Good night chair

Folie a Deux

Some pictures taken by a fellow shop owner, Paul Uhl, who is a photographer, of our shop Folie a Deux. Collectively we are called "The Middle Floor Merchants". He took pictures of most of the shops and we now have a Myspace website. I will have the link posted to the right. Nothing great right now, but it's a start.

In August I am on the decorating committee for our Prom Night. The theme will be "One Night in Bangkok". Couldn't we all have come up with something a bit more easier to decorate?? I have some researching to do. We are going with a vintage Bangkok meets American 50's sort of theme. Will definitely be a challenge. Anyone with ideas, I would certainly love to hear them.

Good night Stella

Salad

I cannot photograph food. Not to mention I think I need my eyes re-examined!

So here is the Caesar. At the request of my sister, she wanted lots of croutons. Granted.

In the summer is when I like Caesar salads the best. I like to top it off with grilled Lemon Garlic Prawns or steak marinated in rosemary, garlic and red wine. Making my mouth water thinking about it. By the end of summer I am so tired of making it because so many people request it. So now my taste buds (and hands from cutting the artisan bread) are ready for the season.

Green grass

Break in the weather today, took this picture of part of the back yard from the deck. It's amazing how well it looks from a distance. I neglected my beds last year and this year they are full of grass. Doh! See that I left the cord out from yesterday. I never seem to put everything away. Always a tool left in the dirt, a cord, the lawnmower, etc. I have more rusty tools than anything. I think I work for hours in the yard and when I'm done, I'm done.

This is the best time of year for my yard. Everything so green and either getting ready to bloom or in bloom. Come summer, not so green. It gets pretty hot here. At least to me. Even though I am part Hawaiian, the perfect temperature for me is about 70'.

Stormy day...

Having a cup of Green Ginger tea and enjoying the stormy weather here. I am so glad I got all my weed eating & mowing done yesterday.

Was going to take a picture of my Caesar last night & my batteries went dead so will have to take one today. I am curious how it will look. There is such an art in just presenting things to photography.

Here is another one of my Laurie's. I am an out of control collector of all her work. I shamelessly have about 45-48 of her paintings and Wall Dolls. Isn't this painting cute? The cat looks like my kitty Sabrina. Just love the basket of kittens.

Got back from the nursery as well and bought some herbs. My FAVORITE herb to cook with is Majoram. It is so lovely to add to goulash and to stuff under the skin of a whole chicken.

I shall return later today.

I

Sunday..a day of rest

How I wish. Sundays seem to be my

crunch day. All the things that I hoped to accomplish and hadn't needs to be done today.

My husband, Ron, has been on a business trip to New Orleans for two weeks. I had such plans on what I was going to do while he's gone. I was going to totally gut the garage and edit putting things back in. While he's gone. That was the key. I (I wish WE) have a rule...if you haven't touched it in 5 years, it really may need to be gotten rid of. We haven't been able to park a car in there for 10 years. I have visions of moving my studio to the garage where I can have a huge long farmer's table to work on. Right now I have the old master bedroom, which is big, but I ran out of space quickly.

Ron is back today and my best layed ( or is it laid??)plans are out the window. Oh well. I am just glad he's coming home. So tonight we will barbeque up some steaks and I will make Caesar salad with my own dressing and homemade croutons. My friends rave about my Caesar salads. It is very tasty. I made it once for our office of 100 and knocked their socks off! HEY! I have a blog now. I will take a picture of it tonight!!

Good night Angel

Aunty Priscilla

I credit my Aunt with my love of cooking. When I returned to Hawaii after I graduated, I lived at my Aunt's house. My cousin Carol and I had a room with our own entrance and bathroom. Life was good.

Every morning before leaving for work, she would have breakfast made for us and when we returned, dinner was on the table. I was so very surprised that, at least the 9 months I was there, she never had a stove fire. She had this peculiar method of keeping her stove clean. She would lift the silver thingys up around the element & line newspaper up all around it. It sure did the job but what a fire hazard. She had been doing it for decades so she had it down to a science.

My Aunt hummed and la di da'd all the time. It made me happy to be in the same room with her. She loved the Mike Douglas and the Dinah Shore Show. I too became to love them.

My cousin, Father Scott, cares for her. She has Alzheimers now for 6 years. The last time she was up here I played music from the war years for her. She was so happy, sang alot of the songs & said that those were the happy years for her. She is such a beautiful woman.

It's funny how a terrible disease like Alzheimer's can be a curse and a blessing. It has protected her from retaining the memory and feeling the long term hurt of losing her daughter Carol to breast cancer in July.

Folie a Deux

Not thrilled with these pictures. That statue in the first picture is something that we just got & have to take home to finish someone's paint job on it. The first two pictures are of one room and the third is the second room. They were two shops and the owner of the building put a french door size opening between the two for us to double the space.

Next week Lee and I want to make it to a barn sale at Willow Nest. It's about 2 hours + from Tacoma in Washougal, Wa by the Columbia River. I will put a link to the right. It's hard to find things for a cheap price to pass it along to customers anymore. What once was everyone's junk is now alot of people's treasures.

Lynn Whipple

In the Great NW, today is just beautiful. I know we are known for our rain but the rain has it's pay off. We are much like England here. Weather wise that is.

A great day to get outside and do some weeding. Nah.

Going to the shop today and I will take some pictures. The ones I have are of November (except the one below). It is a very cute shop, if I say so myself, but so many people that come in say so too so it must be so.

Here is 2 of my Lynn Whipple "Ninnies" is what she calls them. Aren't they just bizarre but loveable? That is what I love about them. Just a touch over the line out there. Website link to the right!

Good night Marion

Calvary Cemetery

I love cemeteries. Catholic cemeteries. Old Catholic cemeteries. Love the religious statues. Some have pictures of their loved ones on the headstone. Just love it. There is one in particular that I go to. It's in Tacoma on Orchard. Now having been to Europe and seeing the cemeteries there, ours is nothing, but the Calvary Cemetery is the closest one to my memories of what they were like.

I am off on Mondays and last year during the spring I would go and walk around. I took many pictures there, laying down under the statutes to get a different angle. The groundskeepers began to get use to my quirkiness. I would walk around and (this is a bit weird) read their names on the tombstones out loud. I wonder how long had it been since anyone has ever said their name out loud. Some have been gone for 80-100 years. Where ever they are, do they hear me? Do they get a tingle or a warm feeling that someone had just actually said their name out loud. It's just so peaceful there. Landscaping is beautiful and the have the most beautiful peegee hydrangeas there.

Kitty looks like my Sabrina

Darn, this picture I couldn't/didn't photograph so well.

This is another one of my favorite's of Laurie Meseroll's. Who am I kidding....they all are.

You can purchase them from Jen O'Conner at Earthangelstoys.com She will do layaway! Now that is the best way to buy art! Remember Laurie is listed on Jen's site under "Mudcakes".

The little girl is holding a kitty that looks like our Sabrina. She was the runt of the litter but she is the feistiest one. She has no fear and everything fears her little scrappy thin body. She is the great huntress (which I don't like and she knows when I am not happy if she has a bird when I reach for the hose). In contrast, there is her sister Gorbie. She must weigh 25 pounds & just is one huge snowball. She can only catch bugs. She has never had to be hosed.

Marta

Sorry, about the glare on this one. I scanned an old tintype, a little bit of tinting, applied some grunge brushes & wings glued the print about 16x20 to canvas and then of course brushed beeswax on it.

I can't figure out if her face is haunting or pi**ed off. She almost has the look of Mona Lisa. Something brewing in that brain of hers. Maybe her husband forgot to put the seat down (even in out houses, don't they have or had seats??). Or she is just so tired of working all day and the last thing she wanted was to sit veeerrrrry still for a photo.

I noticed that in most early pictures, no one smiled. Is it because they all had such bad teeth? I think it's because they really had to keep still for a few minutes for the picture to take so there was a greater success rate if they didn't smile (which sometimes if you smiled to long you begin to twitch and then caused a blur). That's my take on it anyway.

Gone Walking

Another one of my Laurie paintings. I love the

colors and textures.

This painting is so rich and fabulous in person. You have to see one in person to get the full impact of one.

Laurie mentioned that she may do some landscapes. I am hoping one day for a mermaid. Fingers crossed. Hint hint Laurie! Please visit her website Mudcakes and at Earthangelstoys. Links are to the right.

Good night Madge, Ingrid, Emily and Ellen!

Fading Memories par deux

Here is my Aunty Priscilla. She's not lost or forgotten but the look on her face is so grim that I had to use it in the series.

All the pictures I have taken over the years, I wonder where they will be in 50 or 100 years. Will they still be in our family? Will someone understand the importance of family history? I hope one of my children will have the same passion and a bit of fear of that I have of being forgotten. Even if it means just opening a photo album once a year and looking back on all the relatives and remembering. I think their souls feel it when we remember or speak their name.

Fading Memories

I am facinated with vintage photos. It breaks my heart to see photos at a garage sale, ebay, antique stores, etc. I wonder where are the family of these folks? Why aren't these old pictures a family treasure? These are forgotten lost souls.

I put together a collection of these photos and purposely blurred them to make it look like they were a fading memory. They were lost and looking for someone that would love them again. One group of the photos I put behind panes of glass on a huge old window. Souls looking into the world of the living. Wanting to be remembered again.

Good Night Madeleine