Hanging Art, Making Art, Updates!

I'm getting ready for the arrival of my sectional sofa midweek by assembling a FLOR carpet for my living room and getting art off the floor and onto the walls.  First, the FLOR carpet -- it's tiles that are joined at the corners with a sticky square. The idea is that you can easily pick up one tile and wash it, if needed, or even replace it if you can't get some dirt out of the carpet.  I love the idea, I think it's great for kids and dogs and possibly essential for Seattle muddy weather.  We'll see.  You can see how the tweed pattern (which I placed randomly) looks in the living room photos.  
Life imitates art!  The flowers were sent to me and I put them on the table right below this painting by Christine Lafuente

I brought some of my own work, but also brought work that I'd acquired over the years from other artists.  I don't have them all hung yet, but here's some photos of what's up so far.


In my bedroom, the photos of the sunset light in Portugal.  I took these last winter and they make me very happy.

Sculpture by Jeff Chyatte and two gouache paintings I did in Portugal






A large gouache painting by Stonington, Maine artist Jill Hoy.  I bought that painting in 1999, I think.

I've still got a lot more to hang but I'm trying to take it slow to avoid putting a lot of holes in the walls!

I went to an open studio session with a nude model on Sunday at the Gage Academy.  A friend from DC who'd moved to Seattle joined me.  It was so great to be back painting!  I talked a bit to other artists there and I'm definitely planning on going back.  They have open studio time Saturdays and Sundays.

I still don't have a car (last I heard it was in Chicago, maybe the bad weather has slowed delivery?) so when I went last week to look at a garden store -- Flower World! -- Ellie's next door neighbor and expert gardener Raymond took me.  We had to stop first to have the "world's largest cinnamon roll" at the Maltby Cafe and I can't say it wasn't the world's largest, it sure was big.  We probably ate a quarter of it and then brought the rest home.  The plants that do well here in the PNW have some overlap with what we grew in DC but I have some new ideas and a garden plan to work on.



I'm still working on finding the right ways to store things in my house and I have a long list of baskets I need for every room in the house so I can put stuff out of sight and away.  

People came to fix my oven and left me with 2 burners working (more than I had before) and an order for many parts to get the range & oven working.  I have an electrician coming this week to hard-wire video doorbells for my front and back door (kudos by the way, to Ring, for having an actual person I could talk to and help me figure out which doorbell would be the right one for me).  And tomorrow I'm getting my WA driver's license, one step closer to feeling like a legit resident of this place.

On the social front, in the next few days I have a coffee and two meet-up for drinks with people who friends told me live out here.  I actually used that contact information!  I do still have more people on my "to meet" list and I'm looking forward to it all.



 

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