Rebuilding the Studio - September - November 2014

In April 2011, I put together an exciting new design for my glass studio. But as life, scheduling and remodeling go, it took me three years before I actually brought in a contractor to help me with the work. And, just as on schedule, it took another five months before he was actually able to bring his team in to do the work. He thought it would take “just a week” after Labor Day, but we completed the project in early November 2014. When it comes to construction projects, one has to practice the gift of patience.

It is so wonderful to have a new studio that it was worth the wait. My old studio work tables were once the kitchen cabinets of the previous owners of our house in Burlingame, California that my daughter’s father and I purchased in 1993. The kitchen cabinets were very fashionable when the McCormicks put them in in the mid- to late-1960’s, but they were a bit outdated 30 years later in the 1990’s. Since they were solid wood, David and I decided they would make great work tables. So, he screwed them back to back, put them on casters, placed doors on them for tops, and I worked happily on them for 20 years. One was my kiln table, one was my central work table and the last was a long work table, which sat against a wall. The rest of my motley studio crew was an old desk one of our neighbors had put out for trash. My 75 jars of powdered glass frit were sitting on the shelves of a large, old bookcase my grandfather had made which is in the next door laundry room. The largest item was my grandfather’s old work desk.  My sheets of glass sat on the floor in six crates from Bullseye Glass and it was getting nearly impossible to tell what colors of glass I had anymore. It was time for a change.

One day in April 2014, while having a morning snack with my friend Darca, she mentioned that she liked working with the contractor who was remodeling her kitchen. I asked her for a recommendation. When I asked her contractor to come over and quote on my studio project, it turned out that the work tables I wanted to construct were very similar to the work tables Matt used in his shop and so it seemed like a good fit. Unfortunately, as the months wore on, it became clear that his team would not have time for the project during the Spring or during the Summer… they started the day after Labor Day. The work tables, drawers and cabinets were custom built based on my design and to accommodate my cases of glass. Here are photos of how the studio looked during and after their work.

East Corner Before

East Corner Glass Cases Going In (and Old Work Table)

Northeast Corner Glass Cases Going In

Northeast Corner Moving In

Frit and Glass Wall Before (with Old Kiln Work Table)

Frit and Glass Wall (with New Kiln Work Tables)

New Work Tables and Drawers In Process

New Tables and Shelving Complete

Moving Back In

Now that it’s starting to snow in Iowa, I will have to share some of this space with our outdoor furniture and a car during the winter months, but it will still be wonderful to continue my current series in this new space. 

August 2 - 12, 2014 - 10 Days in North Carolina

10 Days in North Carolina August 2 – 12, 2014

Before we left for 10 days in North Carolina, the boys and I harvested their carrots. They had planted the seeds in their preschool class in April and we transplanted them to our veggie planter earlier in the summer. The boys pulled them in bunches from the soil. The carrots looked and tasted “like real carrots” and we ate them at dinner; the boys were so pleased and proud.

I also packed up a piece of glass from my new sunset series and delivered it to the Iowa State Fairgrounds, where they were gearing up for the biggest fair in the world, August 7 - 17. Here is my glass that was on display at the Fine Arts exhibition there (more information at www.tbsglass.com). Alle and I also each had a photograph at the Cultural Center of the Fair this year.

Alle arrived from California on the evening of August 1^st and bright and early the next morning, we all left for Norfolk, Virginia. From there, we rented a minivan and drove south for two hours in the pouring rain. The rest of the country was enjoying sunny summer weather, but the Carolina coast was in thunderstorms. Saturday is the turn-over day for rental properties on the Outer Banks, so the other 100,000 families who were renting places for the next week were also on one of three approaches headed east to the tiny strip of islands that holds four lighthouses, highway NC-12, and the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Here's one of the entry points on a sunnier day.

We finally picked-up our keys (the rental company had happily gone for the day, but left us a bag outside with keys and slightly damp toilet paper for the week), found a small seafood shack to eat dinner of crabs and shrimp, and made our way south to Nags Head, NC, arriving far after bedtime. The Cape Hatteras Seashore is a 70 mile stretch of wind-swept dunes and beach islands which frame the North Carolina mainland. It is beautiful in spite of the tall vacation homes which dot the shore towns and the strip malls which are along the commercial parts of the road. We stayed in a VRBO beach house which was right on the beach.

We were so happy to be on the beach, so the boys could run out our doors and play in the sand and be near the waves. We could see and hear the surf from our windows. Here's our view looking east to the Atlantic. 

Since it was still pouring with rain on our first day at the beach, we drove 40 miles south to visit the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. While we were there a thunderstorm hit, so only Ricardo and Alle made it up the stairs to see the view before it closed due to lightning.  The Cape Hatteras Light is a classic, well-known stripped black and white lighthouse that is used in so many lighthouse images.

Our house was near the Bodie Island Lighthouse, which is slightly shorter than Hatteras, but also black and white for daytime visibility. The Bodie Light warned ships coming down the eastern coast from the north that they were near Hatteras.

Hatteras marks where two ocean currents meet and form large sand bars or diamond shoals 15 miles out to sea. As a result it is the location of around 600 shipwrecks. When ships saw the Bodie Light, they knew to head out to sea to avoid Hatteras. Here are a few photos from my climb to the top of Bodie a few days later.

North of us was the Wright Brothers’ Memorial, which we visited twice. Our first visit there was late in the afternoon. Since the national park service there closed right at 5 pm, we only had time to see the museum. The museum has a replica of the Wright Brother glider and their first plane. In addition, the track and route of the Wright Brothers’ first flight in the field at Kill Devil Hills is marked out. Here is a modern plane landing at the airstrip in view of the marker of the first flight of the Wright Brothers.

and there is also a playground model of the plane that kids can climb on.

All in all, it is an interactive memorial and the boys were fascinated to learn about the early efforts, process and accomplishment.

Close to Kitty Hawk is the East Coast’s largest sand dune, Jockey Ridge. Being from Michigan and knowing the sand dunes on the west coasts of the Great Lakes, I wondered what the big deal was. But, the dune area was long, had trails and a nice walking space, and the views were great.

We climbed up to see the hang gliders and all of the kites. The boys loved running around in the sand.

The week at the beach was relaxing and fun. I would have happily stayed another week.

From Nags Head, we drove west 450 miles and eight hours to Asheville. We crossed all of North Carolina, from the beach, through the wet lands and areas called Alligator River. We saw farm lands growing tobacco, cotton and soybean and drove into the mountains and smoky Blue Ridge hills. We were traveling to Asheville to join the Board, management and spouse meetings for Ricardo’s bank. We arrived there at the end of a long day, ate dinner at a wonderful organic café called Sunny Point Café in West Asheville, and then drove to the Biltmore Estate to check in at the Inn.

It wasn’t until the next morning that we awoke to see our view of the Blue Ridge hills from the Inn at the Biltmore.

We drove to the Blue Ridge Parkway, only driving on it for a few miles, but still enjoying the serenity of not seeing anything commercial and driving at 45 miles an hour in park-like surroundings.

We love the Folk Art Center and shop near Asheville on the parkway. While there, I strongly hinted that one of the art pieces would be great for my birthday.

Before the meetings started, we also toured some of Asheville’s galleries. The Blue Spiral used to be in our price range, but only a few pieces were on this visit. We also looked at the Haen, Bellagio and Minerva galleries. These have all become more upscale as well. Twenty five of us from the meetings visited a few of the studios in the River Arts area to see the ceramics, painting, weaving and other artwork there – a great group of people to wander around and have lunch with as always.

It was fun to have a chance to visit the River Arts artist studio area to see the artists at work and get a sense for how they approach their work.

The Biltmore Estate required a whole day on its own. The house can be seen on a self-guided tour with audio and by asking questions of the docents in every room. It takes hours to see the whole house, including the kitchens and food storage downstairs. One forgets how complex it was to store food in the days before refrigeration and how difficult it was to cook with imperfect ovens and stoves. The Vanderbilts changed clothes four or more times a day to be dressed appropriately for their activities. All of the clothing was washed by hand in the basement rooms. It was an incredible set-up.

Since we were asked not to take photos inside, here's the view out the main floor veranda. 

George Vanderbilt designed the house with architect Richard Morris Hunt in the 1890s. The outside gardens were designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead (the same designer as NYC’s Central Park). The project was said to be the pinnacle of their careers. Olmstead also designed the roads around the estate and the approach to the house and his goal was to have a visual surprise around every bend.

Vanderbilt collected artwork and design ideas from many visits to Europe, so each room is unique, filled with interesting artwork and decorated on a grand scale. The gardens are also inspiring and need another hour or two to tour.

We got caught in a thunderstorm and cut our visit short.

We had another lovely evening at the Biltmore with old time folk music at the Winery Barns on our last night. As we flew from Asheville to Atlanta and back to Des Moines the next morning, Ted had a minor meltdown stating that we HAD to go back. He wanted to visit North Carolina again, perhaps tomorrow. 

July 2 – 12, 2014 - Summer Visit to Seattle Area

Visit to Seattle Area July 2 – 12, 2014

The maybe-world famous, definitely-annual Des Moines Art Festival was the last weekend of June and the boys were in town for the first day of it this year. They left for Seattle on June 28^th right after they each completed one square of a huge mural for the festival of Seraut's Sunday Afternoon painting. Their squares were part of the prominent woman’s umbrella and hat in the upper right part of the painting.

I stayed home for three or four extra days for some time on glass and to move three bedrooms of furniture around to create a new “big boy bedroom” in our guest bedroom. On July 2, I flew to Seattle and joined the boys in Seattle. They had been staying at the houseboat on Portage Bay, near University of Washington (and had seen lots of other friends and family I didn't get a chance to see), but the four of us stayed downtown for my first night. We stayed at the Mayflower, a lovely, small old downtown hotel on 4^th Street. While I was flying in, I looked up good restaurants for kids in Seattle and one, Lola’s was also a Tom Douglas restaurant and close by. When in Seattle, it is always a good bet to try a Tom Douglas restaurant or two.

We checked in and decided to be real tourists while in the city. We immediately headed out to try the monorail to the Space Needle. The monorail only has two stops, but the boys loved it. We went from downtown to the Pacific Center and the base of the Space Needle. We had planned to walk through the new Chihuly Glass Garden, but when we saw the $30+ each price tag (and since we have seen a lot of his work), we decided not to go. We got a ticket instead to the top of the Space Needle and headed up. Luckily, the elevator to the top also offers views of Chihuly’s Gardens, so we had the best of both worlds.

At four years old, the boys are not tall enough to see over the viewing wall, so they could only see the long views from the Space Needle. Here's the view of downtown to the south.

We decided to head back down and go to dinner. We LOVED Lola’s and recommend it highly. It features Greek and Mediterranean food, such as various hummus-type spreads, many kebobs, flat bread pizzas, and salads. The boys also love this type of food, and sat happily coloring, naming every passing vehicle from our window seat, and munching on food.

We spent the next three days on the houseboat. While there, we enjoyed a meal with Ricardo’s older daughter and son in law, visited a few friends (including an old friend of mine from Microsoft; Thanks Candace), visited the Woodland Park Zoo, the Seattle Aquarium and went to Pike Place Market almost every morning. 

On the 4^th of July, we piled into our boat and made our way to Lake Union for the annual fireworks display. There are hundreds of other boats all anchored in Lake Union for the 4^th of July, but it’s the closest one can get to the barge firing the downtown fireworks and so the display is quite dramatic. Here's a view of downtown from south Lake Union.

After waiting for darkness until after 10 pm, both boys fell asleep after the first burst or two.

On the 6^th, took the ferry from West Seattle and spent three or four days on Vashon Island. Although, we have a small farm there, we rent it out and so we can only visit. We stayed with Aunt Shirley and Uncle Bill in their wonderful studio flat above the woodshop. Here's some of the poppies in their extensive vegetable and flower gardens.

While there we enjoyed beach picnics, 

horseback riding (Thanks Linda), 

swimming (Thanks Pam), art projects, walks in the woods 

and cook outs every evening. 

Alle flew in from her choral festival near Vancouver and joined us. Shirley and Bill also have two new kittens, so the boys were very well occupied. 

We all had a grand time.

After four perfect summer days on Vashon, we headed north on another ferry to the Hansville area and stayed at a small lighthouse. Here's the view from within the light.

While there, we visited the Point-no-Point lighthouse, a southwestern beach which is more secluded, tracked and watched all of the boat traffic into Puget Sound, 

and ate lots of Norwegian baked goods from Poulsbo, where I also got a chance to meet up with an old friend from college (thanks Lynn).

The weather was sunny and clear most of our ten to fourteen days and so we enjoyed the Seattle area at its summertime best. 

June 12 - 15 2014 - Visit to Michigan

June Visit to Michigan 2014

Father’s Day weekend, the boys and I decided to travel to visit Omi, Uncle Fred and Aunt Betsy in Michigan. At first, I thought it would be fun to take an Amtrak train from Iowa through Chicago to Ann Arbor, MI. It became clear that the trip would take about 11 hours and I realized that the boys would enjoy the first four hours of the trip and then would probably grow bored of sitting in seats. The best train journeys are the longer ones in which you can rent a whole cabin with seats which become beds and travel overnight. That is more exciting. Firstly, before leaving we all enjoyed the annual Greek Food Fair in Des Moines. The most amazing frozen concoction is the homemade Greek coffee ice cream topped with baklava.

Then, on Thursday afternoon the three of us flew to Detroit.  The first site of interest was the welcome fountain at Detroit Metro Airport, which makes hops and surprising leaps.

As soon as we got our rental car at sunset and got on the Detroit highways, I remembered that driving is different than in Iowa. The Detroit driving is not only faster, but it is also completely irrational. Drivers in Detroit in both new and dilapidated old American cars driving 80 miles an hour exited from the left lane, crossed into our lane and narrowly missed our car often. I was amazed we made it north to I-75 at all.

On our way from the airport, I called one of a few pizza places in Rochester I found on my phone and ordered a pizza to pick up when we arrived there. It would be around 9:30 or 10 pm and I knew my mother would not have dinner still available for the boys. Having left at 4 pm, we were pretty hungry. So, we picked up a pizza at Georgios, a place that didn’t exist during my high school days and headed north to our house.   I am glad we picked up food because there wasn’t anything else to eat at home. Even the milk was finished when we arrived. My Mum had assumed that I wanted to shop for just the right food.

So, we all had some pizza and got ready for bed. It’s lovely to wake up at home and see the beautiful garden on a summer morning. While the boys still slept, I went out and bought some food for the days we would be there. We all ate some breakfast on the front terrace and enjoyed the sunshine and park like grounds. I would like to have a garden like my Mum’s acre, but it would require a full-time staff. 

We had decided that we would see the second half of Greenfield Village with my Mum on Friday. So, we made our way south again, almost back to the airport and visited Greenfield Village. While there, we took the steam train south to the bottom half of the village. 

We had not had time to see the homesteads on our visit last summer. We walked around to see the home of Noah Webster, a working farm, , etc. Here is the sundial at a cottage from Cotswald, England.

The boys are at that stage of potty training in which they are wearing underwear and using the toilet, but at a moment’s notice they might realize they need to go to the bathroom.  If we are in the unfortunate situation of being out in the world, like at Greenfield Village, we have to dash around looking for a restroom, hoping one of the boys can hold it. Just as we got our lunch food, Peter announced he had to go. Omi was already at the bathroom, so I had to leave our food and a scared Ted and run with Peter to find Omi. Luckily, Ted watched over our food while he munched on a corn muffin; no one approached him to ask why his mother had left him alone and Peter made it to the potty.

After the homesteads, we walked up to enjoy the old fashioned carousel and a playground near Main Street and to see the Model T cars driving around. 

We also exited via the store to see all the craft items and made our way back home. After more crazy Detroit driving and an encounter with a large pipe in our lane on the highway - this time at Friday rush hour, the boys and I took Omi out for a nice Italian meal, so none of us had to worry about food or cooking.

The next day, we drove west to visit some old family friends and then to Ann Arbor to visit Uncle Fred and Aunt Betsy. The boys and I stopped on the way to visit my Mum's old college friends, Phebe and Sid at their home, which looked the same as it has on all my previous visits for the past twenty years or so, although there are probably a few more wonderful art pieces on display. Even though recent health set-backs for Phebe have been scary, they were both in good spirits. The boys took a beloved, but hopefully sturdy Noah’s Arc art object out for a maiden voyage around their living room. It was nice to see both Phebe and Sid  looking happy and like themselves.

“Aunt Fred and Uncle Betsy” as the boys like to call Fred and Betsy, have been hard at work on their new place in Ann Arbor and it also looked park-like. The hidden gem of a stream running through the middle of their back yard has been exposed and was now a highlight. 

We relaxed and enjoyed time outside with them and then a lovely dinner with Betsy’s daughter Mel.

On Sunday, we went to downtown Ann Arbor to enjoy the outdoor artisans market, try to eat at Zingerman’s Deli, which was too crowded to enjoy, and then go to the Hands-On Kids Museum. The boys really liked the museum, which included three main floors of an Exploratorium of fun science exhibits and puzzles to explore and try. They liked the giant bubble and the ball factory.  

Then, we ate a quick snack and as with all visits, we made a mad dash for the airport for our evening flight home.