Northern California Coast

There is something amazing about the coast of Northern California north of San Francisco. The coastline, the rock formations, there is nothing like it, not south of there, not north of there up in Oregon.Coast of Mendocino The town of Mendocino, which deserves a post of it’s own.IMG_3636The rocks, the colors of the water.P1110571Life will thrive everywhere, lichen on the rocks.P1110574Seaweed along the waterline.P1110589Birds thrive here.P1110688Some lucky birds have their won island. They probably don’t care about the tunnel underneath them.  I don’t know how long it will be  before this is two islands.P1110689The birds cling to the rocks.P1110683This is what I mean about the beauty.P1110679I had to tilt the camera to capture the progression of the rocks.P1110690Sand stone eroding quickly, but it is on top of some volcanic rock.P1110681I LOVE lighthouses!!  The Port Arena one is so simple but is perfect for this landscape.P1110676No, we didn’t take the tour, I’ve seen enough fresnel lenses, but it’s in there.

As beautiful as these photos are, nothing can replace the original, if you ever have a chance – GO!

Leah

California Wine

Take some grapes, squeeze out the juice let it ferment and you have wine. But selling the wine has become an enormous business. It’s all in the marketing.P1110515It doesn’t hurt that vineyards on a gentle hillside are gorgeous.P1110514Or that the vine itself is a pretty thing to behold.P1110520Not to mention that the grapes are things of beauty, jewels on the vine.P1110522P1110523Make sure to build very pretty tasting rooms, even the parking lot  must stand out.P1110513 Choose a cute nameP1110518Pay great attention to decorating detailsP1110517Like using wine barrels and other local crops as props.P1110539A Venetian lion as a logo doesn’t hurt.P1110542But this sign actually made us stop and buy some port and chocolate.

21044665059_f98c66db06_oOf course sit down for a tasting with all the flowery language used to explain what we are drinking, in this case, we also enjoyed our own cheese and crackers.

IMG_3650The real reason for the trip, a wonderful wedding in a vineyard.IMG_3673Where I got to celebrate with the mother of the groom, a very dear friend, as well as wear my newest party dress.IMG_3670Then watch a gorgeous sunset over the vines.

Leah

The Angeles Forest

In order to get to the gold mine, we hiked about two miles.P1110256As we started out, there were still wildflowers to be seen. We were at about 4000′ of elevation, lower down all the wildflowers have died in the heat.P1110258This bright red greeted us often on the path.P1110259If you catch the angle just right, everything is green.P1110276When in reality, we hiked through pretty dry areas, where the agave thrive.P1110280Most of the hike was on the old road, so although rocky, it wasn’t hard.P1110263Until we got to washout areas like this.P1110264Or this. Nature is busy deconstructing the mountain.P1110266Since at this height the mountains get snow in the winter, trees and bushes thrive. As does the large flowering stalk of the agave.P1110275The Forest Service took down as much of the ‘town’ as it could. This must have been the base for some of the heavy mining equipment, so it remains.P1110260Of course it was the rock formations that interested the miners. Not sure this is any indication of gold, but it sure is pretty.P1110480As are these specimens I brought home. White quartz and green Mica??? I have no idea, they are just pretty rocks to me.P1110483This one is very flaky, yet very green. It means there is some kind of mineral in it, but what it may be, I don’t know.

I do know that when the weather cools down, I need to do some more hiking in our local mountains.

Leah

The stages of yarn.

There is a reason why multicolored yarn is sold in skeins.P1100756Especially hand dyed yarn.P1100755The colors are vivid and separated out beautifully. On the swift and being wound into a ball.P1100757Look how different the colors look now.P1100759Pretty but not as striking as the skein. P1100999As I start to knit the shawl, there is a lot of concentration of color.P1110467You can even see some pooling of color at the bottom and white at the top. At a certain length it simply gets stripey. Of course as I decrease I expect the pooling to return.P1110472Talk about a rainbow! The dyer wasn’t kidding.P1110474Once it is finished, which will probably be pretty soon, I will block it and it will have a whole new look.

Leah

Public art

“MacArthur’s Park is melting in the dark….” The weird quirky song is how most people know MacArthur’s  Park – well if you are of a certain age. Then for the longest time it was simply a very sketchy area of Los Angeles that you avoided. It was full of  drug dealers.  Like many parts of the city – it’s not so scary anymore. Especially now that it is part of a public art project.P1110438Do not know who is responsible, school children painted these large balls and volunteers are putting them in place.P1110452If you approach from the northern part of the park, this is what greets you under the Wilshire Blvd. tunnel.P1110454Or like this couple, you can stand on Wilshire and look down.The spheres at MacArthur ParkI went a few days before all the balls were installed, so I saw the work in progressInstalling the Spheres at MacArthur ParkU-hauls full of uninflated balls, some shade and a very large pump.P1110437A lot of volunteers.P1110430Attaching rope.P1110432Moving them into position.P1110415The lake is segmented so the balls don’t just float helter-skelter.P1110449congregated around the aerating fountain.The Spheres at MacArthur Park 2015P1110442Colorful, fun and bringing in people.

The park is no longer as derelict as it used to be. Not only because of the spheres, the area is on the rebound. P1110440Otherwise how to you explain this kind of ‘art’. A cute poodle who is matches her owner. P1110408I wonder if the owner wears blue as long as the dog has blue and if she changes the colors often?

There is a lot more to see in the area, but this post is all about the art.

 

Leah

More Tiffany

P1110036The Tiffany tour continues, this time in the Original Marshal Fields building, now Macy’s.

Most people never look up!!  Even when 7 floors above you is this amazing incredible vaulted mosaic ceiling.  Temples of commerce are just as ornate as any Church.P1110039You can take the elevator up to the 7th floor and get a much closer view of this incredible work. Not only  the mosaics, there are also a number of globe Tiffany lamps.P1110043I can see why, with all the modern cold white lighting, one misses these warm iridescent globes.P1110046P1110038P1110045These are just a few of the images I took of the actual mosaic.P1110050Ok, so most people don’t go up to Furniture and Design, but it is so worth it just to stare up at this ceiling.P1110051Next stop the old Public Library, today it is The Chicago Cultural Center. Luckily when the new library was built, this building was just too massive and well reinforced, it was just to complicated to destroy.  I know, people love to say – oh my city tears every old building down, but other cities are so much better at preservation. Guess what, all cities tear down old buildings, some more than others.  We can’t keep everything, and those that remain become more important because there are fewer of them.P1110054On the marble bannister, two things happened, they had to cut out the shape in the marble, then painstakingly create the mosaic to fit perfectly.P1110060For all the wonderful mosaics here, and there are more, the dome is the real treasure here. This is the largest Tiffany dome anywhere, 38 feet in diameter, over 30,000 pieces of glass, there is a larger dome on the other side of the building, not designed by Tiffany, Unfortunately I couldn’t get to see it. From images online, it looks like I missed something specialP1110059The zodiac, fish scale glass. The dome was cleaned in 2008 and they were amazed by how much more light comes into the room.  All of these pieces of art demand a lot of TLC in order to maintain their beauty.P1110066Hanging from the dome is this light fixture that mimics the fish tail scales. Yup, my mind is going to a quilt pattern, although it probably is way too much work.P1110052A few more mosaics, this one in an archway celebrates American authors.  Built in 1897, Chicago was determined to prove that they are a world class city, I think they succeeded.P1110065Although we couldn’t enter the hall because they were setting up for a private event, I spied this mosaic off to the side. Hebrew will always catch my eye and in many libraries – you will always find Hebrew. Makes sense since Hebrew is one of the earliest written languages. The alphabet has changed through the years. Of course, Alphabet is a contraction of the two first letters in Hebrew – Aleph -Bet.

The translation is:  The Author who did not know, gave the book and said, please read this.

 

Leah

Our changing bodies

As we age our bodies change, like it or not, it happens. Sure look at pictures of me and you won’t see any change, but it’s happening.  My waist and hips are getting wider, such is life, I’m not complaining, but I do need to adjust how I sew.

Another change with age is liking things a little more simple. Don’t worry, I won’t be abandoning bright colors and prints, but  I do find that for a party dress – simple is better.

I went to Mood looking for silk, I came home with a cotton twill.PicMonkey PhotoYou haven’t seen me much in black,  because I like color and pattern.   I chose this pattern because the back of the dress is amazing, the front is nice, but not exciting. Therefore I needed a fabric that would make this dress pop.

A wonderful thing about this print is that it is printed in panels. Most border prints have  the border running along one of the selvedges.  That is fine, it gives you 42″ to work with, this panel is only 36″ long, but the dress will hang better when cut on the straight grain of the fabric, not the crossgrain.P1110345I LOVE the end result.  I did have to get creative with my waistline, but it worked out well.P1110341Looking good from the side.P1110340And the back.P1110375Well the skirt looks lovely from the back. Fitting my bodice is a little more of a challenge.  Those creases tell me that the fitting isn’t perfect. But then again, sewing isn’t about being perfect, I clearly have to fine tune some fitting issues – but that is only for me, no one else will notice.P1110362How cute is the back V neck and the bow?P1110378It’s these small design elements that make a simple dress stand out.P1110379When sewing a lapped zipper, it is a good idea to add a few millimeters to the seam allowance, I forgot to do that, so it was very fiddly getting the zipper in correctly, but I got it to work.P1110394Yes, I can move in this dress.  So a wedding in two weeks and then the High Holidays, I am loving my new dress.

Leah

Abandoned Gold Mine

History is very fickle, we learn one thing and any other information that doesn’t fit that narrative simply isn’t true. It doesn’t occur to us that the truth can encompass our original knowledge plus more.

Case in point, gold mines.  The existed in Northern CA and maybe parts of Nevada, but certainly not in Southern California. This weekend I had the opportunity to hike to a local mine and learn a lot, not only about gold but also about the old fashioned way of mining.

Kudos to The Los Angeles Obscura Society for organizing  a hike in the Angeles Forest to The Big Horn Mine with expert Eric aka Xavier Drenfold, a twenty year old kid with a passion for old mines.P1110281The mine was discovered in 1895. What we see here is the active, rapid decay of the mill. The Mine itself is tunneled into the mountain, this structure was the mill, where the gold was extracted from the rock. By the time it left the mountain, about 98% of the gold had been extracted – a very high rate. The work was done onsite – simply because it was more cost effective.P1110284The structure is rapidly falling apart, in 20 years it will be completely gone. These mountains erode very quickly as we found on our hike out, the July rainstorm caused a lot of erosion that hadn’t been there just a month before. Mills are always built at the exit of the mine, right on the slope, so of course, the structure is collapsing. P1110300A massive iron hook to hold the cablesP1110286Flowers grow among the steal cables.P1110285Pilings that held the ore-carts.

Getting all this equipment up the mountain was probably achieved by using mules. We hiked a long what is left of a road that was built out to the mine. The man who found the mine, Thomas Vincent never had the money to invest -so he sold to someone else and worked for them.P1110289This mine was never very profitable, because of how the gold is embedded in other minerals, it is simply very hard to extract – especially with the old techniques of one hundred years ago. The Mine changed hands at least 7 times, no one made much of a profit. In 2006 the Forest service bought it since it is surrounded by National Forest land, so whatever gold is there – will remain.mineYes, it is a little scary standing in here, who knows when something will give way and fall.P1110283I’m sorry to see that graffiti is now the norm even out in the wilderness. Yes I hold the Art world somewhat responsible – they decided that graffiti is art and even have exhibitions of it in museums – all this does is encourage more people to go out and tag.  As cities have gotten better at controlling graffiti, people simply go out and destroy nature – because they can. Also because they have been told that it is ‘art’ and is valuable. No it isn’t, it’s ugly, it’s destructive and its harmful.P1110298At least they haven’t gotten to this side yet.P1110291These rickety stairs were placed here in the 1970s’  not a safe way to get up to the actual mine. But You know me, old man made materials are often very beautiful to me, especially as they age and decay.P1110294Like here, the confluence of  materials.  Once the mine is no longer operational, no one is going to spend any money removing the structures and much of the equipment. Which is what makes the mines so fascinating. The Forest service does not like this and they have been destroying and closing up mines where ever they can. They are about the forest and the safety of hikers, not about preserving mines – even if they are an important part of our heritage.P1110293Massive bolt.P1110297Part of the stamp process that still remains.P1110267This is the entrance to a smaller mine we passed along the way, but this is what the Forest service has done to many of these mines. The only reason they haven’t blasted this shut is because of the bats that live here.P1110301Most of the group went in to explore, sorry, I get very nervous in dark closed spaces, a few flash lights won’t make it easier for me.P1110302So I snapped a few images at the entrance and went back down.  If you are interested in images from inside the mine, got to Xavier’s Flicker page.  I must say I was extremely impressed with Eric. 20 years old, has found a passion in life, yet he recognizes that exploring old mines is no way to make a living, so he is studying nursing. That way he will have a good solid career as well as a fascinating hobby.P1110287Nature is right outside the mine.

Leah

Pink baby quilt

I started this project months ago, since I wanted to keep it a secret I haven’t shared anything until now. Now that I have gifted the quilt to the new baby. Most of these fabrics were in my stash but I admit to ‘needing’ to buy a few more pink prints, like the one with the princess.P1090584Its nice to have a color theme, like pink. When working with prints, that can mean almost anything.  When starting this kind of project I start with the center panel, in this case, using  a four way layout for the clamshells.  I basted the center medallion on a solid background and appliqued it with the buttonhole stitch on the machine.P1090590I love adding grey to pink, so the first border was added.P1090591Then I started auditioning a complementary snap as the next border. I like the shape but the size is too big. P1090592This size works, but not the layout,  I just didn’t have enough space, I also didn’t want to cut leaves in half.P1090644One solution is to add another border in a darker shade of pink.P1090645I was able to play with the layout on the top and bottom, I was hoping for the same affect on the sides, the math didn’t work. I also tried the leaves going in opposite directions, it didn’t look right.  This is what looked the most pleasing to me. I love these aspects of designing, working out the problems as I go.  I have no interest in selling patterns, this is my creativity for me and for the person getting the quilt.P1100093Small quilts are wonderful for practicing. I did both free motion quilting on the solid pink background as well as some ruler work.  I don’t have the correct quilting foot for this so I’m improvising. I did buy a ruler foot that is supposed to work with my Juki, but it makes too much noise, so I’m looking for other options.P1100163I am so pleased with the quilting,  practice really does make better.P1100170Always fun to see the quilting on the back, I used two colors of thread which may not be noticeable from the front, but pops on the back.P1100173Finished and beautiful.P1100167With a scrappy back, using leftover blocks and fabrics.

This quilt sat around for over two months. I had to wait for the baby to be born to be able to label it and gift it.

Leah

Art Deco in Chicago

Chicago is full of wonderful Art Deco, I just snapped a lot of photos. I realized that  sharing small close up images is better than the large whole building.P1110112Sometimes you want both most of  building, because it’s so beautiful. Carbide and Carbon building.Carbide and Carbon building, Chicago IllI love the details here so much, of course it’s hard to see until  one looks at a close up of a photograph.P1110114Of course the best way to attract attention to the tower is using gold, real gold leaf.  I took this picture in the late afternoon with the sun shining on the tower which makes it all shimmer like gold.P1100893This fabulous Art Deco fountain is next to the Chicago Board of Trade building. Wow!  Funny the man sitting in the background was confused as to why I was taking pictures. I just said: this is an amazing piece of Art Deco – I think I just confused him more.P1100894 Detail. I wonder if this is made from Mallechort, the same material used on the Oviatt Building here in LA. It looks like silver but it doesn’t tarnish.
P1100848I’m sure many a cattle future were determined in this building. Remember the  Chicago Stockyards? (sort of like Coalinga off the 5 Freeway in central California – just much much larger). What an amazing example of a  graphic Art Deco bull.P1110088Riverside Plaza,  as seen from the wonderful Architecture River cruise.  Once again, I couldn’t see the images well until I cropped the photos.P1110081A small portion of the enormous Chicago Mercantile exchange.P1100785I don’t remember the name of this building, it is on Michigan Ave. in the Magnificent mile.P1100926Art Deco interiors are wonderful as well. Bank America building.  I got yelled at cuz I shot a photo looking into the actual bank floor, this is not it.P1100924Look at the mailbox!!  It looks like an Art Deco building, not like the one it’s in though. Notice the lights in the high-rise? That lets you know where the elevator cars are. Function and beauty working very well together.P1100854Back in the Rookery, the elevator lobby was updated in the 20s to Art Deco style. Wonderful lamp as well as the elevator doors that are decorated with birds. Anything to get the idea of Rookery to stick.P1100889This one even has owls!P1100878How cool is this! Also in the Rookery, on the third floor, a perfect frame for the elevator buttons.

I’m breaking up my Chicago images, there was so much to see and to share.

Leah