It’s summer, I decided to go on baby Hiatus. I think I needed a break from painting and everything… I tend to stay busy and distracted. My drug of choice is sugar, my vice is over working myself. I love to be busy but…I am feeling like all of me needs a break, needs a change.
My little will only be ten for a tiny bit longer, he is growing up way too fast, I am growing old even faster I need to be more present and just enjoy some down time.
No vacation for us this year, flights are just way too expensive and I am not a fan of long road trips. He really wanted to do Yellowstone but the thought of driving for days made me feel tired before I even started.
Maybe next year?
This year we are going to swim, eat popsicles, go to parks, have picnics, find a beach and build a big ol sandcastle…
Staycations can be amazing, simplicity can be your friend. It is usually painfully hot this time of year but so far I have worn shorts maybe twice, I am not complaining, I know it will get plenty hot soon and I will be melting.
I bought a 50 year old boat that needs a lot of love, I will be slowly rehabbing it over the next two years, need to sell some babies to pay for the project! I think it will be fun for us. It is like a floating fort. We spent the night on it earlier this week, brought sleeping bags, sandwiches, watched a movie on my phone. It was really fun. I am going to fix it up little by little, one bit at a time. Every time I go out to it I will bring a few things. My little guy loves the ocean, wants to be a marine biologist when he grows up so being out there is nothing but fun times. For me it will be some hard work and I have no idea what I am doing but I am doing one small chore at a time, enjoying the process, last week we ordered a toilet, tossed out all the old stuff, used a lot of bleach to clean things but mostly we just floated, and enjoyed being on the water.
I have to sell my little vintage trailer to pay for the boat, not excited about that, I love it, it has been a spare room for guests, our sick bay during covid, and it is just a fun little box of goodness. It will be very sad to see it hauled away, Hopefully a nice family with kids will buy it and make some great memories.
I have a pile of babies that need painting, usually I can’t walk past it without adding a layer of paint but I know they will wait patiently until school is back in.
I am hearing over and over how sales are down, I am hoping it is just a weird cycle and it will get better. These are strange economic times and I don’t know what it is like where you are but everything has doubled and in some cases tripled in price where I am. I took my little guy to Ikea to get some water glasses and just kinda roam around, that place can be fun, we find all kinds of weird stuff. We love to have lunch there, the food isn’t great but it’s cheap and who doesn’t love some meatballs (they have meatless Swedish meatballs now). You use to be able to get a kids plate for 1.98 and a regular lunch for 5 bucks, now the kids lunch is 5.98 and the regular lunch is almost 12 bucks. Whaaat?
We are not going out to eat much, it is just too silly, groceries have gone up a bit but I can still feed my whole family a really good dinner for under 30 bucks, an ok dinner for under 20, a quick dinner for under 12. We went to a cheap little Chinese place we love and dinner was 119.00 not including tip.
I was kinda blown away.
I live in a very populated area, a city surrounded by other cities and not far from really big cities. Things tend to be a little more expensive in this neck of the woods (AKA high density housing) but geebus it has gone loco.
They are going to tear down our shopping mall that has been there since the beginning of time and turn it into housing. Honestly malls are gross. I think the trend is to create outdoor spaces for shopping and gathering, back to that “downtown” vibe. Glad to see it, but I still think shopping malls are kinda icky.
We need more places for people to live and less places to buy more stuff. Where I live it seems a bubble tea shop pops up every couple months, kinda strange, watch out Starbucks!
I am rambling…miss painting babies like I use to, but I kinda like this pace a little.
Hope everyone is having a great summer, check in, let us know what it is like where you are, how is your weather, what are you summer plans? Oh and add in some favorite summer recipes and treats, always looking to try new things.
. Maybe I’ll get on a painting kick…add them to my stack of babies that won’t sell hahaha.
When I think about who to paint next, I don’t know who to choose. Right now I am thinking Bean and Sprout or Evangeline.
