(Probably) The Last Post of The Year!

Good riddance to 2019! Only a couple of days left and what have we got? Pink sky at morning! And I mean PINK! And now there does appear to be a weather advisory. (The funny thing is that recently several friends have posted images (un-photoshopped) of pink skies... wonder if it's a Climate Crisis occurrence?
Anyway, out with the old! What a miserable year. I can assure you one man in particular is responsible and I will not utter his name; suffice it to say, I hope he's swept out of office soon!
This year did have good to recommend it: Both Bob and I were in several great art shows, we both created a slew of new work, Bob (with the help of our good friend Joe) replaced the sink in the kitchen, we got our front door open, and we located a handsome beau for Robin the Good. And we are in (relatively) good health. Not too much to complain about on the home front.
And it looks like 2020 will begin on an upbeat note. I just found out that I was accepted in a show at The Ely House Center for Contemporary Art (in New Haven) and the curator, Sharon Butler is an interesting artist and art blogger (check out her blog Two Coats of Paint). the funny thing about this show is that it opens in like two weeks! Talk about starting the year off with a bang! (Don't worry: the work's already done.)
I also am plugging along on a new book project, "A Pot To Piss In: What's an Artist Urn?" and I do mean plugging along. I felt I had to reinvigorate my collage muscles after a long break. I wound up collating and finishing a batch of horse collages that I started years ago. The resulting "Rita Valley's Horsin' Around" is funny and charming. (Hey! This is a way better title than my original idea, "My Medium-Sized Horsies". That was (obviously) playing off "My Little Pony" but it was too lugubrious for even me, not to mention Roz Chast printed a some-what similar cartoon title in The New Yorker recently. Great minds think alike!)

That's the title page! Very exciting! I complied a dummy version and hope to get it printed and bound soon. Stay tuned!
And can we please all set our minds to work to make 2020 a more hopeful, compassionate year???

Ice Nine*

Let's face it- does anyone like ice? I may complain about snow and cold (and yes, winter in general) but ice sucks. It took me and Bob a good 1/2 hour to chip 1/2 inch of ice from the car. Hell, I couldn't even get inside to turn the engine on and defrost it. It was that frozen.
And boy is it dangerous! Ice doesn't like artists, or anyone else for that matter (Remember the abstract artist Cleve Grey? He fell down on ice in Hartford, hit his head and died.) Going across our backyard is alternately very noisy (crunch! crunch! crunch! I was afraid I was waking the neighborhood when I took Robin out the other night) and slippery as all get out. Imagine me skating across the tundra field to feed and water Maggie. I've got 5 gallon buckets afixed to either arm as I take baby steps and make pathetic whooping sounds as I threaten to topple over. I warn Bob to come look for me if I don't return as I've probably fallen and spilled water- quickly solidified into Ice Nine- somewhere between here and the barn. Awful.
So here's a happier, warmer picture: our 2019 Xmas tree! Yay!!! (To remind my followers, the two things I retain an affinity for at Xmas time are 1.) the tree and 2.) cookies!) Our tree is a tad wispy this year but it came from our woods and I like it's slender aspect. Granted, I couldn't hang many ornaments or the chunky lights on it as it was getting weighted down and looked kinda unhappy.)

But it's lovely! And festive! And there'll be less to take down and re-box after the holiday season passes. And fewer needles to clean up as it has fewer branches and less foliage all around. I'm happy.
Hey! While we're at it... Happy Winter Solstice! Days are getting longer from here on in!

*Ice Nine for those of you who don't recall, is a substance that played a major role the Kurt Vonnegut novel Cat's Cradle. A character named Bokonon who starts a religion possesses Ice Nine; capable of destroying the world. If you haven't read it, it is highly recommended. I myself am going to re-read it I remember enjoying it immensely!

(S)Hero

Yes, major congratulations are in order to the brave Greta Thunberg. She's amazing: beginning her Climate Crisis vigilance alone a mere year or two ago, sitting in front of the Swedish Parliament and now at the age of 16 (!!), she is now the face of a movement. A much needed movement... as we all know, the planet is getting astonishingly little help from the powers that be! Greta Thunberg is the inspiration we all need and proof that one solitary voice can activate a whole movement.
So why am I seething? Because of the next image, and you know what's coming!



Okay so what moron, what asshole on The Orange Menace's re-election campaign team thought this was funny or witty or what? Inspired? I can't believe that I am still capable of being surprised by anything he and his evil cohorts do, yet I am. Everyday, they sink to lower and lower lows (Don Jr. shooting rare sheep? House rethuglicans refusing to admit to facts and attempting to thwart an impeachment that should have occurred months ago?) So The Orange Menace tweets vile nonesense at Greta Thunberg because he's jealous of a courageous teenager and then has his tangerine mug collaged onto her body? This a mere week after he posted that hideous mash-up with his foul visage collaged onto Sylvester Stallone's body? Delusional a little? Where are the adults? Who misplaced The Orange Menace's meds? Is this really the world I live in?!?
The world would (obviously) have been better served if The Orange One had taken Greta Thunberg's ideas and started a Climate Crisis task force. Instead, we get some travesty of "the power of promises kept". Just WTF does that even mean??!!?

Birthday Most Murderous

Here's Robin the birthday girl herself. She'd all growed up and 4 years old! What a splendid dog! What a destructive dog! What a murderer! Not three minutes after she received two lovingly chosen new dog toys, one of them had parts of his head ripped off and strewn about the upstairs landing.

This is actually a picture of Robin (who is doomed to be eternally represented by a black blur as she refuses to hold still) trying to eviscerate the second toy, which proved to be tougher material. (Note to self: only purchase dog toys WITHOUT stuffing.)
Just look at Robin running away from the evidence: (off to destroy other unwitting toys.)

She's like, "I didn't do it! And if I did, it just shows such shoddy third world construction!" I know what I'll be doing later today- performing emergency surgery on the poor victim. I am also debating contacting the company that manufactured this not very substantial toy and offer Robin as a toy-tester. She's brutal!

(I'll admit I bought this particular specimen because I think it's supposed to be some sort of elephant-inspired animal. I thought it might be fun for Robin to chew on a rethuglican-themed toy. I guess she did prove it to be a witless jamoke filled with fluff and no substance!)

Waiting For The End of The World

Well... maybe not the end as we seem to be receiving (thankfully!) way less accumulation of snow and ice than previously projected. Bob had run out on Saturday and stocked up on provisions and I'm glad he did. Despite there being less precipitation, it's a nasty, messy mix of ice and rain and snow and... remind me why we live in New England?!?!

I've been running outside to minister to Maggie and all of her needs- hay, grain (2x a day) and fresh (unfrozen) water. (Plus I like to go out and hang around with her for a while as I think she's bored. I offer her encouragement and break up the monotony.) Maggie does insist upon standing out in this unpleasantness despite 24/7 access to her lovely stall. She even goes in and drags her hay out; what's a horse owner to do??!?!

Robin and I see eye to eye. She wants to go out, but is pretty happy to return inside and get toweled off. In the picture above, she's imploring me to stop fiddling with the camera and PLEASE OPEN THE DOOR!!

I'm happiest in my studio with the wood stove generating almost too much heat. I call it The Florida Room. I finished sewing diamonds all the way around my latest piece yesterday and today I embark on a new-ish project. I am (finally) starting my latest book, "A Pot To Piss In (or: What's an Artist Urn? (Earn)) about income disparity and my lowly place in the economical hierarchy that is modern day America. I have actually been playing with these ideas for a couple of years but become so extraordinarily depressed when contemplating the magnitude of the situation that I have not gotten much further than a few trial images and then holding my head in my hands in despair. Alas! I like my artist book offerings to be funny (or at least trenchantly amusing) but this one seems dark and unrelenting. Perhaps I'll win the lottery before long and can change the timbre of of my tome to one of financial success and optimism! Fat chance!

Things to be Thankful For

November seems to have slithered away from me and here we are, poised to celebrate Thanksgiving. I reflect that this is a good time to stop and appreciate all the many things we have to be thankful for.
How about cheerful autumn berries, adorning a lovely Ilex outside my studio? I am happy that even in the late fall, color abounds in nature. Hell, I'm thankful for the persistence of nature in the face of so much man-made destruction. Melting ice caps, rising sea levels, species being driven to extinction... I could go on and on. But I'm trying to be thankful so thanks Mother Earth!

I'm also thankful for the mammal denizens of nature that surround me and enrich my life. Thanks Robin the Good! Thanks for being a good friend and a generally cheerful all around help. I can't be upset or mad for too long when Robin gives me one of her sublime doe-eyed smiles and steals my gloves and socks and indulges in other canine silliness. What a swell doggo!

And thanks to Maggie the Mexican Pony for not being dead in the field last week. I got a good scare but she's up and around on four hooves and enjoying the last warm days of fall. And thanks to the horses that I ride for my lessons. They seem to have decided I'm okay and worthy of a whinny of recognition when I go to the barn and they haven't tossed me off into a manure pile when I ask them to do something- often incorrectly. Fine beasts!

Thanks for all our illustrious friends! Bob and I know some really entertaining characters (ahem! I understand that we fall well within that spectrum!) like Andy, seen above in festive array. They're all fine artists and swell company. I am truly thankful for friends as they redeem my faith in humanity when it is flagging. (And god knows, there is plenty of evidence as to the stupidity, cruelty and capriciousness of people these days...)
And family; I could have done worse in the family department. They aren't rethuglican reprobates who make me question my sanity or whether we really share the same blood and parentage. I actually look forward to seeing them tomorrow on Thanksgiving day and sharing observations on the impeachment hearings, along with consuming heroic portions of food. No need to avoid politics. Yay!

And I'm thankful for Bob and me (pictured here in warmer times). We're the right kind of nuts!

An Early Morning Scare

So in this picture, Maggie seems unconcerned and is preoccupied by the common horse behavior of grazing. This presents a very different picture than just a mere hour or so earlier...
I emerged from the house at about 6:15, bucket of horse food in one hand, accompanied by my beloved Robin the Good who was providing escort. I had just gone through the gate when Robin began to bark; I assumed she had spotted turkeys or a deer in the field. But it was unusual that Maggie wasn't at the fence, waiting for her breakfast. She does like to eat her grain and most typically greets my early morning feed with lusty whinnies and sometimes even a buck or gallop or two. I checked the barn and didn't see her there and was wondering where she had gotten to when I spied a green lump in the middle of the field near a brush heap. The green lump, of course, was her form swaddled in her lighter winter blanket. (See above photo).
My first thought was, "Good grief! Maggie has gone and died!" I mean, she is elderly and will disembark for that giant paddock in the sky sometime soon. (You will remember that my ex-blacksmith thought she should be put down last winter. She's had a whole year more to live, in relative horse bliss; getting brushed and fed and generally doing low key things.) I approached her singing her name and trying not to scare her if she was merely sleeping.
But as I got closer, I realized that she was in an awkward position, lying on the ground with her feet uphill from her back and head so that if she tried to rise, she was fighting against the weight of her body. I went downhill and stroked her head and said her name and her eyes opened and she tried to get up again but just couldn't. She tried several terrifying times to stand. I started calculating in my head just how many neighbors I'd need to round up to help her regain her feet. ( Horses sometimes get "cast" in their stalls, with their legs up against a wall. They need serious help to right themselves or can hurt themselves and die. With the assistance of ropes, you can right them, but it takes strength and luck!)
I started back up the hill, considering the odds of Maggie being unhurt. But as I got to the gate, I turned and saw... MAGGIE upright and coming to get her grain. Don't ask me how she finally managed to gain her footing, but she proceeded to walk in a normal fashion- no limping or anything- and made a bee line for her grain.
I examined her but there were no cuts or swellings or abrasions... boy was she lucky. Boy was I lucky! I gave her a "bute" (the horsey equivalent advil) and took the picture above, but she had apparently already forgotten her earlier struggle and didn't seem to understand why I was fussing over her. Well, she scared the hell out of me- and too early in the morning! But Maggie is a tough old bird.

Not Ready For Cold Weather!!

Not very thrilling, huh? To you it may look simply like an empty plastic bucket, but to me it signals victory. I did it: I planted the three million daffodil and tulip bulbs I "accidentally" ordered!
The "accident" part is a somewhat amusing story of friends collaborating on an order and a few substitutions later, I wind up with a lot of bulbs. I had anticipated the spots I had marked in my Lilac Border would be sufficient for the thirty or so white daffodil bulbs I intended to plant. Believe me, I got varieties that I'm certain will be marvelous, but I had to dig quite a few more holes and prepare an entire new area. Suffice it to say that next year's garden is going to be spectacular. I am eagerly awaiting the vernal appearance of "Snowboard", "Frosty Snow", "Thalia", and "Starry Night"- and that's just the daffodils! (These, of course, are to compliment the "Ice Follies", "Mount Hood", "Thalia" and "Barrett Browning already in place!)
I was fortunate that despite a couple of rainy days (read downpours) that impeded my planting, (along with several art-related events that I was frantically preparing for) it was relatively mild and I was able to get everyone buried before the snows fly. Yes, it is expected to rain and then snow today, in direct contrast to yesterday's benevolent 60 degree weather. I'm for sure not prepared for that! It was nice to plant in reasonable temperatures; typically, I am a "cheap date" and I purchase my bulbs marked down at home improvement centers in late November and flirt with frostbite while planting in sleet and worse. The things we endure for next year's garden!
So here's a more fantastical scene:

That's my garden helper and all around shadow Robin the Good adorning our bedazzled stairway. She looked so sweet when I took the picture, but the carpet looked so dingy that I had to improve on it. Robin thoroughly enjoys helping in the garden and keeps me in good spirits when my energy flags. (Believe me, removing the sod from another area was not what I originally anticipated!) Robin is sneaky, though, and steals gloves, empty plastic perennial pots and generally anything not weighted down in the wheelbarrow. Some help!
Anyway, everybody's planted and I'm ready for some serious indoor activity. (My mosaic project is regrettably on hold until next spring as cement isn't happy in cold weather.) My studio awaits!

A Romantic Interlude

Robin's got a boyfriend! A very nice doggo with an interesting history... more on that later! His name is Ding and he's a lovely Golden Retriever...
Ding's human (a very nice woman!) was so committed to our dogs meeting that she drove Ding out for a visit on a sunny Saturday... all the way from Queens. Robin isn't thrilled with car rides and I suggested that as we have a generous and attractive fenced in garden, it would be the perfect place for a romantic first meeting. I think the dogs agreed!
Robin is sometimes a little shy with new dogs, but she and Ding seemed to hit it off... she only issued a throaty growl (channeling her inner Lauren Bacall) once. I think she missed Ding the next day; sniffing around the yard where they had been together. We are hoping for a more intimate hook- up next spring.


*And before everyone gets all cranky and judgemental, I will state- as I have three million times before: I never (REALLY!!! NEVER!!!!) wanted children, but I've always wanted a litter of puppies. And no, this is not some sort of weird cross species transference. I just love dogs.

*AND I am neither stupid nor naive (despite what some detractors may say!!Haahahahahaha!!) I know that having puppies is a messy, bloody, poopy, exhausting ordeal, but I still want to do this and have a Robin the Good offspring. I have asked Robin what she thinks and she just answers with her typical inscrutable deadpan gaze. What a dog!

*Additionally, it's not as easy as one would think to have puppies. Firstly, there are many prejudices against mixed breeds. Pure bred dog owners ask exorbitant stud fees and are mostly only interested in breeding to another pure bred (despite inherited health risks!). They seem to think their dog is going to be ruined by breeding to a mix: Unclean! Contamination!  Don't get me started...
Also, so many people have castrated their males that there are few available to breed to. (At some point in the future, I will bore you all with my advanced research into the health benefits of NOT castrating your male...  Castration leads to all kinds of awful side effects like senility, cancer, joint issues)  I could go on and on. It has literally taken me three years to find a partner for Robin!! (Someday I will relate all the surfing of "dog porn" that I have under gone. It's an education!)


 

Smashy Smashy Bang Bang!

That's me photobombing my own creation.. Round 2 of mosaicing the tree! I had so much fun smashing all those plates! Thank goodness that I work at a facility that not only breaks its share of plates in the moving part of the job, but receives a great deal of already cracked, chipped and busted crockery. The pile I have at home is being sorted...
There are so many small details that accompany this project: assemble all tools, turn on the hose, smash plates (yes, wearing eye protection and gloves and covering plate to be deconstructed with a piece of cloth), sort plates into color coded piles, etc etc. I'm learning so much as I go, too, like smaller bits work much better. On the flat surface of the walk way, larger pieces were possible as they didn't have to defy gravity. going up the side of the tree- and around the curved surface!- presents a whole slew of logistical issues. I'm having fun!

Here's a closer read of the color. As noted previously, this particular tree will be in the reds/oranges/pinks range. The yellow above is actually gold from the rims of some really nice dishes- extra glittery! Trying to keep the integrity of the plate design has proven challenging. I'm happy with the abstracted quality as I'm not looking to be pictorial but some of the plates seem to expand on application and the image gets a bit diffuse. Luckily, my early efforts are at the base of the tree and will be semi-obscured buy the asters that grow in this particular garden area. But it all looks pretty great!
For those additionally interested in my inspirations, you only have to look up Antoni Gaudi, Park Guell, Watts Towers, Maison Picassiette, or Le Palais Ideal. Amazing!!

Now What Are They Making!?!??!!?

Well, true to my threats and promises, I started makin' mosaic on one of the dead trees. Here is an underpinning... sort of a cross between armor and lingerie. Tree looks sexy: all silvery and sinuous and shiny!

My hands and arms don't, though. Despite wearing gloves and a long sleeved sweat shirt, the metal lathing (that I had to apply in order to give a surface for the cement to stick to) is very sharp and scratched the hell out of me. It was fun anyway, learning to use a new material and solve problems along the way. First I tried wiring the pieces together but that didn't work. Then I discovered that fencing nails (the ones bent like "U" shapes) worked, as did the big-headed nails that Bob gave me. (Bob was busy repairing his studio roof line... there's always something to do around here!) I bashed my thumb and swore up a storm but it was exciting and challenging.
Several experts suggested that I reinforce the base of the tree with rebar* but I- maybe impetuous!- declined, thinking that the dead tree, once it's housed in a sheath of concrete, will stand longer than I will. Besides, if it falls over, we'll gave spectacular ruins and it will still be a romantic mess! O Ozymandias!!

My assembled tools; not sure if you can see the cache of band-aids in the corner of the wheel barrow!
It will be interesting to see how far I get with all the broken crockery I have assembled. When we did the walkway, I thought we'd have tons and tons of material but it got used up quickly and I had to go to a second hand store and purchase an entire snow-flake themed set of dinnerware. If the walkway was predominately blue and white (it borders the Blue Garden), I am feeling this trunk will be corseted in more reds and oranges. I have some right purty coppery/autumnal platters to smash!

As my riding lesson was cancelled today due to high winds and a chance of rain, I may be able to start the cement stage of the proceedings. I learned from our adventures on the walk way that planning a design a head of time- and preparing the pieces- makes the job easier.

*Hey! The experts who work in rebar were unavailable due to scheduling (and other) conflicts. this meant I either had to wait (until god knows when) or never begin this project. The clematis that I planted on this very same tree skeleton was growing fast!!

Enjoy It While Ye May!

I'm milking this dying bouquet because soon enough, the only flowers available will be the ones in my fertile imagination. Fall is here and it's blustery and we lost all our tender annuals- with the freaky exception of a particularly intrepid corner of zinnias! Actually, I've got quite an assortment of potted plants temporarily residing in my studio so we won't be entirely without greenery this winter. Now, where to put all those plants in the living room...
I'm also posting a picture here of an interesting visitor that Bob and I had late last week:

Look at that thing! He was BIG- way bigger than the photo suggests. This large insect was scaling one of Bob's sculptures and we couldn't help but notice him. He was carefully feeling his way up the steel... Here's his other side:

(I'm saying "he" but maybe it's a girl. I'm not sure how we tell.) Anyway, he/she was was oblivious to my efforts to document him/her.  We're guessing it's a type of cricket. Impressive and eerie.
But speaking of insects/bugs/pests/varmints/vermin and official lice...
Holy cow! Impeachment! Talk about draining swamps and all things pestilence! I can't look the news away and maybe the changing seasons becomes an advanced metaphor for changing directions in a seriously misguided administration. I could go on for days (and believe me, I'd rather discuss insects!) but did anyone really think that Rudy Giuliani (who DOES look like Nosferatu...) was a good guy? Please: the best thing that could have happened in this amazingly action packed week was that "two associates" of Giuliani's were arrested. More arrests to come. I'm on the edge of my seat and looking forward to designer handcuffs!

Our 31st Non-Anniversary!

And how better to celebrate our 31st non-anniversary than with me contracting a cold and a phone call from our driveway-sharing neighbors to say that there is yet another (!!!!) tree down, blocking passage? We've lost track of how many times the driveway has been impassable...
I was contemplating returning to bed as my throat was scratchy and my nose was stuffy and I just felt generally tired and run down when Bob provided the above intelligence. The tree decided to fall down late; we were in New Haven and didn't arrive home until a bit past 11:00. Our neighbor got home at around 1:00 to discover that she couldn't drive up the driveway. We were lucky!

(This shot is from the other side, by our neighbor's stranded car.) I rallied energy to assure Bob that I'd help drag limbs away, after he'd chainsawed the downed tree into draggable pieces. Fortunately, we have great neighbors and everyone pitched in. Bob sawed the side branches and when enough weight had been removed, we all formed a line and grabbed a rope that had been affixed to the biggest limb and we pulled. The third of the tree that was damaged gave way and no one got hurt and we quickly piled the truck high with debris to cart off into the woods.

You can barely see the truck for all the tree! It took an hour and a half or so but I think everyone secretly enjoyed the helping out and the cleaning up in the mildly chilly morning.
Which, of course, leads back to Bob and I celebrating our 31st anniversary! Yes, the basil was struck dead and blackened and tonight we're having a small occasion. (We'll wait until I feel 100% before we really congratulate each other on attaining a bit over three decades of unmarried bliss.) But I actually feel pretty okay after a low key day of laying around in the sun and getting picture books from the library. Sorry to see the garden go, but I guess it means less work!

What We Do For Fun, Part 102

This is Maggie the Mexican Pony's field. At first glance, this may seem pretty- all those dainty white flowers. And they are pretty: millions of tiny stiff asters... which Maggie won't eat. I proposed to Bob that I would mow the field and eliminate the flowers, before they set seed.

No, we don't have a huge brush hog or a tractor or even a riding lawn mower. We have a simple push mower and Bob has a weed whacker. Together, we decided to conquer the "Back Forty". For scale, here's the lawn mower in context:

That's the lawn mower, and by the time I had taken this picture, we'd mowed and whacked nearly half the field. Not an easy task but the day was pleasantly cool/warm and the bugs weren't bad. It's sort of like that classic Barbara Kruger piece, "It's a small world until you have to clean it". Things get bigger as you push equipment through it.

Right in the middle of the field, there is a mysterious area with dead grass in it. It's about the size of a large dining table and appears to have been burned. Weird. Maybe the aliens have landed here in their miniature space ship in attempt to create our very own Area 51. We may never know!
Anyway, we did about 2/3 of the pasture in two rounds this afternoon, before and after coffee. Bob weed whacked the edge of the field so that the electric fence would once more work. Here he is, again, with a helpful pink arrow pointing at him in the distance:

 You can see the area (dimly) to the right where we haven't mowed yet. Maybe tomorrow? Can't do everything in one afternoon!

That's a zoomed in version of Bob weed whacking, with a pile of fire wood waiting to be rescued. That was one of the several reasons we had for clearing the field. This pile of wood has been there since last last spring, before the tornado. We've had so many other stacks, heaps, piles and mounds of wood that this was not a big priority. But we needed to clear so that we could drive the truck down into the pasture and move the wood. I'm waiting until cooler weather so as not to disturb hornets, snakes and other varmints who may be hiding out!

Fall is Coming

Boy, I hope that shows up- quite the awe-inspring spider web on a Japanese Maple in the garden! I'm not sure if the blog allows you to zoom in, but the detail was spectacular and it was one of those oh-so-elaborate and incredibly delicate works of perfection that only spiders can do. I can feel fall coming to the garden.
Things are getting squishy and damp and rotting and imploding. I'm not ready for that yet! I've been spending less time gardening and more time just enjoying the end of season mess. I actively like the garden when it starts to implode. I can't do anything to stop it and I might as well enjoy it.
That is, despite the fact that I feel like I just planted the containers and didn't I only finalize planting out those zinnias I started from seed like yesterday?!? While I appreciate the asters blooming, they too signal the approach of fall.
I am looking forward to planting bulbs (more white daffodils for the Lilac area) but I am NOT anticipating cold weather with anything even vaguely resembling glee. The summer never feels long enough.
On the other hand, the fall gets me double time back into my studio and that's a good thing. I'm hard at work on several new pieces and erupting into mass production of my WTF line of work. The annual "open studios" event happens a month from now, but I was offered the opportunity to present my "merch" at a pop-up marketplace. This means I need to do what I thought I had a month to do in a week and a half. Hahahaha! But I'll do it! I'll get it done. I guess it is fortuitous that the weather cooling and I'm in the mood to sew not dig.

Spontaneous Renovations!

A refresher for those of you who don't recall: the living room was formerly my studio. This cabinet in the corner (yes... MY little cabinet of horrors!) was blocking the "front" door. The door had been graciously nailed shut by our house's previous owner. We will also fondly recall some of the other "improvements" that he made such as attractive ceiling holes, visible in the above picture. Or here in vivid close up:

But wait! I'm getting side tracked as is easy to do while contemplating household projects! That's for another day...
Where was I? Okay, so I painted the "front" door green and that sparked a slew of projects and the shifting of multiple tectonic plates. Like Bob has been saying for ages, "I'd love to get that front door opened up" and I know that the painting of the door roused us to action because on Monday, we moved the cabinet, Bob prised the door open and Hey Presto! The living room became a new space.

In all fairness to (mostly) Bob and myself, there was a lot of work between here and there. Not only had the door been nailed shut, the door frame itself had been partially removed and there were odd gaps and openings to fill. Poor Bob had to secure a new 2 x 8 for framing and then discovered that the door itself had warped. He set about shimming and planing and generally refitting the whole mess together. But now it opens! And closes!
He also replaced the knob- for which we had no key- with a nifty handle. Much easier to use and better looking. (Ahem: please ignore that weird exposed cluster of taped up wires. Future project!)

So we've been happily spackling and painting and enjoying going in and out of our new front door. Bob even dragged the lawn furniture over to that side of the house for us to take in the new view:

Now I have to find a home for all the studio stuff that was stacked up beside the cabinet. (Hahaha! Not an easy job as my studio annex is still packed with Mommy's furniture! Yet another project! Onwards and upwards!!)