The Storage Space Blues

I recently installed a behind-the-door storage rack to hold stabilizers and other oddball things that end up rolling around my studio... and that experience led me to creating this little Quilter's  Fable for you (based on one of my favorite children's book, If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Joffe Numeroff:


If you give a quilter a studio, she's going to want to create storage space.

And to create storage space, she'll want to go to The Container Store.

At the Container Store, she'll buy some Elfa storage equipment.

 To assemble the new storage equipment, she'll need to get out the power tools.

 When she gets out the power tools, she'll assemble all of the storage equipment and be delighted with her new space.
 

 Once she has more storage space, she's going to want to buy more fabric and supplies to put in it.

Once she has more fabric and supplies, she'll discover that the storage space is full.

And when she discovers that the storage space is full,

She's going to want a bigger studio.

Rare Burst of Gardening

I am a sporadic gardener, at best.  I like the IDEA of gardening.  Better, I like being in a well-tended and colorful garden.  When we moved into our house, I was excited about having a garden I could make just the way I wanted it.  And then I discovered the frustration of soil that is more clay and rocks than actual dirt.  Over the years, my enthusiasm for working in the yard has, shall we say, waned.

But every once in a while the urge strikes.  It tends to take the right weather (summery but cool), a day or two when I don't have anything pressing, and the energetic desire to get something done.  And it hit me this week, so I've spent a lot of time out in the garden.  I've not done anything huge, but the improvements are significant.  I'm quite pleased with myself.

First, I rounded up all of the clay flower pots, headed off to the nursery, and came back and potted flowers.

Very satisfying!  Then, having thought that hanging flowers would look nice, I trotted back to the hardware store for brackets and more pots and more flowers.

Ooh, pretty!  Very colorful together!

Now the patio looks rather inviting, if I do say so myself.

Lots of pots!  Four hanging flowerpots!  And comfy chairs for lounging and reading!  The concrete is newly painted, too -- last week's project -- so it all looks fresh.

I spent a day doing serious work on what had been an abandoned flower bed -- turning the soil, adding amendment, starting to plant... It's still in progress (you can see it behind the clump of flower pots there on the left) but I'm very satisfied by how far I got.  I've got to add more flowers and dig up some wooly lambs' ear from the hugely overgrown patch there on the right, to add for the border... But it's well on its way. 

As soon as my back stops aching, I'll be back out there.

Ta Dah!

Over the last few days, I have undertaken a gargantuan task.  I have rearranged and reorganized my office/studio. 

The hugeness of this job is in direct proportion to the smallness of the room and the vast quantity of stuff I have in there.  It's a 10' by 12' standard bedroom ... not the tiniest studio I've ever seen, but given all the work I do in here and the supplies I have on hand, it's a space that presents a challenge.  The space has worked reasonably well over the 9 years we've lived in the house.  But the way I use the space has changed considerably.  Back then, I worked 20-30 hours a week at my desk, and my sewing machine in the corner was something I used from time to time.  Just having it up full time, in a space where I could close the door and hide the mess, was a luxury.  But these days I'm working far less at my desk, and making art in some fashion or another almost every day.  I not only needed a sewing space --- I needed a work table area where I could spread out and arrange fabrics or fuse stuff or paint or whatever.

So, while I would have liked to knock out a wall or two, or add a lovely Koala cabinet with oodles of storage, or even buy a house with a detached but massive studio, I limited myself to what I could change THIS WEEK, and I rearranged the furniture.  And it actually is an improvement.

I have now dedicated a table (which used to hold a cd player and cds and generally be a catch-all for miscellaneous papers) to the sewing machine.  I pulled a rolling cart out of the garage and it contains threads.  At the Container Store (oh, how I love the Container Store) I found the red metal mini-file drawer thingie, which holds scissors and rotary cutters and supplies, and I got the mini Elfa cart to hold projects in progress so that I could roll them out of the way under the table when I'm not actually working.

This leaves my wonderful office table (which used to be the sewing machine-work table) for spreading out and doing STUFF.  My goal is to keep it clear when I'm not actively working on something.  Hah.  We'll see how that works.  The Container Store also provided the pretty turquoise woven plastic bin, to hold more works in progress and stuff in transit.  (You know how there is always that stuff -- to do something with, to put away later, to remember to give to someone....)   I love this table -- especially how the rounded edges mean that I don't bang my thighs as I move around the room.  It'd be perfect if it were about 6 to 8 inches higher, and maybe one of these days I'll rig it so it is higher -- but for now I'm happy to have the work space.

And here is the desk area.  I like that I've segregated my work area and I still have the lateral files right handy for work purposes.  The downside of this arrangement is that when I sit at my desk, I look straight down the hall into Miss C's bedroom.  As she comes out of her room, I feel like I should say "Can I help you?"  So it's a little insurance-officey, but a small price to pay for getting the open work table.

There's a lot of visual clutter in this room.  I KNOW that, being in here, but it's even more apparent seeing the room in photos.  I may have to take some things down.  Hmmm.  I love the visual inspiration, but maybe it's part of what makes the room feel smaller?  Something to consider.

No wonder my back is sore.  All this tidiness makes me want to get to work on a project -- to mess it all up right away!

Living with Color

I've been all about paint over the last week or so. Here's the family room, with walls in "Golden Glow." It's a rich, bright color, and changes how the room feels depending on the time of day. Sometimes it seems like a cheery yellow, at others a deeper tangerine. We are loving it!

I've moved on to the kitchen and eating nook, which are both at this back end of the house and connected. One wall is a nice, straight-forward red (Benjamin Moore's "redstone," for those you who need to know. And the rest is a very happy robin's egg blue (Ben M's "fairy tale blue). It is intense color but it sure makes me happy.

Pictures when the masking tape is off!

Now I'm eying the guest bathroom off of the dining room, and mentally selecting colors....

Life goes on...

It has been a week of ups and downs. We are still mourning Brad, and will be for ages and ages. I think we're all still in shock.

But good things are happening too. See that tower up there? It's Hoover Tower at Stanford University. And I'm posting it because Caroline has been admitted to Stanford's online school program for gifted kids! We're so proud of her, and so excited for her. Their online middle and high school program is innovative and I think it will be a great experience for her.

Me, I've been in home-dec mode! In that "one thing leads to another" deal, Roger and I bought a tv/shelf/wall unit to replace the ancient tv cabinet we'd hauled from New Hampshire, and it was being delivered last Tuesday. It occurred to me that I should paint the family room BEFORE the wall unit was assembled and put in place, so that I did. Our family room is now a sunny and cozy marigold color, which looks stunning against the white wall shelving unit.

But, of course, you change one room and then other things need changing. The family room is connected to the kitchen, and I have been testing paint swatches all week. I thought I had a plan (a slightly paler shade of marigold) but when I painted a swatch, it just looked flat and boring. So, I've made daily trips to both Home Depot and my local paint store, for more paint chips and samples. I'm now on a first name basis with our local paint guy, who says "See you tomorrow" each time I'm in. Finally, I bought paint today to surge forward...well, maybe "surge" is too strong a word..."Crawl" forward?

Along the way, I learned that the annoying pain I've had in my foot over the last several weeks is a FRACTURE. No wonder climbing up and down ladders made my foot hurt! I figure I'll have a beautifully and artfully paint-spattered immobilization boot by the time the kitchen is painted.

How I Spent My Saturday

Look what I did! Fondling, folding, sorting... A day well spent.

My desk, etc.

Helen tagged me to show my work desk. Oh dear! At least she caught me in a relatively tidy period... Usually there are a lot more work papers stacked up to the left of the keyboard. That's my "work in progress" area and usually it's a jumble of yellow legal pads, files, and miscellaneous papers. (It will shortly look like that, as I'm about to launch in to a big appellate brief project that promises to generate a lot of paper...)

This is one corner of my office/studio. I cram a lot of activity into this little room! That wall area over on the left? That's part of the funny design wall area I have, the best part of which disappears behind the door when it's open. (I can't tell you how many times I've had the door closed to pin something on the wall or to move things around and Roger has opened it right into me.)

Can you see the adorable dog piece Terri sent me a few weeks ago?

Those file drawers on the left are full of legal work stuff, and that section of shelving on the wall directly over the computer monitor contains the few legal books I need here for reference. All other legal research I do online, which certainly makes like easy. And you'll note the ever-present bottles of Crystal Geyser sparkling water on the desk... I drink bubbly water throughout the day.




To the right of my computer space is more STUFF -- lots of quilt books and magazines on the shelves, basket storage for fabric along the wall, a TV that keeps me company while I sew and putter.

When I sit at my desk and twirl my chair around, I see my sewing area. Presto -- I change from lawyer to quilt artist just like that. The closet behind the sewing chair is stuffed to the gills with fabric and supplies... I dare not open it it show you or things might start falling out. One of these weeks when I have nothing to do (ahem) I'll tidy it all up.



By the way, the table I use to sew on is actually a great find from a used office furniture store. It has one straight edge with regular corner and this rounded end. The lack of corners has saved me countless bruises, I'm quite sure.

So Brenda, now it's your turn to share your work area... to continue in the quilting lawyer house tour...

You'd Better Watch Out...

I was emailing with my friend Sharon recently, and mentioned how I think of her each Christmas when I'm setting out our Christmas decorations. I always thought I set out pretty elaborate Christmas decorations...until I saw Sharon's house. Her house is just amazing. Sharon sent me a few pictures of this year's decor and has graciously allowed me to share them here.

Sharon's big, country-style home is filled with warmth and Christmas cheer. Every wall has at least one festive quilt, sometimes groupings of several quilts. There were big trees and little Christmas trees, something festive everywhere you looked.



But to be honest, my favorite part is Sharon's amazing collection of cross-stitched Santas. They are everywhere... in small sachet-sized pillows hanging from the knobs on her dining room cupboard, on pillows artfully arrayed on the furniture... Like this:



Regular stitchers may recognize these as the Prairie Schooler collection of Santas. Prairie Schooler is a counted cross-stitch pattern design company that has issued a different small Santa pattern every year, and I recognized them because my sister Laura ("the Two Handed Stitcher") has stitched a bunch of Prairie Schooler designs.

So I was especially impressed at Sharon's assortment of Santas because I know how many hours of work they represent. Lots and lots and lots! Look, here's more:



Sharon says she's stitched one every year for 24 years. Wow! (And thanks, Sharon, for letting me show them!) It almost makes me want to try cross-stitch again.

Coincidentally, just after I'd gotten these photos from Sharon to post here, I discovered that my sister is showing a few of her Prairie Schooler Santas on her blog.

I guess it's that time of year when Santas come to town. Better not cry! Better not pout!

Oh, my aching head...

Every once in a while I get the sort of headache that just fells me. My doctor tells me they're hormonal, and so far I've not found a medication that does much for them, really. But they're pretty infrequent and I tend to just take an Aleve and go nap and 12 hours later I'm fine.

One of these struck yesterday. Unfortunately, on Monday night I'd happily packed up my stuff and gathered my "show and tell" for the Pointless Sisters, my guild's art quilt group, and I'd planned to be there on Tuesday morning. I've not been able to get to a meeting in ages and ages, so I was determined. And then I woke up with familiar feeling of a bad headache coming on ("Frank, it's one of my sick headaches..." Remember Darrin's mother on Bewitched?). And even then, I was going to brace myself and go, still. But at 9am, only minutes before I was going to leave, the lawn-mowing guys (who are supposed to come on Monday and never have come on Tuesday before) opened the gate to get the clippings bin and let Gemma out.

AARRGH. So Gemma had a happy dash up the street (she always heads straight to her friend Sadie's house), and I had to hop in the car to follow her and bring her home. (Note to self: read up on dog training and the command "Come.") We can call until our heads fall off, and Gemma just looks at us, grinning, and then dashes off. But pull up in the car, and she hops right in. Go figure.

So by the time I got Gemma back inside, I was irritable and headachey and I opted for a BIGGER headache pill. So to my Pointless friends? I WILL be there one of these times, really I will. I don't know what it is about the 4th Tuesday of each month, but lately it's been a very uncooperative day. But I keep trying!

I rallied around lunch time to try out the new Dyson Animal vacuum cleaner we agreed to test out. As we have 2 cats, 1 dog, 1 school-aged child and 2 fairly messy adults, our floors are rarely spotless for long...and our old vacuum cleaner is acting, well, weak. Yes, I bought into the idea that the Dyson is MADE to suck up animal hair. So, here's the test I performed: I vacuumed the family room vigorously with the old vacuum ("OV"), as I would for a regular vacuuming session. THEN I unpacked the Dyson (which came with the worst --bar none-- product instructions I have ever seen with any product, ever) and, eventually, gave it a go in the same room. I was fascinated (and then sort of horrified) at the amount of gunk and dirt and animal hair that showed up in the Dyson AFTER I'd just vacuumed to a state I'd thought was sufficient cleanliness. Oh, my. There is something rather satisfying about seeing all the gunk you vacuum up. Makes the task seem worthwhile, frankly.

But the Dyson is BEASTLY heavy, and there appears to be easy storage method for the various attachments...Or maybe there is but I sure couldn't decipher it from the incomprehensible product information.

So we're not sure the Dyson is here to stay. Will we really haul it up and down stairs, with it being that heavy? Or should we keep the OV for upstairs and use the Dyson downstairs, where the floor mess is the worst?

Evening found me back on the bed with a heated pad on my head while I listened to Terry Gross interview Valerie Plame Wilson on Fresh Air. Plame, you will remember, is the undercover CIA operative "outed" by Cheny and Scooter Libby etc because her husband's writings challenged the positions the Bush administration was taking about the Iraq war. I was so impressed by Plame's articulateness. She's plugging a new book, which I will have to read.

Tidying up

What's this, you say? A very clean sewing table? A rare occurrence, indeed.



And another stitchery sample finished? (This is "Color Study: Flying Geese," stitched up in pinks and reds for my sister. You can order her patterns here -- and they're easy... I did this one during evening tv viewing in about 3 weeks. And I don't even watch very much tv.)

Yep, I've been finishing stuff. Look-- fruit quilt # 3 quilted and bound and ready to donate to a homeless shelter.



This wouuld make a great picnic quilt, wouldn't it? I couldn't resist trying some artful draping in the backyard.



All of this is in preparation for my October Week of Quilting Fun -- four days of quilt retreat at Bishops Ranch (you can see my happy ravings about past retreats here and here) and then down to the bay area to attend the Pacific International Quilt Festival next weekend. This is always a very fun week. I'm especially looking forward to seeing my retreat friends at the Ranch.

Unfortunately, a difficult community disaster hit this morning which will make my quilt fun a bit tricker, to say the least. Caroline's elementary school was significantly damaged by fire early this morning, and school is cancelled for tomorrow, if not more. There's enough damage that I can't imagine that there'll be school at all this week, but we'll see. The multi-purpose room, office, and bathrooms were completely destroyed. Several classrooms sustained some damage, but most are okay. So, for the week ahead? Who knows. One of Caroline's classmates lives on the Ranch premises where the retreat is, so Caroline will come with me to play there and hang out with quilters for some of the time tomorrow. We'll just play it day by day from there. Everyone will have to be flexible.

I remember as a kid wishing that some disaster would befall the school so I could stay home (in California, we don't get to hope for snow days!) but now that this wonderful little rural school has been damaged, everyone is very upset. I think I've spoken to every 6th grade mom this morning, in shock and dismay and worrying about how the kids will cope. Caroline is drawing a comforting picture for her school principal and last year's teacher (whose room was really damaged) as I type this.

We never know what tomorrow will bring, do we?

Contemplating Clutter

When I was a kid, I saw a poster that said "A creative clutter is better than idle neatness." It pretty much summed up my attitude toward cleaning, and I quoted it to my mother from time to time when she'd comment on the state of my bedroom.

So it should come as no surprise that my home isn't immaculate. It's basically clean, over all, but housework isn't on the top of my list of priorities. The problem isn't really basic cleanliness. The problem is clutter.

Our regular clutter starts to drive me crazy when I've spent time in an uncluttered home. It's so peaceful to sit in a room where there isn't STUFF everywhere. I love going to visit my friends Pat and Janet, not just because they are wonderful women, but also because their homes are so ... inspiring. It makes me want to rush home and get stuff off of surfaces so I can sit and bask in the tidy calmness of it all.

So, now I'm back from a week in my aunt's very uncluttered home. She (like my mom -- her sister) were and are full-time housewives of the Donna Reed school. Keeping house WAS their job, and despite the retirement of their husbands, it still is. I remind myself that they no longer have kids living at home, with the resulting kid paraphanalia. They don't have dogs, and hence their kitchen floors aren't embellished with dog hair. They don't have other professional work, so they don't have to choose between tidying up the family room and seizing an hour to do a bit more legal research. They have hobbies but not (ahem) fabric-laden obsessions.

So I look around our house, feeling cranky and overwhelmed by all the papers and books and magazines and stuff everywhere. Somewhere, there has got to be a happy medium, yes? I feel a purge coming on...but I know myself well enough to know that it's so easy to waffle. That pile of Caroline's horse magazines? Perfect for Caroline's creative horse collages. Those books on the nightstand? I'll get rid of them as soon as I read them.... that pile over there? Warranty booklets for recent appliance purchases that have to be put away, notes with addresses that I need to add to my address book... photos to be added to the photo album drawer, Caroline's drawings for the "save forever" drawer...

Much of the stuff is there because it needs something done to it. So I'd best get DOing.

It makes me want to take a nap.

The bottom of it all

No, we don't have a pink living room floor. But this is what the living room and dining room look like today as I'm waiting for the carpet guy to come back and install the new carpet.

This will represent the final fix of the vandalism damage, believe it or not. New couches arrived last week.

Now all that will remain is to redecorate the rest of the room to match the new stuff. Ahem.

I've been hanging out at Calico Corners lately, and have acquired fabric for new valances, slipcovers for the dining room parson's chairs, and other fabric for the other dining room chair seats.

So I'll be upholstering any day now. And we should have a whole new look downstairs by Christmas. 

Nantucket west

I've been working on a Nantucket theme in our master bathroom. And today, I added the picket fence.



I've always wanted to try this sort of wall mural stencilling. I found this fence stencil some months ago, at Beverly's I think. Having finished a big work project last night, I woke up this morning with the urge to give it a try.

There are actually two smaller bits of fence on the walls on either side of the door (behind me as I took this picture). It was pretty fun, actually, although I do think that my shadow grey is a bit too dark. I'll live with a bit before I decide whether to go over that color in a lighter grey.

I have a wonderful delphinium stencil that might make for nice flowers behind the fence...but we'll see. I've been looking for a good climbing rose stencil, but haven't one so far that I like. They're too "americana" or too victorian or, well, too something.

Tonight, I'm sore but satisfied. I think I'll go soak in the tub and admire my handiwork.

PS. Thanks for all the good-luck-with-lice wishes and suggestions from everyone. We have managed to avoid them, which is a pleasant relief.