Carpet, carpet, carpet

The new carpet is very soft, very quiet, and most of all VERY CLEAN.  You can lay on it and roll around and play on it without wondering what germs, dirt, and bugs might be hiding in it.  The last of the main plush carpet was installed yesterday upstairs.

The front of the carpet has been wrapped over the edge of the floor.  The wood part will be covered by the striped stair carpet.

Mister e's new room color.  The picture makes it look lighter and more turquoise than it actually is.  It is more like a stormy sea.  We are going to put up shelves for the Star Wars ships.  e has requested that the shelves be the same color as the walls, so it looks like the ships are flying in space.  Genius and simple solution!

Stripes for the stairs

This is the amazing hospitality carpet with stripes!  The pile is very dense and low.  Some of the stripes are raised.  We get to keep all the left over carpet and had a small piece of the stripe.  So we unrolled it in the hallway to get a feel for the stripe.  Love it!  I really wish the piece were longer so we could do a runner for the hall.

The stair carpet has been cut and is off to the binder to have the edges bound.  The guys will be back next week to put it in.  That will be almost three weeks of carpet laying.  Irving (our dog) can barely stand having people in the house especially people he can't see running up and down the stairs and pounding on the floor.  He is so worn out from not barking yesterday that he is sleeping all day today.

How are we getting all these projects done?  We have turned the dining room into a temporary paint station/command central.  The boxes hold the tools, brushes, outlet plates, painter's caulk, etc.  All the various cans of paint and primer are on the floor.  After the carpet install, there has been a lot of touching up.  This is faster than putting everything back down in the basement and having to run up and down two flights of stairs.  This way, we only have to run up and down one flight of stairs.  Good thing we have a dine-in kitchen.

Stairs

We removed the carpet from the stairs.  Our plan is to paint the treads and put down a striped runner thus making it easier to clean the corners of each stair and only paying for the carpet where you actually used it.  Besides, striped runners on white stairs look very cool.

Fir stairs that squeak if you breathe on them

Most of the carpet is out.  You can still see the
original grey carpet on the upper set of stairs.

However finding striped carpet was challenging.  We asked our carpet guy and he kept showing us subtle sort-of stripes in non-contrasting colors.  They were more "stripe wanna be's" than actual stripes.  We wanted this kind of look:

We finally had to show the carpet guy a picture on the iPhone.  Then he got it.  The type of carpet we wanted was called "hospitality carpet" (think bad casino carpet).  If you do a web search for hospitality carpet, you will find a gold mine of patterns, swirls, optical illusions, tapestries, etc!  Fortunately our carpet guy also does hotel and industrial installs and had an entire room of hospitality carpet swatch books.  We settled on a fabulous black with multi-color stripes.  I can't wait to see it on the stairs!

In the meantime, we have pulled staples, sanded the edges of the each tread and riser, primed, and painted 3 coats of paint on the staircase.

Upstairs Repaint-Recarpet-Cleaning Extravaganza

After jury duty I was seized with the overwhelming desire to get going on painting projects.  So I came  home and opened a can of paint and forced my family to assist.

Our original bedroom color is similar to the color of computers in the 90's sort of a UV tainted plastic putty.  It is not an attractive color at all.  And to make things worse, I spent several days selecting this color the first time we painted our bedroom 12 years ago.  I wanted to bedroom to be a sanctuary with a little boudoir thrown in and the putty wasn't cutting it.  Also it didn't really show off the color of the wood furniture.

The warm putty color and the previous closet situation.

Choosing the right dusky lavender orchid amongst
the piles of stuff.

At about this point, I decided that we weren't under enough pressure to finish, so we ordered carpet and scheduled a install date a couple of weeks out.  That would allow us to focus more acutely on painting Ewan's room, the hallway, and the stairs.  Nothing like a deadline to get things done!

In progress

We decided to change the center alcove into a double hung closet space and move the high boy dresser into one of the closets.  The high boy was originally in a location in the room that allowed for frequent banging of elbows, shoulders and heads (depending on the growth spurt).  Needless to say, the family is much happier with the new location and enjoying fewer bruises.

The closet fully loaded.  I did clean and reduce,
but I am nuts about vintage clothing
so can't reduce the closet contents by much.

The other direction

I will post more pictures with it cleaned up and decorated.  We also have some of the new carpet installed!!  The old carpet came with the house 17 years ago.  It was old, felted, and not comfortable.  The new carpet is posh and makes the upstairs very quiet.

On a completely unrelated note, I discovered my son "gaming the system" while playing Wii Fit.  He figured out a way to hold completely still for the meditation game.

December Recap

The blog has been quiet, but now that January is here and kids are back in school hopefully I can settle into a schedule again.  I need to do some creative things and post some of the things that I made over the summer.  We also have some house projects in process too.  LONG overdue things which involve cleaning out closets and cupboards (Yay!) and painting!

To recap the last bit of December:

We had snow!

Unfortunately... it didn't stick, but was pretty as it fell.

 Dog biscuits for the dog and peanut butter/chocolate brownies for Santa.   The brownies have a stick and a half of butter in them.  Awesomely good... but awesomely bad for the body.  Definitely a once-a-year treat.

My dear friend Stacey bought a bottle of Prosecco the last time we were together before she left for Germany.  Now I am hooked and have been enjoying it over the holidays.  Goes well with potato chips too!  Definitely a more than once-a-year treat... sometimes a once-a-week treat... if not daily.

The Portland institute to doughnuts- VooDoo Doughnut.  I LOVE their boxes!

There were more doughnuts in here, but there is only a maple bacon bar (my favorite) and a voodoo doll (with cherry filling and a pretzel stick for stabbing) left.  Definitely a more than once-a-year treat, but not too often.

I enjoyed a couple of days of jury duty over the two days following Christmas.  The second day was beautiful downtown, so I snapped a couple of pictures.  This is a Michael Graves Memphis-style building.  Oddly weird but interesting.  You can learn more about Memphis Design here.

The elk statue all dressed for the holidays.

We don't have many clear, sunny days in Portland, but when we do they are beautiful.

Back home...

I am back in Portland.  I drove home last Friday in time to see Miss Elsie twirl her baton in a Christmas performance.  I'm still finishing up school work (both for classes that I am taking and classes that I am teaching).
Christmas has started and we bought a live tree this year.  It's really big.  Funny how they always look bigger on the lot than in your living room.

What I have been doing....

I have been doing a lot of reading and not much creating which is starting to wear on me.  Grad school seems to involve large amounts of book reading supported by large amounts of paper reading (and not the newspaper) which is then supported by additional external readings which are sometimes not scanned in well leading to missing words and black blobs.  But I am persevering and learning.  I have also discovered Human Factors which I want to learn more about.  I think they could use some creativity in their website design though.  I have taken one class in this area and am adding a couple more.  

I do squeeze in some knitting on a skirt that I started two years ago.  Maybe I will actually finish it this winter.

Here is what I've been doing:

1. Myself and another student created a protective mesh sleeve for an air fired cannon.  This is me using the industrial sewing machine in the Clothing, Textiles and Design Lab at school.  The bottom picture is the cannon firing.  The big dot is the wad and sabeau.  The little dot is the pumpkin.  This cannon fires pumpkins!

2. I heard Gloria Steinem speak at a small opening at the Prichard Art Gallery.  That is her on the right in the picture in the orange sweater.  She is not a woman of immense stature, but is truly a larger than life individual.  It was incredible to hear her speak and to watch women who had idolized Ms. Steinem finally meet her in person... there were tears in many cases.  She was very patient and had genuine conversations with each person.

 3. I took a group of students and one colleague to Los Angeles for 5 days of factory tours, shopping, and a textile show.  We spend some time (and money) at Mood Fabrics too.  I'll post pictures of the fabric haul in another post.

Sweater factory.... these are the machines that knit the panels (fronts, backs, sleeves, etc):

Psst.... these sweaters are 100% cashmere!... and they are for The Row!

It's always good to take time out to check out the local antique/junk malls.  My dear friend, Ilena, and I absolutely enjoy doing this and found this all-in-one cocktail device.  It comes with a padlock too so you can lock down your rye, bourbon, and scotch.

Pondering going back and getting this.

Wow... has it been quiet in here

Time seems to move so quickly!  I'm back at the university this fall doing both teaching and grad school.  I have nothing creative to post at this time... or at least nothing that I have pictures of.

The mulch that I spread this summer at my parent's farm did not work out.  In fact, it sort of stunted some plants.  We won't be buying that again.

However, if you are looking for the BEST NACHOS EVER try these:

They can be found at the Brew Pub in Moscow, ID.  They make their own chili and chips.  The quality is off the charts.

The Guild

I am a HUGE fan the The Guild, Felicia Day, Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Firefly, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, any and all science fiction, gaming, cosplay et al.

Felicia Day is amazingly talented as well as being geek-dorable.  This is the ultimate geek anthem:




As a non-cool school kid, I totally identify.

I have been doing a lot of video embedding in an online class site that I am creating.. so I thought I would put some of those talents to use over here.

Here is another Guild video... Bollywood style!!

Resting...

I am currently recovering from some minor surgery which wrecks my productivity.  I can't lift anything over 5 pounds which apparently is most of the things I own... or most of the projects I like to undertake.  No wild cleaning happening this week.  I need to photograph some of my sewing projects, but that will have to wait.  In the meantime, here is a poem that my father wrote about the yellow roses on the farm.

YELLOW ROSES

Andy Maxwell took Ada Wahl to be his winsome bride

Just two miles west of Johnson is where they did abide.

Where they lived remain the roses, abundant as can be.

They bloom for weeks in early summer, a delightful thing to see.

Dorothy brought home some roses that fire or spray might kill.

She set them ‘round the windmill tower, also up on the hill.

Sherm’s sister Ada gave the roses for his and Mary’s wedding day.

They were planted at the “Swan Place”, when spring had come to stay.

They live in soil that’s deep and rich, or thin and bare with clay.

They’ve a scent like far-off lemon pie to sweeten up your day.

Pale and delicate yellow blossoms, if cut don’t last an hour,

Replenished and abundant, when left within their bower.

Refuge for the birds and bunnies, a retreat from their play

With tangled stems all rife with thorns, to keep the hawks at bay.

When I see yellow roses blooming, ‘neath the azure summer sky,

I dream of Great Aunt Ada:  I long for lemon-custard pie!

They sway in the breezes and fill the air with sweet perfume.

They prove that loving beauty lasts, when yellow roses bloom.

         D. Wahl                                                                                                                June 14, 2011

All of the names in the poem are family members past and present.  The roses have been in my family for several generations.  And seeing how well they are doing and how abundant they are, there will be around for a long time to come.

PS... I've been playing with my blog layout.   I think it's time to return to a pretty header.

Whew!

I have returned home to Portland!... and a lot has happened since my last post.  I finished mulching the garden.  The yellow roses bloomed... see below

This fat bumble bee was actually taking a nap.

I went to Farm Chicks in Spokane...

 Me trying on a lovely mongolian sheep hat and car coat... I passed on this one.

Finished teaching my two classes, cleaned up the rooms, and posted grades... YAY!

We took the kids to Yellowstone Park for a week while our dog, Irving, vacationed at the farm with Nana.  When we are at the farm, he is Nana's (my mom's) dog.  He follows her around and lays by her feet in the kitchen.  Sometimes food items fall on the floor.

The day after we returned from Yellowstone, I cut down one batch of the yellow roses.  They were creeping out into the yard. 

Then after all that fun, I cleaned out a small barn.  A pack rat had moved in.  A family of pack rats actually.  Possibly two generations of pack rats.  There were 8 total.  I caught 7 on the first day (6 in my leather gloved hands), and one more straggler the next day.  I don't have any pictures of the extravaganza, but I think my spouse does.  I will see what I can dig up.  I know there is video. 

I'm almost caught up with housework.  The weeds grew like crazy while I was gone, but I'm making myself do a little at a time so it is not so overwhelming.  Which leaves more time for sewing!  Elsie and I saw this free blouse pattern on Burdastyle yesterday and whipped it up.

Mulching

Mom wants things as low maintenance as possible.  It is time to seriously apply mulch to any exposed dirt.  Last summer my sister and I cleaned out, tilled, purchased plants, and installed plants into this flower bed....

The plants are now well established.  The above picture was taken last week.  Right before I installed 1000 pounds of mulch.

Lovely!  And the dark mulch shows off the plants really well.

Next up was the rose and peony bed in the garden.  I installed another 1000 pounds on Sunday.

The pink tree peony is very happy with the change and is blooming vigorously.

I have now installed 1 ton of mulch total (it's actually compost, but we are using it as mulch) and still have at least 1 ton to go to cover most of the vegetable garden and any other exposed dirt areas.  I am also collecting all the grass clippings and mulching all the pathways in the garden.  The paths are now very quiet when you walk through them.... very zen and meditative.  Maybe I should lay out the grass paths in a labyrinth!  and then we could walk the labyrinth (with coffee in hand) to meditate and solve our problems.

I love the one in the Chartres Cathedral.

Since this would take up most of the planting space in the garden, I don't think Mom would go for it.