New Home: Picture Tour

We have finished moving!  We are unpacked, and save for a few pieces of art and some cushions, we are nested.  Since we took this move to be a new start in a new place, I decided that we should invest in some art for our walls that reflect our personalities instead of some mass-produced stuff on the walls for color.  So far, its looking really good!

I thought it would be fun to show you what we have on our walls right now, as a glimpse into our new place.  The above picture, "She said kiss me somewhere dirty..." was in our old place, but its our fave so it followed.  It was printed by my friend Dave, and I bought it from Mixed Media here in Hamilton.  It has a prominent place in our living room.  After all, we did meet in Hamilton.

In the kitchen, we have room for art now!  It is a HUGE upgrade from the last place.  It has a window, which I love, and tile, which I also love.  Over my stove, I hung this page from an antique book.  The book was a botany book from 1880.  It features 3 of my favorite things: coffee, tea, and chocolate.

Bathroom: A photo that my kinda-cousin took during her photography course.  Its of one of my favorite buildings in town, the old train station.  Looks familiar?  If you have seen X-men or Hemlock Grove, it would-- they were filmed there.

In the office... Did I mention I have an office/ craft room now?  Because I totally do!  I have a table for sewing, and crafts, and my computer and photography stuff.  There's a closet for my music stuff.  Its the best little room in the place.  If I'm in the middle of a project, I can leave it, and my living doesn't look trashed-- I just close the door and invite company over.  It is the most exciting thing.

ANYWAYS, We moved my inspiration wall into the office.  Its two shelves and has cool things like the license plate from when I was born; a plate and a stone roofing tile I got in New Orleans; a souvenir from Las Vegas; some art by an indigenous artisan in Honduras and the like.  Its like a "around the world in 2 shelves," kind of wall.

The latest and probably my favorite new art are the prints I have hanging above our bed; they are prints of painting by Emily W. Martin.  I love them because they remind me of fairy tales, and our bedroom is already kind of whimsical like her pictures.  My fave of the three is the doggie.  I call her Nelly, the dog-faced child-- who you may remember from here.  This is a little more, um, I don't know... classy?

So there is some of the art we have in our new home!  Do you have a particular piece that you think represents you?  A favorite piece?

I don't know anything.

So we have moved. More than that, in true "Stephanie fashion," my week was more eventful than I wanted and/or needed.  

ANYWAYS, now that we have moved,we are slowly waiting for our services to resume.  We have power; which is awesome. We have water, which is essential.  What we are missing, is also essential-- wifi.

Now, I know what you a thinking; Internet is not essential.  It's a luxury that we can stand to do without for a while, to unplug if you will. Usually, I would agree with you.  Not being glued to your computer screen on a vacation of sorts can be a really good thing.  Normally, I would be using this time to paint or knit or do one of the thousand other hobbies I have.  

But here's the rub: I don't know anything.

Every time I wanted to do something in the new place, compare spaces and gather ideas for furniture placement or whatever, I couldn't because we have no Internet.  

If the world ends weekend, I wouldn't be ready because all my survival information is saved on my Pinterest boards!  

So, for my wifi fix, I am typing this from a Starbucks.  Drinking coffee I didn't make (cause I couldn't at home) and quickly updating my blog.

I am also gathering knowledge for the next few days.  Hopefully, I will be plugged in again Monday.  If I can feed myself without my online recipes until then.

Adventures in Moving, Part 1

comic from http://graphicgoulash.com/

While we have been living here, we haven't really got to know a lot of our neighbors.  We knew a couple of people on our floor, but one family moved.  Other than that, there are some folks we recognize, but many that we don't.

Now we are in the middle of moving our stuff people are talking to us.  Here are some conversations I have had today while moving some boxes:

 

Woman on the elevator:  Moving in, or out?

Me: Out.

WOTE: Lucky.  How much time did you put in?

Me: Nine Years.

WOTE: Yeah, I want to get out too.  It used to be nice here, but they change staff all the time...\

Me:  I know what you mean.

WOTE: Good luck out there.

 

And another convo:

Big Guy from the 8th floor: Moving out?

Me: Yep.

BGFT8F: I want to get out of here in a year.

Me:  You totally will.

BGFT8F:  I hope so; I'm going to get out of here someday.

What do these conversations sound like to you?  To me they sound like a conversation in prison. 
 

Ah, moving.

http://www.leadpaintcomics.com/comics/2011-07-25-moving.jpg

Well, it seems I'm moving.  We take over the space on September 1st, just in time for me to go back to work.  When it rains, it pours.  I will be in an out sporadically.  Today, my mama's here helping me clean and pack. 




I hate moving.

Graffitti: The Tivoli Street Art Project

The Tivoli Theatre was a built in the late 1800's in Hamilton, and was at first a carriage factory until 1924 when it became a combination vaudeville and movie house.  It remained a movie house for 71 years, until in 1995 it became a venue for live shows, from music to plays.  This is how I remember the Tivoli theatre.  I started acting in community theatre in this building.  I was in a couple of musicals including Jekyll and Hyde: The Musical, here.  It was my favorite place to act; it had an old vibe-- and I may or may not have pretended to be part of Phantom of the Opera while lurking its halls.

I remember the hoopla about the plans to demolish the theatre.  Its roof had collapse, and the 3rd floor had to be removed.  It was structurally unsound.  The city had hoped to save the theatre, but it was demolished (along with the record store I worked in next door.)

 
Where it once was, there is an empty lot, that the Hamilton Police Department, and the neighbourhood association have turned into an improptu little parkette.  How it did this was through the creation of the Tivoli Street Art Project.  It became sanctioned to create street art and graffitti in this place, instead of people illegally creating a space for, well graffitti in this space.



How the project works, is every so often (I'm not sure of the schedule, its not monthly anymore) the walls of the old theatre are re-decorated by local artists.  Its done during a street festival we have in Hamilton every month called James North Art Crawl.  People are encouraged to watch the artists work on the new pieces.  I like to go and take pictures, to have a record of the murals that have been created in the space. 



I went for a walk to check out the murals that are up right now; our SuperCrawl is coming up, and I have a feeling that the mural will change!  I really love the murals that are on display right now.  Although I wish that the theatre was still standing, the art on its walls is a nice memorial.

Made: Bow Clutch (that I will probably use as a make-up case)

I used to be way into quilting.  But then I got the new career, and starting spending all my time on that.  I did use my sewing machine, but mostly for alterations for our clothing.  Not so much for fun.  When my old sewing machine broke, I didn't rush to replace it.  I missed sewing, but it was something I didn't have the time for.  Since I do all my sewing on our dining room table, it wasn't something I could start and leave for an undetermined amount of time.  I guess what I'm saying is I got lazy.  So once I finished my last quilt (for my gramma,) I didn't really do it so much.

For Christmas, D bought me a new sewing machine.  

And this summer, I finally found the time to learn how to use it.  There are a few differences with my machine.  I have come to know my old machine as a training machine.  Thats why it was so easy to use.  This new machine has a bobbin case and stuff, which I have to tread and such.  Its a little harder than the old one.  But, this one has great tension, and metal parts!  Like a grown-up machine should!

So to learn how to use my machine, I made a little pouch for my small knitting projects.  It turned out cute.  I was quite proud of it.  But it was not impressive.

So I tried something a little harder.

And I made this bow clutch:

I love how it turned out.  I just used some fabric that I had laying around from the last time I was really into sewing.  I think it turned out really cute!  

But, I am not a clutch kind of girl.  I need to have my wallet and stuff strapped to my body, or else I will probably lose it.  At the very least, misplace it for a while.  So this clutch will probably turn into some sort of make-up case.  One that I carry around everyday, but in a bigger purse that I can strap to my body.  You know how it is.

If you happen to be a crafty-type and want to make one for yourself,  I used this tutorial from Elm Street Life's blog.  It was so clear, and very helpful.  She outlines every step of making the clutch, with pictures!  Having written my own sewing tutorial, I know how time consuming it is to write one that is helpful.  So if you use it, make sure you tell her how awesome her tutorial is.  

Have you tried sewing anything lately?  Do you sew?  

 

Dot Com-ed!

Ok, so I took the plunge and bought a domain name.  I'm not sure if it will be the thing for me or not, but we'll try it for a year.  It was pretty painless (I guess) to set up, but I lost all my bloglist in my sidebar for some reason.  I started listing them again; but if I missed you address, please let me know!  I want to get it back up there!  Also, I had to migrate my comments from disqus.  It will take some time, but your comments should be back soon!  (I hope.)

To celebrate my new address, I made some banana bread with chocolate and pecans!  That's what I'm excited about!