So last weekend we finished all (almost all) of our painting. We started with the bathroom, changing the shade of the color we already had, so we went from dark milk chocolate to an even darker-still chocolate brown, accenting with a sort of sea-foam color. Then it was on to the dining room. We took it from very light greenish with a yellow hue, to seriously dark green – then changed out the artwork too, made a huge difference in the look.

Then last weekend it was on to the living room. That one went from a light shade of “adobe” to a much more dramtic shade of the same general color. Then we put the furniture in different places, changed up the placement of some of the artwork – the whole place feels new, fresh and exciting.

Thing is . . . Mom isn’t there to stop by and see it.

She’s been gone for almost 16 months now, and I still keep expecting her to drop by.

In the past, no matter how hard we would try and keep it secret, to surprise her, she ALWAYS seemed to know when we were doing something new to the house, and she’d sneak over before we were ready to show it off and see what we were doing. It was almost a game. Somehow she’d clue in to the fact that we had something planned, and she’d get over to see it while we were still painting, or building, or whatever we were up to.

Mom had amazing taste in decor and really classy ideas in color and furniture placement. it was always so much fun to make a change in the house and have her come and see it.

Every day we were painting, my sister and I couldn’t help but feel like Mom would be pulling up outside any minute to sneak a peek. I know I looked outside every time I heard a car go by, and I caught my sister doing the same thing.

Knowing it would never happen again, felt really weird. And I have a feeling that isn’t ever going to go away.

I dunno if you use databases in your work or play – but I do. At work, I use Microsoft’s Access to create and use databases that store, sort and organize all of my data. And it’s a lot of data.

So when I realized I could really use a database at home, for The Velvet Zebra, I was annoyed that you can’t use Access on the iPad. Sure, I have it on one of my laptops, but who wants to haul that dinosaur out every time I need to update or review the Inventory? Plus I don’t carry the dinosaur around with me wherever I go, like I do the iPad. (Except on weekends, I mean sure, I carry it to work every day and use it when I’m killing time waiting for my carpooler to get off work – but I’m not a total dork – I leave it at home when I’m out doing other things)

I’d been looking around for something – unwilling to plop down too much hard earned cash on an App that I was unfamiliar with, and finding nothing out there with a free trial or free lite version that did the trick. And frankly, Access has limits in this respect. For instance, while you can do a multitude of things with data, you can’t link specific photos to individual pages in a single database.

Tre’ annoying.

Well after tons of research and reading of reviews, I found one I was willing to try – called Bento. Yes, it wasn’t free. It cost me $9.99 to put it on the iPad, and I can’t put it on the other iPad without buying it again. They have iPhone and Mac versions as well, but you do have to buy each one. I’m definitely going to buy one for the other iPad, so my sister can carry our inventory with her too, and maybe by Summer I’ll put it on the iPhone since we do art shows in Summer and I use the iPhone to take credit cards.

But back to Bento. It’s amazing! I’m loving it like crazy. I can load my entire Inventory on this thing, sorted any way I like, and have a photo of each item on each item’s page. Something you can’t do in Access.

One other slightly geeky thing I’ve done is use Bento for my writing database. 😉

I find I can load not only all the info for each novel written or being written, but cross reference each character in the book, their relationship to each of the other characters, and all the information I could think to add.

It’s fun 😀 I only have a couple of books loaded in right now, still working on the whole thing, but it’s awesome. A great tool for keeping track of character tidbits and minor player’s names. On the novel’s side, I’ve plugged in publication and sales data as well. It’s nice to see on one page which novel has sold how many copies and via what outlet.

For instance, I hadn’t looked in a while, so I didn’t realize I’d already reached the 25,000 books sold mark. Or that Barnes & Noble is my best source for buyers. With Bento, at the touch of a finger I can follow trends and study stats.

And yes, maybe I have been sitting here trying to find other things I could build a database for and track – – what of it? ;/

It’s just a harmless, geeky thing.

You know how it happens – you’re looking around your house, or your yard, or maybe even just your room or office, and you notice something that needs changing. But as you ponder it, you realize if you change THAT, then this other thing won’t look right, so you’ll need to change it as well …

And it snowballs.

Back in January, when my sister and I bought that new flat screen TV for our Christmas present, we ended up with a new console, new DVR, new HD service etc … and ended up exposing a big swath of wall that hadn’t been painted way back when.

Well, after several attempts to identify the paint we’d used, and many failed tries with little sample colors of what we’d “thought” were the right one, we decided what we really need to do is repaint the entire living room. Now since we were really enjoying the color we had, but weren’t able to replicate it, we knew we had to pick a new color … we tried out a few by painting samples around the room, and settled on one we like a lot.

But then one evening as we’re mentally prepping for the task, we both realized what we really didn’t like anymore was the DINING room color. So it was off to Lowe’s again for more samples, then more painted areas on the walls, and we picked one we really like.

We haven’t been able to actually PAINT yet – we’ve been busy – but while we were waiting … okay, the bathroom is seriously small, so repainting that won’t be such a big deal. We’ve settled on a color finally.

BUT … If we’re painting the bathroom, it would be the perfect time to get rid of the pedestal sink that has a crack in it, and get a new sink in there. And if we’re buying that cute little white sink at Lowe’s, we should take this opportunity to put a new faucet on it, something really adorable.

Okay, so we’re all planned out. We have our paint colors chosen – probably buying them this Friday – but while we’re at it … I mean, really, we don’t LIKE that credenza down there at the end of the diningroom all that much, how hard would it be to find something new? And since the kittens have come SO close too many times to knocking over that wall butler and smashing the mirror, why don’t we – since we’re painting and all – buy a new wall mirror and a chest instead? We can give the wall butler to our sister or maybe our niece. Oh, and what better time to install those two new dining room lights we’ve had our eye on??

So far, that’s all that has come up 🙂

But really – what’s more fun than painting? It’s the easiest, cheapest way to give yourself a completely new look without buying new furniture or having to pull up carpet or something dramatic. You have to take down all the art anyway, so you take the opportunity to put it up differently, rearrange the order, change up what painting goes on what wall. Maybe you even get creative, and hand paint some quotes among the frames. I’ve finally found a space for a group of steampunk-style wall clocks I’m going to get that will look great against the new wall color.

One of my coworkers was bitten by the snowmonster too, so I know it’s not just me. He and his wife are putting in new shower wall tiles, and realized then the floor will look grungy … and if they put in a new floor, the sink and counter will look dull …

What really horrifies me isn’t so much the snowball effect that turned a simple repaint of one room into a whole house makeover … it’s the thought of painting three rooms WITH FIVE CATS!

Maybe if I put little foam brushes on their feets . . .

No, it’s not a joke – The Velvet Zebra is now on (gasp) Facebook!

Yes, I know, I’ve mocked Facebook more than once in the past. I still think it’s a strange, strange place. And for the record, it’s not like I’M on Facebook, really. It’s The Velvet Zebra that is. You won’t see any videos of me doing the Macarena in the library or updating everyone on what I had for breakfast … even I don’t care what I just ate.

But you WILL see news about The Velvet Zebra. Postings of our new designs, pictures of the jewelry, new book announcements, talks about what’s coming, what’s being made and what The Velvet Zebra is up to.

I’m a total N00b when it comes to Facebook, so I might not be doing it right for a while, but I’m working on it. I know you can “Like” the page, so I did something right. I “think” you can leave comments … if you’ve tried and can’t, let me know. I’m such a paranoid, I might have too many padlocks on the whole thing – you know I freak out when it comes to Big Brother. After all, I only have sisters 🙂

But my niece has offered to help if I get stuck, and I’m always open to learning new things. After all, just this last weekend I learned how to take better photos of the jewerly while three rambunctious 9-month old kittens try desperatly to help ! So if you see any little hairs in any of the photos, they’re not mine!

The same goes with paws, claws, tails or a red-faced woman screaming.