Kerry Washington reads Sojourner Truth

Cookie LaRue sings "Killing Me Softly with Islam"

This is really something. really, really something.

Painting photos

So the lighting's all wrong, and I still have to repaint the trim and hang some of the wall decor, and maybe put on another coat of red if it doesn't 'cure' in a more even fashion, but this gives some idea of what the redecoration is all about.

So, more fun with color. These are some of the shades I'm thinking about . . .

For the living room and kitchen:

For the bathroom:

For the office:
For the bedroom, to contrast the new turquoise wall:


Here's the whole palette with notes:

Color achieved

So, I settled on the even more saturated version of what I was looking at:

Painting underway . . . and photos to come as soon as it's dried and I can find my camera!

Longing for color

I don't know if it's the cold weather or what, but I'm thinking a lot about home decorating lately. And I'm really getting the itch to do a little painting in my house. Though it was the living room I was really wanting to do before, my new area of particular interest is my bedroom. My idea is to do a bold turquoise wall behind my vanity to create a fun, relaxing space for dressing and getting ready in the morning.

So I've been poking around, I stopped in town to look at paint chips, and this evening I looked for some examples of bold turquoises I like. I once had a scarab that my elementary school friend Lisa brought back from Egypt, and this is kind of the color I'm thinking about, to contrast dramatically with my deep red comforter.

I like the idea of using non-toxic paints, so I'm leaning toward Mythic, and I think I'm mostly settled on Island Magic, below. It would probably be more sensible to take time and think about it, and consider the other shades a bit more, and bring home chips to look at in different light, but I'm feeling like doing something whimsical, and buying a quart of bright paint to color a wall seems like it could be just the thing.

Conference preparations

Well, conference time is coming up fast -- four presentations in the next couple of months. This is exciting and nerve-racking, both. I still have some writing and work to do on the papers themselves, and I want to prepare Powerpoint presentations with the images I am talking about, for sure.

I'm going to have a fun toy to aid me, the Targus Voice Recording Presenter with Laser Pointer, which I found refurbished for a nice fat discount. It will give me the flexibility to change the slides while moving around, which I definitely like to do. And I ordered some reasonably cute professional clothes, a chocolate brown pinstripe suit and a red double-breasted suit, both of which I think I can wear with the Born shoes I got on sale in New York, so I won't look totally sloppy.

I submitted my request for funding for the one in Scotland in March, and I've got my fingers crossed. Oh man, I guess I had better get my passport renewed!!!