Saturday, January 27, 2024

A Fantastic Weekend!

(Above:  The kitchen at our Cateechee mill village church renovation!)

Most weeks find me packing box after box and loading dozens of our framed artwork into the van.  Then, Steve and I are off to haul everything into the sanctuary of our Cateechee mill village church.  The sanctuary will become my giant-sized fiber art studio.  Nowadays, it is simply the place for waiting appliances, plumbing and lighting fixtures, and whatever we've moved in boxes, etc.  Why?  Well, the former Sunday school rooms, choir room, and offices are currently being renovated into our future living area.  So far, the kitchen is ahead of the other rooms.  It looks AMAZING!  Under that piece of plastic and plywood is a gorgeous walnut butcher block island.  Steve and I have never had an island.  We have never had new appliances either.  This is all super exciting ... especially since this kitchen was "custom made" ... 

... including dove-tailed drawers and a two-layer "lazy Susan" (always hated that name!) in the corner cabinet! 

The kitchen is open to this dining area where the floors are still "a work in progress" but the lighting unit has been installed!

While we were dropping off a van load on Friday, we saw several people hard at work ... including Mr. Lopez who was painting the trim on the newly installed stained glass windows.  We were overjoyed to see them.

The two stained glass windows were once in our living room.  We commissioned them from a former employee who was, at the time, working on his MFA as a painter.  He installed them in front of the existing windows and told us that they could be "taken out" and "installed elsewhere" ... if we ever moved.  At the time, I never thought this would happen ... but last week, it did!

The stained glass windows overlook the altar area ... just like the three windows that are part of our future living room!

One day, Steve says he will paint the altar area.  Currently, that's not part of the renovation!

We've hired a professional moving company to move our bigger furniture and most of our framing equipment.  That will happen on February 21st.  We have, however, decided to get a totally new bed for the bedroom! 

After we left the church, we drove to Atlanta for the evening opening reception at Spalding Nix Fine Art.  The gallery has four distinct areas for four, separate solo shows.  As a new artist to SNFA, I am truly honored to have been given the hallway area for a selection of my Found Object Mandalas.

 

Steve and I had no expectations for this opening.  Thus, we were beyond stunned at the standing room crowd.  Despite not knowing anyone there, I talked to plenty of people.  It was a wonderful evening!

We spent the night outside Atlanta and drove home this morning.  It rained nearly the entire trip but we still stopped at Elder Mill covered bridge ...

 

... and I got plenty of hand-stitching done on a new commission!

3 comments:

Linda Laird said...

Dear Susan,
The more energy you expend, the more you seem to have!
I don't see how you can now become "a full time artist" unless you actually never sleep!

Best wishes to you and your dear husband in your marvelous new home. Have you thought of adding a B&B to it, to accommodate all of your fans who will be dropping by for the grand tour? (I'm only partly kidding!)

Linda Laird

Margaret said...

Wow! The renos look great! (Our parish church kitchen could do with a makeover; I envy yours!)

Still hanging on -- and adding to -- the 'pile' of goodies I'm going to send you. Have decided to wait till after you move and settle in. Onward! (Hugs from Alberta...)

Ann Scott said...

I'm so excited for you two! Congratulations on another solo show and the crowd size. I'm sure there was great chatter about and around the found object Mandalas. Best wishes for your continued adventures.