It's hard to believe that the day before I took this serene photo, we were hunkering down in a powerless house for 14 hours as 100 mph winds and rain tore through the Northern Coast in a severe storm. You can see from Wende's post how massive old trees in our landscape (that had been there forever) just toppled down. Some friends of ours in neighboring towns are still waiting for their power to turn back on this weekend. So the joke around here lately is, "what's next... the locusts?!"
To make matters worse the morning of the storm I kept finding bees buzzing inside our living room. One by one, I would take them out with my vacuum. It was a genius plan, until the power flickered out. Then I was begging Shawn to do something, since they kept appearing. He's become quite adept now at setting them free with a cup and a piece of paper.( But bees, why is it always bees?!).
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The weather here now is ironically beautiful though. I spotted this Christmas light display yesterday in the shape of a large Salmon (the big catch around here). Our friend told us last year they had lights in the shape of the Astoria Bridge. Both emblems really reflect life in this area. So quirky, you've just got to love it!
I had a dream last night, that I was driving through the snowy hills of Astoria. When I woke up I pulled back the drapes, and squealed with happiness.There it was... after record breaking rain storms, a soft white blanket of snow had enveloped our world last night. Being raised in Southern California, this actually was my first snow experienced at home. Ever.
So, watching the snow drifting past my window this morning, surrounded by the Christmas garlands twirled with fairy lights that were neatly hung over Thanksgiving weekend was pure magic for me. What a lovely day.
It reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from the character Katherine in the movie under the Tuscan Sun. "Never lose your childish innocence. It's the most important thing."
That movie and our life run a few parrallel lines. Rennovating an older home, and moving away from everything we were so used to. A few people even warned us that leaving Southern California to move to the Northern coast of Oregon was a terrible idea too.
Everytime we end up driving too far up here in our new surroundings, we stumble on an adventure. So the urge to make little quicktime videos on my tiny Olympus handheld digital camera keeps creeping up on me lately.
I tried my hand at making these little videos into something on my iMac tonight. But, saving the video for web always makes the pictures and captions a bit blurry. It's still kind of fun to watch anyway.
A word of warning to those at work, there's music... I can never seem to help myself.
Most of our free time lately has been consumed with house rennovation, which put me in a bit of a (all work no play) funk last week. So we took a well deserved break this weekend to catch our breath and take in the beauty up here. We decided to head toward Youngs Falls, after taking a trip up coxcomb hill to the Astoria Column for a clear view of our town unhindered by clouds or mist. The lady at the gift shop was very sweet when we asked for directions to the falls, explaining how we've just moved here. Her response after pointing us the right way was, "Welcome Home". Yet even equipped with directions and all of our good intentions we still missed our turn and drove too far. We passed old dilapidated barns, and fields with grazing cows, and drove through winding forest roads. During our meanderings we found a lovely garden nursery called RainTree where I fell mad in love with a Japanese maple with it's bright yellow fall colored leaves planted on the grounds (pictured above). I found a smaller one there, on our way out and just had to bring it home. It was so long that it ended up lying sideways between us for the rest of our adventure. From there the seven mile marker noted Cannon Beach, and since we had driven that far already there was no sense in stopping... After weeks of longing to visit, suddenly there we were. I loved the beachy town, with it's wooden shingled houses, sandy streets, and nastursiums trailing over the fences, shutters cut like crescent moons, and beach sand so soft and cool to the touch that I never wanted to leave.
Back at home it's been all about Shawn and I wielding paint brushes. He's outside, I'm inside... I've been pulling Benjamin Moore colors from Domino Magazine, and the Pottery Barn Catalog. I could never doubt either source. Down in the photos below you can glimpse the new color of my studio walls, inspired by an article on laundry rooms in Domino. This color was paired with a black and white damask cotton fabric. Once the color was actually up on the wall, in all of it's bright blue glory... I thought, "wow, it matches my website perfectly"! Besides the exterior color and the studio, the rest of the house is decorated in deep jewel tones. Like these. I once read somewhere that home decorating is usually reflected by the color of the clothes you wear... true?!
Astoria is filled with all kinds of small town quirkiness. Last week the mayor was arrested, 100 sturgeon were mysteriously stolen, Shanghai'd in Astoria performed in Drag at the local theatre, and ghost hunters were meticulously at work. I look forward to reading the Astorian's headlines every day... Really, they just keep getting better.
Our new town, is really a dream. It still boggles my mind to think about how we moved during such a miserable heat wave, and two weeks later we're up here wearing fall sweaters in the middle of August. Please don't pinch me, I'm not ready to wake up!
At home, "Hold on... while I paint the house real quick" is my favorite Shawn quote of the moment.
In other odd news, my cocker spaniel has taken to sitting & laying down on dining room chairs. A new thing for him, such a civilized little creature he is.
In terms of pulling an old house into shape, we're doing really well. We've only been here two weeks, and have managed to re-paint two rooms, part of the exterior of the house, and put in a new kitchen sink!
My big DIY mistake as of late was pulling up a small corner of wallpaper (you know....just to see), and then continuously ripping the piece in one swift pull. Thinking it would be a piece of cake to remove the rest, I started on the next one hoping it will come off like the first. Instead I managed to rip the paper into shreds with lots of glued on bits still stuck to the wall. What a headache! The next day feeling refreshed I began ripping some more, it was like peeling off labels from cans actually, kind of fun in some offbeat way. Especially getting into the flow when I cranked up the stereo. But I came to my senses after hours peeling paper from walls, arms trembling in pain, realizing that I had to get every last scrap that was stuck on the walls off.
So, the following day in a fit of frenzy I went to consult the guy at the paint store. I came up to the counter with a big bottle of Jasco old glue remover (amazing product by the way, a true lifesaver), and he shook his head at me all too knowingly! His million dollar tip was to wash the walls with this solvent a second time after all of the paper was removed, because old wallpaper glue re-activates when you paint over it leaving traces of roller lint stuck all over the walls. So presently I'm still working on scrubbing those walls like mad! I can't wait for the moment when Shawn steps in and says, hold on "while I paint the parlor real quick"... but I'm not there yet.
We're saying good-bye to our tiny bungalow in southern California this weekend to begin an exciting adventure, as we'll be headed to a new home up north in the "little San Francisco of the Pacific Northwest".
I'm looking forward to designing a fresh new garden space, and having a large indoor room for a studio... how decadent!
I'll be back online soon, with all new tales to tell. That's a promise!
