turquoise and reupholstering and too many books

i had a kitchen table that i got for 149 dollars .... it came with four chairs ... in the early 90s .... it was my new husband's and my first big purchase for our tiny new house ... we eventually bought two more chairs to go with it ..... so it was a seat six table ... fast forward to twins .... and i had countless art projects with them on that table ... the finish starting rubbing away ... the red dot paint didn't come all the way off even with bleach .... and there was glitter ground into the no-finish-left grain .... and it was our kitchen table up to a few weeks ago .... we ate off it in the brown house ... and considered not bringing it back into our new reno house ... it was such a wreck of a table .... but ... i needed a table for my library .... so ... i gave it to painter wendy and she worked her magic .... she refinished the top in a dark walnut ... and she put the bottom-used-to-be-white-part and put it in her spray booth ... and sprayed on a lovely dark turquoise ... and now .... my sad sack, old, cheap table is one of my favorite pieces of furniture in the house ... it is in my library (really what most people would call their formal living room ... but since i'm not formal ... and little living happens in living rooms ... we call it the library ..... )so ... it's the table in the library ... near our wall of books ... surrounded by the chairs that used to be my parents' dining room chairs ...well... and mine too, for that matter .... we had them as hand me down dining chairs until we upgraded to a different set of hand me down chairs ... from mr.e.beck.artist's grandmother .... 

so ... boy.beck.artist and i spent a day reupholstering the seats .. six library chairs .. and six dining room chairs .... it took longer than we wanted ... largely because ancient screw are hard to remove ... and hard to put back in .....

here's the front hall mid project .... with a glimpse of the turquoiseyloveliness table .....

and here's a close up of one of the fabrics ... i chose two for the library ... 

and here's the chair, the table, a different fabric , and some shelf ...

and the final shot .... a like new library .... my pal dana helped me pack and unpack a zillion and three boxes ... and she indulged my peculiarities and helped me alphabetize my library ... i'm not compulsive about much ... just the important stuff ... like good books ....

as i unpacked and alphabetized i found tons of books that i need to reread .... 

do you reread books? 

do you upholster your own stuff? 

do you like painted furniture? 

do you know how tired i am? 

i sold a pear painting this week .... it was mostly the color of that table there .... good karma ...

eye rolling, orange chairs, and edamame

so... here you have it ... a peep at my house ... at dinner time .... i usually try to have dinner ready at 6.30 .... at 6.15ish? the doorbell rang ... it was groovy painter wendy delivering my painted furniture ..... all six of us ran to the door (me, he, three and the dog) .... the chairs! the chairs! she delivered the chairs! the carrots, grapes, strawberries, edamame and broccoli were already on the table .... the ribs, the potatoes and the asparagus were still being warm in the kitchen .... 
we took the delivery of ten chairs, one turquoise table (another blog post), and and orange desk (yet another blog post) .... and then sat down to dinner .... my children were ravenous but i said WAIT, WAIT ... let's appreciate the chairs ..... they make me so happy i could cry (i was being melodramatic on purpose ...no teariness at all, actually) .... "they make me so happy i could cry" ....and i got FOUR sets of simultaneous eye rolls .... a few groans ... and a pass the barbq sauce ... 

and above ... a post dinner shot .... pretty groovy, huh?

17 hours and counting down ....

here's my nice story for the day .... my groovy contractor was on the other side of town doing not e.beck.artist related work ... and he saw these chairs .... he thought to himself .. WOW, those chairs look like the perfect match to the house i'm working on for the cutest, happiest client ever ( ok .... delusional writing ... he probably didn't think just exactly that ) ... so he said, hey, those chairs would be perfect in a house i'm working on ... painter wendy said, oh, those

 are for e.beck.artist, i colored them up in all their grooviness for her in my magical painting contraption.... tra la la ....(more delusional writing, that's how i talk, she probably does not... particularly the tra la la bit... ok, she probably doesn't call her painting booth a magical painting contraption ... but she should) ... and cute contractor said, HEY, that's my client that i thought those would be perfect for .... so ... he snapped a picture of my chairs that he had just happened upon....and sent a pic to me .... my colorful beautimous chairs (that used to be a lovely ordinary) for around my kitchen table .... a picture to share with you .... keep in mind it's a cell phone pic! and colors are actually a titch brighter!! you know me ....

in 17 hours the movers are coming to my rental house ... grabbing all my stuff ... and toting it back to my old house that is now new again, courtesy of groovy contractor and his 5 trillion other workers..... cross your fingers .... wish me luck ...next time i'll be blogging from my real world of colorful joy ... tra la la ....(i'm choosing to ignore that one wee factor ... hundreds of boxes ... eep ... like i said ... cross your fingers) 

monday's pottery post on tuesday ....

amidst the summer hubbub, i have started a monday evening pottery class .... i brought home this rectangular platter last night ... white clay, slab rolled, melted blue glass beads, clear glaze .... perfect for a row of pears (which i don't have in the house) or a chunk of cheese and some wheat thins (my favorite) .... like most of my pottery, it will probably be gifted ....

this blog post is my brief respite ... ok , not really ... it's really the fine art of procrastination ... i've packed about 10 boxes this morning ... and computer time was my dangling carrot that got me working .... 

happy monday, a day late ... har ... 

going green .....

here's a pic from yesterday's blog .... little.e.beck.artist in the room that was JUST painted green ... on the blog and on my facebook i had lots of guessing .... which room is this ....

little.e.beck.artist is the big clue ... what's she doing with her hands, huh? 
oh! she was covering up the garage door opener .... i now have a very, very green garage ... instead of the dirty beigey off white that it was .....

the door behind her in the distance is actually white .... it's a cellphone pic though, no flash, turned out oddly colored ..... that's actually the door to my studio ....

and here's a shot of the more garagey part of the garage .....

so there you have it ... now every bit of my house has been colorfied .... how many people do you know who have green garages .... or ... how many garages have you seen that are actually colorfully groovy? 

how many of you are waiting impatiently for me to move back into my house and get on with more artsy things? how many of you don't mind me droning on about the house that i will one day get to live in again? 

go ahead ... guess ....

rah! .. let's have a guessing game ... we could say let's have a guessing game about how many days til i move into my house ... my guess is 8 ... a week from tomorrow .. but your guess is as good as mine at this point ... or so it seems ...it's getting to be like waiting for christmas when you are a  little kid .. the closer it gets to the actual day, the longer the days feel .... like even though it is SO soon, it is forever and a day away .... or maybe i'm just immature ... i'll get back to you on that one .... 

so .... the real guessing game of the day? what room JUST got painted today ... i was with a pal yesterday and she listened to my half of the phone call with the painter ... she said, you did NOT just decide the color on the phone? did you? and i did... i changed my mind on a color .... and today ... it was done ... and i saw it ... and i squealed with gleeeee ... back to that immature thing... real grown ups maybe don't squeal as much as i do  .... so ... what room was squeal worthy green painted today? any guesses? 

life with numbers ... or 179 reasons i am tired!

catchy title, huh? 

1: i have been in the rental house of brown-ness for 179 days! .... exhausting .... 

2: over the weekend, i went to bed between 3 and 4 am two nights in a row .... foolish? perhaps ... but when you are with people you ADORE and haven't seen in 26 years, sleep seems like such a waste of good chat time .... yes, i know it is wednesday, but i still feel out of whack from the big weekend .... that might be age rearing its salt and pepper head ... 

3: 3 sets of tennis this morning in 179 degree heat .... so much for ladies just glowing and glistening ... that's just a lie .... 

4: bull nosed tiles, shower doors that open out or slide, clear showers or frosted, towel racks, frigerator handles, track lighting for a gallery wall, where does the disposal button go, did we remember to tell someone to paint the picket fence (don't want to be the cute house with the hideous old shabby fence), why is the fan in THAT room when i ordered it for this room .... and oh no, i like it in THAT room, what will i put in this room.... ad infinitum this one could go on .... in fact, i sent a list to my cute contractor and thought i'd frighten him ... mr.e.beck.artist even said, did you warn him before you sent your demands .... they weren't demands, just interesting observations! .... c.c. (cute contractor) handled it way better than mr.e..... anywho, 10 days til we move back in .... shabby fence or not ....

5: house renovations deserved another bullet point on the list of tired ..... can anyone enlighten me about low voltage track lighting ... or just pick some out for me? one's that don't cost 100s and 100s and 100s of dollars ....

6: there are two 8 year olds baking a cake in my kitchen RIGHT now ... no mom, we don't need your help .... oven is preheated to 350 .... no, we aren't making a mess .....

7: boy.beck.artist and girl.beck.artist are BOTH out of town ... without me .... i forbade them to grow up, and they have not heeded my demands .... 12 is older than i want them to be ...

8: i dream about my house ... the choices i need to make, the choices i have made, the choices i'd like to consider .... 

then, relating to dreams:

secondary bullet 1: can i somehow incorporate this into my home?

secondary bullet 2: if i can't do that, can i at least pimp out my nine year old mini van like this ?

secondary bullet 3: where in my home can i put these?

9: yesterday i spent a couple hours in my studio ... working on a 36 by 36 inch canvas .... so .. maybe that's the beginning of me starting to be me again .... 

any numbers in your life? 

summertime

summer is treating me very well .... watermelon, artichokes, corn, swimming pools, sunscreen, summer showers, movies, games ..... we played swap today ... what's the last game you played? 

this weekend, i am going to my first high school reunion ..... and how old am i? too old to be going to my first high school reunion .... but .... i am not a slacker, skipping reunions until now, instead, this is the first one that my class has had the gumption to get together ...... and it is our 26th!  ....  we had fewer than 40 in the class .... so it is a small gathering at the beach ..... should be a ton of fun ..... 

then? when i return ..... it's the last run up to my moving day .... i'm breathless with anticipation for that! i can't begin to tell you how thrilled i am to leave this brownbrownbrown rental house and move back to my sunshine happy house .... 

i'll have sunshine happy pictures for you next week .... 

sunshine wishes to you and yours ....tell me how summer is treating you .... what's your summer joy? 

pottery bits ....

here are photos (finally) of the two pieces of pottery i picked up this week from the kiln room ... ready to be used ... the top one is gray speck clay (which turns out tan, you see .... it looks gray when it is wet and unfired) .... and then i pressed glass beads into it .... they melted in the bisque fire ... i clear glazed it ... and then the glass melted even more in the final firing ....

then the one below, i love extra much ..... gray speck, slab rolled, textured with strips and stripes ..... transparent green glaze .... not quite square ... and the perfect size for my life ... it could hold a salad or some fruit, cheese and crackers or rolls, chicken wings or cous cous .... just the perfect size ... oh .... piles of cookies will look good too .... 
not sure if i'll keep it for myself or gift it .... 

my pottery quarter has ended .. time to sign up for the next one ... 

tra la la ... 

.....that's what i'm talking about!!

today was my kids' last day of school .... honors assembly ... half day .... pool party ... watermelon .... summer joy began at noon ..... late in the day, i stopped by my real house to get the mail .... and BOOM ... joy, joy, joy, joy .... my house just seems SOOOO close to ready ... oh my! i'm jump for joy ecstatic .... 

here's my kitchen in all its delicious ornageness ......  

..... and ... another shot ....where the range goes ....and a glimpse of counters that were installed today .....

...and a close up of the counter, the groovy windowsill counter, the orange wall .... bliss! .... i know these aren't that exciting for YOU ... and i don't know if i have the words to tell you just how happy i am about all this .... eek!
and here's a shot of the deck .... still needs railings .... but it was air yesterday ... at least today there's something to take a pic of ! 

oh .... it needs a bit more than railings ..... that first step out the door is a dooooozy ....and off the deck is my dumpster ... and, though it's been handy, i'm not keeping it ..... it was just emptied ... it's usually overflowing .....and here's the money shot ... the happy shot ... the color joy .... from where i'm standing in the kitchen, you can see orange kitchen walls, yellow family room walls, and green sunroom walls .... colorcolorcolorcolor ..... tra la la .....

this is an artist's blog ... and i mean to write about my paintings and collage and such .... but today, the art form i'm blogging is dance ..... the happy dance! .... 

what have you done the happy dance for lately? 

another wednesday .....

i'm doing well these days to blog once a week!! but the end is in sight ... i'll be back to my real house, my art studio, and real life in just a couple weeks! hooray ... my home renovation is almost done .... i met with the contractor today and talked about floors and counters and paint ... i talked to a knob guy and picked out my door nobs ..... i went to my last pottery class of the quarter ...... 

let's start there .... i went to pottery ... i picked up three pieces ... two quite good and one that i lovelovelove .... i got one piece of bisque back and glazed it ... i have high hopes for it ... white clay, long rectangle shape, melted glass beads into it .... i liked it so much that i made another one like it ... i also made a lumpy bowl .... lumpy on purpose .... i guess textured and organic would be an artsier way to describe it ... but, ya know, call lumpy, lumpy .... 

my kids get out of school this week, i need to start packing up the rental house, i have no paint days in my immediate future .. but soon... very soon .... i'll be back in my house and procrastinating unpacking the boxes and i'll go into a painting frenzy ..... do you remember the 2008 painting frenzy? i'll be like that again once my planers are realigned! i just know it .... 

and one last tidbit for your browsing pleasure ... my pal, al, who i lovelovelove to paint with, is doing a studio reno... and has some groovy toovy pics ... check them out here .... there's a teeny glimmer of me in one .... how 'bout those wall colors? girl after my own art heart!

two days, two posts .... and this one even has an artistic element to it ....

i have photos that should actually be a series of long bloggage bits for you ... but instead ...you're getting the hodge podge version ...... of the last couple days worth of pics ....

 this is a book i'm reading ... but most notable is the book mark that sweet darla made and gave me ..... shout out to artsy darla ... she rocks .... it's cute doodads on an elastic ... so, like, the book has on a bracelet to save my spot .. very cool....

my birthday was last week ... and i asked for NO gifts ... specifically said, nope, don't get me anything ... i don't want to have to pack it and move it .... but .... sometimes it's great when people don't listen .... my family gave me the pack of perfect pens ... this is actually third set of them .... first i had a ten pack that i ADORED .... used them right up ... then i got a 36er like this one ... and i adored them right into old and tatty and not so juicy anymore .... so here is my new set ... juicy and perfect ..... do you have a favorite pen set?

... and today i went to pottery .... and picked this up ... gray speck clay, transparent green glaze, on a slab rolled bowl with a groovy texture rolled onto it .... it turned out pretty fab ... most of my pottery is .. um... quirky ... um ... charmingly imperfect .... this one is a little more perfect than usual (though certainly not completely so ) .... a little more perfectly pretty is always a happy surprise ....

and more pottery .... turquoise on white clay .... i carved that tree in .... someone asked if they could borrow my tree stamp ...nope, no stamp ..... it's a great color ... but a little tippy .... not quite flat bottomed ... but who wants a flat bottom anyway?

here they are with some size perspective for you ....

and seeing this made me think ... OH! that's the color of my family room ... and of course, i thought you'd want to see ....

and here is little.e.beck.artist today ....

she had her end of season soccer party ..... one girl got best offensive player and was given a shark tooth necklace ... she's a shark ... one girl was given a tiara... queeen defender .... my little girl? she was given a party hat ... because she's a party ... she got this prize for showing unbridled joy on and off the field .... love that .... there should be more unbridled joy out there, huh? 

joy to you and yours .... go find a party hat if you need some joy encouragement ....