Art and Quilting in Camden and Hope

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It snowed. A lot!

Saturday, February 26th, 2011

So what does one do when you are moving in and it snows? Stay put and unpack more…. I got my wish for at least one really good snowstorm after moving in. Last night we got (I’m guessing) somewhere around ten or more inches of snow between yesterday afternoon and sometime in the wee hours.

Mid-morning Friday it began to snow. Notice the top rail of the fence and the top of the fence posts. You'll see why I'm asking at the end of this post!

The photo above was yesterday afternoon…HOW did I get so lucky to live somewhere so beautiful??? No matter what the weather or the season, it is glorious! I can wait to see this view turn green, then gold, then back to white, as the year turns and share the view with you all. And I may be more than just a bit of an odd duck: I have always loved storms: rain, wind, whatever. This house is very snug and tight, which is a good thing as it takes quite a buffeting from the wind.

It has been colder, but not by a whole lot.

When I got up this morning…it was a bit brisk. Yes, that is 15 Fahrenheit, with a mild breeze blowing (3 miles an hour, bringing it down to a wind chill of 12).

Mt. Everest you might wonder? Snow capped peaks? Sort of....

Once I got the storm door unfrozen and used it to push away the snow blocking it on the outside (I was thinking it was a good thing the house wasn’t on fire!), this was the view of the path to the car. Ahem. Path? What path? FORMER path. Now, it didn’t snow that much…the wind blew it there…..

The arrow points to the close-up shot shown above

If we wanted to go anywhere, or let in the guy to measure Eli’s room for carpet, or take the dog for walkies, that path had to re-emerge. I used the exercise as an excuse for waffles (with maple AND raspberry syrup thank you very much, and my made from scratch recipe please, no toaster waffles!) later. Ahem.

There's that snowcapped ridge again, with the shovel for scale

Fortunately, the snow wasn’t too heavy! Eli, who is getting *very* tall (at almost 13 he is just a skosh shorter than I am!), did the doggie duties.

Yes, 'widgeon, you CAN do it! Up you go!

But but but, said ‘Widgeon, my leggies are short!

Hah HAH! The doggie is a trooper! He's reached the pinnacle!

And it is SO much fun to romp in and eat the snow:

Let's go galumphing, says the dog....it's fluffy!

Then it was time to dig out the car (yes, we are eventually going to build a garage!)

Please notice the car. Behind the wind blew the snow nearly away (tho the plow ridges on the side of the drive are nearly as high as the side mirrors).

It appears the snow decided to land on the hood of the car. As you can see from the shovel I placed on top, the roofline is snow-extended all the way to the bumper!

Phew! It wasn’t as much work as I feared, though, because the wind swirling around the cars had minimized the build-up between them and on the sides.

DONE! There is, once again, a path. And if the weathermen are right, we'll have three consecutive days above 36 which will melt and mud things up nicely....time to get the dog-wiping rags out!

And remember those fence posts….

This is the view from the dining room. If you look in the middle distance, you might see some little brown dots.

Here’s a closer view. The top rail of the fence is now buried, just leaving the tips of the posts. Wonder what the ground looks like under the snow? We’ve never seen it except in the real estate listing photos!

Yes...those little dots in the middle are the tippy-tops of the fence posts. I LOVE IT HERE!

Now…to unpack and hang some pictures…nearly done (well, except for the studio…another week or so until I can begin there due to painting gonna happen).

Posted in Inspiration, Maine | 5 Comments »

HomeHopeHome, Part 2

Monday, February 21st, 2011

Kate's card and candles, Kathy's bird whom I named Egbert

Move-in Friday brought some lovely surprises:

A card from Frayed Edges friend Kate says “Heart Hope Home”…how perfect is that?

As Kate said...sometimes you just find the PERFECT card

And it arrived our first day in the house! Next to the card is Egbert, the bird Kathy (also a Frayed) made for my birthday last year, and the votives are from Kate’s Christmas gift. The old coffee mill from my dad went up first on the antique baker’s cabinet, and this group went up next!

Here is the current state of the studio:

My studio. Ahem. Clearly, this is the "before" picture. Alas and alack, the "after" picture probably won't be able to happen for at least 6-8 weeks...shriek!

UGH! The wall on the right will come down to open up the space, and a deep closet will go in on the left, with all of the closet doors becoming design wall spaces. And the deep cinnamon brown on the walls will go away!

It was a tad nippy on move-in days…. but our painter (!) brought us a bottle of wine from Hope Vineyards…Australia!

I'm guessing it is a lot warmer in Hope Vinyards, Australia, than Hope, Maine--and 29 is a fairly warm day for winter (almost freezing for those of you who do celcius)

The part of the studio on the other side of the ugly wall isn’t quite as grim looking…three mini windows up high, less “stuff”… and when combined and painted the two rooms will be lovely!

The small/narrow room on the other side of the ugly wall that will be removed....also packed with STUFF

A week into residence, we’ve had below-zero (Fahrenheit!) wind chill, tonight I saw a shooting star (while walking the dog who refused to lift his leg in that bitter chilly wind!), and we have yet to have a single room other than a bathroom that is free of boxes. BUT, most rooms are most of the way “there.” And the necessary work begins tomorrow morning, and hopefully most of it (except the studio) will be done in the next four weeks. I remember what passed for normalcy in this household fondly. Fortunately, this house and location is SO worth the tumult of moving… I just wonder when I’ll actually be able to share any art of quilting with you! Thanks for coming to visit anyway!

Posted in Be Happy!, Maine | 11 Comments »

HomeHopeHome, Part 1

Thursday, February 17th, 2011

Going up the driveway (first hill very icy and slick!) toward the morning sun; house faces north...

We are here at last! I took this shots as I drove up the loooonnngggg driveway on Friday morning, which would be our first night in the house. Here’s the house, a view from the driveway to the view (north) and the hill behind (south), and a closer look at the entry porch:

There is more snow than Camden, but those big hummocks are plow piles!

you enter the house from the porch by the entry hall and kitchen (on the right)

I had my car packed to the rafters with assorted stuff, but decided I really should carry a quilt in as the first thing in the house:

I had cleaning supplies with me, buit didn't want the first stuff in the house to be drudgery, so I grabbed this quilt from the top of the pile in the back of my car and just popped it up on an available support in the dining room (which *will* be painted a different color!)

The moving van

The drive was icy, so the movers put down old pads to make the trip into the house safer

left at about 3:15 Friday, February 11th, and we have unpacked like dervishes since. At least in the kitchen it is looking like we have made some headway! Here is a “before” of the entry and kitchen:

Heaps and piles everywhere. There are still some, but smaller after five days of unpacking....and different stuff!

And the other end of the room, the kitchen

And birdies!

The chickadees were voracious! Have bought seed!

More pictures soon…..

Posted in Maine | 17 Comments »

The big snow

Friday, February 11th, 2011

Before I got mired in the packing, I took some pictures of the big snow…they were lovely enough I thought I should still share even though it was a week or more ago…time has run into a big blur this month!

Here’s the view of the front porch–the snow piles up in the corner next to Joshua’s window, and it has never been this deep–the window was half covered!

I don't think we've ever had this much snow on the roof--we've had deeper snows, but the winds have blown it off the roof.

Then there are morning walkies:

The pugWonderfulness LOVES rabbiting through the snow!

I was so glad we got a deep snow, as I had never taken a photo of one of my favorite views in this house..out the window at the third floor landing, looking out over the garage roof (which has my studio on the 2nd floor). It is a quick and easy way to see how much snow we got…in this case, a lot!

Looking out the 3rd floor window...see that sliver of dark, that's the roof over my studio with about 12+ inches of snow!

And here’s the view to the other side:

There are three small gables facing the street and the sunrise

Paul had to scrape up extra bits so he could back out of the garage. The plow pile at the end of the drive is as high as the garage doors!

I love the coneheads on the propane tank (left) and doghouse (right)...and the mound in the back is that snowplow mountain! Eli and a friend sledded off of it down into the back yard

The new owners of our house (we were renting back for a few weeks) parked their car here while they returned to pack up their old house. Their car has a thick blanket!

I love Maine so much—our new house has great views, and I can’t wait to sit, snug and warm, in the living room and watch the storms blow in and the snow swirl around!

Posted in Maine | 5 Comments »