Here you go, Jane Ann!

Jane Ann asked to see my holiday mantle. (Thanks!) I assume she meant the living room one -- and yep, it's similar this year. Every December I break out my collection of mercury glass candle sticks -- there is something so festive and pretty about them to me.  This year, the turquoise and silver brush trees are a new addition. More sparkle! I seem to be drawn to glitter this year. Go figure.

Here's more of a context shot. I love how the living room is so sunny in the morning, and I often sit there to have my morning coffee and read the paper.

And in case you're wondering, the family room has a fireplace and mantle too.  Usually my "White Christmas" dolls are up but they are resting this year. Some years I put a small tree in the family room as Miss C and I hang out in this room most evenings, but this year I only had one tree in me.  So, the funny tall trees are on the mantle to loom over the little holiday village ad provide a festive twinkle to the room.

Various guys from my snowperson collection are on the top of the bookshelf. I know it's kind of odd for a California home to have so much snow theming in the holiday decorations, but I do miss living in New Hampshire. I'm always dreaming of a White Christmas!

Happy holidays, friends -- whether sunny, snowy, or something in between.

Long Time, No Blog

I knew I'd been rather quiet here. But it startled me to log in and see it's been July since I posted. Yikes!  The reasons? Some good, some not so good. A new puppy -- very good! Some family health crises which were distracting, to say the least, and not so good. Lots of work -- also good. Lots of introspection, both good and not so good.

But I have decided that I miss blogging and I'm finally in a mental/emotional place where blogging doesn't feel like I'm forcing myself to sound artificially cheery or interesting. So, 2017 will represent the start of many new things, and among those will be a return to regular blogging. Maybe I'll even go crazy and give the blog a new look.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd share  some of the reflections rolling around in my head over the last months.

Family

There is nothing more important, really. And I count among my family some folks not related by blood but connected by love and experience and the absolutely certainty with which I can count on them for support. I'm so lucky to have parents and siblings and a dear aunt and wonderful cousins to connect me to who I've always been and wonderful lifetime memories. Over the last years as my marriage dissolved it has been odd to discover that people I thought were family turn out to be temporary. I know it happens all of the time, and maybe it's less common when in-law family members do stay connected. I've been surprised to see people choose sides even when they don't need to. Ah, well. Clarity isn't always comfortable, but it does make things, well, more clear. I am reminded more than ever these days that it's important to appreciate the family we have.

Friends

I am so lucky to have many amazing, wonderful, delightful friends. We all have casual friends, acquaintance-friends, friends of circumstance who may recede as circumstances change. I have been amazed and sometimes surprised at how, just when I needed it, friends came forward to throw me lifelines exactly when I needed one. I have a new, and maybe wiser and more realistic, view on friendship now. Not every friendship is meant to last forever. Relationships evolve. I think I'm seeing the relationships in my life more clearly now, and I treasure my friends all the more.  You know who you are.  Thank you, with all of my heart.

Motherhood

My daughter will turn 21 in 2017. It simply astonishes me. She's become a lovely young woman, with so much wit and humor and creativity. She has a fine-tuned sensitivity to authenticity in people which is remarkable. She's still finding her way, and it may not be at the pace of her age-wise contemporaries, but she's making remarkable strides. My mom role has changed a lot, but I'm appreciating the truth of that old wisdom about how a mom doesn't stop worrying about or mothering her kids.

Puppies! 

Speaking of mothering, that thing about having a puppy being like having a child? I knew the truth of that in superficial ways, of course, but having added Starlie to the family in August I've been astonished how true that maxim is on a lot of levels. I have spent more time sitting on the floor in the last 4 months than I have in the last 15 years -- since Miss C was a toddler, really. I had forgotten how laugh-out-loud entertaining puppies can be. I can see the faint outline of the lovely adult dog Starlie will be some day, but I am delighting who she is every single day. Seeing a creature grow this fast reminds me (just like mothering a toddler) how things change so fast, and how important it is to appreciate the moment.

Creativity

I have had such a weird waning of creativity. Perhaps I should say that really, it's been a shift. I've not had the interest in making original art quilts. When I sew, I want to handle pretty printed fabrics and sew them into simple patterns. (Thank you, Pinterest!) I have been playing a lot with paper and books and rubber stamping, which has also been a funny return to past enthusiasms that seems like another echo of who I used to be.  The room that was once dedicated to fiber art how now become a crowded jumble of fabric, sewing machines, paper, watercolor supplies, die cutting tools, book binding materials, card making supplies, and more.  (And more and more and more.)  I may deserve a record for how many craft supplies I can fit into a 10x12 room.  I look at all of this as another lesson on evolution, on interests waxing and waning but creativity always stays. It just shoots off in different directions some times.

Names

A name is a funny thing piece of personal identity. I remember when I got married, I was so excited to take my husband's name, to share a name and give that to our child and create our own new family.  But, with divorce and resulting events, I've not felt like that name fit any longer. I've been in a phase where Diane Hock doesn't fit, and I don't feel a part of the Hock family any longer. Diane Perin is someone I was 25+ years ago, and it felt weird to try to be "her" again. I was talking recently with a friend I've known since high school, and we were musing about how, when we were younger and approaching marriage, we discussed the pros and cons of changing our names.  My friend opted to keep her maiden name for professional purposes and took her husband's name for personal purposes.  I opted to adopt my husband's name for a lot of reasons, but having the same name as our children was key.  So we were laughing at how, 25 years later, our choices have turned out.  I'm dealing with the hassle of changing my name back, and having to sort out so many different places where that has to happen. I'm okay with not having the same name as my daughter now that she's a young adult (but was surprised and sort of amused when she asked me if she had to change her name too, or if she COULD change her name if she wanted to. I told her that she didn't have to, it wouldn't change automatically because of divorce, and if she wanted to change her name she could do that, there was a process. So far she's keeping hers.) My friend complained that her option has turned out to be a pain, too -- she never remembers what name she is where, and said she feels like she must look like a crazy person at the pharmacy, say -- "Don't have me under that name? Try this different one" as if she's not sure of her own name. I think I'm finally feeling like I'm getting to know the new, older, wiser Diane Perin.  Somehow that core person got lost along the way, and it is good to find her again.  So, please note -- name change, email address change, same person at the core but growing. Always growing.

Politics.

Oh dear. It's been a discouraging, dire time. I never thought I'd genuinely fear for our democracy, our institutions, and our constitutional rights.  But that's what I'm feeling now. Enough said.

Holidays

I love Christmas. It's not just the lights, and the decorations, and the music. It's the reminder that despite all of the craziness around us, it's good to have a season to pause, celebrate family and friends and spirituality. Holidays don't have to be crazy with shopping and noise and fuss.  We can choose to create quiet times with loved ones, sharing fun and remembering what the season is about. It's a season of comfort and joy, and I find myself humming "all is calm, all is bright" to myself often.  May yours be happy, peaceful ones, where ever you are.

So I will be back in 2017. I am not sad to see 2016 end, but am looking forward to all the wonder that lies ahead.

The Twelves: Where are they now?!

Hello, Twelve by Twelve friends!  Diane here.

Remember us?! It's been a long time since we last posted on this blog, but as today -- September 4 -- is exactly 9 years since we first posted on this blog, we thought an update was in order.  Brenda had the idea of our posting about what we've been doing since we ended our collaborative quilt adventure, and we agreed that each of us would take a day and tell you what we have been up to.

One thing is for sure: what started as a small, personal art challenge turned into something that took us places we never imagined we'd go. It brought us new friendships, amazing opportunities, and such fun adventures as we watched (and occasionally followed) our quilts as they traveled around the world.

So the rosy glow of our 5-year adventure still makes me smile, with pleasure and real gratitude.

For me, the last 3 and a half years since we finished our challenges have seen quite a few changes.  My art quilt making has slowed considerably (I'm going to maintain that it hasn't ground to a halt -- I'm just taking a break. A long break.) I'm not sure why my interest turned to making contemporary traditional quilts and modern quilts, but it did. And I'd had fun, making quilts for no particular reason. Here's one I finished recently, made from selvedges I've been saving over quite a few years:

I have also taken a bit of detour into drawing and painting, which continues to be a surprise and a pleasure. I've taken a load of online classes, mainly to make myself have to paint regularly. And I've found, as many of the teachers have promised, that the simple act of painting every day really has made me better.  Most recently, I took a great class from an idol, Roz Stendahl, on drawing life creatures from life -- which meant a month of drawing people and animals. Great fun, and I think it did get me past the anxiety of drawing things that insist on moving.

I also looped back to an old passion for handmade books and started making them again which was like reconnecting with an old friend after many years.  I got so involved making them that I started up an Etsy shop where I add books for sale from time to time. My books aren't traditional -- I call them "jumbly journals," in a sort of crazy quilt/collage style mix of papers and contents that some people call junk journals. They are fun to make and I go through periods where I make books obsessively.  I've made a few commissions too, which has been great fun.

During these last few years, I started judging quilt shows which has been very fun. It probably sounds corny, but I consider it a true privilege to be trusted with the task of looking at the quilt someone has slaved over with love and passion and so much time, and I take the responsibility of providing feedback very seriously. I especially love judging art quilts, and educating quilt guilds and show-runners about the importance of judging art quilts on art principles and not just on the technical parts of quilt making.

In my personal life, I've seen a fair number of changes. My sweet dog Gemma (who was my model for the "Lorikeet" challenge in the color challenge series) succumbed to back problems about 18 months ago. She was such a lovely dog, but it was time to let her go. For the longest time, I found an odd consolation in the bits of dog hair I seemed to find around the house no matter how well I cleaned!

After about a year and a half of dog-free living, I decided that I was ready to add a new member to the family -- an adorable English Cream golden retriever puppy named Starlie. (I figured another black dog would be too much a reminder of Gemma, so I went in the direction of a white dog.) She is just 12 weeks old as I write this, and is a total sweetheart. She's also hysterically funny in that floppy puzzled way that puppies have. I feel like the mom of a toddler again, so I'm spending a lot of time on the floor and out in the backyard chasing an endlessly energetic little creature. Not much art time right now!

My daughter Caroline, who was 11 when we started, is now just a few months' shy of 21. She's grown into a lovely young woman, with quick humor, sharp intelligence, and real gifts with art and with animals.

My marriage also ended in this interim period. Many of you have gone though a divorce, and know the odd ups and downs and  emotions that seem to pop up at unexpected moments. But life as a single woman feels very, very good, and I'm feeling a strong sense of peace and hope for what lies ahead.

I continue to stay connected to the Twelves. Just two weeks ago, I had Helen and her husband Dennis (known as Thirteen after his labors on our behalf when our quilts were at the Festive of Quilts in Birmingham some years back) as guests in my home. I've also had very fun visits with Terry (who came to Sonoma County where we talked endlessly and made books together), with Gerrie when I was up in Portland a while back, and with Brenda when she was in California visiting her husband's family. I know my paths will cross with the other Twelves one of these days, and I am particularly determined to meet Kirsten eventually.

So that's what's up with me.  Check in tomorrow to find out what's been going on with another Twelve!

Wishing I were there

Well, I am back from vacation.  I confess that I am struggling a bit with the post-vacation return to reality.  Laundry? Housecleaning? Bill paying? Meal planning? Who cares. I want to sit and read and paint and poke around on my ipad, in that lovely vacation mode of having nothing more pressing to do than wonder what relaxing thing to do next.

So I am prolonging (and reliving) the excursion by scanning my sketches and uploading my photos and telling you all about it.

For this adventure, Miss C and I packed up the car and headed north, with Whidbey Island, Washington as our ultimate destination. It's two days' worth of driving from here, so we had planned stops in Oregon on the way up and back which proved fun as we were able to connect up with Miss C's aunt and cousin on the way which was very fun. C's 9 year old cousin has fallen in love with horses so we had a breakfast filled with horse photos and talk. It was fun to see them connect on a new level around a common passion.

 I'd rented a charming cottage outside of Coupeville for the week, and it turned out to be perfect. The shot above is the view from the whole back of the house -- so I'd seen this from the outside deck and the living room and dining room and master bedroom.  I loved getting up in the morning, making coffee, and settling inside or out (depending on weather) to gaze at the water and look across at Camano Island.

 There was a lot of wildlife in the yard.  Each morning and evening I'd find bunnies hopping around the garden. This mom and baby pair did a lot of playful chasing which was fun to watch.

How fun to be greeted by bunnies every morning!

I did a lot of exploring and sketching and painting. I was struck by how inspired I was to draw and paint -- perhaps because of that relaxed vacation feeling of having no chores at the back of my mind to make me feel like I should be doing those instead, also from wanting to capture new experiences and places, I guess.

I have the practice of painting the place where I'm staying as a way of recording that memory, and I had fun doing this of the house we were in.  Something about drawing a plan of the interior is very fun and satisfying to me. Maybe I should have been an architect.

I had to take a stab at painting the view of the cove, of course.

 

On one drizzly day, I spent some time painting some of the flora from the garden. There was a huge holly bush in the yard, with a few red berries peeking out from the mostly green ones.  I guess there are early bloomers in every crowd.

I did a bit of out-and-about sketching, too. In the town of Langley, there's a bronze statue of a boy and his dog, and I had a pleasant bit of time sitting in the sunshine sketching and painting it.

I also spent some time at the Useless Bay Coffee Company in Langley, which I love for its great food, coffee, and beautiful patio.  I started painting a view of the doorway near my table, then as I sketched I started talking with a couple who've lived on the island for 30 years. It diverted my attention and the result was sort of a muddy mess, but still, it was fun and I'll remember that nice conversation when I see this in my sketchbook. Every time I've been out in public sketching on Whidbey Island, I've gotten into interesting conversations with people and have discovered that there are a lot of artists who are eager to come over and introduce themselves.

The quiet times were interspersed with wonderful visits with friends, delicious meals out (oh, those Penn Cove mussels!) and even a delightful visit from a dear and special friend from Maine who happened to be in the Seattle area over the holiday weekend. So we packed in a lot of fun for a 10 day trip.

Drive-About, 2016

Hi, friends --

I'm all packed. I've vacuumed and done all of the laundry and emptied all of the garbage cans. I'm ready to hit the road first thing tomorrow morning.  Miss C and I are headed north, through Oregon, to explore Whidbey Island again. I had such a great time last summer that I had to go back.

So, I'm planning on about 9 days of:
    Staring at the water and sky
    Day dreaming
    Reading beachy novels
    Reading a few good magazines
    Perusing the new sketching book by John Muir Laws
    Starting the painting -with-gouache one class that I couldn't start last week
    Doing some watercolor painting
    Taking Miss C to visit a friend who lives up there
    Taking the ferry over to Port Townsend to visit friends and poke around
    Hanging with a friend who will come over from Seattle for a few days
    Possibly meeting up with a very dear girl who is like a sister to Miss C -- from the same orphanage in China!
    Eating some great fresh seafood
    Wandering along the beach and picking up driftwood bits and sea shells

I have no idea how I can pack it all in, but I will surely try. Oh, and I guess we'll probably see some holiday fireworks in there, too!

Have a great holiday, and be sure to squeeze in some summer daydreaming time for yourself, too!

Seeing Stars

So here's what's on my design wall this morning.  Yep, that's a whole lot of stars!

I've been sewing these for years. Well, actually, I started cutting up scraps for stars about 3 years ago.  I made a few, then got distracted (surprise!) and the box of parts moved to the back of my closet.

So it's been -- marinating, shall we say? -- for all of that time. And recently, in a mood to make a bit of a dent in the UFO list, and looking for some mindless thing to take to my April quilt retreat, I unearthed it.  I have to confess that it took an evening of sorting of parts and trying to make sense of  various scraps of paper. I knew I'd planned it all out -- all I had to do was decipher the plans!  But I finally did, and made a bunch of the blocks on retreat.  Since then, I've had a few star sewing sessions and recently finished them up. 

I am looking forward to sewing them together and getting it quilted. Just in time for the Fourth of July!

What started me down this starry road was stumbling onto blog quilt-along some years back, called "Oh My Stars!" Sheila's blog, thoughtandfound.wordpress.com, looks like it's been on a long hiatus -- but if you like stars and want to get good tutorials for a bunch of different types, click on the link.  She has really good instructions.  The original Oh My Stars quilt had different types of stars, and her blog provides directions for all of them. 

Me, though, I just wanted to use up red and blue scraps, so I figured simple was the way to go.  I stuck with three sizes of sawtooth stars. I had so many scraps leftover from making this quilt, ages ago.

Looking for a photo of that quilt reminded me that I made another red and blue quilt a few years ago too.

 Apparently I now have a patriotic quilt collection and didn't even know it.

You'd think I'd have made a huge dent in the red fabrics in my stash, wouldn't you?  But, um... no. I still have loads.  But I think I'm done with stars for the time being.

Contained Gardening

 
My mother tells me that I have gardening in my genes.  Her grandfather was a gardener at an old estate house famous for its lovely gardens. My dad's parents were both natural gardeners, Italian immigrants for whom it was natural to have a massive backyard garden producing fruits and vegetables for the whole family most of the year. With that lineage, it's natural that my parents were big gardeners, too. I grew up seeing them outside in the garden on weekends, and hearing them comment on plants and flowers. I have a lot of memories of weekend trips to the local nursery.  In elementary school, the girl whose family owned the nursery became a friend of mine and it was a treat to go to her house after school where we'd run among the flats of plants and shrubs. That smell of recently-watered soil is a very familiar and comforting smell.

And I want to like gardening, I really do. I love being outside and planting things and watching them grow.  But there's a little issue I didn't realize I'd find so discouraging. The soil here isn't soil. It's clay, heavy, dense clay. When you dig a hole in it and fill it with water to soften it for more digging, the water just sits.  Overnight even, it just sits. It doesn't drain. It's just...clay.

When I moved into this house, the backyard was an expanse of bare dirt. I'd read the gardening books, and when landscapers came in to put in the first bits, I had them amend the soil and rototill yards and yards of good soil into the dirt that was here. I figured that that would take care of it.  And maybe it's better than it would have been if they hadn't done that. But still, it makes for miserable digging.

Which is why I have taken an easy way out: container plants. Pros: nice soil, no clay. And in drought-stricken California, I can water the potted things and not use quite so much water. Cons: they dry out faster. But that just means that I get the pleasant experience of strolling around the garden to do a bit of sprinkling each morning. It's very pleasant.

A few years ago, I put hooks up so I could hang baskets around the edge of the patio. Having flowers there makes me very happy. Last weekend I refreshed the baskets and they look so pretty.

It makes sitting out on the patio quite nice.  Last evening my sister and sat and enjoyed chips and quacamole and some very nice sistery chat. Perfect.

And yesterday, I got a window box installed on the window at the front of the house, and I've filled it with pink geraniums and white petunias. I can't wait to see it grow and overflow into a lush colorful spill of color.

Master gardener, I'm not.  But I'm happy with my bits of color. 

Keeping Myself in Books

 

You all know that I'm an avid reader.  I read fast, and I read a lot. If I had to buy every book I read, I'd be broke. But I have a few good ways to keep books coming for not very much money. So here are my tips on how to do that.

1.  I use the library.  This is a no-brainer, people!  A whole building full of books, available to you for free!  And really, not just one building.  A whole county's worth!  And counties beyond that! Once you start using your inter-library loan system, you can read pretty much anything you  like for free, if you're willing to wait a bit.

When I hear about or see a book I'd like to read, I go straight to my computer and go to the library's online catalog. My library's site shows me books all around my county as well as what's at my local branch. If it's at my branch, I can put it on hold and go down and get it. If it's not at my branch or if it's checked out, I can request it and I get an email when it comes in.

Somehow, a bunch of requested books always seem to come in at the same time. Don't ask me why, but they just do.  It's like how you can go into the library on one day and find little that appeals, and then on another day everything on the shelf looks great and it's a struggle to get the "bring home" pile down to a reasonable size.

2.  I use the Wishlist on Amazon.com as a way to remember books to request from the library.  I suppose the Wishlist is intended as a way to tell  people gifts you'd like, but that's not how I use mine. I keep it private, and for me it functions as a virtual "to be read" list.  When I see a book that looks good, I put it on the wishlist.  Every once in a while, when my library request/hold list isn't long, I'll open two windows on my computer: one with the Amazon wishlist up, and the other with the library's online catalog up.  I'll go through and see if I can find the books on my wishlist at the library, and then request them.  (Be sure to take them off the wishlist when you've requested them, to keep things current.)  Then it feels like I've shopped, and have new books coming to me, without spending a penny.  Shhh, don't tell Amazon!

3.  I check to see which books on my Amazon Wishlist are on sale. Have you ever noticed that every once in a while, the Kindle edition of some current, full-priced book will be on sale for a day or two for $1.99?  Sometimes the first book in a series will be $1.99, I suppose in the hope that it'll hook readers on the series and they'll buy at full price. Every once in a while, I'll go to the Amazon wishlist, and click on the "Filter & Sort" tab to sort by price, low to high. The books on my list will be sorted and if any have had huge price drops, they will show up at the new bargain price.

I did this just today and ended up buying 3books for $1.99 each that are current books and retail for $12.99.  Bargain!  I always figure if the price is what I'd pay if I found the book on a table at my library's book sale, then I'll do it on the Kindle.

You want to know what I got, don't you? You don't even have to ask.

This is Your Life, Harriet Chance! by Jonathan Evison

 Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart. ($2.99, which seemed reasonable using my "library book sale table rule.)

The Art of Crash Landing by Melissa DeCarlo.

By the way, you can sort your Wishlist items by "price drops" and that'll show you the biggest price drops first.

Oh, and one more Amazon Wishlist tip: you can create different lists for different purposes. So you can keep one list for books, a list for other Amazon stuff, a different list you keep for friends and family to show them stuff you want, etc. I keep a separate list of Kindle Unlimited books because my sister gave me a Kindle Unlimited membership for Christmas last year, and so when I stumble onto a K.U. book, I'll put it onto that list for when I'm next looking for something to read.
(I guess Kindle Unlimited is another sort of bargain way to get books. I'm iffy on it and I have to admit that I wouldn't have subscribed on my own. The K.U. books seem to be "B list" sorts of books, with a lot of self-published stuff. I won't resubscribe when my gift subscription is up.)

4.  Bookbub.com.  Have you heard of this? It's exclusively for ebooks.  And it's totally free.  You sign up to a mailing list, and are asked to identify what sorts of books you like.  Based on your preferences, you'll receive a regular email identifying books in your categories that are free or under $3.00 for a limited period of time. The list often has popular books by excellent authors. It can be hit and miss, but I've found great books on there. They have kids' books and nonfiction, as well.

I hasten to add that I have two really lovely bookstores in my little town, and I try to patronize them too. I buy from them when I can. A reader can't have too many books, can she?

Spontaneously Decorating with Turquoise, or "At Least it's a Pretty Color"

Last night before bedtime, I was looking at one of those decorating blog-hops where people showed their work and craft spaces.  I noticed how stark white seems to be the current trendy look, and I was marveling over how those people could keep white things white. I mean, for work and crafty activities?  I make a mess. Plus all of that white looks kind of stark and unfriendly, don't you think?  Well, that's my opinion, anyway.   

I shut down my Ipad and headed off to bed, making a detour into my non-white and rather cluttered office to put some mail on the desk. Sitting next to my keyboard were a few fountain pens that I'd cleaned earlier in the day to ready them for filling with ink.  I love fountain pens!  But if I drain one and then let it sit for a few days before I refill it (which I do, constantly) the ink dries in the nib and it needs a little flushing out with warm water before it can be refilled to flow smoothly again.

ANYway, I'd had a very productive day. (I promise you, this is going somewhere.) I'd worked in the garden. I'd checked a bunch of stuff of of my to-do list, including "clean pens."  But wait, I hadn't refilled them, and I wanted that task finished. I figured I'd quickly fill the three pens with ink, at best a 10 minute task.

I grabbed one of my favorite inks, Navajo Turquoise by Noodler's Ink. I love this color for writing in my journal -- it's actually a bit darker out of the pen than in the Goulet's sample up there, so it looks more like a turquoisey dark blue and it makes me happy.

Here's what my bottle looks like.

I use this ink pretty often, but it's this empty and this messy because I spilled it once. Big surprise.

So, I got my pens lined up, their converters ready to load.  I opened the bottle. I dipped the first pen, realizing that because the level of ink in the bottle was low, I had to dip the pen pretty deeply to immerse the nib in the ink. Hmm, I need a tissue to wipe the tip off, I thought.  And as I turned to grab a tissue -- you are seeing where this is going, aren't you? -- my elbow hit the bottle, and yes, the bottle tipped and spilled a lovely Navajo Turquoise onto my desk and under my keyboard.

You'll forgive me for not stopping to take photos, I assume?  Rest assured that I leapt up, grabbed the box full of tissues and started swabbing frantically.  I dashed to the laundry room to grab some rag towels.  You can imagine the frenzy of wiping that ensued. I left a lot of turquoise fingerprints in the process, but I eventually got it all cleaned off of my desk and keyboard. Luckily none spilled into the keys, it was just underneath.  I was greatly relieved that none had dripped into the carpet.

Now my mousepad -- a pretty floral with a turquoise background to begin with -- has an extra dark turquoise corner.

Good thing I have a manicure scheduled for tomorrow, as I don't really want to wear this turquoise nail look for long.  And this is after a whole lot of scrubbing.

It was only when I went to climb into bed that I discovered the rather large splodge of turquoise ink on the top of my right foot.  It must have dripped when I was carrying soggy towels to the laundry room. (Still, just my foot. Not the rug. Phew.) Back into the bathroom for more scrubbing.  I went to bed with just a delicate aqua stain.


So, things are back to normal sort of, plus a few turquoise additions to the decor. But I'm quite certain that I'd never be able to carry off a stark white office.

Dishes, dishes, and more dishes

When we last parted, gentle readers, I was on the hunt for new every day dishes and I'd decided that a foundation set of white dishes was what was required.

Oh, what a rabbit hole that turned out to be!

I started by gazing at some white dishes I've loved for as long as I can remember -- Nantucket Basket by Wedgewood.  They're simple but interesting, and they remind me of wonderful Nantucket vacations.  I realized I like rounded shapes, not square, and I like texture. And I like things that feel sort of comfy and homey, not super modern.

It's good to have clarity about one's goals and preferences, you know.

I came across these "Cowgirl Lace" white dishes, designed by Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond, whose blog I've followed since before she was a big Food Network Star.  I love the name, Cowgirl Lace, and the detail is so pretty! These are available from Walmart for just $44 for a set of 4 place settings! Good news, bargain. Bad news - reviews say they chip really easily and show marks instantly.  Darn. Sorry, Ree, I'm looking for something a bit more durable.

 I think these are Emma from Pottery Barn. (Pssst... they're on sale right now.) Love the simple but striking dot detail and these were a strong contender.  But reading the reviews shut down that option... lots of poor reviews for durability, marking, chipping easily.

I did take a detour to read about durability.  Stoneware and earthenware are apparently the least durable -- they are fired just once, generally a bit more porous.  Porcelain and bone china get higher marks for durability because they are fired more than once. Funny -- stoneware sounds like it should be more durable, and porcelain sounds like it will be more delicate, doesn't it? But it turns out that the reverse is true. And that's proven true with my own experience.  The stoneware dishes I've used over the years have had gorgeous rich color, but have chipped easily.  I started thinking I should be looking for white porcelain.

I did hesitate over this Napoli set by Pottery Barn.  I just love the edges on the bowl and salad plate. Can't you see that bowl heaped with juicy red strawberries?  But these are stoneware which gave me pause, and they're sort of expensive. Maybe I'll keep my eye on PB and buy a bowl or two if they go on sale. 

  

Martha Stewart has some pretty white dish sets at Macy's.  This set is called Belle Mead -- and it's porcelain. I like the plate and bowl, and like that they're different patterns.  But I don't need mugs or particularly like these, and you can't buy them open stock to just get the plates. So, no.  (But if you like them, they're on sale right now AND Macy's has an extra 25% off promotion going on.)

 I did a big swoon when I saw this photo of dishes from Casa de Perrin. (And Perin is my maiden name so it sort of caught my attention.) Turns out the company is a china rental company in Los Angeles, so I guess they buy pretty china, mix and match it, and rent it for weddings and events.  Maybe if I spent the next few years collecting pretty white plates I'd end up with an assortment like this. But I'm looking for more immediate gratification. 

Another gorgeous set, yes? It's White Perle Stoneware by Lenox.  Maybe other people have stoneware and no durability issues, but after what I read, it's putting me off.  Still, they're pretty. (And they come in a few different colors, if you're interested.)

Are you getting the idea that I saw a ton of white dishes I liked? Look at these, a random shot from a collector of vintage linens. I have no clue what the patterns are but they sure look pretty.

So what did I do? Well, I looked and looked.  And read reviews. And looked some more.  And then it dawned on me that the answer was obvious.  Get the ones I loved from the beginning.

Yep, Nantucket Basket. I found them on sale for a good price, even. They were not the cheapest option, but I figure if I've loved them for 30 years, chances are I'll love them for another 30.  They make me smile just looking at the pictures.

So they will be at my door any day now, and I'll be dining in style.

Oh my. Do I need a new tablecloth? Perhaps I should christen them with a champagne opening to their first meal? Hmm, do my champagne glasses measure up? Should I shop for new ones?  Just kidding. I think I'm done with the online shopping for quite a while.

I'm going to go sit at the front door and wait for the UPS man now.

Let's Dish

I have been obsessing about dishes lately. 

It started when I decided that it was time to buy some new flatware.  The silverware I have is something I bought years ago, when I got out of law school and set up my first grown-up home in Concord, New Hampshire.  That was (yikes!) over 30 years ago.  And while I still like the pattern, they're pretty thrashed. They've gone through over 30,000 meals, moves to 3 different homes, a lot of dropping and banging and scratching, and the occasional unintended tangle with the garbage disposal.  I thought it was time to get something new and shiny. 

After a whole lot of perusing of flatware and reading of reviews, I settled on something that looks simple, classic, but lovely -- and different from what I have, for sheer excitement. It's a pattern called Merlemont by Villeroy & Boch. It should be here any day and I can hardly wait.

Hey. You might not think they're exciting. But I do. And I might even go hog-wild and buy a new silverware organizer for the drawer. Be still my heart!

But, as these things go, anticipating new silverware made me look at my dishes.  Three years ago, when marital changes happened and a lot of kitchen stuff got divided, I bought some simple white plates from TJ Maxx or HomeGoods or somewhere like that.  They were from the Hotel Collection brand, and they had a pretty but not complicated scalloped edge, and they were cheap.  So Miss C and I have used them daily since then.  But wow, what a mess they are.  They are covered with gray lines and scratches from basic daily use. I've researched, I've bought special products, I've scrubbed with cleaners "guaranteed" to remove those marks, I've applied a whole lot of elbow grease -- and they're still horrid-looking.

So, to celebrate the impending final conclusion of the previously mentioned marital changes, I decided I'd get some different daily dishes. And I started looking.  There are so many gorgeous patterns out there -- and somehow, in my mind each one promises a different life if I just had those dishes to eat off of.

I love the effect of mismatched vintage dishes, I really do.  But let's get real.  I'm going to put them in the dishwasher. They're going to get banged around occasionally on the granite counter.  So for every day, that's not going to work.  (Although looking at so many beautiful vintage dishes has me thinking that I need to have a weekly tea party to use pretty pastel floral cups and saucers and dainty little plates. Care to join me?)

I love this set of dishes, Petit Fleur by Villeroy & Boch, I always have.  I even have 2 complete place settings, bought at a bargain price at a V&B outlet store back in Maine years ago. They're in perfect shape and they don't have a grey mark on them. They're fun to use when I feel springy.  But too ... well, cutesy for every day. I'm just not in that sort of mood every day.

I'm always drawn to blue and white dishes when I see them. There is something so homey and comfortable about them.

Oh dear, those swallows! I think I'm swooning. But no, not for every day.
 

 

And these pretty Spode fleur-de-lis dishes.  Instant transportation to a farmhouse kitchen. Perfect for a slice of blueberry pie, yes?

 

And then there's that mix and match possibility again. Aren't these bowls beautiful?  I want all of them.

But then I'd be locked into blue and white.  And what if I get tired of blue and white in a year? or in 3 days?  I like to keep my options open, you know.

I could do what a certain person I know does (I'm waiving at YOU, sister!) and have one or two or more of  a whole bunch of different patterns, so I can choose to suit my mood.  But what about when I have 12 people over for dinner?  Hey, it COULD happen, you know. 

Is it just me?  I want to LOVE the dishes I use every day.  And while I like having odds and ends of other sets, I want to have one foundation set of dishes that will allow me to mix and match other stuff in.  So, generally, that means white.  I love white dishes.  But that's a whole different online hunt. 

I *did* choose something!  But you have to stay tuned to find out what!  Meanwhile, tell me what your dishes are! Or what you'd choose if you could. I could always add a few more plates...