Tile Tables Etc.

 Two new tile table tops with mahogany sides, by Bill & beautiful. Soon to have hairpin legs.

Leif's brutalist sculpture (hand sign for "love") on Bill''s cylinder stool and below three greenware stools.

Some Shine

 

This kitchen got new appliances and high gloss marine paint on the ceiling beams & backsplash. Next is track lighting and a swagged Louis Poulsen Moser Pendant light. Swedish ceramicist Anu Moser created this pendant in 2002 to mimic a bead of molten glass, using three luxury layers of handblown spiral pattern white opal glass.

A Better Backsplash

 

Extending the counter marble or using large tiles for the backsplash - or many grouted ones seemed too busy for this kitchen. We have decided to treat the area with a Swedish putty primer under Fine Paints of Europe Hollandlac Brilliant Paint. It will match the paint and color used on the ceiling beams which is a warm white; White Dove. This keeps the kitchen simple (with so many outlets in the area) and light with wood ceilings above. 

 

Left & below are examples of painted walls as backsplashes by Leanne Ford, another believer in  keeping things light & white where possible.

Walls & doors painted with "Hollandlac Brilliant".

Our First Grandchild

Our first grandchild arrived ten days early, looking well prepared for this wonderful world at 7.5 lbs. and ready to feed. Congratulations to proud parents Nina & Alex and a most loving welcome to sweet baby Alex!

A Little Landscaping

I have had Rutger's Nursery come for advice after hauling fallen trunks and large branches from much of the front yard forest at Leif's. We burn branches in the fire pit while taking down more dead ash trees, which has allowed the property to take shape this Spring. I am advised to do what we are doing...clear to the historic tall rock wall & repair it while creating as much lawn as we like. Dot in a few flowering trees and enjoy the tree protected property, magnificent creekbed view and hillside behind it.

Here is a Garden Stone of Bill's placed next to pruned ornamental grasses in the backyard. It is analagous and echoes the house colors as you look towards the creek from the back deck. Nice!

Bill has made beautiful garden stones lately, which are a bit more bulbous while illuminating his painterly glazing techniques wonderfully. It displaces an old planter left behind. 

Missing My Anders

 

This month I have been missing my dog Anders who passed last month. He was such a dear "Valentine" and companion to me, I never realized just how much. Anders always desparately missed any in our family, how ever long they were gone. His greetings were overwhelming and sincere. He pranced like a circus pony when he walked or played with sticks, ran like the wind in chase, and stopped traffic with his sheer beauty. He sat like a soldier with perfect posture and attention for us.

I loved him.

Installing Marble Counters

I went to "GRANITE CORNERSTONE LLC" in Highstown NJ, to approve a Carrara White Gioia Marble layout for Leif's kitchen. It was a good trip to a barn in a farmfield with wooden templates easy to move about. Having a "waterfall" end and veining to line up, this was critical. The exceptionally long slab of marble allowed us to choose the parts we liked most. 

Before counter install, the two beams in the kitchen ceiling left, are primed and being painted "White Dove" in high marine gloss from Fine Paints of Europe.