On the home front

If you have been checking in with me on instagram (@dahlhausart) you've been seeing a lot more of my day-to-day then what I've been putting up on my blog these days.  Especially during the winter months when we don't get a lot of light during the days, it's just been easier to snap a photo with my phone and share it.  I've been totally loving the conversations and feedback that's happening over there- my blog seems much more of a one way conversation these days and that was feeling a little lonely. 

All the same, I did want to share a few things that have been going on on the home front- last week was a week of highs and lows and on the low end, our landlord informed us that our house is going to be put up for sale.  So we had a week of lots of workers in the yard, pulling out the oil tank and taking out a wack of trees and generally making me feel sad and overwhelmed about having to leave. 

 When I told some of our neighbours the news, they were begging us to try to buy the place.  As you might have heard on the news and internet, apparently Vancouver is the 2nd most unaffordable city to live in after Hong Kong.  This is one of those weird stats that makes me wonder what it is that makes it more unaffordable than NYC or Tokyo or San Fransisco or a whole wack of other major cities that I know are crazy expensive.  Apparently the lower level of income and the foreign purchase of property had an affect on the survey, so I guess it's with good reason that I'm quite concerned about how we are going to manage finding a place to rent, let alone ever be able to afford to buy.  Most of the people we know that purchased homes did so before they had kids and they bought with a sibling (so there were 3 or 4 full-time working adults with incomes). 

It's hard to think back to the 90's when I was in art school and we thought about buying a leaky condo for $180 000 that we would then have to put in another $60 000 to fix.  We should have bought what seemed to be a bad investment at the time, because it would have turned out to be a way into the housing market.  Now, with 2 boys that are growing and need space, and both of us with careers that are all about fulfilling our 'calling' in life rather then filling our bank account, buying a home won't be in our foreseeable future.  I'm ok with this, but it's hard to feel ok when someone else is making the decision that we have to move before we are ready to go.  We have really felt at home here for 7 years now with our kids playing in the yard, climbing trees and running to the neighbours to play.   I can only pray that the next place will feel the same way for us and that we will really find a place that has everything we need for a price we can afford.

Cabin fever

I always think that it's good to just hunker down when school ends.  It just feels like too much work to get everything packed up the minute school is over and get off on a big trip somewhere, only to end up in traffic jams and rainy early july weather with cranky tired children.  So we stay home and play cabin at home.  The boys lounge around in pj's, curl up on the couch and watch movies in the afternoons, and then run around outside in between rainy showers.  Have I mentioned that it's been really wet and cold?  Well, it feels like March if you ask me.

This weekend there was a feature in the Vancouver Province on local makers and I was part of the article.  It was cool to see my work work displayed on an entire page of the newspaper!  I'll try to get  a pic of it here, since it's not online anywhere.  Also I picked up a copy of the August issue of Style at Home where my Bermuda Striped Bottle vase was featured amidst all things minty green!

And as for the new studio transformation that is currently taking place- I'll have the dramatic before and after pics when it's all said and done.  Dean and his brother painted the whole studio a fresh clean white slate yesterday- the ceilings and walls and by the window- it all needed to be brightened up.  Next up is the floor and then baseboards before it's ready for me to start in.  It's really fun to think about where I'll put things and how I want the studio to flow and work better.  I also think a change of scenery will do me some good.  Sometimes some new surroundings/things to look at can spark a new lease on creativity.

At home this week

 A snuggle in bed turns silly and new house plants with some planters I found in the garage.  The one on the left is an Arabia Finland planter in really good condition!

Finally feeling more like Christmas

We finally picked out a tree this past weekend and spent Saturday putting up decorations and re-working the living room around where the tree was going to stand.  Our little house feels crowded these days with 2 growing boys at home for the holidays.  We have craft projects a-go-go, all the papers from school to sort through, Lego that trickles it's way from the bedroom to the bathroom to the living room, and the instruments have made their way out of the closet and into the open for frequent 'concerts'.  We are having fun all cozy in this little house of ours, reading 'the Chronicles of Narnia' and 'Harriet the Spy', watching all our Christmas movies, making sugar cookies, and doing some knitting. Just the sort of stuff I've been dreaming about doing over my holiday.

Fall comforts

Well here we are nearly half way through September.  I did some baking over the weekend, bought some new yarn to start knitting again, and started some new glaze designs that I will show off later this week after my glaze firing tomorrow.  Things are starting to settle in at home and at school after a week of sick kids and half-starts of classes.  My boys are now in grade 1 and 3 and while everyone is congratulating me on all the time I will now have, it's not quite as easy as it seems. 
I've mentioned a few times that my older boy has some learning disabilities that were diagnosed at the end of the school year last year.  We were given a unique opportunity to send him to a Literacy Program that our school district offers for specific kids that have certain learning disabilities this fall.  The program is only about 2.5 months long- from end of September until beginning of December, but it requires a lot of extra homework and a commute to this new program.  We are really grateful that our son was able to get in, especially starting the school year off with the program.  It's just going to make for a really busy and different fall than I had imagined. 
I guess I've been 'dreaming' about this time in my life for a little while now.  The time when I would drop my kids off at school and then get to the studio for 5-6 hours a day monday through friday.  Without having to pay for extra childcare.  The reality is that life is never quite as we always imagine or plan for, there will always be circumstances that come up that create challenges we might not have expected.  My challenges are really small in comparison to some of the greater challenges out there.  And I'm pretty grateful to be in this place, comforted by the opportunities we've been given, content in knowing that not everything is always as it seems and that there is a silver lining in every circumstance.

Fresh for Fall

It's been a weekend of purging, cleaning, hanging and cutting. I cleared out the basement storage, am still in the process of removing a large bookshelf/clutter shelf from the living room and I re-organized the kid's rooms to make way for their studies.  It always feels a little chaotic mid-way when I've got piles of stuff all over the place and haven't quite made it to the thrift store to drop off the things we no longer need.  It feels good though, you know, to clear out and lessen the load. 

My sister sent these drapes along with my husband the other night (he went to the island to pick us up some fish for the winter!) as a gift for me and now my living room is a little more cheery with the coming rainy season.  I couldn't quite believe the gift was for me when I first saw the present (no card or name-tag) sitting on my lap-top with no Dean around to ask.  I confess that I peeked, opened the package, even attempted to see if they would fit in the one window by our front door before wrapping it all and carefully putting it back where I had found it.  Turns out my sister found them in a thrift shop on the Island and thought of me and my little interest in Folk Art. Little did she know they were even drapes (she thought they were table cloths) and that they would actually fit (just barely) in our front window...

And then bangs.  A Sunday decision.  After 3 years of growing out my bangs I decided it was time to bring them back. Of course I cut them myself and as such, I'll be snipping away all week trying to make them work for me- all those little stray bits that keep falling in my eyes now.  Not quite sure I made the right decision. I've got 3 more years to regret it, I guess.  

I hope you had a lovely long weekend- tomorrow it is the first day (hour) back go school for my boys and the start of a very busy fall!  I'll be back mid-week when things get a little more settled.

Little friends

The past week has been made up of play and friends and family time.  Life is too short not to get to know other people's kids, I figure.  They are all so cute and funny with so much character of their own. 
Little Oliver and my sister spent the night this past week and it was my first time babysitting my little 5 month old nephew.  He's so yummy and such a content baby- I'm in love with the little guy.

At one point this past weekend there were 6 kids (ages 3-8) to 3 adults in the house.  We had a great big pancake breakfast and then walked to the park to play capture the flag.  

holidays at home.

I must say that it is sometimes nice to holiday at home.  I've managed to be home for 2 whole days now without going anywhere, content to read my book, prune back the jungle that I call my yard, water the garden and watch as the neighbour kids take turns all play in each other's yards.  It's been really nice to make pasta salad, potato salad, soup and just re-heat or pull them out of the fridge if someone gets hungry.  The extra beer in the fridge has been an added bonus for those late afternoon heat waves when not much else will do. 

I've managed to clean out my 'sewing bin'.  These days it's relegated to a bin under the bed, that was getting a little tough to pull out from under the bed.  A good purge and a 'new' tupperware sewing box that I recently bought at a thrift store made sorting thread and needles and buttons kind of fun.  I also found a lovely sample of vintage fabric (the bird one in the photo) and then had some white cotton that I used in my indigo dyeing project that I may make pillow cushions covers out of.  Someday.

We are off to visit our friends in Vernon leaving friday for a week or so.  We don't have internet access up there but I'll try to prepare some posts intermittently while I'm away.  Hope you are having some good 'lazy' summer days as I've been:)!

Small kitty

Small kitty finds tight spaces to fit into.  Sometimes we think we've lost her outside because we can't seem to find her anywhere.  Eventually she wakes up and comes out of no where looking for food.    Look how little she is now compared to my 7 year old son...

kitten love

We've been spending the last couple of days getting to know our new little kitten.  Still haven't agreed on a name but my boys are loving playing, watching and holding her. 
Name suggestions would be much appreciated:)

Drawing on foggy windows

...when things don't go as planned.

That was last week.  There have been some strange things going on with our kilns/breaker system and it's been causing some stress at the studio.  The new kiln was supposed to help out with the demand for kiln time, unfortunately, the coils weren't the right ones for the wiring in our building.  On Saturday we had a meeting about the kiln room- moving the breaker so the switch doesn't turn off mid-firing/getting the coils fixed, etc, and hopefully it will be resolved this week.  In the meantime, I won't be able to ship out a large wholesale order that I had planned on this past week.  Bummer...

Today it was a home day with sniffly boys and me feeling tired after a weekend show.  I've been at the studio really late some nights trying to get it all done.  I'll put our boys to bed then head out for a late shift at the studio (1-2am) and still get up at 8 am to get them ready for school, then head back to the studio while Sasha is at Kindergarten, then back home to pick up/play with/make supper/tend to family.  There's been a lot of juggling going on just to get the work done, so it was disappointing to try to fire on 3 separate occasions with 2 different kilns and still not have the work finished.

With all the crazy time I've been putting in lately I decided I might need some studio help sooner than later, especially over the summer as the kids are out of school.  I put the word out there hoping that an  Emily Carr student might want a bit of a mentorship/studio job 1-2 days a week. And it has been great to have a response from a couple of people. I have a really great feeling about one person in particular and am kind of excited about having 2 extra hands around the studio, along with passing along some of my own knowledge, experience and skills to someone I have a good feeling about.  Hopefully it's the start of something really good for me and for her too.

A taste of Spring

The Olympics begin on Friday and we've had an incredibly warm winter.  So warm that many of my early spring flowers and trees are starting to bloom.  These were taken just today while we had sunny skies and enjoyed playing at the park with our neighbour friends without jackets on. 
Tomorrow I get to watch the torch relay with the boys.  Should be exciting!

Out my window

I'm doing a little work from home before heading back to the studio to get ready for the Studio Crawl this weekend, and I wanted to share the photos I took this fall of my lovely Japanese Maple Tree transformed over the past 3 months. So beautiful in each state- from the green leaves with yellow tips in September, to the bare, red bark now in November, it's my favourite tree in my yard these days.