Happy New Year 2016

It is our tradition for many years now to go to friends for New Years. Aside from food and drink and a general good time, we always have a white elephant gift exchange.  This year I actually had items that I had received that I could pass on, no need to buy some silly trinket.P1130035But of course I had to decorate gifts with my personal touch. None of us expect anything wonderful, this year people stole the gifts that included coffee or tea, no one was interested in hand creams.
P1130045I stole these salt and pepper shakers, only to find out that the person who brought them was hoping that I’d go home with them.

What have I been doing? Knitting of course. P1120998P1120996Joel asked for another pair of socks, he loves wearing them around the house. As long as he uses them, I’m happy.

Shira asked me for a scarf. Her color choices, purple and pink. All I had was a variegated purple yarn.P1130001The only reason I’m swatching for a scarf is to see if I like the pattern. Something I found on Revelry of course.  Spectacular Single Skein Scarf, this really is a fun knit, another friend used this pattern and blocked it out to form a lacy scarf.

P1130040I like how both sides have this diagonal  look.  Of course it knit up very quickly. I didn’t want to make it too long, so I didn’t even use up the whole skein.

P1130042The variegated yarn creates such interesting patterns.

P1130038Artistic display.

IMG_4066Of course what really matters is a very happy little girl with her brand new scarf.IMG_4074She had to wear it to the playground and tell everyone that she just got a new scarf.  Which simply guarantees that she will get many more handmade gifts.

On to San Pedro

From Wilmington I followed the Harbor down to San Pedro. I was just driving along a small part of it and it is enormous. Mind boggling what comes in and out of this port.

P1120956I have been to San Pedro, to the USS Iowa, to the kitschy tourist area of Ports O’ Call. Now it was time for a visit downtown. San Pedro will never be like the communities next door on the Palos Verde peninsula, but it is an improvement over Wilmington.

Also started as an independent city, it actually predates Los Angeles by 20 years. But like it’s neighbor, it was annexed in 1909.  Unlike Wilmington, San Pedro had a much more diverse population, from Europe and Asia and to this day is a very diverse city.

P1120978The Croation Cultural center representing the largest Croation community in Southern California. Their building is a mixture of styles, classic columns with Art Deco Friezes.

P1120970I went looking for the old downtown, it is actually enjoying something of a revival. First of all, it had fancier buildings to begin with. Today, on first Thursdays they have a local Art Walk.  Although Wilmington had a Jeweler on Avalon Blvd, Rons’ in San Pedro looks more upscale.

P1120972The tiles, the metal work, more money was invested here. Maybe because the only coast Wilmington has it the actual Port, whereas San Pedro has beach areas away from big Industry.

P1120957Design elements on the buildings are upscale.

P1120959San Pedro got an incredible Art Deco Movie Palace in the late 1920s.  That automatically lets you know this was the place to be.

P1120962Today it no longer shows movies, but the venue is available for events and it is being used.

P1120968Even if the box office stands empty with netting to keep the birds away.

P1120967Look up! Always look up. The ceiling in the Foyer is worth craning your next for. And yes, I’m seeing a quilt pattern.

P1120965The roof line and the realization that the way I took this picture just leave me with WAR.

P1120976Not all buildings are trying to deal with the pigeon population.

P1120973This lovely mosaic was installed by the Rainbow Services, a social service center for battered women.

P1120974Which explains the mother and child, with the mother reaching her hand out for help. Other business share the building, like a fishing company. What used to be mainstay here – the fishing industry is simply part of a more diverse business base now.

P1120983I wonder if the Art Deco mural has been here all along or if it’s new. The font certainly looks like it’s from the 1930s.  Love the name.

P1120958The buildings just have a certain charm.

I drove the long way home, the very very long way home. I detoured through the Palos Verde Peninsula – from moderate working class to some of the most expensive real estate around.P1120985 P1120986Of course I had to stop and take in the view. The California coast is gorgeous.

 

Wilmington

The holiday season is a good time to explore, the freeways aren’t quite so congested. So I went to Wilmington, not in Delaware, in Los Angeles.P1120949The isn’t exactly on the tourist maps of Los Angeles, but I always say, every place has something worth seeing.

P1120941My destination was the Banning Museum.

Being a lover of Los Angeles, I know more of it’s history than most people and I’m always excited to learn more. The name Phineas Banning has been lost to the mists of time. I learned about him when I became an LA Conservancy docent and started researching in ernest. A young intrepid man from Wilmington DE, he moved west and became a Stage coach driver. When the Spanish designated the Pueblo of Los Angeles, they weren’t thinking big, Phineas Banning was, he spearheaded the development of the port, first by building a wharf and a railroad that ran the 22 miles from Los Angeles to the port, later, as State senator he got federal funds to both dredge the port and create a deep water port as well as make sure that the transcontinental railroad would come to Los Angeles and not San Diego.

P1120948He started the city of Wilmington, named for his birthplace and built his own home there in 1864. An expansive, expensive Greek Revival mansion. Three generations of the Banning family lived here until 1925. In 1927 it was donated to the city of LA and years later, another Banning descendent spearheaded the restoration of the building.

Phineas Banning is one of the reasons why Los Angeles became the major city in Southern California instead of San Diego – which actually has a much better natural port. Today the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach is the largest most active port on the West Coast. Seattle comes in second, Portland gave up on being a serious port a long time ago and the Navy took over San Diegos’ port.

map_LA_city_neighborhoods2014If you look at a map of Los Angeles you will see a very narrow strip from the south part of the city that goes down to the ocean. By 1909 Los Angeles annexed Wilmington and other small communities along the route to the harbor. Yes, they wanted not only to own the harbor but to be connected to it. One of these days I will write a whole post on how Los Angeles became so big and so interesting in it’s shape.

P1120946Greek revival homes are symmetrical, through the years changes were made, notice the extra window on the ground floor? This window as well as the second window on the front of the building used to be on either side of the front door. So they match perfectly but they do disturb the symmetry.

P1120944A sunken courtyard was added to the east side of the building, along with this marvelous cast iron fence. This is called the cornstalk fence. Made in Philledelphia and installed at the Banning Mansion in 1894.

P1120943In researching this I’ve just discovered that the matching fence surrounds the Cornstalk Hotel in New Orleans, I will be there, staying at that hotel in a few weeks!  WooHoo!  You bet I’ll be mentioning this to the owners!!

The interior of the home is beautiful, as well as the stables with their many examples of stagecoaches, some original, some reproductions.  No photos allowed. I highly recommend a visit to this landmark. I had a private tour with a docent, no one else around, so she showed me the modern water closet (as in early 20th c). as well as the chamberpots that otherwise would have been used. Think about it, in the mid nineteenth century the outhouse was a part of a home, no matter how large and grand.

The port is very visible, it along with the largest oil field in California dominate Wilmington. So today this is basically a Hispanic neighborhood, middle class and comfortable.

P1120952The downtown is a different story. I’m sure Wilmington has nicer areas to hang out in, the downtown is emblematic of many old downtowns, a little sad and rundown.  A handful of beautiful old buildings with for lease signs.

P1120950This large neon sign tops the Don Hotel built in 1929. Of course the sign would be seen from ships entering the harbor.

P1120951Today like many such hotels, this is a senior apartment building.  I do love the palm and the shadows they cast.

P1120955Other attempts at decorating the buildings, a little lighthouse.

P1120954Civic pride exists in every city, someone put a holiday ribbon on this utility box.

I do need to come back, there are more things to see here, but this day, it was on to San Pedro.

Gifts

It’s the holidays and making gifts is taking up a lot of time. This time it wasn’t a Christmas gift – although I did give it at a Christmas Party. It was more of the delayed house warming gift.P1120872I’ve been doing a lot of paper piecing lately, still working on my New York beauty of course. But this is different, because the pieces are so irregular, I made a lot of mistakes. I also gave up on trying to get the background all in the same direction.P1120873My friends love Mid-century modern, well Eames to be exact. They have many Eames chairs, splints and even an airplane wing. Long story.  Anyway, the day before the party I started these, ‘simple’ placemats. At our Valley MQG meeting we were taught how to insert the quarter inch border. Such a nice finishing touch.P1120874Nice thing about placemats is there is no set size.P1120875Quilting, in the ditch around the chair and some squiggles in the background.P1120876Straight line quilting with the waking foot as well.P1120877The finished chair.P1120878And the finished sofa.P1120879Bound with label on the back.P1120882Another quick photo and I wrapped them like a tootsie roll.

They joined other hostess gifts on the table and I had a lovely time at the party, with old friends and new.

The next day, emails, messages! How could I not have them open the gift while I was there?? These are amazing, they are going straight to the framer and will be displayed on the wall.  Umm, they are placemats, you can use them and wash them.  No way, this is art!  Ok, so even when I just try to be a crafter someone calls my work art. As long as they love it, that is all that really matters.

Christmas Lights

It is all well and good to enjoy Christmas decorations during the day, but really they are meant to be seen at night. Bringing light and joy to a world that gets dark way too soon.P1120918I walked the nieghborhood with my camera, snapping away, trying to figure out how to capture the lights without a flash.

P1120915One house has a row of these, this is what they look like during the day as well as at night.

P1120914Technology moves on, they switch to this as well as blue and green.

P1120919There are the decorations that don’t light up, but sparkle in the moonlight.

P1120922Colored lights on a fence.

P1120929As well as ones with the old fashioned bulbs.

P1120925This yard is full of lights and decorations, from the train

P1120926To the reindeer.

P1120927As well as swag on the fence. This is the same house that had the bats during Halloween.

P1120931The next door neighbors have young boys, so along with traditional lights, a minion peeks through.

P1120928I love how lights will frame a porch or roofline. I was playing with my photo editing program, Picmonkey, they have a filter called Bokeh that is supposed to highlight the lights. Well the lights looked like this without any filters, but I did add the stars.

P1120932Love the internet, I found instructions on how to get the Bokeh affect with my camera, and here we have it with the few lights I have on my own porch. I love learning new techniques and will probably play with this one a little more.

A merry Christmas to all.

 

Diving into deep stash

Years ago I bought a lot of Koigu yarn when a store was going out of business. This was one of the first companies to sell handprinted yarn and theirs’ is still one of the best around. But what to do with a single hank of yarn? Of course during the sale all I could get was one skein in each color way.  After all these years I decided that when it comes to socks – they don’t have to be a perfect match.P1120753If you have a good eye for color you can see that these two balls are similar but not exactly the same. I started knitting. Aside from the color, this is a lovely yarn to knit with.

IMG_4037One thing I did was knit the toes so that they angle more along the outer edge of the foot, I don’t know if it was necessary, but now each sock it dedicated to it’s own foot.

P1120864I ended up with two very different socks.

IMG_3993And then proceeded to have fun with my new selfie stick.

IMG_3996Left foot

IMG_4002Right foot.

IMG_4011Yes the selfie stick is a lot of fun. I need more practice,  I threw away many photos that just weren’t good.  As good as an iPhone 6 is, it really distorts a lot more than my real camera.  So no, I won’t be giving up my camera any time soon.

IMG_4024I sure am going to enjoy these socks, even if they don’t look like a pair. most people won’t get more than a glimpse and those that do – who says socks have to match?

 

Gift Wrap

I’ve been very busy making gifts for the holidays. The packaging matters, I usually just buy gift bags, but it is time to get creative with the wrapping as well.

IMG_4039This is a lovely box that I saved, recycling gift wrap is an old tradition. With my Sizzix die cutter I have dies for the flowers and the tags. A friend recently gave me the owl stamp. A lot of fun and creativity goes into this.

P1120883Next up, making a box out of wrapping paper. There is a class on Creative Bug on how to make these boxes.

P1120886Wrapped like a tootsie roll.  I bought some adhesive foam for Shira to play with, looks like I’m having more fun with it.

P1120887Yup, presentation matters.

And here is what went into one of the packages. The jar includes the last of 2015 marmalade.P1120870

Speaking of gifts, I got a selfie stick. I’m not big on selfies, sure here on the blog I have many many pictures of myself in things I’ve made. But if I’m out and about I don’t need to insert myself into the image. So I wasn’t sure if I’d use the stick. Then I heard on a podcast about how you can get different perspectives with it.

IMG_3989Like this angle, when I take pictures with my real camera, it’s on a tripod and I’m using a remote clicker. But the level of the camera doesn’t change. I could play with that, but I don’t. So now I realize that a selfie stick is simply another tool in the photography box. I will be using it more.

Limoncello

My Meyer Lemon Tree is finally producing a lot of fruit.P1120797

A friend recommended that I make Limoncello, she even sent me the recipe.P1120796So I picked the lemons.

P1120802Bought some American Handmade Vodka. Not sure how one ‘hand makes’ vodka. Is it like moonshine?

P1120803Peeled the lemons very thinly.

P1120805Put them in mason jars, the recipe said, steep for 4 days.

P1120858Turns out it all fit in one jar.

P1120862Then I made a simple syrup, sugar and water, I cut down on the sugar just a little. Combined the two and voila – Limoncello. I also refilled the vodka bottle, but this is a prettier picture. I love how yellow it is. So not only did the peels infuse the vodka with a wonderful strong lemony taste, it gives it a bright yellow color.

P1120903YUM!  Success, and since I have so many lemons, I will probably make more to give as gifts. The leftover fruit will become marmalade, nothing wasted here.  LeChaim!

 

Scraps

At the quilt guild someone was giving away two large bags of scraps.P1120779I couldn’t resist, I brought them home.P1120781This person saves everything, the trimmings from the sides of the quilt, every size of fabric scrap.

I’m good at throwing things out, being a packrat isn’t for me, so it was time to sort through and see what was worth saving.P1120783There is actual yardage here. I understand why she didn’t want this, not my style either. This will be donated to the Valley MQG, every month there is a raffle for a wonderful basket of stuff, this will get put to good use by someone.P1120785Going through the scraps.P1120784Making piles, a lot of this is usable.  I am a scrappy quilter, more scraps of reasonable size will be used.P1120789Using my accuquilt, I’m cutting 2.5″ squares.P1120790This is just from this haul. I have a little box full of these squares.P1120791Sewed the squares together. I used others that I already have, problem is they aren’t exactly the same size. But no one will notice in the final project.P1120811It turned into a lovely project bag.P1120810A holiday gift.P1120814Another holiday gift, this time with solids.

 

Along the walk

Our Whitnall Hwy walk was five miles long so of course we saw more than just power towers.P1120835Hollywood Way has some interesting businesses. We usually end a walk with a Taco, but this was in the middle and the competing signs didn’t encourage us to cross the street.

Reflected in this business is our Taco Stand.P1120836Now that is a good name for an animation company. Right next door to The Animation Guild.

I have often seen this design on the side of the building while driving by, walking by I got a closer look as well as being informed that it’s the Animators guilds’ building. P1120837The cartoonish look makes much more sense now.

I need to check out this Furniture/Knick-knack store.P1120840

Aytan and I have visited the model Train store often.P1120839If you have small children, it’s a great visit, they have a play area with a large track full of Thomas Trains. And yes, I have bought items here, I don’t just use it as a free play area.

This area of Burbank and North Hollywood are home to many small businesses that support the larger film industry.P1120852Not sure that tower ever gets rented out.

Also, don’t know the significance of the musical cows on the side of this building. There are about five of them.P1120850Quite worn out, they have been here a long time.

There is a sign on this building that states since 1954, it looks like a Church, but I don’t think it is one anymore.P1120853Along the way we met local residentsP1120826P1120854There were also many people out, enjoying their yards, riding bikes, putting up Christmas decorations.

North Hollywood is one of the older Valley neighborhoods and therefore has a very eclectic collection of homes.  This one could be 80 or 90 years old. It may have been the home for a farm, this was farm country after all.P1120856It is old, the stone pillars on the driveway indicate that this was an ‘important’ home. The Clapboard and the rounded window are not new elements. Today there is a modern garage, I’d really love to know the history of this.

Across the street is a classic Midcentury Modern.P1120857If this were anywhere else, it would be a very expensive home.  But most people who want to live in such a home, don’t want to live in this neighborhood. Well not exactly, I could see some young hipsters who would love both the neighborhood and the home.  The North part of North Hollywood is beginning to become a gentrified area.