Chocolate and Sofia

The deadline for the next Twelve by Twelve challenge (see the link in the sidebar) is coming right up. The theme this time around is "chocolate". This called for a lot of research—good thing the holidays provided plenty of tasting opportunities. I am working away on my piece and it is coming together nicely, in my opinion. Here is a piece of fabric I silk-screened especially to use in the chocolate challenge.

I'm not going to explain yet how this relates to chocolate, but I will show you the inspiration for this design.

Stay tuned.

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Sofia came to visit today. It was nice to have her here to myself this afternoon. When her other grandmother was here, I tried to let her stock up on Sofi hugs and kisses and memories to take back to Ecuador, so I tried to stay out of the way. We miss Abuela Chela, but I have to say I am happy to have my grandbaby to myself again!

Since you last saw her she has learned to read.

Yeah, really. She's reading—

in Spanish.

Well, she thinks she's reading, anyway.

Answering questions

A few days ago Jane Ann asked, "Do you ever dither about your decisions? You seem very sure of what you want ..." This was in regard to our remodeling project. I've been thinking about her question. The short answer is "sometimes." The long answer involves a little history. The fact of the matter is that I don't dither much. I do know pretty much what I want. I have spent much of my working life helping other people make design decisions—choosing colors, choosing materials and settling on a theme or concept based on finding out what they are comfortable with, how they want to feel with their decisions and bottom line, what their budget is. My first career was in interior design. My last in graphic design. Inbetween I owned a fabric store.

For me the nitty gritty, planning, coordinating and pulling things together of interior design was really fun. It was something of a shock to discover that most of my clients did not find it fun, but instead really stressful. I found that many, many people become so anxious about making decisions about colors and furnishings that they become paralyzed with indecisiveness. They have the belief that there is only ONE perfect solution to the problem they are trying to solve and an imperfect solution will mean only that they will never be happy with their choice. And, geez, people get whiny and demanding and obnoxious about stupid, insignificant details. What nonsense. I'm not patient with that. There are, as they say, a lot of ways to skin a cat. Pleasant surroundings and a beautiful environment are worthy goals and, I believe, enrich our lives, but they are only a superficial part of what makes us whole and happy. And creating a personal space should be fun, in my opinion, so I learned a long time ago not to stress about decisions, by keeping it in perspective and not allowing things to be too precious. I think I was a pretty good interior designer, but I couldn't deal with the people.

What I learned that I could apply to my own surroundings was:

• to observe daily what I like and what makes me feel good, then it's easy to choose what to add to my life.
• travel has been a passion for us, and the things that remind us of our travels make us happy.
• things that belonged to our families and people we love hold meaning and value to us and are nice to live with
• things are only new and perfect for a day, so I've learned to love things that are old and imperfect.
• the art, and other flotsam,that we accumulate seems to lead us right to a lot of the other choices.

I try to have fun with design and decorating and I try to keep it personal and I love, love, love a bargain and I am delighted when I can come up with something kind of clever and crafty that solves a problem.

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On another note, entirely, Del asked me about my comment that I have been painting my little fabric birds with acrylic medium.

" How do you apply acrylic medium? Brush? Spray? Doesn't it soak in?"

I apply it, undiluted, with a brush to the completed bird. Because it is undiluted and pretty thick, it doesn't soak very far into the bird. It penetrates the fabric, but nothing more. When it is painted on it is white-ish, milky. When it dries it is clear and hardly changes the appearance of the fabric, though it does make it noticeably stiffer. I used gloss medium because it was what I had on hand. One coat doesn't make it noticeably glossy. I think a second coat would sit on the surface and probably make it more shiny, which I don't think I would like. When I buy more medium I think I will buy matte medium instead and see if there is a difference.

Progress on both homefronts

One of the things we need to do soon is to paint the stairwell in our current house. It is one of those areas that is so hard to paint that it has been neglected. I got a good start by dismantling my collection of sewing stuff that has been on shelves on the landing. For awhile it was fun collecting old sewing notions and tools, then they got to be hard to deal with—well dusty. And who likes to dust a bazillion little things? Not me. I've decided to sell the majority on eBay. I've divided them into two lots. I could probably make more money if I sold some of them separately, but frankly I just want them gone.

I'm turning over a new leaf and clearing things out of my life. But I decided I can't yet give up my old scissor collection. Notice I didn't call them "vintage" or "antique", though a few qualify. Most are just old scissors and I love the way they look hanging on a wall. They will probably go in my studio once it gets built. I counted 53 pairs when I took them down.

Shelves are gone. Nail holes are filled. The wall is ready to paint.

Things are happening at the new place too.

Ray is assembling the kitchen cabinets in the livingroom. We got the cabinets at IKEA. I think I am going to love them. They are highly rated by Consumer Guide and very economical. As you can see the insides are laminated particle board, but the doors and drawer fronts are solid oak. After Ray assembles them the IKEA contractor will install them.

And this was the really exciting development today. The tile layers got started.

Fly away little birds

I gave two of my birds to Gerrie and Kristin when we got together on Friday. Birds need to fly. I've made a couple more. Here is what I have now.

Three of these little birds will go to blog friends. Remember the "pay it forward" deal? Last July I agreed to make handmade gifts for the first three people who agreed to do likewise and pay it forward. Time to pay up. The first three people to accept the challenge were Delta, Dee and Alice. Email me your mailing addresses and a wee bird will soon be winging your way.

I have been having a lot of fun making these birds. They seem to develop their own personalities as I go along. I have a pattern that I made and each is made from the same pattern, but still they look different. A couple of them have come out with heads cocked to the side. Don't know how that happened, but it gives them a quizzical look. One is a bit cross-eyed. Another will balance only in a semi-squatting position. The wings are all at slightly different angles. When I group them, as above, they really remind me of real birds, with their differences. Good mothers do not have favorites, but I confess I am partial to this one.

It was only as I was sewing him closed after stuffing that I realized that the fabric I used on his underside has little birds printed on it. These are all old fabrics that I have had in my stash for a long time. Maybe that's why he appeals to me. He's the squatter. Ray says he looks like he's getting ready to poop. I think, with his wings raised, he is just flexing and about to take wing. I think this bird will stay here and live in my new house.

I don't think I mentioned that when I finish these birds I am painting them with clear acrylic medium. I have a wonderful stuffed fabric chicken that my friend Muriel gave me. After sitting on a shelf for several years I noticed that it had gotten dull and impregnated with dust. I washed it and then painted it with clear medium and it is now easy to "dust" (when I get around to it) by just shaking it out the back door. It seems to have brightened the colors up too. I think the acrylic also glues all my stitching in place, so the wings are less likely to fall off!

I appreciate the interest in a pattern for the birds. I'm thinking about it.

House update - January 4

Things are progressing at the house. Last week the sheetrocking was finished and the rooms are beginning to take shape in my mind.
Before:

This is a reminder of what the diningroom and den area looked like before we started. This is looking from the livingroom. The kitchen is off the left side of the photo.

In progress:This is what it looks like now. Little wall segment on the left will shield the view of the kitchen countertops and dirty dishes. The door to the bathroom is gone. You can see its sheetrock ghost. Light has been relocated to the center of the room. The hardwood floor remains in the livingroom, hidden under the blue tarp, but it and the vinyl flooring have been removed from the diningroom and kitchen and will be replaced with ceramic tile, which gets laid this week.

Swiveling around toward the right is the extended wall between the den and diningroom.

And here is the little nook, next to the front door and facing the coat closet. There will be a small bench seat with storage in that space. We purchased the "bench" last week. I think it is quite clever repurposing of a castoff item, but I'm not showing it to you just yet.

Blog friends in the real world

I have been reading Kristin LaFlamme's blog for a couple of years now. We have exchanged artwork, but had never met face to face until today. Kristin lives in Germany, but has been visiting family in the US Northwest for the holidays. She's also a blog friend of Gerrie's, who I met through her blog and then she moved to Portland and she's my real-life in-person friend now. Following all that? Anyhoo—she and Gerrie set up a play-in-Gerrie's-studio date, for today, and invited me to come for lunch. Gerrie's daughter, Stephanie, was there also with her two darling children who seemed to be having a blast with Kristin's two darling children.

Kristin has been making a series of quilts with "roots" images and she wanted to have Gerrie help her make some thermofax screens for silkscreening. Above she is creating a root design by dropping India ink on a sheet of paper then blowing it around, using a straw to direct the air.

Gerrie made the screen with her magic machine and Kristin printed several test pieces.

Here's one of her finished prints. Cool, eh? I can hardly wait to see what she does with it.

What a nice day!

So long to 2007

What a year. It has been a year of extremes for us. Joyous events, frightening events and losses that we did not expect. A year that reminded us to be thankful, to be patient, to be flexible; to remember that family is our foundation and friends our support and when things get bad, have faith they will get better. And we've learned that being retired somehow means that you are busier than ever.

So goodbye to 2007. I think we've squeezed every drop out of you. And hello to 2008. What, I wonder, do you hold?

Flock

Remember the little "procrastination bird" that I made before Christmas? Well, a couple days ago I was finally able to mail off a project that I have been working on with a January 3 deadline. (More about that later) So I went back to my bird thought and tried out some of my ideas. Improvements to the prototype include edge finish on the wings, the way I attach the wings and most important to me, a better beak design.



You will notice that these three birds have three different sized beaks. It was a "too small, too big, and ah, just right" experiment, though I don't really dislike any of them. Picking the fabrics is the best part.

Una dia con Chela

Today I picked up Chela and the two of us headed out for a day together. I had my trusty Spanish/English dictionary in my purse, which I used a lot. Chela speaks only two words of English: "Hello" and "Thank you." (I guess, technically, that's three) My Spanish is basic survival Spanish at best, and I'm not sure it would even guarantee my survival if it came to that. But somehow we do manage to communicate.

Our first stop was Thinker Toys in Multnomah Village. I had gotten a pair of those wonderful Robeez baby shoes for Chela to take to her other grandbaby back in Ecuador. She saw Sofia's and loved them, but we decided the ones I got needed to be bigger, so we went back to exchange them. Chela enjoyed looking around this cheerfully chaotic toy store and was quite blown away by the $100 price tag on a beautiful doll.

Our main destination was Fabric Depot, way on the other side of Portland. It used to bill itself as the largest fabric store in the US. I notice now they claim only to be the largest fabric store in the West. Whatever. It is a honkin' huge store. (as we say out West, here) Chela teaches sewing and crafts in a public school in Ecuador and is an exquisite seamstress, so I thought she needed a trip to Fabric Depot. Fabric stores in Ecuador leave much to be desired, in my opinion. She found quite a lot to desire at Fabric Depot.

She was absolutely smitten with the Dick and Jane prints and bought a couple of yards, despite not really knowing what Dick and Jane was all about. I tried to explain in my limited Spanish, that Dick and Jane and Sally were, at one time, "muy famosa" because of the books found in "Todas escuelas en los Estados Unidos" for teaching "ninos" to read.

She seemed to be drawn to every black and white print in the store (a woman after my own heart!) and finally settled on this cool houndstooth corduroy.

I managed to find a boring little piece of green solid Kona and a square of ultrasuede which I am going to use to make a little protective case for my new Christmas present. It's a device for carrying pictures of my grandbaby on. (I hear you can also store music on them . . )

We stopped for lunch at Old Wives Tales, one of my favorite restaurants in Portland. The Hungarian mushroom soup is the stuff of dreams. I tried translating the name of the restaurant for Chela and I'm sure she thought it was the oddest name ever.

Our next stop was the Portland Nursery. Chela saw red sunflowers somewhere—maybe in a flower shop—and wanted seeds to take back with her. Surprise! They had them. I thought about the line on the customs declaration asking if you are bringing any plant materials into the country when you land in the US. I wonder how Ecuador feels about foreign plant material. Hmmm.

We concluded our day by going to Gerrie's open house where we met up with the rest of the family. It was nice to introduce Chela to such a wonderful friend as Gerrie and the party was fabulous. Look at the pictures of the food on Gerrie's blog and you're going to be muy jealous!

It was a very fun day, but speaking Spanish is exhausting. I don't know how all those South Americans do it.

Christmas lights

We went with Emily, Cayo, Sofia and their Ecuadorean guests the other evening to see the "Zoolights Festival" at the Oregon Zoo. It seemed like a good outing to show Chela and Ani a little American Christmas culture. It was also a demonstration of the Oregon adage that goes something like, "if we waited until the rain stopped, we'd never leave our houses." We swaddled everyone up in hats and gloves and coats and equipped each adult with an umbrella and headed out into the deluge. Even for Oregon the rain was pretty relentless, but we had a good time, saw the lights, rode the train, watched the elephants eat hay and drank hot chocolate (us, not the elephants).

Ani, Sofia and Emily waiting in line for the zoo train

At least it was dry inside the train

I really do love the Christmas lights. I remember, as a kid, my parents would take one night during the Christmas season to load us all in the car and drive all around town looking at the Christmas lights. We especially liked driving through the "rich" neighborhoods because they had such extravagant displays. The zoolights were even better than those rich folks' lights of long ago. But, holy mother of pearl, it was wet out there.

Christmas

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I wish you peace, love, good health, safety and joy today and in the year ahead. For us, it's a day to cherish our family and to reflect on our good fortune in life. I hope you all are enjoying the day.

"Oh, look—this one says, To Sofi"

"Can I get a little help here?"

"I think that screws in over there, Grandpa."

"OK, I sit on this thing, and then what?"

"So, how do you like my new ride, Tia Ani?

Ghost of Christmas Past

My mother was great at finding Christmas ornaments with special meanings. Every year she would send my kids each an ornament. One year she was especially on target. Andy had taken up the trombone and his ornament was a little trombone. I had started quilting and she found, for me, a beautiful lone star quilt ornament. Ray got a wee golf bag with tiny clubs in it. Emily, who was about 9 that year got a birdcage with a little bird in it. Emily had gotten a parakeet earlier that year and she adored her bird. The bird would sit on her shoulder and sing while she practiced her piano. It was pretty cute. Sadly, however, and unbeknownst to her grandmother, the bird had suddenly died just a couple weeks before Christmas, so when Emily opened her little birdcage ornament, her lip began to quiver and her eyes got teary and she said, very sadly, "I guess Grandma didn't know that my bird died." There was a heavy silence in the midst of the Christmas morning activity, then Andy brightened up, held up the ornament and said, "No, I think Grandma did know." Closer inspection revealed that the tiny bird, inside the cage, which had obviously been glued to the perch at one time, had fallen off and was lying on its side at the bottom of the cage. Looked pretty dead. We looked at it mournfully for a few minutes, then I heard Ray stifle a snicker. Then I caught his eye and started to laugh, trying mightily not to. Pretty soon we were all laughing, including Emily and then we were laughing so hard we had tears streaming down our faces. We hung the dead bird ornament on the tree and everytime anyone would look at it all that Christmas day we would be off into uncontrollable laughter once again.

My mother felt horrible when I told her the story. She, of course, did not know the bird had died and had sent the package off with the bird still on its perch. What kind of a grandmother, she asked, would send her grandchild a dead bird ornament?! We assured her that after a few bad moments Emily had seen the humor in the situation, and furthermore, appreciated her grandmother's loving attempt at a special ornament. I tried to attach the bird to its perch with tweezers and a little glue on a toothpick. It didn't stay, so the dead bird ornament remains as it is and is carefully hung on our tree every year. Next year it will go to Emily to hang on her own tree.

Words, words, words

A recent discussion of words on art, on the QuiltArt list, brought to mind the work of Corita Kent, originally known as Sister Corita, who made wonderful silkscreen prints covered in words. She was at the height of her popularity in the '60s and most of her works were messages of social activism. I wrote an entry on the raggedcloth blog about Sister Corita. I guess it looks very dated, but I still love her work. Lots of people copied her style and her use of words and quotes. But, unlike her emulators, she avoided cliche and schmaltz with words that are crisp and meaningful. The quote in the righthand corner is from Sargent Shriver:

"Now we mount a wider stage, with new and greater responsibility, in a harder world than we have ever known. But someday, as the philosopher told us, "After mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And then for the second time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire."

That still seems like pretty good stuff to me.

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And speaking of words on art, how about this cheery and very merry postcard?! It arrived in today's mails from Lisa Flowers Ross in Boise. I always enjoy reading Lisa's blog and seeing her wonderful artwork. I am lucky to have a Lisa piece of my own now. Thanks, Lisa!

What's in the bag, Ma'am?

Apparently when Chela and Ani (see previous post) took their bags through Immigration in Miami one very heavy bag attracted some attention from the Immigration official. When he asked Chela what the contents of that bag were, she replied something like "Horrors—things you couldn't imagine." Not being a seasoned international traveler, Chela didn't know that you don't joke with uniformed personnel in American airports. Oops. Instead of arresting her immediately (she looks so dangerous!) he asked her the question again, very seriously, very sternly and got the right answer. Food.

When we all got to Emily's house the night they arrived, she opened up the suitcase and started pulling out all the things her Ecuadorean son has been missing since he came to the US a year and a half ago. Little cheese tamales. Mote (pronounced mo-tay) which is dried corn that cooks up fat and chewy, rather like hominy. Preserved figs. Tree tomato juice. Tree tomato jam. Coconut jam. Roasted corn. Aji (a fruit-based hot sauce). Guava candy. Guava jam. What am I forgetting? She brought a lot—containers for Emily and Cayo and containers for Ray and me.

Yesterday she cooked lunch for us. One of our favorite Ecuadorean dishes, Locro de papas, which is potato soup with avocado and cheese and roasted corn thrown in as a garnish. Unbelievably yummy and warming.

Tonight I cooked some of the mote with eggs and onions and some little bits of good smoky bacon. In Ecuador they cook it with bits of roast pork, which is a staple of their diet, but I didn't happen to have any roast pork in the fridge. I was going to take a photo because you know I don't like posts with no photos, but when I looked at it I decided a photo would do nothing to convince you of how tasty this dinner was. You know how some things that taste really good don't actually look all that good? Case in point.

So, no photos tonight. But we are eating well and remembering wonderful meals in Ecuador. And meanwhile Ani and Chela are working hard to fill that now empty suitcase. They've logged more time at the Washington Square Mall in the last two days than I have in the last year.

Another Grandmother

Last night Sofia met her other grandmother for the first time. Her daddy's mother and sister, from Ecuador, arrived in Portland to spend Christmas and meet Sofia. You can see that Sofi and her Abuela Chela bonded almost instantly. I was a little concerned that Sofi, who now knows who she knows and who she doesn't know, might take a little while to warm up to her grandmother and her aunt. But she seemed to somehow recognize them. As Aunt Ani said, "your blood speaks to you." She loves Grandma Chela's songs in Spanish and she thinks her Aunt Ani is not only beautiful, but very funny.

Ray and I know Chela and Ani from our trips to Ecuador, including Emily and Cayo's wedding. We have been the recipient of Chela's gracious hospitality on several occasions and have urged her to come for a visit. This is her first trip outside Ecuador. It is a little surreal to see these two women sitting at my table thousands of miles and two continents away from where we first met them. Surreal, but really wonderful.

You can see and read about Chela and one of our visits with her in Ecuador, here and here and here.

There is a Spanish word, "consuegra", that describes my relationship to Chela. There is not an equivalent English term, but it is roughly "co-mothers-in-law." It seems fitting to me that there should be a word for this relationship. When our children married it made us all family. We share a grandchild. There is a bond and great affection between us.

Ani, in typically dramatic Ani fashion, threw her arms into the air at the Portland airport and declared, "I am in Portland, Oregon! My dream has come true!" What a special gift for my daughter and son-in-law (who can't seem to stop smiling at his mother) and grandchild, and for us, that they are here.

Getting the spirit

What a lot of nice comments on my little procrastination bird! Thanks for all your thoughts. I am looking forward to getting back to birds. I have some ideas for minor changes and want to try some other fabric combinations.

Went to a great Christmas party last night and I was finally inspired to get my act together and start Christmasfying my house. I have been hanging my feathered star quilt, made many years ago, for several years now. I used to hang an advent calendar quilt I made when my children were small, but since I have no little children in the house to count down the days it has seemed silly to hang it. Maybe in the coming years Sofia will enjoy it, but for now the feathered star seems very festive and I've always thought that pattern looked like snowflakes. You may be surprised to see a pieced and hand quilted and very traditional quilt from me. That was how I started quilting and I still love the traditional patterns, just don't make them anymore. When I started this one I was planning to make it bed size. That feathered star is some kind of complicated and time-consuming deal! I made 5 blocks and decided I couldn't face another one, so it's a wall quilt.

I went out to the new house today and cut a garbage bag full of greenery to use. It's a nice mix of pine and fir and juniper and holly and cedar. Smells very nice. I collected terra cotta ornaments for a number of years and usually put them on the mantel instead of on the tree. For years now, I've had an extension cord trailing off the side of the mantel for the lights. Tonight, at Rite Aid Drug, I found two sets of battery operated Christmas lights. What a concept! No more unsightly extension cord.

I think it's about time for this:

Bird brain

What do I do when I have too much to do? I get all consumed by some totally irrelevant brainstorm and ignore everything else. It's crazy. It's birdbrained, but that is what I do.

A week or so ago Jane Ann commented that my world looked so serene. A couple of days ago Reva commented, regarding the house remodeling, that I was not communicating any sense of chaos or panic. Yesterday I had my annual checkup and my Dr. noted my nice low blood pressure and said, "no stress in your life!" Boy, can I fake it!

Things are piling up around here. I am not ready for Christmas—not even a little bit. I have done no decorating. The pumpkin is still sitting on the porch. I am ordering tile and choosing windows. I am driving between the new house and the old house way too often and falling behind on project deadlines. Oy, what's a girl to do?

Build a bird.

Last week when our STASH group went to the Contemporary Craft Museum I saw some little ceramic birds that had designs on them that looked like fabric patterns. Those little birds have been flitting around inside my head ever since. Last night I decided to see if I could make a little bird from fabric. For several hours all those unbought Christmas presents and undecorated tree and mantel and unordered tiles did not exist. It is what I do. It's an odd coping mechanism, but there it is.

I like my little bird, but I think it can be improved upon. I'd like the beak to be a little pointier. I think the red breast doesn't start high enough. The beads I used for the eyes aren't quite right. But that's a project for another time. I have too much other stuff to do right now.

P.S. Since a couple of people have asked: the bird's legs are made from florist's wire and then wrapped with brown stem wrap tape—that stretchy, waxy, sticks-to-itself stuff.

Oak

I am refinishing an old oak table, that belonged to my mother-in-law. We will use it as our diningroom table in the new house. In the past I would have stripped the old finish, but I opted to take it to someone to strip it for me. The old finish was light and had turned very, very yellow. I want it a little darker.

Here are the base and a leaf. I am rather proud of the leaf, which I just built myself. The table was made to accept leaves, but they had long since disappeared. The guy who stripped the table (he answers the phone, "this is Tim, the male stripper") said the table is more than a hundred years old and had a customs mark on the bottom. Unfortunately Bertha acquired it from a secondhand store with no story about its past.

The top will probably get another coat, but I am nearly finished.

When I was young and furnishing my first house I decided I really liked old oak furniture. It was just becoming collectible at the time. It was the furniture of my grandparents' and great grandparents' generation. My mother grew up in a house full of it and considered it "ugly old stuff." Nevertheless, when my great grandmother died and her house was emptied Mom brought this old washstand back from Colorado for me. She knew I would love it.

Mom kept, for herself, her grandmother's china cupboard, which was entirely out of place among my parents' modern Scandinavian furniture, but was very sentimental to her. It came to me when my mother died.

The colored photo, by the way, is my parents. The oval portrait hanging above the cupboard is my greatgrandmother, the original owner. I have several other oak pieces I have acquired through the years, but these are my favorites.

I bought this little book in 1975. It is filled with photos of vintage oak furniture. I still enjoy looking at it.

The back section of the book are pages reproduced from a 1902 Sears catalog—the source of much of that style of furniture.

It shows the original prices and the approximate values of each piece in 1975 when the book was published. In 1902 a table, similar to mine, sold for $12.45. In 1975 they valued it at between $125 and $275. I have no idea what it would be worth now. This kind of old oak has kind of gone out of favor again, I think. The hot collectible stuff now is the mid-century Scandinavian furniture of my parents' generation. Funny. To me it's ugly old stuff.

Borrowing some pictures

It's been a busy week at the new house. Hiring Don was a great help and it all started to really take shape this week. I kept forgetting to take my camera out, but Ray took some pictures yesterday that he shared.

Here's Don hard at work on one of several short walls he framed in this week.

This little wall creates a "nook" next to the front door. The coat closet is behind Don just beyond the righthand edge of the photo. The nook will have a little bench where one can sit and remove shoes, etc.

Looking toward the kitchen you can see that little stepdown wall, which will cover the end of the kitchen cabinets and, at least partially, shield the view of countertop messes from the livingroom and dining area. You can also see the hole where the old window was. Don framed it in and repaired the siding on the outside. Once the siding is painted to match the house you will never know there was once a window there. A skylight will compensate for the light lost from that window.

Here's the view from the kitchen looking back toward the diningroom area. You can see the former door to the bathroom, which is going away and the wall extension which will help define that room a little better and provide a wall long enough for a china cupboard.

The old chandelier is going away too, eventually. I found a light fixture I like, but not the one in the picture I posted awhile back. If anyone finds it now, don't tell me!

Ray took this not very flattering picture of me removing the last little remnants of the wallpaper border in the small bathroom.

This is just to show you that I am not standing around bossing the men. I've also been refinishing the old oak table we'll be using. I'll get some pictures posted eventually. It's looking good.

And since I'm borrowing pictures today, here's one borrowed from Emily. Sofia's red hat is pretty darn cute!

And last of all, a very Happy Birthday to my friend Carla! Her birthday was yesterday, the "date which will live in infamy." I was a day behind and had it in my head that today was the 7th, so I missed her actual birthday. Hope it was great, Carla! You have been a wonderful friend for so, so long and I miss you, but love that we can visit each day via blog.