What...

What have I been doing you might ask during this nearly month long blog absence? I have been super busy. For example, the weekend before last, I had submitted one of the two big grants from the summer (the other is still being edited and I hope to submit it by the end of October). So, I did the things I had been meaning to do all summer. I got a second cabinet for my bedroom (so I don't have clothes all over the place). Here's what the two look like:
That's a cute owl on the upper handle. I also fixed the pulls - the cabinets come with white pulls, but I like the stainless/chrome much better since it matches the other accents in my room. But when I originally got them, the screws were too long for the cabinets. I've fixed this with some added washers. I could have purchased different screws, but the washers seemed faster since I didn't want to have to figure out the threads on the screws.

That weekend, I also cleaned all the floors in my house (well, okay, I haven't yet gotten around to vacuuming the guest room, but everything else is clean). It's lovely to have clean floors. I used some new fangled Meyer's lavender scent cleaner. It was quite soothing and nice and is supposed to be eco-friendly.

I also finally got around to painting the kitchen. I'm not totally thrilled with the results but it's growing on me. So here was the inspiration, these are the pulls on the kitchen cabinets, along with the color of the cabinets:

So are you ready for the finished product:

(the counters are actually more blue that it shows on my monitor.)
Also, I had a painting error that I have yet to fix. This is the ceiling above my sink. I have white paint to fix it with, just haven't had the time yet.
What else could I possible have fit into that weekend? Well, I'll tell you. Pilates, the farmers market, getting some new umbrellas and a funky orange blazer (very cool), some cooking of farmers market things, including my favorite potato salad complete with tomatoes from my garden plus my roast eggplant dish (super easy, just dice and mix with tomatoes and other veggies, drizzle with olive oil and balsamic and roast at 400 for 25 minutes or so).

This past weekend was much the same. Running, Pilates, farmers market, helping a good friend pack and load for a move (very sad!), to IKEA (bad idea, forgot about college move in, duh!), to Trader Joe's (yea! pizza dough) - that was Saturday. Sunday was a long 8 mile run outside. I have a hunch that's why I've also been MIA - the weather has been delightful! A few other things that I might elaborate on at some point. Then I worked on Monday and was very productive since there were no distractions from students. Monday night I made a delicious frittata with farmers market eggs, local smoked swiss cheese, roasted corn and basil! Yum! And now it's back to the usual routine. Teaching, seminars, advising (and sometimes badly), faculty meetings, and the like. It's been busy!