The birds.

It's always fun to see all of the animals at the fair, but my absolute favorites are the birds. I can't get over all the fancy kinds of chickens and pigeons. The GIANT turkeys. And of course, the peeping chicks. 

Fair week.

I went back to my hometown of Wellington, Ohio twice this week to spend some time at the Lorain County Fair. As a kid living in small town Wellington, fair week was THE event of the year. Everyone went to the fair and it seemed like everyone was at the fair nearly every day. Many people I knew had animals in the fair, or 4H projects on display. I was always entering drawings or photographs in the footsteps of my mom and her family. The prizes were never more than a few dollars, but there was something really special about having your work on display at the fair. When we were old enough, my friends and I spent our week at the fair working at the Hawaiian Shaved Ice stand. Our boss, Jay, was a science fiction/fantasy author who I was totally in awe of at the time. 

Needless to say, I love going back to the fair. The food, the animals, the people, the sentimentality of it. I love it all.

(See my last trip to the fair here / More photos from this year here)

Just another cat on the internet.

I was loving how Emma's eyes were matching the old tile in our bathroom so I snapped a couple of photos. She is lounging across my desk as I type, trying to rub on my hands. The cats are always following me into my studio to get attention. It's where I sit still the longest.

Plaster. Dust. Paint. Wires.

It's hard to believe that we've almost lived in this house an entire year. Sometimes it feels like we've gotten so much work done. Most of the time it feels like we've barely scraped the surface of what needs to be done. The office is nearing completion. The yard is half torn up. It's a lot of work, but the end reward is a house that exists exactly how we want it to. And that's definitely worth it. 

Closed on Mondays.

I took a vacation day today and was looking forward to spending some time outside painting in the Botanical Gardens. I packed up all my supplies and decided to make the two and a half mile walk there because why not? It was a beautiful day and I had nothing better to do. It wasn't until I got there that I remembered that the gardens were closed on Mondays. Bummer.

I spent a little time painting some of the flowers outside of the gates, but it just wasn't the same. 

Parasite + Host.

I came across this on my tomato plant last night. My first reaction was "Wow, that is a REALLY weird looking caterpillar." I spent a few minutes searching for information on it and learned that it wasn't just a caterpillar, it was a Tomato Hornworm covered in Braconid Wasp eggs. Turns out that the little wasps inside the eggs feed off of the caterpillar that is feeding off of my tomato plant. Eventually the caterpillar will die, the wasps will hatch and the cycle begins again. A bummer for the caterpillar, but a welcome event in our garden. 

"Our 'can-do' American spirit is being lost."

I wholeheartedly agree with that. 

A friend of mine posted this and I felt like it was a good counterpart to the video I posted several days ago. 

Summer suns.

Something I tend to love about any weekday is my drive to work. The time by myself, singing aloud to whatever music I happen to be drawn to at the moment, windows down in the cooler morning air.  I like getting to see our neighborhood waking up.

One house in particular has caught my eye recently because of the huge sunflower bush growing in front of it. It made me a little sad that I hadn't planted any this year because it's a bit of a tradition of mine. I've had sunflowers every summer since the year I first moved into the Teal House and had a porch to grow plants on. To me, sunflowers are summer. 

I have this drawing that I did early this spring hanging in my office at work. I'm glad it can bring a little summer into my work day.

(Past sunflowers: here, here, and here.)