A Stylish Journey

Vera Idella McMullan Nov. 6, 1920 - June 8, 2011

On the morning of June 8, God thankfully allowed Vera to clock out and head on home to heaven.  One second she was breathing, the next second...she wasn't.  So quiet, so gentle.  I was there soon afterward, as I only live about two miles away.  She was still warm, and still seemed alive, but she was thankfully finished up with earth and already departing.  The family gathered one by one - coming from jobs, schools, meetings, and the other whatnot of life.  

As they arrived, they went immediately to her side and kissed her forehead and smoothed her hair.  She had to have known that even in death, she still had that particular stylish look - that Vera Style - in her black nightie, edged in lace.  

When the Funeral Home arrived to take her away, they had to wait and wait as everyone wanted to touch her and talk to her one more time.  So they finally said, "Just call us when you are ready to let her go", and they left.  The Hospice Nurses finally were allowed to go in and wash her and straighten everything, and still the visits went on.  Finally, almost three hours after she had died, her children let her go.

Immediately, her daughter and granddaughter Tiffany went to her expansive closet and began choosing her outfit.  Less than a minute later, Tiffany swept a purple A-Line Dress with a Cropped Jacket off the rack, and pronounced, "This is the one; this is it!".  It had a Ruched Collar in the same fabric as the dress  - so stylish, so Vera.  It was easy for Deborah, her daughter, to select from the dozens of shoes...cocktail heels that were clear plastic, spangled with tiny rinestones.  Jewelry was selected next, and they were off to the Funeral Home.

Well.  If you could just have seen her last night at the viewing.  She looked fabulous, simply fabulous.  The folks there at Brunswick Funeral Services had styled her hair and makeup from a photo I had emailed to them, and they were spot on.  Her skin was peachy and glowing, the bruises all gone.  Her hair was perfect, styled exactly like she would have done it.  As people passed by the casket, their constant comment was, "What a beautiful woman!".  At 90 years of age, after such a struggle to die, still stylin'.

Vera and her husband Harold.

Vera On Her Trip to Heaven

My Mother-In-Law is over 90 years old, a World War II veteran, and is battling through the death sequence of her life.  Last week, we thought she had about 24-36 hours to live.  That was on Thursday.  Today is Monday, and she is still here.

Hospice gave us a booklet and we all read it last Thursday...says that hallucinations (check), thrashing around with the arms (check), talking non-stop to people who aren't in the room and possibly deceased (check), eyes 3/4 closed and not focusing (check), no intake of food, little intake of fluids, and long long periods of sleep (check) are harbingers of imminent death. So I called my Husband and son to come back from Atlanta on Thursday, and they came skidding in around 9:30 PM.  And she is still, unbelievably, painfully, communicating with us.

Her arms and legs are bones wrapped in thin skin, so fragile that she can't be touched there without a little scream from her chest.  Her lips are so chapped from the lack of fluids that the skin is peeling off, no matter how much oil and salve we lovingly swipe on them.  Tonight, her mail delivery lady (US Postal Service Employee) arrived at the doorstep with her guitar and amplifier and begged to sing to her.  So we fed the postal worker a glass of wine, gathered the family, and moved to Vera's bedroom.  And the postal worker tuned her guitar and began singing.  Like an angel she sang.  Like an angel.  All in the room were sobbing at the end at the pure sweetness - all the way down to the 10 year old great-grandson.  We weren't sad, we were just so overwhelmed by the tsunami of love, and the reception of love by Grandma Mac.  She was obviously listening, and settled down like a feather within seconds after the sweet music began.

I keep thinking, what have I missed here??  Why is God keeping her here with us so long, when she needs to just go fly in the stars?  Only thing I can think of is that it is just Vera.  She always ran her own road, and ignored the obvious solutions.  She is doing it her own way, and maybe hoping for another day of fishing, shopping, cooking, and loving her family.  Just Vera Idella.  Just her.

Cabinet Hinges in a Nutshell...

As promised, here's a quick jot on Cabinet Hinges - not very entertaining, but if you are renovating your kitchen, you are going to run into this.  Took me DAYS to work all this out.

If you are trying to keep your existing cabinets (as I was) you need to know the different styles of cabinet before you go off shopping for hinges.  Here are the two different styles:

You can see that the cabinet on the bottom takes a hard right and hard left when it comes to the front.  The door has to be mounted onto this frame,  determines what choices you have on your hinges.

My cabinets are "Face Frame Cabinets":

My doors sit on top of the Face Frame - they don't go out to the edge, and they aren't centered inside the opening.  They OVERLAY the frame.

So now I knew what kind of hinge configuration I needed...an overlay hinge.  Only an overlay hinge will work in this configuration - not a full or partial inset hinge.  That narrowed the choices considerably.   I wanted little or no hinge visible, and the cabinet maker and job foreman firmly suggested that I go with a European hinge rather than a partial overlay hinge.  The reason?  The good ones are adjustable 3 different ways.  That means you can always go back and loosen the set screws and adjust them if your house settles and the cabinet doors start looking like they aren't on straight!  

So, I used a 5/8" European overlay hinge in brushed nickel.  And, many of the decisions were made for me before I even went shopping...  You can buy these in "Contractor Packs" of 10 at The Home Depot.  Comes out better on the budget that way.

The hinge will be invisible from the outside, allowing my hardware to be the stars of the show!

The reason I had to go with the 5/8" was because my oak frames are what carpenters call "one-by".  That means the frame is 1" by 2".  Only it isn't totally 1" thick - for some reason in this industry, if it says it is 1" thick, it is only 5/8".  That is a mystery I am not willing to spend time on to figure out.

Now, my fairly simple hardware will be the only metal showing on my doors:

Cup pulls for the drawers.

 Okay, I know how boring that was, but trust me, this is info you can use if you are updating your kitchen any time soon.  You won't spend days and days picking out your hinges, and have to return them all because they won't work!

"Fishie Coral" Fabric Entry - Yikers!

Okay, now that I have been to Surtex and the National Stationery Show, it is time to put my money (courage?) where my mouth is.

Ta Daaa!  Here is my first ever entry in a fabric design contest:

"Fishie Coral" by Lula Belle - you can vote in the fabric design contest here: Fabric Design Contest

Spoonflower Custom Fabrics is the first digital printing company I ever used to print my own fabric designs.  They hold weekly design contests, and the competition has gotten stiffer as the months go by.  After dragging my husband up to New York to walk the Surtex surface design show, I knew I was toast - with myself and others - unless I jumped into the pool and got rolling.   So I did.

"Fishie Coral" can be printed on either 42" wide quilting weight cotton or 54" - 58" wide in several different fabrics, including my favorite upholstery weight twill at $32.00 per yard.  The repeat size can be customized by changing the image size on the page where you place orders.   


All you artists out there should take a look at Spoonflower - you can upload your designs and print as little as a $5.00 swatch, or a 21" x 18" piece for $11.00.  Caution: It Is Addictive!

Secrets Of A Successful Coastal Cottage Renovation

Today I was at Home Depot and Lowe's, picking up more materials for the Beach Cottage Renovation, and was thinking about how much I have learned.  There aren't any books out there to tell you the little Secrets to Coastal Cottage Renovation.  I was thinking that I should write a pamphlet, but decided my blog would work, too.  So, here goes.


Rule No. 1:  ALWAYS use a reputable general contractor for Coastal Renovations, one that you know personally if at all possible.  Like this one at Ocean Isle Beach: http://wbpropertiesofnc.com

Examples of work by WB Properties

Coastal communities draw all sorts of folks who have the bright idea to "live at the beach and do some work on the side to support myself".  The work comes 2nd.  The beach comes first.  Always.   Getting Sub-Contractors to finish the job on schedule is almost impossible if the fish are biting or the surf is up.  Know what I mean? You need a General Contractor who is mean as a snake to get those guys back off the water and on the job.

Rule No. 2:  KNOW the language and vocabulary of your coastal home and lifestyle.  This way, the millions of choices out there will shrink to a handful, and you will always know you are "in the zone" when choosing paint, hardware, and architectural details.  Be authentic to your vocabulary, and you can't go wrong.

You just know from the exterior of this Coastal home what the interior is like - it has to be Tuscan in flavor.

The color of the exterior, the tile, and the architecture all say that the interior should be Tuscan in vocabulary - that means earthy rusty oranges, olive greens, reds, and yellow tones, with oil-rubbed bronze, natural wood, and a huge stone tiled kitchen area that opens out to an expansive patio with an outdoor kitchen.

See the earthy greens, oranges, and golds?

This Mission/Prairie style Coastal home says that you will NOT  find hot  pink, lime green, and flamingoes in the bathroom:

This is the Coastal Living Idea House for 2009.

 Instead, you will find granite counter tops with black flecks, oil-rubbed bronze hardware, white kitchen cabinets, and lots of built-in shelving and ceiling work.   Pretty much Prairie-Style, but with creamy whites lifting it up to a Coastal Look.

Looks like this:

Or this:

And then, there's the Coastal Style that is best portrayed at this blogspot that I found about a month ago - Lime in the Coconut

This photo just says it all - very saturated color, ethnic influences in the decor, and an easy/breezy lifestyle with the focus on Mediterranean/Florida Keys flavor.

The back of the house probably has a patio/deck that looks like this:

See what I'm talking about?  You INSTANTLY know what belongs in these homes, and all the other bazillion choices just drop by the wayside.  That's the vocabulary that you choose, and you just take it and run with it.  Easy, yes?


Next post:  The nuts and bolts of ceramic tile and cabinet hinges.

Clamshells, Papier Mache' and the Bucket List

Do you remember the Papier Mache' Giant Clamshell I made and showed you last summer?  I was trying to develop a new mixture that made newsprint turn into something resembling modeling clay - only it wasn't.  And I wanted it to be hard and "sandable" but not brittle when it dried.  I came up with a mix that I loved, and here's a photo of my finished Giant Clamshell:

With the exception of the shells used for the base and inside the Clam Shell, the rest was my "Paper Clay".  Life intervened and I had to drop that little experiment, but I'm dying to get back to finishing the four others that I had started, all different sizes. 

This morning, I found this photo at Hooked on Houses:

As you will see from her link, she found this at Caron's Beach House.

Now, do you think that as soon as I finish this renovation, I will be finishing those Clam Shells, or what??

Paint Before Granite, (and everything else) Part Two

 I finally got a corner to plug up the computer, so here is an update on the renovation, and a repeat warning...paint everything before you install the granite! My beautiful granite made it through unscathed, but it made for a lot more work for the paint crew.  Don't know why it got scheduled like that.

Ot was a tough week for the contractors, but by Friday night, things were turning the corner - Just look at where we were on Tuesday:

Check out all the plastic and blankets covering my granite!

Since the painters were spraying the cabinets, even the ceiling was wrapped, with a curtain of plastic between the kitchen and living room.  And, a carpet of plastic on the floor.

Although the plastic was VERY thin, somehow it was strong enough to last until Thursday night, even with plumbers, painters, carpenters and everyone else walking all over it.  By Friday night, this is how parts of the kitchen looked minus the plastic:

New dishwasher, up and running.

 Look at my favorite thing of all, my new High/Low Kitchen Sink and Bridge Faucet!  I'm in love with this and wash everything by hand, just to get to play with it!

Is it possible to be in love with a Faucet, for crying out loud?

  The hardest day of all was Wednesday, at 93 degrees outside, not much cooler than that inside, since all the doors were open for the workers.  The people in the bathroom drew the short straws...

Everyone, even the painters, were working in here - it was chaos.

 But just look at what they accomplished by Friday night:

Gorgeous tile work by the crew from Wilmington.

So Tuesday we resume, and hopefully I'll be able to show you finished rooms by Friday!  Off to the beach for some sun-time! 

Linking Surtex, the National Stationery Show and the Garment District

I've finally found a computer to use for a few minutes - thank heavens for the Public Library System!   Now I can tell you about the Garment District and how it all links completely back to Surtex, Surface Design, and the National Stationery Show.

The morning after walking the shows, I headed out to 38th and 39th streets to check out the New York Garment District.  The most surprising thing is that many of the shops were already open at 8:00, so I plunged right in...

Take a look at the juicy things I found at Pacific Trimmings:

There  were aisles and aisles of Buttons!

And zippers, the likes of which I have never seen:

These are Riri Zippers, and I find them to be absolutely Drool Worthy...
http://www.riri.com/

There was a complete wall of ribbons...

Thankfully, I'm not captivated by ribbons like I was a year ago - otherwise I would have wasted  precious time staring  at this wall and designing "Ribbon Things" on the fly.

The aisles and aisles of Buttons in small boxes that went from floor to ceiling were what just overwhelmed me and made me sigh to the person sweeping escapee buttons off the floor, "I'll have to come back when I know what I really need, because what I really want is ALL of these".  He nodded sagely, and continued to sweep for a few moments.  Resting his broom, he looked me in the eye and said, "You need to bring your patterns and any materials you are already working with; otherwise you will not be happy with your purchases."  Sound advice for a starry-eyed tourist who was living the dream, if only for a few hours.  He probably gives that same advice several times a day.

I walked around the Garment District and visited many shops, and the thing that kept reverberating inside me was that all this three-dimensional texture was the same two-dimensional texture that I had looked at the day before.  Only this time, the lines, dots, curly-cues and color combinations I saw at Surtex were now on fabrics, zippers, buttons, and a million other things that were probably produced thousands of miles away...all from drawings just a few blocks down the street.  Isn't it fabulous to be able to imagine something and then make it happen?

I can hardly wait to have my design time back - as soon as the Beach Cottage Renovation is finished, I am diving into my studio, and may miss the Summer altogether!  Speaking of which, as soon as the painters, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, tile and granite folks are gone, I'll hook the computer back up and show you the Renovation photos. 

Paint Before Granite...Always!

I have sooo much to tell you, but we still don't have the office set back up here at the Beach Cottage. There's more to report on about Surtex and the National Stationery Show, and the Garment District - not to mention what I've learned about not putting new granite and a thoroughly energetic painter in the same room together!

Hopefully we'll be able to set up a workspace tomorrow afternoon - my fingers will fly across a REAL keyboard. Many photos to come!

What I Learned At Surtex and The National Stationery Show

  I've mulled over this blog for a couple of days now, still reverberating from the sights and energy that swirled through the Javits Center - trying to get it all down to a nutshell.  It just isn't that simple. 

Having never walked this show, I was acutely aware that I should not approach the artist's booth unless invited - I kept my "Artist" badge front and center as I began walking the perimeter aisles.  Before I had even gotten to the end of the first aisle, I had been greeted with smiles and nods from several artists...I guess because after all, they were in my shoes at some time in their lives!   This is the first artist I met:

Julie Britton of Lillie and Julie

She's from Chattanooga - not far from me - and had a charming booth with wall sized posters of her work.  You can see her art at this link:  http://lillieandjulie.blogspot.com/   and read about how her Grandmother Lillie inspired her.  Love those power-house Grandmothers!  When I checked back in with her later, she was happy to report that she had made some promising contacts, even though this was only her first time to show at Surtex.

Then around the corner, I was drawn to the images and crisp colors in Laurie Wisbrun's booth:

Laurie Wisbrun

 She invited me to chat for a minute, and we quickly got to the fact that she is authoring a book that every Neophyte fabric designer is going to want to have:  The Complete Guide to Designing and Printing Fabric that you can preview here: http://lauriewisbrun.com/press-releases/2010/9/29/authoring-a-book-to-be-published-fall-2011.html.  I WILL be buying that book, as soon as it hits the shelves this Fall.  Laurie confirmed that I have to crack down and learn Illustrator, and revealed that she is getting tutored in Photoshop by her Father.  Goes to show, you can NEVER stop learning and teaching yourself new tricks.

Booth after booth of Fab art, the result of many long hours of hard work.

 I walked every aisle, and met more artists, and I'm here to tell you that there is no subject that isn't covered by the Surtex artists.  You could really see the individual styles, even when they dealt with the same subject.  I was just floored by the more graphic styles shown...simply beautiful colors and combinations.

After lunch, I walked most of the National Stationery Show, and just when I was getting blurry-eyed  I happened upon the booth for We R Memory Keepers, and met the dynamo who was giving demonstrations of their Cinch Book Binder, one Stephanie Coleman.  Good heavens.  That woman is AMAZING!  No matter what was thrown at her, she had the answer - all the while binding books, demonstrating new products, zooming around the booth to grab samples, and making it all look so simple.  I walked away a half-hour later with orders for most of their products, and can hardly wait to get them!  I'm dreaming of hand-bound books with my designs, both fabric and paper!

But, back to the recap - here is my take on all of this:  There are thousands of really good surface design artists out there.  Thousands.  And with the economy the way it still is, I think that for a new artist to get picked up by any major company is a very slim chance.  Buyers are looking for proven sellers, designs that are backed by known artists who have years of experience in surface design, and the street-wise knowledge that comes from having been "out there".  I just didn't feel like the newbies were getting that much attention at this show...and although the buyers may have really wanted new blood, they are constrained by what the general public is actually plunking down money for.  I may be wrong, but that's what it felt like.

So, a long "Thinking Walk" back to the hotel for a nap, under NYC "low ceiling" skies:

 

And then, a lovely dinner at Ai Fiori on 5th Avenue, with their renowned Lamb Chops:

Followed by a night-time shopping trip to Lord and Taylor!  I love New York City!  Tomorrow, I'll tell you what I found while exploring the amazing shops in the Garment District.




 

New York Style

Back from New York, and sooo much to tell you!  We hit the ground running on Sunday afternoon, and landed right in the middle of the Hell's Kitchen 9th Avenue Food Festival, a delightful intro that really showed the neighborhood NYC Style that I love so much.  There was Opera on the street:

And lots of pets who were very happy to be at the Festival with their Humans:

Waiting to score snacks.

Clearly an Opera lover - she cocked her head on high notes, and closed her eyes in pleasure.

A little shy, but her Human was very protective...

Our favorite of the day was the DJ who was selling CD's from his booth, but had the crowd rocking with him all afternoon - I've never seen such a diverse group of people spontaneously jump into a street dance!

He's the one in the green shirt - and he was GOOD.

 

 

 

 I did some shopping, of course-

And then it was time to browse some of the neighborhood grocery stores - I wish I could get my food here; it is all so fresh, so beautifully presented.  So lucky, you New York people!

An amazing array of Olive Oils, and this was only one wall!

Hundreds of Cheeses, stacked so pretty.

And, of course, the standard New York Deli buffet that we dove into:

This is only one row of offerings...there were four separate aisles of food, from cold to hot. Yummy!

 After a hot shower and fresh clothes, we headed out to Sushi Samba on Park, and reveled in Fusion Sushi, New York style! 

Now I know where Chef Mark at Shallotte Cattle Barn got his inspiration for the Cattle Barn Roll!

Sublime.  Happy Campers.  Next post: Surtex and the National Stationery Show!