Sure it’s only Wednesday. I’m early. I’m on top of things! Let me tell you about last week.

The fall semester started at Sierra College, and I was there! In parking lot hell. But since I am the early-bird. And on top of things. I was had plenty of time to sit waiting in the hallway before class started.

I’m taking Photography 60A – which is a b&w film class. I even added a lab class on Friday morning. Cause I think we all know how much I love working in the darkroom. Love. It.

So, that takes care of my Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings. And on Mondays and Wednesday, I have my sessions with Evil Trainer Adam. I’m out of the house 5 mornings a week now! It’s kinda like having a job again, but with more smelly chemicals and sore muscles. sweet.

We are! We watch Erin on the baby monitor reading late into the night. She gets that from me. This is Erin’s bed on a typical morning. Actually, on a typical morning there would probably be 3 more books in the bed, plus a couple Toy Story action figures. How does she sleep like that?

I’m pretty sure those cheap plastics chairs are not rated to handle that kind of load.

And it’s not like she doesn’t have a perfectly handy place to keep those books. Check out the forsaken bookshelf. It’s not all the way across the room, but at the foot of her bed!

And yes she does read yoga books. Baby is an enigma.

Well, isn’t this a fine way to start a Friday! As a Featured Artist at IndieInk.org!

Indie Ink is a non-profit independent literary and art collective and community of writers and artists who may not have been seen otherwise, but whose work is filled with such passion and spirit it demands to be seen.

It is run by some of my favorite people on the internet and has featured some of the people I “know” plus introduced me to some talented writers and artists I might not have found on my own.

So check the site out. Click through the archives, read, enjoy, and give these talented people some comment love!

So, this here blog? elfini? It’s all Julie Tilsner’s fault.  4 years ago she said “Hey Dawn, you should start a blog!” And when Julie says “Jump”, I say “Fine… if you insist. But I’m not going to enjoy it.” And I think we all know how well this turned out.

Anyway, a couple weeks ago, Julie finally said “Hey Dawn, you should redesign my blog!” And I jumped up and down, said yes, and insisted she bail on the evil Typepad and migrate to WordPress.

And a word of advice here – do not get me started on Typepad and the Six Apart world. The seething raging hate!!

Luckily Julie bent to my will and is now happily hosting Bad Home Cooking on a spiffy new WordPress installation. And it looks something like this:

www.julietilsner.com

Now click the pretty picture and bask in the glory of the new and improved Bad Home Cooking! Same old funny wrapped in a shiny new package.

More proof that I might need to have my head examined.

Three weeks ago I joined a gym. I had the manager waive the processing fee so that I could use that money to sign up for three 30 minute sessions with a personal trainer. And if you’ve been following along on Twitter or Facebook, you know that Evil Trainer Adam was obviously trying to kill me. Or so I thought. Apparently his desire to hurt me is only getting warmed up at 30 minutes. And yet, knowing that I lack discipline, I foolishly decided to give him all my money in exchange for having him continue to torture train me for 10 more ONE HOUR sessions.

yeah. That was smart.

I had the first 1 hour session yesterday. oh. my. god. That was not pleasant. Not only did he make me do lunges across the room again (I did that during our first session and couldn’t walk for 3 days!), but I had to carry a medicine ball in front of me and twist to the side with each lunge! WTF ETA? Cruel and unusual punishment. I think he must have studied under the CIA and received the coveted Dick Cheney Approval Award.

So yes, I’m a bit sore today. And yes, that is a “bit” of an understatement. My quads and glutes are not in their happy place. Which right now would be a hot bath full of Epson Salts. And tomorrow morning I’m scheduled to go back for more. Cause I’m insane!!

#1 – Signing up here (Grace In Small Things)

#2 – Potty training victories.

#3 – Erin talking to Uncle Paul on the phone.

#4 – Working on my painting all morning!

#5 – Quads so sore I can barely walk. (I’m complaining bitterly, but it’s a good thing, really)

Wage a battle against embitterment and take part in Grace in Small Things.

Last Saturday I attended a Monoprint wordshop at University Art taught by Tesia Blackburn and it rawked!

According to Wikipedia:

Monoprints are known as the most painterly method among the printmaking techniques, a monoprint is often regarded as a non-editionable kind of print and is essentially a printed painting. The characteristic of this method is that no two prints are alike. The beauty of this medium is also in its spontaneity and its combination of printmaking, painting and drawing media.

Sweet. I absolutely loved the technique! I’ve always been a fan of wordcuts, and have made several linocuts over the years, but this is so versatile and easy to do. A couple pieces of plexiglass, printmaking paper, and Golden Open Acylics and behold~

Tesia Blackburn demonstrating monoprint process.

More of the printingmaking techniques

Working on my second print.

And here are the prints I made:

And right now there is a sheet of 2mil plastic covering my dining room table so that I can make more!

5 years ago today I was doing this:

and a little bit of this:

and Kyle was sooo small…

Happy Anniversary Chris. I don’t do mushy.

Do you see this pretty girl here? This big girl?

Well as you’ve probably already heard, she finally FINALLY went potty on the toilet yesterday! I had an art class from 11am-4pm (more about that later!) and Chris decided she was gonna spend the day commando in hopes of making some progress on that whole potty-training thing. And it worked. Mad props to him! But he wasn’t the one promised all the goodies when she finally went on the potty. His mistake. We now own Erin ballet lessons, enrollment in pre-school, and a Nintendo DS!

dayum. That girl was holding out for the big ticket items.

No. Really. I’m adding this YouTube video as reseach for my job. It’s to help a client.

Doubters.