a few words in between chores

When I say good bye to animals and their people after a stay there is always the bitter sweetness of the empty house. Kenya makes no bones about how she feels ... she mopes around in a semi-depressed state. She sleeps a lot. Maybe she is partly relieved that she is no longer on duty 24/7, but I think she also misses the other dogs ... and this time the cats as well, especially the cats.

I am too busy cleaning to feel deprived. That will come tomorrow, maybe. Or maybe not, because this time, the dogs slept downstairs. Usually boarding dogs share my bedroom with Kenya and me, but I thought that Kenya might resent two dogs in my bed. She never minds Remi sleeping with me, but these two usually sleep with their people ... in two beds ... and there is only one of me to go around ... and Kenya made it clear that while she can share toys and brushes and treats and petting, she was keeping the upstairs part of the house free of the interlopers. I never witnessed a confrontation over this but neither Chelsea nor Olive seemed inclined to come upstairs when Kenya was around.

So far today I have mopped, swept and washed the bathroom and laundry room floors and found the missing kitty toys in various hidey-holes, done a huge laundry (3 rainy days with 3 dogs that love to swim creates a lot of dirty linen), swept and mopped the rest of the upstairs, cooked up a batch of beets from the market, started a stew in the slow cooker, put a final coat of base colour on the ugly little rocker, a lazy susan and the second stool. The rest of the work will be picky and fun.

I doubt if I can make this poor little rocker beautiful, but I can make it much happier than it was wearing its flecked and peeling fluorescent orange paint. I am trying to decide on a theme. All the lines on the chair are plain and straight. The colours are turquoise with small amounts of the dark blue purple, gold, warm brick red, celery green and deep pink. I will use other colours on the joint areas and to create the images.

Some possibilities: frog sitting on the seat and other creatures like fish and butterflies elsewhere

a circus theme ... balloons, cotton candy, striped tent top ... not sure what to do with the seat ... maybe the rings?

The other problem I am facing is how to tone down an unfortunate colour choice. On the card it looked like a lighter mossy green. In reality it is an acidic Koolade lime green that I hate. I have tried a wash of darker green but it just puddles. I think I will have to mix my own colour and paint it on top. Please let me know if you can think of a simple solution.