WEEK LINKS

Jacob MaGraw-Mickelson

Rachell Sumpter

The artists who did the work above are a very talented couple who are also illustrators and educators. Both have a show at SPAC Gallery in Seattle through December.  They are super sweet people and pretty much have my dream job.

Another couple that compliment each other in the design world.

After the Jump's recent episode really helped me re-strategize my communications in a way that makes sense for me.

Tahini would make a great mayo substitute.  I have been putting it on everything I eat thanks to Devyn.

So great to see Hollin's interview on the Renegade blog.  We used to slave away at Anthropologie together.  Along with Tuck & Bonte (another couple collaboration!).  So many talented people I know are really doing great things and it is so inspiring.  

So excited for a quilting workshop this weekend from my friend Jessica at Cairo.

I am just a homebody these days.

The freedom of capsule wardrobes.  

Before and After: Exterior Trim and New Gutters!

Things have been really quiet on the blog this summer.  With the end of a big house poject, I hope to have more time sharing my ideas, stories, and projects on the blog.  While I am super active on Instagram, the blog tends to be VERY slow.  So lets kick off this new season with a before and after of my big summer project, exterior trim and gutters.  What is trim you may ask? Well, it is all the framed areas of the house.  Think of it as an outline in your coloring book, or a frame on a picture.   All of our trim and facia* (facia* is the structure underneath the gutters) not only needed to be painted, there were many parts that were rotted and needed to be replaced.  You may have noticed we have a duplex.  We co-own this side-by-side duplex with our friend Eric.  Cable and I live in the left side, and him in the right. We decided to do this big DIY project together this summer.  We started planning this project in the spring, and every weekend in the summer was pretty much devoted to working on this project.  Goodbye summer and friends, hello brick and paint in my face!  Oh and keep in mind all the pictures here are just ONE HALF of the house (the other side looks just like our side).

Crazy what a coat of paint will do!  We chose Benjamin Moore's, Sun Valley for the doors and French Beret for the trim.  We had originally chosen black instead of the deep blue/gray. Clearly we made the right choice.  I love that the door is a ray of sunshine every time you see it!  In gray Seattle weather, you need to be reminded of the sun sometimes.  I wish I had a progress shot because SO much work went into this besides just a coat of paint.  Here is a list of all the things we did in a nutshell:

Fixing Trim, Facia, and Gutters:

• Get quotes:  A very long process of calling dudes to tell you how much it is to replace gutters and fix the facia.  Some showed up hungover and smelling of whisky.  Some showed up 6 hours late.  Some were just right.  Make sure they give you a piece of paper with their card and quote, you will mix them up.  Three months later you will decide half of what they quoted you you will do yourself to save money.
• Get the right tools or have a neighbor that is a professional house painter:  Co-owning is great because that means you share the cost of stuff like this.  Between both sides, we had mostly everything we needed.  I think power tools was the only way to get the boys motivated to actually devote their weekends to this beautifying project.  That and our basement flooding (more on that later).
• Demo:  Rip off all the rotting gutters (carefully and safely because there will be lead) and take to the dump.  We have spent a lot of money at the dump, it is not cheap.  I will never complain again about neighbors leaving junk in their yards.   There is a reason rich neighborhoods look nice, because they have $$$$.  It is so expensive, around $80 per load because we were always over the weight limit!  I think we went about four times.  I am glad we do not live in a rich neighborhood, clearly we would not live up to their standards.
• Repair, patch, caulk, sand:  This was the fun part.  But, before we actually painted everything we had to replace and repair rotting sections.  I was happy not to do this part, as the guys just took care of it.  It took about two full days to do that while I prepped and caulked. Caulking is fun by the way.  Oh and do not forget to re-glaze your windows!  The glaze is the putty that holds the glass in the windows.  This was also fun.  Sanding is not fun.  
• Paint:  We primed first with tinted primer, then painted two coats of paint.  I forget the finish type, but if you are still reading this and really want to know I will reward you by finding out.
• Gutters:  After an entire summer of work, it was finally time to fork over some cash to the gutter guy.  He came and finished in one day!  We chose black for the gutters, and it looks fresh.  I highly recommend him.  
• Details:  Technically we are not done.  We still have not replaced our house numbers or replaced or painted our light fixtures.  But I expect this will happen slowly over time.  Oh and then there is scraping paint off the glass of the windows and painting our storm door in the back.  Eh, probably will happen next summer.

Overall the project went smoothly.  Yeah there were days we sort of wanted to kill each other, but that is totally normal when you are doing annoying exterior house projects.  Obviously we would all rather be subway tiling our backslashes right now.  But gutters are important.  So important when it rained after we took them off our basement flooded.  Team effort really got the job done.  And between three heads coming together, I think we did a pretty good job of doing things ourself.  Unlike some people [cough* caugh*] the previous owner.

Oh and people might think you are insane or a perfectionist because you want to scrub off all the teal paint that was slathered all over the brick AROUND the TRIM.  So annoying right?  It's like the previous owners painted their trim in the DARK!  Any new paint would be framed by big teal brush strokes all over the house.  So I took it upon myself to obsess over this and try and scrub off the paint with paint thinner (gross and scary since it can melt your skin off).  Finally I realized I should listen to Eric and paint over the paint with artists paint.  Hey we are artists after all!  So we did just that trying to meticulously match the brick with various mixed colors and textures.  Bob Ross would be very proud.  We feathered the fuck out of that brick color to make it look real.  And it looks GREAT!  I wish I had a photo so you can a agree with me.

Oh the back!  Let me explain.  See that little roof over the railing there?  That was being held up by one 2x4 and maybe 2 nails.  So yeah, that had to come down.  I guess the renters who lived here before maybe built to keep rain out of their face when they went down to the basement to do laundry.   You may have noticed the back trim was bright teal.  It was like daggers of ugliness pierced our eyes every time we went in the backyard, which was a lot.  And everything was rusty, rotting, dirty and gross.  There was also a crazy 2x4 keeping the gutter up just above the downspout you see there.  We took that off before I took this picture.  To make things more annoying, a square bit and screws were used to screw these things into place.  Who has a square bit?  Not us!   Otherwise that roof thing would have come down right away! 

The FENCE!  Doesn't that look so much better than the wire awfulness?  Cable was OBSESSED with replacing that as soon as we were done painting trim.  I had the idea of doing a horizontal fence and staining it black.  I guess we should have stained it matching our trim color, but we just wanted to get this done before rain came so we just used what was at Lowe's. We used the existing metal structure of the previous fence to build upon.  So this took about a day to do.  SO much better!

Hanging out in the backyard just got prettier!

UPDATE:  This post was featured on Apartment Therapy!  

SAM PARTY IN THE PARK PART 1

Every year the Seattle Art Museum holds a gigantic fundraiser in the Olympic Sculpture Park called "Party in the Park."  The event is very glamorous and over the top.  They roll out the white tents, set up tables, bars, music all on the top of the hill of the sculpture park.  While you are eating your three course meal and free booze by famous Seattle chefs, you are overlooking the Puget Sound.  Each table is decorated by a local artist or designer inspired by this years's them, "Northwest Modernism."

Cable and I decided to collaborate on the table together because I have been doing a lot of textile work lately, and we thought we could incorporate his painting style in the textiles.  Also, I had a ton of leather scrap I wanted to use too.

Our theme was mountains, trees, and found flora.  I made these leather napkin holders to match Cable's mountain pattern on the tablecloth (more on that later.)  The tablecloth was going to be dyed with indigo, so I dyed the napkins a lighter shade of indigo.

The tablecloth was painted by Cable with a resist, and then we dyed it together.  It took a couple dips in the indigo vat to get the right color.  We had some problems with the resist, but I sort of knew that would happen because I was too impatient to actually find the right kind.  We probably should have used wax, but I am always breaking the rules like that.  I like how varied it is, it was never meant to look perfect.  It has that Batik look to it that we wanted.

We used ferns for the main flower vases that I wrapped in a thick vegetable tanned leather. Unfortunately, I do not have photos of the main centerpieces during the making process.  But, I will reveal the finished product in part 2.

AGNES MARTIN

{page images; Agnes Martin: Painting, Writings, Remembrances, by Arne Glimcher}

This book.  Agnes, oh Agnes.  I really needed that.

This book is amazing!  It is a massive book with full page spreads of her work.  Along with the fabulous biography written by one of her long time dealers, there are inserts that look like notes and letters Agnes had written herself.  I had never read about Agnes' life, have you?  She took a long hiatus from painting at the peak of her career.  She moved to a remote place and then started painting again. She devoted most all of her time to her work, living very modestly.  She struggled with mental illness, poverty, and alienation.  Although, I am not sure she would ever put it that way.  She seemed okay with the way she was, focusing her thoughts and energy on her work in an obsessive way.   Her work is just so mesmerizing.   Painters, in my opinion, air on the side of obsession when it comes to their work.  But I notice this is mostly portrayed as a male painters' obsession in the history books.  But, this is far from the truth.  Women are obsessed too. Not in a bad way at all, just a very unique connectivity they have with their work that is not often seen in other mediums.

WEEK LINKS

Image:  Painting by Stella Maria Baer / Found via Honey Kennedy

Great relationship advice for all types.

Had fun at the launch of West Elm Local at the Seattle store.  You can now find a selection of my goods there!

After much research and this DIY, I started experimenting with Shibori leather dyeing techniques. 

I ate here last weekend in Portland.  We need more places like this in Seattle!

Congratulations newlyweds...or should I say already wed?  So proud of my city!

I made cod tacos inspired by this dish.  Super yummy.

Excited to see this show at Seattle Art Museum. Oh, and my husband and I are collaborating on a table setting for the Party in the Park event.  Get tickets here.  Hint...there will be indigo.

WEEK LINKS

It has been a fully committed month for me.  I have many announcements to make but for now I want to share a few links for your busy week.

Can you imagine all the waste from the meat industry if there was no leather industry.

Just another day in the studio.

This podcast keeps me going in the studio.

I read about Agnes.

I wish this was in Seattle... maybe I will start one.

COMMITTED

Time has really been escaping lately.   One thing I knew going into this whole building a business thing was the sacrifices to be made.  As an artist or creative, usually you have a day job to pay the bills, and then you go home to work on your work.  Except now I go home and work on the business and make stuff.  I am not complaining, just trying to be transparent. Believe me, I am much happier making sacrifices so I can make stuff, over not making stuff. I guess it is just hard to keep perspective sometimes.  It is hard to work hard.  It is not always fun or stimulating.  Just like any other job out there.  So, any of you out there who want to do what you love, try to change your expectations a bit. There will be tears, sweat, and a lot of anxiety.  But you will most likely learn a lot, gain confidence, and continue to cultivate ideas.  The questions do not go away.  But hopefully you start answering them bit by bit.  I am not busy, just committed.

Eroyn Franklin explains this dilemma very well.  More here.