As Summer Winds Down
Ramon and I returned from Spanish Market in Santa Fe at the end of July, with a few new pieces of Spanish Colonial Art to add to our collection.
I got up at 5am, grabbed a cup of coffee and stood outside in the rain until the 8am opening of Spanish Market in order to be the first one one in line to purchase Nick Otero's prize winning retablo. The large retablo and the small altar box, both of which won first prize in their categories, now reside in the Nunez home. We were concerned that we might be competing against a museum for these pieces, as last year while we were in Spain, and unbeknownst to us, Nick's work swept the market awards.
We brought home a small retablo by Catherine Robles Shaw, whose work we like to collect
and Laurie Garcia. This is Santo Nino de Atocha, one of Ramon's Mom's favorite saints. And then something new for us. Ramon fell in love with this chest, which won second place in the traditional furniture division. The curator of the Mexican Cultural Museum in Albuquerque later told us that she had wanted to purchase this piece for the museum. Felt bad for the artist, because it would have been better for him to have his piece with the museum, but I'm thrilled it will be living with us.
The chest is a magnificent piece, all hand carved. The blacksmith who did the hinges and lock is an award winning ironsmith at Spanish Market whose work we have always admired. The end of the key that fits into this chest is formed of his initials. As this was something we couldn't exactly take home on the plane, it is being shipped to us and should arrive sometime next week.
Back home, we spent the first week in August tearing out all our carpet, and moving furniture--getting a little old for this kind of work!
Then Ramon totally demolished and painted our master bedroom closet. We were never too fond of its layout. Lots of trips to the Goodwill and the dump in this process! Look mom, our closet is really clean now!
In mid July, the wood for our new floors was delivered in order to aclimatize to the house environment. So we have had piles of wood sitting around in all the rooms for the past four weeks. Just before the wood delivery, I re-painted the walls in this room terra cotta, to better go with the new fireplace tiles, but missed the turquoise walls that I'd originally fauxed there. So....I decided to paint our study turquoise, which at the moment, looks like the Bahama room as it is just flat paint color and still needs to be fauxed to look old. Took me two days to paint this room by myself while Ramon was on a business trip. That's my massive treadmill in the up position.
I'm beginning to miss my playtime down at the studio, as it would appear that I am back to my temporary incarnation as a professional painter---who did I get this from???? As if painting the studio weren't enough, I then decided to faux Marisa's old bedroom before they started the floors. No problem, I said to myself. I can do that room in a couple of days also. Which is either outrageous self-esteem or simply delusions of grandeur, depending on how you look at it. 
Six full days of rubbing three colors on the wall with cheese cloth in order to make the walls look like suede. Ugh! Who else is crazy enough to spend nearly a week of their life painting a bedroom?????? Michaelangelita. I hate faux painting, unfortunately, I love the end result. Thank goodness for audio books that's all I have to say.
And so the big moment we've been waiting for. Ta Da!! The floors are starting to go down, and most likely will be a good 3-4 weeks to complete. We are using hickory which has be hand scraped and distressed to look very old. Boards are 3/4" X 7" wide and some are up to 12 feet in length. Heavy! All solid wood, but prefinished, so only touch up will be neccesary at the end. Makes the house look so much richer. We will need a few more area rugs when all is finished. Ramon is suggesting another trip to India to bring back more rugs, but I think that's rather unlikely for this unfrequent flyer. ha ha
And last, but not least, Marisa gave up playing poodle beautician and took Lola to the groomers, to get Lola's ears dyed really red. She needs to do her tail the next time for symetry. Looking at this dog is pretty hysterical, so I just had to share.
I got up at 5am, grabbed a cup of coffee and stood outside in the rain until the 8am opening of Spanish Market in order to be the first one one in line to purchase Nick Otero's prize winning retablo. The large retablo and the small altar box, both of which won first prize in their categories, now reside in the Nunez home. We were concerned that we might be competing against a museum for these pieces, as last year while we were in Spain, and unbeknownst to us, Nick's work swept the market awards.
We brought home a small retablo by Catherine Robles Shaw, whose work we like to collect
and Laurie Garcia. This is Santo Nino de Atocha, one of Ramon's Mom's favorite saints. And then something new for us. Ramon fell in love with this chest, which won second place in the traditional furniture division. The curator of the Mexican Cultural Museum in Albuquerque later told us that she had wanted to purchase this piece for the museum. Felt bad for the artist, because it would have been better for him to have his piece with the museum, but I'm thrilled it will be living with us.The chest is a magnificent piece, all hand carved. The blacksmith who did the hinges and lock is an award winning ironsmith at Spanish Market whose work we have always admired. The end of the key that fits into this chest is formed of his initials. As this was something we couldn't exactly take home on the plane, it is being shipped to us and should arrive sometime next week.
Back home, we spent the first week in August tearing out all our carpet, and moving furniture--getting a little old for this kind of work! Then Ramon totally demolished and painted our master bedroom closet. We were never too fond of its layout. Lots of trips to the Goodwill and the dump in this process! Look mom, our closet is really clean now!In mid July, the wood for our new floors was delivered in order to aclimatize to the house environment. So we have had piles of wood sitting around in all the rooms for the past four weeks. Just before the wood delivery, I re-painted the walls in this room terra cotta, to better go with the new fireplace tiles, but missed the turquoise walls that I'd originally fauxed there. So....I decided to paint our study turquoise, which at the moment, looks like the Bahama room as it is just flat paint color and still needs to be fauxed to look old. Took me two days to paint this room by myself while Ramon was on a business trip. That's my massive treadmill in the up position.I'm beginning to miss my playtime down at the studio, as it would appear that I am back to my temporary incarnation as a professional painter---who did I get this from???? As if painting the studio weren't enough, I then decided to faux Marisa's old bedroom before they started the floors. No problem, I said to myself. I can do that room in a couple of days also. Which is either outrageous self-esteem or simply delusions of grandeur, depending on how you look at it. Six full days of rubbing three colors on the wall with cheese cloth in order to make the walls look like suede. Ugh! Who else is crazy enough to spend nearly a week of their life painting a bedroom?????? Michaelangelita. I hate faux painting, unfortunately, I love the end result. Thank goodness for audio books that's all I have to say.
And so the big moment we've been waiting for. Ta Da!! The floors are starting to go down, and most likely will be a good 3-4 weeks to complete. We are using hickory which has be hand scraped and distressed to look very old. Boards are 3/4" X 7" wide and some are up to 12 feet in length. Heavy! All solid wood, but prefinished, so only touch up will be neccesary at the end. Makes the house look so much richer. We will need a few more area rugs when all is finished. Ramon is suggesting another trip to India to bring back more rugs, but I think that's rather unlikely for this unfrequent flyer. ha haAnd last, but not least, Marisa gave up playing poodle beautician and took Lola to the groomers, to get Lola's ears dyed really red. She needs to do her tail the next time for symetry. Looking at this dog is pretty hysterical, so I just had to share. 
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