MabelandJean

CJV in Cincinnati….

On August 11, 2013 · 6 Comments · In Life

My sister and my daughter and I visited Cincinnati last week. We were entertained by Katie, my niece, and her husband Mike. Oh my goodness, they went way out of their way to show us their city, the baseball team, museums, cemeteries, parks and bars!

I am going to start with a cemetery. The Spring Grove Cemetery was downright awesome. It had huge trees, gorgeous ponds and incredible mausoleums. Every turn we made was more beautiful then the last one. The cemetery is pretty famous (who knew?) and I have some links if you would like more info here, here and here. If you ever get a chance to see this place, take it. Here are a few pictures:

Spring Grove Cemetery

After we did the cemetery tour, we headed to Findlay Market in the historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. It reminded me of the Eastern Market in Washington D.C. and it was packed this Saturday morning. Here and here are two links to grab more information on this wonderful market. I did manage to grab two pictures when we were down there.

Findlay Market area

Findlay Market in historic Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio

After a wonderful pizza lunch, we headed over to the University of Cincinnati. Katie runs the ceramic department at the university’s DAPP program. DAPP is the research and design arm where you can get degrees in Architecture, Art History, Fashion Design, and Fine Arts. Katie’s husband, Mike, also teaches there. For me, it was a design wonderland come true! It had computer design labs, CNC mills, woodworking and everything else a “Maker” would lust after. We did make some screens for printing. Now I need to get some ink and get to work! Here is a link to the DAPP website. And of course I had to take pictures of Katie’s studio and a random installation in the building:

Katie’s studio at DAPP of the University of Cincinnati

I did not get pictures of the kiln rooms or the pottery wheels or the fabulous work tables but I wanted one of each!

A Cheetos Gun

I am sure we must have slept sometime, but I really don’t remember when! I do know where we slept, however. We had the whole third floor of a great B&B. The Clifton House was fabulous and the breakfasts were to die for. Thank you Nancy for a lovely stay! If you find yourself needing to sleep in Cincinnati, this is a great place.

Clifton House Bed and Breakfast

There was a neighborhood cat that would visit us on the front porch!

Emily and Creek

The views from that porch were lovely.

View from Clifton House porch

Considering we were only there three (very) full days, we managed to do so much! Now, I absolutely despise baseball, but managed to go to the Cincinnati Reds vs. Saint Louis Cardinals game. The good news is that the views were terrific and the team we were rooting for (Reds, but don’t tell Randy) won! Here and here are links to more information on the ballpark itself. Here are the pictures:

Great American Ballpark

View of the Ohio River from ballpark

Great American Ballpark

That is Kentucky across the Ohio River.

On Sunday we went to Indiana to a flea market. Yep, we had a wonderful time and came home with some treasures. Good thing we had flown to Ohio, otherwise we would have wiped the market out of everything. It was a beautiful day to be rummaging around a market. I did not get any pictures of that outing.

Again, I think we slept, but I do not remember. I do know we went to see an art exhibit that Katie and Mike were in at the Contemporary Arts Center. They had an exhibit called the “Living Room”. The show runs May 18—September 2, 2013, so we definitely wanted to see it! Here is a great link that talks about their show. The fireplace was amazing. They also did another fireplace for the ICFF International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City this last May. On the Rookwood fireplace, Mike and Katie worked with Rookwood’s artist Terence Hammonds. In the “Living Room” there is a CNC milled wooden bear rug. It was gorgeous! Okay, here are the pics:

The artist and her
“The Living Room”
Contemporary Arts Center

The CNC milled wood bear rug

Well, I think we may be running out of pictures and words. Just so you know, we also went to the 21C hotel for a coffee break and many other places to eat.

Emily and Katie

Katie and Mike

Great Trio: Mike, Katie and Emily

Oh dang, I almost forgot our trip to Rookwood Pottery! Mike and Katie gave us a personal tour, introduced to us to many of the craftsmen and explained various aspects of tile making. I love Rookwood pottery. When we were at the flea market I bought a vintage Rookwood piece and at the factory I acquired a beautiful set of candlesticks. I was in heaven.

All in all, it was an inspiring trip! Go to Cincinnati sometime, you will love it.

As always, comments are fabulous!

6 Comments

A Willett Wedding….

On July 28, 2013 · 4 Comments · In Life

My 5 siblings and I got together over the weekend to celebrate the marriage of my nephew, Austin, to the lovely Emily. Seven of the twelve grandchildren, including the groom, were also on hand to witness the beautiful wedding. Our first cousin, Molly, and her family made the trip, which was very wonderful. We ate, we drank and some of us danced! The ceremony was touching, the bride was stunning and the weather was fabulous for July in Oklahoma. I do believe we all had a delightful time. The groom’s brother, Adam, had to leave after the reception, headed for a month’s assignment in Japan. Such is the life of our busy family. I downloaded the iPhone pictures from our two cameras. Also snagged a few shots from others and hope to augment with even more photos in the days ahead. I did not get a picture of Mary Jean and Ray or Kelly. The Teal family picture is blurry! What is up with that? Anyway, let’s take a look:

James, Ashley and Patrick

Trish and Patrick

Roggie and Brandi

Bruce and Trish

Roggie and Trish

Four of Five Voights!

Molly, Claire and Bruce

James and Christy

Roggie with Austin, the groom

Roggie and Trish

A blurry picture of the Teal Family

Carol and Pat, proud parents

Austin and Adam

Austin, the groom, with his lovely parents!

And finally, let’s see a picture of the newest member of the Willett Family!

The lovely Emily and darling flower girls.

I am writing this post from a hotel with very poor internet. Please give me a break on the poor photo editing! I almost lost my mind trying to get all the pictures downloaded and then reloaded onto the post. And as you all know, my mind is scattered as it is!

I will put up a few more pictures as I get them.

And you know the drill on how much I love comments.

4 Comments

My Brain is Spinning…

On July 21, 2013 · 8 Comments · In Life

Okay guys, my brain is spinning and I need some discussion from you on the matter. Actually, my brain won’t shut up on several topics, but this is one that I cannot find my way on. First off, as you know, I am a retired Petroleum Geologist. Many people out there think energy companies are the worst of the worst. When people, outside the Oklahoma and Texas area, find out what I did in my working life, the first thing they mention is global warming. The second thing they mention is that they are “green”, environmentally sensitive or “care” about our globe. I must admit, they are always surprised that I also care about the world and our environment. As an aside, in the 80’s the question I most often got was “how can you be a geologist and a Christian?”. That was actually an easier discussion for me. The heatwave in the northeast and the fires in California were both lead stories all week on the national news. Climate change and the reason for it were covered in depth. This always sets my brain in “figure it out” mode, so let’s get right to the thing that I want you to weigh in on but please remember that this is a brain dump.

Cheap clothing and its impact on pollution, global warming and the health of the people in the manufacturing trade.

To help with the discussion, here are links to two “talks” about this subject:

Jezebel and Tedx talk by Orsola de Castro

What my mind keeps telling me is that there has to be an impact on the environment with all the cheap clothing. Also, my mind gets cranky by all the STUFF we all seem to think we need. I, by nature, am a minimalist, but even I was shocked by how much we gave away before we moved! Here is a link to my post about our STUFF.

I just do not know if it is worth a $7 T-shirt purchase when I think about the fact that we are using precious resources to manufacturer and then ship the T-shirt across the ocean. How does that make sense? How many times will I really wear that T-shirt before it goes to charity? Could I maybe wear it a few dozen more times? See how my freaky mind works?

How does it make sense to manufacture all our goods in Asia and then ship them on cargo ships to the United States and then distribute them to warehouses and then sending them out to all those stores? I do not think we are using solar ships and wind powered trucks to handle the job!

I recently went to buy a toaster and a coffee pot to replace our old ones. I was not successful in finding either that was manufactured anywhere near the USA. How much petroleum product was used to send those items across that ocean? Again,I do not think they came by sailboat or canoe!

On the human cost, it is so much easier for me to answer. People that are manufacturing our clothing in “other” parts of the world are dying from it. Their deaths result from working in conditions that we wouldn’t let our animals live in. The lack of safety features is one reason the $7 T-shirt is even around. The cost is too much for me.

Okay, I want some feedback. Where do you buy your clothes? Does price matter most? This is not a gotcha post but rather my brain talking to me and NOW to you.

Back to regular programming. We had a wonderful weekend with unseasonably cool weather. We tried to be outside as much as we could. A trip to the nearby bar and farmer’s market provided both great music and wonderful people watching!

Dickson Street PUB

Farmer’s Market Fayetteville Square

The farmer’s market had wonderfully tasty, locally grown peaches! My day was made.

8 Comments

More House Before and Afters..

On July 14, 2013 · 7 Comments · In Life

This will wrap up the before and after pictures of the house. I will try, soon, to put some pictures up with the furniture in place. Until then, let’s look at the continuation of the metamorphosis!

Kitchen before and after:

Before

And now:

After

The granite is my favorite part of the kitchen remodel. I have never had it for countertops and I am a geologist! I also love the cabinets and the new layout.

The bathroom probably underwent the most dramatic change. Out came the tub and shower surround and in went a gorgeous sliding glass shower!

Before bathroom

And the after!

After bathroom with mirror that has been in all 5 houses

Shower after

And the doors:

Sliding Shower Door

Now to the 2 Bedrooms:

Blue Bedroom Before

Blue bedroom with new doors, vaulted ceiling and minus two corner closets.

Blue Bedroom After

After

And the Green bedroom before and after:

After

The GREEN bedroom had the least amount of change of any room in the house!

Let’s take a quick look at the dining room before we move on:

Before

Dining Room After

After

Now let’s end with the “BACK” room. The original room was torn off the house due to foundation problems. The new “Back” room is quite larger than the original and oh so fabulous!

Before

And, TADA! The after:

After

Looking out to the deck

The fireplace is fabulous. The field tiles were handmade in Bentonville, Arkansas and the three (two not installed in the above pictures) are Motawi tile. The fireplace tile probably took the most research and time. It turned out just like we had envisioned.

Well, until I get pictures of the house with furnishings, that is the end of the tour. I hope you enjoyed seeing the work and watching our progress. Now it is time to finish the unpacking and settle down for a bit. Oh and there is landscaping yet to be done. I will show you the screened in porch when we get the outside portion finished.

All the pictures were taken by myself or Brandy Overton of Overton Custom Construction. John and Brandy embraced our vision and made it a reality. Thank you guys!

As always, I love your comments and questions!

7 Comments

The House has Undergone a Metamorphosis….

On July 8, 2013 · 9 Comments · In Life

The house has undergone a true metamorphosis. Since I usually use that word in a more scientific manner, I thought I had better look it up. Here is what the dictionary says:

met·a·mor·pho·sis

noun, plural met·a·mor·pho·ses

Biology . a profound change in form from one stage to the next in the life history

of an organism.
a complete change of form, structure, or substance, as transformation

by magic or witchcraft.
any complete change in appearance, character, circumstances, etc.
A change in an animal as it grows, particularly a radical change.

I am going with number 3 for my story, although I sometimes think there was some magic going on here.

Let’s begin in the front of the house with the before and then after:

Before

After

We added a carport and very distinctive colors. I kind of love it. I was leery about the carport, but it was done so nicely that I am pleased with it. You cannot tell from this picture but all the windows in the house are red.

The back of the house changed more than anywhere else. The original, small room behind the kitchen was torn off and a bigger room was added. The original tacked on room did not serve any real purpose and did not have a good foundation. Here are the outside before and after pictures of the back:

Back elevation before

New back elevation

Here you can see that we added french doors (RED!) off the bedroom and the new family room. The deck was rebuilt on the right side to match the old one. I was not going to give up my outside space.

A minor change to the front was a “new” vintage mailbox. We searched long and hard to find one that would work. Thank goodness for the internet! This is what we found:

Mailbox

And the mailbox in context:

Mailbox in context

Okay, maybe I had too much time on my hands, but I actually think it makes the house. Okay, that is a little dramatic, even for me.

Moving on into the house, we are going to look at the living room and part of the dining room:

Living Room before

Living Room after

If you look at the above pictures, you will see that we took out the areas that were extruding into the room from the walls. These had been added in the 90’s and took up precious floor space.

Dining into Living before

When you look at the after picture, you will see we took out the closets and the walls between living and dining room. We also had the marble tiles removed.

Dining into Living Room after

We decided to go with columns and pony walls to divide the space. You might also be able to tell that we added new flooring. The old flooring was actually the subfloor and was in bad shape. You could actually see down to the basement in places. We tried very hard to replicate what was there. We had to have it specially milled to get the long lengths.

Okay, that is going to do it for today. I have completely run out of steam on editing the photos. Check back next Monday and I will try to wrap up the remodel tour. The family room, the kitchen, the bathroom and two bedrooms are left to show you. I hope you enjoyed this part of the tour.

Tomorrow, the yard clean up begins! There are several “ancient” tree stumps buried beneath ground cover. If you look at the front of the house pictures you can see the mound of one of the stumps. Hopefully this will be the start of a lovely yard.

All photos were taken by me or Brandy Overton of Overton Custom Construction.

As always, I love your comments and questions!

9 Comments

I Need More Time!

On July 7, 2013 · Add Comment · In Uncategorized

I haven’t been able to get all the pictures loaded for the before and after post. I am hoping that by Tuesday I will have it all done! Thanks for your patience.

In the House, Tired and Pleased as Punch!

On July 1, 2013 · 9 Comments · In Life

We are in the house, very tired and pleased as punch! We moved in Thursday afternoon and had a family pizza party Saturday night with 18 people! Suffice it to say, Randy and I are incredibly weary right now. I will do a BIG post next week with before and after pictures, but I do not have the stamina today.

All three of our children made it to our new house over the weekend. No small feat considering one came from Washington D.C., one had a final Friday afternoon and one works a billion hours a week and is taking a summer class. James and Patrick live in Norman, OK so it is now a 4 hour drive to see us. We are worth the effort! Emily was with us for 9 days! It was incredible and so much fun. We spent 6 days at Big Cedar Lodge playing, eating and drinking. The rest of the time was spent here in Fayetteville. Check out the pictures:

Randy and Emily

Randy and Emily with some random child!

Randy, Emily and Patrick with beer!

Randy and Patrick

Luckily, I was taking pictures! I learned that trick from my mom.

Four Willett children with their spouses/significant others, their children, their children’s friends and one stray raccoon got together, 48 hours after we moved into the house, for pizza and beer! Everyone took a tour of the house, ate their fill of pizza and we listened to the band at the bar next door. By that time, I had lost all brain cells and forgot to take pictures! Check out the back deck and yard and use your imagination:

Backyard AKA party place

Pretend there are Willetts sitting in these chairs!

Again, pretend there are people sitting and eating pizza!

More pretend people eating pizza!

The next morning we all dragged out of bed and went out to brunch. The food was great and the company was Mom pleasing:

Sunday Brunch – We were all tired!

After a great meal, the kids packed up and they all LEFT! Can you believe that? It was good while it lasted.

Luckily for me, my sister and her family brought me flowers to keep me cheered up.

Housewarming flowers from the Teals

I will leave you with this last photo of me:

I finally sat down!

Why yes, I need a pedicure! A manicure and haircut would be great also. Maybe next month.

Well, as always, I love your comments and questions!

9 Comments

The “House” is definitely moving forwards!

On June 24, 2013 · 7 Comments · In Life

We are moving forward on the house remodel. Rooms are getting painted, floors are getting stained, fixtures just might be hanging and one day soon we will have a toilet! Once we have a toilet and a working shower, I am good to go! We are currently back at Big Cedar Lodge with our daughter and youngest son. Our plan is to leave on Thursday, a day earlier then we normally would, and go back to Fayetteville for the big furniture move in. Woohoo! Here are some pictures during the “BIG PUSH” last week to get her done:

New Family Room Fireplace

With the new fireplace, it was time for tile layout decisions:

Tile Closeup

These tiles were handmade in Bentonville!

Layout

Take a look at those floors…GORGEOUS!

Yep this post is going to have lots of exclamation points just because I am excited!!!

Here are some shots of some other rooms:

Master Bedroom

Guest Room

Guest Room Doors

Living Room

Again, look at those floors! They still need the final finish, but they are just fabulous.

John and the Electricians!
Let there be light…soon.

Check out the appliances on the bookcase above.

Living room to back room

In the above shot, the granite guys are prepping to set the sink and countertop. Here is the granite we chose:

Granite is on site!

It is as beautiful as the the day we chose it!

The bathroom is great also, but it is too dark in there to take pictures. The mirror we are using is from Randy’s grandmother’s house in Tulsa. We have used it in all 4 of our previous homes and just had to design a bathroom that would feature it. I will take pictures as soon as we have lights in there.

Okay, that is it on the house for now. However, if you come visit us soon, we will take you out to have some divine pecan pie:

Greenhouse Grill Pecan Pie

But, until you do come visit, we are content with Emily being home for a week. Patrick is also here and James is coming next week. All children together! That does not happen often and we are going to relish their visits.

Randy and Emily

Always love your comments and musings!

The END for now.

7 Comments

A Plethora of Redheads!

On June 17, 2013 · 4 Comments · In Life

Randy and I recently spent time (read lots of time) at Big Cedar Lodge, south of Branson, Missouri. While there, we kept running into redheaded people. Not one, not two but dozens! I would have to say it was a plethora of redheads. Here is the definition of plethora:

Main Entry:	plethora
Part of Speech:	n
Definition:	excess; overabundance
Etymology:	Greek ‘fullness’

I do not know where they all came from. Were they from Nebraska, Iowa or Indiana? It was so random, yet so wonderful. My mother was a redhead, my cousin was a redhead, my brother-in-law is a redhead and I was a redhead.

My red hair!

I so wanted a redheaded child. I was sure I would have one, but alas I had three blondes! I think they got that from their dad!

Non redheaded children

After three tow headed children, I capitulated and got a dachshund! Finally, another redhead in the home. My hard drive is in storage, with everything else, so no picture of Slinky.

May was such a beautiful month this year. We had adequate rain and cool temperatures. Randy and I sure loved touring around looking at the gorgeous vistas. Below is a sample of some of the views we enjoyed.

Near Branson

Beautiful views

and another

Near Branson

Ozarks

And finally, here are some more pictures from our most recent stay at Big Cedar Lodge:

The New Bridge

Relaxing

Another beautiful day

Lovely

I need a gardener

Our daughter is coming Friday to visit for a week. Oh gosh, I am so excited. We haven’t seen her since March and the was only for a weekend! We will be headed back to Big Cedar Lodge, as our house will not be ready. Maybe we can go paddle boarding while we are there. Here is a picture of others having fun paddling:

Paddle Boards on Table Rock Lake

The good news is the house should be move in ready when we get back! The remodeling process has been arduous, but the results should be fantastic. We cannot wait to be living on Dickson Street!

4 Comments

Hang ON!

On June 9, 2013 · Add Comment · In Uncategorized

No post tomorrow due to an iffy internet connection at our current location on the VAGABOND tour. Will try again soon to get a post up on the site!

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CJV in Cincinnati….

A Willett Wedding….

My Brain is Spinning…

More House Before and Afters..

The House has Undergone a Metamorphosis….

met·a·mor·pho·sis

I Need More Time!

In the House, Tired and Pleased as Punch!

The “House” is definitely moving forwards!

A Plethora of Redheads!

Hang ON!

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