Thursday Thirteen, v. 4

13 Tolerably Clear Views of My Wee Abode

Someone was apologizing a few weeks ago for always posting pix as their TT (I forget who, sorry :) but I think it's a great idea and I'm borrowing a page from their book this evening as, tho I'm out of my early-autumn funk at last (yay), I'm still in the Countdown to Thanksgiving Semester Crunch. Besides these will give you a really good idea of who Susan is, which is one of our TT goals, n'est-ce pas?

1. Possibly my most fun wall. Came together over several months' time thanks to a few rather serendipitous finds at Mission Thrift added to my World Market mirror on the right.

2. Just beneath the mirror wall is my wee fun sideboard. The weird shiny thing on this end is sticky tape to dissuade Miss Lucy from scratching. How's your snack, Sammers?

3. Rather blurry view of the piano - which is good because when I took these I hadn't dusted in forever.

4. Fun Dean Gandy Original Bookcase based on a Crate & Barrel design if I recall correctly. This is not a super attractive picture but I'm very proud of my having been able to make this skanky old air conditioner even slightly less of an eyesore. In front of it is a hand-dyed placemat from Okinawa when we were there in the AF when I was little. When I moved in you could see light on all four sides of the unit, on one side you could see about an inch of light. So Susie Compulsive encased it in white duct tape - huge aesthetic improvement and cuts down on uninvited guests. This is one of a long list of things the landlord has yet to see which may or may not make him happy...

5. One of the more cool things about my teensy apt. is the built-in furniture. This bookcase in particular is great for keeping all my pottery (mostly by Yours Truly, a few from Japan or other potter friends) and all my family/friend pictures out of feline reach

6. (Sidenote, dontcha just love ctrl-z? I accidentally deleted this pic but now it's back! It's magic I tell you!) Some day I will take another pic of this wall to do it better justice. Now that I think of it it is tied for most fun wall. Particularly fun (and particularly blurry) is the oblong tan thing you see one row above and to the right of the Japanese mask. It is the top of an antique set of children's alphabet blocks. No, I didn't tear the box apart - I found it that way at Iron Horse, our too-expensive but now defunct little antiques dealer. Anyway trust me, it is extremely cool. Other stuff here is from my family, childhood and some other antiques quests to Angel's Antiques (much more reasonably priced). Another FDG bookcase to the left, custom made to my specifications.

7. One of my less busy design concepts, featuring a really really cool engraving of a country scene in a really cool ornate but not Scary Ornate frame (of which maybe someday I'll show you a close-up) and my noren from Japan made from kazuri, which is hand-dyed indigo cloth traditional to the area where I taught on Kyushu. Noren are usually placed in doorways over there, but I like mine here.

8. Now I'm thinking this might be a boring shot compared to some of the others. There's part of my fun ladder-back chair which was one of a handful of things I saved up and bought for myself for Christmas last year at Angel's. I forgot I took these during quilt season 2006 - so here, those of you who were with me then you can see where all the quilt magic happened (and why I was ready to pull my hair out at times due to the non-ergonimic-ness of my workspace!) This wall is opposite the mirror wall and sideboard... and lo & behold: two more wall decorations here I should show you in close-up sometime...

9. What can I say? I like to alter my surroundings! I put in this FANTASTIC pot rack last Thanksgiving. Does it rock or what? It's supposed to be for closet/laundry room organization but it was the only shelf unit I could find that would fit this teensy weird space. Much better than the scary naked drywall that was there before. I don't really like the T-L poster here but it adds some color to the kitchen. To the right is another box part - this time an antique peach crate end from Angel's. It has Kewpie-type figures dancing around giant peaches in case you can't see. Pretty fun.

10. FDG Original Whatnot holding a gazillion other trinkets, mostly from childhood or Japan, out of feline reach.... and collecting tons of dust I noticed the other day. The Ansel Adams is in an FDG pine frame and below it is a Jessica original papercutting of a chrysanthemum. The big fan you might think is another Japanese tidbit but in fact it's from Madrid when I was there the first time to study in 1981.

11. This pic doesn't look interesting at all now but at least it proves I am not compelled to fill every inch of my surroundings with whimsical trinkets! Plus, nice view of our mini catnip garden.

12. Again altering my surroundings - a medicine cabinet is probably strange photo fodder (fun alliteration) but I painted the inside blue when I moved in here. It was quite rusted and the landlord said, "OK, paint it but don't go crazy." I decided this was fun enough for me but tame enough for him. (Of course he has yet to see the countertop in the kitchen which I painted bright red....)

13. Speak of the devil - you can just see a corner of the aforementioned countertop which used to be grey linoleum --the same you see on the floor, so... come on! Bright red is a definite improvement dontcha think? -- Anyway thanks to my fun pot rack this cart now gets to enable my mixing bowl and bakeware addictions. Hmmm... Do you think I'm addicted to color, too?

Have a great weekend everyone! Happy TT!


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