More before and after

OK, do you want to see some big changes? This was our kitchen before. The furniture and bananas were the previous owners'.

Yes, that is purple wallpaper and yes that is blue formica and yes, holy crap!, that is a blue metallic refrigerator. This is how it looks today:

This room was pretty much stripped back to the studs. In progress shot here. We replaced cabinets and countertops, removed the window on the back wall in order to relocate the stove there and put the sink in front of the garden window. We replaced all the lighting and installed the skylight. We replaced the white vinyl flooring with terra cotta ceramic tile through the kitchen and dining area. I had the wall from the living room, on the left, extended, with that little step-down, to cover the ends of the kitchen cabinets and define the kitchen. The garden window and the dishwasher were the only things that stayed.

Looking from the living room toward the dining area and the room beyond, that we now call our "den," looked like this when we bought the house.

You are seeing a bit of the bathroom doorway that was changed, as well as the rather large opening into that little room back there. We closed in that bathroom door and extended the wall on the right side of this photo to make the doorway into the den narrower and give us a usable wall there. You can see those changes in progress here. This is how this area looks today.

This is a small house, but just right for the two of us. The kitchen and dining area are open and visible from the living room, so I wanted it all to flow together literally and visually. I chose kitchen cabinets and finishes that are similar to the furnishings in the living room and dining area, especially the cabinets. The open arrangement works so nicely for us and is especially pleasant when I am working in the kitchen. I don't feel so isolated.

We still have work to do on this house—that may always be the case! But in the short term, when we are finally able to sell our old house (it is currently rented) we hope to remodel and enlarge the master bedroom and bath. We also have plans to build a detached studio (for me) and greenhouse (for Ray). We hope to get started on that project sometime this summer. The crash in real estate and the dive the economy made came at the worst possible time for us, and changed our plans, but we've learned, pretty well, how to be flexible and rethink a situation. Meanwhile we are happy out here in the woods and I really, really, especially love my kitchen.

Then and now

Periodically I like to look back at my blog and see what I was doing a year ago, 2, 3 years ago. It was two years ago that we began our serious remodeling of this house. It was a really stressful, but also exciting time.

We had originally planned to buy a lot and build our retirement house, near Portland, but not right in Portland. We became very discouraged by the lots we found. Most were very small, with no trees and extremely expensive. One day, after looking at three lots—one on a busy main street with no trees on it, one on a flag lot behind an old run-down house and one so narrow and deep we'd have had to build a New Orleans style "shotgun" cottage, I finally said to Ray, "Let's start looking for an existing house, with possibilities, on a great lot."

I started researching houses on the internet and found this one, just five minutes from our daughter and family, and with a nice, deep wooded lot. It even has a creek running through. It didn't take us long to decide that we could make something of the house and we bought it. We ended up working on it for nearly a year before we moved in. In that year the economy took it's swan dive and we found ourselves with an old house and a new (old) house that were both worth much less than when we had started this adventure. That is when the stress kicked in, but we forged ahead and did what we could do.


It seemed that Ray and I, alone, could see the possibilities in the house. My daughter has admitted her original skepticism and I know friends were just being polite when they said things like, "it has possibilities." Looking back on my "before" pictures makes me realize just how much we accomplished on a reduced budget and less than a year's time. Here is the living room before we started work on it.

And after, taken today.

Another view before, with previous owners' furniture.

And after with our furniture, taken today.

Most of the changes to this room were cosmetic—paint principally, but we replaced all the windows with energy-efficient double paned windows. The old windows were not bigger. The heavy drapes were hung to the sides of the windows, creating that illusion. When the old window was removed in the living room the carpenters discovered carpenter ants and a lot of damage done to the structure around that window. That was not a happy day, but it was all repaired and the ants exterminated.

When we started work in the kitchen and dining area we got into some more structural changes. In this "before", looking from the living room toward the dining area, you can see that there was originally a door leading from the dining area into a small bathroom.

You can also see that the kitchen flooring, oddly, extended about halfway across that dining area.
Here's the after.

The bathroom door was relocated around the corner in the utility room and the wall repaired. The china cupboards are now where that door was. Not visible in this photo is the new kitchen and dining room floor that extends across the entire dining area.

More extensive changes were going on in the kitchen. We will look at them tomorrow.

P.S. All after pictures are clickable for closer views.

Mt. Hood

I finished my Mt. Hood piece today, except for a hanging sleeve and label. You may remember that it was based on a photo I took from an airplane and will be submitted for the High Fiber Diet show called "Bird's Eye View." The mountain is currently covered with snow, but this view represents a late summer view. Here is a closeup detail.

As I was working on this today I couldn't help but think of the three climbers who died on the mountain just a few weeks ago. One body was recovered. The other two have not been. All young people in their 20s. What a tragedy, but one that seems to repeat itself almost yearly on Mt. Hood. December is not a good time to climb and these young people did not carry a locator beacon that can be rented for $5 and are recommended for all climbers.

When climbers go missing like this the Sheriff's office search and rescue team, the National Guard and volunteer searchers are sent out to search for them, risking their own safety and at great expense to the tax payers. There are always editorials and letters to the newspaper from people who believe that the climbers who need to be searched for, or their families, should foot the bill for the search. Some are so hard that they suggest that climbers who refuse to carry rescue beacons should not be searched for at all. Of course that will never happen. I'm quite sure that regardless of how careless or misguided they may be in getting lost there will always be people who will do their very best to find them, even at great personal risk. And bless them for that.

I am sorry for those foolish climbers, and even more so, for their families.

added: The Mt. Hood piece is 15.5" x 47"

Very belated thank you!

Way back in October I won this wonderful little quilt from Frances Arnold. She had a giveaway on her blog to celebrate 101 posts. I have been very remiss in not thanking her publicly and sharing this gem. I have had it hanging in my studio and enjoying it all this time however. It is very scrappy and happy and makes me smile every time I look at it. Those are many, many very small pieced strips you are looking at. I love these kinds of quilts, though I don't make them myself. It really sparkles.

If you look at this piece long enough, the design "pops". Do you know what I mean? First you see stars on a multicolored background,

then it pops and you see diamonds on a dark blue background.

Neat, huh?

Thank you Frances. I love it.

The word for 2010

On the QuiltArt online discussion list someone suggested the idea of choosing a guiding word for the new year. It has been an interesting lot of words people have come up with. This is an exercise that is not the same as a resolution, but rather a thought or idea that we feel would be a positive influence on our lives for the coming year. "Focus" was a popular choice and one I can identify with. Laura Cater-Woods talked about "mindfulness" in such a beautiful way. Being more mindful of the details of life, no matter how insignificant, is something I find becomes more important to me as I get older. It provides richness and texture to our daily life.

Some of the word choices seemed off to me. Someone said their word was "clutter," as in getting rid of it, I guess. But I would not want such a negative word guiding me through the year. Someone else listed her word as "me." Honest, if nothing else.

Christine Thresh's word is "Good." She says, "I hope I will examine my actions and motivations this year and ask myself 'is this good for you? Is this good for the community and the world?' ” I really like that.

The best word I could think of to describe what I most want and need right now is "thrive." It may not precisely express what I am after, but it was the best word I could come up with. At the beginning of this new year I find myself so lucky to have opportunities I never expected and so much to look forward to. I am part of the 12 x 12 group, writing a book that will be published in 2011. I am writing another magazine article, making quilts for a couple of exhibits and working toward some additional new adventures in art quilting. There are family celebrations planned for this year that will be joyful occasions. "Thrive" to me means being in the moment and enjoying these gifts. It means staying organized and avoiding the stress of hurried, last minute pressure. It means taking care of my health and well-being so I can work at full capacity, with maximum enjoyment. It encompasses some of the other words that came up, including focus and mindfulness.

I made a quick, tiny little banner to hang in my workroom that will remind me that I can thrive on a full schedule and the occasional deadline and I am lucky to have the life I have.

Goodbye, Hello

Goodbye to Christmas, 2009.

The glitter of the holiday is packed away for another year.

Hello, 2010.

With family (we missed those of you who couldn't make it—) at the windy, stormy beach. Rest, recreation, good food, good company. Ready for what the new year brings.

And so it goes.

2009 in pictures

Snow

This was the view out my front window late yesterday afternoon. The snow started coming down about 3, to everyone's great surprise. The weather guys missed it completely. It snowed like crazy for several hours—just long enough to send the entire city into a tailspin. Everyone left work, apparently at exactly the same time, about 4, and headed home, which resulted in total gridlock. At 11 last night some of them were still trying to get home. I went out to the grocery store about 4 and had a very slow trip home, watching cars slide and spin their wheels and some give up the idea of getting up our little hill and turn around in the middle of the street. Several cars were abandoned in front of my house. Craziness. My car, with its all-wheel drive, just plowed on through with no difficulty. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening inside enjoying the incredible beauty. Isn't that blue in my photo amazing? It really looked just like that. No Photoshopping employed.

Ray flew home from So. Oregon last night and took the MAX train, from the airport, through the city, bypassing all those cars, still sitting on the freeways. I picked him up at the Beaverton station and we were home in no time. It was already starting to thaw and rain a little by then.

You really have to love a surprise snowstorm. It reminds you how little control we really have despite all our science and technology. Best to view it as a gift and enjoy. I can say that, but I wasn't trying to get home from downtown . . .

Add another one to the list

A couple days ago I posted a slide show of the work I have done this year. Yesterday I decided I wanted to finish something I started earlier in the year before the year was done.

This is a little book-like folding piece that I made from work that I did in a class I took from Laura Cater-Woods in September. Laura puts a lot of her work together in a similar way and I was quite intrigued by the idea. (BTW, you can click for a bigger view if you are interested in details) The spine pieces that make it stand are bamboo skewers cut to size and finished with some of the many wooden beads I seem to have accumulated over the years. Since the photo images that I incorporated into these pieces were all photos I took in Mexico I thought of putting more Mexico photos on the backs, but in the end decided on just a printed fabric for the backs. I love the fabric I used—given to me by my friend Jeri.

I seldom take classes, had always thought that if Laura were to teach here I would love to take her class. She is another internet friend from many years back who I had never actually met in person. It was wonderful to finally meet her and see some of her work in person as well. Her work is so beautifully organic and full of texture and line that it was a pleasure to watch her work and to hear her ideas and thoughts about creating. The class was about specific techniques and I was glad to have a chance to try out different materials and ways of working. Some may find their way into things I do, though they are very far from how I generally work. Even though the pieces I made in the class are quite different from my usual style they still feel like mine. My color palette is quite different from Laura's. Still, this is not a piece I would include in my portfolio or show. Instead it is a quite lovely (I think) souvenir of the class experience. I will be keeping it and enjoying its presence and it will remind me of Laura, my friend.

A year of artwork and handmade stuff

Some of what kept me busy in 2009

The week between

Last of the Christmas cards—1988. It reminds me of Idaho, of the mountains and the tall pine trees in the snow. It's a good card for my mood today. I am thinking about my childhood, my brother, my sister, my parents. I am thinking about living in Southern Oregon with small children and days of cross-country skiing in the mountains. I know many people, especially here, who find peace and a sense of renewal at the ocean. For me the mountains provide that. This morning I was reading a blog in which the blogger claims she gets that sense of peace and renewal only in Paris. Ummm. OK. I suspect those special places in our lives are less to do with the actual place and more to do with our happy associations and memories. It is also my belief that if the place has a very distinctive smell, as well, it really triggers those strong feelings. My memory triggering smells are evergreen and sagebrush. Ocean people rhapsodize about the smell of the ocean, which has never done it for me. I love a trip to the beach, but it isn't the same as standing on a mountain trail, breathing crisp, astringent, pine-scented air and looking out across mountains beyond mountains, that eventually dissolve into sky.

I always think the week between Christmas and New Years is a time for contemplation, mental house cleaning and taking stock. I like to think about the year that is ending and quantify it with lists of trips, accomplishments, disappointments, losses . . . Yesterday our niece posted on Facebook that she had arisen early on the day after Christmas and starting putting away all the Christmas decorations and restoring her home to "normal". For me that task belongs to New Year's Day and is deeply symbolic of putting the old year behind me and making way for the new. So, Christmas, like the old year, is in its final days and I waver between celebrating those last remnants and looking forward to what is always the hope—the next year will be better than the last.

Christmas

First, another Christmas card from 1989. I have one more to post! I was trying to post them to end on Christmas day, but I miscalculated. As it turned out, our Christmas Day was pretty much pure joy, so the card fits.

It has been ages and ages since I posted about what I have been making, because it was all for Christmas gifts that could not yet be revealed. All of it was for Sofia's Christmas and it has been the most fun. First, I decided she needed a doll bed and bedding. My friend, Paula, surprised me with a beautiful little doll bed her husband, Norm, made many years ago for one of their daughters. Said daughter said she did not want it (thanks, Kim!) and so they passed it on to me for Sofi. I made a small quilt, pillow and pad. Paula thought I should paint the little bed, but I really loved it just as it was.

I think Sofia liked it. Here she is tucking in a bunch of her "guys" yesterday.

My other, more challenging project, was dress-up clothes for Sofia. She has a great imagination and love of concocting outfits to wear. I made her a group of mix and match pieces that can be used to create ensembles for a princess or a ballerina or . . . ??

The look on her face was all I needed to know that she liked them.

It occurred to me that these were gifts like the ones I got as a child, and still are classics for little girls.

Two, it seems to me, is a perfect Christmas age. Too young to have developed a greedy sense of entitlement about gifts, but old enough to anticipate, and delight in everything about Christmas. She was sweet and excited about everything all day. Even Christmas dinner was an adventure at my house where she ate, after some urging, an oven-roasted brussel sprout and declared, "I LIKE it!"

After dinner we got relaxed and silly and compared our pedicures. Sofia had admired her Mom's and my painted toenails after our pedicures the day before, so Emily painted Sofi's toes with washable, non-toxic kids' polish.

A blog first—three generations of piggies.

Merry Christmas!

Card from 1986. Silkscreen print.

What more can I say that what was said back then?

Wishing all of us Love and Peace and Joyous Holidays always.

My favorite

Happy Christmas Eve! As it happens, today's card, from 1985 is my very favorite of all the Christmas cards I made. It is another linoleum block print. Only one block, but printed with a combination of brown and green inks. After they were all printed, I cut a little mask the shape of the print, which I could lay on the print, then spatter a bit of white paint over it.

It's a beautiful day here in Oregon. The sun is shining brightly and it is crisp and cold. Emily and I went and had pedicures this morning. We remembered the time several years ago that we went for pedicures just before Christmas in a snowstorm. The power went out and plunged the salon into darkness. The women who worked there scurried around and found candles and flashlights and finished our pedicures. When we left we discovered that all the street lights and traffic signals were out and traffic was slowly creeping along at a snail's pace. I turned onto a street not far from my house to find it blocked by an enormous, uprooted cedar tree that had crashed through power lines and landed blocking all lanes of traffic. The power crews were already there and traffic was being redirected. I wrote about it at the time. But today is entirely different.

Tonight we will go to my daughter's for dinner and games. Tomorrow we will all have dinner here. We are all looking forward to Sofia's reaction to everything. This is the first Christmas she has had the awareness to anticipate and think about Christmas and get excited. We have all had wonderful fun making and buying gifts that we think she will enjoy and learn from.

Well, the kitchen is calling to me, so I must go and start cooking. Have a wonderful holiday!

Oh Christmas Tree!

I know for certain that this card was 1984 because I dated it.

We always have a real tree. I know a lot of people have gone to using artificial trees and I understand all the reasons for doing that, but I'm just not there yet. One of the big objections to cut trees is the fuel it takes to truck them all over the country. Living right here in the land of Christmas trees (Oregon produces more Christmas trees for commercial sale than any other state) I don't feel any guilt about that. We usually try to go to a tree farm and cut our own tree, so we provide the transportation, and now we live very close to a lot of tree farms, so we don't need to carry it very far. This year our financial advisor gave each of his clients a tree. He owns a small tree farm. It's a beautiful tree—a noble fir. What a nice thing to do. I appreciate it much more than the calendars or pens he usually sends out.

When we lived in Ashland, when I made this card, we usually got a permit from the Forest Service to cut a tree on Forest Service land. This was generally up in the mountains in the snow and was a fun day for our family. We'd take X-country skis and sleds and a saw and sandwiches and thermoses of hot chocolate and head for the hills. Skiing into the silent forest was magical, especially if we were lucky enough to be out on a sunny day that made everything sparkle or if we were skiing through gently falling snow. Once we found our tree, digging down into the snow to be able to cut it close to the ground was work, as was hauling it back to the car. I was always surprised at how much bigger the tree looked inside our house than it did out in the forest!

The smell of a freshly cut douglas fir or noble fir instantly brings back memories of those snowy trips to the forest. Maybe that's why I resist the idea of an artificial tree. Besides those artificial trees are too perfect. I need a flat side to face the window.

Dickens card

Sometime in the mid-'80s I was involved with a production of A Christmas Carol in Ashland. My friend, Alec Teague staged it and hired me to design the poster and some large puppets used in the production. It seemed natural to use a quote from the play for our Christmas card that year. This one is another silkscreen print for the snowflakes, which I printed on photocopies of my hand calligraphy. This was long before you could choose an appropriate font on your computer and print the text on your inkjet printer. In many ways that doesn't seem so long ago. Hard to believe how far we have come in such a relatively short time.

"Of all the trees that are in the wood the holly bears the crown"

Another silkscreen print, this time using three screens. Early '80s. I have always liked Holly. Holly does not grow in Idaho where I grew up, but I saw it when we visited family in Oregon. It always seemed like the perfect Christmas green. Shiny green leaves and beautiful red berries. What's not to love? Oh yeah, stickers. Those points on the leaves are sharp! But to look at—so beautiful.

My sister was married a few days after Christmas and the wedding had a very Christmas-y theme. Of all my bridesmaid dresses (I was a bridesmaid a LOT for a few years) the one for Beck's wedding was my favorite—long, red plaid taffeta skirt with a white crepe, french-cuffed shirt top. My grandmother shipped several large boxes of holly from Oregon to decorate the church.

When we bought our first house in Oregon the first yard purchase was a holly bush. Imagine my chagrin when I learned, just recently, that English Holly is considered an invasive species, which we are discouraged from planting in Oregon. We didn't plant it, but we have some out front and I don't plan to pull it out. When I posted the photo of my terra cotta ornaments the other day there was a sprig of holly from our yard in the photo. I will always think of it as an Oregon plant.

By the way the title of the post comes from the carol, The Holly and the Ivy. English Ivy, also abundant in Oregon is another invasive species.

The final glide toward Christmas

Another Christmas card from the past. This one is a silkscreen print, using two screens. One screen prints the lighter red on the dark red paper. The second screen prints the cream-colored lines. The registration is casual, so you see bits of the dark red base paper showing between the light red and cream lines. I really like this card. After a lot of fussy detail in the block prints, it was refreshing to come up with something kind of crisp and clean and simple.

Christmas preparations feel pretty under control this year. I am using only some of the decorations, but Ray put up the multicolored "drippy" icecicle lights on the front of the house and that feels the most festive to me. I love driving into the driveway in the evening and seeing the the lighted house and the Christmas tree through the front window. We have a nice, smallish evergreen at the corner of the driveway near the street and I thought it would be pretty with lights, but would have required an extremely long extension cord through the woods and over the creek for conventional lights. Not practical. I found a string of solar powered lights at Target. Pretty neat idea, but we have had so much rain and the days have been so dark that I have only seen them lighted for a few minutes at a time. Not enough sun to power the solar battery.

I still have some sewing to do, but all my shopping and mailing are finished. I am planning to enjoy the days leading up to Christmas with friends and family. I hope you are all feeling as ready.

"Let Sorrow Lie..."

Another Christmas card from about 1981. This is another lino block print, with some added watercolor. I have no recollection of where I found the verse—kind of has the ring of an old Carol, but who knows? It's a worthy sentiment for these times.

I went along with my daughter, son-in-law and Sofia to visit Santa at the mall a couple nights ago. It was a hard decision for a two-year-old. She was interested and excited to see Santa, but also a little scared. The scary part was getting the better of her, but I could see that she was fighting it. Having Mom and Dad with her helped, plus not having to actually sit on his lap, but there was a look of terror that crept into her eyes the closer she got. When the photographer said "smile" she tried, but it was more like a grimace, then Santa asked what she wanted for Christmas and it came out in a sort of desperate, strangled sob— "I wwwwant a Hello Kitty Booooook." Then it was over and she was elated at having done this scary thing and survived and delivered her message to Santa. I was so proud of her baby courage. Have I told you what a great kid she is?

Christmas stuff

I have done all the Christmas decorating I am going to do, except for digging around to see if I can find my reindeer to go on the dining room table. The Thanksgiving Mum is starting to look a little past its prime! The photo above is a small part of my collection of terra cotta Christmas ornaments. They are usually on the mantle with greenery, rather than on the tree. It is a collection that started sort of unwittingly about 20 years ago. I found several small terra cotta ornaments at a gift show and bought them, then I started looking for more and just kept buying. I am particularly fond of the Guatamalan angel, holding the dove. Reminiscent of my Christmas card from many years earlier, isn't it?

Here's another dove from the old Christmas card collection. Still one of my favorites. Probably around 1979.

And now, a special treat! This video is Bob Dylan singing "Must Be Santa." It is one of the wierdest things ever, but mighty catchy! I discovered this video thanks to Sue Reno, who posted it on Facebook with the comment that it reinforces her belief that "everything is better with an accordian!"