her way home; she always falls asleep during geography.

The 2 week on/1 week off thing might work really well. We're just coming up to the end of week 2 and it's been going swimmingly.

Oh, and in the back there, lying against the house? That's Daisy. You might have been introduced to her as Lucky but she's now Daisy. We decided to rename her after doing some reading. Some trainers think it's a good idea with rescue dogs because their old name may be associated with neglect or abuse. And anyway, they react more to intonation than actual words anyway so you might as well call your dog a name you like. Roo & I picked the name and after about a week, we're mostly remembering to use it. She's doing very well and is growing in a luscious soft coat. Good diet & good supplements make such a huge difference.

So go have your omega oil supplements. :-)