Sunday, June 27, 2010

Progress!

Well, my new loom room is painted! The last session of painting was actually pretty much fun - with the window repaired and the room looking so much better, I can actually start imagining what it's going to be like when it is finished, and that thought is really exciting.

Here's a view looking back toward the closet. Plain beige color - navajo white trim (you an see that on the ceiling shelf above the closet opening.)


And here is the stack of boxes containing the new maple floor. :-) Eldy and Sam are planning to install that for me Friday. Looms should be moved by the 4th of July!!

And to continue with the colors of June thing.... here's a better photo of a jacaranda - I think the purple looks even lovelier on a gray day.

And last is one of my other favorite colors - the agapanthus begin to bloom in June, and are in full bloom by July 4th, which seems appropriate - they've always looked like fireworks blossoms to me.
P.S. There is a long hallway leading to my new loom room . Eldy suggested using it as a gallery wall for my weaving. That's fun to think about, too!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Colors and Change

Between adjusting to full-time work and preparing for the recent concerts, it's been a while since I've posted here. Well, the concerts were a great success. We got standing ovations for both performances of the Benjamin Britten War Requiem, and the whole thing was a marvelous and amazing experience. The job is working out well - I really like the people I work with, and I'm enjoying the work. The hardest part is figuring out how to have time for the volunteer things I enjoy doing as well as the fun stuff. By the end of the week, I usually have cumulative fatigue that makes it hard to get much done over the weekend.

On the home front, I'm still in the middle of restoring the room that is becoming my new loom room. It's kind of hard to see much in this picture - Eldy patched the holes in the walls. We had a company come out and measure the broken window so the glass can be repaired (I think that's what the gizmo on the floor will be used for.) I painted the ceiling, and in a few minutes will start painting the walls. The new window should be installed within a few days. Then we'll buy the new Pergo flooring and install that, and Eldy is putting in new base molding. Then it will finally be ready to move the looms in. That in itself will be a big project - my Megado will have to be disassembled and then moved and reassembled. I've done it once before, when I first bought the loom. This time I'll have help so it should be faster and easier. I can hardly wait!

Now for a side bar. Sue, author of one of my favorite blogs - Life Looms Large - frequently has a "colors of the month" project. I'm not great with my camera, but since she started doing this, I will confess that I'm better at "noticing" the colors around me. :-) And this month I finally captured at least a few photos to share.

So here are the colors in my part of San Diego in June. I even captured them in sunshine! If you are familiar with San Diego, you know we experience what is called May Gray / June Gloom this time of year. We often have a heavy marine layer which makes things very humid, but keeps us nice and cool. By late afternoon, though, we get our beloved sunshine!

These are the typical colors you see in the landscape - sand, sagey green, and gray-brown bark.

We even used those colors when we painted our house - sand colored stucco, with sage green trim. (When we first moved in, there was no landscaping anywhere, and we called our house the sandcastle, so these colors seem especially fitting.)

But we do get some luscious colors in the landscape this time of year. Here's one of my favorites - the purple of the jacarandas that are blooming right now.

And the intense orange of cape honeysuckle that seems to be blooming almost all year round.
Stay tuned for the upcoming pictures of the loom room as it becomes a reality!