this week’s bits

Just a few images from this past week . . .

While our sons helped us move the last things and granddaughter Jayna helped me clean the cabin, daughter Kristen was at the farm cooking homemade Cajun for everyone. She also introduced Bill and me to King Cake — we had seen them for sale since moving to Texas but didn’t know the tradition behind them. And it was yummy — almost as good as her gumbo!

I found the hidden baby (representing the Christ Child) so according to Kristen, I host the next one.

While living at the cabin, I had tried to get bluebonnets to grow on our property but they never germinated — until we were moving out! This one is beginning to bloom right now, either to say goodbye to us or to greet the cabin’s new owners.

With so many extra keys, I decided to keep my own cabin key as a souvenir. (The new owners will probably re-key it anyway.) When our oldest son’s family moved into their new home and they were getting a key made for us, one of our grandsons reminded them to make mine plaid! He remembered that my own key was green plaid so he chose a blue plaid.

After closing on the sale of the cabin, our realtor Myrna Lopez, took us out for lunch. We had a lovely time sharing with each other how the Lord was working in each of our lives. I have a feeling that the cabin attracted so little interest the first 6 months (under a different realtor who had worked very hard to sell it) because the Lord wanted to bless Myrna specifically.

traveling cats

Our cabin has been on the market for 40 days now and only a few scheduled to look in person, though thousands have looked at the online listings. Frustrating for us. Even more frustrating for our wee Scottish Fold kitties as we continue to pack what is not needed for “staging” at the cabin and travel back and forth between properties. We are doing some work at Kristen’s new house, meeting with workmen about the barn-to-house conversion, and keeping both mowed. We can’t actually begin on our barndominium until we sell the cabin.

When people schedule to look at the cabin, we load up the cats and go for a ride — or take more stuff to the new place. And when we go to spend the night at the alternate place, they balk — whether they are at the cabin or the house. They seem to like both places just fine; they just don’t care to leave wherever they happen to be at the moment.

Sketch With Me — memories

Today is the Sketch With Me virtual sketch crawl, with the prompt of “memories “. I had planned on packing up more items for the move today, including these little-used things in our kitchen.

Years ago, I used this Indian pitcher (with a very wonky shadow!) to water plants . . . . until I saw one just like it on Antique Roadshow. From the Monmouth Pottery company c. 1910, it’s called “Old Sleepy Eye” and is worth a bit more than I had imagined! It came from Bill’s Grandma Cobb, who was mostly Swedish but also had a smidgen of American Indian in her..

The Fiestaware serving pieces are from my mom. I don’t know where she got them or any fun stories to go with them; I just think of her when I see them.

sampler memories

During the 33 years that I totally ignored art, after high school graduation and getting married, creativity kept breaking out in other ways. Sewing, knitting, decoupage, or cross stitch — I was always searching for the right mode of expression. Since coming back to sketching, I no longer feel the urge to try other things, though I still occasionally knit.

In 1983 we moved into what I always think of as our family home, the Tudor Revival style Craftsman bungalow depicted in the larger sampler piece above. It was actually the third house we bought, after 3 or 4 years of renting during and directly following Bill’s years in the Navy. I made these two sampler bits to fit into clear switch-plate covers in our family room, complete with each of our children’s initials. Jeff was not born until later — the large sampler’s date is the year we moved into this house but they were actually stitched in 1990.

I haven’t had much time for sketching lately as we box things up to move. I came across these while packing family photos and old albums. Some boxes are packed for long-term, not to be opened until the barn is converted into our new home. Others are simply boxed up to move to our daughter’s new house where we will live temporarily.

Now if I can only keep the two straight in my mind!

to lose a building

When we bought our cabin almost 5 years ago, it came with this additional wooden shed. At first, we put it to use storing tools and materials from Bill’s wood shop. After his new shop was built, for a time we worked on plans to turn this shed into a guest house but that fell by the wayside as there were other improvements we wanted more, such as tearing down the two ugly car ports and replacing them with one unobtrusive one.

The log cabin got a bit lost among the ugly car ports on one side and this shed on the other; we wanted the cabin to be the first thing seen. And I wanted to see the ranch across the highway from my window, with the longhorns, donkeys, and horses among all those trees — not a big brown wall.

So we let it be known that we’d give the building away free to anyone who would move it. There were three different parties who wanted it but none could find anyone willing to move it. Until a neighbor’s cousin heard about it — he had a smaller shed for his hobbies and his wife wanted to use a corner of it. So he gave her this one! They found a Mennonite guy willing to move it and within one week, it was gone! It was fascinating to watch this one guy maneuver the building all by himself, attaching large wheels and pulling it out to his truck’s trailer.

two of my pals

We arrived to our friend's home, one day before the movers were to arrive, with almost nothing packed. So their daughter, Bill, and I worked feverishly at boxing things up. (They own three households-worth of kitchen stuff alone!)

When the movers arrived, we shut their husky-corgi mix dog along with two of their daughter's chihuahuas in a back bedroom (she had two with her and two more at home -- all have sweet personalities!). Then, when they needed to work in that bedroom, I kept Maggie, Baby, and Lucie-Loo on leashes in an out-of-the-way spot. All three determined to be lap puppies, with Baby attempting to be "King of the hill" by climbing above the rest!

Poor Maggie is showing a bit of stress as her owners face various stages of dementia. She loves them dearly and is very protective of them; it's confusing for her to see them scream at each other. Where are the caring, loving people she knows?

loft art supplies

Before moving to Texas, I had accumulated 9 years of art supplies. I tried new things often, trying to find my way in this new hobby. Some where tried and never touched again.

So before packing, I went through everything, keeping just what I really enjoyed using. Art books were donated to the local library sale or a used book store. Supplies not kept were bagged up to give away to sketchcrawl friends and their kids.

I wrote a bit about my process on this journal page. One of the criteria was "did it fit in the box"? Years ago, Bill had this antique tool box sitting in our garage, collecting dust. So I confiscated it, cleaned it up, and used it at first to store embroidery supplies . . . then later, to store art stuff. Now it sits on a book shelf in my loft --- That's the slanted roof beam logs behind it in the sketch.

The logs are actually a dark brown with white bead-board between them. I haven't decided whether to leave the ceiling drawn in ink alone, or paint in the log beams. Any suggestions?

battle of the boxes

We are slowly but surely emerging from a life among boxes, and many of those boxes have been cut, flattened, and stuffed into larger boxes such as the two shown here.

This side of the living room is almost clear of boxes.

Originally there was no ceiling light on this side. We bought this light kit for the bedroom ceiling fan, but Billy thought it would look good in the living room. There was already an unused spot for one in the log beam. We like it so much, we are going to take down the silly fixture on the other side and put in a matching one. The light's entwining leaf detail can be seen more clearly here.

More boxes, stuffed with additional boxes, and bags of newspaper at the back door waiting to be loaded on the truck. Covered with some of our surprise snowfall.

We drove all this into town to the recycle center . . . but about a mile from town the truck died. On top of an overpass ramp. Without our having access to the internet or a local business listing. A quick phone call to our son, who looked online for a towing / repair shop. Two hours later, with a new fuel pump, we finally made it to the recycle center.

This chaos will one day be my art "studio" in the loft. The door leads to a wee balcony, just big enough for a couple of folding chairs to sketch from.

By the way, those energy windows really do work. Through this kitchen window you can see the remains of a couple of snowballs Bill through at me from outside. This photo was taken nearly an hour later, yet the snow had not melted. No heat escaping here!

final sketches

  Ready for the moving van to arrive (tomorrow morning) . . . and I did a couple of last sketches of this apartment we are leaving. I love this bathroom with all that subway tile, the original 1920 claw-foot tub, and the reproduction lavatory. Bill hated all that subway tile by the time he finished putting it in! The individual tiles are molded from originals and are irregular in shape. Drove him a bit nuts!

 This kitchen sink from the 1940s was here when we bought the building. Loving those huge drainboards, I tried to talk Bill into using it as our new kitchen sink but he didn't like the idea. He did leave it in the pantry for me though --- great for potting plants and washing dogs! And he installed an instant-hot tap for me. Keeps hot water at the perfect temperature for a cup of tea. I'll miss that when I go back to using a tea kettle at the cabin.

part of our apartment's kitchen

We are still dealing with the craziness that comes with relocating . . . and I'm still sketching bits of our old home when I find time.

This is the west wall of the kitchen Bill made; additional built-ins and a gas range are on the north and east walls. I have loved this vintage-style kitchen and will miss it!

Our new home's kitchen is from Ikea. First house we bought that will not have a custom-built kitchen by Bill. Still needs tweaking --- I want to replace the dishwasher with more drawers.

We moved all my paints and inks to Texas last week when we went to close on purchasing the cabin. So I just have this simple "warms and cools" palette with me. The travel brush is a #8 from Daniel Smith. If I remember right, the pigments are as follows:

cadmium scarlet  /  permanent rose
hansa yellow med.  /  hansa yellow light
serpentine genuine  /  sap green (not really a cool)
ultramarine blue  /  phthalo blue
quin. burnt orange  /  burnt umber
quin. gold  /  payne's gray

moving right along . . .

The 12 days of Christmas are drawing to a close and so is our time in Kansas. Again we have run out of boxes to put things in, but almost everything is now boxed up. This wee nativity and the family stockings were the only decorations we had out this year . . . plus a couple of containers of toys for grandkids to play with. While packing, I came across this tiny micro-machine vehicle that missed being packed with the toys. So I sketched it with the nativity and packed both in the Christmas box.

more apartment sketching

Still sketching bits of this apartment building when I find a bit of time . . . . things to remember when we leave it behind.

Originally the 1920 building had 4 one-bedroom apartments. We opened the 2 downstairs apartments into one large three-bedroom unit, removing a bearing wall between 2 dining rooms to create a large country kitchen in that space (plus an additional side room that has been an office & studio).

Where there had formerly been a doorway into a teeny kitchen, Bill built this oak sideboard --- the glass doors above hold glass from his grandmother's farmhouse. The former kitchen space is now a large walk-in pantry.

This table and chair set has been in the family 4 generations; we are giving it to our youngest son now as it will not fit in our new cabin. It has 6 chairs and 4 table leaves, held in their own oak crate.

comparing water-soluble inks

Recently I went through my art supplies with an even more critical eye, reducing them to "essentials". The cabin we bought is very small; I will have a "studio" upstairs in the loft but not a lot of room for extras.

On these pages of my art journal, I compared my Noodler's inks that are water-soluble -- meaning they "bleed" when watercolor is later applied. One is "la couleur royale" (purple) and one is red-black. I thought I would give at least one of them away . . . . but I still like the effects so I'll be keeping both. So much for lightening my load! (click on picture to enlarge)

This vintage Prang watercolor tin is refilled with artists' pigments and holds some travel brushes and a wee sponge. Very lightweight for a metal paint box and fits easily in my bag.

a Christmas cookie

Since we are decorating this year with cardboard boxes . . . LOTS of cardboard boxes . . . our Christmas cookies look a little different also.

A bit over-focused on moving to Texas???

little log cabin, deep in the heart of Texas

After a week of looking at lots of houses in 5 different areas, we ended up buying the exact house we first drove by last June when we first began looking at houses for sale in Texas. Very surprised that it was still on the market, since houses in the area usually sell withing 1 to 2 months. Even more surprised when they accepted our first offer, quite a bit below the asking price. We both love log houses --- never thought we would actually get to live in one someday!

A VERY tiny house, just right for the 2 of us, near a lake. No woodshop for Bill yet, but with such a large yard (3 lots) we can build one ourselves . . . with a guest house attached for visitors. There is additional sleeping in the loft but not everyone would be able to manage the steep stairs --- more like the stair-ladders Bill knew aboard a Navy ship.

Part of the loft has a balcony & windows facing north-east -- that will be my art space. Along with the whole outdoors, of course. There are a variety of trees on our lot, including a small treehouse for grandkids. And a small planting strip along the sidewalk leading to the front patio, perfect for an herb bed. Provided the deer stay away from it. Not sure if they come into this housing development or not.

Autumn's whirlwind

It has been a real whirlwind around here lately. Today I paused to catch my breath and sketch leaves picked up on one of our many walks. Bill is walking as much as he can, slowly getting his strength back following his heart surgery. He is now cleared for traveling, so we plan on visiting our kids in Texas soon. While there, we decided to line up a realtor to look at houses. That led to us deciding to put our home on the market --- being a 1920 apartment building, it's a bit of an unusual listing and we had no idea what to expect trying to sell it.


One day after signing to sell, the sewer backed up. No problem . . . Bill can't do the work at the moment but a plumbing friend could ____ BIG PROBLEM. Turns out the outside line was broken and would need to be dug up and repaired. The sewer here is 20 feet deep and the city locators were no help at all. It was eventually found and repaired 8 hours later; now our backyard parking lot is a mud mountain. Hard to fit all that dirt back in when it had been compacted 93 years.

Meanwhile, we received an offer on the building, we counter-offered, and it was accepted --- sold in less than one week! As part of the deal they offered us 90 days from closing__rent free__to give us time to find a new home and move. Our heads are still spinning from the speed of it all.

searching for a home . . .

Bill drove down to Houston to drive me home (I flew there the first part of June). Because his time away from work was limited, we asked all our kids to drive to Brenham to meet us for lunch on Saturday, Brenham being sort of centrally located between everyone's homes. Had a blast eating at Ernie's, a downtown restaurant I found doing a Google search.  They gave us a private room and we could let the little kids run and play. Quen, Jayna, and Josiah also painted a bit in my journal:

 

  

After eating, our son-in-law took us driving, looking at homes for sale in the area. Our top three favorites, located out of town near a lake, are sketched above -- two of them are log-style cabins! We would like to find a smaller home with a large detached garage or outbuilding to turn into a woodshop for Bill when he retires later this year -- two of these had such buildings already on site.

So after driving home to Kansas, we called a realtor friend to start the process of finding out what our building would sell for. We renovated a small 1920 apartment building in 2000 - 2001; originally there were four 1-bedroom apartments, but we combined two of them into a large 3-bedroom apartment for ourselves. Rent from the apartments easily paid off our loan in short time, but it's an unusual building to put on the market -- nothing similar in the area. 

This is going to take some time and answered prayer to accomplish! Meanwhile, I'm still looking at possible towns in Texas to relocate to. An older, smaller community that would be an easy drive to Austin, north Houston, and Richmond. Preferably with an H.E.B. grocery store. And definitely with a REAL lumber yard for Bill (rather than a mass-market box store). He's a wood furniture artist, not a weekend crafter.