Addicted to roving

Before moving to Kearney, NE from Louisville, CO, I had to stock up on wool roving for my felting projects.   Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins in Boulder, CO has a fantastic selection of roving (corriedale and merino) at very reasonable prices, as well as quite a few white options (My white shown here was $1.05 an ounce).

This was my last stop before hitting the road for Nebraska. I splurged on a hand colored braid, but thought it would make a nice felted Nebraska cornfield. I can order from them and they will ship it to me, which is a great option.  I haven't found a place nearby for roving. You would think there are sheep somewhere in Nebraska, right?

Kitchen cleaning

These pictures all kind of look the same, but cleaning the kitchen, especially the floor, was a new level of gross. Here is the before picture, look at the dust on the ceiling fan. The floor was even worse.

Here are the "after" shots. It doesn't look much different. It was nice to  be able to unpack some boxes. I plan to put a dark stain on the cabinets, but it is very low on the list of priorities. The flooring will need to be changed eventually.  I am hoping there might be hardwood under the linoleum.

Bathroom in the new house

I never posted a picture of the large first floor bathroom.  It is a huge room, but looks small since it's so dark.  The last people that decorated loved their textured wallpaper.  It is in many rooms (and on many ceilings).  The real estate agent thought it was to disguise the cracks and variances in the plaster walls, but I think they just liked the look.  The major drag is they would wallpaper before putting up the trim (wainscoting, and base and crown molding), so I have to cut the wallpaper adjacent to the trim with an Xacto knife before removing it.

Who doesn't want peacock light fixtures (aside from me)? I plan to have the tub turned 90 degrees so I can wall mount a hook for the shower sprayer, as well as provide more space next to the toilet.  I don't know why these are so cramped in such a large room.  This is going to be a a bit of a big job, because the flooring needs to be changed out as well. It is currently linoleum with nasty permanent stains. I think we will go with those large rectangular tiles that are popular now.  We will have to move all the fixtures out (including the heavy claw foot tub), get the floors done, then move them back in.  The pedestal sink is very wobbly so we will change that to a cabinet as well. Once the tub is moved, this will be a much more functional space. Right now, the only "normal" shower is the one in the basement.

Refinished floors in the new house

Here are photos of the newly refinished floors.

Dining room, before:

Dining Room, after:

 

 Living Room, before:

Living Room, after:

Too bad we can't even see the floors any more, since the rooms are now full of boxes.

Field trip to downtown Denver and the Botanical Gardens

Sunday I met Melanie to walk around downtown to take some photos. I was hoping to photograph some cool architectural details, but did not see a lot in the area we went to.

Here is Union Station. It is being renovated so we couldn't wander inside.

16th Street Mall.

Larimer Square

We did find this building with some cool details.

And this classic car.

And the bar bike.

Afterwards, we met up with Susan,Sabyl, and Gayla for dinner at Pasquini's. They were out of Eggplant Parmesan and it was only 5:00, I was very sad. I got some awesome artwork from Susan and Sabyl. I would share it here but it is already packed for our move on Friday.

I am going to miss you guys! If you want to skype our monthly art group, I am all for it!

After dinner, Melanie and I went to the Denver Botanical Gardens to see the new Chiluly exhibit. Some of it was similar to what I saw in Scottsdale a couple months ago, but there were new pieces as well.

And you can't go to the gardens without taking some flower pictures.

It didn't get really dark until it was closing time at 9:00.  It was a fun but tiring day. At least I walked off my Italian dinner.

Gelli prints from Co Mixed Media meeting

Gelli printing is so fast and easy,  I was able to work on a lot of pieces yesterday.  Here are the fifteen best, all in one shot. These are pretty much complete. There were more prints than this, but I feel they could use some work.

Yellow flowers.

Coneflowers.

Birds and flowers.

Red Abstract

Flowers.

Pink flower.

This is a stencil of me, that I cut out of thin mylar. The top portion is big bubble wrap.

Birds and grids (two ways).

Lots of fun, and the results are unpredictable.

Colorado Mixed Media Club, June meeting, gelli printing

Yesterday for our June meeting, we did gelli printing. Sabyl showed us a way to do color block printing, including adding marks. 

 Demo pieces.

We played with this, as well as using stencils.

Here is Sidran with one of her works.

Here is Laurie, she wasn't too happy with hers...

Sue Clarke was happy, she did some lovely experimenting.

Two of Sue's pieces.

I didn't get a picture of Sue Shenk, but here are some of her works, and a close-up.

Sabyl's pieces.

 Here I am. Picture by Sue Clarke.

Here is my favorite piece. I will show some others in a separate post.

I did not get a picture of Susan and her work.

This is a great picture of Simone and Sabyl goofing around. Photo by Sue Clarke.