Hotel Treasures

My husband came across this amazing business in Lincoln Park called Mid American Salvage Company.  He talked me into checking it out when we were looking for a love seat/sleeper for our youngest daughter's dorm room.  This place is amazing!  They purchase contracts from upscale hotels that are ready to remodel and replace their decor and furnishings.  This company removes all the "old" furnishings, drapes, lamps, tables, TV's, refrigerators, etc and then moves in the new decor for the hotel.

They sometimes are allowed to hold a sale on site.  Then they truck everything left back to Lincoln Park.  Most of the time they must bring everything back without a pre-sale.  They sell everything at greatly reduced prices.  The furniture is quality; toting names like Broyhill among others.

We found the cutest love seat/sleeper and a matching oversize chair that pulls out into a single bed.  I put the chair into my art room.  I found the cutest Art-Deco style lamps and promptly replaced my living room lighting.  Another visit found us adding the cutest set of lamps and a mirror for the bedroom; not to mention a solid cherry bedside table!

As I said, these contracts are with high end hotels like Residence Inn, Hyatt, Dearborn Inn, and others.  I have never found or even suspected any issues regarding insects or vermin.  Everything is quality and clean.

The designs are top of the line, yet classic.  I doubt that quality ever goes out of style.  In fact, I told my husband that I would definitely consider replacing my living room furniture from one of their future contracts.  That is how impressed I was.  Here are a few pics showing some of the items we picked up for pennies on the dollar...

Reaching For Spring

I have begun the small duties of spring that seem to bridge the gap between the weariness of the cold and the outside chores in the warm sunshine.  A few days ago I started my tomato seeds.  I have been saving my seeds for several years; ever since my neighbor gave me the largest Roma tomato I have ever seen!  I would like to start seeds for other garden vegetables and flowers, but I have not the space for it currently.

I now save seeds for that same Roma and a variety of Beefsteak that are huge and rarely crack.  The flavor of both are amazing.  I am very relaxed about the purity of the next year's prodigy.  In fact, last year I grew Roma's that had apparently crossed with some Green Zebra Tomatoes.

They were beautiful, but had little flavor.  Needless to say, I did not save their seeds.

I was startled to note that my tomato seeds have already sprouted!  With the cilantro, rosemary, and basil that I started from an herb kit my husband gave me at Christmas, it is looking very spring-like in my kitchen and laundry room.

I've also taken the opportunity to divide an African violet that was obviously already dividing itself in the container it was housed.  After that, my cactus looked so pathetic and unhappy, he too received a new pot and nutrient rich soil; suitable for a cactus of course!

My friend, Carl

As I was checking over a recent post of a Santa Fe artist I admired, it occurred to me to check online to see if the website of a very dear artist friend of mine was up and running yet.  To my delight it is!  Carl Schuman and I have been friends since he was my manager at the Dick Blick Art Store in Dearborn, Michigan about 22 years ago plus or minus.  He has been living his dream for quite a while out in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  I have been out there numerous times to visit and soak in the wonder of the place; hiking, 4 wheeling, hearing God...

I own a few of his pieces.  The way he describes his visions of each is amazing to me.  It seems to be a spiritual process that is like a cup running over, never emptying of ideas and inspiration.  If you'd like to see more of his work go here.

What I love most about this piece is how each part moves independently from the others causing the light and mood to continually evolve.

Finally Framed

These are a few Prints of a Santa Fe artist I met a couple of summers ago.  Her name is Barbara Bowles. I love her work, but couldn't afford her huge photos printed onto watercolor paper.  So I made do with several greeting cards and framed them in float frames.  I hung them in the bath as I have few areas of wall left in most of the rest of the house!  Besides, I love art in the bathroom!

Creating Christmas

While enjoying a new experience for Christmas last year in Hunedoara, Romania, I learned a valuable lesson.  I thought I already knew this lesson, but apparently I did not.  You see, in Romania, few people decorate for Christmas or even have a tree.  Shelby and I truly experienced the celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  There was no pressure to decorate, bake, purchase gifts, etc.  We spent time with new friends, people who had nothing, not even a home, and we caroled all night long (me on Christmas Eve, and Shelby for the rest of the week).

This year I wanted to not lose our new perspective.  God has blessed this wish.  In year's past there was stress about getting the house decorated quickly, to create and send out Christmas cards, to get presents purchased and under the tree, to bake and have the house clean so that I could "enjoy" the holiday.

I decided to lose the pressure.  I did decorate.  But I only worked on it when I wanted to and did not make it a family chore.  The wonderful result was that my family got involved because I was having fun with it and they wanted to join in.  I made Christmas Cards...as a fun craft.  There was no pressure or expectation.  They are finished and waiting for a trip to the post office.  I have made homemade gifts for some of my friends.  What I am trying to say is that this has been the least pressure-filled Christmas I have ever experienced.  I now know that you can relax and soak in the presence of our Lord and still have pretty lights to look at.

Creating Christmas....is all about attitude.

Creating the Christmas cards

I found these cute tags for 50% off and added a impromptu family photo to the back taken at Cracker Barrel with a holiday greeting and myself Photoshopped in.

My "Santa Fe Tree" in the kitchen

Shelby got into the fun by displaying her Breyer Holiday Horses

My favorite...the Nativity

Mike even helped to light his extensive collection of Firehouse villages

Our main tree in the art studio/sunroom.  You'll see a lot of red because over 25 years of marriage we've collected a lot of Fire department ornaments!

We've gotten the girls an ornament each year so that when they are on their own, they have a collection for their own tree.  Shelby wanted to display her own ornaments, as they tend to get lost amongst all the fire department ornaments on the main tree.

Shelby at work on her own creative endeavors

Home Grown

Unbelievable!  It is October 29 and I still have a bushel and a half of pears to finish preserving!  The very end of the end of the tomatoes were turned into 3 quarts and 1 pint of spaghetti sauce this week.  I have to admit, I love making spaghetti sauce.  I love letting the newly strained tomatoes cook down over 24 hours until I have sauce thicker than than the Prego brand!  Even in the dead of winter, when you crack open a jar, the scents and flavors of summer are right back in the kitchen.

But I am truly amazed at how well the pears produced this year.  I have already put up dozens of sliced pears and pear-cherry chutney.  Tomorrow I think I will make spiced pears and more chutney, as Mike eats the chutney by the jar if I don't hide them first   And of course, we give quite a lot for gifts.  My apples nevey really provide anything more for us than a few treats for the horse...I'm certain this is because we don't spray enough.  Honestly, I wouldn't spray at all if I could get any fruit otherwise.  I am determined to expand my no-spray policy from the garden to the fruit trees, if I could only get my husband on board.

 After reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver I am convinced the more we spray, the more pests we end up with.  Don't buy that theory?  Read the book!  She can explain it far better than I, a novice can.  We've made some very good changes at home using sustainable methods of composting, recycling, raised bed gardening, rain water collection, etcetera, but I really need to research and actively try to control my fruit pests in a more natural and balanced way.  I think my biggest fear is that it is going to entail a lot more hands-on work for me.  I already am overwhelmed in the spring, summer, and fall with planting, hand picking pests, weeding, harvesting, preserving all the produce as well as the animals we keep.  Stay tuned we'll see what happens in the spring.

Oh, and hopefully after tomorrow I'll be posting about some artwork I'm working on! :)

A Room With a View

A studio!!!! I finally have some space to work.  Granted, I had to lose a daughter to college for this to happen...but then there are the perks!  Needless to say, in the midst of scrubbing, sweeping, moving, sorting, and organizing, I have not been creating the art.  I have been creating the art space.  Can you say "HAPPY"!

I have taken a couple of weeks off from Illustration Friday.  As I viewed most of the other artwork submitted, mine just did not seem to fit.  The point of my participation has always been a jumping off point to create art; any kind of art.  I feel that the goal is being met. However, after getting the topic today for this week, I might go for it again...after all, I've always wanted to create a Dios de los Meurtos shrine/project.  The theme for this week is "Spooky".

If not, I'll be posting some of the Renaissance costumes I've made over the years for my daughters.  After all, it is fall and prime time Renaissance!

Autumn Treasure

Procrastination can take many forms.  Today I absolutely HAD to document the fall changes and exercise the dogs before sitting down in front of the computer to work for hours on some graphic design projects that I had promised my friend Marcella weeks....er, months ago.  And I desperately needed a hair cut (we barter graphic design for hair cuts, waxing, etc). 

Now don't get me wrong.  I love designing!  In fact, once I did sit down in my comfy swivel chair, I lost track of time.  And the next morning I jumped right back on hoping to have three of the projects finished before our lunch date...which I was late for...You see my personality is that I let the dread of the upcoming project overwhelm me especially when guilt is involved, so that I try to do anything else.  Then when I finally face the project head on, I get so into it, that I don't want to stop for anything! 

Dylan and Lex

Lavendar and Sedum

Chinaberry vine



Pretty New England Aster on our conservation land



New England Aster, native to Michigan

The next three photos prove how much Lex loves the water even on 50 degree days!

My beautiful Sebastapol Geese; Petrov, Rechenka, Boris, Natasha, Nicolai, Anastasia, and Vladimir

The point is:  Marcella's delighted and I still have some fall photos to share right here!