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Archive for the ‘House and home stuff’ Category

Whew!!

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

saturdaymarkjayme1

I have been partying  up a storm with the family, celebrating the marriage of these two, my son, Mark, and Jayme. They have not gotten married, yet. They have the rings, they have the commitment, but they are just going to go to city hall in San Francisco some day and do it. Jayme orchestrated a get-together of both sides of the family here in Portland.

On Thursday night, they put together a delightful meet and greet dessert party at the Sellwood Yoga Studio where Mark had done the landscaping for his friends who moved up here from SF. Here is my daughter, Steph and M & M sitting in the courtyard.

yogastudio2

On Friday night, we had everyone at our home for a beautiful meal catered by Papa Haydn, a restaurant noted for their desserts.

fridaycake

I had purchased lots of fall flowers  – sunflowers, dahlias and zinnias, which Lisa and Clay arranged in vases for all the tables.

fridayflowers

The food was fabulous and the service was impeccable. We received rave reviews from every one. We were able to arranged seating for all who came which required some furniture rearrangement. We like the new living room arrangement so much that we are going to keep it for awhile.

Saturday was the day for the picnic out on Sauvie Island at the Kruger Farms. We awoke to a steady rainfall, but the weather forecast called for sun by the afternoon. And we were not disappointed. What a great time we had. This was coordinated by Mark and Jayme. They bought the food, rented a huge BBQ, and thought of every detail for a fun time in the country. Some of Jayme’s relatives cooked some great sides and Stephanie made killer cookies.

We took Scooter with us. It was his first long drive for an adventure. He had a great time. There was the cutest little dog who lives on the farm who kept running over to our site to play with Scoot. He looks like a cross between a chihuahua and a Jack Russel Terrier.

saturdayscooterandlittledog

We were right next to the corn maze and at one point, Scooter ran off into the maze and it took some time to find him.

Here is a photo of everyone who was there, except the photographer.

saturdayeveryone

We took about 6 attempts to get a photo of our family. Here is one of the takes. It is almost impossible to get Miles to look at the camera, especially when his Uncle Mark is giving him the elbow!!

saturdaycongdonstake2

It was a wonderful 3 days. We loved Jayme’s family. We loved having Steve’s brother Mike and some of his family and David who came all the way from Florida. Right now, I am pretty exhausted. If you are interested in seeing all the photos that I took, they can be seen on this Flickr set, Mark and Jayme Celebration.

Here is some other stuff going on in my life. I was very excited to have Mystical Forest purchased on the first day of the SAQA auction for $750 by Teri Springer, who is becoming a patron since she owns two of my pieces.

I didn’t get into Quilts=Art=Quilts this year. I am disappointed, but that frees the work to enter in another show.

I now have the correct diagnosis for my brother-in-law, Ray. He has myelodysplastic syndrome which prevents the making of white blood cells. The only treatment is a bone marrow transplant, and he is considered to old to get it. I am deeply pained for my sister and her children and grandchildren.

There is a lot of other stuff rattling around in my brain, but it will wait for another day.

Good Mail Day

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

sunsetcomposition

Sunset Composition arrived home from Kansas City where it was part of the SDA Member’s Show. I had forgotten about it. I am excited because it is a piece that I can enter in PAQA South’s Illumination show. Do you think it will fit the theme?

I also received the DVD’s of the conference and technique sharing. Because of my schedule, I missed some of the talks so will enjoy watching these.

sdavideos

And, I also received this wonderful piece of jewelry from Broken Plate Pendant Company. The wonderful artist and friend of our family, Diana Fayt, had these wonderful pendants made from shards of a broken pot. If you click on the link, you will see the pot before it broke and read about the good cause that it supports. I love it.

brkendishespendent

Today, I decided to clean and organize the laundry room/mud room/dog feeding room/put it here if you don’t know where it belongs room. I purged, found lost things and reorganized. It took me all day because I took lots of breaks to walk the dog, eat lunch and think about things.

We are having the big family get-together in mid September so I am trying to keep on top of things. I think the caterers may want to use that room for some staging. Speaking of which, I finalized the menu —

  • Bruschetta – topped with house made mozzarella & three pestos – classic basil, oven-dried tomato and kalamata olive.
  • Chicken Romabreast of chicken wrapped with proscuitto di Parma and sage leaves.  Brushed with extra virgin-olive oil and hardwood grilled.
  • Organic Field Greens – with Mountain gorgonzola, pears and Oregon hazelnuts in a balsamic vinaigrette.
  • Orchid Noodle Salad – snow peas, red peppers and carrots tossed in a soy-balsamic vinaigrette with linguine.
  • Rice Pilaf – a savory blend of wild rices, mushrooms and spices.
  • Wood-oven Roasted Vegetables – fresh seasonal vegetables roasted with extra virgin olive oil
  • Whole Grilled Salmon – marinated in asian plum sauce or lemon and herbs, wrapped with banana leaves and finished on the hardwood grill. Served with a Thai basil dipping sauce.
  • Braised Short Ribs – boneless beef short ribs braised with red wine and aromatics.
  • Freshly baked Grand Central breads – Served with Smoked Garlic butter
  • Cassata – kahlua soaked sponge cake with a sweetened ricotta and chopped chocolate filling. Garnished with Chantilly cream.
  • Boccone Dolceswiss meringues drizzled with semisweet chocolate and layered with whipped cream and fresh fruit. A classic northern Italian dessert.
  • Cheesecakesclassic New York style poached cheesecake made with cream cheese and sour cream. Ask about our seasonal varieties.
  • Caramel Nut Tart walnut shortbread crust filled with caramel, walnuts and pecans. Finished with rich chocolate ganache.

Papa Haydn, known for their desserts, is doing the catering so a plethora of goodies is included. The Cassata is a cake, the others are miniatures.

We watched The Reader tonight — fabulous movie. I am tired. G’ night.

Feeling Loopy

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

quiltshangwardrobe

I am so wanting to be done with this clear liquid diet. I could eat a ham sandwich, and I don’t even like ham. I did manage to get some things done, like walking the dogs and making a fresh, clean bed for Lisa, who arrives tomorrow. I corralled the chaos in my office/playroom, putting legos away and returning books to the bookshelf, etc.I also worked on the quilt storage system.Here are some of the quilts hanging with their cute little hang tags.

Here is my system for hanging them. I bought child size plastic hangers. I use bulldog clips on the folded quilts. Then, I use yarn to create a loops to go through the clips and over the hooks on the hangers.

quiltstoragehanger

My quilts are fairly light so I am not having a problem hanging or with the wardrobe collapsing. I am quite thrilled with this and the access to my quilts when needed.

Mr C has been working so hard to get the guest bathroom done before Lisa arrives. A while ago I posted about how much I love this vintage bathroom, but hated the bronzy brown paint on the cabinets and woodwork. Plus, the renovators used beaded board trim around the mirrors that just looked weird. The bones of the bathroom are right out of the fifties — pink fixtures and pink and turquoise tile — all in perfect condition. Here is how it looked when we bought it.

formerpinkbathroom

Here is the after (so far):

pinkbathroomredo

He painted the woodwork white. I selected a wall paint that has just a hint of a grayed green. It looks really good with the turquoise green tile. We also changed the hardware on the cabinets. So far so good.

I have to get up at 6 am in the morning to drink my final concoction and nothing after 8 am. I check in at ambulatory surgery at 12 noon. I can’t wait to eat some real food tomorrow night. My after colonoscopy orders say not to make any important decisions, drive a car, operate machinery or drink alcohol for 24 hours. What fun is that going to be?

Karen has some insurance information regarding the loss from the flooding. As soon as she knows how much of her stuff will be covered, she will let me know how we can help her. Thanks to every one who has let me now you want to help.

So Much Stuff

Saturday, August 8th, 2009

chester

Meet my new best friend, Chester the three legged cat. He belongs to M & M and their family, but while they are in NC, I get to go to their home and pamper him. He didn’t want me to leave today. He lost his leg when he was a kitten. It got caught in the neighbor’s chain link fence. He is amazing and fearless.

I don’t have many pictures, but lots of things to write about. Sorry. We have good news and bad news for our family right now. The good news is that my son Mark and Jayme are going to get married. They want to do a quiet ceremony at the courthouse in San Francisco. Then, both sides of the family will descend on Portland on a week-end in the middle of September. We will have several different events. Mr C and I are hosting a catered dinner here at our house on Friday night. I still have to meet with the caterer. It will be fun to have the west coast family join us in meeting Jayme’s family. Mark’s Godfather, Mr C’s youngest brother, is coming from Florida. Here is the happy couple in a photo I took last year when they were visiting us.

M & J

The bad news is that my BIL, husband of my sister, Jean, was just diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. He starts aggressive chemo tomorrow and will be in the hospital for a month. Jean says that he had no symptoms. He has had bi-pass surgery and was having his annual round of tests when they found it. We are hoping for a complete recovery, but it is going to be a long and arduous haul for the family. It is hard to be across the country at a time like this.

On the positive health side, Mr C saw the urologist, and they confirmed that he does not have cancer — a lingering fear that we had. He will go in to have prostate surgery after the big event in September. And me? Well, I am doing the clear liquids tomorrow for my 5 year colonoscopy on Monday. I feat that I will be out of commission for at least 24 hours. Unfortunately, Lisa arrives in Portland for a week while I am at the hospital, but our sweet Amy Ruppel will pick her up and take good care of her and Wilfredo until I am back home.

I told you I had stuff.

Here is some more stuff on my mind. My dear friend, Karen Davis, aka Karoda, lives in Louisville. They just had flooding from torrential rains. She has her workshop/studio in the basement of her parent’s home and suffered very bad flooding. She lost her journals, computer, art books. She thinks she can wash the fabric stash and salvage most of it. I told her that I wanted to help her get every thing back that she lost. She promised that I can help with whatever the insurance does not cover. If you are interested in helping Karen, e-mail me or leave a comment. I will get in touch with you when she is ready to get set up again.

Here is another project that you can participate in: Iraqi Bundles of Love. My virtual art quilting daughter, Kristin’s husband, is in the US Army in Iraq. He has come up with an opportunity to participate in a wonderful project.

The basic premise is to make a bundle of fabric and sewing supplies from your own stash, mail it to her husband’s APO (American) address, and he will facilitate the distribution of the bundles. By bundling the goodies, it saves time on his end as he won’t have to redistribute the supplies or use excess packaging for them, and it makes it far simpler for his local counterparts to distribute them to those in need.

Go to Kristin’s blog to get all of the details.

There you have it. Next time, I will have photos of the redo we have been doing in our guest bathroom, the one with the vintage pink and turquoise decor. It is looking fantastic and has kept Mr C, the painter, very busy.

OMG!!

Monday, January 19th, 2009

Tomorrow, Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the USA. I am so excited. Please come back tomorrow. If you live in the USA, I will have something to send a few of you in celebration of this event. YES, WE DID!!

I have been doing SDA conference database stuff. I have the bulk of the updates completed. In the meantime, about 12 new registrations have come in that I need to process. I think I am just about past the really time consuming work. From now on, it will be dribble, dribble.

I am in the throes of choosing paint colors for my office in the basement. It was a really dark room with dark bronze wainscoting and dull beige walls and a big ole dirty brick fireplace. It had exposed furnace duct work. Mr C got rid of the duct work, did the drywall work, primed the new drywall and bricks and painted the ceiling. Now, it is imperative that I make the color decisions for the woodwork, brick and walls.

I love the Divine Color paints that are sold at our local Miller paint stores. They have these little sample packets of paint to bring home to audition.

divinepaintsamples

We settled on a color that we liked for the wainscot and the bricks, but the green I had chosen, just didn’t work with it. Here are the brick paint samples. I like the top one which is a richer, more complex neutral. It is not quite as dark as the photo is showing. FYI, it is called Crunch and is from the Pacific Trail Mix collection.

bricksamplecolors

I went back to the store today and played with the paint samples and decided that I needed to go with a teal rather than the green. This color is Foam from the Ocean Tide Pools collection. Here are the wall paint samples.

wallpaintsamples

I even brought in another, brighter green, but it didn’t work with the neutral I had chosen. I think I am gonna like this. Here is the whole brick fireplace, primed. Makes the room look better already.

primedfireplace

Did you watch Oprah, coming from DC today? Will.i.am and several other artists debuted this song in honor of Obama’s inauguration. It is titled America’s Song. Enjoy! Tomorrow is “Celebration Time!”