Dining Room? Done!

Checking things of the ever-growing To Do List is always so satisfying. Last fall I got to cross "Dining Room" off the list.

It took a bit of planning, effort, and a very good and talented friend with a Sawzall and a nail gun, but we got it done.

First I wanted to rearrange the traffic flow. Instead of coming in the front door and meandering through the living room into the kitchen and then into the dead-end dining room, I wanted a straight line of sight from the front door, through the dining room into the backyard. So, we moved the doorway.

Hole in the wall for the new doorway to the dining room on the left.
Old doorway into kitchen on the right.

New doorway all framed in, old doorway covered with drywall and goop.

This change did a couple of things for us. It turned the living room from a traffic zone into an actual room where we could put furniture. It gave us space in the kitchen for a new refrigerator and a work table. The view through the dining room to the backyard made the house feel a little less small. And most importantly, it gave me an excuse to paint walls! Squeeeeeee!

And the results... drumroll please....

Freya, running.
She's not always this muddy.

This is the view from the kitchen, the living room is to the left, and the large window is on the right. We can sit at the table and watch the birds at the feeder and the Buhund running in circles in the yard.

The light fixture, table, white chairs, colorful cushions on the bench, and shelves are from Ikea. The computer desk is an old oak desk I found in a dumpster on the local college campus. I added the pull-out keyboard shelf.  The artwork I've collected over many decades. The wall paint color is "Popcorn" from the Martha Stewart line at Home Depot. It was a nice quality paint, a pleasure to work with.

So, dining room done! Next up - the living room, or maybe the bedroom, or possibly the basement.....and then there's the new plan for the garden, and the front porch, and....

Springing into Summer

 

Where does the time go?

I think it gets scattered around the garden, gets sucked up in the vacuum cleaner, blows out the window on the drive to work, wanders off in the grocery store, gets stuck in the pages of magazines and books I've been reading, lies tangled up in my latest fiber project... well, you get the picture.

It's almost summer, and of course every day has been full of stuff and doings. Out in the garden, the strawberries and sugar snaps are done and gone. My first planting of beans are up. Ditto the zucchini and the cukes. There are little green tomatoes out there too! The cosmos have started to bloom, along with the marigolds, mums, and zinnias. The lavender is in full bloom and is buzzing with bees.

This month Eric and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. (Time wooshing by. Again!) We had a lovely time at the Hotel Floyd, enjoyed some very nice meals at Mickey G's, Oddfellas Cantina, and had a tasty pizza at Dogtown Roadhouse . The galleries in town feature great local artists and crafts people. We enjoyed browsing, and I was certainly inspired by all that creativity. Also, I bought some yarn at the new knitting shop, Wooly Jumper Yarns, in downtown Floyd. I'm knitting a hat for Eric - photos to follow eventually. I'm still working on the 2/2 rib, which isn't terribly interesting to look at.

Last week I traveled with Eric and his mother, Joyce,  to Syracuse, NY to visit Joyce's brother and his wife. We stopped for the night in Sharpsburg, MD and stayed at a nice B&B quite near the battlefield at Antietam. Lovely old town with great old buildings. My favorite was this barn, in a backyard on the main street. I covet these crazy cupolas for my studio!

Up in Syracuse we enjoyed the company and the scenery, took in an exhibit of art quilts, visited the Art Park (always fun), had many fine meals, wandered around a rose garden in full bloom, and had a generally lovely time. I made a little slideshow of our visit, which you can view below.

I've also been spending a little time in the studio, but haven't got any photos to show just now. I'm making progress on a little set of tapestry samplers, almost done rethreading the new loom, and just about finished with those never-ending linen napkins. Progress on all fronts!

I hope your Spring has been lovely. Next week - Summer!

Fruitful

Strawberries from our garden!

It's been a busy spring here at the TeaShanty.

Fruitful, one might say.

I've been out in the garden, busy as a bee. But now that our exuberant, and slightly soggy, spring has slowed down a bit I hope to get back to blogging on a more regular basis.

There are lots of photos I'd love to share with you, and I've started a new wee tapestry project. So check back soon for more posts!

The Christmas Ladder

I realize that it's a little late to be posting about Christmas decor, but I wanted to share a few photos of our Christmas ladder.

Read the CB2 blog featuring the tree.

I got the idea from a CB2 holiday catalog. CB2 is the ultra-contemporary branch of Crate and Barrel. Very cool stuff.

Anyway, we had this wonky wooden ladder that I didn't trust to be safe for climbing anymore and I said to myself "Self, you should paint that old wooden ladder, stick it out in the garden, and deck it out with some holiday cheer." And so, I did. I expect it will stay in the garden into the summer as a trellis for my sugar snap peas and other climby plants.

Have a look and let me know if you have any ideas for a "topper" for my ladder tree for next year.

Artful shot with Smartie in the background.

Fa la la la la...

The "tree" in the garden

This hat itches!

Now get out your fluffy hat and enjoy the snow!

Catching Up

So, it's been a while. Ok, it's been months. But now I'm back, and I wanted to give an update on the bean tapestry. I finally got back into the studio this month so some progress has been made. Really, there's not that much more to go, maybe two inches or so. If the weather stays above freezing I just might get it done before New Years eve.

Coming down to the end - the eggplant and the background...

In other news... here's a brief tour of what else I've been up to since July. (Just so you don't think I've been sitting around twiddling my thumbs.) If you want the captions and some sketchy details, you can also view this on my Flickr page.




Of course there's been more day to day stuff than I can write, or that you'd probably want to read. If anything else of interest occurs to me I'll post again. Really!

Ta ta for now!
Liz

Recently seen at a Chinese restaurant ....

Further proof that my husband and I are made for each other...

Other people's junk

I love cast-off things. They make me happy.

These guys sit on the top shelf of the book shelves at my house. The gargoyle came from the thrift shop ($1 !!), and I pulled the lovely old bird cage out of someone's junk pile. The bird is a Christmas ornament I received as a gift - so not junk - and she always seems to be gloating a bit.

Weaving and domestic bliss

Hiya! Had a bit of a late start in the studio today since it took a while for it to get warmed up out there.  The little wood stove that could does a pretty good job, but it was pretty darned cold here this morning!

To pass the time I embarked on a semi-annual cleaning project - the book shelves. My husband and I are book people. We love to read, and we love our books. As you can imagine, they pile up around the house and with a greater number of books coming in than going out the book shelves around the house can get sort of packed. This makes dusting difficult. And since the dust that accumulates in our house quickly begins to bear a greater resemblance to top soil, one does feel the need to shovel out occasionally. So today I took all the books off of the living room shelves, dusted each one, and put everything back, less a few volumes that were relocated to other parts of the house, or put in the thrift shop pile. (Two books. That's all we could bear to part with.) Now the shelves are shiny and tidy, and look much less likely to pull out of the wall. Domestic bliss, indeed!

The bit of reorganizing gave me a chance to move this little guy to a good spot. Doesn't he look quite at home with my husband's collection of "The Hobbit?"

My wee Scotsman is a pitcher, and came from an antique shop in Floyd, VA - an early Christmas gift from a friend. I know his bonnet's got a chip out of it, but I fell in love with him anyway.

And now, since I know Lawre's waiting for it, here's this week's Green Bean Tapestry update:

Not much progress, and I may end up unweaving that bit at the tip of the bean in progress - again! I'll decide next time I work on it when I see it with fresh eyes.