New Studio in the Works

January 2007, this cute little shed will be built in my back yard and I'll be melting glass again! Can't WAIT.

Santa Came

We found this saved to the computer when we woke up. Santa must have hit "print screen" when he stopped in. Or something. We tracked him all around the world. Most amazing was his barrel role over Germany.



Luke woke us up at 6:40 AM. "Mom, Mom! Santa Came! And GUESS WHAT!!! He did NOT bring me coal!!!!"

Here he is, several hours later, with one of his favorite gifts from Santa, plus a necklace of fairy dust around his neck and his laser pet toy hanging from his pocket:

Mistletoe

Luke: "Mom, what's this?"

Me: "It's mistletoe."

Luke: "Oh. What is it?"

Me: "A plant."

Luke: "Oh. But what is it FOR?"

Me: "Kissing people."

Luke: "Hu?"

Me: "You hang it up and then if anyone gets caught standing under it, you get to kiss them. It's an old tradition."

Luke: "Hu. I need some!"

Me: "Why? Who do you want to kiss you?"

Luke: "No one. Well... maybe a flower."

Me: "A Lilly Flower?"

Luke: "Maybe.... yeah...."


Luke and Lilly:

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a fun and magical holiday!

Some New Things

Some are gifts, some are not...

Decking the Halls

More here: http://cottage-by-the-sea.blogspot.com

Strange Place

My grandfather passed away and I painted this odd painting. It's really big, I don't know maybe 3 feet tall.

Oh the wind...

...and the rain... it's coming down sideways. Luke asked me to take him to the beach to see if it was flooding. It wasn't, but the waves were flowing in reverse and sideways. The seaguls, the ones in the air anyway, were also flying in reverse or sideways. Or both. Some crazy girls were twirling on the beach in the rain and the wind; they seemed pretty happy.

...on a warmer note, I enjoyed my first peppermint mocha of the season today. It was delish. Almost makes me want to hang some garland and lights up. Almost.

The Art Auction Last Night

It was really FUN! I didn't end up donating that big necklace because my neighbor, who is the marketing manager at the hotel where the show was, thought maybe it was too extravagant for this event and so I ended up donating 4 other pieces in it's place and wearing the big necklace instead. All my pieces went quickly, which was nice to see, and next year I'll have a better idea what to donate. We bid on, and won, a week long workshop for Luke at Gage Acaadamy of Art. I'm a bit jealous on that one. And then we won the raffle and got two free nights, dinner, parking, cocktails and breakfast at the hotel!!

So I'm going to put the necklace (lucky necklace!) on my site for sale after all. Wish me luck with it, I don't know how I'm going to find the right buyer for it, but let's hope the universe has some plans and will line that up.

I also went through and lowered some of the prices on some pieces that have not moved very quickly... trying to move some things along to make room for some new work.

Have a great Friday everyone :)
Pam

Another B.I.G. Neck Piece

Voting Day

No no, not another voice telling you to go vote. Just a cute little story to share.

Last night we had the little girl next door over for dinner. Somehow the topic of today being voting day came up and someone said to her that someday she could run for president if she wanted to. Her eyes got HUGE at this new concept. Luke then said to her "Yeah, and if you were president, everyone would have to listen to you and do what you told them to." Her eyes got even BIGGER and I swear, she made a noise that sounded like Homer Simpson thinking about donuts. It was really fun to see how much she like that idea. Funny to see a 5 year old little girl practically drooling over how much power she could have.

Here's to the day when our little girls can and will run for and become president.

And here is to Kesia, the SuperMutt:

Mushroom Flower

A Slightly Better Shot

It still does not do it justice. I wish I could get a shot that really captured it the way it IS.

Auction Piece

I just finished this and I'm so excited about it. It's SO beautiful! I'm donating it to the 3rd Annual Art of Hospitality Silent Auction and Art Show. The event is next Thursday at the Mayflower Park Hotel on 4th and Olive Way in Seattle, 4-8pm. Proceeds benefit John Muir Elementarry School's Arts Program.

The neckpiece is made of my own handmade lampwork beads, pearls, garnets, turquoise and misc. glass. The pendant and toggle clasp are both handcrafted in sterling silver by the Karen Hill Tribe.



I'll try to get a better photo tomorrow when there is more light. Thanks for looking!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween in the new 'hood is GREAT. I'm happy. Hope yours was good too!

There.

I made something. It's been a Very Long Time since that has happened. Turquoise and wood, with a sterling toggle.

Boo!

The neighborhood kids are having a great time "Boo-ing" each other. I don't know where it started, but you get Boo-ed after dark. At our house it came with a loud banging on the door (our doorbell is broken) and then a panic by the dogs. When we opened the door, no one was there... but there was a package with a poem about getting boo-ed and a bag of candy and a boo sign to put on the door to show the world we'd been boo-ed. Luke enjoyed it a lot. So much so that he re-boo-ed the neighbors and was re-boo-ed too. It's nice living in a neighborhood where you get boo-ed.

Six

Six years with this darling boy of mine. He was spoiled royally today, and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Two ponies trailing around through the magic garden, taking the kids for a thrilling jump up and over the little hill between the holly and the ivy. Then a cowboy cookout with the new firepit. Boys playing Power Rangers under the fir canopy, and more climbing the old magnolia.

I think it might just have been the most perfect day. Certainly a perfect birthday.

Run Luke Run

School jog-a-thon. Once again Luke exceeded expectations and I owe a ton of mula due to his many, many, many laps. Go Luke!

Bye Bye Periwinkle

I went back to exploring yellows and ended up with a golden wheat/camel color. I love it and I think this is IT. Now to move on to something new. Jewelry perhaps??? Who knows.

New Home

I started a cottage blog to house all my remodel/decoration drama and lighten things up over here. Please visit if you are into it!

The Fruits of My Labor

I should be clear here, no labor was put forth by me. In fact, until a couple of weeks ago, I didn't even realize I had fruit growing on my trees. Then again, if I had put a little effort into it, there might be more than 5-ish pears. The plums are plentiful and delicious though.





This pink beauty looks to be about the last surprise of the year - but I could be wrong, there are still a couple of months left before it will have been a full year of watching this Magic Garden of mine.

The Tooth Fairy is Coming Tonight!

Decorator Pam

I found a swatch of this at the fabric store today and fell in love. Of course it says it's discontinued - which is bad and good. Bad because they don't have more of it, good because I got to buy the swatch for $1.99 and it's big enough to make a pillow with. Good too, because with the info on the tag, I was able to find it online and it turns out it's Susan Sargent. But bad in the end, because that means I'll have to pay full price instead of hitting a sale at the fabric store.


To get a better idea of it, it's this, only in blues and teals (this is also nice and would go with the walls in a less matching, more eclectic, brighter, more peppy way, which I found online for half the price of the first one, and would let me bring in some lime green and pink and cranberry, which would be fun too.):



I'm thinking for curtains. In my lavender blue living room. I showed it to Luke and he jumped up and down and said I'd found the perfect one. He was so excited about it. Do you think we are right? Or would it be better to get something more solid that blends into the walls? I really have no clue, I'm rambling... I'm NOT a decorator. Perhaps I should hire one? Luke after all would love for me to hang beaded or sequined or slivery mirrored curtains up - anything that sparkles or has lots of color. My eclectic decorating taste is turning Swedish on me... which is a little surprising. I wonder, is it because it's in my blood, or does the house have a Swedish soul under all these historic greens and golds it's been painted with? Do I sound like I've had too much coffee today???

News Flash!

This is BIG. I found a new coffee shop that I like BETTER than Starbucks. Seriously, not even just-as-good... but, BETTER! Caffe Ladro. Ten locations in the Seattle area and one right down the street from my house. They only serve 100% fair trade, organic, shade grown coffee - and it's delicious. Thanks to my friend Jenny for the heads up!

Life is Good, Exhausting, but Good.

What a long, long week last week was. We got the water in. Well, Frank got it in. I am so proud of him. It took him about 5 times longer than he expected, but it was done perfectly - no leaks or oooop's when he turned the water back on. It's clean, fresh, clear and drinkable now. So exciting, these little things!

And then the dishwasher arrived and not only is it super beautiful, it works amazingly well. Here is a photo - doesn't my kitchen look just like the one on the ASKO website I posted awhile ago? Ok, I know, not if you compare them side by side, but close enough. Notice the new faucet Frank installed. It wasn't our first choice, but then the first choice stuck way up higher than the windowsill and took up the whole kitchen. This one works and looks just fine, and fits my tiny kitchen perfectly.



I also got a huge web and print job done - it's the hardest I've "worked" in a very long time. I'm still fried from it, and there's a holiday catalog print job coming next week. Supposedly it's only half the size of the one I just did, so maybe it will only take me 3 days... or so. I hope. There was a reason I quit doing web work... this has been a reminder, and I don't plan on doing too much more of it.

Besides, there are other things I want to do - I've got so many plans now that Luke is in school. Which he loves loves loves, by the way. He adores his teacher, he has a girlfriend, he's memorized his personal pin number so he can have hot lunch, he's learning his letters, and for the first time, is showing a real interest in learning to read (til now he only wanted to do math and numbers). He bounces out of bed each morning excited to get the day started. This is the best thing for him. And me. I know I say it each time he reaches a new stage of growth and independence, but I'm really loving where he's at right now. Going-on-six-years-old is good.

So, back to my plans - which have been on hold for years and years, and if I wasn't so exhausted from the last week, I'd be jumping on right now, with a vengeance. I have house and art painting to do. I have glass to melt and jewelry to make and inventory to collect so I can apply to the artist's co-op down the street I'm interested in joining. I have shopping to do and curtains and pillows to make, and an exercise routine to establish. I've got three bathrooms to tile as soon as Frank gets the prep work done there and Luke's bathroom to paint. And! Get this! There is hardwood under the Luke's bathroom tiles and under his bedroom carpet! I might pull those up and refinish those floors even! So much to do, fun stuff too.

But right now, I've got to clean house and organize the piles of papers Luke's school is generating and go through the past week's mail. And vote - I think I saw that in the mail. And... get this - take a nap. I can do that now!!! Maybe that will be my first order of business now that Luke is in school - catch up on 6 + years of lost sleep. Or just the past week's losses. Oh, where to start... either another coffee or that nap, I guess, because that's all I'm good for right now. But things are looking up. It's all good.

When it rains, it....

Well, it's not really pouring. It is drizzling and I'm happy about that, but the fact of the matter is that it's pretty dry. Especially inside the house where all the running water is turned off and the switch-over to the new pipes is taking a bit more time than expected. It was supposed to take 4 hours. I expected 8 and so was not surprised when 12 hours later, Frank called it a day, saying he only had about 2 more hours of work left. It was a good place to leave it and get a night's sleep.

Except Luke woke us up at 3:40 AM crying "Mom.... Mom! Mom, I don't feeeeeeeeel good". And then proceeded to get sick. In the house with no running water. We've managed and made it ok so far, the worst of the sick part seems over and he's on the couch with his required ginger ale and saltines. He's so cute - first words out of his mouth were "I don't think I'm going to do school lunch for awhile" and then "I always get sick this time of year" and "I'm going to go lay on the couch and I need my throw-up bowl and some ginger ale and those crackers I like when I'm sick, Mom." "And can you put on a movie please?" He's got the routine down pat from that first year of preschool where he picked up every bug possible and was sick every week. A boy who knows what to do when he's sick. The only twist this time was no running water. It worked out surprisingly ok, especially since we had tons of back up water stored up in the tub for flushing and stuff. Good idea, Frank. (This is my life - isn't it crazy?)

So after a bit we all fell asleep again and I actually got to sleep in til 9:00 AM. A first in oh, at least 6.5 years. It's really been that long. Too bad it wasn't just sleeping in after a full night's sleep hu? And here it is 12:30 PM and still no water... Frank's running around to the hardware store looking for the last plumbing thingys he needs. It will be up by dinner time I think. If not, we might just check into a hotel for the night. But I don't think so, I still have faith it will all go smoothly here on out. If he ever gets back from Home Depot that is.

Luke is a Kindergartener!

We just dropped him off - he was a little nervous and a little excited - he's funny, he gets quietly wound tight when he's like this - holding it all in, staying in control, acting like he's 25 instead of 5. He'll be just fine, I know it. When we left, he was picking out some crayons to color with. Frank, on the other hand, was funny. "We did it! I can't believe it - our baby is in kindergarten. I still remember when he was a baby and he cried for the first time - remember?" and on and on he went. I guess he wasn't there for the past two first days of (pre)school, so this is a first for him. I'm glad he got to do it with us this time.

More Paint and Some Plumbing Too

I repainted the blue - it was too.... shiny. And too bright. I thought I was toning it down to a greyer blue but you probably will think I didn't paint over it at all. I did though, I promise. It *is* better. Benjamin Moore Lavender Blue #1438. Now I need drapes. And new furniture. And a ladder that will reach the ceiling so I can get rid of the rest of the taupe.





This is the weekend new water pipes are supposed to go in. Of course, as seems to happen every time, there is a hold up of some sort. This time around, it's a leaky sink in the only bathroom left working in the house. Frank has been working on it all night and has run to Home Debit twice now but it's still not done, and probably won't be tonight since the store is closed now and he needs to make yet another run. He feels really bad, but I told him it was no biggie, at least we have a kitchen sink, right? And the strangest thing? I really don't care. I'm beyond caring about having a stupid bathroom sink. Who needs such a thing? I've been living for months without a dishwasher. Without two of my three bathrooms, without ice or drinkable water... without hot water for my clothes washer... who needs a bathroom sink? Seriously, it's over rated. (I could just about cry, but I won't let Frank see it.)

I've been Painting

The house, not canvases. It was a huge mess... here's an idea of what was going on:

First the yellow that was so very wrong:



Then the crazy spots everywhere:



So then I settled on the blue.





And here it is - done. Or... almost done - still have those triangles up by the roof to paint... and I might colorwash/glaze over it.