Artisan Guilds of Bloomington Show

 

It's almost time!   We're so excited for this year's Artisan Guilds of Bloomington holiday sale.   Three of the best guilds in the midwest gathered in one location for all of your holiday shopping needs.   Come see our astounding collection of fiber art, pottery and glass art.   Meet the artists, listen to local musicians and taste some great treats.  

2015 Bloomington Spinners and Weavers Guild Show

Friday, November 6,    4pm - 9pm

Saturday, November 7,  9am - 5pm 

Bloomington Convention Center

Downtown Bloomington, Indiana - Corner of College Ave. and 3rd St.

Free Parking!

Fiber:  Downstairs to the left

Glass: Downstairs to the right

Pottery: Upstairs

Look for my booth in the left hand room of the fiber guild area.   I have some new designs in scarves this year - look for the packed-warp bamboo scarves.  So beautiful!    

We look forward to seeing you!

Another Rural Sonnet

It's been a while since I've posted rural poetry. Lately we've been cleaning a lot.

A lot.

And let me tell you this place is dirty.

Really dirty.

But I'm sure that has nothing to do with why we don't get much company.   Nothing at all. 

Or why, perhaps, we don't invite people over very often.    Nothing at all. 

[Ahem]


Rural sonnet number whatever....


Ode to a Dirty House

Accumulated dirt from twenty years
And more, of living on a gravel road—
[A rolling cloud of dust likely appears
When every auto, bike, dog, cat or toad
Goes by when things dry out]—At any rate,
That dirt fills every pore of this old house.
It covers everything. Our real estate
Will soon be mostly in than out. I grouse
Each time I clean the tops of shelves unseen
For years. Each surface traps and glues right down
Vast swaths of gritty, grimy, anti-sheen.
The cobwebs make it worse because they’re brown
With gunk. I’d keep ahead of all that grime
But I’d be doing housework ALL the time.

Claire's Door

This is Claire's door.   It used to be the original front door of the house.    That is the original rim lock and door handle and the original half mortise hinges.   They were in pretty rough shape so we cleaned them up and spray painted them plain black.

Look carefully.  This door is crooked on every side.

Every.  Single.  One.

Were they drunk??

It's got such a great story that we decided to just run with it.   When the final trim goes up some of the uneven-ness won't show so much.

The bigger issue is that this is a bedroom door with a big glass panel.   Claire is still deciding whether to go for a heavy curtain, paint, wood/metal insert, contact paper, or something else to cover it up.

I voted for a heavy curtain on the inside with the old fashioned gold and black lettering on the outside glass, like this:

Claire's

Laboratory 

Claire's not so big on the idea, but I love it.

Door Trim

This is the door trim we are putting around the doors in the bedrooms upstairs.  Lily's door.  I love the craftsman styling.  

We decided to do transoms above the doors because:
a.  The doors don't match.
b.  The doors are all different heights.
c.  The doors all have stories [code for: some of them are looking pretty rough in places] and the transoms will tie them together nicely.
d.  It was all a good excuse to do it.

I'll do a post as we get closer to doing the transoms.   I got the hardware [not on there yet] from House of Antique Hardware during a 25% off sale this summer.   It's the only way I could rationalize it.   Eric will be building the transoms from scratch.

The trim is poplar.   We did 2 coats of Red Chestnut stain and 6-8 coats of amber shellac after that with a couple sandings with 220 grit after every 2-3 coats of shellac. I stopped when the look and feel was right. 

The trim goes fabulously with the doors.

Here's Claire's door trim.

Please notice that my kids are not afraid of color.  At.  All.   They chose their own colors and when they get tired of it, paint is cheap and painting is easy.   We'll change it if we ever have to.

Thai Basil

I planted some Thai basil this year because I had gotten some seed I-don't-know-why and I generally plant whatever I have seed for. 

It's a small and very sweet smelling basil.   And it blooms like crazy.   All. Summer. Long.   

We think it's OK, but prefer the Genovese style basil.

The bees, on the other hand,  love it.   Love. It.

I'll be planting rows and rows of it again just for them.  

Weatherproofing the New Construction

We've been weatherproofing the new construction.   

It's been interesting.

Last winter, we kept the cold out because the basic integrity of the old structure had been maintained and the new construction was over and around it.  

This year, however, we cut a giant hole in the ceiling so we could have inside stairs.   Those stairs had to go from the existing [and very short, 7' tall] 1st story ceiling, up through the space where old roof used to be, past where the new 2nd story floor is and up into the new 2nd story.  

See that pic at the top?   All that plywood on the sides of the stairwell is new wall where open air used to be between the old construction and new.   That air is still open in places to the great outdoors.   Also, there is about 12 inches between the new walls and the old walls.   You can see how thick that section is at the top of the pic next to the wall.  


Eric closed it all in and stuffed it full of batt insulation for now.    He sealed every seam with spray foam. 

Spray foam drips are oh, so elegant.  [Maybe I ought to spray them with glitter and call it holiday decorations?]

Another issue was that two rooms upstairs still have no drywall and are open into the roof.

These pieces of plastic are folded around each other in the middle so you can still get in and out, but air transfer is limited.   That will keep us fine until we have a chance to drywall those rooms or close off the ceilings and then install the roofing insulation.

The last big issue is two large window openings waiting for the last of the big windows to go into.   For now, those are closed up with insulation board.  

In addition, we need to install the duct-work from the furnace to the 2nd floor.  

We had our first real cold snap last week.   With some judiciously placed space heaters and fans to move the warm around, things stayed very comfortable.   With every new task done, things will get better.  

Our fall weather is reasonably mild but cooling through November.   By Thanksgiving we should have the duct-work in,  windows in, last two ceilings closed up, roofing insulation in and some of the other exterior openings-to-old-roof buttoned up as well.    I'm praying for a very mild fall and a lot of dry weekend weather.

Stropharia Experiment

Earlier this year I saw a video of Paul Stamet talking about mushrooms and bees.   Apparently there is evidence that bees use certain mushrooms such as Stropharia as a tonic against viruses, etc and bees fed a solution from those mushrooms were healthier than those not.  

It's easy to find Stropharia [AKA Wine Cap or King Stropharia] spawn on the net from places like Magnificent Mushrooms in Paoli, Indiana so I availed myself of the opportunity and got a bunch.
It's not cheap.  I got 4 bags and spent around $100 including shipping but bees are even more expensive than that, so I figured that if this stuff helped save just one hive, then it was worth it.

Plus, these are edible.

Plus, it's fun to try out new stuff.

Plus, it was a great use of the mountain of wood chips we had from taking down some trees in January.  

So I got the spawn and planted/spread it exactly like they recommended under an apple tree and behind the chicken coop and then watered it for a few weeks, then neglected it.

And lo and behold a forest of mushrooms was discovered under the apple tree
last week!

We have been so busy that we missed the first flush, but we were able to pick a couple gallons of them even so.   They are delicious!

We have not seen any bees on them yet this year, but I plan on spreading them around and eventually the bees will find them.   In the meantime, we love them.

Stairs

This is Eric in his natural habitat.    And he smiled for the camera, so woo-hoo!

Please note that he is in Claire's closet in front of the wall that used to be the door that we got in and out of the upstairs through.

Note that it is a wall now.     That is signficant.

But first a little back story.

This is the back of the house.   That short addition used to be a porch, later enclosed, but not actually put on a foundation. It is slated for demolition, which will be a very happy day. [We'll put on a similar addition, only a bit bigger and it will actually have a foundation under it.   The new kitchen and pantry and mudroom will be in there eventually.]

At the peak of the roof you can see the Typar 'door' where we've been getting in and out of the upstairs addition for the last year.

We've been climbing up this ladder to the roof over the back room and then up to the peak, then in and out of the wall inside Claire's closet.

I know, right?     So.     Elegant.

Seriously.    Call the Country Living people because they'll surely want to know all about us.   [Is it possible to get one's eyes stuck in the back of one's head by rolling them too hard?]

Mostly I just pretended that it was perfectly normal and that everyone goes upstairs via the great outdoors, a ladder, and a closet wall.

You know.   For a year.

But all good things must come to an end and our ladder climbing days are over for now.

Yee-HAW!

We Have an INSIDE Stairway.

This is a temporary arrangement for now that will allow us to finish the upstairs and live up there as needed until we can finish the re-do of the downstairs, which will be a total remodel down to the last nail.    The final stairs will be in this general area but that's it.  The final design is very different.

 

As you can see, it is very steep [I come down backward like a ladder] but it is plenty wide enough to get furniture up and down on.

Which is important because the girls rooms are just about done and there is mega furniture moving in the near future!  Yay!

Also, it's just about winter.  Which brings up the question of how to winterize a partially finished upstairs with some interesting structural irregularities between floors.    I'll get to that in a post next week.   Stay tuned. 

Weaving, Weaving, Weaving...

The Bloomington Artisan Guilds show is coming up quickly.   Mark your calendars for Friday, Nov 6, 2015 from 4pm - 9pm  and Saturday, Nov 7 from 9am - 5pm at the Bloomington Convention Center on College Ave in downtown Bloomington, Indiana.   The weaving, glass and pottery guilds have joined together to create one fabulous show of the area's best fine craft.  

In preparation, I have been weaving, weaving, weaving to get ready.  

New this year:   Handwoven white alpaca shawls and fine black mohair shawls, both with glittery trim.   Also a new line of luscious bamboo and silk scarves in beautiful hand dyed colors. 

You'll find my hand-dyed yarns in silk, rayon, superwash/tencel, bamboo and a new line of organically grown cotton.   I'll have some rovings and ribbons as well.   Look for my two new colorways - Blue Peacock and Red Oak.

In addition, I'll have my regular lines of hand painted silk scarves, handwoven washcloth/soap sets and a glorious array of other weavings.

Please stop by and see us!