It's official, it's not that hard!

Met with two "expert" floor people not involved with this project for second opinions today and I think I came up with a winner.So, as it turns out, my brilliant idea of hand painting the feature strips on my floor will invalidate any warranty the floor company could give me because the durability and adherence of the finishing products would be a complete unknown.Dam! Didn't think of that. :(Oh, well. Second best: I instructed the Project Manager to buy me every commercial stain available to have a go at mixing the correct value because, after all, I know colour and pigments better than anyone I know.This is what I did:Got fresh flowers and put them on my workbench in the garage. (Girl's got to have standards)Lined up all 13 commercially available stains plus several prepared floorboards, plastic cups, plastic spoons, cloths, paper towels, gloves...pen...water...mineral spirits...sure I'm forgetting to list something.Did myself a guide of all the pure stains and studied them all for a long time, then started out slowly mixing 1-1 of a couple, then added 1-1-1, then went 2-1-1 etc in different cups, using dedicated spoons so as not to contaminate the pigments.Kept working, kept mixing and keeping notes of everything right on the edges of the floorboards themselves, kept checking the values against an old piece of floor till I exhausted almost every possibility.Right away it became apparent that the three red pigments were completely out of the question, as were two black and dark brown pigments. But then I came up with a wining formula involving 2X Jacobean brown to 1x golden oak and a smidgen of nutmeg. And I learned something. The wood will only take so much pigment and no more. It doesn't matter if it's 3x or 4x Jacobean brown to golden oak, the wood will only accept so much and no more. Interesting. And then I gave everything a quick coat of varnish just to see.So as soon as I figured out the formula I wanted, I called the Project Manager who said "hallelujah", (and probably a lot more under his breath which he was very careful not to let me hear), and then I just had to stain and varnish cedar, oak and absolutely everything stainable and varnishable in the garage and gave myself a welting headache from the fumes.But it was so worth it. :)

Weekly photo challenge: Companionable

Hello Wordpress daily, it's been a while. :)Well, this is an interesting challenge. Who are my companions? What do I find companionable?Gosh, I'm mostly a loner and don't have steady companionship around me. So I was thinking that the most reliable companionship I have is my imagination. It leads to my creativity, my thirst for learning, my ability to jump into a project and figure it out along the way, and is the crucial element to my happiness.Artistic photograph featuring a page from a vintage how to dance book and a saying which is original to Robert. It's a very valuable lesson for me.

A Random Friday

It’s been in the damps here. One of those damps which crusts over the sugar in the sugar bowl and feels sticky on the skin. It’s not just the rain, and the damps are different than the dumps. The damps are when everything you own, everything you touch, everything you are is sticky and moist and uncomfortable and leave you feeling miserable and the slightest change in a situation can render you completely at wits end, depressed and life’s-not-worth-living-shoot-me-now-ish. Know what I mean?For some bizarre reason, one of the antique brass beds in the house has dyed green stripes on the white pillow covers.I’m running out of time. That is to say the restoration company is running out of time to get the floor finished, get things painted and cleaned up and replace my furniture before I leave for England and don’t return for a good two months. This means I will not sign off on the project until I’m absolutely and completely sure that nothing has been missed, forgotten about or not done if promised. This means that my insurance agency will not release the last bulk of the funds till September when I get back. I’ve decided that none of this is my problem as I’m still sticking to the agreed on time schedule.When I walked into the hall this morning and saw the sun shining on the guardian chair, my happiness factor increased exponentially. YAY SUN!I really should be living in Arizona or Barcelona or Santorini or some other sunny situation instead of flitting between rain in Vancouver and rain in Oxford.Linking with Nancy at A Rural Journal for the random five Friday. :)

Nightmare on Elm street.

Wait a minute, last time I checked I lived on 9th, not Elm.The very short story version of this excruciatingly long and lengthening daily floor renovation story is:There is a feature strip to my floor. The feature strip was supposed to be a deep rich chocolate and caramel ebony/mahogany/whateverogany wood. The floor expert said, "Don't worry, keep a piece of furniture, any example you want, we can match it, we can stain a fir feature strip to make it look like anything your heart fancies. Then you can have exactly what you like and not have to worry about finding the correct exotic grain. We do this all the time."The honest truth is he lies like a rug.As it turns out, commercial stains come tinted with certain universal tints in certain percentages. The deep dark walnuts contain a black which turns fir green and the red mahoganies contain reds which are purplish burgundy. (I completely understand this because I use my lamp black oil colour with flake white to mix beautiful greens and magenta to make lovely lilac shadows) So yesterday I was presented with two choices in varying shades of purple or green or purple mixed with green.This beautiful rich carved ebony duck is what I want, is what I told the floor expert is what I want:Can you see how beautiful this would be next to the colour that my new floor will amber up to over the next year?This is what I'm being offered:Very long letters to the Project Manager, cc'd to my insurance agent, Robbie and my trusted friend Catherine, late night tears over the phone with Robbie, four hours of sleep, several conversations with Project Manager and insurance agent over the day, plus five lost hours driving all over town trying to find stains and combinations of stains, oil universal tints, ANYTHING to produce an orange undertone plus chocolate dark values, whole day lost and nothing gained. It apparently just can't be done.Not a word from the floor expert, and Project Manager said, "Gosh Veronica, it looks like you've exhausted all the possibilities, so have to settle for the lesser of the two evils." (meaning sore thumb purple or green next to my beautiful amber, or no feature strip definition with the whole floor amber)I said, "No James, I've only exhausted the possibilities which you told me to exhaust and now I want every floor expert in Vancouver coming by tomorrow trying to figure this out!!!" (Yes, I was raising my voice here)So then I had a cup of tea and a think and......Hey, these are oil universal tints in a stain base...what the hell...I've got oils in my studio.Then I took a raw piece of floor up to the studio and look what I can do:(top piece of wood is my custom painted raw wood piece, bottom piece is the stain variations wood piece I'm being told I have to settle for, all sitting on the piece of floor to be...hmm)So let's get this straight.This is a Craftsman house...right?Craftsman houses were all about...well...craftsmanship.About hand made, hand painted, hand carved...in short, craftsmen taking pride in their craftsmanship.Ladies and gentlemen, I have it in mind to paint and stain and basically craft my own feature strip!The only problem are a few unknowns, like: how the high gloss varnish will act on the oils, or will the oils bleed past the feature strip. Here is another, rather sloppily applied coat of oils for the purpose of experimenting. Varnish has been dripped on it and we can see it is clearly spreading the wet oils. I'll try again tomorrow when the oils are a bit dryer and come up with a solution.So there you are. One frustrating 48 hours later and a possible solution at hand. New floor experts are still coming by tomorrow and next Tuesday, but I have a feeling I'll have this all hand painted by next Tuesday. Myself. My own craftsmanship. My own expert medium. I'm excited about this prospect. Maybe I'll paint a little ladybug in a corner, or a butterfly sitting on the feature strip.How hard can this be! :)

Home, not-so-sweet home and Tuesday not so tea cup Tuesday!

Hello, all my sweet friends. I'm soo happy that my decision of selling off the other home to home investors at HomeBuyersBirmingham.com has finally paid off as I came home yesterday from my adventurous mini break to floors! Yay, we have floors which are beginning to be sanded and taken seriously as beautiful wood floors! I'm so thrilled I can't even begin to tell you.There are a couple hick-ups bothering the absolute hell out of me. One is a piece which is too wide and stands out like a sore thumb. Apparently it is needed to make the transition from kitchen floor to dining room floor strong and apparently if it was the same width plus a one inch piece, the strength of that piece would be compromised over time and would crack. There will be a solution to this: hiring laminate flooring specialists. I can't live with the aesthetics of it.The second is the commercial stains for the feature strips are too green or too purple and I need to mix a custom stain in order to be able to live with it. Here's C and the floor finishing guy, my professional spot lights giving true light and showing some rather poor colour choices.So my beautiful house continues to be a mess, plus...I miss my stuff.......and it rained all day!Monsoons can bring in a world of troubles if your house does not have the proper drainage system or plumbing facilities. Visit https://sav-onplumbing.com/how-green-plumbing-fixtures-can-reduce-water-and-energy-usage/ to avail their expert plumbing services.In lieu of beautiful tea cups and beautiful photographs from my own home, can I offer you some beautiful photographs from an exquisite antique mall I found in Alberta?Honestly, I just wanted to move in here, and, despite drinking copious amounts of tea today, this next image is as close to beautiful tea cups as I can possibly manage. But then look at this lovely sight. I wish I had an old bird cage to put my orphaned cups into. And I loved the pink rose design. A wild rose is the provincial flower for Alberta...wild rose country...my heart is melting.Look at this kitchen-like room. I could live here. I swear I wouldn't need a fridge, a cooker, sink, dishes, all I need is that big-eyed cow painting and all that creamy loveliness.Oh, and huge baskets holding pillows or quilts standing on the floor. Did anyone else notice the price? Wow! Let's just ignore that, shall we?How about more baskets hanging from the ceiling? I think so. Plus a red haired girl in an aqua dress. How lovely is that?I'll tell you about a little dream of mine. A private little dream only a few people know about. For years I thought that I'd like to open a shop. An eclectic shop I would call Pom Pom, and I would sell antiques, vintage things, crafts, paintings, fresh garden flowers and anything else which my girls and I felt like making, finding, re-purposing and selling.Well, in my mind's eye, Pom Pom would look like this. Everything here would be in Pom Pom, plus a whole lot more.But the prices would be so much more sensible, don't you think?But then maybe I'd be stuck in one place, maybe I'd resent having to get up every morning and tend to a shop and sit behind a table, and, no matter how lovely the rooms were, I'd feel stuck.I think perhaps that Pom Pom should be a virtual shop. An Etsy store scaled down to represent collections of lovely things for sale at selected times. What do you think?Or maybe Pom Pom should open for only a few weeks per year, like, say, after a couple months in England collecting lovely treasures. Open in one rented location for a few days and then gone for several months.Hmm, do you think that would work? It might.So I'll leave you with one more image, (and, believe me, this could have been a 17 page post full of lovely images), and wish you all a lovely sweet cup of tea in your own lovely homes and gardens. I'll be right over to see you all. :)But first I'm visiting Terri of Artful Affirmations. Come see how beautiful her grand reveal garden party is. Wow, Terri I think you should just build a glass house over Big Bertha and have tea there all year long! Then visiting my dear Martha on her front porch. Martha, that is the loveliest little spot for tea, and I love the red, white and blue. Then over the Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage for more lovely rosy rose cups, and right over to Bernideen's and thinking, "Wow, you too? New floors and huge mess last week and you've got your act together beautifully this week. You're amazing girl!" 

Even further out of town, to Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump

Yesterday I drove 150km north, today I drove 190km south to a special place called Head Smashed In. It is an ancient buffalo jump, where the Blackfoot First Nations developed a distinct way of life for over 6000 years. This is such a magical place. No wonder it's a UNESCO world heritage site.In the autumn, when the buffalo were fat from the summer grasses, the Blackfoot would hide under wolf and elk hides and stampede the herd over the jump.At the bottom of the jump would be a temporary camp for butchering and preserving and using every single piece of the animal.Every animal was mercifully killed, because it was believed that any animal left alive would tell the rest about the jump and the animals would be wiser and stop the stampede.Here at Head Smashed In is a spring for fresh water, a river near by, trees for firewood, plenty of wild berries, like saskatoons and chokecherries, and herbs and roots for medicine.This way of life seems to be so idyllic to me. I'm sure there were hardships. The winters were brutal and the demand on the people to preserve enough to survive must have been tremendous. But these grass lands are magic. This lovely, rich land and great open skies are so welcoming here in the summer that if I had to go back in time I'd happily be Blackfoot in an Alberta summer.These prairies are so beautiful and the wide skies are mesmerizing. The crickets are singing and asking me to stay a little longer. I gather up a small bundle of sage to take home. It's strong medicine.

Got even further out of town! Gone to the Royal Tyrell Museum for the day.

So deciding to make the very best of this very bad situation, the road north seemed just fine. So off to the Bad Lands we go to the Royal Tyrell Museum to catch up on out paleontology and 3.9 billion years of evolution.Do you know your Cretaceous from your Triassic from your Jurassic? Yeah, I’m a bit rusty too.Come with me to the museum and we’ll see if we can’t brush up on our history.Look at this graceful fossil. This is the penultimate image for me. A small dinosaur, so graceful, so elegant, like a dancer in an impossible pose 145 million years ago. It is very hard to believe that this is a dead creature. It looks so alive.Here is Samantha, a young paleontologist, explaining her work for the day. She is excavating a very small bone from thickly caked mud and debris. She lets me hold a knuckle bone. Knuckle bone! Holy smokes. Soon she will have an entire fossil exposed.Here is her lab with some of the fossil she is working on.She tells me that this dinosaur’s teeth were found near his tail. No. Not some funny chase your tail, Night at the Museum, saga. Apparently the Earth moved in such a way to fold the skull to the tail region and the folded again to move the skull away but keep the teeth at the tail. Amazing how the Earth works.Look here at the dinosaur’s hall (145-75 million BC) gallery. This is what I love. Albertasaurus, Trex, little bird-like creatures, stegosaurus types. Love these all.And here we have the very slow evolution of mammals.This one’s for my cats. Look guys 12 thousand years ago, sabre-toothed tigers, small cat like creatures, sloths.Most of the exhibits were copies of the fossils, and no wonder, the real fossils are extremely fragile. One gallery has the real fossils on exhibit though, including these lovely small creatures.We end with the emergence of humanoids and cattle like creatures. What a wonderful day.Tomorrow I have it in mind to drive to Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump, but it requires driving thru a potentially closed and flooded town. we'll see if I get there. Wish me luck. :)

Got out of town. Well, this really wasn't what I had in mind.

Well, hello Calgary...hello Cowtown, Stampede City, Heart of the New West. People tell me you're calm, you're boring. I don't believe it. Got my cowboy boots and I'm ready to explore. Might just buy a cowboy hat while I'm at it.But what's this? Woke up to a complete lock down of the downtown core. No power, no water, possible evacuation. Emergency coffee, (courtesy of the fabulous Sbux), emergency complimentary buffet for as long as the food lasts, everyone being supper friendly and nice but looking very, very nervous.Whoa cowboy, let's go check it out.Just out of the Hyatt Regency and things look calm if a little wet. Streets are deserted, storm drains look fine to me.Two blocks towards the Bow River is a different story. Suddenly there is river where there should be street. But look at this urban cowboy, he knows how to have fun!Walking to the nearest not yet closed bridge and...oh my goodness...Clockwise from top left: Looking downstream, looking upstream, looking under the bridge, logs and a park bench go floating by.Downtown Calgary is a ghost town.Unfortunately it has been decided that an evacuation must happen. So off I must go to higher ground. The news is full of horrible happenings. Of people being airlifted, houses being swept away and property being lost, while the storm rages against the Rockies bringing more water and more flooding down the rivers.So far only one poor soul has been lost. I think it's the wonderful grit and powerful spirit of these friendly Albertans, who have gathered together as if of one mind, which has helped save so many lived during this state of emergency.Calgary, I'm impressed and I will never let anyone tell me you're boring girl.Quick edit: It is 4pm and I can see on the news that all the streets in the downtown core in all these photos are now under water. Some as deep at three feet. Wow Calgary, Godspeed.

Three days of the new floor progress

Well, this is such an interesting thing to be going thru.So it seems that the floor is like a giant jigsaw puzzle. To me, it's extremely important that the old floor be reproduced piece by piece and I've been fighting the "You vant to mitre corners" demand. No Boris, I don't vant to mitre the corners. (In the meantime, Boris is showing me photos on his phone of all sorts of inlay floors he did at extreme expense. They look like swirly fans and flowers gone wild in various shades of wood. "Dis million pieces," says Boris, "Dis wery expensive." I've no doubt, but dis this is a Craftsman floor, it must be simple and no mitred corners please. I have chosen a wood floor, but you happen to choose a concrete floor it will surely need upkeep, polished concrete perth will provide you the services you require.Then, "You don't vant shoe 1/4 round, you vant crown moulding."(sigh)Well, the first day day of reconstruction happened within the old marquetry borders. The hardwood floor refinishing was made just as the old floor was in great swaths of lengths.The second day of floor reconstruction was consumed with carefully removing the marquetry and reconstructing it in new wood. Boris #2 painstakingly drew the pattern out on cardboard, cut exact bits of wood and recreated the twelve corners. Read more here.The third day was yesterday. The corners are done, the non-mitred corners are done! Now just the straight forward bedrooms to go. Then the sanding starts on Monday.Here's our little TV room/library where C and I are hanging out at the time.So, now, like the good mom I am, I'm about to leave my child to deal with the mess and get out of town for a few days. :)Addendum (AKA, well, if you can believe this!!!!)Spoke to Robbie this morning, sent him progress photos and he said, "Where's the second marquetry strip in the dining room?"Holy smokes!!! Thank goodness this is just about the most documented floor in the history of floor renovations.Several planks are being taken up as we speak and second marquetry feature strip is getting put in.Isn't Robert just the bestest in the world? I think so!

Tea cup Tuesday garden party between the rain!

Terri has been preparing for a garden tea party to be held on the 25th for weeks now. I so want to join in with all the lovely gals I'm getting to know and love, and today, there really was no choice with the house in the middle of renos. It was either outside or Sbux because of the workmen who are here form dawn to dusk, and...well...packed up everything.  And also today the weather has been its usual Vancouver 3 seconds from sunshine to rain affair that we had to wait till proper tea time to have tea. But I'm so exited to show you my new little cups and this found garden in glorious full riot of poppies.I found this garden in Steveston about a week ago when C, R and I went for a walk at the river. But for today, C and I had tea under our own saved apple tree, which, thanks to C's prayer flags and my crystal leaf wreath, has come back from the brink of death when I bought it with the house two years ago, to actually set fruit this year! We're so proud of you apple tree!The little tea cups I bought are Alfred Meakin. I found them at the vintage and antique mall last time I was in the country. I absolutely fell head over heels in love with the poppies, sunshine and sweet little bird and then, when I got them home, I realised I already had some other pieces with this pattern. (I'm so painting myself a little painting with a white picket fence, poppies and sunshine! Oh yes!)We had some of the first strawberries from my garden...boy those strawberries are so yummy, so different from store bought. Look at the little surprise on the plate when the cup is lifted. I love this little hidden bird. The plates holding our two-bite brownies and fruit are Royal Radfords by Fenton. I found them at the same antique mall as the tea cups and loved the way they compliment each other. Don't you love mix and match? Martha Stewart should be given a medal for that one!It is so lovely to have late afternoon tea in the garden while dreaming of the found garden and all those poppies. I think I might just have to accidentally empty about 17 packets of red poppy seeds in the garden next spring! :)Just a few more glorious photos of those poppies. Do you love it as much as I do?Sharing with Terri from Artful Affirmations and thinking I love those two little pups of yours! Some days I feel so between dogs it's not even funny, (I miss my malamutes), With Martha and thinking that's one lucky girl to have so many wonderful fathers...and possibly...future fathers to be in her family, with Sandi  (Yay, so glad you're back!) and wishing I still had bleeding hearts in the garden, (you lucky girl!) Mine is my grandfather's plant and every time it blooms it reminds me of him, and with Bernideen and running out first thing tomorrow to get some strawberry tea! Strawberry tea...Oh Yum! :)