Hey There

Greetings! I've been absent for a bit. This might be a great opportunity to jump right back in with a "catch up" post, I've got a a few little things that have gone hanging along with some other fun things to talk about. Here we go.

First things first, I went to London :) Holy shit, what an excellent trip. My traveling companion was my older son, and we went to visit my sister who has lived in London for about 12 years now.

One might think that the jet lag with an 8 hour difference would be a killer, but in fact it made this lady a far better traveling companion for her 20 year old son. We stayed up half the night, woke at about 10 every day, explored, day drank, ate and were very merry. My sister was the most gracious host, and because she lives there, there were endless awesome activities on the agenda. Some of the highlights for me were checking out a local flea market (a few nice purchases were made), walking to the swimming hole at Hampstead Heath, seeing one of my favorite drawings by Lenore Tawney at the Tate, seeing cousins bond and finally, finally, finally, seeing The Book of Mormon. Yay. It was all great. 

London is a beautiful city, and an especially fun one for gawking at architecture. There's just one beautiful Georgian townhouse after another to take in. I love my city of San Francisco but I must say London was very compelling.      

This little nutkin was added to the family a week ago. My beloved Otis disappeared in December and this little guy, Alfie, is helping to heal the pain of that. He's ridiculously cute. 3 months old and from the SPCA.

The garden is coming along nicely. 

I've heard it takes three years for a newly planted garden to take shape. We are on summer number two for most of our plants, and I've supplemented this summer with some new plants to fill in some bald patches. I'm not a very diligent waterer, I need to remind myself to water more often (twice a week instead of once) because it does make the plants happy. 

The bougainvillea, is loving the lack of water. Less water makes for more blooms apparently. The vines look stunning on the back of the house but they do really blow inside and get everywhere. My interiors are pretty casual and thank goodness for that. I feel it would be foolhearted to manage a more formal interior with a walk out yard like mine.  `

Now would be a good time to follow up on the other pillows I made for that upholstered chair. Obviously one is made from the same hand printed linen, the second is from some vintage 1940's ticking I purchased on Etsy. They sit stacked on the chair and make it more comfortable to sit in. As I suspected, this chair gets a lot of use situated by the coffee table.

And....remember that ship ladder I built for the hot tub? I painted the top and bottom section and added a little platform of cedar to mitigate rot. That ladder is super sturdy and looks and works great, but I can see that my potato vine is looking really mangy compared to a few months back. Must hack that back.

Finally, I am currently fixated on sewing a new slipcover for the couch on my top floor. I'm actually trying to revamp that entire space -decks and all. Stay tuned.

Peace and Love. 

P.S. I've been having trouble with my comments section. Please send me an email if you do not see one on your browser. Many thanks.