Shrimp Toast and Cappuccino

No - it's not some weird lunch - it's the colors of our guest bathroom. Or, rather, what the colors will be in our guest bathroom. It was Kelly Green...ugh. But demolition has begun - the big mirror and the towel racks/toilet paper rack have been uninstalled, most of the wallpaper is down and the ceiling has been scraped to get all of the bubbly plaster bits off. Tonight we hope to take out the toilet and the sink/cabinet. Tomorrow the carpet and the light fixture...I think it will look lovely when finished. Dave is documenting all of the activity - he even has a picture of me in masks and goggles scraping the ceiling...I'm sure it's a lovely, flattering shot....not. So we've really done our part for the economy, while improving our living space. Will keep you posted on the progress!

Good Weekend!

What a great weekend - very productive and we got to eat fabulous food! We went out to dinner Saturday night at York Street (www.yorkstreetdallas.com ) - our absolutely favorite restuarant of all time...very expensive and worth every penny! It was our Valentine's Dinner (we couldn't get a reservation for last weekend...) but we will wait for that place any day.

I also got a lot done in the studio - mostly moving stuff around...but I did finish the leaf to send off to the art tree tomorrow...It is, of course, called "Serenity Leaf" because I used up more of the Serenity Series black and white strips of fabric. I think they are breeding in the basket I keep them in. Maybe I should just finish sewing them all together and cut them into columns and just sew them down and get rid of them once and for all...they are never-ending!! But certainly convenient for small projects and challenges.

Dave was kind enough to take some of his time on Saturday and build me another shelf unit to hold my dyes and paints - I think they look great, and it's quite obvious I really never have to go shopping again (or at least for a very long time!) - between what I've bought for myself and what people have given me from cleaning out their closets or from garage and estate sales I have quite a lot to choose from!

I was so inspired about how nice the new shelves looked, I straightened up the fabric and fiber shelves, too - although there is still a lot of work left to do on those...(you can't see the piles waiting to be put away in these pictures, clever me...) again - I really have no excuses - there is very little I could possible need in either area!

Yes, indeed, I'm a very fortunate woman!

Coping Skills

I left my coffee in the car; I coped by buying the largest vanilla latte in our coffee shop. Everybody and their dog wants to meet with my boss (he's in Santa Fe this week); I coped by copying him on my email replies to them (he's very good about checking email). My pc was running really slowly; I coped by running a spyware and virus scan. The work today was really tedious; I coped by thinking about the leaf I'll be submitting for The Tree Project (http://www.internationalfibercollaborative.com/ - right hand side of page… what a great project!

You've still got time to participate…come on! Join in!

Kaleidoscopes

It's amazing what a good photo editing software can do…This is what happened when I made kaleidoscope shots from one of my pictures of a cobblestone/brick street in Scotland.. How cool is this?...I could make a quilt without ever lifting a needle!

Comfy Chairs...

The Twelve by Twelve group (http://www.twelveby12.org/ ) is very inspiring - the 12 members take turns coming up with a theme and then they have a month to create a 12"x12" piece based on how the theme inspires them. Most recently, the theme was "Chairs". When I went to the online gallery to see all of them, imagine my delight when I saw Diane Hock's piece…she, too, had a comfy blue chair! I instantly saw in it our old blue comfy recliner - Dave bought it for me before I had even decided that we were a serious thing…I happened to see the chairs on sale in the paper and mentioned that I had always wanted a platform rocker that was comfortable. A few days later, he's saying, "your chair will be here on Tuesday" All I could think was "Huh??"… what I said was "hmmm…well…it'll have to live at your house because my little house doesn't have the room" and then thinking "and that way, if we break up, I don't have to figure out how to haul that chair to your house!" Well - after more than 14 years, it was time for the chair to go - it was a good chair for the time we had it - my Mom loved it and used it exclusively when she visited. The dog adored it (and if dogs remembered that kind of thing, would probably still miss it). Our friends used to fight over who got to sit in it when there were more than two of them in the house. And it was always called "The Comfy Chair" and someone would always do a riff on the Monty Python inquisition sketch… And it looked so sad sitting on the side of our driveway before someone in a truck came and rescued it. So - Diane's piece inspired me to include our comfy chair on one of the silk pieces I'm currently working on…I think it will be a nice reminder…I hope it went to a good home.