Life's a Stitch

It's a stripy week here at the Northvanage, starting with the arrival of B's girlfriend from England.

She was given a difficult time at security upon departing from her first stop in Canada, with multiple scans of her hair and a thorough going over under each braid with explosives detection wipes. She's a creative one, this child, a costume designer and mermaid model by profession. Here's her tail, hiding her socks, striped of course.

 

My encounter with stripes balanced hers colourwise. This week I painted zebras:

My next project will be dog. Not striped, but who knows what could happen with all that young creativity floating around here.

 

 

On the family reunion cruise the youngest Boesen progeny shared a common attribute – cuteness. Of course I'm the grandmother of the little boys and grand-auntie to the girls. Pure bias here:

Ear worm of that day in Sitka? The Wheels On the Bus Go Round and Round…

That's Auntie Ellen's Dirty Martini. OK I ate the olives.

Every night another cookie was added to her dessert plate. Can you tell how well the NCL staff catered to the little ones?

She's my budding artist:

 

 

 

 

Who'd have thought that a floating family reunion for those descended from the Danish family of Boe, plus spouses, could go off without a hitch? You can't imagine the details involved in getting 22 people, ages 9 months to 82, from five states and two provinces, on one vessel enroute to Alaska. How to choose the pictures? Let's start with these:

All 22 looking at the camera:

The five siblings:

We hoped for two family afternoons together onboard, and two dinners, but with the help with Norwegian Cruise Lines' Group Services Director and the dining staff, we had many more opportunities for quality family time. We played Left, Center, Right (thank you to my sister Jane, for introducing us to the best easiest family game ever and a special thanks to her from Mari, who won $60), Head's Up, Catch Phrase, and the Not So Amazing Race – daily installments devised by Ellen. And we really didn't queue the whales that appeared alongside the private dining room, the bear on the shore, the birds following the ship or the calving glaciers, but who could ask for anything more?

 

 

 

I was writing to our realtor to request a change in closing date for the sale of our house. Explaining that we had an offer in on another house (!), I ended with the  phrase "exciting times ahead!" Auto correct guessed at my inaccurate thumb typing and came up with a not-too-far-off word, in meaning. Yes, we are exiting our house to go to another one. But not so fast.

In our tradition of rescuing Piggy, a substantially featherless parrot, our Gracee dog and the very house in which we currently reside, we've done it again. Our realtor explained that houses fall into three categories: move in ready, liveable in need of work, and a tear down requiring substantial rebuilding to make it liveable AKA a rescue.

After selling our house, we were warned that we needed to get back into the house market ASAP lest prices run away from us. It's true, houses were selling before we could drive to White Rock to see them, and each new listing came on higher. We saw homes being taken off the market for a day, and reappear with a shiny new, more expensive price tag. It was time for a change in strategy. Why not buy something substantially less attractive and renovate? 

Found a builder online, who agreed to meet with us the next day. The target was a teensy cottage on a lot the size of a postage stamp: 30×50 feet. Seriously compact real estate, but approved for a new house of 2100 sq ft on three levels. We arrived at his office at 10:00 am, the realtor joined us at noon and guess what? Already sold. 

Another possibility was a new listing that contained no pictures and the following description: "built in 1994, this house contains major structural defects…" Offers were to be presented that afternoon. Where are the TV cameras? The builder (who reminds me of Mr. Holmes of Holmes on Homes fame), and his team accompanied us and as they say here in Canada, Bob's your uncle. We got it and there were three back up offers behind us. We are the proud owners of this view and those exciting times, previously mentioned, are ahead:

I am thankful and relieved to be out of house hunting mode. It wasn't all a roller coaster ride, though, having the opportunity to cut some of the tension by immersing myself in painting. I like this one better than the tulip painting I posted a few weeks back:

 

 

 

 

I avoid cliche. I dislike exclamation points. And forget those over-dramatic screamy all caps. But, as the high school teacher who taught me "a guilty conscience needs no accuser" and "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" used to say, "there is an exception to every rule:"

"Where does the the time go?" says I. I swear that time goes faster in retirement than it did when we worked outside the home, and then time seemed to move at the speed of sound.

Then: "What, that yearly grant deadline is here AGAIN?!" 

Now: "Didn't I  just listen to CBC's Backstage with Ben Heppner?" If You're Canadian you realize that it is possible to listen to the same CBC public radio show six times during a given week, but in this case, it really is Sunday night AGAIN. And my baby turned 26 today. How did that happen?

This week while grocery shopping, I had an example of being in the right place at the right time (cliche). As I entered the grocery store the sun came through the doorway at just the right moment. I took this picture with my phone, maybe a painting to be:

I "struck while the iron was hot" and a minute later it was gone!

 

 

The retirement adventure continues. For the past two days, instead of house hunting, C and I had the ultimate knitting, painting and woodworking experience. Imagine getting paid for the things you love to do that don't seem like work. We were hired as skilled background, AKA extras, for a made-for-TV Christmas movie, brought to you by a feel-good channel that, at this point, I can't mention. 

The scene was a craft fair in a community hall. We set up and staffed three booths, you guessed it: my knitting, watercolours, and C's bowls. What's it like to be in the background of a real movie? Think 12 hour of: check in, sit, sit, sit, eat, act, sit, eat, sit, sit, act, sit, eat, sit, sit, wrap out, go home. The fact that we brought with us creative skills made it pay well. The food was delicious and the people were interesting. All in all a good experience.

Sorry no pictures. None allowed. 

These were taken in Sudden Valley, Bellingham, Washington, where we spent many happy summer days and nights while the kids were growing up. The only modifications to these photos are the yellow tone in the first and ever-so-slightly deepening of the exposure in the second. In other words it really is as beautiful as it looks. These two were taken at the community's little Lake Louise, as opposed to the large incredibly beautiful L.L located in Alberta.

C cooked his popular cedar planked salmon two ways: piri-piri and tandoori:

The leftovers made wonderful lunchtime sandwiches.

Finally, one of those paintings that wasn't thrilling me based on a reference photo of a tulip flanked by floaty forget-me-nots. It bugged me all day; I knew I wasn't going to like the background in the finished product. It reminded me of a black table cloth with blue flowers. Good thing I recently learned a painting saving technique: crop the heck out of it and use it mounted on a notecard or in an oversized asymmetrical mat. Not sure what I'll opt for, but I like the heavily cropped version much better:

Real estate update: we haven't yet found a house, it's early though. Both of the ones we had appointments to see were sold before we could cross the threshold. The market might be a tad too hot for us at the moment.

 

 

 

 

Our realtor arrived today with the official sign:

It all happened so quickly, which I suppose is a good thing. We do have a long closing date so we have plenty of time to look for something else. 

For Easter I treated myself to a course in pet portraits. Better that than chocolate. It was all about the cats and the dogs, but I chose something different. No, not a bunny, it's a llama using models from a friend's relative's llama farm. Here's the first one:

As moving preparations continue, we find items in the house that that appear to be multiplying.

Pennies: we don't even have pennies in Canada. It seems when they made the announcement to discontinue the copper coins, an army of them hid in every corner of our house, hoping to escape inevitable meltdown. Sorry guys, to the smelter you go, not before being counted en masse in the machine at Safeway that sounds and feels like a slot machine, counting coin and spitting out our favourite gift card in exchange. 

Umbrella covers: Why do they sell umbrellas with sleeves never to be used again? In British Columbia, by the time your umbrella dries, the cover is long gone, only to be recovered hiding with the pennies in obscure corners of the house. Black ones, navy blue and polka dot, I've recovered them all. 

Batteries. Sigh. So many batteries all over the house. Are they good or bad?  This will be determined  by the little battery lie detector, but I can 't yet locate it. Must be in the junk drawer that I won't have the nerve to tackle until the bitter end, when the entire contents get poured into the very last 12×16 moving box.

Tweezers/nail clippers: How many times have I heard "Honey where are the tweezers/nail clippers?"

    "I don't know."  For years I bought both those items as stocking stuffers. "Check with the pennies."

    Truth be told I recovered six pairs of tweezers in the bathroom, and at least that many nail clippers. 

Vacuum cleaner attachments. In 18 years we have gone through a number of vacuums. C is particularly hard on them dragging them over the six sets of stairs in this split level house. It seems that the accessories separate from their handy holders on the vacuum's body soon after their arrival, getting relegated to nooks and crannies when nobody can be bothered to unite the two.  Apparently our house is the Northvanage for vacuum accessories as well as Bryant's friends.. They must have invited friends over because I've found pieces for vacuums we've never owned. How does that happen? 

To keep balance, I've been taking a series of Saturday painting workshops. A couple weeks ago was this Alpine shepherd's shelter. This one was so fiddly and realistic that it kept my mind occupied. I'll bet inside there are the Swiss versions of reproducing items. Besides the sheep that is. 

And then there was the simple calm of this Howe Sound painting: