Blocking it out

Yesterday Oliver took the day off from work and we:
cleaned up after Sunday night's wonderful dinner party,
constructed and hung two lovely gates,
weeded much of the garden,
carefully watered new plants,
ate strawberries for every meal (straight from the back patch),
harvested our first raspberries,
visited with friends,
brought in our summer clothes from storage,
and bricked up a hole in the side of the house where a broken air conditioning unit used to be.

And every chore was interlaced with conversations about a new vision of our family's future. What do we want?
What do we not want?
Where do we need to build walls and where do we knock them down?
Today we continue in "vision mode". I'm not sure what the future will bring, we are usually too busy to give it much thought. But right now the future seems like a clean slate ready for drafting new plans and reshaping old dreams.

signed,
in love with the colors of the bricks but yes, we will paint over them...

P.S. I'm so proud and inspired by Susan Krueger Barber for having a painting acquired by a very important art collector!! (Ask her about it when you see her!)

It's called...

...the book nook but really it's the rug braiding, and yarn untangeling nook.
and it's more carved out short space. we've almost programmed ourselves to not hit our heads when standing up!

Where there was Nothing...

...there's now a sewing nook!
This space was carved from the dark and dreary attic. The original builders must have been TALL and thought that the space was unusable? (I love being shortish.)
Yes, that's a small pile of my hair on the desk. I now have very short hair. (Remember, short=good.)These built in shelves are two feet deep. I still need to baptize and annoint, I mean organize my lovely sewing nook.
signed,
fivefootfiveandlovingit

Behold...

... the kitchen construction wrap-up!

The old kitchen used to be vintage pink linoleum and after all the humidity from canning this past fall it was a nasty peeling moldy mess in need of urgent attention.

The remodel could have been a money pit. But the counters are made out of salvaged wood from our garage floor and the subway tiles were FREE leftovers (thanks Samie!) We also replaced all of the plumbing. It was corroded. And did I mention all of the mold? O'lover says I should write this post with the authority of someone who has been through hell and back. I wouldn't want to pretend there weren't fiery flames of hardship. Do you believe me? Can you relate? (sigh)
The counters are coated with non-toxic Sutherland Welles bartop tung oil finish. They're super durable and BEG to be touched, all-in-all a screaming success.

state of the household

the crescendo of suspense. holy moses! part the curtains on the construction already, right?
soon.

meanwhile everyone is still being watered and fed. the ladies are happy and warm in the greenhouse. in fact, i'm not sure they know its winter. bridget was trying to escape between my legs when i took this pic.


also, it's sinking in that i need more carpentry skillz. i keep coming to stopping points until oliver can coach me over the phone or until he comes home and takes over.

it's also sinking in that we have a new prez.

reposted from feb 7, 2008

it turns out i'm

a respecter of persons
AND,
even worse,
a stalker.

this is right before michelle obama shakes my hand.

after her inspiring speech in slc last monday.

her hand is very soft and thin.
my hand was clammy and in awe.
while in chicago last november i visited THEIR house. on their street there's an LDS chapel, then my friend kimmy's house, then a couple houses, then my favorite presidential candidate's house, then a jewish synagogue.

signed,
yes there were secret service agents watching me take this pic.

the snow has piled up outside

and plaster dust has been falling inside.


i'm taking a tiny break from construction and ordering a year's supply of high quality heirloom seeds from the company of sound reputation.

pondering how to plant our bit of earth...

we're loyal to the delicious constellations of the "moon & stars" watermelons

and there are so many new-to-us plants to try!

such as this lakota sioux winter squash.

what will you be planting this spring?

Shiva and Jim Morrison are...

...in the house! sort of.

"Shiva" (the destroyer) is what one calls oneself when wielding
a mighty hammer with this result:

Jim Morrison's "break on through to the other side" is what one sings while hammering.

the cottage has been off limits to innocent visitors as we've spent our stay-cation doing our annual holiday de/construction.

result pix are coming up soon.

Happy New Year Y'all!

may 2009 bring ever more deLIGHT.

besos,
quel

sustainable ginger bread houses

The New York Times wrote an article about green-inspired gingerbread houses.

Such as this one:

And this one:
So clever and timely with their windmills and solar panels!

But, like a proud mum, i'm partial to the passive solar homestead i designed for Provo's candy windows.
with a raised bed winter garden, notice the coldframe.
dear reader, beware the effects of working with stale candy nonstop for a full week-- my mind is recreating everything i see into candy. it's like a trippy video game that doesn't stop when you close your eyes.

xo,
quel

when we bought our pioneer house we thought the first thing we'd do was paint the exterior. we collected every color sample from home depot, lowe's, kwall's, jones paint and glass.

and then we bought this book.
and this book.
and this one.
and...
yup.
even after road trips to collect grasses and take pix of the mountains in certain light, and jenny n, (our neighborhood's resident interior designer) driving me all over trying to trigger a "YES!" and ollie and i taking pics in the avenues and sugarhouse...

our house is still this color.i call it lime sherbet.

A lovely 97 year old woman named Florence Curtis lived here before us. She was a bridge player, on the beautification committee for downtown provo, her birthday was the same day as our anniversary, she went skydiving when she was in her eighties. her husband passed away in this house. and seven years ago when "paint your heart out" offered to paint her house she refused to let anyone select a new color.

it has always been the same shade.

and bless Florence, it might always remain. the truth is it's grown on me.

anyone need to borrow some paint books??

Our homestead includes a dungeon-like basement which has too long been ignored. The immediate future calls for an overhaul. We're thinking "5 star root cellar". But what do nice root cellars even look like? How can we make it inviting... so we don't just open the hatch, throw our food down there, and close the hatch? (like we have been.)
This is what turned up on an idea gathering google image search...I love repurposed school buses and i absolutely LOVE doing things i never thought i would do- like burying a large vehicle for what could be another residence in our eco-village...LET'S DO IT!

i'm kidding.

no, but really, if anyone has some good ideas for root cellars, please share.

The Beautiful Georgiana in Hagrid's LapThis pic was taken from our upstairs window.

Our tree Hagrid received his name because he's the hospitable host to ALL creatures:

humans, alley cats, loudly chirping birdies,

and EVEN rabid raccoons and swarms of mosquitoes.

Hagrid is just begging to be climbed and provides easy entrance to our house for many of the above friend and foe.

We're told that Hagrid lost his crown and took out the neighbor's fence in the famous microburst of 1994. He's a bit hollow now but WOW if he doesn't singlehandedly make us feel like we have a forest in our back yard.

As promised, here's the after pic of our "Isis" colored dining room!

Now the dining room is cluttered with our dining room and living room furniture as we're prepping for the other half of the paint job.

Great beams of light can be seen at the end of the tunnel!

Soon we'll be enjoying more outings. It's been hard to leave the house or even go to our art studios when there are so many projects underway.

SATURDAY! hooRAY!
It's been going something like this:
We went to SLC to the farmer's market. We were late with our payment for our CSA share from Zoe's Garden so we had to go to their market booth. Being part of the CSA means we get fresh organic produce all season long while supporting a local farmer and NOT doing dumb stuff to the planet (like all of that stinky pollution from transporting food an average of 1500 miles) or to me (like eating pesticides). We pick up our food every Monday at Pioneer Park in Provo. Mondays are my new favorite days!! Our food changes every pick-up according to what's ripe at the farm but looks something like this:Then we went to the Wasatch Gardensto join the downtown salt lake backyard chicken coop tour. BUT THEY WERE GONE. Ahwell, next year.
But across the street i spied a beautiful house.
And who came out the front door? None other than the gorgeous newly engaged Suzanne Heaton! I heart Suzanne.

She's house sitting for an artist couple and asked if we wanted a tour. YES!! (if it's no trouble). She also offered us tiny pieces of gum (trident) suzanne is nice that way.


me gustan esos colores...
and the his/her studio complex in the back.

then we went to sugarhouse to the green building supply center. one of Olie's favorite places. he could talk to the lady owner for ...well, he has talked to her for HOURS. Their business is going super well. they're expanding to the two storefronts next door.

We bought clay paint..."Isis" for our living room and "Curry" for the dining room.

the paint is washable, rich, vibrant, ancient mayan pigments, hand-crafted quality, zero VOCs (volatile organic compounds), and on and on...they had me at ancient mayan. J/K they had me at "feel the texture of this paint sample." oh boy.

Before pic of dining room (with Robyn Gumaelius sculpture in the corner):
Stay tuned Mama (one of the two people i told about grittypretty) for the results of my mucky clay ventures!!! YAY for CLAY!

p.s. we had ikea icecream cones on the way home. so gross and disaapointing! they have like NO FAT. i gave mine to Farmer (or as hannah says, 'farmie"). he licked it right up (and dribbled all over the back seat. i gave my doggie sugar, what kinda ma' am i?)