Bye bye Lemon Grass, hello Divine Calm

The lemon grass ginger bath and shower gel (a gift from Kate) has been one of my totally most favorite-ever scents and bath products. It's about gone now, and I'm packing my gym bag with Divine Calm, which seemed like a good choice for a busy world. I got it at one of Laurel's Body Shop parties. Mmmm. Lavender is nice. It seems a little weird mixed with camomile, but maybe it will be relaxing.

I was going to some artwork today after avoiding it for months and months (maybe years), and I avoided it again. I put up more dog pins in the gift shop and on the gift shop blog, cleaned up papers in the office that had been in horrifying stacks for way too long, hand-washed a blouse and dried it on the deck, organized and filed stuff on my desk, moved a lot of file folders, hung up t-shirts (although I need to find a way to fit another hanging rod in here somewhere) and then went to work out at the gym and take a shower. I stopped in to see Margi for a bit, came back and got my credit card info organized (again, after months of avoiding it), got my character in Fate down past dungeon level 40, and then made a couple of posts on this blog, including some older photos of the day I came to Oregon. It's weird how I'll go for so long without organizing things until I'm completely freaked and feeling out of control. I like organizing, but I'll pitch into work or almost anything instead. It felt so good to get it done. I can find things now, and it didn't even take that long. I have to remember that! I still need to move and wash/dust all of the surfaces and the stuff on the shelves once the construction is done in a few days. Most of the remodeling was outside or upstairs, but it knocked things off the shelves and brought down bits of the ceiling. I was surprised one day to find a tapir skull in the middle of the floor. Fortunately the floor was carpeted, and no damage was done. A ceramic tapir on wheels was toppling, and I caught it just in time. I had no idea that replacing siding would be so violent. It seems that buildings on pilings sway more than the average structure. I hadn't considered that! Also, our windows were all replaced and the walls partly re-cut, so there's sawdust in the books, CDs, telephones, printers. . . . Everything. And tomorrow? Maybe after work I'll make a collage. We'll see.

The Body Shop at Home Foot Fun Party at The Animal Store in Astoria

On Tuesday, April 22, I hosted a Body Shop party with Lee's daughter (and my good friend) Laurel Sullivan as the consultant. We held it right in the store front, which was a little unusual, but entertaining. It was a lot of fun. You can read more about it and see more photos on Laurel's blog. Today in my office we downloaded the photos and she made her blog post about the party. I snapped her picture (below) almost unannounced. She must have had a clue I'd picked up the camera, because she smiled big when I called her name to get her attention. We did it in one take! Brunch and blogging. What a nice way to spend Sunday. By the way, Laurel puts on a great Body Shop at Home Party (that link is to her Body Shop web site) . . . if your'e in the North Coast area and are interested, send Laurel e-mail and she'll be happy to set up a party to pamper your guests. I have to say, I've given very, very few parties over the years, and she made it easy. I also have not been much of a product person (of course, I enjoy bubble bath and such), so I'm enjoying being introduced to a new age of smells and sensations. It really has been fun. Now I have to get to the gym, so I'll keep this short. More to come soon, as always!

Laurel at my computer