Before and After: a tale of a home renovation, part 3

Welcome to our kitchen. It is at the back of the parlor level of our brownstone, just off of the living room, which you saw in part 2. This is my favorite room of the house and probably where I spend the most time. The huge kitchen table serves as the headquarters for our family, where we have family meals, do art/craft projects, sit and chat with friends, play games, you name it. The back of the house has a southern exposure so we get light flooding into this room in the afternoons which works well for my obsession with plants.

When we bought the house there was actually no kitchen on this floor of the house, instead it was being used as bedrooms. We loved the high ceilings and formal detailing on this level so we decided to move the kitchen to this floor. There was considerable damage to the ceiling from a leak in the upstairs bathroom, so that became a huge repair project for Frank, in fact he still works from time to time doing plaster work on the moldings that were damaged.
Here is a corner of the room before...

...and after.

You can see that we took out a couple of closets, and a decorative arch, and put in our kitchen where they used to be. Wow, that blue paint sure was bright! Here is a picture of the same wall further towards the windows, before...

...and after.

I was in charge of picking out all of the tiles, sink and sink fixtures as well as the appliances, which was such a fun job. We used blond wood on the floors and cabinets throughout the house, and I chose tiles in shades of blue which complements the blond nicely. Here in the kitchen the back splash tile is ceramic, the cabinets and farmhouse sink are from Ikea, and for the counter tops we chose a dark granite to give the feeling of slate. Here is another before and after of the damage to the ceiling...

When we moved in we knew that we wanted to add a deck onto the back of the house, which we also knew was going to be a huge job because one of the windows in the kitchen would have to be converted to a door if we wanted access to the deck from this floor.
We waited until we had lived in the house a year, and Jasper was about 10 months old, to finally start the deck project. I'll show you pictures of the deck when I show you the "before and afters" of the backyard. Here is the door that we added (sorry no before picture of the window) where the window used to be, we also had to move the radiator that was underneath that window. We placed the radiator between the new door and the other window, and a friend of ours custom built that lovely radiator cover with the vertical slats, which then gave us more counter space.
Frank has recently embarked on a series of interior paintings of our house, I wanted to share this one, bellow, of the kitchen with you. The painting hanging behind our kitchen table is one of mine called Meditation, you can read about Frank's ideas behind his painting of the room (and my painting) here on his blog.

Looking forward to sharing more of our renovation in part 4!

Ballerina dress

I pulled the dress out of a box at my parent's house, there was the familiar pattern of the flowers, bringing back the memory of the cool cotton feeling of the top layer as it was poofed up by the puffy crinoline slip. I remembered the feeling of the skirt as it brushed my legs and swirled around me as I twirled.
There were a few holes that I mended slowly, thinking that there was no way that she would be big enough to fit into it yet, and then yesterday I took it out and she saw it...and it was love at first sight.

It fit almost perfectly, and then the spinning began, oh yes.

Oh and the smiling too, lots of smiling.

In fact she didn't stop looking at it all day. She made it her own and named it, the "ballerina dress".

Before and After: a tale of a home renovation, part 2

I'm so excited about the great response to my first Before and After home renovation post! It appears that you like before and after transformations as much as I do. Now, come on inside, welcome to our home. Like I mentioned in part 1, when we bought the house it needed some major TLC, but we could see the beautiful details that we knew we wanted to save. One of the things that sold us on the house were the beautiful molding details on the high ceilings in the parlor level of the house, these are typical of houses built in the late 1800's especially in this area of Brooklyn. You can see them a bit in this picture taken the week we closed on the house...

I wish that we had taken a picture of the pink shag carpet that covered the floor of the the living room, but it was so horrible that it was the first thing we took up.
Here is our living room today, you can see more of the beautiful moldings in this one. I love that in the "before" picture Jasper is growing in my belly, and in the "after" picture he is playing on the floor, a true before and after.

The next two are looking at the same room, from the back of our living room towards the front of the building, you can see the front door entryway through the arch to the right. Before..

and after...

And now another looking from the front of the room towards the back of the house, where the living room opens onto the kitchen...

Frank had to do some molding restoration work in these rooms, as well as replacing the wooden floors and lots of painting. Do you see the soft blue on the walls of the living room, with a bit of texture? That is actually Venetian Plaster work, which is the sort of decorative painting work that Frank does for a living...so we are lucky enough to have it all over our house!

Next time we'll go into the kitchen, in part 3 of the before and after series!

Chatting with BananaSaurus Rex

I have been following and enjoying BananaSaurus Rex, the often hilarious and always witty blog of Rebecca Thoms Hanley, for a while. So, I was thrilled when she asked if she could interview me about art, life, and everything. She posted the resulting interview on her blog today! You can read all about our chat here, where I discuss motherhood, making art, trying to do it all and everything in between. I figured since I'm revealing all in the interview why not really let it all hang out and show you a shot of my studio at it's most messy while I'm at it!
I love that there is a sippy cup sitting right there on my studio table.

Before and After: a tale of a home renovation, part 1

We live in a beautiful, historic area of Brooklyn, full of stately rows of Brownstone homes with wrought iron gates and fences. The area of Park Slope is actually a national historic site and we live one block into the neighboring area of Windsor Terrace. These neighborhoods were built in the late 1800's, and the homes contain all of the detailing that you can imagine from that era.

Let's talk about dream fulfillment for a moment, Frank and I met in 2000 and as we talked about our goals, desires and dreams, Frank admitted that one of his dreams, since moving to New York, had always been to buy and renovate a Brownstone. I began to get excited about that idea with him. After we were married we still talked about doing that, but we were caught up in living our lives, making our art, and did not take any action.

In 2003 I had a late miscarriage with our first pregnancy. Sometimes it takes something like that to give you just the kick you need, it shakes the fear off of you, it wakes you up. A month after our loss Frank began looking at houses for sale, I was still in a state of sitting at home, but he would call me from the houses and tell me about them.

The day before Halloween he went to an open house, he called me while he was there and told me that I had to come see it that same day, he made an appointment for the realtor to show it to us that evening. As we walked through we could see the potential hidden behind years of neglect and dust. The house obviously needed a major renovation, but that put it within our price range, and we just knew what we could make that house into! We made an offer two days later, and it was accepted that week.

We closed on the house the 1st week of April 2004, so it will be 6 years in a couple of weeks, and oh have we come so far! I was pregnant with Jasper when we began the renovation that spring, so I wasn't much help to Frank who did almost all of the work himself. Above is what the house looked like the day we closed, it is the one painted beige with the strange awnings (I think we took those off that day). It is too bad that we don't have a picture of the way the outside of the house looked before the woman who lived there moved out. She had so many little decorations hanging and sitting on the front stoop, there was a Madonna in a half shell, many windmills, some gnomes and small stone animals...you name it and she had the lawn decoration on the steps. People on our block still joke about that with us.

Here is the outside of our house today, you can see that we painted the cornice my favorite color, Turquoise.

Here is another "Before"...

and another "After"...

So, I hope that you enjoyed part one of the tale of our home renovation. I will continue it with part two, in which I will invite you inside to see what we did with the Living Room, expect lots of "before and after" pictures!
Here is a picture of how it looks in summertime with all of our plants in bloom. I can't wait to show you the garden!

Glorious weekending

We've had a glorious weekend of sunshine, bare feet on the deck, spring planting, grandparents visiting, watching the Brooklyn Saint Patricks Day parade (I swoon listening to bagpipes), and eating yummy food.

This morning I made my amazing sweet potato biscuits for breakfast, and as we were enjoying them I thought that I had to share them with you here. Now, some may think that sweet potato and biscuits should not be in the same sentence, but these are just the tastiest, fluffiest biscuits that you can imagine. My mother made these all the time when I was a kid. They are very simple and fun to make with kids, I always have little helpers taking turns adding the ingredients.

Sweet Potato Biscuits
1 cup cooked and mashed sweet potatoes (I usually peel and cut one sweet potato into small pieces and boil it for 15 minutes, then drain and mash it)
1/4 cup melted butter
2/3 cup milk
1 and 1/4 cup flour
2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Grease a cupcake/muffin tray.
Combine all ingredients.
Stir until smooth, sprinkling more flour in if necessary until the mixture is the consistency of soft dough.
Spoon the dough into the muffin tray filling each cup.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges are just light brown.
We enjoy them warm with butter, honey and jam.
Yum.

I always have sweet potatoes around, and I love finding new ways to enjoy them. I recently tried another amazing recipe, involving roasted sweet potatoes, red onions and cherry tomatoes sprinkled with feta cheese in a warm salad, it is seriously lick the plate good and is quickly becoming a favorite. My friend Kirsten shares it here on her blog. I recommend it ever so highly.

Spring fever

Welcome back sunshine! All week I have felt like this little yellow Crocus, reaching towards the warm sunshine, loving the feeling on my skin.

We have been spending hours outside each day, it can't be helped really. Its almost impossible for us to stay indoors when the sky is blue, the sun is shining and we are able to be outside with out even a jacket on for the first time this year here in NYC! The extra hours of daylight with the time change have been a huge blessing, both for rest (little people are sleeping later in the morning) and for that amazing energy that I feel when the sun is still shining at 6:30 in the evening.

One of us learned how to blow bubbles.

And another takes his shirt off whenever the weather approaches 70 degrees, can't say that I blame him.

I feel spring coming on in a big way!!

I dare you

This short video about women following their dreams is so inspiring. It is so good to remember that no matter what, YOU are looking at you...meaning that you are the one that you report to, you are the one that your dreams mean the most to, you are the one that bottles it up when you know you aren't living your full creative potential. Go on, I dare you.

Snap + Ink

I am thrilled to be included as one of the artists interviewed for this amazing new e-course by Snaps & Ink. The course is called Captivating, it is a journey into creativity. It is about preparing a safe haven for our creativity to manifest, taking a closer look at the world around us and being gentle and mindful with our dreams. It sounds amazing! I had the pleasure of getting to know lovely Madalyn during our Unravelling course, and I have to tell you, she's got some great ideas. The questions that she asked me in our interview knocked my socks off with their perceptive depth, and the list of other female artists that she has on the course agenda is really exciting. You can take a sneak peak here.
In her words:
"Our journey [in the e-course] will be invigorating and create fresh wind for your sails." I just love that.

The dust of everyday life

I feel like I've been quiet here this week.
We've been taking time to visit schools as we face making decisions about where Jasper will go to school next autumn. He is only 5, and yet this whole process of applying to schools, visiting, interviewing, having observed play times, has all left me feeling spent and spread thin. IT is only Kindergarten, I keep telling myself, how can it be sane for it to be this complicated?
When my children were very young I heard bits and rumors about the rigorous process of finding a school for your child here in NYC, I remember thinking that I would be the girl who was above being stressed out by the whole thing. I would be the laid back mom who assessed the options in a smooth analytical way and then immediately saw and chose the best option for my child. No problem.
The reality has seen me sitting amidst piles of papers as I fill out applications and debate the merits of differing educational models and class sizes while Frank looks on with a worried look.
Here in Brooklyn there are other things to consider as well, like the hassle factor of getting your child to a school that is only 3 miles away but those are 3 miles that would take you a half hour each way to drive with the morning and afternoon rush.

With all of the craziness we finally got around to visiting our local public school yesterday, expecting to be unimpressed, and that's where I took the above photo. What a breath of fresh air! We live in a neighborhood that has seen a lot of young creative people move in over the past 10 years, and the school reflects that with its warm, art filled halls.

We still have our decisions to make, over the next few weeks.
I just love the idea of art washing the soul, cleansing the dust of everyday life. I imagine stepping out of a refreshing shower, ready to begin again.

Grow

Grow

There has been lots of brainstorming going on in our family lately, lots of reaching for the stars and discussing our ideal life. Frank and I have been knee deep in this sort of talk, which is definitely exciting, but not all together relaxing and calming. It feels really appropriate that I finished this new painting, Grow, just before we left for Florida...as I feel like that's what we were able to do a lot of on our trip. GROWING our dreams, bigger and with more clarity (there is my word for the year again) has been our huge topic of focus as a couple for a while now. A great catalyst for this has been taking the Together e-course, over at Creative Thursday that we started in January . The class is now sadly over but our discussions and breakthroughs that were facilitated by the course have just begun for us. More than ever we are focussing on our desire to both create our art for a living, and the changes in our lifestyle that need to happen to make that a reality!
We've got some big plans, but before I share that, I realised in Florida how much I need to slow down. The effects of stress, and it's wear on my body, started to show themselves in the week before our trip. To the point where I can not ignore them any more. So now that we are home there are some big changes....the biggest and most extreme one is that I have given up caffeine.
As a mama who really enjoys her cups of coffee this is a tough one, but already I feel more in control physically, and I can already sense that my body really needed this change. As I sit here sipping my new found drink, decaf Chai with foamed rice milk (yum!), it doesn't feel so bad, but talk to me at 3PM and we'll see how its going. I am still in the transition with that.
I have also started to take time to stretch my body, knowing how much my body longs for the old days when I could do hours of Yoga, and to take brisk walks again. It all feels so good. It comes down to the simple truth that I have been pushing myself too hard and I just can't keep going and going with out focusing on self care.

Happily we had a few little friends to greet us on our return to Brooklyn, all of these sprouting wonders in our backyard! The Crocuses, Daffodils and Hostas are are all starting to peek their way through. With the amazing warm weather that we are having here in NYC is feels like spring will actually arrive. I am ready, oh so ready. Let the growing begin!

Headed home

This evening we are heading back to Brooklyn. I hope that you've enjoyed coming along with us on our Florida escapade.

We've had such fun, but I am looking forward to getting back into the studio at home. I really start to feel it when I am away from the studio for days on end. I have some paintings that I had just finished when we left that I am dying to share with you! I am even more excited knowing that my very favorite season, spring, can't be far away even in the frozen north. I am already loving the longer days with more light, aren't you?

Flora

While our trip to Florida has been a bit disappointingly unseasonably cold, meaning we've had almost none of what would be our normal beach routine here, we have enjoyed endless beauty of the floral variety. Visiting botanical gardens both here, where my in-laws live in Naples, and on our interlude to Miami, have been highlights of our trip for me! Here are some of my favorites.


Speaking of "flora", Frank and I just want out on a rare movie date to see Avatar (yes, for the second time). I just had to go see it again to be back in the visual delight of that jungle, if you've seen the movie you know what I mean! All of the details of the world that Mr. Cameron created in the movie, the bugs, glowing plants, floating mountains, it all just blows me away visually. My head is still spinning, I loved it!