corner view~room with a view

Years ago, before our son was born, we lived in a house on a hill with many rooms that had views.  We had views of mountains dotted with homes and beautiful large oak trees.  Deer would come to munch on our gardens, and an occasional turkey vulture would swoop overhead in search of his dinner.  There was a roof deck where we would sometimes eat dinner, and sleep on a futon on a hot summer night.  Up there, you really felt like you were on top of the world.

Annabel and Skylar were born in this house.

Gary especially loved the expansive views.  His music studio, that he designed, had a large picture window to look out on the vista.  I put in a colorful flower garden right outside his room, and sometimes he would wander out there to talk on the phone.  

I remember sitting in a front bedroom, when Sky was a baby, nursing her in our glider rocking chair.  I put the chair in a position so that I could see into the nearby bathroom, where I had done a mosaic over the bathtub.  I loved to look at it from afar, at the colors and images I came up with years before, in a stroke of creativity in the middle of an otherwise chaotic bathroom remodel.

We had been looking at tiles, and the only ones I liked were the super expensive Italian kind, and that's when it hit me.  I should do my own tiling.  And so I did.

Are there corners of your home where you sit and enjoy a room from afar?

corner view~light

This Christmas I got Gary a tiny Tiffany lamp for his nightstand that he loved.  I decided I wanted one too, and was lucky to go back a week later and find a matching one at the store.

I love stained glass and mosaics and especially these types of lamps.  I don't collect much but if I were to collect something it would be these lamps.  I would love a larger one.  Does anyone collect anything?

a lifetime ago

My husband and I were married and lived in northern California for the beginning of our life together.  This was back in the days when I really lived as an artist.  I created things for our home, painting shelves, redoing furniture, painting flower pots, fashioning garden trellises...

I had been to college and had studied fine arts, mainly pottery and metal sculpture.  Forward five years...and my favorite form of expression as a new wife, and then a new mother, was mosaics.  I was self taught.

When we got our first home, the bathroom was in bad shape.  So we hired Rolf, and he laid new flooring.  He told me to pick some tile I liked to put over the bathtub.  I looked and looked.  The only stuff I really liked was very expensive, imported from Italy.

Then I got the idea to do a mosaic myself.  I gathered free samples of tiles, broke them in pieces with a hammer, and since I ended up with many blues and greens, decided to create an underwater scene.

It was so much fun.

Next thing I knew I was going nuts, mosaic-ing everything in sight.  I did this to the front wall of the house.

The house was unique.  Made to resemble a Shaker barn, we were told by the previous owners.  It was a great house.

corner view~repurposed

Before the children were born (when I had more free time) I got really into making mosaics.  The strawberry pot, pictured above, was my first piece.  I also made a scene above my bathtub with broken tiles and plates, and covered a long wall in the backyard with pieces of marble, slate and granite.  I befriended a woman who had a tile store and she used to give me all of her old samples, included rare marbles from Italy!  I made tables and picture frames and flower pots.  We don't live in that house anymore but once I master scanning old photos I will share them.

Francesca's theme really got me thinking about making something old into something new.  For me, it's second nature.  My parents loved antiques, and I grew up surrounded by old things often made into new things.  Being of a thrifty nature coupled with the joy of discovery, my dad and uncle once jumped into a dumpster to get an antique wood treasure.  They beautifully refinished all of the wood pieces they gathered, and now their homes are filled with them, and many have been passed on to their children.

For me, repurposing seems to encourage not just reuse, but creativity.  A few years ago we had a tree trimmed and I fashioned a trellis out of some of the thickest branches.  The bark is now peeling, and the beans that grew up it didn't do so well, but it still sits in the garden, smiling down on the peppers and Swiss chard, beckoning me to remember that no matter how busy I am, I am still an artist.

To see more corner views about repurposing, go to the sidebar here.  And be sure to check out my daughter Sky's corner view. 

a gardeness

We took the kids to a neighborhood garden tour last weekend. I was there taking mental notes. The kids seemed to wander around and play while Gary kept watch. We didn't think they were listening much. Later that night, I was outside taking down the laundry that was hanging near our ever expanding veggie garden. Shawn was walking around the yard, the dark night sky overhead, faint light from the window guiding our movements, telling me all about growing plants and how to care for them. He went on and on and on!

Then he paused and with utmost pride said, "Mommy, you know what you are? You are a gardeness!"

I asked, "What is a gardeness?"

He replied, "A genius of a garden."

"Or a princess, or an emperess, or a goddess," I thought.

Then we looked up at the stars for awhile. He was quiet after his horticultural discourse.

Suddenly he added, "Mom, want to know the secret of being a gardeness?  Never, ever, ever, ever give up. That's all there is to it."

And he threw his hands in the air and walked in to put on his Spiderman pajamas.