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Attic Studio: Day 7
These are the already existing stairs (behind this door with the embroidery hoops on it here) leading to the attic. This is most definitely the beforish group of pictures of my attic studio even though when I took them in the middle of yesterday my guys had already accomplished tons since this pic (more on my guys soon). It could be quite drab to look at all this wood and stuff - that's what that clicky button on your computer mouse is for. But if you'd like to come up with me......
As you come up the stairs and turn to your right you'd see the east wall of the house where we've busted out a hole in the brick wall for a window space that'll be about 6 ft wide and 4 ft high. Its also the only way to bring all the large materials into the attic for building. So there is a scaffold set up from the garage wall below and up 3 stories to this gaping hole. Our house is really a long, one story house, but the garage is tucked in under that main story, and now this studio will be above that, making it pretty high up their. The first day Nicolas (sans cast) saw the scaffold when he got off the bus he didn't hesitate to scale up the side of it and enter the house by coming through the hole, and down the stairs to say hello with a proud grin. Pat and Geoff (my guys) had taken the boards and ladder away from the lower areas of the scaffold so no one would be tempted to try it. Nicolas would have likely come up the hard way even if the easy way had been left in place. Sigh. Where was I?
Turning clockwise a little from the window area, is this very long wall, about 25 ft, that runs along the front side of the house. I'm not putting windows, or dormers here, because there would be the need to also kind of balance that build out at the other end of the house and we don't have the plans or budget for that. (Also that property assessor guy that looks our house from the road every year would see it and might assume our house is worth more than it was last year, and who wants to pay property taxes on such silly assumptions? Eehhem.)
Here's a view of that long wall from the window end. The short studs that you see there will become a knee wall which will be the back wall of a very long row of shelving that tucks under the angle of the ceiling. That'll house bolts of fabric, quilts, pattern boxes, etc. I'm smiling.
Now we're turned back down to the west end of the shelving wall, and back at the stairwell. My long sewing table is going to run along that sort of half wall there. My kids are going to throw a bunch of crap over that half wall and down the stairs. I'm just giving you the full vision here.
On the other side of the staircase, except for building out a little more alcove space for storage, we are walling off the rest of the attic, and making access to it by way of a door. You can sort of make out lots of pattern boxes, bolts of fabric, etc behind the beginning of the framed wall. Our attic runs the entire length of the house, and so provides about another 3000 sq. ft. of space, which is crazy. The center portion of the attic/house actually has higher ceiling clearance- about 9 feet- than this east end that I'm building out which only has about 7.5 feet at the highest. But the center portion is huge, like about 2000 sq. ft., so way more than I want to heat and cool or even design for at the present. My new space will be about 430.
Now turning clockwise again from the previous picture you can see where my sort of T-shaped studio stems out into a new dormer that will face the back yard. This north side of the studio will get a wall of fabric shelves for my personal stash (from that metal pole on the left to the wooden support in the middle) and then take a turn into the left side of the dormer which will be a wall of drawers for art supplies, etc.
The windows that will go in the dormer will give me this view of one side of our backyard. Hello trees.
And hello confused little dog. How did you get so tiny? If I peer over the edge of the dormer hole I see a puppy that wants to know why his mommy is standing in the roof. Cute little schmookums.
Heres that hole in the roof for the dormer again. My drafting table will go at the end of this under the windows. It feels very tree-housey up here, I hope that doesn't change once its finished. To the right of the drafting table along the east wall of the dormer, we're going to build a long counter style desk for my computer, and other desky stuff that I don't have much room for downstairs. There were some really great old, aged planks of wood up here flooring just a tiny bit of the attic for walking around that I want to use for that.
So there it is guts and all. Thanks for peeking around with me. I might be the only person that likes the sound of power tools and building while I work. I love knowing that little dreams are getting fulfilled up there.
more soon, xoxo, Anna
Rainbow Sewing Day III
After having to cancel Rainbow Sewing Day III back in December due to snow (insert ugh here), we were finally able to pull another together this passed Wednesday here at the house. Above is my shuffled up living room where we cut backings. We also sat on the floor and scratched our heads about stuff, and pulled up our skinny jeans about 60 times to avoid any unwanted backside showings. That last part could have been just me.
Paula floated in with the sunshine and near 70 degree weather. Thank you Paula!
Britney and my Mama were all business at the dining room table. I think Britney only cussed her bobbin running out before the end of her sewing pass about four times (not really, just an adorable sigh). I think my mom might have said "fiddlesticks" only about 8 times, which is how my mom cusses. Thank you Britney and Mama!
Kirsty joined us again, bringing her beautiful baby Toby along. They mostly played blocks in the playroom. (Haha get it? Okay, sorry.) Thank you Kirsty, thank you Toby!
Kathy and Cindy worked I think mostly on binding at my sewing table in the studio. Both talented ladies! Thank you Kathy and Cindy!
And by the end of a long day we had another pile of completely finished and completely beautiful quilts ready to deliver to flood victims for their homes, which are slowly coming back into reality all over town. Also joining us Wednesday were Terri, Jennifer, Amanda and Jennie- thank you all!!! I really hope I didn't leave anyone out! I was slightly left out all day because Roman wasn't feeling well so he couldn't go to his little toddler class. Instead I walked around holding a limp little baby on my hip all day. Scratch the little part of that, he's huge, and heavy. I think it would have been easier to sew all day. He's better now. Still huge though.
In his sleepy, pitiful delirium, after everyone left, he knocked over the finished stack, rode it like a horsey, then put those suckers to use. He really believes that every quilt in this house belongs to him and him alone. He pats his chest when he sees one as if to say "put it on me now, please".
Oh, I wuv him so ridiculously much.
good weekend, xo, Anna
Happy Lovey Feet
I ordered these beautiful silk/wool handknit cozies from the gorgeous knitabella collection last week as a Valentines gift from me to me. It was 7 degrees on the day I ordered them. I was cold. I needed love. My feet needed a hug.
On Valentine's Day when I got them it was a sultry 60 degrees. It was an indulgent purchase. Once Jeff offered his gifts of love- a singing box of chocolates, a giant plastic diamond solitaire ring, and a Spongebob Valentine- my own purchase felt like a really good idea.
Look. Its my feet as a heart.
But this gorgeousness has had me very busy. Its my soon to be (additional) studio space, which is above my current studio space. That is indeed a large gaping whole in my brick wall. I am so excited I could spit. It puts the plastic ring into perspective, no? Would you like to watch the progress of this space with me? Guts and all? Good. Cause I wanna share it.
xo, Anna
Scientific findings of Snow Days
This just in:
The number of snow days where children do not attend school has been found to have a direct and consistent effect on the number of broken dishes in the house where those children spend their snow days.
Findings reported by:
The I'm So Sick Of Snow Days I Could Break Dishes But I Don't Have To Foundation.
Flirting the Issue
I played baseball with my brother in the backyard as often as he would agree to play with a girl. This would only be when I could catch him between Atari, playing army with Steve Beck up the street, his daily ingestion of $1.49 Totino's frozen pizza, and better offers to do more fun things with cooler kids. I was tomboyish, but not a typical tomboy. I liked playing with the boys best because they seemed to argue less, but I also liked figuring out things that were pretty too, like fancy barbie clothes and flower doodles on my math folder. It took me a while to dress like a girl though. Most of it seemed a fuss, got in the way of doing more important things like catching pop flies. (If you're here for anything of value, please skip down to the last part of this post, I'll turn my back.)
It took me a while to figure this all out. Girlness. And clothes. And how girls wore clothes. And what seemed most important was that if I was going to do that, I didn't want to do it like any other girl. I have vivid evidence of this stored in my brain. My mom might remember this. (I'm hoping my brother doesn't, or he'll never play catch with me again.) One night as I lay in bed scheming of how I would talk George into playing catch the next day, I also schemed a better way to wear a skirt.
I had a short, flouncy skirt that cinched in at the waist. I did not like anything that was tight around my tummy (nor wool, nor collars, nor highwaisted pants). So I decided that I could wear the skirt like a poncho, waistline around my neck, with jeans, the flow of the skirt leaving me plenty of room to catch and throw a baseball. I even got up out of bed, closed the door, turned on my light, dug my skirt out of the pile on my closet floor and held it up to my neck to see if it would be long enough to meet my jeans. Perfect. Lights out, back to bed. Dreams that even George would think its cool.
"What are you wearing!?" said he.
"Shut up, lets go throw." said I.
.
.
.
"Anna Maria Demacopoulos, what on earth are you wearing?!" from the lady in the kitchen window. And it was back to tshirts. Eventually I figured a few things out.
For one, I figured out this new skirt, that has a very uncanny resemblance to my childhood neck skirt. But. You should wear it like this. At your waist. (It also looks great sitting low on the waist, across the hips.)
Then glance towards the glow of the window, offer a demure smile, and no one will need to be convinced that you are both a girl and know just exactly how to be. Despite the time and fashion hiccups it took to get there.
Here's your link to the Flirting the Issue Skirt pdf. This is the same skirt design that you've seen here and here.
I've organized all my free patterns onto a new page called "make" at the website so that they are no longer polluting my sidebar here. That felt good!
And yes, we made some kits too. I think this would be the perfect Valentines Date skirt.
(don't forget your baseball mitt!)
xo, Anna
On Boys and Danger
Eeech. Jeff just emailed me a picture of a scaly, little, skinny ankle, with a surgery scar, some inkpen marks (from surgery I guess) and what looks the bulge of screw heads near the surface. The subject line was "Nicolas wants you to see this". Of course he does. He loves flaunting anything scary or disgusting in my face. They are at the orthopedist right now getting the cast off in favor of I'm not sure what- waiting to see if it'll be a splint or another cast. I feel like I'm gonna lose my Luna bar. But I don't think its because I'm grossed out. I think its because I'm scared that he's actually healing. I want him to heal. I want him to heal. You know what he'll want to do after he's healed right? Right. Eeechblechdahblunchech.
I took these pictures just a few days after he got the cast. Mopey boy. As sad as its been, there has been safety in that little leg cage, at least for me. I have had so much sympathy for this kid. He's practically had to swat me away a few times when I've tried to help him too much. He has handled being off his feet and not skating so much better than I would have guessed. Watching him struggle to get used to the cast was hard. We've had lots of conversations about risk taking. My dad contributes to that conversation like this: "He has to stop that skateboarding business!" I know where he's coming from. Its a conflict. Nicolas does not dig team sports. Nicolas is strong, creative and very, very coordinated, despite what these portraits evidence. And the thing is, is that he has an unbelievably high tolerance for pain. I love and hate that. Nicolas loves to skate. Watching him not skate is not fun. But here's the thing that I think is unique to this type of sport and wears on my weary heart: it is a practice of learning to do dangerous things. And as good as you can get doing dangerous things (and he has) they are still dangerous things. What's worse, the better you get the more dangerous things you try. And then your mother falls over from exhaustion.
And then call your friends to tell them about your wicked injuries and pretend that you don't really enjoy the attention.
And while you're off your feet, you get better at making skate videos of your friends at your favorite local skate park.
And then your mom blogs about it because she is so proud of you, even if most of your bravery is exemplified by scaring the living daylights out of her on a hourly basis.
The other thing. About boys. And girls. And danger. We've had four broken bones in this family. Only one of those was earned by actually doing something. Nicolas was trying to get better at something that he loves. The other kids were, uhhh, playing *butt blaster, jumping off a bed, and swinging from a tree. And while you can be skeptical about a future in professional skateboarding, I don't know any professional butt-blasters, bed-jumpers, or tree swingers.
Skate on, Nicolas.
I just wrote myself into a tear. Sniff.
And a laugh. Ha.
xo, Mom
*Butt blaster is when one person lays on their back, feet in the air forming a seat that the second person sits in. When the person laying down bends their knees all the way back then shoots the other across the room with a forward thrust of their feet, a butt has effectively been blasted.
*It is not recommended.
*It is incredibly fun.
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