We all know that I am currently ill, and abed atop a hot water bottle.
However, I don’t want to talk about that today. Today, I resist torpor and complaining. Today I only want to talk about beautiful things.
I have to thank my dear friend, Madame K, for asking about my projects, and how things are going. It reminded me that I am not made of illness. I am made of creativity. She always knows just the right thing to say.
You see, my trade is creating beautiful things; whether that’s a cottage kitchen, live music, a flower garden, students excited about the possibilities of music, or a musical based on a 1728 play. And, I am privileged to have been able to spend my life as a creator.
So, with illness and frustration aside, I walked around the house today and took photos of things I’m working on that I find beautiful.
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The front yard flower garden. I’m definitely an English cottage garden type person. (No surprises there.)
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A (mostly) finished corner of the kitchen, with our now-exposed huge beams. I had to fill in the space at the top of the wall, of course. I stained new rough-hewn wood to match the old beams.
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Another kitchen wall. Still needs some paint work, but I left the little cellar door rough on purpose. I like to see the history.
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A staircase wall in progress. Because I decided to go with stucco in between dark-stained beams, (Tudor-style), I went with artwork that reflects that.
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And that’s all I know about that! I’m off to rest and have a little bit of dinner. Yep, at 4:00. =)
That was a helluva two weeks, preceding Easter and the week after. (A helluva few months, if I’m honest.) I finally got back up to snuff early last week, and we just got back from the Catskills.
I’m at Walt Disney World (as usual) next month, and visiting my family in Tampa for a week in July. Let the vacations begin!
The cottage we rented in the Catskills was wonderful. Certainly, there was no skiing or climbing mountains; but there was plenty of antique shopping! Terrific prices at a few antique malls we found, and I didn’t go too too crazy … and my wonky leg warned me when it was time to stop!
The only really guilty pleasure purchase was a 3×5′ early-Victorian (actual) Persian rug. Most everything else was knickknacks — but more on that later, in another post.
While we were gone, our neighbor and general contractor took down our plaster-and-lathe kitchen ceiling, exposing the gorgeous gigantic beams. They’re about 4″ x 10″ and around 180 years old.
This was a job I was never going to do myself. It’s technically easy work, but 1″ thick plaster is very heavy, and it has to be carried outside, put in a truck, and taken to the dump. Plus, almost 200 years of dirt, literal soot, and plaster dust. Nope. And I can’t imagine what the 1″ plaster ceiling of a 20′ x 10’+ kitchen would weigh. I mean, it’s essentially limestone. More on all that a bit later as well. I have a little work to do to clean the beams up. Here’s a preview though —
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(I love to think that the last guy that saw this huge beam was pre-Civil War, looking at it in about 1846.)
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It was a great week, indulging in pastimes and just relaxing otherwise. Here’s the pics!
Our CottageThe GazeboRoadside Attractions!Attn: TrekkiesThe Oleana EstateThe Catskills from across the river, in Hudson.Doin’ the Shoppin’Atmospheric Cemetery
I am good! A large part of that is because I came up with some projects (even video piano lessons!) that can be done from my sick-person bed in my sick-person room. (Also, I’ve been through this before and I know what to expect. That makes a big difference.)
I am indeed, right smack in the middle of radiation. The only side-effect I’m having is the extreme fatigue. But. Mixed with no-joke pain meds, my cantankerous gastrointestinal system, a bit of spectrum disorder, and a dash of neuropathy … by late afternoon I’m literally bouncing off things like a plodding pinball. (Nothing serious, only door frames.) But, I have lots of projects that don’t require standing up!
I’m scoring two silent films for theater organ, to be played live in the Fall.
I continue to hang stuff and fuss with things in my new safe-room. I mean bedroom.
I’m starting to draw diagrams for the little pipe organ I want to build. I finally found an octave-and-a-half set of the type of pipes I was looking for.
Hope you’re well too!
Bonus points if you can identify the woman on the bottom left in the silver picture frame. Any guesses? I’ll just tell you — it’s Linda Lee Porter, Cole Porter’s wife. That’s a prop that sat on the piano from a show I did. Thanks, Bonnie! =)
It’s been one day, and I am already, “Are they out of my house yet?,”
Tomorrow is what I call “Mezzo Buildio” — taping, spackling, finishing up some drywall issues, wiring the lamps.
As you know, I kind of exist in a “I never really feel well” state, so I have been managing myself pretty well. =) Haven’t tried to help, haven’t carried anything, continuing to rest up and recover from the few days of prep. Needless to say, the dogs are a challenge where construction is concerned.
There’s an organ in the kitchen. A LazyBoy by the pantry. A bedroom’s worth of furniture scattered all over the house. Our living room looks as if Little Nell might crawl out from underneath the piano at any particular point.
“When putting on accessories, take off the last thing you’ve put on.”
—Coco Chanel
Eh. Coco lied. Pile it on.
There’s an iron bedstead and a mattress in my living room. There’s four boxes of vinyl tile in my kitchen. There’s two boxes of accessories and knickknacks sitting uncomfortably next to the front door. The grandfather clock has been moved because the circuit breaker panel was behind it. There’s a large braided rug rolled up and leaning against my piano. There are cardboard boxes … everywhere.
Our contractor is now hammering and painting and sawing and wiring this weekend.
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One of my favorite things I’ve found shopping is my crazy curtains. They’re made by a shop owned by ladies in India. They make them from surplus and seconded sari material.
Part of the fun has been taking a month or so to choose very particular items, discover clever new things. (I know a bit about rough gemstones now — I bought a 1500 carat Lapis Lazuli Buddha sculpture. LOL) It’s fun to hunt up better prices, take the time to look for exactly what I want.
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I found a good price on a quilt! The pattern works with the room too!. Handmade, queen size, and very well sewn. This one’s from eBay.
Needless to say, I have a lot of work to do before Sunday, a little more prep — pulling nails and screws and filling in the holes, going to buy the paint, getting all the materials together for the guys. In the time in between, I have fun unpacking things and and telling Eli how much I like them any why.
Eli
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Let’s be honest. It’s a tapestry on a fluffy pillow with a unicorn, a lion, bunny-cat-dogs, and alady playing a tiny pipe organ. This was going to get bought no matter what. The young lady helping her is pumping the bellows. =)
One thing that’s kept coming to mind during this process — there are too many retail things! I absolutely do not need twelve pages of crown molding to choose from. Or forty pages of curtain rods.
Sit Still Phill 