Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Rooms with a View

I was browsing the MET's website and came across this exhibition of paintings and drawings of 19th century rooms. Many of the rooms in the exhibition feature open windows and the light captured in the paintings is extraordinary. Here are some of my favourites all taken from the MET's website as the url linking of images is not working for me today:


Martinus Rørbye (Danish, 1803–1848)
View from the Artist's Window, 1825
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

This is the window I want in my room: pet bird, tasseled curtain and flowers.

Georg Friedrich Kersting (German, 1785–1847)
Woman Embroidering, 1811
Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Goethe Nationalmuseum

Both this image and the next are basically my life too. Making things by open windows or lamplight. 200 years and nothing changes.

Georg Friedrich Kersting (German, 1785–1847)
Young Woman Sewing by Lamplight, 1823
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlung, Neue Pinakothek, Munich


Caspar David Friedrich (German, 1774–1840)
Woman at the Window, 1822
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Alte Nationalgalerie

This is me too - watching the traffic out the window. In her case it looks like the boats in the canal. In my case its the traffic jams and fire trucks/ambulances/police cars roaring up and down the street (I live near a hospital, a police station and a fire station, its not that my street is particularly unfortunate!)


Carl Gustav Carus (German, 1789–1869)
Studio in Moonlight, 1826
Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe

A painting of moonlight. What's not to love? Carus captures the strange thick/thinness of moonlight where light slides in like honey but cuts sharply everything it touches.


Sunday, June 26, 2011

Chubbs has a new girl!

After a mourning period of approx 2 weeks, Chubbs has found a new wife to replace the magnificent Beaky. The new girl is almost identical to Beaky in that she is also all black and exhibits a plucky attitude. She also grunted at me! I've named her Bella, cause she is beautiful.

Chubbs brings Bella in for a visit. Chubbs is on the left, he has one spot of white on his back.

Bella is not yet brave enough to eat out of my hand, but picked up the bits Chubbs dropped. Chubbs is not really one to share food, so he must really like Bella. Normally he chases all other pigeons away (sometimes this even includes his own kids!).

Side by side they gobble up seeds as fast as their beaks can manage. Oh yes, Bella has an appetite!

Chubbs, Bella and the two kids, Spotty and Ariel.

Two days ago I saw Chubbs with a large twig in his beak. I think it was a gift for Bella who must be building her nest upstairs somewhere. This can only mean...more chicks are on the way!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

A Little Shopping

When the Mr and I went on a holiday to Boston I did a little shopping. Here's what I brought:

We went to Ben and Jerry's in Vermont on the way and stopped for some icecream and a tour. The icecream was really good. We had to stop again on the way home. The Mr and I got stylish matching tie-dye t-shirts.

Icecream Cone Measuring Spoons. Cause Icecream is nice. This is not from Ben and Jerrys, but brought in Boston.

Clock Door Handles from Anthropologie. I'm going to put these on a bathroom cabinet.

More door handles. These will go on another bathroom cabinet.

Necklace from the ICA shop. The galleries were well curated and the exhibitions interesting. The tilted window out over the bay is a strange experience.

Tree Necklace from the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Fascinating museum and the exhibit of glass flowers was amazing.

Cute striped skirt with lots of buttons from Urban Outfitters on sale for $10. Couldn't sew it for that (not that I can make buttonholes yet anyway - I'm too scared to try the buttonhole attachment on my machine after a nasty experience where I jammed my machine while trying to use the buttonholer...)

I don't know what I love more. The buttons or the stripes! AND it has pockets! Skirt happiness.

I like to buy interesting yarn on holidays. 2 Balls of Bamboo/Soy viscose, a skein of Organic cotton boucle and a ball of Woolen tweed. I'm going to try weaving a really nice dishtowel with the cotton. The tweed will be something for the Mr. The bamboo/soy will become a little cardigan for me.

A cardigan with pears on it. Cause I love pears.

A new toiletries bag, because I've had my old one since about 1994 and its not in such nice shape.

I try not to shop excessively, but its nice to do a bit of recreational shopping when on holidays. My rule now for buying things is to only buy things I cannot make myself...mostly I stick to my rule. Honest.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Fluff-Nose

Both Chubbs and Mr Grey think that my balcony is their territory. This inevitably leads to conflicts. Chubbs always wins cause he is bigger and more experienced. Though Chubbs didn't look too dignified coming out of this fight with one of Mr Grey's downy neck feathers stuck on his nose! Chubbs had the feather stuck to his nose for hours before he managed to get it off. I took to calling him Fluff-Nose instead of Chubbs. Hehehe.

A well-trimmed hat is a summer necessity


Just a little note to say I'm still here.

I'm busy working on my project for school, though it doesn't feel like working because it involves all my favourite things: history, crochet, felting, weaving, telling stories and dressing up.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon trimming my hat with blue, red and white striped ribbon. I've never trimmed a hat before, but I've always enjoyed hats, so I must have absorbed a bit of hat-trimming skills subconsciously. I think it turned out great and I love my bow!


The ribbon is held on by some tacking stitches so if I change my mind I can easily snip the stitches and remove the ribbon. The difficulty of placing a ribbon around a tapered curve (ie: a conical form) is evidenced by the slight puckering of the ribbon. I'm not sure of a way around that...

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The Boys...

Some of you may be wondering how Chubbs is dealing with his life as a widower. The news is that he has been taking it easy and just enjoying spending time with his kids. The other day Chubbs brought the kids over for a snack.

Chubbs the dutiful dad looks on while the youngsters stuff themselves. Notice the youngsters eat so fast the camera can't capture their heads. They learnt this from their parents - the quicker you eat, the more you get. Both Beaky and Chubbs were masters at the 'hit and run' eating method. Chubbs now prefers a quieter take on things. Though what this photo doesn't show is that seconds before Chubbs was stuffing his chops too...

A gratuitous photo of the beauty of the Chubbs. That is one handsome pigeon.

Mr Grey showing how its done. I didn't think pigeons would venture into containers to eat. I was wrong. Mr Grey pretty much climbed in to get the seeds!

Mr Grey cannot be trusted if the door is left open. He is one of the few pigeons that will invite himself in. Here he is caught on camera sneaking in. He has learnt that I keep the jar of seeds under that chair and if the door is open will go in to see if I left the jar open by accident. Who said pigeons are not smart?

While I work on my project for school, Mr Grey waits patiently on the windowsill. Sometimes I will ignore him for 5 hours and he just sits there waiting. Occasionally he will fly off to stretch his wings or stand up and walk back and forth in front of me to make sure I notice him. But mostly he sits quietly and waits. For he knows a patient bird is rewarded. Mrs Grey has not been seen in days, I think she is sitting on a nest :)

On things knitted...

A few things knitted in the past few months that I haven't yet posted.

The Kermit Skirt was begun when there was still snow on the ground. I had plans for this to be a nice houndstooth-pocketed number. But then I ran out of green wool! I had just enough wool to make the pockets, but not enough to sew them on. I tried to sew them on with the grey wool but it looked bad so I took them off. So now I have two pockets with nowhere to go. Of course I could buy more green wool, but it seems silly to buy a whole ball of wool to sew on two pockets. I'd need only a small amount. So for now I just wear the skirt without the pockets.

Nice pocket!

I made this skirt on circular needles so I wouldn't have to sew up side seams. It worked out perfectly and it makes the skirt more comfortable.

I love the elastic waistband for comfort purposes but if I made this again I would not follow the pattern here. The double layer of knitted fabric to make the pocket for the elastic adds so much bulk to the waist of the skirt. And seriously, who wants more bulk at their waist?

Knitted necklace. Made from soft lovely bamboo viscose and brass findings. One is heavy the other light so it makes for an interesting necklace.

Vest for a little baby boy. The mama said 'no blue' because everyone was giving her blue things for the baby. I was happy to oblige with a daffodil colour scheme: creamy yellow and spring green.


Vest for a baby girl. Bright pink and green. Cause little girls should get to wear colours other than pale pink.

Knitted scarflet for my nanna. Soft kid mohair in cherry red. The 'halo' of the mohair makes it hard to photograph but lovely to wear.

Buttoned 'cowl' style

The buttons allow it to be worn in two ways - as a circle or cowl and as a collar.

Buttoned 'collar' style.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Rest in Peace Beaky


The Mr and I went to Boston for a short holiday. I fed Beaky on the morning I left but I haven't seen her since I got back. All the other usual suspects have been back: Chubbs, Spotty, Ariel, Mrs Grey, Mr Grey, Impostor Mr Grey and Miss Greenstring. But no Beaky. I can only assume that 5 days was too long for her to go without food and she really couldn't eat without my help. I was hoping that Chubbs would feed her, but I guess pigeons don't do that. I guess it was inevitable- she would have died in August after I left anyway. But I would have liked to imagine her dying of a grand old age surrounded by dozens of offspring. Yet I take comfort in knowing I gave her 6 more weeks and she saw her latest batch of chicks grow into independent adults. And when I see Spotty and Ariel they remind me of her. They have her fearless attitude and strength and both have the makings of alpha-pigeons somewhere in the future, just like their mama. These are the last pictures I have of Beaky, she's just eaten and is wondering if she should have some more or fly off into that lovely blue sky.