chalk paint and summer storms

This blog has been quiet of late, due partially to a (very) little bit of writing (hurray!) and idea-hatching and a vow to spend a little more time relaxing and being social.  Also, I've had two four-day weekends in a row, both of which I spent mostly away from the computer.  

I've lost track of most of what I was going to write about here, although one notable standout was almost getting hit by lightning last weekend.  We were out on our back porch, moving a painting project out of the way of a sudden impending downpour, and lightning struck the transformer on the closest pole to our apartment...less than 10 meters away.  It was like a bomb going off: a huge flash, sparks, smoke, and it felt like everything was shaking.  My husband's ears were still ringing hours later.  (He was closer.)  We lost power, but we went to a movie, and by the time we came back, it had been restored.  It was also a real neighbourhood occurance, as everyone milled around once the rain let up a bit and the scariest part of the storm had passed, to say, "Did you see that??"  

The painting project in question has also taken up a fair bit of time.  Here is a "Before" picture:

 A photo of our bargain hutch from the Kijiji listing ($80!)

A few weekends ago, we went on a quest to Pointe Claire to buy this special chalk paint that doesn't require any stripping or sanding before application.  (Just a coat of wax afterwards.)  I'm really happy with how it worked out...I only wish I had bought more paint because there are so many things I'd like to update!

We started with something small...a random wooden star decoration that I've had forever:

 The paint and the star.

(Also, if you look in the top right of the photo, you can see the

 I Heart Cheese graffiti tagger has struck in our alleyway. I much 

prefer "I Heart Cheese" to fellow tagger "Cobra Cock".)

Random blue star ready to be deployed.

Then on to something bigger...We started the hutch last weekend and finished it up last night.  The weather (perpetual intermittent rain) has made things difficult!  My husband did more of the painting, but we both did the waxing and the buffing.

D.fixing the cabinet door closing mechanism.

Finding enough room to paint on the deck was a bit of a jigsaw among the few remaining bins and boxes of smoky things we're still hoping to clean.

 I probably wasted too much of the purple accent paint inside the drawers. 

It turned out not to suit the spot we'd planned to put it, but we found an even better spot on the other side of the room.

Finished hutch!  I'm really happy with how it turned out.
(Though it needs to be levelled off to compensate for 
our sloping floor, and we still need to replace a pane 
of glass. I'd like to change the lower knobs eventually, too.)

We have a few more budget pieces we're hoping to paint, if the weather and our patience cooperates.  It's almost unbelievable that it's already July and it feels like the summer has barely started. 

On a non-chalk-paint front, some nice things have been happening with the book lately, too, but I think that will be a separate post...

Epic Sunday and other randomness

On Sunday morning I had a photo shoot with Terry Byrnes, which felt like a rite of passage for a Quebec writer.  (If you're not familiar with his work, you can read a little about it here.) It was so nice to meet him at last, and I’m very curious to see the results!

On Sunday afternoon, we officially moved over to our new apartment (i.e. slept over there), even though things are in shambles and we’re still missing a lot of important everyday items (curtains, coffee maker...). But I'm ecstatic, anyway. 
 
Then, on Sunday night, I had such a fun talk with a book club in Toronto.  Sadly, the connection wasn’t good enough to sustain a Skype chat (though we got a brief glimpse of each other!), so we chatted on the phone.  Thanks so much to those generous readers for inviting me in!  I loved hearing their smart insights into the novel, as well as other books their club has enjoyed over the years (note to self: read Colum McCann).  If only the snacks could have beamed through the phone, too...

I view this as major progress, by the way, that a day with two such semi-public-writer engagements didn’t totally undermine half of my week with anxiety leading up to either one.

In other bookish news, I also recently recorded an excerpt of Bone & Bread for Cityline, which you can listen to on their website here.  It’s about five minutes of me reading from the first chapter.   

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Last night I went to my first sewing class (led by the costume designer in my knitting group, mentioned before here).  I was more than a little afraid that I would be the worst one in the class (flashbacks of grade seven and grade eight home ec class!) and attending has done very little to allay those fears.  But I’m trying to hold on to some shred of misplaced confidence after sewing all those wedding banners last summer.  It is a little unfortunate, however, that accurate tracing and cutting in a straight line are among my two worst skills.

 Tracing my skirt-to-be

Other randomness:

Some pink corduroy pants I keep trying to get rid of somehow keep coming back into my life.  They’ve been given a leg up by the fire (they were in a bag in the car, and therefore smoke-free) and the unseasonably cold weather. Someone send me the strength to just stop wearing them.

I’ve been sleeping on a makeshift pillow composed of a pillowcase, a blanket, two sweatshirts, a zip-up fleece, and a towel.  I’ve finally smooshed it into exactly the right shape to be able to procrastinate on pillow purchasing for another week.

I’m desperate to sit down and read something, but these days are so busy it’s impossible to justify.  Even my lunch hour has its own list of errands.

I’ve been dreaming prolifically at our new apartment.  I’ve had more vivid dreams in the past four nights than I’ve had in as many months.