A Merry-Go-Round Christmas Adventure

So there has been absolutely no time for travel with the housing adventures, and really no money either…so i’ve decided to start exploring my own “backyard” per sea and start checking out what it has to offer.  For Christmas in particular i needed a snazzy destination to help fill the void left by growing up with parents that actually own 6’ tall nutcrackers that line their garage throughout the holidays and lights that run off the computer with sound accompaniment; coupled with being less than an hour from Disneyland…a lot to live up to.  I scoured and searched online and a couple of papers looking for a super lights fantastic street to help jump start my holiday spirit; nothing!  And i mean not a single street listed anywhere.  There were a couple of houses listed within 30 miles, but i’m not driving that far to look at a single lit house, lame.

Though there were no neighborhoods for me to wander there was one place that stood out and having awesome potential to fill an hour or so of wandering around … the Tilden Merry-Go-Round!  It’s definitely the closest thing to DL up here i’ve found so far (that isn’t creepy fairytale land).  I went on the Wednesday night before Christmas and they had a Santa, Hot Chocolate, Carmel Corn, and tons of other tasty treats.  A much better environment to take your kids to see Santa then the mall.

The lawn was strewn with all types of neon signs for all of the different holiday events and cute little scenes.   I love the Cacti!!!

   

The Merry-Go-Round is a beautiful historic item in the Tilden Park, and it’s indoors.  For the holidays they decorated themed Christmas Trees (when seems to have been the trend this year) placed all around the exterior perimiter of the Merry-Go-Round inside.  The trees were georgeous and tons of fun, i wonder if they were done as a contest or just by the people who work there?  Tree “Themes” as interpirited by me (Left to Right, Top to Bottom): Traditional, Bird/Child Cage (my Favorite), Candy Store (actually in the candy store), the Devil?  maybe Mardi Gras? Archery, Country Christmas

     

     

After wandering around in the fantastically warm room for a bit i decided to head out.  Normally i would not pass up a ride on a Merry-Go-Round but we are talking about a 45 minute line to ride on a fake animal for 3 minutes…pass!  On the way out i noticed EVIL penguins stealing Santa’s Mail!!!  I always wondered where my letters went, next year i’ll be prepared!

Seduction, Bloody Ballerina Toes, with the ambiance of Russian Ark | Black Swan

So i walked in, ready to sit down and look at pretty costumes for just over an hour of my evening.  I walked out shocked by the depth of the story and just how far Aronofsky took us down the rabbit hole with Black Swan.  I’ll do my best for no spoilers, which isn’t terribly hard for a film that left you in nearly as much clarity as The Shining and Russian Ark.

At the beginning of the film you are introduced to Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers, who at first glance you may guess is still a teenager by dress, style, and attitude.  Through the course of the course of the film i still haven’t the faintest idea how she got to where she is, just a sense what drives her.  There are tens of theories one could draw about the why’s of madness, but they are never quite as interesting as just watching the mad.

We get a couple of other stars in the film, Mila Kunis as Lily and Vincent Cassel as Thomas Leroy, who are the perfect pair to taunt and tease.  Together they set our “Little Princess” on a path of self discovery with only one of two outcomes…perfection or complete self destruction (yep, the movie really was that deep, i swear!!!).  Also cast a fantastic Winona Ryder as Beth MacIntyre as the “retiring” star ballerina.  After all of these years it’s amazing to see her with all of the passion and fire as in Heathers when outside of the kegger when she lets Heather #1 have it.  Unfortunately we only get about 15 minutes total of the Veronica awesomeness, but it’s enough to make me smile. 

The costumes were beautiful, but those girls are way to skinny!!!  I think it may have been what kept me on edge the entire film, waiting for some moment of anorexia or bulimia hysterics…which i guess looking back we did get a bit of, but in the moment they felt so perfect and natural they did not standout.  Odd how you can be on the edge of your seat for something to happen and then completely miss it when it happens.  While we do get to see the “show” before the film ends it had much more of a Moulin Rouge costume approach with beautifully simple garments throughout in anticipation of the bejeweled and feathered costumes within the performance; which i think i like the build up better.  I’m not a dancer, but all of the layers and warm up pieces on Natalie Portman were gorgeous!  The Costumer Design, Amy Westcott, wonderfully balanced the white and black swans through out the film in all of the characters giving us windows into the souls of where each person was at in their transformation throughout the film.

The films website www.ijustwanttobeperfect.com is super fun with clips and portions of the soundtrack if you need more encouragement to checkout the film.  Also here are a couple of movie posters, i so wish we got more of these in the states…beautiful imagery and i totally would have been in line opening night!

  

House Week 30: Hours with the Daisies

This week on the continuing adventures of “Home of Jones” we finally obtain tile.  All week the tile guy has been spacing and gluing down tile for the floor and shower pan/walls.  Like all of the other things i have seen come together for the house it was simply amazing to watch and see the tile all laid out in the bathroom.  The amount of “Period” it has already added to the house is fantastic, the daisies and hexagon tiles are perfect!  Can’t wait to get the tub, sink, and toilet into the room to pull it all together!

Here are a couple of close-ups of the daises, which even after posting about for nearly a month i am STILL not sick of…i love these!!!  Top is a daisy for the corner of the room also showing the room border.  Next is a close-up after being glued down.  Lastly a shot of them all in a row.

    

Friday afternoon entailed nearly 3 hours of pulling apart glued tile sheets to create daises and playing with positioning them on the floor to not look busy.  It will *definitely* be worth the effort over the years.  Here are some pictures of the shower pan and walls … i can’t wait to move in!!!!!!

    

After all of the bathroom tile experiences and how beautiful it is a can’t wait to save up some cash and have the kitchen and laundry room done.  It’s amazing how much these little period details can transport you back in time, at least to the utopia i imagine for the 20’s in my mind.  I’m glad reality isn’t the only thing the human brain can live in.

Apples all Mashed up in Airtight Glass Containers

Yep, Apple Sauce!  I have found over the last few months with my vegan baking kick i am burning through apple sauce like nobodies business.  This has been a goal since the end of summer with all of the apples appearing out in the world and others beautiful canning projects teasing me.  Unfortunately i had this crazy notion that i also was somehow going to find the time to go and actually pick these apples myself, HA!!!  So this project lingered and collected dust until the 4th time in a row of the grocery store being OUT of plain apple sauce.  I mean seriously people!  How am i supposed to live my ridiculously healthy lifestyle that the bay area commands without a good organic apple sauce available at my local grocery store ; )

So i brought 15 lbs of apples, ha, that will teach the grocery store to be out of apple sauce.  I was surprised at how inexpensive organic apples were just down the street from my house.  They are from Oregon, which is not the closest apple farm by far, but it’s better than Chile or Mexico where so much of other American produce comes from.  Okie, i’ll set that aside to rant about another day.

Back to the beautiful apples…  I picked up one 5 lb bag of each of the following: Grannysmith, Gravenstien, and Pink Lady.  I washed, chopped, and de-stemmed all 15 lbs in about an episode of This American Life (45 minutes and what i usually cook to).  Through the chopping i made the decision to skip the softer types next year (Gravenstien/Pink Lady) and look for look for firmer red apples to help keep up with the texture of the Grannysmiths.

After all of the chopping i got to cook the apples to help soften them up for the next step … food mill!  To help explain my excitement at the mention of a food mill let’s recap my childhood quickly.  i grew up in a super suburban southern California home with a backyard that was 20 feet deep and the width of our 1400 sq ft the house, period.  We divided the yard into three equal sections and managed to squeeze in a couple of fruit trees (plum, peach, and nectarine), small garden (even some sad grapes), and a square of grass that was 18’ x 18’ and a favorite for the dogs (two 120 lb+ animals really need some nature).  Not so farm like, there was no playing in the fields and until the garden when i was 8 or 9-ish i had never seen food growing in the ground.  So as a child the one time when mom borrowed the giant and awesome food mill from grandma was a stupendous event.  I don’t even remember what we used it for, just that it left an impression.  I was so excited when i got to pull out my brand new food mill that was purchased for the apple saucing in particular, and also amazed when shopping for one and how much they have changed over the years.  Grandma’s clamped onto the table and we had to how the bowl to catch everything underneath it, or use a stool.  Now they just sit over a bowl, thank for for 21st century improvements.

    

And then it was mushy apple-y goodness…mmmmmmm.  I decided to keep the jars all plain and unsweetened so they can be used for either baking or tasty afternoon snacks.  I have only had the opportunity to taste the leftovers, but with a dash of cinnamon, awesome!  The 15 lbs yielded 7 pints, not bad.  It will be interesting to see how much is left after the holiday baking.

Three Stranded Computer Gloves | Birthday Gift

I love when i have the time to sit down and hand craft a gift for a friend for a special occasion, like a birthday!  Over the last few years a lot of my friends have been getting shuffled all over the US offering me the ability to knit some darn warm items for those in the North East.  With the approaching birthday of one such friend i decided something warm and practical would be the most appropriate as they spend a lot of time working with the computer … fingerless gloves!  I milled around for a week looking for the perfect pattern, found it and then milled around for another week looking for the perfect yarn.  Little did i know i was looking for two yarns to achieve the right amount of fuzz, warmth, and function.

The base yarn selected was Alchemy Haiku in 07c - Sugar Mountain to be paired with Habu Textiles A-34 2/26 Cashmere in grey.  Both beautiful yarns, and both in a super light fingering weight.  Luckily double stranding the Alchemy with a single strand of the Habu gave me darn close to the requested gauge, and a super soft fabric.

This was my first foray into the realm of knitting things for the hands, apart from the mushroom wristlets which are still just tubes.  I selected a pattern that looked relatively plain, with just a hint of fanciness to help the beautiful yarns shine – Susie's Reading Mitts by Janelle Masters.  I was impressed at how easy the instructions were to follow for a first time thumb gusset-ter.  Also the pattern was enjoyable with a great mix of some basic time killing stockinette paired with a couple simple yet beautiful lace insert.  These knit up in just over a week, perfect time to pop them in the mail for the birthday gal!

Here is a link to the Ravelry post.

Leg Warmers | Things to Keep Me Warm While i Craft For Others

I have no idea what is going on with the weather here in the Bay, i mean lows of 35F at night are just not our norm and i am C-O-L-D!  So to ensure that i keep moving my hands to attempt the crazy Christmas Crafting deadlines i am needing something to help me not freeze to death…enter new Leg Warmers!  I have never been able to knit or sew with fingerless gloves on so those were out, but i am a totally freak about keeping my legs warm.  Ever since i was a kid i thought all of those people wearing giant puffy jackets and cut off shorts in the winter were crazy, and not in the fun you want to hang out with them kind of way either.  I mean the type of crazy where you don’t let your kids talk to them because they might convince them that the world is flat.

So needless to say, legwarmers have been a part of my life since i was single digit age.  I have a pair from my Mom that are the perfect long, black, snug legwarmers from the 70’s that you just can’t buy anymore and while i love them i know that i should not wear them everyday.  Thus entered some super cute camouflage leg warmers two years ago.  These have been a fantastic addition to my wardrobe and have weathered many parts of the US and Europe during their time, but they just don’t look fantastic with everything so they need a buddy to help split the load with during these cold dark times.

The pattern is from the same set as the camo set, but instead i decided to go super plain with the basic stockinette stitch with a color changing yarn.  They are coming along super fast with nearly 50% of the knitting done in just 3 days of part time knitting!

House Week 29: Let the Tile Begin!

Some progress was made this week despite the attempts of Mother Nature to yet again literally rain on my parade.  Even though it’s not that cold here in the Easy Bay, living less than a mile from the bay coupled with all of our rain has made the air completely thick with moisture.  So thick that another episode of “i can’t believe it, this stuff won’t dry” is occurring in my house (see previous drywall adventures).  I feel bad for these guys like i should have warned them about my family curse that all things must take twice (or more) time than usual.  Oh well, it sure is helping me to build a high tolerance for patience!

Last week they “floated” the floor and this week began working on the walls.  Why do i want my floor to float you ask?  It’s period appropriate for the house (my logic).  It is extremely solid increasing the stability of the floor while allowing for give to help reduce the pressure directly on the tiles to reduce tiles cracking under the weight of things like a 400 lb bathtub full of water and a human body (Dad’s logic).  The list goes on, but those are the basics.  Floating is not as common as it used to be 25+ years ago as home owners look to cut costs reducing both duration of the project as well as materials, also new technologies developed over the last 10~ years can offer the same type of moisture protection between the tile and sub floor that previously was only obtainable with a mortar bed and with other layers.  Also newer flooring types have been introduced recently to simulate the floating step without having to lay the layers, allowing the floor tiles to move and shift with the life of the house, more common in engineered wood flooring that tile.

Floating consists of building up a base for the tile to sit on (Layers shown at the left).  This is also where it comes important to remember all of those floor joists my father placed in my kitchen and bathroom (every 6” on center), which are to support not just the weight of my enormous bathtub but also all of the layers to build up the floor for the tile.  We also placed the plywood floor throughout the house so the tile guys start with the membrane layer which adds protection to the subfloor (plywood) from moisture.  It’s amazing to me how much of building is trying to prevent moisture/mold!  Okie, next layer is usually a hexagon wire “chicken wire” to give the mortar bed something to grip.  Mortar is then spread over the entire floor using some “floating strips” as guides for to keep the bed a consistent depth.  Strips are removed and filled in with the mortar compound and a bonding coat is placed over the entire floor for the tile to sit on top of.

Once the surface is completely floated and dried then they get to actually lay the tile, which by now is easy as you have a completely level surface to work on.  We have actually made it this far on the floor, but the moisture filled air is really holding up the walls.  They told me the compound was actually FALLING off of the walls!  Crazy!  Below is a picture of the floor “set”, which is to say glued to the base coat but not grouted and set permanently yet.  This weekend i get to mark off the daisies and borders which i guess they will go back and “pop-out” the white tiles to replace them with the navy?

It’s looking so fantastic, i can’t wait to move in!!!!

House Side Note: Nifty info about Tile

As i finally get close to having the “construction” work completed on the house i realized that there are TONS of other things i had always hoped to post about someday, thus the Side Notes.  I am going to make a *real* effort to get one of these out a week to help pass along all of these great facts and businesses that i have found along the  home improvement journey.  Let’s start with Tile!

When designing the entire house the goal was to re-instill the home’s original feel from 1921 when it was first built.  I researched 1920’s kitchen and bathrooms for weeks, there are so many beautiful designs out there from original catalogs to renovated and restored originals.  One item i quickly feel in love with was the 1” un-glazed hexagon tiles that were used on the bathroom floors, especially when paired in a daisy shape (see link for example of style).  Of course this all started out with thinking i needed a black and while bathroom; which would have been very period, but also very bright with contrast.  Surprisingly these tiles are not common.  I searched online, visited tile shops, and spoke with Tile installers all with minimal (white only and ridiculously expensive) luck until i found an awesome tile installation company – Bay Works Tile.  Even before we signed a contact he passed along a couple of tile companies that sold what he thought i was looking for and i found them!!!

While pouring through the website for DalTile i stumbled across their Color body Porcelain line of Keystone Shapes containing a small hexagon shape and completely un-glazed, beautiful!  I decided to go with a soft navy blue, also pretty period in the same group as the sea foam green and rose pink, but something i’ll actually enjoy for awhile.  I decided to keep the base a barely off white to help reduce the cleaning frequencies required of a while floor.  Here are the tiles i went with my feets thrown in for a bit of scale.

• Floor (Border and Daisy Pattern Along Outer Edge):
• 1-5/16” Hexagons – Biscuit (D317)
• 1-5/16” Hexagons – Navy (D189)
• Shower Pan Ridge and Shower Walls (Bick “Offset”:
• 3/4” Edge Rounds – Biscuit (D317)
• 3” Squares – Biscuit (D317)
• Shower Floor (Daisy Pattern Along Outer Edge):
• 1-5/16” Hexagons – Biscuit (D317)
• 1-5/16” Hexagons – Navy (D189)

It’s fascinating how they prep the tiles for the installers using glues and paper tapes.  All of the tiles came on some type of pre-spaced setup which drastically reduces the time to set all of these little tiny tiles.  The hexagon and 3” square tiles tiles were “glued” (as shown below) along one direction of the spacing.  The corner rounds that run along the edge of the shower pan are on super nifty paper strips.  It’s amazing what technology is doing for all of the non-techie industries.  Unfortunately they will have to set some of the tiles manually to achieve the daisy pattern, but nothing as crazy as the entire 10’ x 10’ floor.

House Week 28: Shower “Foundations”

One thing about owning a house you never stop learning new things.  The new thing this week has been about the foundation items for a stand in shower.  It’s amazing how many thing you have to plan in advance for one of these things!  Luckily there have only been two things we’ve had to “go back and fix”; which given my track record is an all time low.

The first thing you may notice in the picture to the left is the hole in the wall where the shower head will one day be?  Well that was one we just plumb forgot, which working full time on a house and work will cause in live.  The original pipe was not threaded on the end so we had to have someone come in and replace it so we *would* someday be able to install the shower head.  Catastrophe?  Nah, easy solve as the stupendous Tile guy of course knew a plumber he called and had over that same morning…yea!!!

Hector, the tile guy (Bay Works Tile), has been awesome the entire time helping me think about “down the road” and not “just right now” asking tons of great questions to help me plot away.  The most recent was if i was going to put in a frameless shower door, a resounding yes i replied, to which he asked if my framers put the appropriate studs in the walls to support it.  Ummm…no, since i hadn’t through that far in advance.  Here is where something completely crazy happened, the exact place where i wanted the shower door to sit was on an existing stud in the wall, so i didn’t need to do anything. 

Luck?  Me?  I was shocked when we walked through everything and sure enough it was right there without even planning it.First fantastically smooth drywall and now a shower pan that looks like it was designed to be there from the start? Maybe things are finally turning around for me and my doomed house?  I’ll take it ; )

The shower pan ended up even being a standard size, 4’ x 3’, so it should be easy when i go to get glass doors.  Also it feels like the perfect size in the bathroom.  It is definitely a single person shower, but for a gal of 5’5” it’s going to be plenty.  I am also excited that it’s not taking over the bathroom.  I really wanted the focal points to be the tub and amazing porcelain pedestal sink instead of the modern shower, so far so good.

Here are links to the bathtub that is currently lost deep in some warehouse, and the porcelain sink hanging out in my living room patiently awaiting me moving.

It’s full of water for the inspection today, wish me luck!

House Week 27: What i am Thankful For

Last week contained an American Holiday called Thanksgiving, maybe you have heard of it?  Well while most people were getting to lounge around on their day off we were hard at work on the siding, again.  I am beginning to wonder if it will ever be finished.  I guess it has to end eventually, all things do, but right now it sure doesn’t feel like it.  We did make some great progress on the back of the house finishing up the side walls towards the back and getting a good start on the back bedroom walls with the French Doors which felt good.

    

I am also very thankful for nearly finished Drywall.  Apparently with the cold spell that we are having here in the Bay the mud for the drywall just wasn’t drying.  Everyday we would show up at the house and the windows would be full of dew inside like some one had taken the steamiest shower ever right next to them…and that’s just weird in the laundry room.  After days of opening all things possible we were finally able to get enough air flow through for the drywall to fully set.  As we went through the house for the final walkthrough we only found a couple of spots that were not straight and the guys will (hopefully) be coming back to finish those next week.  It’s amazing how much difference the walls make.  It’s really starting to come together!