A normal evening in the Celii-Thackston household...

It all started with Mr. Puppy aka JC enjoying his third mid-afternoon nap.

Meanwhile, Pollux was busy hunting flies (both real and imaginary).

Growing tired, Pollux decided to snuggle up with JC where they remained for the next hour. Then Molly the Terrible came in from outside...

and layed the smack down on Pollux. And by smack down I mean she pinned him and proceeded to like every inch of him.


Satisfied that Pollux is now clean, she turned her attentions to JC.

Not one to turn the other cheek, the big JC retaliates. This continued for quite sometime until finally Molly and JC decided to make up...

twice.

Nella Vita di Taffeta

The past couple weeks have been filled with lots of great projects, one of which is making curtains for Shane's sister Jonelle. She picked out this really pretty iridescent blue crushed taffeta that hangs amazingly. Curtains and I have a love hate relationship and these of course proved no different, but every challenge presents an opportunity to learn something new. In this case if the devil was a shape he would be a rectangle. It's like my Zoolanderish weakness but where I can turn left I can't cut a square. But in the end and I was happy with the results, and hopefully Jonelle is too.

Here you can see one of the small panels and how dramatic they will be.


Here you can see when the flash is one the iridecense of hte curtains. They have blackout backing so the light won't pass through them. At first I was hesitant about how the fabric would look as curatins, but once they were done I was tempted to keep them for myself.

Nella Vita di an underground preservation revolution

As a lover of preservation, the earth, doing the right thing, and not condemning us all to hell, I must admit that I have committed certain sins. It has been two months since last visiting a historic site and I have had impure thoughts about a cul-de-sac. Joking aside, I have, and will continue to, shopped at chain stores including the death star of chain stores, he-who-must-not-be-named, the rose-bud of Satan's childhood: Wal-Mart. Yes, I just can't resist their cheap prices, plethora of supplies, and the golden opportunities to build my self esteem by simply be observing the so-called 'people' who shop there (myself excluded of course). I would much rather shop local independent stores, but pricing and availability makes it difficult sometimes. But I've found there are some things I can do to make an impact, albeit small. First, I always pay with my debit card (not credit, debt is evil…a topic for another day perhaps). Every time I swipe, Wal-Mart pays for that transaction. While normally I eschew plastic bags, I like to bag each item individually at Wal-Mart because they have to pay for those bags. Plus I get the added satisfaction of reusing Wal-Mart bags as litterbox liners and pooper-scoopers. Transversely, when I'm shopping at a local store or my favorite third place near work, Blue Ridge Café, I always try to pay cash so there is more profit for mom and pop. Plus I never use a bag and try to limit using plastic ware because they have to pay for those. Now in no ways am I naïve enough to think that my actions will really make a difference, but at the very least they assuage some of my chain store shopping guilt.

Nella Vita di Secret Gardens

Last week was the United Way’s Day of Caring where thousands of volunteers from area organizations and companies go out into the community for various service projects. The City of Charlottesville was sent to a community education facility for landscaping/yard maintenance. I was looking forward to a morning outdoors away from the office and getting some exercise so I could later rationalize my decision not to go to the gym. The day ended up being more than that, it turned out to be a ‘secret garden, this is why I love preservation’ type of day. It turns out where the school now stands was once a large manor estate. All that remains of this parcel of land’s former identity are a series of terraced gardens separated by field stone walls dating to about the nineteen teens. When we arrived that day all we saw was vast overgrowth and the promise that we may find some cool things. By the end of the day, Charlottesville workers and also workers from State Farm had cleared out level upon level of gardens. Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of what the gardens look like (I may have to ‘visit’ the grounds to get some). Roughly, they start at the top of a large hill and then descend down the hill towards what is now the Schenks Branch creek. A rock wall wraps around the entire property with a foot trial running along the wall. The manor house is now completely gone along with this large pond that was once on the property (I can understand tearing down a house, but how does a pond just disappear!). The coolest part of the whole day was getting to see all the other volunteers begin to critically examine the history of a place and realize that things may not always be what they seem, but that with a little sweat (literally in this case) the past is just waiting for its secrets to be uncovered.

Nella Vita di Puppers

Nothing makes me happier than seeing my two favorite doggies snuggled up and sharing the sunny spot in the kitchen together. Oh how I love my puppies! If you look closely you can see JC's "baby" fox. He carries it around with him everywhere and since the day we brought him home he always makes sure he has toys surrounding him at all times. Whereas in a classic display of older sisterhood, Molly loves waiting til JC falls asleep to begin to remove all of his precious "babies."

Nella Vita di Future Historic Districts

Recently I was at a lecture with a couple different design professionals and one of them (bless his little heart) stated something that I believe should be tattooed on more than one designer/developer’s head: “We are designing America’s future historic districts.” How powerful is that. Too often those who are in charge of designing and building our new spaces and places can’t see past the potential profit they stand to make. A quick look at materials and construction methods will clearly show that they clearly are not concerned with the longevity of the project. But let’s just say these cookie cutter cracker jack boxes survive into the next 100, 200, or even 300 years, what will they say about life in America in the 2000s? What cultural and social clues will future generations learn from these buildings? I can’t even begin to fathom or comprehend the fact that one day school children may visit Ye Olde Wallyworld where re-enactors in blue vests greet them at the door and show them all the crazy things their ancestors used to buy (“and these q-tips came all the way from China kids on boats and planes but the cotton came from India. Of course this is what they used before ionic ear cleaners…)

Now of course to have an accurate view of history you need to preserve both the good and the bad, brutally and honestly; otherwise you get a false sense of what the past really was. Sure those historic buildings and gardens at Monticello are much more elaborate than what people have today, because hell, I’d have the nicest house on the block if I had a couple hundred people who willing took care and maintained it for free, and sure Germany, Poland, and other European countries have pretty fields full of flowers and soft soft grass at places like Auschwitz…almost as if there is a lot of rich organic matter beneath the ground fertilizing them. I think you can see my point. So it is important to save the good along with the bad (in this case the poorly designed and executed). But when the bulk majority of what our society is creating just makes you want to shake you head and sigh disappointedly, its hard not to write a letter to the future apologizing and explaining that we were not all commercially shallow people who lived in identical houses on identical streets in identical sprawling towns. If nothing else, perhaps we can start designating well-thought out and sensitive developments as historic at their ribbon cuttings, thus ensuring we have some good representation in the future.

Nella Vita di PoPos on the MoMo

Ever wonder what happens to old cop cars? Well like keyboards they wind up at our house. Yesterday was the City’s annual auction and the bargain hunter got the deal of the day: a 2001 Chevy Impala with 100,000 miles for $600. In its prior life it had been a cop car, and it still has some of its lights (or the fun we will have…) Its body is reinforced with steel I guess in case it was involved in a high speed chase, so the dear of North Garden better watch out. It’s at our mechanics for the moment being checked out while we try and determine what to do with it. It will either be sold for profit, kept and used as Shane’s main car, kept as a spare or sold with Shane’s other car to perhaps replace his dearly departed Jetta. So we shall see…