Take a Leap

Barker woke us up early this morning. I think he has gotten used to having the workmen here, and he enjoys their energy! He has always been "one of the guys", so he feels good about this reno!

The electricians arrived first and then the countertop template man appeared. Like Rayna, I had thought he'd have his arms full of paper, a sturdy tape measure, and a pencil: NOT! He used wood, similar to balsa and a hot glue gun to build his templates. Below is one that he has just completed of the countertop by the diningroom:

Here's another section layed out on the floor:

It was a tedious job, and he was there for at least six hours. So now we wait 7-10 business days for the countertops.

I was disappointed that the Nandina leaves I had brayered onto this t-shirt barely survived after drying and laundering. Better for me to find out than an unsuspecting customer! So, this afternoon I thickened some dyes and stamped on some fish:

This may go, along with the little girl's romper from yesterday, to our church's preschool fundraising auction.

I've been playing around with monoprinting on silk and also discharging, as you know if you have been following along on my blog. Here is the finished product of the 2-day process:

and a closeup:
And for my friend Jeannie out in Oregon, here's the latest development on C's tractor driving t-shirt:

I've done some discharging with a screen. It's always fun to see what colors will remain when the fabric is discharged. I doubt that he would wear this even if I paid him a billion bucks!

As for Leap Day, I read on a friend's website this morning that this is the day that ladies can propose to men, BUT they must do so in a RED petticoat! When I was visiting with my Mom this afternoon, she told me that she was instructing all of her single caregivers to go home and propose to their prospective lovers this evening! At almost 91, she rarely misses a beat!
God Bless Her!

PEACE

The Escape Artist

Please pardon me for blogging twice (or is it three times?) today, but I just had to do it! Actually, while I was folding some laundry this evening I was thinking about how I escape to my dyeing studio at the end of the day (of kitchen reno) to dye a few things, so I am "the escape artist". LOL Maybe I'll have to start another blog with that name, or should I trademark it and change my company name from Silk Sorbet to The Escape Artist? I'm sure I'm not the first one to think of this name, but I do think it's clever. My dyeing studio has become my therapy after all of the banging and sawing and decision-making in the kitchen arena.

So, I'll show you a few pieces that I completed today and then I'll show you what the guys completed today.

My work:


The above piece is the long sleeved tee that I had blogged about the other day. I've added some more discharging with turquoise dye added to the discharge paste, I've stamped it, and then I sort of haphazardly folded it vertically and sprayed it with turquoise dye. I am really pleased with the outcome, and hope to get you a better picture sometime during this lifetime!

This next piece is a child's tee that I first did a bit of low immersion dyeing on, then discharged the lines and some insect stampings. I had thought that that would be enough!


However I decided it needed more, so I did some printing with some Nandina leaves off of a plant just outside of my studio door. I love the effect! Here are a couple of closeups:



The following is the old red tank top that I had discharged several months ago, then I screened/discharged the lines down the front. I came back in the other evening and sprayed some blue polka dotted circles on it.



This next piece is a beloved white workout tank that I have worn until it is a virtual rag! I've been overdyeing and discharging on it for a few months now. Unfortunately the other afternoon I decided it needed to have those cutesy little bees discharge/stamped across the front in a clear diagonal.....what was I thinking????


Other than the bee stamps, I thought it was pretty cool!

Below is a little girls' romper that I dyed yellow, soy wax batiked, dyed blue, then sprayed with some turquoise:
This one is not as ugly as it appears here, but it needs one more thing....what would you do next???

And here's what they did today:

This picture faces the guest room, looking from the dining room door. The openings, going from right to left are for the fridge, the gas range and hood, and the wall oven. There will be reeded glass on the open cabinet fronts and my beloved granite on the backsplash. Molly, is this at all like you envisioned it to be?? Remember that day that we planned it all out???


The pic below faces the diningroom, with the wall knocked down. I can now see that there are a couple of electrical outlets that need to be moved, but all in all, I am so pleased with the way things are going!

Here is the island, looking towards the diningroom:

The dishwasher will be in that gaping hole, and then the double sink, and then the trash and recycling, yada, yada, yada. There will be granite over those liitle backsplash cubbyholes! I placed the dishwasher where I did so that there would be a countertop opposite the fridge, and also the dishwasher would not be opening into the wall oven. There are so many things to consider in a kitchen!!!

So, I promise, this is the last blog for the day!!!

PEACE

One Down, One to go....AND MORE!

We closed the sale of our present Midtown condo yesterday afternoon. So for the next couple of weeks we will be renting from Douglas, the new owner, while the present owners of our new condo find a home and prepare to move. That closing is set for March 10th, the our actual move to follow on the 15th.

We had a celebratory glass of dark ale with our realtor Michael at Silk, which is on the ground floor of our new condo building, then walked over to Mitra for a fabulous dinner. We shared the Chef's Choice Appetizer plate and a Hearts of romaine salad with Chipotle lime Caesar dressing. C enjoyed their surf and turf entree, while I had mustard encrusted lamb chops. MMMMMMM!

I had hoped to post kitchen pics this morning, but left my camera cable at home. Speaking of which, we are hurrying home as the cabinets are being installed this morning! WooHoo!!!!
I will close with the picture of my granite-to-be..........as I just love it!!!!

I posted the above earlier this morning, and now we are home again, after loading our new tile in the back of the Tahoe on our drive back to Gainesville. We found lots going on at home:
the cabinet installers are here and working away, and the tilemen are here, putting down the wonderboard. This is all very exciting to me!

Here is one of my pictures from yesterday afternoon:


Bill is hammering down the plywood flooring. The windows look out on the pool patio and an ugly old arbor that was pretty well covered in Confederate Jasmine. We both hated the arbor, as it blocked the view of the pool and my perennial garden beyond, not to mention our new and improved fence! So, since we've been in the demo mode, we asked Pat and his crew to remove it and build us a more sightly version. Here it is coming down:


Below you can see the beginnings of our new kitchen with the cabinets being installed. This is essentially what we saw when we walked in this morning:




This is how that wall looked yesterday, with Pat our contractor supervising the plywood floor installation:

The island will go in soon.......so I need to go take more pictures!!!

PEACE

Dyeing: Another Day

This lovely Cyber Fyber postcard was in the mailbox when we arrived home on Sunday afternoon. Susan Lenz had sent it in exchange for the one I sent her last week:

C and I spent yesterday morning with the lighting man, trying to find just the right lights to hang over our new island. We aren't particularly pleased with any that we saw, so we will look further in Atlanta this next weekend. Not much to show in the kitchen, unless of course you are really into sheet rock. I had thought that the cabinets were arriving today (Tuesday), but alas it is Thursday: another "T" day! I am waiting for the guys to show up to put down a layer of plywood, and then the tileman will put down his wonderboard.

I dyed the tee below a year or two ago, and simply did a low emersion technique with a red/orange. At the time, I thought it was pretty special, but recently I decided it was pretty darned boring. Yesterday I was dyeing a few things, so I got out the discharge paste and a fern stamp and went to town. Better:

I think I will play around with it some more this afternoon, but first a have one project to complete indoors. We were awakened to the weather radio alarm blaring in our ears this morning. Since our little town of Gainesville, GA was nearly destroyed by tornadoes back in '36, we take weather radio alarms quite seriously. As it turned out, we were under a severe thunderstorm warning for the next few hours. Barker was beside himself when the thunder began. C got up and went out to read. I snoozed in bed for another hour, occasionally waking to the rumble of the thunder. My shoulder improves daily and I am eternally grateful!

Here are a few shots of my old/new cabinets out in my dyeing studio:

I think the pool noodles add a bit of charm, don't you???

Below is my free mini fridge, which runs like a charm, plus my rocket steamer in various sections:

We can't quite figure out what happened to that missing cabinet door, but without it I am able to store my mini ironing board in that little cubby.

My work table is in the middle of the floor and then against the far wall is my ironing surface and my batiking area, which is on wheels and has its own electrical outlets. It is actually a reclaimed/recycled saw table from our neighbor Wyatt. It has a great shelf underneath where I can store extra soy wax and carpet padding.

these photos actually enlarge (can you believe it?), in case you want to look a little deeper!

PEACE

Life is Good!

[Surprisingly enough, I've lived a charmed life today, and all four of these pics will enlarge!]

C and I came home from Atlanta this afternoon. I want to thank everyone who posted well wishes for my surgery. It all went very smoothly and I am pretty much pain free. My Doc has instructed me not to do any heavy lifting or exercising for a couple of weeks, which puts a bit more work on C, but he is more than happy to accommodate my needs. I can walk, and since we all love to walk, that is no problem! We stopped by my Mom's skilled care home this afternoon and sadly found that her roommate is down and out with the flu. Mom stays out of the room as much as she can, but she and her roommate adore each other, and they try to help each other as much as possible, so Mom is torn. There are three residents in this facility with the flu, and there are signs on all of the entry doors that warn visitors to enter only if it is an emergency.

Here is a definite harbinger of Spring:

I think this must be a hybrid crested dwarf iris. The bulbs came as freebies the first year we were in this house, and I was amazed when they bloomed in February. They are spreading, slowly but surely, and give me great delight every time I see them. The blossoms only last a day, so you've gotta be on your toes this time of year! LOL

Here's another view of these sweeties:


I had never seen Mahonia until we moved to northeast Georgia. I love this plant!! This particular Mahonia resides in my pool patio garden and was covered up by overgrown Azaleas until we cut everything back last summer. If you are not familiar with Mahonia, those yellow "blossoms" will turn dark blue/purple as the year progresses and the birds love them!


We have Mahonia growing wild all over our yard, and each and every plant gives me joy!

And lastly, here is one of our heads of broccoli, gone to flower:


I was a bit disappointed that the head did not mature until after the kitchen renovation began, thus making it next to impossible to prepare it for dinner! I suppose we could have eaten it raw with a dip, but I was too busy with other things! I do love the flowers.

PEACE!

The Mailbag

Tuesday had its highs and lows, so I'll share the highs with you first. Our postal carrier must have thought it was my birthday or something else rather special, as I was gifted quite generously.

This is a lovely fiber Valentine from my good buddy Diane:

I just adore it and need to find out more about it. I think she must have gotten ahead of me and purchased an embellisher, what do you think? Inside the Valentine, Diane writes: "Osram ne Nsoroma African symbol representing love, harmony and feminine essence of life. Allistair Boody-Evans 2002" I confess that I have been too busy to look all of this up, but maybe later tonight I will get around to it! I am almost positive that Diane has dyed the lovely background fabric and felted the wool. Maybe she'll leave a comment and share with us exactly how she accomplished this masterpiece. Thank you Diane.......and you know that it arrived on the day that I needed it most!

The mail carrier also delivered this lovely little ATC from Susan Lenz. I found out about her Cyber Fyber exhibit in Columbia, SC through Virginia Spiegel's blog, and wanted to take part, so I promised to send Susan an ATC (and then I couldn't resist and wanted to trade a postcard too!) .
Here is Susan's wonderful ATC:

I am a sucker for antique buttons, so when I saw this one, I just had to have it!!

And there was also an intrigueing package from Hawaii! Gerrie has been purchasing some lovely Japanese kimono silks on ebay, so of course I had to go and take a look..........and look what I bid on and won:

Nobody else bid on this item, so I don't feel badly about having "won" it! I have no idea what I will do with them (probably fondle them for a good long while before I do anything else!) and I hate being a copycat, but these were just too exciting to resist!

This is one of the lovely pieces included:

You know that that red just makes my heart sing!

And look at this little lovely:

And here's one more:

The one "low" spot of the day was a call from my Dermatological Plastic Surgeon telling me that one of the sites that she had biopsied last week came back as a "melanoma in situ". UGH She stressed that this is the best case scenario in that she caught it early and that it is not the kind that spreads internally..........so, we shall see! As I said last week, I have all the faith in the world in Katarina Chiller, and I believe every word that she says. So, I go under the knife tomorrow at high noon...........lunch at the Varsity sounds a whole lot better......even lunch at McDonalds would be a step up! Oh well! And so it goes.......................

PEACE

Yesterday:

This has gotta be my most favorite part of the kitchen demo/reno thus far:

Bill is removing the !@#$%^& popcorn ceiling!!! I am so thrilled!!!!

Here we have two electricians and the hvac man:

When I first walked into the room, there was only one guy visible but many voices. It turned out that Rick, the gentleman in the red shirt was up in the attic working on the wiring, while "Rooster", the gentleman seated, was down under the floor. They finally figured out what that long dangling cord hanging down from the ceiling was: the phone line to the bedroom wing of the house. Actually, I figured it out when I tried to make a call and the phone in our bedroom was dead, but the ones in the main part of the house were still working. Live and learn!

In the art department, I'm working on some inkjet transfers. Here is my Grandpa Herman, recently transferred to a piece of rusted muslin. Quite appropriate since he is the husband of "Rusty Gusty"!

I'm elated to read how well Obama did in yesterday's primaries. Yes indeedy, there is hope!!

PEACE

'Twas a Verrrry Gooood Day!

The electricians and hvac men arrived right on time this morning. Fortunately we had taken Barker out for an early walk, so we were home and ready for them.

I got busy and finished a postcard I had promised Susan Lenz for her Cyber Fyber exhibit. I've been intrigued by the rusting craze for quite some time now, and had not used this piece of fabric which had lingered in a rusty bath for a few days a couple of weeks ago. I had also thrown those two little snippets of old lace from the thrift shop into the bath, and loved how they came out. I stamped the dragonfly onto the fabric using orange marmalade distress ink and then applied rusty embossing powder and zapped it with the heat gun. I liked the look:


It is highly recommended that you do not sew on rusty fabric with your sewing machine, and I can understand why! I tried it just to make sure the "rust authorities" were correct: and they were! It took me about two stitches to know that I didn't want to do anymore! So I sat down with C in front of the TV last night and did a bit of handwork on my postcard.

The electricians kept me busy off and on today, making decisions about switches, outlets, and asking where changes had been made in the blueprints. I don't really know how folks build houses and make so many major decisions! Just locating a few switches in the kitchen was a monumental task for me! Of course, more sheetrock had to be removed so as to work on the wiring. Here is how it all looked this evening when they left:



The tileman came and got all of the measuring completed and then called in our floor order. So we are in business in that respect as well. I need to make an appointment with the lighting man, so that I can finish with that little detail. That may be my last obligation! YEAH!!!

I escaped to the studio for a couple of hours of play time late this afternoon. I'm not sure where the days go, but they just fly by! I had done a bit of monoprinting with thickened Procion MX dyes on Saturday, then batched the pieces for about 36 hours. Here is how the first one looked after it had been washed and line dried:

There are a few little leaves printed into that piece. I was unhappy with how dark it turned out, so I thought I'd try my luck with a bit of Thiox. I screened on some plain, thickened Thiox first, then bubblewrapped a little on, then used a glass jar to make a few circles, and then came back in with the same checkerboard screen but this time added some Turquoise to the Thiox mixture (thanks Gerrie!):

At first I wasn't sure if I liked it, but it has grown on me, and now I think it's rather stunning!

Here is the second piece that I had monoprinted on Saturday. This one also had leaves in one layer, but then some dried grasses in the final layer. I liked it a lot and was hesitant to do anymore to it:

The discharging was getting into my blood and I just couldn't stop, so I went out into the yard and picked up a few leaves. We had had a lot of rain last evening, so the leaves were supple and great for printing. Since this piece already possessed a botanical nature, I decided to just discharge a lot more leaves onto it, and mostly with the turquoise dye. I love it:

As I said above, the discharging was getting into my blood and I just couldn't stop! Fortunately Barker is already white, or I might have tried to discharge him! C has a "dye job t-shirt" that I am forever doctoring. It was originally a dark green, but he got some sort of bleaching agent on it and was whining because it had a spot, so I offered to overdye it a few years back. He loved the results and wore it all the time....when he was cutting the grass. Gradually the dye faded and so this past summer he requested a redye. I agreed but then only got so far before it got cold. It has been hanging around out in the studio, all burgundy and navy for several months now, so today it got a blast of the Thiox too..........I am no longer partial to any one thing! Here is said t-shirt:



I wonder if C will be brave enough to wear it even on his tractor! LOL

And last but not least: another rejected clothing item, but this time mine! I loved this old tank top, but the color was fading, so I had done a bit of discharge shibori on it. It was ok but not great, so I discharged a few stripes on it this afternoon:

Fortunately by the time I had finished with it, the temps were in the low 50's, the breeze was picking up, and my feet felt like blocks of ice, so I decided to call it a day! But oh what fun I had!!

Hope you had a great day too! Several of you haven't checked in in a while. I wish you would: I've missed hearing from you!

PEACE

Belated Happy Valentine's Day

Yesterday morning dawned as one of the coldest thus far in 2008 in Atlanta! Barker Baby needed his early morning walk, but we persuaded him to hold off until about 8:00 AM when it was a balmy 24 with a wind chill of 12! It was pretty brutal walking into the wind on Juniper Street. It warmed up rather rapidly and by mid afternoon it was around 60, which made for a nice Valentine's Day afternoon. Looking out the front door of our present condo at the Tuscany, I snapped this photo of our future unit at the Metropolis:

We are so excited about it! Our contract has been accepted and we will meet the inspector there next Thursday, to check off that minor hurdle on our way toward closing.

C and I both had appointments with our Atlanta Dermatologist yesterday afternoon. The lovely Katarina Chiller is one of the bright spots in my life (no pun intended - follow the link and you'll understand why!), and I think that says a lot for a Dermatological Plastic Surgeon! She does the most fabulous work and she is just a delight to be around! We headed back home to Gainesville, in order to meet our friends Bill and Elizabeth for a delightful dinner and show at the Black Bear Dinner Theater in Helen, Georgia. What a fun time we had! Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!!!

We had been so busy all day, that we had never had a chance to exchange our Valentines! I got C a black leather Kenneth Cole Messenger Bag, to replace the rapidly destructing canvas one I had given him years ago. He volunteers as treasurer for several organizations around town, and was in desperate need of something sturdy and handsome to hold all of his paperwork. He was very pleased! And the old saying, "wonderful things arrive in small packages" is the understatement concerning his little Valentine to me:


My new iPod nano is just a darling little delight and what a replacement for what must have been my very first generation iPod of old!

We arrived home to find that the plumber had spent the day at our house, installing the lines for our new sinks:

The crew is taking the day off, and the electrician, heat man, and tile man will be here Monday morning. I am glad to have the house to myself for a few days! C and I are very private people and it is truly draining on us to have folks around the house all day long.

Hope you had a very happy Valentine's Day wherever you may be! How did you spend your day?

PEACE

Joan suggested that I keep my meds by my bedside so that I wouldn't forget to take them, and I really appreciated that thought. However, most must be taken with meals or a full glass of water, so that doesn't work. I think the "problem" I am having is that our meals are so scattered due to the reno job, that I just don't have a good routine, and I am a creature of habit! So, I am becoming increasingly aware of my meals and the addition of the meds at that time. Today is a great day, so I am optimistic that I am well on my way to a full recovery.........and I thank you all for your concerns and well wishes!