Sunday in the City

In pursuit of the promised colorful floor for Ronan's new room we headed off to the Flor store, newly opened in Boston.  www.flor.com

It was as fun as I imagined.  They don't stock the tiles, just the samples, but are very helpful with the process.  Ronan is a quick decision maker so once he picked his colors he was all set!

 

Until...he said "I want a smiley face design in the carpet".  Of course, I gave him a funny look but then I thought, hey, if I said ok to the black walls, who cares if there's a smiley face in the carpet?   So he took pencil to paper and drafted his plan.

It was not until we left that I saw this in the lobby.  I walked right over it and didn't see it.  My eagle-eyed son obviously hatched his plan from the beginning ; )

A fun place to visit. You'll come up with a zillion places in your house to use these fun, recyclable carpet tiles.

And, well, hey, we're already in the city and it's cold and wet and blowy and we are expecting a storm...so we saw this Burdick's Chocolate store and popped in for some gourmet hot drinks.

Tres chic.  I actually relaxed for a whole 30 minutes.

These things can be done on a Sunday morning and all before 2pm.  If you choose to get out of jammies.  Which most of the time I do not, ha.

Pumpkin Friday!

Ah, it was a very creative week 3 in my "Fun with Paint" class.

The hard part was putting 10 pumpkins on my cart and making sure they safely made it to the classroom!

The students were very creative, as usual, and gave each one their own special touch.

A table full of painted pumpkins ready to bring on the Fall spirit.

krispie treats

I am in search of the ultimate gourmet rice krispie recipe.  I know you can't mess them up but wanted to elevate them from the plain treat to something more exotic like the one I pay way too much money for at Barnes & Noble!  First time around I drizzled melted semi-sweet and white chocolate (bars, not white chips...white chips do not melt...no matter what you do...heed my warning...they do not melt!)

Next time caramel and m&m's!

Morning Walk

I took a morning walk with my friend Cindy and thought to grab my camera on the way outside. 

 Many times the gloomier the weather, the better the picture!

A lovely neighborhood always, even prettier when the seasons change.

And with all of the catching up, I didn't even notice when our two mile loop was done.

My favorite kind of exercise!

      Fall used to be a little hard for me, the end of the pretty growing season, the beginning of the cold and winter season and darkness settling in early.  But having kids helped me to appreciate the wonder of Fall and all of the great things it brings like pumpkins, cider, apple picking, Halloween and marching band!

The Black Walls

So it was one of those times in life that caught me by total surprise.  With the older two in college, we are moving sleeping quarters around and updating our upstairs.  I asked - no I told - my 11 year old that he could pick any color he wanted for his new room's walls. 

I picked army green and dark blue.  I brought home various paint chips in shades of khaki and stone. 

"Black", he said. 
"I want my walls black". 
"Two walls black, two walls white".
Ummm.  Ummm.  Here I am all this self-proclaimed artist and proponent of self-expression put in this position of saying no to black walls?  I did for a day.  But then I saw how important it was to him and so I said yes.

I do think this old colonial farmhouse with pretty windows and high ceilings has never seen anything like it and might be holding it's 100 year old breath until the outcome is fully revealed.  I almost feel like apologizing to it.  And no, these pictures are not in black and white!

And then on the other hand, after I had taken a deep breath and tried to absorb it all, I thought to myself that nothing quite outlines a well-scuplted white window frame like a dark color.  Perhaps there was even a bit of elegance to it.  The specific color is "Volcanic Ash", not quite pitch black.  We have mutually decided on two walls black, one being chalkboard paint (there's my creative insistence - I mean if you're going black, make it fun) and two walls in a light grey.

His current abode.  I'll be kicking and screaming to leave it behind.  Yet there's no denying it's time to move on.  11 years old now, first middle-school dance behind him.  No more backpacks with lizards or robots on them.  Plain clothes are desired, no stripes or designs. More attention paid to not sticking out than anything. 

But here my son and I are in agreement!  WHEW.  Color!  We have used Flor carpet tiles in our house already and have been really pleased with the results.  He has agreed to using 4-5 different colors for the floor.  I think it will be smashing, actually. 

This striped version, I want for my art studio in my home.  Oh yeah, while I am drying my tears over the "baby" moving into his black room, I'll be getting the white paint out and his former room?...my new art space.  I'll be doing the same thing to the blue and green walls.  So I probably will be sad for about a day.

What I love most about them is the sustainability factor.  The carpet tiles are made from recycled stuff and you can mail the tiles back to them and they will recycle yours. 

Bedding.  Not so easy to find black bedding.  This PB Teen duvet cover is in the running, although if I could get him to do more colorful block colors/sheets to match the carpet tiles, that might work, too. 
Will post progress!

This Week, Mermaids

I have decided to steer my Ford Pick-Up (not really, but on the bucket list) in the direction of art again.  It used to be what I did full-time but with busy weekends needed doing other things (ok, let me not couch this in vagaries - it's that I gave up my entire life for my sweet sons who I love and traveled with, carried water bottles for and kept the beat for the last five years with the marching band - miss it, but whatever your kid's dedication is it is yours, too) it was easier for me to work part-time at a job where I just came and went and left no "homework".

But as all things that we are truly meant to do, it is in our bones, and will come knocking, knocking and knocking louder still until we answer.  That's what happened to me.  So I thought I would start small teaching some after school painting classes.  It's a little harder than the last time I did this!  But lots of fun.  So far we've painted watercolor leaves, mermaids and next week painted pumpkins with the kids' initials on them.

            And at the end of the class I have paint all over my hands and smock. So, mission accomplished.