Twelve Rooms with a View

If you, like me, are HGTV fanatics and especially if you like shows like Selling New York, you will enjoy the book Twelve Rooms with a View by Theresa Rebeck.  It has everything - wild Manhattan real estate, crazy family dynamics, the 90% and the 1% and those somewhere in between.

Tina is the youngest of three sisters whose mother was an alcoholic, married a reclusive man and pretty much dropped out of their lives.  Tina hasn't made any sort of success out of her life thus far and her sisters treat her like she never will amount to anything.

Unexpectedly, they learn that their mother has died and has left them an apartment in Manhattan. When they get the keys from their mother's lawyer, they find that the apartment consists of twelve rooms in a historic building, and is probably worth millions.  It's such a vast apartment that the second kitchen has been rented to another resident of the building so he could create a "mossery" in it.  Yes, the kitchen is filled with many varieties of moss.

Since Tina was living in a trailer park at the time, they move her into the apartment.  While this sounds like a grand bit of luck for Tina, there is very little furniture in the apartment, and her sisters tell her not to leave the apartment because it turns out that their mother's husband has two sons who grew up in the apartment and they believe they should inherit the place.

After she receives a very unpleasant visit from the drunken brothers in the middle of the night, Tina installs deadbolts on the inside of the door to protect herself from the brothers and from her sister, Lucy, who turns up whenever she likes and makes Tina's life miserable.

Lots of drama ensues as Tina meets other residents of the building, none of whom want Tina and her siblings or the brothers to inherit the apartment.  Tina makes some friends, finds a secret passage, solves a ghostly mystery and does some long overdue maturing.  This is a great tale that will keep you turning the pages to see what could possibly happen next.

Yarn and Thread

I've been trading off between hand-quilted potholders and crocheting.  Here are some photos of my latest.

Misty Day Book Recommendations

These books don't require a misty day to be read, nor do they speak about misty days - it's just that misty days trigger the reader in me more than usual.

I highly recommend a new book from Liz Moore, Heft.  Its characters are so engaging that you may find yourself reading to the end in one sitting.  I did. 

The book tells the tale of Arthur, who was recently a professor of literature but now is a hefty (550 pound) shut-in.  The other primary character is Kel, a high school athlete, who is forced to mother his mother because she has become an alcoholic.  It is Kel's mother, Charlene, who provides the thread between Arthur and Kel, as she was once a student of Arthur's and they dated for a short period in time.  That relationship precipitated Arthur's shut-in life.  Into Arthur's house-bound world comes Yolanda, who comes to clean the house and ends up becoming Arthur's friend who eases him back into the world.

I especially enjoy stories in which people create their own families unexpectedly out of individuals who step into their lives, when perhaps the families into which they were born were less than ideal.  Pick up Heft to see how the lives of Arthur, Yolanda, Charlene and Kel weave together.


While Heft is a newly published book, another book about choosing your own family that I absolutely adore is Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos.

Broken for You is set in a large mansion in Seattle where septuagenarian Margaret lives alone with her antiques, including sets of valuable china.  All of this china, collected by her father, plays an interesting part in the story.  Lonely, Margaret decides to take in boarders and thus arrives Wanda, with a broken heart and little else.  The house gradually fills up with other characters and all of their stories weave together.

I like the notion that our sharing of flaws builds intimacy between us.  This is a book of such beautiful redemption that you will not be sorry when you lose yourself in its pages.

What's Your Purpose for Money - Today's Burning Question

Danielle LaPorte's burning question this week is good, as always -- what's your purpose for money?

My purpose for money at this point goes something like this:

• Freedom to let my gifts for creativity and encouragement come out to play every day.
• Own my own home and studio so that my creative gifts don't necessarily need to take over my house (everywhere I sit is surrounded by yarn, thread, fabric, buttons); a home with generous porches and garden space as well as a guest suite so friends can come and stay in the comfort I love to provide.
• Freedom to travel when I like - to walk the English countryside, spend time at Chatsworth, take summer courses at Oxford; visit friends in the South and spend more time in Charleston and Savannah; hop up to Canada; take the train to Portland for the weekend.
• Abundant funds to start a foundation to address the needs of the elderly in my community and on the coast in honor of my parents.  I had the honor of caring for my parents through their declining years and deaths (oh, the rousing games of Bingo at the nursing home).  This gave me a soft spot in my heart for my elders.  I would be thrilled to be able to partner with groups already doing great work and come up with innovative ideas to bring joy, comfort and laughter into the lives of elders.  (When I would spend time with Mom at the nursing home our laughter would sing through the halls, and that shouldn't be an unusual occurrence.)

Phinney Photos

We've enjoyed unseasonably warm, sunny days in early February (it was 60 degrees yesterday!), and prime weather for taking neighborhood photos.

Showcasing our amazing moss output this year

A Peaceful Garden Moment

Spring Arrives Early (or these flowers think so)

Free Range Chickens in Phinney

Burning Question

I love Danielle LaPorte and her new "burning question" exercise.  Today's is:
Your day, next success, body, friendships, how do want it all to feel?  My answer follows:

I want my day to feel like a morning at the beach ~ tangy air, foamy waves, warm sand between my toes and kites floating on the breeze.

I want my next success to feel like early dismissal for a snow day ~ elation and white, fluffy joy abounding.

I want my laughter to feel like a robin on a spring morning ~ exuberant, sprightly, infectious.

I want the end of my day to feel like reading the last word at the end of Jane Eyre ~ satisfying, a well-told tale worth savoring.

Here's where you can get your own burning question:

Exercise, I Hardly Knew Ye

Let me start with a mea culpa - it's my own darned fault that exercise and I have lost touch over the last several months.  I could attempt to blame it on my computer job search, which means too many hours each day with my butt in a chair reviewing job sites and applying for new opportunities.  I'm tempted to whine about rainy days and windstorms, even days stuck inside by the snow.  But I've decided to talk back to my inner whiner and just do it, to co-opt a famous sneaker company's tagline.

The sunshine has certainly helped propel me out of my chair and get some fresh air into my lungs.  I've been logging an hour a day of walk time, which feels great.  Unfortunately, my extensive butt-in-chair time over the last few months means that at this point when finished with a walk I'm limping like a 90-year-old.  I don't mean to impugn my elders - I have found myself left in the dust at Greenlake by individuals considerably older (and fitter) than my own self.

I have been motivated by my discovery of SparkPeople, where they have a feature that lets you map your walking/running route.  You can map your route and find out how many calories you have burned.  I absolutely love being able to find out how far I have walked on a given day.  Their nutrition tracker is great, too, because the whole community has saved the calorie information for foods - so you don't have to do the research on every food you eat. 

I do have some indoor exercise options ready to go when this sunshine ends, as I know it will.  It's February, for heaven's sake!  But I intend to continue moving this body until I'm frustrated that the neighborhood hills aren't challening enough.  Then I guess I'll need to find a mountain to climb, or walk to Portland.