I have moved!!

Please visit me at my new home.

Love for the Home - Old and New

This desk has been a love of mine for a long time. It is now used by my Husband as he writes. It is a true writing desk. That is how my Dad designed and made it -- for my Mom. It is made of solid South American mahogany and was designed and built circa 1958 while we were stationed in Cuba. Its clean lines and delicate proportions were definitely ahead of its time. It at one time had a matching, low back chair. Unfortunately, the chair's fragile construction could not stand up to time and the many moves our family made. The desk has also been through a lot. I rescued it in pieces from my mother's attic sometime in the early '70s when she said she was thinking about cutting it up for decoupage boards. I don't think she ever really fully appreciated it. After Merle and I were married, we had it refinished while we lived in Columbia, SC in 1979. It has followed us through all our moves, and was getting a little worse for the wear. The final straw was our house fire last year. When we got it back from the fire restoration group the legs had been put on wrong, one leg was splitting, and it was too wobbly to use. We decided immediately to have the desk refurbished! It now stands back in the living room 'nook' as beautiful as it can be. The refinishers did a wonderful job. The day we picked it up they told us it was a delight to work on such a great piece. It should last for many years to come.

My new love are two armless chairs for the living room. When we moved back into the townhouse after the fire I reoriented the living room and realized the chairs we had were too oversized. We love our dark brown leather sofa -- and even though it is somewhat large, it is not over stuffed. I began the search for chairs. I wanted something less massive in size, easy to move and contemporary. Merle could not conceptualize 'armless' chairs and did not believe they could ever be comfortable. Luckily on one of our searching expeditions we found these chairs at Arhaus and I was struck! Even though the solid colors they displayed were nice ... as soon as I saw this custom fabric I was hopelessly in love. The dark brown background compliments the leather sofa and the three colors of green in the design nicely goes with the color palette of the creamy-beige and green of the main floor. Added bonus!! Merle likes them (c:

"Sweet Thing"

Oh My!!

John Mayer and Keith Urban, two great musical tastes, are even better together on an upcoming broadcast of CMT Crossroads.

The Grammy winners trade vocals and guitar licks on each other's songs before a rapturous crowd at the Nashville concert, to be broadcast June 18. The show will feature their collaboration on songs including Urban's "Sweet Thing" (above), "If Ever Could I Love" and "Til Summer Comes Around," Mayer's "Perfectly Lonely" and "Gravity" and George Michael's "Faith."

People

Bel Ami - Guy De Maupassant

"You are gloomy tonight sir!"

The poet replied: "I always am, my child; you will be too in a few years. While one is climbing the ladder, one sees the top and feels hopeful; but when one has reached that summit, one sees the descent and the end which is death. It is slow work ascending, but one descends rapidly. At your age one is joyous; one hopes for many things which never come to pass. At mine, one expects nothing but death."

Duroy laughed: "Egad, you make me shudder."

Norbert de Varenne continued: "You do not understand me now, but later on you will remember what I have told you. We breathe, sleep, drink, eat, work, and then die! The end of life is death. What do you long for? Love? A few kisses and you will be powerless. Money? What for? To gratify your desires. Glory? What comes after it all? Death! Death alone is certain."

He stopped, took Duroy by his coat collar and said slowly: "Ponder upon all that, young man; think it over for days, months, and years, and you will see life from a different standpoint. I am a lonely, old man. I have neither father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children nor God. I have only poetry. Marry, my friend; you do not know what it is to live alone at my age. It is so lonesome. I seem to have no one upon earth. When one is old it is a comfort to have children."

When they reached Rue de Bourgogne, the poet halted before a high house, rang the bell, pressed Duroy's hand and said: "Forget what I have said to you, young man, and live according to your age. Adieu!" With those words he disappeared in the dark corridor.

Final Fantasy VIII - Enya's 'Anywhere Is'

I found this on youtube and fell in love with it!




xtimrs — February 08, 2009 — I'll tell the truth, in general I don't care for AMV's. I really hate searching youtube for some clip I wanna see to see a line from a game or something and all I can find is people putting the video to some Linkin Park song. This video however I found on a forum sometime around 2000. It was a Final Fantasy forum, and the last second credits a "Fei Ayanami" which I think was his screen name on the now gone (probably, google yields no results for that SN) message board. His real name is listed as Erik Madsen. I can't find this person anywhere online, so if the one who made this video ever sees it, hopefully you'll just be flattered I loved the video enough to save it for almost 10 years now on 3 different computers.

I really loved this game, and while I'm not a big Enya fan, something about this video was just beautiful to me. The game's videos combined with the lyrics and the progressively building music.. the explosion of Rinoa's sadness over finding Squall's limp body. It's touching to me, like the game was, and a very well put together video.

So I have decided to put this on Youtube after having it on my computer for maybe 10 years now.. Like I said, I didn't make it, I just liked it enough that I saved it forever and this seems to be the last copy I can find online. Note that it was made before there WAS a youtube, probably before there was a FFIX.

Note: This uses video from the game Final Fantasy VIII. All rights go to Square-Enix for that one, I do not make money or make any claim to any property of theirs and this video I imagine is protected under Fair Use.

Shopping with Martha Pullen

I spent some time talking with a wonderful person in Alabama today. We spent time shopping while flipping through my Martha Pullen catalog and cruising her website to gather the items for Oliver's christening gown.



Last night I plowed through boxes to find my box of patterns. Finally I found it after about 10 boxes -- ln a box at the bottom of a large stack labeled "downstairs, red box, miscellaneous." Who knew?

Anyway, after checking that I had all the appropriate pattern pieces, I made a mental list of what I needed: Swiss Nelona Batiste, French Val lace, swiss embroidered entredeax, mettler thread, schmetz needles, and a pair of lace point scissors. Instead of worrying about finding things in that mountain of boxes I ordered almost everything I need at one time -- it should all be here the beginning of next week. I think I must have ordered a hundred yards of lace!! All I have to find now is a spool of Sulky embroidery thread.

As I wait for delivery I will make my pattern with the adjustments that need to be made. I will say that it is simple, elegant, and long. I even have Merle's approval on it's design! I will give you a sneak peek at one of the laces ... the rest will have to wait until it is finished (c:

Note to Self

Oliver's Christening is June 27, 2010.

I have selected the pattern -- now to find the pieces and order everything!

Question or Answer?

We can be as honest as we are ignorant. If we are, when asked what is beyond the horizon of the known, we must say that we do not know. -- Robert G. Ingersoll

Photo: Jenny Kellerhals

Creative Summer

I have finally finished classes for this semester and am really looking forward to trying to jump start my creativity again. Looking back at one of my previous posts on this same subject, I realize that it had some good advice! So as I clean up, unpack and restructure my downstairs space I am going to carve out my creative "studio" space. I have a lot planned for summer projects -- fall will be hopelessly busy with classes four days a week so I want to have the house unpacked and my creative self in a routine!

Here are my plans. First I have a christening gown to make for Oliver Matthew Grim. The Bernina has been taken to the shop for a tune-up. The electronics guys who checked everything after the fire said it was in working order, but I still want it serviced so it will hum along as I work on the gown. I have narrowed the design down to two. Fabric and lace have been chosen and will be ordered when I make my final design choice. The christening date will be sometime late July or early August. My hope is to break my usual routine and have it done early.

Jenny gave me a wonderful "roll up" piano for Christmas last year. I asked my musical friend Caryn what book would be good to use as an adult for self teaching piano. I really have a basic understanding of music -- due to the really good music teachers I had in high school. I can read notes and scale, understand timing and know the difference between a sharp and a flat. With this book I hope to be able to play a simplified version of Fur Elise by Beethoven by the end of the summer.

One thing I have always wanted to do is draw/paint. Jenny has given me pencils and books to get me started, plus I have some of her 'left over' art supplies (c: I am going to unpack those and start sketching even if I am terrible. Practice makes perfect...right? So, I thought I would start with one of my favorite things...Dragons! It will probably be way out of my realm of talent, but I am going to try them and maybe even Fairies.



If I want to be able to keep up my creative endeavors though my fall semester I am going to have to be proficient in math. So proficient that I don't have to worry about what we are covering in Math 106, 'Quantitative Reasoning.' So I will have to be spending time with this book too!

Then there are cookbooks, SciFi/Fantasy, philosophy, classics and a myriad of other books that are calling my name. Hopefully I will be able to enjoy some of them too.

Oliver Matthew Grim

This sweet boy was welcomed to the world on April 11, 2010 at 4:37 am. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 1 oz and was 20 inches long.





His mother Beckie was wonderful and let me hold him before he was 24 hours old. I will have to get busy making his christening gown!










Of course being the photographer I don't have a picture of me with Oliver ... so one of Merle holding him will have to do (c:

My Pursuit

Keep it in the middle of the road.

Still Awake

Ever close your eyes
Ever stop and listen
Ever feel alive
And you've nothing missing
You don't need a reason
Let the day go on and on

Let the rain fall down
Everywhere around you
Give into it now
Let the day surround you
You don't need a reason
Let the rain go on and on

What a day to take to
What a way to make it through
What a day to take to a wild child

Only take the time
From the helter skelter
Every day you find
Everything's in kilter
You don't need a reason
Let the day go on and on

Every summer sun
Every winter evening
Every spring to come
Every autumn leaving
You don't need a reason
Let it all go on and on

What a day to take to
What a way to make it through
What a day to take to a wild child

Wild Child - Enya

Photo from here.