How we are living

 

As if it were not difficult enough to live without a kitchen, I made it much harder by deciding to go Vegan after watching the documentary, Forks Over Knives. Dave took the week off, and there is a lot of work going on but they are both hungry all the time. I've made black bean tacos twice, a veg soup, a veg chili, tofu "sour cream" also a lentil salad that was a bust and baked apples, in 3 days! With no sink and only one burner. I have to do the dishes camping style. But it will all be worth it when I am cooking in my new kitchen, right?

Petrified Rat, the kitchen torn out

Petrified rat found in the wall and the kitchen totally getting torn out. There was a check from 1928 in his nest for $3.85 written to the City of Tacoma.

Basement floor poured yesterday

I have been woefully inadequate in posting progress photos of the remodel, but yesterday a milestone, the basement floor got poured for Kim and Ryan's apartment. Also a sidewalk (required by building code) from their apt to the street.
The floors will be all heated and will have an acid etch. My kitchen is coming along too, still in demo mode.

Paintings hanging at Gig Harbor Starbucks

Please excuse the bad pictures, I forgot my camera, so Dave took these with his phone. There was only room for 4 paintings. I worked a lot harder than I had to. The large painting I was working on last night didn't make it, I ran out of time, but I think it might be awesome.

I'm insane, surely, work in progress

I have a show to hang tomorrow, I have almost all the work done and for some reason started painting the biggest painting I have ever done. It's 48x60. I have issues, people.
I hope I can get it done though, and hope it's not too little kiddish or not Gig Harborish.
I can always hang it in our bedroom.
:)

Asher "helping" me paint

It's absolutely horrible, I know, but I didn't let him use any paint, just water, because I am trying to get this painting done for a show. But he did that right alongside me all weekend.
He still calls me mom. I say grandma, but he has other ideas. How do you like that bed head? We were home alone all Saturday so we stayed comfy in our bed heads and jammies.

a song that perfectly fits my mood

The Language of Peace among Dogs

My mom sent me these articles by Turid Rugaas about dog behavior and their calming signals and they are so interesting. They send signals to calm US down! Almost makes me want to get a puppy and start over. But I won't. The picture is of our Greyhound, Flight, who does not live with us anymore. I'm missing her today.

http://www.canis.no/rugaas/onearticle.php?artid=1

http://www.canis.no/rugaas/onearticle.php?artid=2

http://www.canis.no/rugaas/questions.php

Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who has purchased something from the sale. There are still quite a few pieces left, so shop away. My little studio is so tiny and selling it all (or most) will move me in the direction of painting some more.Not sure how long I will leave it up.I have a show in November in Gig Harbor, so I need to get cracking on some new paintings.

 I've been packing up my kitchen for the last few days, finally finished tonight, whew! We have a little kitchen with the refrig and hotplate set up in the dining room. It will be soup, crockpot or take out for a few weeks. Ryan spent all day with a jackhammer on the basement floor and will probably be doing the same tomorrow.
I hope to get everything purchased so far shipped on thursday.

Studio Sale

I'm having a studio sale, to celebrate moving back into my tiny studio! I will be listing things on etsy all day.If you mention my blog when you check out, I will send you a free print.Oh, what the heck, I'll send a free print anyway.
This picture is in our newly renovated bedroom. I painted our dresser and nightstands black and bought them some new knobs. They look pretty good....Also, I made roman shades for our bedroom windows. They still need some adjusting. We are heavily into the second phase of the remodel, basement just about demolished and the kitchen is next, so everything is still pretty much a mess, except for the sweet haven you see in the picture above. It is so nice.I gotta take some pictures of the finished bathroom, except there is still trim paint to do and masking tape everywhere. But I swear, that shower makes me a nicer person.

***update: I've listed some original paintings for only $10! Check it out!

Hey, you guys! Look!

Stripping

No, I am not trying to earn money to pay for the remodel.
It's THIS kind of stripping:

 This is my studio, drywall up and taped, getting textured tomorrow

 And this is my sweet drywaller, Rex. He is awesome. We have known each other for probably 40 years. It was fun to catch up and watch him work. I made him lots of lattes.

So I have spent most of the last two weeks in what I now refer to as the stripitorium. It's in the carport behind the fifth wheel, and I am using a heat gun and various scrapers to take off most of 107 years of paint off our windows, doors and trim. It's awful and tedious, but I am getting pretty good at it. I have to wear a mask to save me from lead paint dust and vapors, and apparently singing along to Mumford and Sons with my ipod and inside the mask was quite audible to family. They told me I need to beware of my singing scaring little children.


PS, Michelle, Guthrie is a furry grandchild that we puppysit sometimes.

Some recent pictures

 Guthrie

 My favorite thing Kim makes, fresh spring rolls, yum

At the Port Townsend Brewery. We are old.

Micah helped us build a garden shed

 At Sweet Laurette's

The Weekend

 Meatballs and Sauce on spaghetti squash and arugula salad

 the cook and the worker

 There was a lot of sticking tools in pants this weekend. Including a 4 foot long watering wand stuck in his diaper as he ran around the yard. LOL Also a star in this show was Kim's Angel trumpet blooming it's first time here and I got a new copper fountain. Splish splash.

I've uploaded several videos of the remodel and one of Asher climbing completely inside this fireplace. He is so funny. HERE is the link to them, the others should be in my list. I think 5 new ones. Mom, if you have trouble finding the new ones, email me and I will send you links to all of them.

Lovely Weekend and 2 new recipes

We had such a nice weekend, the weather was great, which we have had very little of here in the NW. As of last week, we had only had 78 minutes of summer so far (80 degrees or higher)
Dave and I cooked dinner together on friday night. A little steak and sauteed  blue cheese mushrooms (recipe follows)and some chicken kabobs It was delicious. The next day we went out to Seal Rock campground and had a crab boil with our friends.



Sunday Dave worked on hanging lights upstairs and I did research, then we went to Dave's Produce to get some Kalbi steak and we did more mushrooms and zucchini. I know that is steak twice in 3 days, but we share a little one, so it's not much.
I've been reading about low glycemic diets and I feel pretty excited about the whole thing. I haven't felt excited about a diet forever, if ever. But I have been on it almost 3 weeks and I have lost 12 lbs and I feel really good. Much less joint pain, more energy and a happier outlook.
Today I made these fritters, adapted from HERE. They are so good, you must try them, even if you are not low carbing...

Zucchini Fritters with Feta

2 cups zucchini, grated

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup chopped red onion, 

1 garlic clove, minced

2 eggs, beaten

1tbsp chopped fresh mint

1/2 feta, crumbled

freshly grated black pepper

salt

olive oil for frying

Put the grated zucchini in a colander, sprinkle with salt, mix and let stand for 20-30 minutes. Squeeze out any excess liquid. In a medium bowl, combine the zucchini, shallot, garlic, eggs, mint, feta and . Season with salt and pepper.

Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat. Ladle spoonful of the batter into the pan for each fritter and cook in batches for 3-4 minutes on each side. Transfer cooked fritters on a paper towel to drain excess oil from them. 

I sprinkled them with chopped green onions and served them with fried tofu.

Blue Cheese Mushrooms

1lb mushrooms, crimini or button, sliced

1 tsp fresh rosemary, minced

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

Olive oil

salt and pepper

1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese

Saute sliced mushrooms in olive oil until they start to brown. Add thyme and rosemary, cook a couple more minutes, then sprinkle blue cheese over them. When melty, they are ready to eat.


The pictures above were not taken by me, I am a lazy photographer. I put a link to them. My mushrooms don't have that much liquid, but other than that similar.

 I can"t figure out who painted this, but isn't it beautiful?
Edit** Here is a link to the artists website

Cloud-pocalypse

I painted 3 large paintings today, 30x40". I've been wanting to paint some serene skies and low hills, and I needed to paint something for a dear man who detailed my disgusting car. I hope he and his wife like one of them for their bedroom.
I adore painting skies! I forgot I liked it so much. As I painted today I was entertained by my son who was singing along to music in Paul Oswald's voice. If you know Paul, you know how funny that is. I hope he does not read my blog.
Anyway, we woke up to a day that looked like October, but the sun came out later and we had dinner outside. Turkey tacos. Also had a lovely weekend with Asher. See that little pirate giving me a cherry? Life is good.
My husband and son are working themselves silly on the remodel, but the framing is almost done and plumbing and electrical are going in. Sadly, the ceiling in our bedroom and bath cannot be higher after all, but my studio!!! has sort of a pointy high new ceiling, like a turret. It's going to be so lovely. Ryan made a space for Asher and Skylar and other guests to have a sleep in a built in bed. And my studio closet is twice as big as it was. Hopefully form and function will finally meet in there and it will be cleaner than it used to be.
So here are the paintings, as of this afternoon. They are farther along now. I am looking at them and deciding what needs to be changed. At one point Ryan and I were calling one of them Cloud-pocalypse because I went a little crazy with clouds.Also Cloud-maggedon. But that was bad.
Please don't pay attention to the messy pile of Fine Homebuilding mags on the floor and the big hole in the living room where the closet used to be. It's a remodel, folks. And Fine Homebuilding must be consulted fairly often.

How I adore this little boy

This is from a few weeks ago, but I have it as my screen saver, and I was thinking how much I love that little smile. That smile that is directed at me. He loves me. I love him. So simple, so easy, so sweet. How delightful it is to be a part of his life. I'm the grandma.

Pinterest

Still figuring pinterest out, but here is a link to my profile: http://pinterest.com/juliefillo/


I like cake.

http://pinterest.com/pin/14276140/

I'm letting music express what I don't have words for

Ethan Burns - So Lonesome

moon river IS a mile wide and i HOPE we are after the same rainbows end

I forgot this one

Finished this today too.

Did the harebell loose her girdle
To the lover bee,
Would the bee the harebell hallow
Much as formerly?
Emily Dickinson


9x12 canvas

What I did today

I'm trying to paint on Mondays for my mental health, but it is not very calm and peaceful when you feel frustrated. I finally painted these 3 birds. I'm not crazy about them. I might paint over, but thinking about them for awhile. Right now they frustrate me.I also traced the pattern for Alicia Paulson's embroidery sampler, which you can download for $6.
Another thing I did today which is kind of scary as far as my mind goes, is I worked for about 2 hours to mail a package. I had all sorts of problems, the bubble wrap smelled like gas, so I had to start over after I got it all packaged and then I couldn't get the label to print for awhile. Anyway, finally got it outside, heard what I thought was the mailman, Zoe barked as usual, and after an hour or so, I decided to check the mail and I see this package outside, and I think, "wow, somebody sent me a package!..Yippee!" I ripped it open.

IT. WAS. MY. PACKAGE. I MAILED. The mailman had not come yet, my package had just fallen off the chair. Losing it. Totally losing it.
In less stupid news, I lowered the price on that green bough painting I did last week. When I first do something, I love it so much, I don't want it to sell, so sometimes I price things too high. :) I'm over it.

Asher video

Had a great weekend with Asher. Here is video for my mom and any other Asher lovers out there.
er

If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come

I've wanted to do a painting featuring this Chinese proverb for a long time. Thanks to positive words from Jone Hallmark, I painted this today.

Lamb Chops Dinner and Liar's Dice

Aishi cooked us dinner the other night and had some friends over. Not pictured is the coconut lime cake. They played liar's dice, and it was funny, but my video did not turn out very well.