The New House that Adopted Me

I'm redecorating.  Have been for about three years now.  It's a slow transition.  This 3-for-the-price-of-1 family adopted me about seven years ago.  I was nearing parental retirement with my two nearly grown and ready to fly the coop, and I was pulled out of retirement for two new bonus little ones after meeting someone special who had started a family at a later stage in life.  Bye bye whole-bed-to-myself, hello house-I-didn't-pick!  You take the good with the bad.  I have trash pick-up and a neighborhood with swimming pools and tennis courts and such, but I also have a house that matched every other house in the neighborhood and a man who doesn't necessarily cherish my "artsy side" without considerable hesitation.

So.  The house that adopted me.  Being an artist, I do prefer to start with a blank canvas.  In some areas this house was close to being a blank canvas.  As in the saying "took everything that wasn't nailed down" is an understatement.  The previous tenant had gone to the trouble of unscrewing storage shelving, light switch plates, a toilet seat, and a number of items that had originally come with the house and taken it with her.  I can only be glad I missed the year leading up to their divorce and the first post-divorce year!  By then, my man-of-the-house still had a fully furnished personal office and he had completely refurnished the children's rooms, but other than that the décor was sparse and I had wiggle room.  With a few glitches along the way.  

I have this tiny little downstairs bathroom that somebody decided to paint red.  Really, really red.  This room is way too small to have been painted such a dark color, but in addition to the red color the painting technique that was used left raised lines from top to bottom on the walls, so a do-over would be more headache than I wanted.  I opted to stick with the red.  Red is the primary color in my master bedroom, though, and the few red décor pieces I had were already spoken for in other rooms.  

I burned a few brain cells on this bathroom, and then decided to pull out several Americana pieces I had nearly forgotten about and went with sort of an Americana theme, with some lighthouse and nautical stuff thrown in for good measure.  While hunting down anything Americana I could find in my attic stash, I came across two old mosaic pieces I'd done on cork board ... a lighthouse and a sailboat.  The lighthouse mosaic was in pristine condition, but the sailboat needed 3 tiles replaced and grout repair.  So minus the sailboat that still needs repairing, I've taken everything I could get my hands on in the attic that would fit my theme and loaded up the bathroom!  Photos below:

Lighthouse mosaic

made with tile, tesserae, vintage dishware, wood, river pebbles ...

picture frame on left painted to match ...

Declaration of Independence hand towel ...

rustic old wooden flag hanging décor and lighthouse soap dispenser ...

life preserver mirror and sailboat wall décor ...

horse painting for the horse-crazy-person in the family, lighthouse prints because we love to visit lighthouses when we go on beach vacations, and a vintage print for me ...

I can't even remember where I picked this mirror up, but the USA thingy came from waiting until 4th of July decorations went to 75% off (why not?) ...

... the second and final mosaic piece that I did that will go up as soon as minor repairs are done .... and I doubt I could fit more than maybe two or three more pieces in there, and it's a DONE DEAL!  Yay!

    

Painting / Mosaic / Maze / Aquarium ... all-in-one!

Okay.  So.  I'm putting out some new paintings for a dentist's office.  This was something I hadn't planned to do ... I just fell into it.  I chipped a tiny corner off a back tooth and had to find a dentist to fix it because it was sensitive to cold.  I spotted a sign for a new dentist office just a couple miles from my home and jotted down the number, called and made an appointment.  Come time for my appointment, I walk into a dentist's office that is so new that the freshly painted walls have yet to be decorated.  That just won't do!  Of COURSE I tell the dentist that I'm an artist.  And of COURSE I tell him that it would kill me to walk in and see his office decorated with framed and matted prints versus original art.  SUPPORT LIVING ARTISTS!  And of COURSE he finds a number of things in my mouth that require a dentist's attention.  I knew that going in.  So now I'm working to furnish the rooms of his new business, and he's working to give me an award-winning smile.  LOVE.  IT. 

Any-who.  At this same time, I'm replacing my daughter where she works while she's vacationing in N.Y.C.  I'm also helping my bonus father-in-law with his rental properties (have brushes, will paint, even if it's rental-property-beige).  Can you spell o-v-e-r-l-o-a-d?  Since Father Time stops for nobody, I go home and take a good look at the paintings in my studio and around my home.  The just-for-fun paintings, the trying-a-new-technique paintings, the no-longer-matches-new-décor paintings, and the ever present unfinished projects.  The dentist and his right-hand-man who is overseeing the decorating had taken note of a "mosaic" painting that I'd done, so I decide I'll start with something in that style. 

So.  I grab up a mosaic painting that no longer matched the theme in a children's bath.  It was a painting of hummingbirds dipping into flowers for nectar, and it had the mosaic theme I was looking for.  The "sky" background was blue, and I didn't want to redo that background so my new painting needed to be something with a blue background.  I decided on an aquarium.  All dentist's offices need an aquarium, right?  And this one would be maintenance-free, added bonus!  So at this point I've decided on blue water, a few colorful fish, and to break up the blue I should have the fish swimming in and out of something like sea weed.

First I have to cover up the hummingbirds, so I draw a slash through every line that needs to be readjusted as a "mosaic stone" to avoid the shape of the hummingbirds still being apparent.  Then I put a red dot in every "mosaic stone" that is turning from sky to sea weed.  At which point I decide to have a little more fun with this.  After all, it's going in a dentist's office.  We all need our attention diverted when we're in a dentist's chair, right?  And we all need something to amuse us while waiting for a doctor/dentist to get to us, right?  So I take the dots I'm mapping out for the sea weed and create a maze across the canvas, from top left corner to bottom right corner.  One strand of sea weed going all the way across unbroken, and multiple strands of seaweed traveling to dead-ends.  And then it was time to paint!  I used wrap-around canvas so no framing is necessary, acrylic paints and painting pens.  Photos below of the progress and the finished product. 

Originally the hummingbirds hadn't been mosaic ... only the background had been painted in "mosaic tiles" ... so I had to go back over the hummingbirds and outline mosaic stones.

... and the red dots will become sea weed (and a maze) ...

Voila!  A maintenance free aquarium / mosaic / maze!

Blog 2: Historic Irises / Iris Germanica / 'Gudrun'

So today I'm going to start an ongoing blog for Irises.  The flower, not the eyeball.  Iris is a family name.  The maternal matriarch of my family, who left us twenty years ago, was Iris Adelaide White.  That middle name was passed on to nobody.  I can hardly spell it, and I'm only half sure I spelled it correctly.  That first name, however, was passed on to my sister, Jessica Iris.  I hope someday it will be passed on to others in our family.  So, short story long, that explains the start of my interest in Iris flowers.  Iris Adelaide married a German fellow (my grandfather), so it suits me well to collect Iris Germanica in particular.  Bearded Iris.  I love the modern Irises, but I'm also particularly fond of historic Irises.  Historic Irises, in a nutshell, are basically the ones that were discovered, or hybrids that were registered, prior to 1984.  They tend to have less bells and whistles and they're sometimes less frilly and less showy.  However, if my love for Irises stemmed from my love for an ancestor long gone from this world, then I'd like to preserve the historic Irises.  Many have already been lost, many of them it's anybody's guess if they exist somewhere unknown to the collectors and experts, and many of them are in danger of this happening.  Those showy, frilly Irises with all the bells and whistles are descendants of these historic Irises.  Respect is deserved.  So I collect both the historic and the moderns. 

I'm starting a new board on my new Pinterest for Irises.  Two boards:  one for the Irises I already have, and one to serve as a wishlist where I can keep up with the Irises I've fallen in love with but don't yet have.  Both historics and moderns together; I'll not discriminate.  Each Iris will have it's own blog page, with accompanying pictures, so I can have a link for my Pinterest boards.

The yard I "inherited" already had a few Iris in the landscaping, but I didn't know the names for them.  I enlisted the help of HIPS (Historic Iris Preservation Society) in identifying what I already had, and the first one they helped me identify turned out to be a little jewel named 'Gudrun'.  So this will be the first one I blog about.  I'm going to copy and paste the information found on the HIPS website (http://www.hips-roots.com/) for Gudrun below:

"Gudrun K. Dykes, 1931 TB 32" EM WW, From Schreiners Iris catalog for 1946: "One of the finest whites for foreground planting. A very large variety with shapely blooms of splendid texture. A warm white despite its snowy coloring due in part to the warm golden beard and haft marking, and in part to gold dust sprinklings throughout the flower. Price .35" From the Robert Wayman catalog for 1940: "A top notch white Iris among so many fine new white ones and by many judges considered the finest iris of all. It is a massive flower of purest snow white, undoubtedly the largest and most massive. .35"

© LM

AM 1936, British Dykes Medal 1931 Note: Gudrun is the name of a princess in various medieval Germanic sagas. " Gudrun is, so far, the shortest Iris I have so it always gets planted in the front.  Being short doesn't deter this little sweetheart from showing off.  She always blooms huge and she never fails to show off for me.  I haven't gotten this same report from everyone who grows it, but in my yard this has been true year after year.  I like the way it grows in circle-clumps and it always has lots and lots of blooms in a clump, so this one's very photogenic.  Below you'll find a few pics of my own, from my collection:

  

Carpe Diem! My virgin run at blogging!

I found myself typing this quite by accident really.  I was trying to pin one of my own hobby creations to my Pinterest, and came across some stumbling blocks.  Apparently I don't know enough about my newly found Pinterest to figure out how to link to the photo albums I already have on Facebook and Picasa Web.  Or perhaps it's not that I can't figure out how; perhaps the option's not available.  So naturally, since I already can't figure out half of the programs/websites/apps I'm currently attempting to use, I decided to start something else that I know nothing about.  I'm really just an idea person, but since I don't have a secretary I'm going to adapt and learn to also be a voice for some of my ideas.  I'm hoping that by the end of this first blog I will have figured out how to link these blogs to my Pinterest.  If not, then at the very least I will have started on a blog, which has been a passing thought from time to time anyway.  I'm just still not very sure what my blog will be about.  My hobbies?  I have too many to name.  My art?  Typically I'd rather just be creating art versus talking about it.  Politics?  I definitely have my opinions on the subject, sometimes very strong opinions, but these days I tend not to go there because it causes stress and strain.  Sometimes I'm the one getting stressed, and sometimes others.  I've noticed on my Facebook that most people in my circles tend to avoid stating their opinions openly.  The ones that do, they tend to state their opinions as if they were fact, with a very closed-minded approach.  Neither of those options appeal to me.  Religion?  Oh, I do sooooo stay away from that subject most usually these days.  Religion isn't an opinion, it's a lifestyle, and I don't like to step on another's toes.  My view of the world?  Sure, why not?  When the desire hits me, that is.  However, I'll save that for another day.  Today I'll blog about what brought me to this page in the first place, which was a desire to find a spot for a few images of some landscaping I'd done.  Not necessarily the landscaping, although that is yet another hobby of mine.  The mosaic steps I made to go in the center of the landscaping is what I'd wanted to add to my Pinterest.  Not that I don't love hunting and sharing other people's ideas and projects, because I do and I will and I have.  But my own Pinterest should have some of my own creations and projects, should it not?  I'm a do-it-yourself kinda girl.  Sometimes I don't even like to be shown how to do something.  I'd prefer to go through the time-consuming agony-and-defeat process of figuring it out all by myself.  Just like I'm doing right now.  I have no idea how to attach my pictures to this.  I have no idea if, when I'm done, I'll know how to link this to my Pinterest.  I just know I don't feel like reading the how-to articles or taking a class to learn.  I'd rather wing it.  I say that with the utmost confidence (not really, the confidence is fake). 
Anyway, back to my mosaic steps.  I had a little hill.  By little I mean you could walk up this hill in four strides.  On one side was what we called the "daffodil hill", which is about a 20-foot stretch of rows of daffodils and daylilies.  The daffodils bloom in February and the daylilies bloom typically in May (if the deer don't eat them all).  On the other side is a semi-circle garden that had been completely overcome with ivy that I painstakingly pulled out by the roots and slowly replaced with flowers that know how to mind their manners and stay where I tell them to stay.  Between these two groups was this little "pathway" up the hill that was trampled on until nothing grew.  So I decided it needed some stepping stones.  So I bought these cheap, ugly rectangular concrete blocks and turned them into mosaic stones.  I used Spanish tile and iridescent tile left over from other projects, and I used grout the color of dirt so I'd have no future maintenance to deal with.  And in the photos you'll see (well, you'll see it directly below this if that "insert image" button is as easy as it looks, I haven't gotten that far yet) that I planted Irish moss below each stepping stone.  That died.  Within a week.  So then I planted phlox.  Very pretty.  It liked the spot, and has filled in quite nicely.  But it's too tall and hides too much of the mosaic work.  So I will eventually go back to the drawing board on that.  It's still a work in progress.  "Work in progress" sounds so much kinder than "unfinished project", which is what the man-of-the-house calls all of my works in progress.  And speaking of work in progress, I guess I'll wrap up my first attempt at blogging and move on to figuring out the rest of this process.  The typing what's on your mind part has always been easy for me.  Now I have to figure out all the internet stuff that goes with it.  What does "insert jump break" mean and what are "Labels" and "Permalinks"?  I don't know, but I'm proceeding anyway.

Well, will you look at that?!  The "insert image" button was just as easy as it looked!  Perhaps one day I'll be motivated enough to add the update shots I've taken now that everything has filled in.  Today, however, I'm a day late and a dollar short on ten different ongoing projects!  Carpe diem!!