Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Love mobiles
In the spirit of Made by You Monday – I am posting this little project, crafted lovingly over the weekend as small thank-you gifts to a couple of friends. Love mobiles!
I couldn’t get a very good picture of them hanging off my mantle, but essentially these are strings of 4 simple hearts made out recycled/repurposed materials (leftover fleece from another project, antique buttons). You get the idea.
B. really loves these, even though they are roughly made – he says that just looking at one of these hearts makes him feel happy – and I’m giving them away with the promise that they will bring only good luck in matters of the heart.
A very simple project, with the simple message of love and gratitude.
Urban Crow Bungalow.
When I was a much younger punk than I am right now, every collective house in my city had some kind of name. It might have been descriptive of its inhabitants (The Monkeyhouse as in Welcome to the Monkeyhouse), location (Fernwood House, Fairfield House), or some other more ephemeral quality (Serendipity) – but whatever its constellation, the house name served as a fixing point when roomates were in constant rotation. Among subcultural Vancouver the same tendency exists, though I don’t go to many of these named homes – I am familiar with them in the passing conversation of shows, parties, and “roomates-wanted” advertisements.
The naming of homes is a much more mainstream tradition in countries like Britain, where certain historic building names even show up in the formal mailing address. This tradition goes back to the gentry in that country who liked to wrap up their manors and lodges in fanciful or stately names – and carried over into the tradesman and merchant class in mimicry of their betters.
Recently, Brian and I started the disucssion about naming our house on William Street – to reflect on the character of our block, to put an end to naming all the inhabitants in the house every time we send out a party invitation, to imbue our home with its own essence. Not to mention “branding” our canned goods and christmas gifts with cute labels.
Thus we have picked the name “Urban Crow Bungalow” to represent our little home – beset as we are by murders of raucous crows nesting in the beech trees that line our block. (Not to mention, enthralled by the dusk ritual referred to in Vancouver as “crow time” wherein the city’s skies fill up with black birds heading back to their roosting points in East Van and Burnaby.) Iconic birds.
A silly little thing, really – but one that reflects our need to create a rich domicile in which we are both industrious and restful, and a way to mark ourselves as a gathering place, a garden, a studio of living arts.
Autumn walking.
- An east van street
I can’t ever remember having such a warm and sunny autumn in all my years of living in Vancouver (this fall marks fifteen such autumns), but it really has been lovely to come home to this brilliant colour up and down my street rather than sodden masses of rotting leaves. I mean, there’s still the raking to do (thanks Brian!) but it is much nicer than relentless rain.
Have I mentioned lately how much I love my neighbourhood? Well, I do. And I’m glad that despite my crazy schedule lately I have still had lots of time at home to enjoy it.
This weekend B & I decided that getting out for a bit of a walk would be good for all three of us and the dog – and so we decided to check out Colony Farm Regional Park in Coquitlam. Mostly because everytime I take the Lougheed Highway for any reason I see the sign for the park and wonder what exactly is there. I figured it was time to find out!
Turns out that there is lots there – amazing flat trails across meadows and marsh (for cycling and walking), wildlife research stations, birds of all varieties, and a giant community garden right near the parking area. Despite being an urban park surrounded by housing and cut through by powerlines, it still manages to be an important recreation and habitat space – as evidenced by all the people who come out to enjoy it on a sunny weekend. I would note for all you dog-walkers that there is *no* off-leash area at Colony Farm and because of the sensitive nature of the area (bird-nesting habitat) it would be really frowned upon if you were to let your dogs go off-leash.
Fortunately, the rain forecast for the weekend didn’t come until evening-time so we were blessed with the kind of muted sky that makes for brilliant photo-taking conditions.
Otherwise it was a weekend of sewing (check out my posts at http://amongtheweeds.ca for fabric and sewing blogging), wine-making, reading, and movie-watching. Our whole household has been sick in the past few weeks, and only on Sunday did B. feel well enough to actually get out and do something…. which made for a restful couple of days as I am also on the tail-end of recovery from my multiple illnesses of late.
Back to work today of course, but super-glad for the day off mid-week. We’re hoping to get some painting started in our front hallway!
Paint and fabric. Paint and fabric.
It must be the transition from outside to inside, but I’ve recently become obsessed with textile projects again. For the first time since… well…. last winter I guess. Something about the summer and I really have no desire to be toiling away at the sewing machine, but come fall and I’m stitching and plotting new projects all over again. Besides the napkins I posted yesterday, I’ve got a couple other immediate projects I’d like to get to.
Brian and I have decided to redo our front hallway because it is a small, dark and disorganized space that is visible from our living room. For some reason the previous owners painted it a coal-blue colour, and all we’ve done since moving in is throw some hooks up on the wall for our jackets which doesn’t quite cut it for our needs. So we’re repainting and re-organizing starting with a coast of bright yellow (think Mexican yellow) paint that compliments the Mexican tin mirror we have hanging in the entryway.
And then I’m building some functional shelving for boots & shoes, plus installing a clothing bar to hang coats and jackets on, and a shelf above which will hold three boxes made from fabric – one for each of our mittens, hats and scarves.
But the real piece de resistance? Well that’s where the gorgeous fabric at the start of this post comes in. Viva La Frida in turqouise….. Because the front entryhall is visible to people sitting in the living room, I want to be able to pull a curtain over the coats and shoes when we have company. And this is the fabric we have chosen! Brian found it online earlier today and in an email flurry we have agreed that this is exactly what we want – bold and bright, plus an homage to one of our favourite artists and activists. What do you think?
I promise some before and after pictures of the entryhall when we are all finished up. With the sewing involved I think it will be a month or so before we’re all done – but I’m pretty excited to get started with it because we have worked out all sorts of lovely small details that will make it an inviting entrance as well as practical for our storage needs.
Oh and while I’m at it – I might as well show you this fabric that I’ve chosen to make some living room throw pillows out of. So amazing!
Red Cedar 