It's mid November. Sub freezing temperatures are hardly unheard of around here at this time of year. November in Minnesota is funny: sometimes it stays warm enough to enjoy out door activities all month. I've gone on bike rides on Thanksgiving. I remember one year, when Josie was a toddler, biking with the whole family over to my folks' house in the morning of Thanksgiving. Right in front of all my kids, a passing bird left a souvenir on my nose. Hilarity ensued! It was so late in the season that there weren't even any dry leaves around with which to clean off my nose. I must have eventually found one, I'm fairly sure I didn't ride around the lake with bird poo on my face.
My Dad, an avid golfer, says that some years he golfed more in November than any other month because every nice day could well be the last chance. Some Novembers are like that.
Leave it to the environmental patients to decide that mild Novembers are now 'normal' so anything that smacks of actual November in Minnesota is cause for great alarm, complete with hand wringing and the gnashing of teeth.
It's twenty degrees with an inch and a half of snow on the twelfth of November.
Yawn.
MJ and I have taken on a very fun project at her house: art wall.
She recently redecorated her dining room to better reflect the personalities of the occupants. When she and Kent got married, as a wedding present, I helped paint all the rooms of her house but the bedrooms. We chose for the dining room a very handsome shade of green. Tone like hunter but not so dark. In the years since then, the family has skewed very decisively female. Kent is now outnumbered be several orders of magnitude. And MJ is tired of the old colors. The kitchen is getting a makeover next but right now we're having a blast in the dining room. She has painted the walls 'boutique chic', which is the palest shade of pink available. In fact, it's less 'pink' than just a very warm, inviting white, so don't think Barbie or Pepto Bismal. The room has a crystal chandelier and white glass front corner cupboards flanking the big window to the back yard. It would be awesome if that window were a door. Maybe, someday.
For now, we're busy covering the newly blushing walls with original artworks. The vast majority are by Bananas and Punkin, who have inherited the love of paint, pencils, markers and crayons, coupled with ability that runs rampant in our family. MJ also has works that she picked up from street artists while in Paris (I can't believe that trip was two years ago!) and a few by her siblings. Our first idea was only original art on the larger wall but since then we've loosened up the restrictions to allow a few things she just loves. It's her wall: she can do whatever she wants.
She had a stack of frames she's collected at estate sales and we spent an hour or so at Goodwill, scouring their stacks of frames for sizes, shapes and finishes. We've spent the last two days matching pieces to frames and planning the wall. About half the pieces are up but the rest need to be put together; some need mats, a few need backing and one needs glass. Once we have all the bits, we'll put them together and finish. It's looking spectacular! When we're done, Art Wall will have sixteen or seventeen pieces on it, ranging from a 5x5 white frame holding a flower to an 18x24 carved wood and gilt frame holding a bright, splashy painting and a 16x20 unframed canvas of a cat that was a collaborative piece between Bananas and Katie McCollow. I'm most excited about the two pieces that will hang on the opposite wall: Two gorgeous, contemporary paintings on
watercolor board that we're mounting in matching big, gold, formal frames. MJ has to have mats cut for them then we're good to go. I just love the idea of taking these heavy, traditional frames and putting bright, splashy paintings by preschoolers in them! They're going to look so good.