Steppin' Out

Lauchlin had her first face-to-face meeting with potential sponsors for a permanent collection of Backyards & Beyond paintings today. In order to make a lasting impression, she donned this power suit complete with new heels.

Laundry Day

This is our other personal assistant, Clementine.

Don't You Wish You Had One Too?

Soon to be regarded as one of the best decisions we've ever made, (Okay, it was Lauchlin's idea.) we hired a personal assistant last Sunday to help us get our house back in order. Jimmy and Karen's active adolescent daughter/stepdaughter took us up on a half serious offer to mow our lawn for very little compensation.



She not only ended up staying to help disassemble the old furniture, she cooked her own lunch, dusted, swept and mopped, and, yes, helped arrange the new furniture. Olivia's faith in the younger generation was temporarily restored. We don't know how we could have done it with out her!

If the Shoe Fits...

If you have been to our house, you know that Olivia owns a few pairs of cute shoes.
In her real life, however, she spends a lot of time during the day standing and walking. Take note. She purchased on Saturday, for the first time, a pair of sensible shoes:

Okay, well, and these:

A Little Graphic

Lauchlin has been trying her hand at graphic design in her new job. It's not something they covered in Southern Studies, but she's mastered the trial and error method of learning. So far, her "work" has been featured in Oxford American...

and Jackson Free Press...

In case you don't have access to either publication, you can see one of the ads below. (shameless plug, we know!) It's an online ad for the OA web site. The original file is easier to read.

Furniture, Furniture, Everywhere!

We were offered a great deal on some mildly used furniture — one we couldn't pass up. For $100, we scored a dining room table, eight matching chairs, a china cabinet, two bed frames and a whole set of bedroom furniture to match one room. At the moment, our house is covered in furniture that clearly doesn't belong in certain rooms. Tonight we're going to have to figure out how to move the old table to a storage area large enough. Needless to say, it will take awhile to get things sorted, but we're totally psyched about getting back on the home improvement wagon to find places for everything to go.
With our new dining room furniture, we can have people for dinner and actually have enough places for them to sit. And, the Waterford crystal Lauchlin's aunt has been haphazardly collecting for her since Lauchlin was born, finally has a home here. We're very excited!
Fancy dinner party coming soon...
The cats have been amused by this furniture takeover, which is why the tablecloth is all askew.
The living room all of a sudden has extra storage!
This bedroom already needed some real work. Now we have to figure out how to fit a full bedroom set in it!

But Who's Counting?

Olivia's parents will be celebrating their tourmaline anniversary today. Congratulations on 38 great years!