Halloween (10-31-10)

Even though we still aren't settled in, I wanted to make an effort for Halloween.

I got some old lanterns at the Goodwill Outlet, spray painted them matte black, put candles inside them and placed them along the path to the porch. The old skeleton was dusted off and arranged on one of the chairs. The living room and dining room windows were decorated dark wreaths on the outside and with skulls and raggedy stuff on the inside. There were also three or four real garden spider webs within close vicinity to our Halloween decorations. Perfect.
We got over 20 visitors; not bad at all... And it was validating to overhear one kid comment to one of his companions that he got re scared when he first saw the rubber snake on the floor of the porch.

Creepy Creatures Crawling Out (10-25-10)

Tonight, Julia mentioned to me that she had seen a very scary-looking spider inside the window over the kitchen sink when she got up during the night. I tried to get her to give a description of what she saw, but all she could tell me was that it was a really scary-looking spider. I asked her if it perhaps could have been one of the Mondo spiders. No, and it wasn't a sort-of-cutish (!) one, like those we have in the yard (that would be, the huge garden spiders that have been spinning webs all over the front porch). She said the spider climbed back to a hiding place inside the opening for the window weights. As it turns out, shortly telling me about this, she called out urgently. There was the spider, dark, ominous, shiny and hourglass-shaped. All the commotion was too much for the beast; it retreated inside the window frame. I checked the web, and it was crinkly as I expected: a bona fide black widow. Crap. All we need.

Then, a few minutes later, Julia pointed out what seemed to be a small carpenter ant on the kitchen floor. Crap again.

Unrelated, Valérie called and asked if we had seen any Mondo spiders inside the house lately. I answered that we hadn't, and we both agreed that this was very suspicious.

A few hours later still, as Gary and I were sitting on the couch in the family room, checking out some garden lanterns I bought at the Goodwill Bins, which I thought would be perfect for Halloween, as I tried to wipe off one of those cloudy white spider egg sacks, a gazillion tiny eggs fell out and rolled all over the coffee table...

Aaaarrrgh!

Peacock Window for the Living Room (10-17-10)

Jennifer Hanson made this beautiful mosaic glass window; a natural spot for it was in the living room, next to the piano.

New Flower Windows for the House (10-17-10)

I got some gorgeous windows from Jennifer Hanson again. I absolutely love them.

Stunning at night when the light is on indoors.

This one is in the staircase.

Gorgeous Windows for the Art Studio (10-17-10)

I liked these windows the minute I saw them on Jennifer Hanson's website. The problem was their horizontal orientation, making less than ideal for the vertical window frames in the dining room or the living room. It turns out that the only place where these windows will fit is the Art Studio...

And Here is the Artist... (10-17-10)

...the amazing Jennifer Hanson, who created the lovely mosaic glass windows I mentioned in previous posts. She came to deliver more windows and very kindly hung them up.

Lovely Fall Blooms (10-07-10)

Hydrangeas (in French, they're called Hortensias) are so giving and extravagant! They are the jewels of the fall garden.

I wanted to cut a few hydrangea blooms from the huge bush in front of the kitchen window, and I was enjoying myself so much, I got carried away and I cut them all off! (Pretty stupid...)

Master Bedroom Improvement (10-04-10)

I convinced Gary to take down the hideous trellis the previous owner had attached to the ceiling. When lying down in the bed at night, I could imagine armies of spiders nesting behind the trellis, and dropping down on my face during the night... I don't mind the green and lavender wallpaper, but this was too much, you know, "Girly-Woman-has-a-Southern-Plantation-moment."

Christopher started painting the walls a deeper shade of lavender, to match the color in the wallpaper. The original (pallid and drab) color of the wall is visible in the photo above.

Morbid Inspiration (10-02-10)

Yesterday, I went to the First Friday event in Milwaukie. After wandering in and out of businesses, looking at displays for a while, since it was getting dark and cold, I decided to call it a night (haha!).

As I was getting ready to get back in my car, I noticed that the interior decor at Wine:30 was all dark and ghoulish. Closer investigation revealed that it was an art exhibit featuring the Davis Graveyard. Totally freaky, because earlier in the day, as I was driving down from Johnson Creek Road, I caught a glimpse of a front yard replete with realistic-looking tombstones; it reminded me that some people still manage to enjoy themselves at this time of the year... Serendipity of a weird type, one could say.

Anyway, the scene in the wine bar was just too good to pass, and, after ordering an herbal tea (mentioned in case anyone out there wonders what the heck I was doing in a wine bar, not that I care), I set out to draw a few of its elements.

Contractor Update (10-01-10)

Well, it turns out that the genius carpenter was also a flake. So annoying.
After installing the French doors, redoing the ceiling, setting in a large decorative beam supported by two beautiful rustic posts, and laying the floor out in the studio (aka "the shed"), he disappeared, leaving work unfinished on the outside of the structure. Pretty annoying since he left work unfinished.
I could see it coming a while back: he was getting here later every time, yet leaving earlier. There always was an excuse of some sort; he seemed flustered; he "was having personal problems," "was busy at his other job," etc. I almost expected him to say that the dog had eaten his homework.
Now I am in the frustrating position of having to pay someone else yet to finish what he didn't.

Rethinking my Attitude (09-27-10)

Now that I am back from a soul-recharging and inspiring trip back to Europe (Amsterdam, and specifically Budapest and Prague), I am going to pick up the pieces of my blogs and start posting again.

It's been said many times, things in Europe are different. Things look old from natural age, not out of artifice. No need for Disney-esque fairy tale-style quaintness, or for grand-looking ephemeral buildings on movie sets to be soon torn down... It's a difference in attitude. The saddest photo exhibit I've ever seen was, if I remember correctly, an exhibit of Minor White's early photos of Portland: it was a great city with great architecture, and it is no more, because it's all been torn down.

It was refreshing to see elegant old buildings in the cities, some gloriously restored, some still showing the heavy scars of wars and time. Give me that any time over the cheap strip malls and box-style stuff passed off as buildings here. We saw more buses and trams running throughout the day in the cities than we would in a month in Portland, and they were heavily used by commuters, no less, appreciated as a necessary element of the infrastructure of a city.

It was refreshing to visit Skanzen, the open-air ethnography museum near Szentendre in Hungary, and to see old farmhouses relocated on-site, decorated and furnished with authentic folk-style furnishing, things that fit the setting they were intended for. Most interesting, it was amazing to see how people lived in these ancestral houses, how some had airy courtyard proving summer shade, or a central room with a wall oven, or how the variations in styles based on the regional setting.

In Cesky Krumlov, we had the amazing opportunity to stay in a hotel built in 1459, and this reset my perspective. The lovely and picturesque buildings in Cesky Krumlov were all of the same vintage; none were straight and plumb according to today's standards, and yet, they were still standing, and still occupied and clearly well-cared for and valued.

An old house like mine, despite the local reaction to its so-called ancient age, construction methods and materials, is in fact a window into the history of its setting (although, a very young history, since the oldest buildings in the area are probably in Canemah and Oregon City and date back to ca. 1861). What is wrong is the approach to this history. My experience has been that on the West Coast, there is a tendency to consider anything over 20 years old to be decrepit, in need of updates or replacement, and, ultimately, worthless. So sad.

This trip was particularly valuable to me in the sense that it allowed me to rethink my reaction to getting bad news about the house (and have I gotten bad news in the six months we've lived here!). Consequently, so what, if the house has settled over the years? So what, if the roof over our house is not straight? So what, if the oak trees drop leaves inside the gutters?

A Light to Shine Through the Night (09-24-10)

I've been going to several lighting stores over the last couple of months, hoping to find a light fixture or two for the art studio (previously called "the shed"). There wasn't much that I liked, though. I wanted a distinctive light, but one I could afford (requirement that apparently cancel each other out).
Yet I kept thinking about a chandelier I'd seen at Hippo Hardware as one that would be perfect for the dining room. The looping drapery cord design, the bright gold paint finish struck me as a somewhat charming 1960s gaudy interpretation of a more classic and timeless style. So, after giving myself a generous few weeks of going back to look at it and thinking about it, I finally purchased it. (Who ever said I'm impulsive?) And thanks, once again, to Jim McDonald, for excellent customer service.

Great House Party! (08-22-10)

Days of work and cleaning paid off: many friends came to visit and we had a great, great time visiting with all, even some we hadn't seen for a few years. A head count of all the people present over the course of five hours came to a total of...95 people! Amazing!

The house was clean; I had even managed to cram all the still-unopened boxes in the small family room closet, making it look like we had our act together. The instructions were simple: if you show the house to visitors, no matter what, do NOT open the closet door.
So, after the last visitors were gone, as I was finally about to sit on a chair in the dining room, in a daze, munching on my first bite of the day, leftover chips (wistfully thinking of all the appetizing treats I had seen come and go), commenting on how great everything had looked, and how masterfully I had managed to get all those boxes to fit all piled-up in the closet, and no one had even known, Monica-Sophie commented that she had in fact opened the door to show everyone how we had managed to hide all our stuff away in the small closet!..

Scanner Problems (08-15-10)

My scanner is unresponsive since Gary reinstalled the system software on my computer. I don't know what to do to post images. The easiest solution may be to take photos of my sketches and post them rather than the scanned images.

Coming Soon: House Party (08-14-10)

There is no point in postponing this any further; we are going to go ahead and have a house party in a week or so.
Monica-Sophie is presently in South Korea and will be in town for a couple of days before leaving for Budapest, possibly up to a year; Valérie will also be here 9in fact, she's been here all summer), so this seems like the best time to invite people over, whether the house is messy or not.

A Favorite Place (08-14-10)

When I take a walk down the alley to the front of the property, I like to stop at this small shady paved area.

Urban Sketcher Symposium (07-31-10)

Here is a  photo of me with the Japanese fold sketchbook I used for the last three days.

Buried Treasure Project: Why I draw (07-18-10)

[I am reposting this post from 09-25-08 as part of Seth's Buried Treasure project on his blog The Altered Page.]

[The best way I can think of revisiting the past is to look through my old sketchbooks, so this image came immediately to mind.]

My sketchbooks are a source of comfort and pleasure. Whenever I feel bored or unsure about a situation, or when I plain don't feel like being sociable, I know that, in my purse, a world of escape awaits. They are my memory of events I enjoyed, my record of places visited, my outlet for what can't always quite be said in words.

Lavender Dreams (07-12-10)

This is a view of the fragrant lavender growing at the front of the property. I plan to gather it next year and make sachets to sell... Won't that be wonderful?!

Roses from the Garden (07-10-10)

Many red and orange-colored rose bushes were already established in the rose garden at the front of the property, but I brought along my very favorite David Austin roses from Heirloom Roses when we moved: The Prince, Tamora, St Cecilia...

Gorgeous and lovely, fragrant roses never disappoint... 

 

Remodeling by Intuition? (07-02-10)

I hired a team to work under the house to shore up the posts, and as they set out to crawl under the house this morning, I suddenly had a real bad, creepy, feeling that something bad may happen, a feeling of dread that kept on increasing with time. So I made the contractor stop and told him that I felt uncomfortable with them being under the house. The poor guy looked totally baffled. But I felt much better once they were out of the crawlspace and gone.
I can't figure out if I an apprehensive about spending money (all the money we'd set aside for improvements is spoken for), if it is about this particular team doing the work, or if it is because the crawlspace had been sprayed with pesticide only the day before, and I am concerned about any residual fumes... Most worrisome: could it be one of those premonitions I get every once in a while, that something bad may happen..?

Fiction Writing Exercise (06-24-10)

I wrote this fictional text with a certain house in mind...:

Sadie had spent days sweeping and mopping floors, opening boxes of once important things that now seemed pointless to hang on to, and she could tell the adversary was formidable. The house was malevolent. Not your evil-horror-movie-house malevolent, but insidious and discreet about its evilness. Despite her scrubbing them with scouring cleaner, baking soda, and even alcohol, she had been unsuccessful at removing the many smudge marks from the walls. It seemed that only paint would cover the damage.

She had encountered various noxious creatures: ants, tiny ones who had invaded her sugar containers, as well as the more destructive carpenter ants, and even the occasional spider, huge and hairy. She wouldn’t even be surprised if, getting up one morning, she found a scorpion curled up inside her slippers.

Another Day with Contractors Over (06-24-10)

I have lost track of how many contractors and/or workers have been over since we moved in. Whether it is roof, gutter, foundation, or insulation, somebody's come over to look at it. I may post a sign by the mailbox: House With Problems Straight Up the Driveway. And Bring Yer Own Flashlight and Measuring Tape this Time.

In the case of the foundation, if five contractors have been over to inspect the underside of the house, there have been that many opinions about the state of the foundation. These people all seem to describe a different house, ranging from shrugged dismissal, the age of the house given as an explanation for its shabby state, to manic smiles in anticipation of a fortune made to bring everything to 21st century standards, to paranoid rants about how one should be paid to even look at anything like that. Yet, there is never any mention of the issues that had been pointed out in the house inspection report (repairs Mrs. Previous Owner promised to do, but didn't).

And when one of these guys goes under the house, it's not like I can really tell him that I'll be in the house, and to just let me know when he's done. No; there is a sort of unspoken expectation that I will be standing by the side of the porch leading to the crawlspace, and kill time while whomever is crawling about under the house. Some guys like an audience and talk away the whole time (inaudible muffled sounds coming from under the house)... There I am, patiently standing by the opening under the porch, thinking of how to muster dinner out of what may or may not be in the refrigerator, or looking for weeds to pull by my feet, while nodding and making sounds of agreement to whatever he may be saying.

When he comes out, and rattles on about whatever repair he thinks is necessary, I try to look interested, but pinch my hands behind my back as I hear the keywords that trigger yawning reflexes: posts, piers, cinder blocks, etc. Then I ask inane questions, like were there spiders under the house? Little spiders, or giant ones? How about rats? Any carpenter ants?

Fabric Face (06-17-10)

I worked one day as a volunteer at the Summit of Awesome (organized by Hello Craft and held at Kennedy School).

I used fabric scraps, felt and embroidery threads to make this face and plan to put it inside a shadow box I recently bought at an auction. My sketchbook is in the background.

Too Much Rain (06-10-10)

My days are spent on the phone, calling contractors.

We can’t repair the gutters because the roof eaves they are braced to is totally crumbling (dry rot and suspicious ants in the vicinity); we can’t repair the roof eaves because there is an electrical conduit with live wires braced to them; we can’t move the electrical conduit (not up to code) because the electrician needs to come brace it up to the exterior wall, etc.

In the meantime, whenever it rains, I watch water pouring out from the gutters and going straight into an opening under the house where there is no foundation wall...

My Octopus Window (06-10-10)

...Here are some photos of the window Jennifer Hanson made for our house since the other one was too small for the window frame. The window is in the bathroom upstairs now and looks superb, especially from outside at night.

Haiku: The Homeowner's Lament (06-09-10)

A poem by Pascale Steig

Found a house, at last
Charm abounds everywhere
It sits on a hill.

Yellow wood siding,
A nice porch to while time away
On warm summer days

Wake up to the light
Filtering through old stained glass
Lavender, red, green, amber

To rest, -Home at last-
And finally settle in,
Unpack my boxes

Secret garden spots
It is ours now, all of it
Plants, shrubs, flowers, trees.

Glorious spring blooms
Peonies, roses and more:
Endless surprises.

Water runs downhill
Rainy weather, soggy ground:
Endless surprises.

Alas! Rain; more rain!
Water pours under the house,
A river, a lake…

Crumbling foundation
Carpenter ants, -worse: spiders-
Problems all around

A mess to fix;
“Sell it before it’s too late,”
Says one contractor

“Don’t think about it -
It’s been here a hundred years,”
Says another one.

I try to fix it
I paint it; I buy windows:
Presents for the house

I want to tame it:
The cantankerous old house
Hides its beauty well.

Removal of the "Lump of Dirt" (06-08-10)

It's been driving me crazy to look out the living room or the dining room window, and to see the stupid eyesore of a mini-mountain covered with weeds behind the house! According to neighborhood gossip, it was erected when the previous owner's old father dumped the dirt that was excavated when the green house was built next door (insert the crazy vision of an old man pushing wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of dirt up the driveway, through the carport, by the garden area, to the back of the house...). We finally got rid of our "lump of dirt" and the dingy concrete pad touching the house, and had the land leveled. This was no small task; the tractor had to be brought in through the neighbor's driveway because there was no other access from our side, and three huge dump trucks' worth of dirt and one truck's worth of concrete were hauled away...

"Before" view: dirt partially removed, concrete pad in foreground.

Pretty funny, the guy talking on the phone; note the little boy watching.

View of the shed and family room.

View of the family room and the back of the house.

"After" view of the back of the house.

The Toxic Couch: Part Three (06-08-10)

My project was not going well. After letting everything fester under the carport for weeks, I convinced Gary to rent a Rug Doctor, so I could try my hands at a last ditch effort to rescue my couch and recliner.
I decided to treat the stinky mattress first. It was a nice, thick mattress; it looked comfortable and clearly had never been used before (by a human). Unfortunately, it had been in contact with the rusted springs inside the sofa and had been contaminated with the same sour smell as everything else. I laid it down on an old shower curtain on the lawn, and scrubbed the heck out of it. I then left it to dry on the green lush lawn, hoping that the fresh spring air would do wonders for it. There was nothing else to do for it but wait... Next, I scrubbed the sofa and the recliner. The leather responded beautifully, springing back into shape, a testimony to quality materials. But the dark places which had been stained and damaged, once wet, had the same sticky gummy feel as the cushion covers; the leather was rotten.

All those efforts were for nothing in the end; the repulsive smell oozed and wafted from the couch, mattress and recliner, no matter what.

The last episode in this saga: I reluctantly took everything to the dump. As I was driving away from the huge bays, I turned around and got a last glance of the couch without its cushions, with a mountain of trash all around, as a bulldozer was advancing in its direction.

RIP beautiful couch.

I drove the car to the exit window, paid the dump fee and briefly told my woes to the lady at the window. She laughed and said "I always tell people; you gotta give it the sniff test before you buy it!"

Mosaic Glass Windows (06-07-10)

I decided to post some photos of the absolutely gorgeous mosaic glass windows made by Jennifer Hanson. I found the window with the hand, the window with the flowers and the wide sun window at Portico. The cherry tree and the small sun windows were on display at Houlton Bakery in St Helens. Jennifer made two smaller windows for the master bedroom in a crazy mosaic patterns to match the colors of the "real" stained glass windows. She also made a large window with a big octopus for the upstairs bathroom (the photo of the octopus window below is similar to mine).

I'm really excited to get this Vintage Project going (06-07-10)

What a dream come true to get a perfectly postcard-charming 1904 farmhouse with a huge landscaped yard, with old oak trees, and a rose garden...
I am really excited to start organizing all the fantastic vintage treasures I've collected over many years, to have them available to you, and to welcome you, dear Readers, to my little Studio once a month.
I'll try to keep you informed about new developments as they come...

My Closet Palace (06-06-10)

My closet is finally finished. It's so big, it's more a dressing room than a closet; I could lie down on the rug to meditate or read a book.

We got the clothes rack, the cute red bookcase and the dresser at Ikea. The antique mirror belonged to my mother and is a replacement for the big mirror with a blue wooden frame that fell and broke at our previous house. The big black trunk came from Village Merchants. The rug and the floor lamp in the far corner both came from the local Goodwill outlet store. The floor lamp was rewired by Hippo Hardware; the small candle lights were outfitted with specialty flickering light bulbs for an added fun touch. I bought the crazy chandelier in Belgium, but it is essentially a novelty deco item made in China; it used to hang in my closet at the old house. The gorgeous mosaic glass windows were made by Jennifer Hanson; my favorite is the one with the hand, and the colors of the sun window work perfectly with the room's color scheme.

OSU Chamber Choir Concert (06-05-10)

I drove down to Oregon State University in Corvallis yesterday to attend Valérie's Chamber Choir concert. This is a sketch of a few of the students singing in the choir.
I was extremely tired yesterday because I went to bed at 3:30 AM due to the concert the night before (and because I tend to go to bed late no matter what), As I was driving south in I-5, I had to try to stay, but couldn't help dozing off at the wheel for a few seconds. I woke up as my car was just about to go off the road. This totally freaked me out. I stopped the car and went into a store to walk and try to stay awake. Consequently, I made it late to the concert. I was sorry to have missed the beginning, but at least I managed to make it there without getting in an accident.
As I walked by the back to the church to get to the entrance, I could hear gorgeous Church Music (Bach) coming from inside. When I finally sat down on a bench, it was restful to enjoy the wonderful music, the perfect acoustics and look at the beautiful stained glass windows. Valérie is is Section Leader for the Altos and was awarded a certificate at the end of the concert.
I don't like driving at night when familiar landmarks are not visible, but felt reasonably awake on the way home. I got off at a rest stop barely 30 miles out of Corvallis to rest for 5 minutes... I woke up 40 minutes later because some people were talking in the parking lot, otherwise, I'd have slept on for hours. I eventually made it home while driving carefully and changing radio stations every few minutes.

The Glitch Mob at the Roseland Theater (06-04-10)

Anyway, the big name at the show at the Roseland Theater yesterday was the Glitch Mob, and the best way to describe this is badass Electronica. They were quite good. The walls and the floors were vibrating.
The most intriguing aspect of this concert was that the music was essentially sound-based and directed from computer touch pads. the guys were nice; they hugged fans, posed for photos, and in my case, signed my sketchbook.

Deru (?) at the Roseland Theater (06-04-10)

I was driving in my car last Sunday, listening to KBOO's Electronica show, when the DJ announced free a free promo for the 8th caller. Amazingly, I won tickets to a show at the Roseland Theater! So, the obvious guest was Julia (I couldn't imagine Gary ever wrapping his mind around Electronica...). We got there late, and I think that the performer playing when we got there may have been Deru. The other name on the bill was Free the Robots, so I am not entirely sure who was the DJ... Anyway, it was pretty loud and heavy Electronica.
(Speaking of Deru, if you click on the "Say Goodbye to Useless" album on his MySpace site, you can then click forward to "Fadeaway," a totally haunting remix of a -possibly Philip Glass?- clarinet piece.)

Pretty Young Woman at Flutter (06-03-10)

This young woman caught my attention because she reminded my of Julia, but an older, more sophisticated Julia. She was wearing a vintage sweater and skirt and a 1940s style flower ornament in her perfectly curled hair.

Urchin Dresses at Flutter (06-03-10)

Flutter carries the most amazing line of dresses. Urchin is a line of deconstructed formal dresses redone with elements from other dresses. They are exquisite, ethereal and extravagantly expensive.

Flutter Fourth Anniversary Party (06-03-10)

Flutter is my favorite shop in town to browse and marvel... So I couldn't miss their fourth anniversary party for anything. And for a rare glimpse into reality vs. sketches, here is also a photo of the scene I drew, but from a slightly different angle.

Kelsi W. (05-30-10)

This is a not-very-good sketch of Kelsi W., whose smile is a lot cuter than this.