A Room of it's Own

We have gone without a laundry room for some time now.  Last week I got the check for the sale of a beautiful antique piece of furniture and the first thing the Cowboy said was "Let's put it towards the laundry room!"  I second the motion so here we broke ground yesterday!

The layout begins. 

This is the view from my office.  I am a bit sad that I will lose the beautiful view and the amazing sunsets in the evening, but to not have to walk into another horrible laundry mat ever again.......WORTH IT!

This is the side  that backs up to the living room.  The doors to our master bedroom are closest to the front of the property (you can see my pretty faux wrought iron doors from the outside here)

 then my office just past that, then the opening for the laundry room door will be cut and the water heater will have to be moved. 

Yes you can clearly see the water heater hanging about 2 feet to the right of where the door will go.  Why is it there you ask?  Because I was not home when it was put in.  Nope, I made the horrible mistake of thinking it would be put in an out of the way inconspicuious spot.  Yep, I was gone and there were two parties involved in the placement, the Cowboy and the plumber.  The first party had forgotten I planned the laundry room to go in this spot and the second party couldn't care less. 

I'm already planning, dreaming and searching for beautiful pictures.  Of course the first one on my list is lovely room with the adorable stand from Show & Tell.

Love it!  The other day I saw some amazing laundry rooms on a blog and now I can't remember where I saw them.  One was stunning in greys and soft neutrals with zinc counters, oh if only I could remember!

Anyway this is a good start.

My lovely LG's have been sitting in storage for sometime now just patiently waiting to be rescued. 

DON'T WORRY KIDS, MOMMY'S COMING TO SAVE YOU!!!

Tattered

I love needle work.  I especially love embroidery and monograms but I also love the needle work called "Tatting".  My grandma Juanita on my dad's side was a beautiful artist.  She painted in both oils and watercolors.  Along with raising 8 children, making jams, pies and all things delicious,  she was the queen of rummage sales.  I don't know that she ever paid more than a few dollars for anything but she always looked so pulled together and her home was beautiful simplicity before Shabby Chic was in style.  She also did beautiful needle work and her tatting was my favorite.

When I was 17, I sat down with her and had her show me how it's done.  I loved it!  A tiny ball of thread, a simple shuttle, some creative imagination and you were off and running. 

Out of all 8 of her kids (4 boys and 4 girls) the only one who learned to Tat was my Uncle Floyd. Go figure.  He and I are the last of the Tatters in the family. 

 He too is an artist, carving tiny humingbirds and flowers out of simple blocks of wood and painting them so that you cannot tell they are not real.  He gardens, makes jams and preserves, knits and of course Tats.

I have never gone beyond what is called a "single row" of tatting.  However Uncle Floyd Tats double row and can make just about anything.  This last weekend I was visiting and before I left I saw he was working on some new Tatting  so I asked him to show me how it's done. 

He started by laying the lace across his jeans showing me the order of loops and "pico's". 

Then he began to show me how to turn each loop to get the pattern I wanted.

As I watched his hands swiftly work the shuttle and thread I was very touched by what I was seeing.  These were not "Tatting hands" as one would think of when picturing the art of making lace.  These are the hands of a man who has worked hard to raise a family. The hands of a man who worked with his Uncle to keep Bees, who at one time owned and operated a pig farm in Washington state, who later started his own plastering business in Sacramento and became one of the premier plastering companies in the 70's & 80's.
A farmer, a business man, a father, a grandpa........a mans man.  Hands that are rough and calloused from still chopping wood for the fire yet those same hands move shuttle and thread to create tiny little laces and trims. 

This little piece will find a place in the barn after I sew it to a small towel or pillow case.  A sweet little piece of lace from a mans hard workin' hands.  Something to cherish.

Tell your friends Pittura is here!!

I am so excited to announce that the new online magazine Pittura has launched!

This is the brainchild of Mindy Harrell, a fabulous artist and one amazing woman in my opinion.  A little over a year ago I was at Mindy's home in Utah and she shared with me her idea of producing this new online magazine directed to the all types of artist not just faux finishers.  She asked me to join her in this and over the last year it has been wonderful working with her on this.  I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to see where the future of Pittura magazine goes!

This is a quarterly magazine and is free!  Gotta love that!!  Just subscribe to view the full issue.  Also be sure to check out the library of pictures of all types of finishes and art in the library at Pittura Platform.

I hope you all enjoy Pittura as much as I have and we appreciate any comments or suggestions you may have to make it even better.  And if you would like to advertise in Pittura please contact me directly and I can help you place an ad or video in our next issue this summer.

Enjoy and tell your friends!