Gotta Have an Idea

of what you want, but you don't need to know everything when you decorate.
frinstance....
I don't want no....
1). Gimmicks.

see that bowl-used-as-a-sink thing? Gimmick. Just buy.A.Sink.
what a pain in the ass to clean, I guess. I don't have one. I live in a rental. But, if I owned my own trailerhouse, I wouldn't do that. Dumb and tricky.
pic stolen from My Favorite and My Best....

Also. The Red Wall. So sick of that gimmick. It went something like this: "Look, I have nothing going on in this room, so I'll paint it a wild bold color!!!!!!"
I had one. It was a huge mistake. If your house is just a big blah box, so what. Choose good stuff and get on with life.
I'll revisit this "box" topic again in another post because my new house has very little architectural interest, being a WWII working class starter home...but, still it does have charm! You just have to "seeee" it, and get past the idea of rich-people envy.

Yes, I am gonna paint one of my walls brown. Because. Someone painted it RED. Brown is pretty and a sweet basic color, and it will cover the RED. I really want dark grey but in my cool grey climate...it will just be cold. So a nice brown (with some grey).

2.) Trends.

This is so trendy... white (painted) objects, pastels, hipster art, weirdly mcm/orla keily-type print pillows. So much of decor today is taking old furniture and covering it in wack print fabric, or pastel velvet. Since I have only ever bought 2 new pieces of furniture in my 55 years, I fully understand the before/after thing....but I also think sometimes the old shit needs to be "respected". Not everything needs a wack print...not everything needs a new paint job. Sometimes a simple respectable print or solid is nice enough, and a wood item just needs a damn good cleaning and wax.


stolen from My Favorite and My Best....
and where Decorno left a comment about.
(Decorno only ever "allowed" one comment I ever left there...fascist)

this is what Decorno said:

"Dear Angie,

It's too cutesy, indeed. In fact, it looks like "blogger decor" to me. Totally well-executed and more mature, but it has all the signs: pops of pinky/blue color, the usual suspects for furniture style, cute art, girly to the max... cute. Cute, cute, cute. I think that room will date fast because everyone is crushing so hard on that look. That living room looks like a Polyvore mashup of every blogger's wet dream. When your reaction is that strong - run. It might mean you've been seduced by trends.

xoxo
Decorno"

And these....
come on! enough of this now. And I LOVE letters, alphabets, typography...but this is now the 2010 version of 70s owls and mushrooms. Enough of the long rolls, but OK on the framed One word (or 2).(and of course, the Keep Calm poster thing....it was boring from the get-go)

from:FrenchByDesign

Another thing that's trendy right now. Letters. Single letters from signs. Or old signs, period.
Hey, I've been using letters as decor for decades. Ever since I saw Alexander Girard in home decor in the 60s...I was hooked. And once you go look at the Girard collection, you'll see where So Many Hipster Designers are getting their ideas!
more that's trendy---

Bones. I'm goth. Go figure. I'll still be displaying my bones. And my fossils.

Old stuff from the flea market/yard sale. I've always been poor. And clever. Therefore I have always decorated with used stuff, and stuff I just found somewhere. I am especially fond of branches and dried weeds. And rust. And old frosted bottles.

update ** holy crap! The f'king Buddah Head is everywhere in home decor right now!!**
I love Buddha, trying to limit desires...for the good of someone/thing.... but are folks really trying to be Buddahlike with that head,or just following a trend? Because following trends, and buying shit just to be buying shit is very unBuddha.

3.) Clutter.
Do I need to show pics?
Yes.
from ApartmentTherapy....

It's going in its place or it's going in the garbage. Important, but I don't need to see it.....it will go in one of these:



or in one of my trunks, or suitcases....

I love a little sugar in my bowl.....

Mary J. Blige...and Nina Simone...
together!

Nina Simone!!
Nina Simone!!





With financing in place, says the news......Miss Blige will portray Nina in a new movie to begin shooting very soon. I am quite happy about that.
and please Lord, protect this production so it doesn't become...Mahogany....or ...even worse....Lady Sings the Blues.




I like Mary J.
And I adore..
Nina Simone. Oh Yes.
(suck it Beyonce.)



But is Mary J. Blige the right choice? I'm not convinced.
Here's a great post on the subject....from IBWFF. Who ..What is IBWFF?
From the website:"The International Black Women’s Film Festival was established in 2002 by Adrienne Anderson, a San Francisco Bay Area-resident and San Francisco-native."




Who is Cindy Mort, the director/screenwriter? Here. Naughty!





Miss Simone.

As I Was Packing and Perusing...

I came across a jacket and dress set I made to wear to go see Nanci Griffith in the mid 80s.
yikes.
My kids, I am quite sure, can sing you, from memory, the lyrics to "Ford Econoline".

"She drove west from Salt Lake City, to the California coastline...
She hit the San Diego Freeway doing 60 miles an hour..
She had a husband on her bumper, she had 5 restless children,
She was singing sweet as a mocking bird in the Ford Econoline......"

I don't have the set here at the new house yet...but I will add a picture to this post in the next few days.......
Picture a simple sleeveless jumper dress with an empire waist, a gathered skirt just about calf length.....made of a lightweight cotton, with full blown pale pink roses and pastel old-fashioned flowers of blue and yellow and green leaves, in a summer garden floral print....(I know you remember the big flowers of the 80s!)

Then the jacket I made to match.....I was heavily into fringe (still am...). I used a lovely periwinkle blue lightweight denim for the jacket, a simple style, with a deep V western-style yoke edged in white rayon silky fringe...and I lined the jacket in the same pretty floral print.
It was so....angelic and yes, pretty. Back then I was flipping back and forth from a Laura Ashley romantic look to Cowgirl, to Morticia Addams...
Sometimes, I mixed them all together...





the reason I am listening again to Nanci Griffith, is ......she was a Fashion Sistah then, an inspiration.....and again, I feel like ...socks. all. the. time.
I wear socks a lot. I love socks. I have many many more socks than shoes, and I have a lot of shoes, and boots.....
I didn't listen to any Nanci for a while but after a 2 year hiatus, well, I kinda wore it out. I played her music so much that I felt I was in a rut. Well, Nanci is back in the rotation......and not just her music...

In the early 80s I first spotted her cassette (!) in a music store in the Country section (!) and this was the cover....

See the little socks? I wore little socks all the time with skirts and tennis shoes, and flats and sandals....With dresses!
I wore cowboy boots all the time with dresses too, having been influenced by Patsy Cline from my childhood.
I had to have this! I didn't know any other grown women outside of Utah cults, that dressed like that....(it was actually a Southern thing, and a European thing...)


So, I bought the cassette and it became one of my lifelong faves. So much so, that I hog-tied my ex-husband into spending real $$ on me and going to Seattle to see Nanci Griffith perform. I can't remember where now, but you had a choice of dinner first with the show, or just the show. I chose dinner and a show!
It was an amazing feat...my ex hated anything that didn't involve guns and John Wayne for entertainment.




All Nanci Griffith is wonderful!
And I'll be back to wearing socks with sandals all summer long...if the day isn't too hot...and I'll be...." singing as sweet as a mockingbird in my Ford pick Up Truck"....
;-)







She's a Texan and she almost always wears her LBJ button!


Here are 2 fairly recent pics of Nanci, and below, one with Janis Ian....another lady who was very important to me (still is!), but that's another post....

Back to Hilltop Tacoma Safeway

The veggie/fruit section with the pharmacy looked like this:


And now it has gray faux planks giving it a darling and rustic farm stand look. This decor makes me wanna buy even more good healthy veggies and fruits.
I wish this area was near the front entrance door. But, it's by the locked door, meaning you have to traverse the whole store........past the junk food galore, past all the aisles with endcaps full of sale items or items that may not be the healthy choices, past the checkout stands through the lines of shoppers and carts to get there. (Or you have to traverse the back wall of dairy, meat, etc, etc.)

Here's the former meat/cheese/dairy wall along the back wall. See the concrete floors, the almond vinyl sheeting and the orange stripe?

Now, the orange stripe and the brown stripe is ......gone.......



This the front door entrance with temporary crazy-ness.Most of the floors are stripped to bare concrete.

It looked like this about 7 days ago. (may 1) It's taken near the front (south) entrance, looking north towards the veggie/fruit area and near the pharmacy, past the checkstands.I hope they keep the copy machine and update the courtesy office....it's pretty tacky.


Now look!
This pic is taken from the veggie/fruit section looking south towards the main entrance......new signs, new checkout islands....much cleaner and modern. Those big yellow sale signs are gone......and the orange stripe..is gone!
I think it's kinda funny that the Express sign ...has a Train! Because a train in the modern world is Fast Speed!

a new house and garden 4 us

believe it or not.........
I am a voracious reader and voyeur of homes and gardens.....If it's about homes, building, decorating, or cleaning...........

if it's about growing organically, flowers, fruits, vegetables...about living outside...I'm all over it.........birds, bees and chickens....
I don't care if it is a mainstream publication...I don't care what genre of design it is.....shelter and playing with dirt...is simply a basic human desire and pleasure.
Long before Martha Stewart revived the idea in mainstream American culture that ...home is important...I just never let go of the idea that there is no more fun and happy way to spend one's life other than homemaking





Oh sure...I ain't talkin' 'bout....the mindless drudgery of a Suzy Homemaker......it's all about love and creativity and making home the center of one's life.
Nothing dumpy and dowdy about that.

other than my family and making stuff, there is nothing else that comes close to how I spend my precious time......

since a home is very important to a human beeeen, and a garden provides both physical and emotional sustenance.......this will not be a surprise....

to wit.....I now present the befores....
and here is the first list of things to do.......

I still have a couple of weeks of moving things in...but lets get this Design and Growing Party started !!

Firstly...I am choosing a color for this wall where the couch is nicely situated. Right now, it's down to a shade between Chocolate Truffle and Cloak and Dagger. A nice dark brown, not too dark, not too light, and without orange, & with a touch of gray.The rest of the walls are an nice oatmeal, and I like that...I'll repaint all the trim white again.



Yes, if you are on the toilet, and the front door ^^^^^ is open (que silly!) and the bathroom door is open......you could see someone dropping the kids off at the pool.....
wth. :-0

Nope, tiny 1943 home has no foyer...or even a front porch. How impractical and unfriendly!

I'm devising a solution for the view.....which is straight into the bathroom right from the front door.
So, I hung a wicker chain curtain at this hallway arch...and that obscures the view from the entry.......of which there is none. You open the door to come in.....and blam! there you are.
Well, a front porch awning of some type will be built and installed and one for the side door also.




The yard.
Grass. Fence. Grass. Fence. Grass.
did I mention ..there is Grass?
Because this is a rental, I can't do anything grandoise......
but I shall however, reduce the amount of grass.



All the borders and flower beds I install must contain shrubs, flowers and whatev'...that has to pass this test:
Can Live On Its Own.

That means ......
living nicely without pruning and trimming,
able to live without much watering, and,
flower and vegetable beds have to be contained within an edging to make mowing and weedwacking simple enough for a 10 year old to do without supervision.


the yard already has 2 lilacs, 3 huge locust trees, and a bright cheery golden and green leaved Euonymus Fortunei shrub, so I'll plant some purple shrubs and flowers for a great snappy color combo. This Euonymus is real tough, and can take a lot of neglect, and after established, can live on rainfall, but would look better with a bi-weekly deep soaking.

Some choices I've made already...
Several of these....purple-leaved barberries including 'Royal Cloak', Rose Glow', 'Concorde', 'Royal Burgundy' and 'Gold Ring'<<< easy care shrubs with red and purple leaves.

Sunflowers, cosmos, nasturtiums, daisies of all types, and wildflowers like bachelor buttons, calendula and larkspur.
Lavender, russian sage, and rugosa roses.
Natives like ferns, sword, lady and more for the shady areas. Today ..in goes my clumping bamboo, and purple dahlias and purple iris.


Here's a classic blend of purples....Yep, purple!
Surprise!

Together Again...

Casual Fancy....

when you wanna wear things that are very comfy, and just a bit more dressed up.....going out to lunch after a shopping stroll thru the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning.....no need to dress like it's a workday, but who wants to wear uggy old sweats? Yet, comfort is the Theme of the Day.

another in a continuing series about what to wear when you aren't twee, and aren't in the nursing home either......search either ...granny chic...or...old lady chic.

all listed in my etsy shop.....Here we go!
a handmade skirt of secondhand tshirts, lace and a rose....
with a fluffy vintage red crinoline under adds some sweet fancy......

a little red lace will peek out from the hem....



add a vintage Vancouver BC scarf...you can tie 2 ends around your neck and 2 ends around to the back...first fold into a triangle...that will make this no sew scarf-top make sense!

So. an easy skirt with and elastic waistband, a classic denim jacket, with pockets! this vintage Levis jacket always looks good on everyone on the planet.
Accessories....wear a simple tank top and a pendant, or try tying a big scarf around the lady bumps for a top....or if you are of a certain age (like me)
Just tie it on the purse....



a cute 70s vintage red purse with straw appliques...



and a very vintage indigo Levis jacket....always a Good Choice over almost anything...

A Safeway in Tacoma

thanks WeeklyVolcano for the pic there...

a bit has been written about the Hilltop Safeway......here....
And too often, I read or hear a smarmy attitude about the store, and the neighborhood.

I imagine it's somewhat scary to the insulated. But my friends who moved here from real big cities, don't blink an eye...it's the small town folks who are most uncomfortable there.

I am more than a bit upset to see the Safeway remodel.......
I feel like I live in The Neverending Story
(and my last name used to be Bastian!!)



The Nothingness is eating away my life......those things I have loved so much about Tacoma......the sameness...the feeling that Time Has Stood Still.........
not anymore.



I didn't get there in time to get a pic of the outside, with the big red SAFEWAY letters on S. 12th (Earnest Brazill St)

The remodel has started. The outside has a new paint job in a safe pale caramel. The inside is torn up a bit now too. This was a few days ago, about May 1st. I'll get more as the work progresses, and it should be all done by mid-June.
So, more selections, a bakery of sorts.....it'll be OK.
And, it will be many more years until something like the Metropolitan Market moves in here......and I'll probably be dead anyway...
;-)


















Sure some things are OK with me, but not much.
I told you the condos were stupid....too much fancy schmancy crap and nothing for, you know ..working people.
I'm not dumb, I know what the "new Tacoma plan" is really all about.
Make Tacoma the South Sound Bellevue.
Yeah. Great.
Barf.
The people in charge have Zero Imagination.
The artists, clearly, are not in charge here!
And the Old Guard benevolent wealthy, the Russells, the Weyhausers, Bill Phillip for instance......are getting old and retired.....and a new crew is taking over.
Are they interested in public beauty?
Are they interested in sharing the wealth and the power for the betterment of all?
Maybe.
I'm waiting for the "new" council to show me they are capable of something more than saying they are for a more lovely, more artful Tacoma.
So far, all I see is , as Angela knows, The Coming Massacre of Small Local Business Downtown.
But it isn't so much that Parking Meters are stupid right now, it is the BIG LIE.
This is all about making more money for the City Government, and not about some stupid 15/85 phantom parking dilemma.