The door to nowhere!

I took my favorite rug off the floor last December because visiting dogs with nervous tummies did obscene things to it.


I hung it on the living room wall but it still needed something.


I decided it needed a door...a door to nowhere. Something I could hang art on. Something that would break up the busy pattern of the rug. Something for the eye to focus on. In other words, it needed the depth that layering a door on it would give.



So I varnished this green, chippy, scared door. It's over a hundred-years. I got it out of an old farmhouse in Brenham. It had a twin in red but I made that one into a lift-up coffee table for my daughter Code Woman (CW).

One day CW called me and said (and I quote here), "I've left (insert name of her husband here) but I took the coffee table with me!" She loves her chippy door/table as much as I do.


Isn't this better? Even Sally Sue thinks so as she naps on the back of the sofa. (Note Steven Walenta original photo on black washstand!)



This is the first painting that I've completed in many, many a year. I thought my new/old door was the perfect place to feature it.

Do you see what I see?

If you are a new reader - or an old reader with a poor memory - you won't remember this photograph of the Mexican Zapotec Indian rug that hangs in my living room. Take a good look.

Like the Christmas song asks,"Do you see what I see?"

Not sure? Then let me help you out.


Now do you see what I see?

That spot is where a visiting granddog threw up on my beautiful rug. No, PJ, it wasn't on the wall at the time! In fact, that spot is the major reason why I decided to hang the rug instead of walking on it. I couldn't stand the thought of more accidents happening on this rug.

Normally I'm in denial you can even see the spot. The pattern is so busy and distracting, I tell myself, that the spot is impossible to...a...er..spot.

Eggnog helps with the denial.

Renee also saw the spot and she didn't even have any eggnog!

"Tea," the Junk Queen said, so I hustled to the kitchen to make her some.

"No, you idiot!" Renee yelled at my retreating back. "I don't want tea! Put tea on that spot!"

Oh.

So I did, a little at a time. (Don't you love how I cropped the photo so it looks like the black arrow in the pattern is helping you locate the spot?)



I let the area dry and then re-teaed, so to speak.

Looks pretty good, I think. That Renee isn't as dumb as she looks!

P.S. On a personal note, today, New Year's Eve, is my daughter's birthday. She was a preemie. Now I have to look up to kiss her. Happy day, Honey!

Hang 'em high (rugs, not the western)!

I like these Mexican Zapotec Indian rugs better on the walls than I did on the floor. Their design and colors show off so much better.

Renee (a junk queen) told me how to display them because I didn't have a clue. I probably would have used 16-penny nails. In fact, Renee was with me when I bought the rugs at a house sale so she must have felt responsible for proper installation!

First, buy a piece of 1 x 4 lumber and cut it to the length of the rug. I added six inches to the wood (three for each side) so I had plenty of room to find the stud on the wall but if you plan better than I do, you won't have to do that.

Then cut a strip of sturdy fabric long enough to cover the length of the rug and the width of the piece of wood (four-inches). Hand sew with double thread the strip of material to the edge of the rug.

Place the wood against the sewn fabric so that the rug is flat against the wood.

Pull tight and staple top of fabric to wood.

Also staple fabric to back of wood.

Find wall studs and screw wood strip to wall into studs.

Even though you'll need help holding the wood and rug up, it is an easy project that packs a wallop in a room.

Hangin' around with my rugs

This past year I've run across several rugs crafted by American and Mexican Indians. The vivid colors and woven texture add a lot to my western-themed home.

My daughter Code Woman found a dugout canoe (another story for another time) she thought I'd like in a Houston restaurant that was being redecorated. When IT Guy and I went to purchase it, there were several other items we were interested in so I asked the manager what another hundred dollars would buy and it bought plenty!

Four of the things in that century bundle were the rustic display ladder, the Indian Blanket signed art piece, the 4 x 6 rug on the upper rung, and the 2 1/2 x 5 hall runner. We think they all make great accent pieces. Well, at least I think so. I'm sure IT Guy doesn't care one way or another. If it doesn't have wings on it and isn't controlled by a transmitter, he doesn't give it a second thought.

The loomed blanket on the bottom rung of the ladder was found at a local flea market Renee and I sometimes frequent. It was created in three pieces then sewn together to make the large, colorful blanket.

More rugs on a post later this week. I'll even show you how Renee showed me how to hang rugs on the wall without damaging them. You might already know but I didn't have a clue.

Oh, and the little cowboy by the ladder is an old cookie jar, long devoid of goodies.