Treasure House: Summer of Color Week #4

front of house and left side

right side and back of house

The lighting is a bit murky for the house I created this week in response to Kristin's prompt for Summer of Color Week 3 (apple green, pink and a touch of dark green). And that's a shame because the Treasure House is a happy house. It's a house full of love, play and merriment. I painted it with green-gold and then stenciled pink tiles to the roof top, painted the eaves pink, selected lots of fun pink images and then added a dark green door and edged it all with dark green paint. I really love houses, and it's been fun to see that my blog friend Miriam is also making houses for Summer of Color. You can see hers by clicking this link.  Even with the same color palette and choice of media, the results are delightfully different. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Balboa Park, San Francisco (Good Fences Link Up)

I headed out to watch my son Henry play soccer on Sunday at Boxer Stadium, which is located in Balboa Park in San Francisco, California. The gate to the playground caught my eye, as did its ornate fence.

I thought it would be perfect for my contribution to the Run*A*Round Ranch Report's weekly Good Fences Link-Up. I hope you agree!

ZIZO #27: Rubber Chicken!

Aria can be tough on toys, so it's nice when we find one that will last. She loves her rubber chicken! Sharing with Helena's Zoom in Zoom Out meme  and proud of myself for keeping up for the whole year so far! Also happy to rediscover snapseed for editing photos on my iphone. Instagram changed their processing steps and confused me (where did the frames go?), so I decided to retry snapseed, and I sure do love it!
Also, thanks to those of you who linked up to the June linky for the 2014 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt or stopped by to see what everyone was up to. The linky is here and will be open for the rest of the summer. There will be another linky at the end of July. 

2014 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt Linky #1 (June)

#21 A photograph of myself with something that symbolizes the season

Welcome to the June linky for the 2014 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt! Below, please link directly to a post on your blog about the Hunt. It can be a new post written for today or it can be a link to one of your favorites from the first few weeks of the Hunt. Please try to visit a few others who have linked up as well. It's so much fun to visit and be visited! So far, I have posted six finds; today will be number 7, and that's one third of the way through. You can visit all my previous hunt posts by clicking on this link. I've found these pretty easy to find. How are you coming along on the hunt? Is it easier than you expected? Or harder? Remember, there's still plenty of time (you have until Sept. 23).

Today, I'm sharing a photograph of myself with something that symbolizes the season. It's me at a baseball game - definitely a staple summertime activity for my family. In fact, here's the rest of my gang at the game:

I love this photograph because it shows a happy milestone for our family. We've been attending S.F. Giants games together for years. Sometimes, when the kids were little, we would only last 4 or 5 out of the 9 innings. Some years, the kids were snarly or only wanted to spend the whole time shopping in the gift shop. But, Paul and I persevered, taking the family to at least two games each season. Sometimes insisting that everyone go because it was a required family activity. And this season, for the first time in my memory, both kids started asking "When are we going to go to a Giants game this season?" or saying "We should all go to a baseball game." It made me smile so big inside that I went ahead and got tickets last weekend. And, we all had a great time together. The required family activity has become pleasant time spent with my favorite people in the world. And that's a scavenger hunt find worth blogging about!

Now it's your turn to share yours. Please link directly to your post, rather than to your blog in general, and do try to visit a few other participants.

Let's Sit and Have a Cup of Tea

Welcome! And come on in; sit down and let me pour you a cup of tea. Abi, over at Creating Paper Dreams, created this wonderful space to have a virtual chat once a month. 
If you were here sitting with me, we'd be enjoying a beautiful, mild summer day. The World Cup (or commentary) would be on the television in the background, as it has been almost nonstop for the last several weeks. We love our soccer around here, and we've thoroughly enjoyed watching the games and getting together with friends. We are rooting for the USA, Costa Rico and Mexico, although we think either Germany, Brazil or the Netherlands will go home the winners. I'd ask if you watch soccer or football, depending upon your nationality!
I'd tell you that I'm hoping this summer will be one of growth and learning for the family. Some summers we plan to do lots of fun activities or vacation. Instead this summer, we're all working on some things.
This summer, Henry is back from University and is getting his first taste of the working world. It's a half-time unpaid internship, but it's still the first time where he has to go to an office and do work for strangers. They're very nice (have even given him time off to watch world cup games), and he's learning a lot about data base management, mass emails and web site management. The nonprofit he's working for recruits, trains and matches college-age coaches with communities which need them, but he's having a hard time seeing the connection between what he's doing and what he imagines the world of "sports business" or "sports marketing." I see it, but then I've got a few years experience on him! He's also already complaining about the commute (it's in Oakland, about an hour total commute time including a train ride and a long walk), although it's only been a few days. He's also taking a night class. But don't worry, he's still managing to have plenty of fun!
Clara has a fair amount of summer reading for her AP English class next year. I was a little taken aback by the novel selections - Beloved by Toni Morrison and The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I don't know if you're familiar with them, but they're both so dark! Clara and I watched the movie, The Road last weekend, and it was much better than I expected. She's also taking on on-line writing class (not for credit). Other than that, she's volunteering 2-3 days a week at the Humane Society. She had hoped to be volunteering at Guide Dogs for the Blind, but I made a mistake about the required orientation, so that's been pushed back for a while. We're also still investigating the possibility of becoming puppy raisers during the fall. Plus, she's running (going to a residential cross country camp at Stanford), raising her chickens and trying to pick up a little money walking dogs and house-sitting.
Me? I'm supposed to be writing an article. I admit to being a little stressed because I'm having a hard time making myself sit down to write it. I need to, though, because even if I get an extension on the due date, I have another big work project (my casebook update) that I need to complete in July. Anyway, let's not dwell on that!
I'd steer the conversation instead to creative projects. And I'd remind you that the first linky gathering for my 2014 summertime photography scavenger hunt will go live tonight at 6:00 p.m. (my time), since that will be Monday, June 30 for many of you. It will remain open indefinitely. I'd tell you that I love hosting the scavenger hunt, although it does take up a lot of my blogging energy. I'd tell you that I'm also really enjoying making little houses for the Summer of Color and hope to do some work in my faces journal and complete the "Studying Under the Masters" class I bought back in January.
Oh look, the Mexico-Netherlands game is about to start. I better go. You're welcome to sit and watch with us, and we can chat some more at half-time.

A Scavenger Hunt Ear Wig (and, yes, more gnome talk)

I put "garden gnome" on the 2014 Photography Scavenger Hunt mainly because there was a sleeping one in the Hunt badge and thought it was the sort of item which people could find relatively easily or with some hunting. I hadn't thought about the potentially creepy nature of gnomes:

Seriously, don't these look like they're massing for an attack?

I had thought of them as just kindof generic and cute.

It's funny because I have intentionally left clowns off the list for several years due to their inherent creep factor. But, more and more with gnomes, it's really hard to say if they are cute or creepy.

My previous informal survey (click here) revealed that many of you also feel that garden gnomes have a very high creep factor. Oh well, live and learn.

Finally, all this gnome talk reminded me of a 1967 Disney movie called The Gnome Mobile which I remember watching and for which I think I owned a 45 recording of the title song.  I linked a video of the song above for your listening pleasure. Do you remember that movie? Or the song? Play the song to see if you do. Now that you've heard the song, is there any way you can now get it out of your head? No, probably not. Sorry about that . . . and sorry for the gnomes.

Backyard Fences (Good Fences Link-Up)

Out in the back-back, in the small orchard next to the chicken coop, we have this fence. I like the texture; I like the knots; I like how it looks as a backdrop to the ripening plums. You can click on the image to see it larger and in more detail.

And in the backyard, we have this scenic, if somewhat ineffective fence. Nasturtium growing wild; green garden fencing; a well-placed cinder block. . . . lovely, but obviously in need of repair. Again, click on the image to see it larger and in more detail.
I'm sharing a bit of my backyard fences this week with the Good Fences Link-Up at the Run Around Ranch Report blog. You can see more good fences at this link.