Just Because

Trick o’ Treat

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Prepared for the onslaught. And the troops are ready. Goodie bags filled with a mix of novelty toys and candy has been my Halloween custom for many years. And as usual I relied on Oriental Trading for the items. This year’s trick is Alien Test Tubes of Slime which is meant to gross you out but is not recommended for consumption. And the first treat is Werewolf Hair (cotton candy). Unfortunately, it is no longer on their website, so I can’t show you what the package looks like. Instead I’ll show you what I used last year, Toe Jam Cotton Candy. The last, but not least, treat is Decayed Bone Powder.

Usually there are at least 50 kids who drop by. But it varies so much between the years, that I have no way of gaging on what to expect and be prepared for. Three years ago, there were 90. Last year it was less than 50. But if the Rangers win tonight and play on Halloween…

Landscape & Gardening

A Late Bloomer by Six Weeks

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Japanese Anemone. It’s now the last few days of October and it’s just now beginning to bloom. Usually this flower blossoms at the end of August through mid-September, and I am stumped as to what caused it to be so tardy. The only reason that I can think of is perhaps our summer was just too brutally hot for it to start producing its buds on schedule. Other than that, your guess is as good as mine.

Just Because

Ah Hah! Caught!

Bertha and Bubba
Bertha and Bubba

Snuggling or spooning? Bertha, the red head, and Bubba, the one wearing the devil’s collar, sleep in separate beds when the temperature is higher than 80 degrees outside and higher than 72 degrees inside. That’s their choice, not mine. Gauging by their overnight change in sleeping habit, they have determined that fall has officially arrived. And none too soon! Especially after yesterday’s ninety degree high. So it’s official.

Interior Design

Wood Floors: Color and Finish

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I have yet to see an acrylic or urethane finish that can compete with the old-fashioned paste wax in looks and practicality. Practical only because it’s easy to clean and repair small patches (something that one can’t do with acrylic and urethane). When the time came to sand and refinish the original wood floors of my house, the only stipulation I had was that the finish must be wax. But the color was all Charley McKenney’s doing. As my designer, he envisioned a deep reddish brown hue. After the sanding, we (the floor guys, Charley, and I) made up a small sample combining one cup of Dura Seal‘s #221 Golden Brown and gradually adding one teaspoon at a time of Dura Seal’s #122 Mesquite Red. We then wiped this on the floor in different areas of the house to see how the variances of natural light affected the color. At three teaspoons the perfect blend had been achieved. Unfortunately, with precise math (1.5 cups of red per 1.5 gallons of golden brown), the final blend was an undesired dark brown. So more mesquite red was added, and the final formula ended up being 2.25 cups of mesquite red per 1.5 gallons of golden brown (that is if my notes are correct). Our contractor had also given us a choice of wetting or not wetting down the floors before applying the stain. After experimenting on spots with and without water, we chose to wet down the floors. There was a richer difference between the two choices.

The next step was to apply the sealer. There’s absolutely nothing environmentally friendly about this poison. It seared my eyeballs, deadened my brain with pain, and burned my lungs, causing me to return to my hotel room earlier than I planned. Fortunately, my dogs were not phased. But there was something good that came from this process, the color became even more enhanced. When it comes to making the choice of being environmentally correct or incorrect, color and sheen are the determining factors for me. The green choices just weren’t up to snuff. At least they weren’t for me.

Then came the final step, Dura Seal Paste Wax was applied and buffed to a soft sheen before it had a chance to set and harden. And as you can see in the above photo, the results did not disappoint. Thank you, Charley!

Film: Design & Architecture

I Am Love (style)

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The clothes and accessories. Produced by Silvia Venturini Fendi of the famous Fendi family, the film could be considered fashion porn. The leading star, Tilda Swinton, was entirely dressed by Jil Sander’s Raf Simons. The house of Fendi dressed the men and also provided extraordinary furs for the magnificent Marisa Berenson, who plays the perfectly put-together mother-in-law with a preference for vintage ’70s furs. In fact, all of the Recchi women favor a classic look. The impression is that clothes in this family are passed down, not shopped for. Tilda, in an interview, described the choices as an expressive wardrobe. “There were moments when, for her to wear a red dress at the point which she falls in love, there’s a control one can expect on the palette of the film if one works in that way.”

Film: Design & Architecture

I Am Love (architecture & interiors)

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After renting the newly released dvd, I Am Love, and watching the film twice, I slipped it into my computer and captured a gazillion frames which I will be sharing with you over the next two days. Today’s post will be focusing on Villa Necchi Campiglio’s architecture and interiors. By using stills from the film and comparing them to photos of the house today, I hope to give you a complete picture. Friday’s post will be about the characters’ lifestyles, which includes their clothing, accessories, and other lifescapes.

Contemporary Art

Trenton Doyle Hancock

(above) 'Smoked,' 2010
(above) ‘Smoked,’ 2010

Work while it is day… For when night cometh no man can work. If you can find the quality time, run over to Dunn and Brown Contemporary to see Trenton’s latest chapter of his ongoing saga about devious Vegans and harmless Mounds in an ambitious installation. This coming week is your final chance, because Saturday, October 23, is the last day of this exhibit.

I first encountered Trenton at his very first solo exhibit, Off Colored, at Gerald Peters Gallery here in Dallas back in 1998. This exhibit had been a collection of about 20 of Mr. Hancock’s most recent autobiographical works, what he called “regurgitations of the things that I have seen and heard” as a black male. And it was from this show that I purchased one of his works on paper which I will be showing you later on in this post. It will show you how far he’s evolved it the last twelve years. My piece is very simple compared to what he’s creating now.

But first let me show you a sampling of his current show.

Interior Design

The Fabric Holdup

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Curtain rods. I have never been a big fan of the overly duded up rods that I see everywhere. Most are massive with thick diameters, flirty finials, and demand too much attention, thus detracting from the curtain fabric and the room’s overall design. In my two small bedrooms, the curtain rods needed to be functional and discreet. My architect and designer, Charley McKenney, came up with the perfect solution, unfinished 1-3/8 inch diameter wooden poles with radiused corner returns. The poles were then painted to match the wall color. In some cases, when the light is reflecting off the poles, they will also blend and match the ceiling color. As a rule when painting the rooms in my house, the wall color was 100 percent of the chosen color, and the ceilings were usually 75 percent of the wall color. I will be covering the paint variations in another post. The curtains were then slipped on before installing the rods just shy of the ceiling. Having the curtains fall from ceiling to the floor gives my small rooms a more spacious appearance. Pretty decent kind of holdup. Yes?

Travel: Culture & Architecture

Small Spaces and Spiritual Intimacy

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Chiesa di San Remigio. This tiny ancient church is located next to the splendid gardens of Villa San Remigio (previously mentioned in a past post) on Lake Maggiore, one of the famous Northern Italian Lakes. This Romanesque oratory dates from the eleventh to twelfth centuries. Inside, the church is divided into two asymmetric naves, an unusual feature, which is probably the result of the difficulty of building on the rock of the promontory. Other interior details include a groin-vaulted ceiling and semi-capitals decorated with medieval frescoes.

Interior Design

Glass, Brass and Class

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Door knobs and escutcheon plates. When I moved into this house in 1985, all the interior doors still had their original hardware with the exception of the brass knobs which had been replaced during the late 1950s or early 1960s with a style that only George Jetson would have understood. Whether it was the budget or just a preference, the choice and placement of the metal and glass knobs was a puzzler. Inside all closets the escutcheon plates were stamped nickel plated brass and the knobs were glass with nickel plated workings. On the exterior side of the closets and on both sides of all the doors to all rooms, there were stamped brass escutcheon plates and brass knobs. The one exception to this setup was the bathroom, which had nickel plated escutcheon plates with glass knobs on both sides.