The Lisa Link: Visit to Laurie's

The graduate?

Last weekend I paid a long-overdue visit to my sister Laurie's new home in Middleton, Wisconsin (just outside Madison).

It was so great to see her. To give you an idea of her sense of fun and mischief, when I told her I wanted to photograph her, she suggested the pose at left: "grad style", in honor of all the highschool seniors who've been made to lean up against trees this year.

Laurie and Mark's new place

Laurie and Mark's new home is on a large wooded lot in a quiet, mostly rural neighborhood, not far from where they lived before. It's a split-level with an exposed basement on the backside of the house. There's a large (very organized!) garage in back and plenty of room for their two dogs to run and play.

I'll post a few pics from around the house here:

Stainless steel appliances

Cozy dining space

Laurie's craft room

Birch tree mural in the master bedroom

Container garden on the deck: herbs and tomatoes

Laurie and I packed a lot of fun into the visit. We shopped at a few nice antique stores, but also had fun browsing in a bead store, craft store, and gift / garden shops. I bought a nice blue and white plate for my collection. We had lunch at the restaurant Mark manages-- Badgerland Bar and Grill-- though I forgot to take a picture there. I did, however, get a picture of Laurie and Mark together the next day when we ate at a different restaurant.

And we stopped by to visit Bob and Nancy at Nancy's home, which I had never been to before. Pictures below:

Laurie LOVES craft stores

See below for my rant on plates

Laurie and Mark

Bob and Nancy

Nancy's house

There are lots of impressive things about Nancy's home... the landscaping, the indoor swimming pool, the art... but what struck me the most was her extensive collection of... blue and white plates! As soon as I saw them I said, "Nancy, why didn't you mention this??" as if she had left out telling me the most fascinating detail about herself (I'm a nerd). Her collection is different and a lot more specific than mine, though, in that she focuses on plates showing different breeds of dogs. I have an eclectic mix of subjects, and while the contrast and harmony between plates is part of the appeal, her collection got me thinking: what is it about some plates that draws me to them? Because believe it or not I don't get equally excited about all plates.

Without going into a long diatribe, my favorite plates are flow blue. The blue ink is intense and blurry, with a soft-focus effect. I found out recently that this visual quality was the result of the makers adding a cup of lime to the firing, which caused the ink to run into the glaze. I don't have as many of these plates in my collection because they're more expensive, but they should be because they're more antique than my others plates: flow blue plates were made in Great Britain in the 1830's and in the US from the mid-1800's until the 1940's.

Okay, now that I've got that out of my system, on with the blog...

The best part of my stay with Laurie was our decision to do art together! Laurie showed me a mixed media "workshop" book she's been reading. It's purpose is to get the reader's creativity flowing so she gets busy and actually does some art. It's broken down into short "assignments" that mostly involve different types of collage. It's not something I've really done before, but it looks so interesting. I've ordered the book on-line, and Laurie and I intend to go through it, chapter by chapter, and work on the different projects "together" (from our home bases in different cities). We'll scan or photograph our finished projects and compare notes (I may even let you guys see some the results). The point is that we both think having an "assignment" and the accountability of showing our finished project to someone else will give us the nudge we need to start making art again. I like doing drawing and painting but have kind of gotten out of the habit of doing anything... guess it's a slump. But the slump has lasted several years and it's a shame because I have an art room and tons of supplies just sitting there, waiting. And why NOT do art? When I'm involved in the process of making something, I am absolutely absorbed. I lose track of time and am totally in "the zone". Then when it is done I am satisfied, like "here is this tiny piece of me that I leave behind for posterity."

Here's the book we're going to work with, in case you're interested in "joining" us:

I'll close with a quick summary of what else has been going on with us, followed by pictures:

-The garden is growing. The seeds I planted have turned into rows of small sprouts... there's even life in the "experimental" garden, where we planted excess seeds into soil that had been mixed with not-quite-fully-composted compost. We weren't sure how that was going to turn out, but so far things are fine. AND our strawberries are ripening! Yum!! A little bit of danger on the horizon: something is burrowing in the garden, but it hasn't killed anything (yet). Three bean plants were nibbled from the top down. And something has eaten a few of the strawberries (not bugs, though; something large enough to actually pick the berries. And that's in addition to my kids!).

Plants coming up!

-Michael did a great job playing drums in the marching band during Monday's Memorial Day parade. I should mention that the kids are done with school for the year, now.

Michael's marching band

-I saw two amazing things in the past two days. I saw Leila write her name for the first time (we joked with Michael that her hand-writing is already better than his). And I saw our little dog Teddy pee in the cat's litter box! There have been no indoor accidents in the house these past two weeks, and now maybe I have a clue as to why!