Happy Christmas, Merry Hanukkah

Dear Liza,

This year, Christmas Day evening was also the first night of Hanukkah, so of course we combined the two and had a fine time with Auntie Katie and the Cousins.

But first, there was a pork roast to start, presents from out of town to open, and a table to set. It was a wonderful, if slightly overwhelming, morning.

But once things were settled, and before company arrived, I needed to take a walk out in the fresh, rainy air of the neighborhood. My pretty new scarf from Grandpa Nelson goes perfectly with my sweater and hat from Donna! Whoever thought I would be wearing a coordinating, purple outfit?

Outside, the puddles were wide and no one was out, but it was the quiet and calm I needed in a busy day.

And once the family showed up, all was well. We ate and talked and were silly, like always. I love that with kids, every year is different. Their tastes, ideas, and conversation always surprise and amaze me.

After dinner we lit the candles for the first day of Hanukkah, and Katie set them up with some tin foil. “Putting the candles in the window is a mitzvah,” she explained. “Dripping wax on the sill isn’t.” Auntie Bridgett agreed. I like this picture of the menorah and reflections, through the window to John and Stacy’s balcony lights.

We opened presents, including a book of Charlie Brown mad libs and some fabulous books from Katie’s shop. There will be some good reading on these chilly winter days.

Then came the dessert/ artsy portion of the evening. My Christmas pudding was delicious but wouldn’t light… let’s hope the superstition about that (no flame, no good luck) is inaccurate.

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Other activities were more successful. Katie and the Cousins had spent their day baking sugar cookies and making royal icing, and we all got to decorate, if we wanted.

Just like doing art online with Ruthie, we all enjoyed each others company while doing our own thing.

I love that Katie has a huge variety of cookie cutters, collected over many years. We had Teddy bears, ninjas, duckies, stars, and what seem to be tiny, baby monsters… wonderful, odd, and sincere. Like us!

Katie even made sense out of Grandma Billie’s Santa shape. It looked wonderful, with gummy bears coming out of the sack!

We watched an old Dr. Who episode which included Vincent Van Gogh, which I enjoyed very much, and then took a group photo… with some difficulty.

Balancing a thin iPhone on a flower vase and then pushing the button with JUST enough force to activate the timer but not enough to knock the phone over is a tricky maneuver. But after many tries, it worked!

And here we are, our own silly selves.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Tuba Christmas and More!

Dear Liza,

The day after our anniversary celebration, we headed downtown to see all the pretties and hustle and bustle. Our first target was the Tuba Christmas at Pioneer Square, which is called The Living Room. This concert involves more than a hundred folks, ages 11 to 89, playing low brass instruments, like tuba, sousaphone, baritone, and euphonium.

This concert is so popular, we could only find spots to stand on the level above and hear the concert, rather than see it. Still, it was lovely. The music swells up and bounces off the buildings as pigeons fly around.

Around the corner and down the block we found some Dickensian carolers. Beautiful costumes and sweet four part harmonies made it really feel like Christmas, with smiling crowds and busy traffic.

Further along, we found Director Park. During the summer, the fountain here is great for splashing, but today it is better for running and climbing. Also at the park were cozy fire pits,

our old friend Jay Ringer playing music on his pocket trumpet and melodium,

and some young men making s’mores with Graham crackers, marshmallows and blow torches. Not surprisingly, they were exactly what we needed on this chilly day.

In the small building in the park was a whole shop of goodies from our local artist Mike Bennett. Stuffties, stickers, glasses, and lots of other delightful things were selling very well.

About this time, we realized that, even with the s’mores, we were pooped and ready to head home. We walked down Alder to the bus stop to catch the magic 15.

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Scrapbooking Fifty Years

Dear Liza,

I’m making another book, because I really love making books! Also, with Grandpa Nelson and I celebrating FIFTY years of marriage, it seemed like a retrospective was called for.

My first thought was that it would be a simple photo album, maybe a picture or two from each of our 50 years. But the more I thought about it, I realized that I have some skills and imagination, and if I put them to work, this could be something worth sharing, maybe even passing down.

First, I needed a book to build the album in. Down at Belmont Books, Joe has all sorts of possibilities. I chose this one because it is sturdy, lays flat, and has enough (probably too many) pages to work with. Collage always makes a book much thicker, and I can tear out the leftover pages when I’m done.

For the covet, I found just the right papers in Auntie Bridgett’s collage boxes. A very 1970s vibe….

I went through my own collage boxes for postcards, maps and ticket stubs that will help tell our story. I also pulled dozens of photos. Since original photos from back then were printed on stiff paper, I used my scanner to make more flexible copies.

I’m afraid Grandpa and Bridgett are putting up with the dining table being a bit cluttered!

Still, slowly, page by page, front to back and with lots of moving and shifting (and not gluing anything down until I’m sure it’s in the right place!) it is coming together. I use mod podge as my adhesive, making sure to let each page dry and get pressed before building the next one. Each page will also have some sentences about what was happening at the time… I’ll type them in Bridgett’s vintage typewriter to feel old fashioned and cool.

As I collect pictures and remember more adventures, I keep shifting things… like real life, this project is going to be more complicated than I first thought.

But each page will tell of another adventure… even though some are not very detailed yet. All I can promise is that it probably won’t take a whole fifty years to get it done!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Working Around Laurelhurst Park

Dear Liza,

I went for a walk around Laurelhurst the other day between the rains, and there was a lot going on!

These lovely people were working at the horse shoe pits, cleaning up the edges and digging out the mud to make them beautiful and useable for the next season.

They are, left to right, Kimber, Brian, Taylor and Dylan. They all work for the Portland Parks Department, and Dylan works full time at Laurelhurst.

The horse shoe pits are his “Passion Project”, approved and funded by the City, with work done by he and his friends.

There are about ten sets of horse shoe pits, so this is a big job. I am so glad our park has such enthusiastic support!

On my way out of the park, I ran into this fellow sweating at a giant puddle. He was trying to unclog a storm drain, working with a regular household broom and a pick-up stick, neither of which were doing the job very well.

Every time he got a spot draining, a glob of leaves would wash in and stop it up again.

As we chatted, a City truck came by and checked in, and seeing the need, the driver pulled over. He pulled out a fine strong crowbar and, after just a few strokes, got the blockage cleared.

Now the puddle won’t block traffic or make a mess for dogs and bikes.

With our rainy season just picking up speed, these improvements will keep our park in good shape for years to come.
Love,

Grandma Judy

Starting From Scratch

Dear Liza,

I have stated using some of those pieces of art calendar that Jennifer sent up! After several days of looking and sorting and staring, I decided to start with these few.

Because they all had a sort of golden, brown antique-ish look, with touches of red, I used acrylic paints and an old card to make some papers to complement the art.

This was a bit too yellow, so I added some brown and scraped it down a bit.

This seemed a good start, but it needed another color. Red, maybe, but not RED.

These two mixed together to make (mostly) what I was looking for. Once I got a few done, I started laying the bits down to see how they looked.

As with any artistic process, this went on for quite a while. Lay it down, go do something else, come back, have a look, trim some pictures, move some bits.

This is as far as I have gotten as of now, but I’ll let you know as it progresses. I think it needs another layer of something, and some darker bits.

I love collage! No special skill is needed, or special training. There is only a need for bits to glue down, and an opinion about “what looks good”.

Love,

Grandma Judy

The New PDX Part 2

Dear Liza,

Besides its amazing ceiling and comfortable, interesting seating, the new Main Terminal at PDX has lots of things to enjoy.

All of the shops are local! Country Cat, which was a favorite cafe in Montavilla for years, still uses its original logo. Portland Coffee Roasters, Loyal Legion Beer Hall and Paper Ephiphanies all offer goods made here in Portland. It is all at “Street Pricing”, too. No jacked-up 7$ bottles of water!

Orax, which sells handmade leather goods, is not only local, it is history making! Owner Carmen Martinez told me that is the first Latina owned shop in any airport in the country! (I have not verified her claim.)

And there is art! This gallery above the bleacher type seating features Yoonhi Choi and her process for creating the frosted glass walls used in the Arrivals corridor. Since we were not Arrivals, we could only see a few yards of it…. But it is stunning!

Gently shifting video screens high overhead provide visually interesting but restful scenes of forests, flowers, and waterfalls.

There are even delightfully bright mosaics in small corridors the way to the restrooms.

We won’t get to see the “Past Security” part of the airport until Spring, but just the front terminal is a jewel, and well worth a drive out or a trip in the Red line train.

Love,

Grandma Judy

The New PDX Part 1

Dear Liza,

Auntie Bridgett flew down to visit her family in San Diego this week. This gave us the perfect excuse to see the newly remodeled Portland Airport Terminal.

Our airport here in Portland has been under construction for years, and I have always found it to be a bit of tangle. But the signs all over the terminals told me it was going to be wonderful, organic, and local. And they weren’t wrong.

I was pleased, amazed, and delighted. The first thing you will notice (and keep staring at, from every angle) is the ceiling. It is an enormous waving sea of timber that floats over the giant open space of the Main Terminal.

The ceiling is made of glulam, a light weight, super strong material made from wood all harvested within a hundred miles of Portland. It is supported by giant, tree-like Y supports.

The floor is delightfully flow-y but low-key, as if it doesn’t want to detract from that ceiling.

The place was pretty busy when we were there, but the noise was minimal. The wavy, open ceiling seems to soak up the sounds of rolling suitcases and crying children and the inevitable echoes. We sat comfortably on a beautifully designed set of bleachers for quite a while and could whisper to each other.

There is so much more I want to tell you about the new airport! See you tomorrow!

Love,

Grandma Judy

So Much Art!

Dear Liza,

My friend Jennifer is such a sweetie! A few weeks ago, she was up visiting from California and asked if I would be interested in ‘an art calendar’ to use in my collages.

“If you feel like mailing it, sure!” I smiled. I have learned never to turn down art supplies.

And just the other day, what come in the mail?? Three years of this art calendar!! A whole 1,095 pages, printed on BOTH sides. A whopping 2,190 pieces of art.

These are on good quality paper, and about 4 inches by 5 inches. That’s a lot of art!!

I am already feeling both inspired and overwhelmed. With just the two evenings I have spent flipping through and sorting, I have pulled a couple that seem destined to go together. These two, a fabric print and a piece of jewelry, look like a poster for The Lion King.

And this fellow, cut from an unrelated postcard, could use this millefeuille glass paperweight as a lovely mandala. He needs work, though…I’ll let you know.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Playing with Vincent

Dear Liza,

Falling deeper into the deep hole that is collage, I have started snipping at all sorts of things. Months ago, Bridgett and I picked up a bunch of postcards at the Portland Art Museum for almost nothing. Some of these became my latest victims.

There were lots of prints of Vincent van Gough’s works, and some of them seemed like they could go together. I carefully cut the elements of the cards apart and moved them around.

I liked this combination, showing Vincent’s lovely irises springing happily from head, while his face maintains a very serious expression. Having got the idea in my own head, the tiny fiddly bits became a problem. Fractions of millimeters became very important.

I also remembered to scratch the shiny surface of the picture with a pin where they overlapped so the glue would stick better.

And there you have it! My interpretation of Van Gough’s creative process.

That little gap between his head and his coat is on purpose, by the way. I liked how it mad him look a bit more wonky.

And finally, I got it the way I liked it, trimmed it up, and will mail it off to my friend Richard tomorrow.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Layers of Details

Dear Liza,

I showed you some of the acrylic cards I made with Ruthie Inman last week. After an hour and a half of gleefully painting, I had seven different card fronts in blues and greens, and no idea what to do with them.

I wanted to do something, though, and I decided to start with this one.

Looking for ideas, I hunted through my box of old projects, and found a leaf we did several autumns ago.

So I drew the leaf and put in the divisions. and then thickened the lines and rounded the corners with a micron 08 pen. I liked it, but I could tell it wasn’t done yet.

With the dark background, it needed something more in the leaf to make it stand out. I added a few dots, liked the look, and just kept adding. It was better. But not done yet.

Auntie Bridgett suggested that I make the outside a bit lighter. I used yellow and white acrylics, thinned with some medium, to lay down a few thin layers.

It still wasn’t right, but I was afraid to do anything to it for fear of making it WORSE. Bridgett to the rescue! “We can take a picture of it, put it in my computer with Procreate, and see which looks best.” This was a new idea for me, but I’m always willing to learn.

How about these dots on the outside? Nope.

Maybe outline the sections? Yellow? Or white?

That was it! Yellow, please. So I picked up a yellow Posca marker and made it right.

And boom, done, it’s on its way to you!

Love,

Grandma Judy