taupe, smokey taupe, carriage ride, neat sail...

these are all names given to shades of color of paint. matte, flat, eggshell, luxe, semi-gloss, latex...names of finishes. i am painting today! just one big wall in the living room. i might do the hall tomorrow. (i'd do more of the living room but i can't move the piano by myself)
i've decided to blog my efforts. i'll keep the text brief (so that i can get to the painting), but post some pix. first off, the foundation of all good work: breakfast!

note the Larrupin' sauce. this is a loving tribute to the Tom/Onion from Los Bagels in Arcata. *pine*
for the record: the book is PG Wodehouse's "Life With Jeeves", coffee from Stumptown roasters, Portland OR.

last night i moved the furniture and taped off the moldings. the light isn't that good at night in this room so i was wearing a head lamp while taping. there is an inverse relationship between the rad usefulness of the head lamp and its ability to make one look like a dork. NO REGRETS!

more in a few..
here we go! i started with the trim. remembered to turn off the pilot on the heater (why has that been on all summer?)
i was going to do 2 coats of trim, then do the walls, but time is of the essence so having completed the trim, i'm just going to launch into the first coat on the wall.

these pix are grey b/c we have an overcast sky today (HUZZAH!), but the color looks terrific! can't wait to get the first full coat on. and so: to it!

trim painting soundtrack: Roxy Music: "Siren" followed by Preservation Hall Jazz Band: "Preservation"
next up: Helio Sequence: "Keep Your Eyes Ahead"
now drinking: mineral water. refreshing!

i had a special request from my ms. cp for a pic of me in the headlamp. please keep in mind this is a simulated action shot, so the light in the room is quite bright. :)
COAT ONE APPLIED! behold:
this pic has a yellow cast to it. :\ and b/c all the trim is covered with masking tape, you can't see the nice contrast between the new paint and the white trim.
here is the rest of the wall, continuing to the left:

i don't want to jinx myself, but so far i haven't walked in any wet paint spills, or gotten paint on too many things that i hadn't intended to paint (my legs, for example).

i've got another 3 hours to let this dry. on my list: get in a walk and some quality iced joe. and maybe some tacos. what's not to love about tacos?

days in the neighborhood

i took this pic surreptitiously from my car. it was meant to capture an actor/comedian, of whom i am a huge fan, who happened to be standing on the opposite corner. i felt like an ass taking the pic, and was kind of relieved that it turned out i was holding the phone so low that he was obscured by the car at the light. no real story here, i just thought it would be a funny pic for the page. intersection of note: Commonwealth @ Los Feliz Blvd.

in an effort to take advantage of time off this summer, i've been doing a lot of sewing and knitting. i've got a still-unfinished dress draped across my sewing machine. i have to move the pieces every time i want to use the machine. i put in some time on it last week: finally got the collar in. next up: easing and shaping the sleeve caps. not a ton of work, really, just tough to get my (summer scattered) mind around it.

last fall i bought a book called "one yard wonders." it's full of projects that require only one yard of fabric. i thought this would be helpful in my plan to use some of the yardage in my closet. many of the pieces are one yard or less, intended when purchased to be used in quilts. so far i've made 3 projects from the book. really two, but i made one twice. :)

here is what i finished this morning: a new ironing board cover:
i LOVE this fabric. i bought it at least 8 years ago while on vacation in Arcata. i bought enough of it to make a dress, but as the years passed and i filled out *cough* i lost my enthusiasm for a dress that might draw comparison to the little cows on the bottles. so, i've been toting YARDS of this for YEARS. i used a little of it when i made some potholders a few years ago.

i used the pattern to make covers for the smaller, tailoring ironing board that i have:
there is a 2nd board for pressing sleeves on the underside of this board. i've got two more small domestic projects like this that i'd like to make: a clothespin apron and a sewing machine cover. as ever, choosing the fabric is that bit that slows the whole process. i vacillate between the cute/kitschy and the pretty. eh.

last month i made a bag for my pal l.'s birthday. this was also in the one yard book. i used light cotton where they recommended a heavier cotton/canvas. i had trouble finding fabric i liked for her in the heavier weight, so in the end went for the pattern i liked best.

it wasn't a complicated pattern. the bits that took the most time were the curved seams. since i used a busy fabric, i didn't stew about whether there were folds in the curves. i had a couple of small ones. (excluding 2 full days of fabric shopping) overall it took about 3 days to make. you could cram it into two, but it would have to be pretty focused. i had a deadline, so worked at a steady clip for the first day, completing the exterior of the bag. i spread the lining and clasp construction over a couple days.
here are some construction pix:
the finished bag exterior:

the lining: the (comically small) pocket pinned in place & the top band with half of the magnetic clasp in place. [this was my first time installing a mag. clasp. it's heavy for such a light weight bag, but otherwise i dig it]

**bonus: you can see the old ironing board cover under the pieces here. it's stained from steam and batik wax: eyesore is the word that comes to mind.
here is the finished bag:
i'm going to make one for myself from some grey wool suiting. (of course i bought the suiting when fab shopping to make this bag.)

i've also been logging some long hours reading and staring off into the blowing palm trees at my favorite cafe patios round town. and knitting. so far: 3 pair of baby booties, and 10 baby clothes hangers. 'tis the season among my friends. in an effort to get some of these knit goods out the door i'm sending the booties and hangers separately.

after a light rain this morning, the sun has broken out. i am heading out for some patio/cappuccino time.

of note:
pre-post lunch: rad salad that included bleu cheese crumbles, eye of the hawk ale
music: m. ward, "post war"-->frightened rabbit, "winter of mixed drinks"
on deck: pedicure

sometimes i dream of willie mays

it's been slow going, but i've revved up my post-card and letter writing mojo and am putting missives into the post again. here are two cards i posted this week.
the title of this post is from a song by the Baseball Project. it's a recollection of being a kid and making the trip to Candlestick Park to see Willie play. i've been on reminiscence overdrive for the last month and this song has been in heavy rotation in the homestead.


further postcards...

i wrote this a couple days ago to my pal, m. in s.f. The pic is of a statue behind the SF Giants' ball park. it's commemorating the SF Pacific Coast League team, the Seals. (damn, but i've got baseball on the brain lately. O! Summer!)

Weds June 30, 2010: the last day of June. Tomorrow begins the torturous countdown to the end of my vacation. alas! This afternoon finds me sitting at a neighborhood cafe, feet up, Americano at hand, writing a few cards & putting some effort in toward my summer reading.
I just had this moment: sitting in breezy shade looking @ blue blue sky, trees & power lines, the door to the cafe was propped open & I could hear Peter Frampton singing, "Show Me the Way." Took me directly to summer 1975--sitting by our backyard pool, listening to KFRC and those big, open, endless summer days. Too many chores as an adult. housekeeping. the minutae of day to day living gets in the way of those wide-open days. well. in the coming month i'm reducing that drek to its bare minimum! Deadlines be damned. oh! i am going to Outside Lands this yr. if yr not in MA that weekend think about coming out w-me! Gordo's! mmj! what could be better?


#2: written to my long ago san jo roommate, mel. some of the things i wrote to her are similar to the card #1. mel & i were roommates when we both worked at tower video. when i moved to humboldt, we corresponded for awhile. eventually we lost touch. thru the tendrils o' f/b we were recently reunited.

the day finds me sitting on a patio in a residential part of Echo Park. For some reason this summer i've been particularly reflexive-thining about summers past. I suppose it's b/c I have so many strong memories of summer from my childhood. The result is that i'm listening to a mix of songs from 1974 on my headphones and staring off into the trees & power lines. ("Rock the Boat" -> "Bennie & the Jets." heady stuff :) )I'm reading Michael Chabon's "Mysteries of Pittsburgh" for probably the 4th time. it's set during the summer. the summer after the narrator finishes college. I love this book. I know if I'd read it when i was younger i'd love it, but from a very different perspective. I'm an absolute fan girl for m. chabon.
I've been doing quite a lot of sewing & knitting: baby shoes by the gross. I've got a rad dress that's been on the back burner for months. it's a 1950's style shirt dress made in fabric decorated with red, yellow & green tractors. My no-pressure goal is to have it finished in July. I have 5 yds of Elvis fabric that i want to use to make another, but FIRST THINGS FIRST!
While i was in portland i got to see Ron & Dave (i can't remember if you knew dave...) it was terrific. Really something to be w-these guys who knew me @ 19. After so long Just one of th things that put me in that reflexive place. Whew. Since getting home its been on odd mis of pure-slack & high drama. Me, i'm more about the slack. :)
ps. attended 25th anniversary of Pee-Wee's Big Adv. last sunday. FANTASTIC fun! "Pee-Wee, listen to reason!"