Five Weeks & Counting…

It was quite strange to come “home” after our 10 day trip. The house is so neat and tidy and so much is put away; it frankly doesn’t seem like it’s ours. And it almost isn’t.

What has happened, which is so surprising, is that our house went under contract before it was even listed!!! After we signed the contract with our realtor, she started getting the word out. As we were making the final preparations for being on the market and going away, she was scheduling the sign installation and the photographer. She put the word out with her network of realtors and the next thing we knew, people were asking for showings! The upshot was that the first people who saw the house made an offer and we are moving ahead with them. That’s why the vacation to Hendersonville ended up being more of a where-to-live-next search for Peter.

We picked up the cats from their little vacation. We take them to a wonderful boarding place – they let them out several times a day in the office so they can play and get some exercise. Before we left, Gizmo was traumatized. He is the poster boy for a scaredy cat. He either hides in the basement squeezed beside the freezer, or behind the coffee maker. I can’t decide if he thinks he is hidden there…

Our plan was to sell the house and then rent a place in our target area and start seriously feeling what the area is like and looking at houses. Settlement is June 21st (!!!) and so we are moving ahead with alacrity. We looked at houses in Hendersonville and spent a day in Greenville doing the same. Happily Peter and I are in agreement that Greenville is the area we want to live next! One decision down and many more to come.

We took a lovely drive there on another day of our trip, meandering through Southern North Carolina and towards the east side of Greenville. Artisphere was going on and so we parked and joined in the fun downtown. It’s a fabulous city with so much going on and the surrounding area, where we will be living, looks great too. Wow. I’m still stunned by how fast everything is happening….

Hello from Hendersonville

Whew – what a whirlwind the past few weeks have been! We chose a realtor and signed a contract with her on Saturday the 27th of April. The unpredictable Chicagoland weather decided to cooperate and Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were in the 80′s and so the front door and porch area were finally painted! By midweek, as she spread the word about our house coming on the market, we started having showings. The sign went up on Friday and we were officially On The Market!

On Saturday we started the drive to Hendersonville. We had chatted about getting away after the house was listed and Peter decided he’d like to see Hendersonville and start his part of the where-to-live-next work. So I quickly found this fun cabin in the mountains. And here we are! It’s what people call a staycation for Peter because he is only taking a few vacation days off. But we are away and not having to polish the sinks or vacuum or close the cats up in a closet!

Hendersonville has has a cool, wet Spring too, but there’s lots blooming. We have been enjoying the azaleas – they are few and far between in Chicagoland.

Peter was working hard yesterday, so I decided to amuse myself by heading to an antique mall that I discovered on my last trip here. I found this funhouse mirror that I thought would be great in our new bedroom!

And this life sized pair of carved lions made me laugh out loud! I am sure that this is what Peter and I looked like about two weeks ago! We were exhausted and so stressed out about getting the house ready. I most certainly am the one snarling at him and he is trying to be polite and turning his face away as he snarls too. ;-D

I discovered several quilts tucked away in the booths but I pulled this one out for a closer look. The workmanship is exquisite!!! And what an unusual pattern and pretty fabrics. There are pieced 8 pointed stars and some appliqued heart shaped flowers. Teeny, tiny grandmother’s flower garden shapes are also appliqued on the backing fabric with such teeny, tiny stitches.I wish the photograph was better. I don’t let myself buy old quilts but I was sorely tempted by this beauty. Sadly for me, the dealer knew what an amazing quilt this is and priced it accordingly….

There’s lots more news to share with you, but for now, we are enjoying the lovely mountains of North Carolina.

P.S. as usual, I am having trouble with WordPress on my iPad! I thought I published this yesterday ….. I’m trying again.

Images from the Vatican City

Because much of the world is looking towards Italy and the Vatican this week, I thought I would share some images from our trip there several years ago. We went on a Mediterranean cruise, and had but one day in Rome. It is certainly a place that we want to return to and enjoy longer. It is older than old, with churches often sitting on the site of an even older religious structure. We had some time to wander around the city of Rome, enjoy a pizza and check out the extremely touristy must-sees before our afternoon tour of The Vatican City.

You certainly can go alone, but there are masses of people and a guide navigates through the press of humanity with ease. I was pretty excited to see the Papal Swiss Guards in person – is it just us ladies who are fascinated by them? Nowadays I suppose they are romantic figures harking to the past, but in the 15th century, when it seems they were recruited, the Swiss men were “swords for hire” and  saw many battles and upheavals. (I’m watching The Borgias on Netflix and goodness, what a lot of plots and intrigue and poisoning is going on!)

This picture shows where the Pope lives in the Vatican. It’s very hard to get photos of the whole group of buildings that make up the City. It is a very large complex and there are hundreds of people and security guards milling about and gates to keep the tourist corralled.

The Papal apartment buildings above look pretty plain, and had I not told you what you were looking at, it might have been any building in Rome. As you walk towards St. Peter’s Basilica, everything becomes incredibly grand and ornate. This is a door that we walked by…imagine walking being allowed to enter through that.

This is part of the ceiling in St. Peter’s. I wish our photographs were better but the space is so massive that I completely misjudged how to set my camera. Peter rescued me and did take a few that are not too dark. Though I am not a Catholic and did not understand much of what I was seeing, I have to tell you that St. Peter’s is awesome. Absolutely awesome. (And I do not use that word in every other sentence.) That men could create such beauty on such a scale way back then – it’s inconceivable. I wonder if we could build such a building today…

This is a very well photographed mosaic. It’s such an incredible design, it catches everyone’s eye. Our guide told us that many of the original paintings have had mosaic put over them, to preserve the image. The tiles are so tiny that from a distance you don’t realize it’s not a painting.

I could not resist adding this photo. I gawked at this dead Pope for so long that I was almost left by my tour group. I would like to be able to tell you which Pope this is, but I don’t want to be wrong. I looked online, but it seems that there are many dead Popes displayed. Can you see the ring on his finger? He is also wearing his red shoes. Yow!!!

When in Rome, do as the Romans applies to eating gelato! Everyone needs a little sugar to sustain themselves after taking in all that history!

The Last time I Visited San Juan….

…was on Spring Vacation with my parents.

Richard Nixon was President.

My brother was in the Army and my mother cried every time a letter arrived.

The Blockbuster movies of the year were Midnight Cowboy, The Godfather, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. (What a super year for movies!!!)

We landed on the moon (I watched it at Ruth’s house).

Woodstock happened (I went to The Atlantic City Pop Festival a few weeks before that with Molly).

Laugh In and Sesame Street debuted on TV. Star Trek was cancelled and The Smothers Brothers were banned!

My best friends in high school were Molly and Ruth, and I was very interested in a boy named Peter.

I had many slides digitized a few years ago, slides that my father and I had snapped long ago, and I remembered this one. Dad took it on a gondola ride somewhere on the island. Wow – talk about long ago and far away!!!

I couldn’t resist remembering all this as we cruised to Puerto Rico…..what a walk down memory lane.

As you may imagine, San Juan is very colorful. This bottle is filled with something colorful and spicy; the waiter at lunch was a bit vague about the contents but full of cautions. It smelled divine but did make my eyes water! It is some mixture of vinegar and water, hot peppers and whole cloves of garlic. Yummy but dangerous.

We wandered around the old part of the city and all the buildings looked well-kept up and freshly painted. On the way to a dance show that evening, the driver said that the downtown area looked nice because of the recent elections! ” Things get done around here when people want to be elected” were his words.

And just a couple more colorful buildings…….

Not every building is bright and colorful. One of the great pleasures of a cruise is sailing in and out of beautiful ports and admiring impressive landmarks such as this famous fort as you drift by. It was built in the early 1500′s by Charles V of Spain.  Castillo San Felipe del Morro withstood many attacks over the years. The part sticking up is a lighthouse, which is still in use. I did not visit the fort on this trip, but I took loads of pictures of it the last time (I was taking photography in high school).

So – many, many years later, I enjoyed San Juan with that wonderful boy named Peter. Happily he was interested in me too, and continues to be after all these years…..

Caribbean Cruise!

Peter and I have been away the past week, on a Caribbean Cruise. It’s been a crazy busy year because of Peter’s new job which has included lots of travel and my where-to-live-next-trips. It seemed like a cruise was the way to be together and relax for a bit. We chose Holland America’s Westerdam and hoped for great weather and lots of fun things to do.

The first stop was Grand Turk, of the Turk and Caicos Islands. Here is the view from shipboard. There’s not much to see, but the temperature was wonderful and the sea such a lovely color!

Happily, we’d signed up for a little excursion, which we enjoyed very much! We were driven to one end of the island, where we received instructions on how to paddle a kayak, and we set off down a little river. The kayaks had glass bottoms so we could see what was below us but the river was so shallow and clear it really wasn’t necessary! We had a great guide who told us all sorts of interesting facts about the watery wildlife.

One of the first things he showed us were hard to see at first. He kept talking about jelly fish and pointing in the water and I was seeing nothing that looked like the jelly fish I have seen. In this photo, look for the lovely 8 pointed green star-shaped things; there are at least two. They are jelly fish! They have hairy tops so they look like algae or plants and underneath is the part that puffs out like jelly fish do. We did see some swim and they look odd, with their waving branches on top and their bottoms puffing in and out to move.

The river has two kinds of mangroves growing along it. One of them has these roots growing in the river by the shoreline which is how they get their nutrition. I thought the spikes and algae made such a lovely pattern and it’s a safe place for tiny fish to hide from predators.

This little pond was set up to show us what little beasties live in the waters of the river. The sea washes in, so they are all salt water creatures. The guide said that sometimes you can see stingrays or sea turtles, which would have been very fun! The long dark things are sea cucumbers. The guide said that some people ate them, but he never had. We groaned because we ate them when we lived in Asia – and found them absolutely revolting!!! The only thing to do was to chew them quickly (and they are very chewy and plastic -y) into small enough bits to swallow. You can also see  two types of sea urchins as well as the funny jelly fish guys. There were beautiful conch shells everywhere but they were not allowed on the ship.

We were required to have some margaritas and lunch after our strenuous kayak trip and then it was time to get back on the ship!  ;-D

A Wild Weekend!

I was in beautiful Bucks County Pennsylvania for most of last week, though it wasn’t as lovely as usual. Because of the approaching storm, it was gray and cloudy and dismal. When I am visiting where I grew up, I am always crazy-busy, visiting friends and relatives. It was fun to have Peter arrive later in the week as he rarely comes. We stayed with my cousin and enjoyed catching up with her. I was also pleased to photograph the quilt and sham I designed for her some years ago.

The big event of the weekend was my niece’s wedding. It seemed like the outdoor wedding was doomed, but the weather held and it even lightened up – a bit. She had it at a fancy special event place in New Hope and it was an amazing venue. This is the front door of the inn – aren’t these colors yummy?

Holly Hedge is on an estate in New Hope. If you know the area, you drive up River Road and turn left at Dilly’s Corner. It has an inn, a large barn and several small buildings…

…and such serene grounds. I am sure that my niece got lots of great photos taken.

Her flowers were in vibrant Fall colors, which really glowed in the gloomy light. This is a fountain in the patio where the ceremony was held.

We also had drinks and appetizers there and in a little barn nearby. My favorite were these tiny cups of tomato soup with a grilled cheese point on the top!

In looking through my photos, I see that I have no pictures of Kim & Lester together, but here are some other folks you might like to admire… ;-D

During the fun evening, Peter got an e-mail saying that his flight out of Philadelphia on Monday had been cancelled, and obviously mine heading a different direction was as well. After having just one more drink at the after party, we went back to our room to figure out what to do. I had booked a hotel at the airport Sunday night because of our early flights, so we had that, but could we extend the reservation? Peter was trying to get through to United to book something for Saturday, to no avail. I then stared checking on Travelocity. I had the bright idea that if we drove to Pittsburgh, we might fly out of there. Huh. Turns out that there are no direct flights to Chicago and the connections are in Phillie or DC! Suddenly Peter said “We should rent a car and drive!”. To which I immediately said “It will be an adventure!”. Amazingly enough he got a one way price of $100 – I assumed that a one way rental would be terribly expensive. It was late by then and we decided to get going at 6. It wasn’t to be. The walls of the inn were paper-thin and the couple next door was being loud…I won’t go into details…for a really long time. Then they both started snoring with the TV on!!!!!!!!!! That sort of rudeness makes me very angry but we could not reach the innkeepers to complain and Peter is never keen on knocking on doors at night. Around 4 AM, Peter asked if I was asleep (the TV was making me nuts, so no!) and we got up, threw our things in our bags and headed off to Phillie to exchange the rental cars. The airport was a madhouse at 6, swarming with all the lucky souls who did get flights out.

If you were watching the weather yesterday, you know that the big deal is that two storms were headed towards each other. We hit the western one around Pittsburgh, and Peter drove through that. It was heavy rain and fog and lots of trucks. About Toledo, it cleared up and I took over as Peter napped. And then I started to see it – 6 ambulances streaming Eastbound – 6 more – then 12 more. Then I saw 5 orange Asplundh trucks go by – 5 more – 5 more – followed by 5 bucket trucks. It was astounding! We stopped counting the bucket variety of truck about 350! Because of the medians in the middle of the turnpikes we couldn’t see the licences, but it felt like crews in many states had left around 8 and were headed to some pre arranged spot to set up and aid in the messy aftermath of Sandy. We saw a lot of smaller rental trucks, which I assume had other equipment, as well as trucks with portable generators stacked on the back. I have to say it was impressive and heartening to see how well people are planning to deal with this massive storm.

So, thanks to Peter, I am happily sipping on coffee and writing to you – - – and the sun is out! And I am laughing as none of us will ever forget Kim & Lester’s wedding weekend.

And now I must get packing for my next trip – - – Houston Texas here I come!

Re-visiting a “ville”

If you follow along with me, you know that on my last trip to the Asheville/Hendersonville area, my realtor dumped me! I have always liked Asheville and wanted to know more about Hendersonville, so I made a date with a new realtor. But on Sunday I enjoyed a craft fair at The Southern Highland Craft Guild’s venue on the Blue Ridge Parkway with my friend Molly. There were folks demonstrating traditional crafts and music and dance and a beautiful black & white show. I did not realize that photography was not allowed until I was yelled at. Here are some illegal pictures of the lovely work! Isn’t this sgraffito ceramic piece amazing?

Photography is not allowed in the gallery area either, but oh well, here is another illegal shot! There are lots of items for sale.

Once again, it rained! When I was in the area in June, it rained off and on and was misty and humid. This time there was torrential rain. Buckets and buckets of it. Consequently, I don’t have a lot of pictures and it was nasty to be in and out of the car all day.

But house hunting is house hunting! This realtor took me to many houses over a two-day period and I liked so many of them. There’s a mountain – Craftsman – bungalow style to so many houses that appeals to me. The properties are perched on both sides of the mountains, meaning that even if a house looks ordinary on the front, it likely has a drop dead gorgeous view in the back. I saw several little ponds with koi. I would love that!

Our Colorado house had enormous windows full of sky and mountain views, so here is a Flat Rock place that I liked.

And another in Hendersonville. I love how the builders built the fireplace into the window. I imagine sitting there on a cool winter day, enjoying the warmth and the view. The poor realtor was really distressed about the weather and the lack of views in all the places she took me to. But I have a good imagination and I like rainy, foggy days.

This bathroom was super! Though I am not a fan of tubs, I like the shape of this one. And showering ”in the open” – I haven’t seen that since a trip to Bali. Might be a tad cold in the winter months…

On my time off, I looked for quilt stores and indoor things to do. It was just too dismal to drive around and try to look at houses with all the trees, rain and fog. I found an enormous antique mall and enjoyed poking around. There were huge statues all over the place – I really was curious about where they’d been in their previous life. Of course I liked the antler chandelier as well. We had one in Colorado which I sold before we moved. Huh. Who knew I might need it again?!?

And I found a treasure for myself! I love old tins and sewing related items and I discovered this Putnam dye holder. It was a lot less expensive than any I’d seen elsewhere and even with shipping, it was a deal. The post office really squashed the box so I’ll ask Peter to try to straighten it a bit. And I know…I should be getting rid of things, not acquiring them…{sigh}

It was a great visit and I saw so may wonderful places. There’s a lot to think about.

More About Greenville

My Greenville realtor was amazing!!! We have moved many times over the years and she was absolutely The Best. She did show me some houses in several different areas, but what Peter pointed out to me as I was talking with him on the phone, was that she was selling Greenville to me……and on a where-to-live-next trip that’s key. If we like an area then we will find a home we like. If I find houses I like but am uncertain about the area, well, that’s tricky. What most impressed me was that she tuned in on the part where I said I was arty. I included that in all the e-mails to the realtors when they asked more about us. First she took me to see the studio of the Metroplpolitan Arts Council. There I was able to chat with them about what was going on in the area and collect lots of information. Another stop was to check out a new gallery , Art & Light Gallery, that had opened and talk to Teresa Roche, the owner. I was immediately taken by a great series of sheep paintings. I used to do a lot of spinning and worked on a sheep farm, so they are dear to my heart.

Should we move to Greenville, I will want to buy one of these!

We also stopped by a place called The Art Bomb, where artists have studios. Coincidentally, the man who showed us around paints the sheep and I was able to see a work in progress as well as look into some very interesting studios. His name is Paul Flint.

Here are a few houses that I saw. I loved the view from this place on nearby Paris Mountain. Should we live there, our neighbor would be George Hincapie!

I did want to peek at some of the older places in the downtown area. This is a bedroom in a grand old brick home with matching pergolas on each side. It was filled with lovely antiques and was quite a time capsule. I had the feeling that it would be a money pit as well as needing a good airing out!

This was over a doorway in another lovely old home. Usually stuffed birds stand regally over the fireplace but this turkey was flying over a doorway. It startled me so much that I shrieked!

Greenville is a lot hotter than I’d like, but I saw some pools tucked into secret backyards.

If you’ve spent any time with realtors, you know that they are an incredible source of information and seem to know everyone and what’s happening locally, so it’s both exhilarating and exhausting spending a day or two with them. My realtor showed me that there’s a lot to like about Greenville and it’s pretty close to other interesting places!

Visiting a New “ville”!

I just came home from another where-to-live-next trip. I always plan to blog while on the road, but then I rediscover how “funky” the WordPress app is on my iPad and don’t have enough spare energy to deal with it. As I have said before, I consider these business trips as I am making a lot of important decisions and trying to take everything in. First up on this trip was Greenville. I had not heard about it but Peter said that his new boss said that his parents moved there some years ago and love it and he does too. Then it was featured in Where to Retire magazine this Summer. Because I have read so much about the revitalized downtown, I decided to stay on Main Street rather than in the outskirts of town. We don’t want to live in the downtown area, but you do want to know what it’s like. And Wow! The hype is not exaggerated – it is quite wonderful! This is what you first hear about, the wonderful Reedy River Falls area. I took a little video with my iPhone but evidently I need a WordPress upgrade to post it.

Legal “Hooch” is for sale on Main Street! The barrel that the bottles are sitting on filled the air with a heady aroma!

There are all sorts of trails around the river and beautiful views of the buildings on Main Street. There are many performing arts venues and this one is an outdoor amphitheater.

The downtown area has a lot of new buildings (the realtor said that they had unfortunately taken a lot of the old beauties down)

but I discovered this great place.

After wandering around the commercial district, I walked down some residential ones. Greenville has its share of lovely mansions

and Bungalows.

Our first house was a bungalow and though I doubt we could fit in one now, I do love them.

Greenville has lots going on. On Friday nights in the Summer and I guess early Fall, they have music on Main Street. There is entertainment for the kids,

libations for the adults and on this particular Friday they were playing “my” music! Of course all the many wonderful restaurants were open but the stores were too and it was a great party atmosphere. People bring their lawn chairs and listen and dance and chat with their friends. There is also a Saturday market that was large and enticing.

Greenville has certainly come up with a great downtown area and events to make people want to go there.

More Rugs From Indiana

There were some great rugs to admire, both in the Woolkeepers Hook In show and in the process of being hooked. This was a vendor piece. I was admiring the bright lollipop-like flowers and then I saw the bunny! Can you see his whiskers?

And while we’re talking about animals, here’s a very cute flock of sheep. It’s a DiFranza design hooked by Angela Thomas. The sheep colors and textures are really good.

And more animals. There was a group of ladies discussing backgrounds, as you can see. I really like this design with a farm animal on each edge. And the size of them is quite large so the hooker can play with some fun texture.

Another animal with vegetables! This show rug was probably hooked in a 4 (smallish width) and had wonderful detail. I particularly like the border of Fall leaves and bittersweet. It’s called Harvest Blessing, designed by Kaye Miller and hooked by Jyl Clark (?).

This woman was hooking a 3 or 4 cut Oriental. It’s going to be magnificent when she’s done. I asked if she had a spot for it and she said in her entryway. But she was worried about her dogs ruining it. I do put rugs on the floor and use them but not in the entryway! I hope hers is large enough so that visitors can walk around it with dirty shoes!

This snow family rug was in the show and I bet it really is her family! It was a cutie. The design is Let It Snow by Barbara Carroll and hooked by Becky Chenault (?).

Here’s a fun way to finish a hooked piece – as a neck roll.

Oh – just one more! This piece is going to be lovely! The flowers and perhaps the leaves are being hooked using dip dyed fabrics. That sort of dyeing gives a water-colory, batikish look. It’s a bit fussy to hook, but is well worth the effort. It makes me want to get my dyepots out….

I hope you enjoyed this hooking show and tell. The result of all this is that I want to do nothing but hook!!!