Backlog

Can it be true? I haven't written since May 6th? 

It's actually not a surprise at all; I'm being disingenuous. The last 3 months have been a complete whirlwind, since we came back to Seattle from Whidbey Island at the end of February.

We went up there and stayed for a month for a couple reasons: one, I hate February and anything to distract me from the drear that is February is a good thing and two, we had been considering off and on for a year or so whether we wanted to move up to Whidbey Island. 

We (my husband Scott and I) really loved our stay, and thought, why not? We'll rent our house out in Seattle and rent a place up there. And if we really love it after a year, then sell our house and buy one on the island. 

Then just for sh*ts and poops we decided to find out from a real estate agent (the lovely and talented Domenica Lovaglia of West Seattle Windermere) how much our house could possibly sell for. We didn't have high expectations in this economic climate: but Domenica gave us a very sunny and optimistic number. So we thought, well, what the heck? Let's see what happens. 

So April was spent fixing up the house and packing. The house went on the market on May 4th. We got an offer a week and a half later! So then the rest of May was more cleaning, purging and packing and racing back and forth from Seattle and W.I. looking for a place to rent. We found an amazing spot, and I mean AMAZING, just in time and so we moved June 6th, and after a couple weeks we're settling in nicely.

WTF? It's so crazy when you make a big life decision and everything just falls in to place and suddenly everything is different. So here we are. No longer city mice. We have bunnies and deer and eagles and all kinds of wildlife in our "backyard" (we are on 13 acres. I little different then our city backyard that was maybe 600 sq ft). We have raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, salmon berries, mulberries, apples, cherries, pears, and plums. We have an extensive herb garden and a plot to plant our own vegetables. I have my own separate art studio and Scott has a loft for his office.

There are so many details, big and small, that are things that I have fantasized about for so long. I cannot believe I'm here.

Anyway, I'm posting some pics not only of this great new place, but some from the past few months as well. 

In keeping with the whirlwind that has been our life, on Monday we are leaving for Norway for 3 weeks to visit with my father's family - who other than one uncle and one cousin, haven't met my husband or my daughter yet. I haven't been back since 1998 - way overdue. 

So there won't be any posts until we get back - then a whole crapload of new pics and stories I'm sure!

Lulu enjoying a spring rain puddle.

My experiment with dyeing easter eggs with onion skins. I used little leaves and flowers to make the patterns. See how HERE.

This was my favorite, using plum blossoms.

Here's a pic of the picnic table, fire pit and shelter in our new backyard!

Here's my new painting studio, in the inside.

Here's a picture of the house from the backyard.

Here's the mulberry tree outside the bedroom window.

This is where the woodpile lives.

Here's another building on the property.

This is the outside of the art studio.

Some pink poppies in the garden.

The woodstove.

The livingroom.

The kitchen and dining room.

See you all in a few weeks!

Dreamy Places: My House!

For the past two months we have been packing and purging and cleaning like mad, because we decided to put the house on the market and move up to Whidbey Island!!! You can see more info at www.5014fortysecond.com, in case you are looking for a house in the Columbia City neighborhood of Seattle.

Here's pics of the results of our labor (of love):

Illustration Friday: Poise

"Glaukopis/Love in a Cold Climate"

mixed media on birch panel

$275

click to enlarge

This painting is based on a photo of Nancy Mitford. She was an author in the early 20th century - the two books of hers I have read is "The Pursuit of Love" & "Love in a Cold Climate". If you like "Cold Comfort Farm" by Stella Gibbons you will definitely love Nancy Mitford.
There are many photos out there of her and her sisters - and I think she (and her family) are the epitome of "poise".

My mixed media in this painting got even more "mixed" - the trees and owl are linoleum prints I made and sealed to the board, and the white trees behind the figure are scratched into the paint. So this work is a mixture of acrylic painting, collage, linoleum printing, pencil drawing, and scratchboard.

New Show: Caffe Ladro Fremont, April/May 2009

I will have my work up at Caffe Ladro Fremont (452 N 36th St) for the next two months - and I even have three new pieces to add to the bunch. I also noticed on their website that the photo they have for the Caffe Ladro Capitol Hill location has MY art in the background. If you look closely, with a magnifying glass, you can see 'em. :-)

"Dorothea"

 5X7 mixed media on birch panel 

$95

"Esther"

 5X7 mixed media on birch panel

$95

I have it on REPEAT

Brandi Carlile - "Have You Ever"

Whidbey homes

While we were on Whidbey, we explored a lot of different neighborhoods. One of the amazing things about living on Whidbey is you can really have a variety of environments - you could live on the beach, in town, in farmland, or in the woods. Here's a few houses that I took pictures of in all of these places.

This house I'm totally in love with - an old 1945 stone cottage on 1.5 acres. When can we move int?

This house overlooks a valley of farms with the Puget Sound off to the right (can't see in picture) - can you imagine? Living in a farmhouse with a view of the ocean? 

I just thought this house was a neat combination of new and old touches. Visualize without the cars in front.

Totally dreamy beach house.

I love the design of this house: obviously they used some sort of reclaimed wood (from a barn?) to front the house. 
Nice old creepy Coupeville house.

The above 4 pics are from a beach community that doesn't allow cars. Loved the old 40's beach cottages.

Neato straw bale house that our friends were renting in a co-housing community.

English style cottage on the ocean. Sigh.

So excited!

We just bought tickets to go to Norway this summer! I am so excited! My father grew up in Norway and all of his relatives still live there. The last time I went out was Christmas of 1998 - so this visit is LOONNGG overdue. Even more exciting: I get to introduce my husband and daughter.
We got a great deal through a summer sale with SAS, and are going to fly into Stockholm, rent a car, and drive over to Oslo and then up north to stay on an island where my father and uncle have an old farmhouse.
And when we land in Stockholm, we get to visit one of my favorite blog artists, Karin Erikkson (and not just because we have the same name), who has a wee store called manos that is located in an old working farm north of town. Above are some pictures of her store and her ceramics. LOVE THEM!

More Magical Whidbey

So much of our visit here on Whidbey Island this month has felt magical - not just my magical percolator story (read HERE). We shared our spot on the beach with some wildlife - namely, a family of otters who were hanging out under the house (until I knew what was going on I was pretty sure all the bangs and creaks meant the cabin was haunted) and a family of bald eagles who scoped out the fish situation from the trees behind us. Both otters and eagles were in sets of three -just like our family (if you don't count the dog - sorry Grombers). Today, our last day here, was gloriously sunny - just like the day we arrived. On the day we came, the eagles flew by the front door, which felt like a fine welcome. Today, they followed me and Lulu and Oskar as we did our last beach walk.
I found a rock with a white marking on it that looked like a dragonfly - I looked up some possible meanings of the symbolism of dragonflies and found them remarkably applicable to my current situation. The dragonfly deals with:
Mind
Dreams
Balance
Thoughts
Awareness
Living to the fullest

I have a few more posts coming with pictures from our trip, so this won't be the last time you read about our late winter Island Idyll - but since today is officially our last day I want to say Goodbye - but only for now. We have fallen in love and we are coming back - soon I hope!

My magical coffee pot

If you may recall, I purchased a vintage percolator recently (read about it HERE), The woman who rented our beach cottage to us on Whidbey read my post and wrote me this email:

"I’m a little shook up, Karin. I feel like I‘ve seen a ghost.

I may have told you that we bought the houses with everything left in them; stuffed full of forty years or more of stuff. That coffee pot was in the cottage on the shelf by the sink! I can’t say for sure it is the exact one, but I think that’s it! There was another one next door with a glass nobule and one just like in the picture in my house! In 2003 I had a huge, open house estate sale to empty the houses for refurbishing. Most neighbors on the street came to the sale with stories and history to share. They went through the houses, room by room, reminiscing. Clara was about 88; she picked up the one with the glass top and told me about countless cups of afternoon coffee she and the other women on the street had shared. I gave her the pot as a keepsake. I gave one to Barbra Greenleaf (she is some how related to the previous owners), she still lives in the blue house towards the ferry. At the end of the sale I went up to Good Cheer to let them know I had a pick ups worth of good stuff to donate if they’d be able to come pick it up for me. I think the coffee pot/percolator may have been in that load. I remember that I put the cords inside the pots (like my mom taught me) so they wouldn’t get separated.
Apparently, these percolators where a great source of pride for these ladies as well. And now you’ve brought this one back to life. Wow.

Rose"

Ok how cool is that?

Spooky!

There was another beautiful sunrise outside our window the other morning, so I went outside to see if I could capture the colors and the light. Sunrise photos really are pretty boring - they are only amazing in person. So why are we still compelled to whip out our cameras and snap away in the early morn? Especially me, since I know nothing about taking quality photos.
Anyhoo, the first picture had the flash still on, which reflected off the frost on the grass (first picture), so I turned it off. However when I took the second picture, the flash still went off (I swear I turned it off!), and captured what I assume is fog/moisture in the air. But why didn't that happen in the first picture? And what's up with the supposedly turned off flash? So I turned it off - again - and got the third picture.
Kinda creeped me.

More Scenes from Whidbey: Saratoga Woods Walk

Scott, Lulu and Oskar

Old outhouse?

We went on a short hike through the Saratoga woods near Langley the other day. It was very north-westy - big trees, lotsa ferns and moss. It was a nice stroll. There are a bunch of other trails nearby - here's a mapif you are in the area and feeling nature-y.

Book Report: Made From Scratch by Jenna Woginrich

I recently read Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life by Jenna Woginrich, and I would definitely recommend it to all you crafters and gardeners and pioneer-wannabe types. Jenna is a twenty-something graphic designer who also has a passion for chickens, sewing her own clothes, baking her own bread, and a good cuppa joe. At the time of her writing her book, she lived in a small northern town in Idaho, and after meeting a farmer-type family, learned all kinds of practical homesteading type activities, which she recounts in her book, along with fun crafts so the reader can participate. It was a quick read that I found inspiring. One thing, for some reason, stood out for me: the previously mentioned passion for coffee. Which is weird, because I'm not a huge coffee drinker. Anyway, she raves about coffee made in a percolator. She found a vintage stove top percolator at a thrift store, the kind with the see-through nobule on the lid where you can see the coffee spit up as it percolates. She says this is the best coffee she's ever had.
I found myself overcome with the desire to purchase my own vintage percolator and test out whether or not this made good coffee, under the excuse that it was for my husband, who does love coffee quite passionately. I checked on ebay, and found they ranged from $30 up to $70-ish. My interest dimmed slightly. I wanted cheap.
So I headed to the local Goodwill. No percolator. I took a trip south to Burien with my friend Alison, to check out their local thrift stores. No dice - except one that was missing a cord, and it was like $10 or something ridiculous. Didn't meet the criteria.
Anyway I had kind of given up on this random quest. So here we are on Whidbey this month - and they have this AWESOME thrift store called Good Cheer. We had gone in looking for a cookie sheet, and low and behold, an electric percolator for $3! With all the parts! It wasn't as cool as Jenna's, (no see through nobule) - but it was cheap! And whole!
We brought it home and I made my first pot of percolated coffee. And I tell you what: it's ridiculously fast, tasty, and makes a neat noise as it percs. I heart it. I also saw online that this particular model sells for like $50-$70. AND I GOT IT FOR 3 BUCKS. SWEET.

Here's a completely un-related photo that made me laugh this bright sunny AM: we have a neighbor dog that knows what time I give Oskar his breakfast, and comes running over to our yard to try to scam some kibble. This morning I was late with the chow and looked out the window and noticed him patiently waiting for us. Later, I saw the evidence of his visit.

On the Beach and a visit from the fam

Cousin Stella having some juice

NB looking on....

View from 1st street in Langley, looking at Camano Island (this photo isn't in black and white - that is how dark and grey it was that day....)

Renee and Stella at the big scale in Langley

NB on the beach

Grombly on the beach

Castle Park on Whidbey

We went to a park on Maxwelton Rd near Langley the other day called by locals "castle park", for obvious reasons. This place was SO COOL. A huge, wooden castle with all kinds of things to climb and swing on and hide in and slide down. It was ridiculous. I wanted to be a kid again so I could join in the fun. Surrounding the park was huge expanses (and I mean HUGE) of green fields for soccer and baseball, and tracks for running. It was pretty impressive!