That book by Nabokov

Family

Everybody loves Uncle Justin.

Ocean!

Campin', campin'...campin' machine.

Where you been? Camping! We spent a week in Carpinteria right on the beach. Our tent was in sand! Or sandy dirt. Still,...good times.

This is a photo of the tent instructions. Turns out that before we got our roof fixed, it leaked into the tent. So we had to google our instructions in order to set it up. Googling while camping is awesome!

The beach was separated from the camp ground by a sand dune. Here's a view from the top:

John setting up the tent:

Bee setting up the tent:

Bee checking out the campsite:

Treasure Hunting!

Sunset!

It's a little confusing when you face the ocean and south. It's supposed to be west!

The next morning we woke up to find that critters had eaten 13 of our eggs! They were also fond of avocados.

Paint and a haircut...

While I was painting the fence...

Hartwell thinks he has a "ball spot. A bouncy ball spot."

Considering I have at least 9 pairs of scissors laying around , each with their own specific use, I'm amazed he made it four years without a self haircut.

Mostly I'm annoyed because he told me he wanted long hair, so I was letting him grow it out. And it's been at that lame-o grow out stage for two months. And then he chops it because he wants "curly hair."

Stuff I did while waiting for a new camera.

So maybe I didn't "bloom" the roses and wildflowers. But they were not at all entertaining before my camera broke.

Ode to a Beloved Camera

My camera finally broke. My beloved camera. I think it was 3 years old? John just came home from work and gave it to me. They use cameras at work a lot, (duh, Courtney he works on a tv show) and he was using his Eric's camera, liked it and bought one for me. For such a small, inexpensive camera, the photos were amazing.

I needed a new blog entry and just had my date with Deborah to Anthropologie where I bought some new knobs for the bathroom. She told me to do a post just about the knobs, because, though it might seem easy, there was a lot of talking to get the right knobs. And Deborah makes a good faux cabinet.

Digression...anycrap, I turned on my camera and nothin'. It just did nothin'. So I uploaded the last of the photos on my card and found the possible culprits. There were about 15 that I did not take, including a group of random shots of the living room, from around 42", a few shots of whatever was on TV, two blurry shots of Bee and one shot of Hartwell's penis. That makes at least four Hartwell penis photos on my camera, including a short film he once made. Very cinema verite.

Of course, now I have a list of things to photograph including the knobs and my backyard wildflowers. (And I don't know how I'm gonna break the news to Hartwell). Plus! Next week we're going camping.

The new camera is supposed to arrive by Friday. The only way I could manage to NOT pay 10% sales tax was online. I got the same thing but better. I really wanted one of those fancy cameras all the mommy bloggers have, but I decided that I don't want to lug around a giant camera with a special case. I'd rather have a small camera that fits in my purse and has the same buttons and battery as my last awesome camera. Plus? It's orange. Orange.

Lighting my bathroom is hard.

What was that? You're NOT sick of hearing about my bathroom? Good news! The shower curtain arrived.

Here is one of our many problems. Where to put the toilet paper and where to store the,...um,...lady accoutrement. We bought that basket and then had no room for the trash can. And that was the best we could do for holding toilet paper. They do offer a bevy of delightful stand-alone holders, but they were all $30. I could just have Hartwell hold it and pay him a nickel and still not reach $30!

And, of course, that is not the final rug. What is up with bath mats of late? They all have a super deep pile that when stepped on with wet feet, compresses into a flat, dirty lookin' washcloth. Are these only for decoration? They look great fresh from the dryer, but one shower and dirty lavash. So I have to shake it to get the pile back and then no one can step on it again until it dries. I just want one that looks good wet or dry. No white or light colors. I have boys. I really like this one. But the reviews said the white band is uncleanable. And it's $50. But they say my bathroom will smell like a spa! Right now it smells like pee and Suave.

Here's one of the small details that is supposed to go unnoticed. There was a 1/4 inch space between the tub and the floor. So I tiled it. When we get a new tub, these will be gone, but $4 for temporary pretty is not bad.

My absolute favorite thing, aside from the free vintage tile floor, is the pine baseboard. It took 3 days for me to sand and polyurethane and sand and polyurethane, but it adds such a warmth to the cold tile and gray walls. Had I painted them white, they would be in constant competition with the imperfect floor, drawing attention to all the stained tiles and missing grout.

One more photo of the cabinet above the toilet. All the color seems to reside here.

Orangescarfius

Donna Karan says to keep white next to your face to brighten your skin tone. So I've always been a fan of white scarves.