Calendar Crazy

This year I decided to have a bit of fun, and create a whole series of calendars for Christmas presents and for Etsy, of course. I wanted to keep them simple and versatile, so I went for the loose sheet style, mostly in 5x7 size. I've always liked this format, as it allows you to just tape one to the wall, or pin it to your cube, or just use it as a placeholder. So far, the bird theme is the runaway winner in popularity, which is hardly a surprise.



I also did a large, coil-bound wall calendar, and I'm pretty pleased with the results.




I particularly like the desk calendar. Hell, I should just open a seasonal office supply store!

Very Cherry

OK, so here's how it all started. A very generic, white melamine (I call it Mac-Tac, after the ubiquitous peel-and-stick plastic coatings of the 70s) kitchen, replete with a hideous I-Krap-A (is my cabinetmaker's bias showing?) module plopped in the middle of the floor. Ah yes, the floor. A floating floor on top of another layer of flooring, on top of another layer of flooring. Nothing 3 guys with 3 circular saws and 3 crowbars couldn't rectify. But I digress...


I wanted a cherry island. A peninsula, to be precise. With a granite top. Cherry to match the cabinets I designed for the rest of the kitchen, and granite, well, just because I can't think of a better way to tp off cherry than with dark granite.

The first step to build the carcasses for the base cabinets. The plan was to have two cabinets, each with two pot drawers and one standard cutlery drawer on top. I built the frames from cherry plywood, and pine and maple members.
The next step was the drawers, constructed from solid cherry with cherry ply inserts in a pseudo-Shaker style.


Needless to say, in a 50 year old house, the floors are anything but true, so lots of shimming was needed. I think the end result was worth the effort.

The Joys of Orange

It seems there's little that can bring some "boink" to a 1950s house better than a little orange. Maybe it's partly reminiscent of the Jetsons, with all those bright colours on mid-century modern lines, or maybe it's just the warmth, but it sure does work.
Here's one wall of the way-too-small vestibule. One thing they didn't give any thought to when they built this place in 1951 was boots. Hello! It's Montreal, and it snows. A lot! My first notion was to smash down the wall and extend the little hallway to incorporate an open closet, but that would have ruined the symmetry of the livingroom on the other side of the wall, so I opted for something much more diabolically clever.


I took full advantage of some unused space between the floor and the ceiling of the stairs going down to the basement, and cut an opening at knee-level for kicking off slushy boots and getting them out of the way. An added benefit that I hadn't even considered was that by leaving the back of the boot closet open, there's a convenient opening over the basement stairs which allows light to pass in both directions, as well as cartons of tuna from Costco:)

The floor was a dog's breakfast of different strata, a bit like an archaeological dig. In the end, what could better suit a house of this era than good old linoleum? Back to the future! Orange, of course.

The wall in the kitchen that divides the fireplace from the cooking area had an ugly sheet of drywall on it, replete with some hideous mdf moulding. That was quickly rectified with a new build capped off with some homemade oak trim and some lovely textured wallpaper...painted...orange?



And what's the point of all that orange if the lights are say, blue?

The centerpiece of the kitchen is this old 1947 Kitchenaid-Hobart that I picked up for a song at a barn in Vermont. It needed a bit of repair to get it working again, but mostly the problem was that it was ugly. Decades of neglect along with dreadful paint jobs turned it into the ugly duckling of kitchen appliances.
I disassembled it, stripped it down, and gave it a whole new lease on life with a slick, shimmering coat of enamel. It should be good for another 60 years, easily.


Here's what it looked like before!



Next instalment: My handmade cherrywood kitchen!

The Garden

It's a place of incredible tranquillity and peace. Just plop yourself down on the ground with a big bag of cedar mulch, and everything else goes away in an instant. Our growing season isn't long, but it sure is prolific. I love this time of year. The changes from day to day are quite remarkable.



I love getting down to ground level and entering that tiny world with my camera, getting up-close and personal. It gives you a completely new perspective on thing to see everything so close up. Tiny droplets of water, the smallest bugs going about their daily business; it's all such a marvel.

Plants that were just buds one day, are in full bloom the next, and you do a double-take as you pass by. "Hey, where'd that come from?"


Just sitting and watching is the best part. There is a daily rhythm to the garden that's completely different from ours. It's a whole, huge society with lots going on, but we rarely take the time to watch because we're so impatient.
The great thing about flowers is the bugs they attract, pollinating, hovering, chasing each other. Usually, you just have to be in the right place at the right time.

Round Two

As you can imagine, my heart skipped more than a few beats when the lovely and talented "insomnia" sent me a link to this photo. Gallery Espai[b] in Barcelona, hosting the 2nd edition of 100x100 PHOTO, and yes indeed, that's one of mine in the window! I was excited enough to be in this exhibit again, but that just made me squeal.

What is it about chickens?

Or is it just the giggles larger-than-life animals elicit? I listed this photo on Etsy yesterday, and have already sold 3 copies.

OK, it's true, I liked the sign so much that I took a zillion shots of it myself.
It's always nice to see businesses that hang onto their old signs, the ones that have been landmarks for so long. This was taken in Lake George, NY, which for a sign hound like me, certainly ranks right up there. It's been a summer resort for decades, and there are still so many wonderful old places that have hardly changed over time.
Another of my favourites is this one near Wells, Maine.

Once again, big animals. And speaking of Wells, it and neighbouring Old Orchard Beach are both wonderful repositories of old motel and restaurant signs, though every year there are fewer and fewer of the originals. In OOB, this one always makes me smile.

It's just so evocative of another era with its fabulous lines and colours.

Cards

How come people just don't write anymore? Yeah, yeah, I know why, and I'm typing on one right now. But some of us still do. I love sending and receiving cards, cards with actual handwriting inside. Imagine that!
So I decided to make a bunch of cards for my Etsy shop, and with any luck I'll start a trend. I mean, emails are so ethereal. They're there, but not really. I like a card or postcard you can look at any times. Stick it on the fridge, prop it up on your desk. I love sending postcards when I travel, and not just because it's the "retro" thing to do.
Email's great, but real mail?...can't beat it.