atomic turquoise

I'm a bit surprised I haven't collapsed at this point. The last week has been ridiculously hectic. Work was the busiest it has ever been. My brain was ready to explode by the end of the night on Thursday. Despite the stress and chaos of work, I was able to enjoy time with some of my friends (even though some of that time was at work). I also had far too much Pumpkin Spice ice cream from Culver's. [if you haven't tried it, this stuff is AMAZING] I was able to catch up over coffee with my friends Natalie and Jenna, and I even got to see my parents quickly on Friday. 

Thursday night was a celebratory point for me because I had made it through the week, and even though I knew I had to get up early the next morning I ended up going out with some people from work and didn't get home until about 1:45. Then Friday morning I left bright and early (seriously, not just early for me!) at 7am. I had to go to Portage to get an oil change on my car, and unfortunately ended up also replacing the rear brakes. But I did get to see my parents, and my dad even spoiled me by taking me out for breakfast.

Friday evening I hung out with Marley. As some of you know, I sometimes get "bored" and do something to try to shake my life up. Plus I love color. ;)

My hair now has ATOMIC TURQUOISE in it. Its a lot more green than I had intended, but I still like it!

I spent Saturday reading and watching the Badgers kill Indiana. I met up with Marley again for dinner and we met a few of our friends for coffee. 

I haven't had much time for any projects lately, and I had a really strong urge to paint. I spent the rest of Saturday night painting. As some of you know, I got a new queen sized bed a few months ago. This freed up an entire wall in my bedroom to decorate. I originally planned on doing one large painting to go over the bed, but have since decided to do multiple "portraits" of my friends and family using various different monochromatic schemes. I did the first of these last night. It went much faster than I had anticipated. It is done with oils on a birch wood panel. It was my first time painting on the birch wood, but I ended up really liking it, so I am planning on doing the rest of the paintings on various sizes of these panels. 

Before I close, I wanted to put up one more image of the last painting I did. My lovely sister hired me to do a painting to put above her bed in her room at her new house this year. She has a comforter that is black and white with very simple bamboo on it. Her sheets are a sage green. She gave me no instructions other than a basic guideline for size.  This is 20" x 42" and is done with acrylics on canvas. 

Well, I'm currently in the process of baking homemade bread, and it is just finishing with the second rising, so I've got to put that in the oven.