1... 2... 3... Green Door!

I did it! I painted the "front" door green! Bob had gotten the paint a while ago and inspiration seized me yesterday after lunch. It changed the mood of that whole side of the house.
So now we have:
One door, two door.
Red door:

Blues door!

Festive, silly, cheerful and helpful seeing as how we have no real "front" door; they're all on sides of the house and we're not clear which is properly to be considered the front.
But watch my next blog posting to see what the simple act of painting the door green caused. Sort of a snowballing of events, opening up all sorts of new possibilities!

Wrong Color!

(Gee, it looks better here! Oh well...)
Bob and I bought paint to redo the upstairs bathroom three months ago.After months of pinning paint samples to the walls and considering and re-considering we arrived at a consensus and purchased the paint. I am sure we all know how tough it is to determine the best pigment based on a tiny paint sample... But I was optimistic and awaited the perfect day to apply it. Lord knows it's been hot and humid and not great painting weather this summer.
So last week, Bob held his finger to the wind and declared that TODAY was the day: nice and breezy and dry so that you could air out the upstairs and the paint would dry quickly and thoroughly. I set to work.
And there is always waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more prepartion needed than you remember. You have to get the actually applicators and stirrers and pans and you need a screw driver to prise the lid off the can. Not to mention moving everything off the sink and the racks and out of the room. And then you need a step ladder; yes, it takes a while to prepare!
Finally, I began painting. I felt less and less sure as I went because it just looks so light.

See? Here it looks almost white! It's not a bad color, but I wanted one room in the house to have a saturated hue. The whole house is white!! I think I wanted a more "Wedgewood Blue": that is, a blue that has more grey to it... we'll live with the color as is for a while. At least it's clean!
                                                      
 In the meantime, Bob has become inspired to make us lovely and functional towel racks. We have had a stupid plastic one that was never correctly anchored to studs in the wall- that's what those holes are above. (Bob is spackling the holes with a unique way of securing the spackle when there is no stud behind. He has a small metal disk, to which he has affixed a string that holds the disk flat when the spackle is applied... neat!) Besides, we never had hooks or a rack on the door so we were limited as to where to hang towels or clothes. I can't wait.
So again, at least progress has been made. Maybe the color will grow on me; I think Bob is more sanguine about it than I am. It's a big step in the right direction!


                                                         


                                                             

Barring Natural Disasters...

So many projects, so little time! I've wanted to re-paint the upstairs for over a year now but last spring's tornado put the kibosh on getting much of anything done besides activities involving giant heaps of wood and brush. This year I vow will be different!
So the twisted stalk above suggests the illusive color I am seeking for the walls- a greenish/bluish/bit of purple... is this possible? Maybe I'll have to paint veils of color over color? Maybe I'll have to lose my mind trying to capture that subtle shade? Maybe I'll just paint the damned walls white again! (But what shade of white?!??!?) Anyway, I can't do that until warm weather and the possibility of open windows return. Hurry Spring! (And minus the tornadoes, please!)

These samples have been hanging out for quite a while...
What else? Yes, the wall will be built- not THAT wall but the mosaic one behind our Blue Garden. (Getting Mexico to pay for it!! Hahahaha.) I have tons of plates and dishes, all waiting to be smashed and cemented, but this, too requires warm weather. is there anything I can do besides endlessly vacuum the carpet in the meantime? Of course I will confess (and no doubt waggish friends and family will confirm) that I don't spend undo amounts of time cleaning and fussing. Just as well, too! Who wants to be an artist whose tomb stone reads, "Didn't Get Anywhere With Her Art But Boy Was Her House Clean". Not me!
I will admit that a reduced work schedule and the cold weather have driven me further inwards, both physically and psychically and has been good for my "studio practice".  Robin the Good drags me outside to chase her and her beloved soccer ball around but it's cold and I feel like hibernating.
But when I return to the warmth of my studio, ideas flow and pieces are coming together. I am finishing "Only the Oligarchs" and preparing to add the crystals to the edge that will really make that piece sing. I am preparing to sew the backing on "Your Words Have Consequences"; not the most exciting phase but that piece will be complete soon. (Sometimes, art requires a bit of tedium. The sexiest part is mostly the conception.) And "The Stock market is Not the Economy" is finally coming together. i think I have the font right... not sure about the scale of the letters. Some tweaking in process! So I guess I'm busy despite being chilly and awaiting warmer days!

Behind the Green Door... Or is it Red?

After much hemming and hawing, it was decided by arbitrary subcommittee that the door of the barn would be green. It sounded just about right: not too bright and sort of nature inspired. But the reality was different. I was only a third of the way into painting before Bob and I agreed that the green just wasn't right. (Although it looks better in the picture here than it did in person!)
So we opted for... bright red!

Which looks just great! It's weird: the green paint made the chamaecyparis next to the door look all yellowish and kind of sickly. Maybe it was too close in tonality or something. On the other hand, the red made the chamaecyparis look dark and healthy. Also, strangely, the green read better from a distance than up close...
Maybe it was the 90+ degree heat, but I painted that blasted door twice in two days! And this is after 6 years of it being raw, totally unpainted fiber board- you know: that stuff that's like the head cheese of building materials. And this is after priming the door with a dark grey primer, which was better than that weird raw wood... Yup, the heat has definitely gotten to me. I'll probably paint the door again next week. This time it will be really dark green, that almost black. There's an idea...

Here I am staggering out to the barn. It really was/is hot. A nice lesson in not trying to do too much when it is this hot. I actually finished up planting a few things this morning- and worked quite efficiently in my studio- despite the weather. Now I'm waxing indecisive about the door. Here are two close ups; which one do YOU think looks better?

Or...