11/22/2011

Autumn holiday decor...

From the better late than never school of thought...


This year the Halloween candle-holders migrated to the dining room table from the livingroom mantel...


Spooky!


From top to bottom: Luther, Hesperus, Fritzie, Mitzie, and Maud. Alas, now the squirrels are now enjoying my little friends a bit more than I am...


A collection from recent years...

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Moose Day!!!!

10/02/2011

As seen in the garden...

1. A million weeds, but a million fewer than at the beginning of the afternoon

2. My downed wisteria, which toppled two trellises under its weight and with the constant rain. In spite of it all, it seems quite healthy. Let's hope it remains that way after its haircut next weekend

3. A bank of bright orangey-yellow lantana and hiding underneath some weeds near the roses, some variegated lantana that may bloom at last (in October!)

4. Beetles and earthworms and two piles of what must be earthworm eggs

5. A crazy amount of shards of glass. Where do they all come from? I swear they grow back there. Also bits of colored plastic

6. Two types of asters in two shades of purple. The brighter-colored shrub variety bloomed like crazy even though all of its stalks are, a la the wisteria, all over the ground instead of standing tall

7. An odd, crazy hook sticking into the ground in the middle of the yard. How the heck did it get there? How did I miss it all this time? If I pull hard enough, will I unearth a time capsule? An escape hatch? A door to the direct route to China? Some vital piece of the infrastructure to my house?

8. Cats. Lots of them (well, 5-6. Or maybe 7. Or 8). But especially Junior, who spent quality time guarding my back door so she could run in in case it opened, and who actually crawled into my lap when I was sitting on the back steps.

Here she is on my front steps last week, refusing to smile for the camera:



9. Daisies! Last year, instead of flowers for the holiday, I bought cheap potted daisy plants from Produce Junction, one white, one orange. After the holiday, I planted them both, and much to my surprise, one of them made it. But in typical fashion, I didn't note which color was planted where, and so had no idea what color would come up this year. Hurrah - the white! Who thought orange anything would make a good centerpiece anyway??

10. The demise of my American Beauty Berry. I was so excited to find one at Bartram's Garden this spring, and it seemed like it was doing fine. But now it just seems gone and unlikely to return

Next weekend's garden chores include finishing my back garden weeding odyssey, getting that wisteria back into some semblence of order, and maybe even planting some spring bulbs. Any suggestions???

8/11/2011

Science has shown...

...that I'm one of the easiest people in the world to shop for. Everyone I know tells me this. But just in case you are ever stumped, this will be fine, thank you.



Source: http://eriebasin.com/a_3garnetdiamring.html

8/02/2011

And then there were...

Curtains!!

On the hottest weekend of the summer so far, I finally decided to take my fancy, tea-dyed fabric and do something with it. I set up shop on the marginally cooler first floor of the house, reminded myself how to use the sewing machine, and got to work.

There are no pictures of me sweating and schlepping back and forth between the iron and the sewing machine. But simply imagine the swearing as the bobbin runs out of thread. Again.

Just as almost every house project requires a trip to Home Depot, this one was no different. I took a heat and sewing break to run to Bed, Bath and Beyond for curtain hardware.

Finally on Saturday morning, the panels were done. With the help of a friend, the rod went up and the first panel was hung to test the length. Good news: the pattern of the fabric is running straight across!



I knew the hardest part would be to get the two panels perfectly aligned. I knew it would bother me if both weren't straight, and if the writing wasn't continuous from one panel to the other. I measured and hemmed, and for some reason, it worked!



The good news is that you can't see the bottom hems because they are behind the sofa.



I like them! I'm thrilled they worked out. They give the room a warm feeling without being dark or heavy.



Next up, trimming the sofa hems and a windowseat cushion...

7/20/2011

Tea-dyed and gone to heaven...

One of my summer projects is to make curtains for the large window in front of the house. Over the years I've played with various curtains for that window - black velvet, an old shower curtain in a floral pattern, and most recently, a heavy, white cotton job making use of binder clips to keep it from dragging on the floor. But finally, I hit on some great fabric at Ikea (of course).



Just one problem. It's so very white. I thought it would be too stark of a contrast with the more neutral and burgundy living room palette. I wasn't up for regular dying, but tea-dying seemed just the thing. I just wanted to take the edge off the white, and I just happened to have a ton of extra tea bags in the house.



Theorhetically you can use a pot on the stove filled with boiling water to do the job, but I wanted to do all of my fabric at once to keep the color even. So there was only one possible place - the bathtub.

In go the teabags!



When the tea was fully steeped, it was time for the fabric to take a bath. In it goes...



I made use of a random, wooden kitchen implement to submerge it.



I sat in the bathroom for over an hour swirling the stuff about so that it colored evenly with no mottled affect.



The color is getting close...



Out of the the dryer...



...and onto the ironing board!



Done!



Next, to turn long pieces of fabric into curtains...



Stay tuned for the next thrilling installment...

7/05/2011

Reasons to celebrate...

The other day I received an email asking me how I felt about July 4th and whether it was a holiday I actually observed in any way other than getting a day off from work. To me, these days, July 4th is a session at dance camp - a wonderful weekend of dancing and music and hanging out with friends. It may or may not contain the date 7/4. It’s also a way to avoid crowds that swarm downtown Philadelphia and displays of fireworks. (Yes, fireworks are pretty and I love the visual part, but just go to the movies with me sometime and you’ll soon see how I feel about loud, sudden noises. I am regularly mocked for this.)

This exchange led to a discussion of what holidays or annual events we celebrate every year. Are they set or movable days? Are they mere observances noted on your calendar, or do they require certain activities?

My personal list of holidays is kind of short:

January: Twelfth Night, the Birthday of The King
February: the Day of Strange Luck, Valentine’s Day
March: March 4th (the only day of the year that is also a command to go forward), Purim/Lesser Moose Day, Passover (which might be in April)
April: Passover (see above)
May: May Day, Cinco de Mayo/Much Lesser Moose Day, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day (as the start of summer)
June: My birthday!!
September: Labor Day (as the end of summer), Rosh Hashannah (which could be in October), Yom Kippur (ditto)
October: Halloween (I will be home to give out candy one of these years!)
November: Thanksgiving, Greater Moose Day
December: Philadelphia Playford Ball (It’s an event, but it might as well be a holiday), Chanukah, New Year’s/Hogmanay

I could go on to list all of the events I go to every year, birthdays I celebrate, etc., but sticking to holidays, what am I missing? What days are on your personal list of holidays?

6/15/2011

Summer Projects 2011

Okay, I’m embarrassed to even put these to paper for fear most of these projects were on my list for Summer 2010, when I wasn’t working and ostensibly had free time.

Here are things I would like to get accomplished this summer, in no particular order:

-Create a dance caller web page - just something simple with a schedule and a bio
-Put window film on the side living room windows that you can look right into from the street
-Inventory the corner cabinet in the dining room
-Put non-skid drawer liner stuff in the kitchen drawers
-Re-hang the pictures in the dining room
-Get estimates for and have the back section of the roof replaced
-Replace the window that faces the backyard in the laundry room/auxiliary serving area (if there’s money left after roof repair)
-Continue the progress on my stamp catalogue
-Tea-dye the fabric and make curtains for the front living room window
-Hang a curtain in the kitchen window (see living room side windows, above)
-Create a master list of phone numbers for easy reference
-Get the washer repaired so that hot-water washes are once again possible before the warrenty runs out
-Paint and hang wooden shelves in the craft room
-Make a cushion for the window seat downstairs
-Dispose of the sections of my former back fence (anyone feeling destructive???)
-Install a dimmer switch in the dining room

There are sixteen things on this list. Last summer’s list contained fourteen. Notice a flaw??

And of course this list doesn’t take into account the never-ending dishes to wash, laundry, cleaning, de-cluttering, weeding, dance program planning, taking-out-the-trash-type of chores that are always present.

Let me know if you have time to lend your company or expertise for any of the list above. Small cakes and pastries provided...

6/06/2011

Keeping track...

In some part of my mind, I’ve always wanted to keep a journal - record my history, thoughts, feelings, general goings-on. I think really I just like blank books with pretty covers. In the end though, I’m too busy living life and then going on to the next thing to record every detail, or even a summary of it or a haiku about it. In fact the only time I successfully kept a journal was when I worked at Pinewoods, and even then, it was only the first summer I was there, and half of the journal consists of copies of letters I wrote to Susie. But to this day, there’s a part of me that still wants to record things.

And then it finally occurred to me that I actually DO keep a journal. I just have to adjust my definition of the idea...



I’m an inveterate list-maker. I need to write things down so I don't forget them. Finally, a number of years ago it occurred to me to buy a notebook and keep that as the central repository for all information and a replacement for all of the tiny pieces of paper that held my lists and then disappeared. Suddenly, I had a journal.

Because I am a creature of habit, I am particular about the notebook I use. I’ve settled on:

-spiral-bound
-5 x 7
-lined white paper, perforated so it can tear out neatly
-plastic covers (front and back, if I can find it, but at least front) to keep it from getting wet.
-80-100 pages
-pockets to hold the random pieces of paper that still persist

I start a new notebook every year, on or about September 1st (yes, still on the academic calendar), and go on the odyssey every year in August when school supplies come out to find just the right one. For some reason, Walmart (not Staples, CVS, Target, or any other place) has exactly what I want, and last year I bought four books with covers in different colors to keep me going for a while.

A quick scan of the books contains my life:

-Dance lists and dance programs
-Packing lists for weekends away
-Recipes copied out of books and magazines
-Gift ideas/holiday shopping lists
-Party menus
-Books to read
-Music to purchase
-Plants to buy for the garden
-Class plans
-Sketches and plans for cards to make
-Etc.

and of course

-To-do lists

Stay tuned for the latest journal excerpt - Summer Projects. Which will be compiled right after I get through the latest to-do list...

5/10/2011

Fence-be-Gone!

A million years ago, my backyard looked like this:



And then I bought the house...

A year ago March, while I was away from home, a storm swept through and took part of the fence with it:





I removed the leaning panel on the right, and left the panel closest to the corner of the yard. It seemed stable and was surrounding an old tree stump.

On the other side of the leaning panel above was part of an old chain link fence against my neighbor's porch. It seemed to have no function:



Over the course of this past year, both the chain link and the remaining wooden panel developped more and more of a lean.





Notice the fence trying to win against the aster!

Tonight, it was time for the fence to go!

First I pulled out the chain link, which was mostly held up by creeper vine and some sticks in the right places. Now it looks like this:



I suspect the clean-up of the trash and glass and other debris from my neighbor's yard will be constant, but at least the evil creeper will have to work harder to reach my wisteria.

Then Paul came over to help me with the other fence panel which was mostly held up by ivy and luck. We thought we would have to saw it apart, but actually some whacks with a hammer in strategic places and some sheer brute force was all it took...



Notice the impressive stump that was hiding under there!

And here's my new vista:



Where shall I put the folly???

3/15/2011

Spring comes to Durham Street...

...in small doses.

The one good thing to come out of the time change was a whole half hour of light after I got home from work yesterday. That could only mean one thing: time to get back into the garden!

At the Flower Show last week, I bought two plants: a bright yellow rannuncula, destined for the front yard, and a magenta paeony for the back. I love both kinds of plants, and attempted to plant both last year with neither appearing. But I will not be deterred!

I started my gardening time with a tour around the grounds. I discovered:

A lovely clump of crocuses in back that I did not plant last fall. Where did they come from???



One lone snowdrop in front. Will there be more to follow???



I also found assorted other green shoots that I hope will grow into some of the 50 bulbs I planted last year, early leaves on the lilacs and hyacinths, a rose bush in desperate need of pruning, and some leafy action on the cheap daisies I bought from Produce Junction and then stuck in the ground, just in case.

And....

...just where I planted one of the failed paeonies from last year....

...some red shoots sticking up from the ground!!!!!!!!!

Stay tuned for news and more photos taken with a real camera in actual daylight!

2/21/2011

Deaccessioning...

Maybe it's something to do with my longing for spring that's brought about this urge to clean house. Not scrubbing, mind you. Though I do that from time to time, I never have the longing to...

In my never ending process of de-cluttering and actually putting things away from the places where I've dropped them, I will suddenly come across an object I no longer want or need. Without hesitating (lest I have second thoughts) I try and put the items in one particular place - my outbox, to borrow a term from Apartment Therapy. They sit there until the next chance I have for a thrift store run. And almost always, once they are in the outbox, I really never think of them again.

This weekend, I had a chance to get several bags of stuff out of my house, including:

-clothes I was given but couldn't use
-clothes I never wore
-VCR tapes I replaced with DVDs
-some CDs I listened to and hated
-4-5 random mugs
-some fuzzy critters from my distant youth or not so distant past (it's tough, but slowly I am able to let go of ~5 per year)
-rubber stamps (gasp! But not that many - maybe 10 - I will hardly notice...)
-plastic bags taken to recycling in the grocery store (I know, how could I. But not to worry, I still have more than enough.)

And, of course, I had no sooner returned home when I found, in my kitchen cabinets, the next pile of things to get rid of. Thus the cycle starts again...

2/16/2011

Twenty years of valentines...

I realized this year that I had been making valentines for some time now. My earliest efforts as an adult were cut-up sections of wrapping paper, always with a valentine-esque quote on the inside (I remember that my first quote was part of the very brief love scene at the end of Henry V, indicative of my complete crush on Kenneth Brannagh. Swoon!).



Once rubber stamping came into my life after my senior year in college, there was no going back. I realized this year that the interior quotes moved first to the outside of the cards, and then disappeared entirely.



Part of that was a time crunch - if it wasn't part of the process of making the card itself, it wasn't going in. It was too labour-intensive to do all of that writing!



But I missed the words, which are faithfully part of so many of my creations, even if you can't read them. This year's offering returns the quote to the interior:



"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life; that word is love." -Sophocles

Happy Valentine's Day!

1/07/2011

Work weekend...

Next weekend I have the great fortune of having friends come up to help me with some of those house projects that I never quite get to on my own. My list of things, is of course, endless, but I need to focus on small things that are do-able in a weekend time frame (i.e., not painting the kitchen cabinets), not too expensive (i.e., not blowing in insulation), in our skill-set (i.e., not fixing the heat), and slightly glamorous/satisfying (i.e., not cleaning the refrigerator).

Here are some of my ideas:

-put window film on the living room windows
-tea-dye, sew and hang living room curtains
-hang pictures in the dining room
-re-line the kitchen drawers with non-skid stuff
-fix the sofa hems so they don't show beneath the slipcovers

Other more-remote possibilities

-inventory the corner cabinet in the dining room
-start stripping paint off of the corner cabiner (a project you can start and stop)

Oh you who have been in my house (all 2-3 readers who have not given up on this blog), what should I add to the lists??