whatever knitting and other textile-based expressions end up festooning our grotto -- besides the blackwork tablecloth that started it all, or the canvaswork eggplant, or maybe a curtain -- they will all have to live up to two amazing artifacts shown here. yes, we have had brushes with greatness -- by proxy -- in our time. the warthog from hell and the incredible hulk both bestow their blessings upon our home.
back in the way-back, when ben and i were just friends, we were tromping around one day and he commented that the previous night on the x-files he had seen "the guy who was the bounty hunter in raising arizona", whom he much admired. "oh," i said, "that's tex cobb, and he lives in philly. i see him all the time."
ben was pretty amazed by that. i'm not sure he believed me. within probably no more than two weeks time, i had run into tex on the 34 trolley and had procured for ben this signed photo.
no wonder
ben
fell crazy in love with me. one minute he's admiring nameless actors on television and the next i am delivering their inscribed photos to his doorstep! i am beyond stupendous! you will note that the inscription here is a bit worse for wear, having spent much time on various refrigerators. we need to get it to the framers.
years later -- just a few months ago to be exact -- the perfect companion piece for tex showed up. megan and tom went to some geek convention and brought me this beautiful personalized photo of lou ferigno as the incredible hulk. sweet! i've always, always been a fan of the hulk, as long as i can remember. when i was four i used to get bad ear infections and the frequent trips to the doctor were rewarded with a grape slurpee and a hulk comic book (the stacks of which perhaps i should have thought to save. dad: commence beating head on desk).
the hulk was my earliest crush on a husky, hairy guy. (i should track the progression at some point: hulk, ed asner, henry kissinger, meatloaf, dennis franz... ben.)
there are more exciting things going on the walls down in the grotto, too, but they are too large to scan and too rolled up to photograph. our amazing richard cheese lithograph. my signed ana voog poster! there will be space for it all.
you may remember that we decided to make our basement into a livable space, which we have been calling the grotto. all the result, you see, of a tablecloth given to me by a friend on my birthday -- a tablecloth worth creating a little room around.
more progress is being made. we were slowed down a tad because one of the AC units on the first floor died and ate a bit of the funds put aside for grotto-making, but we seem to be back on track.
much to the dismay of both cats,
ben
and tim did away with the hideous old couch that was down there...
...and
ben
painted the walls. they are not as bright as these pictures demonstrate.
this weekend, ben painted the floor, too. (pictures will be forthcoming.)
i have not made much progress on the canvaswork eggplant that i plan to put on the wall down here, but the grotto is going to need a room-dividing curtain, and for that, i plan to sew. just piecework, no fancy quilt-stitching or anything, but i've picked some funky fabrics, and hopefully will have enough extra for some throw cushions too. most of it is from glorious color, some from reprodepot.
i picked these out quite some time ago and you never know, sometimes stuff isn't available anymore, but i think i can be rather free and easy about it... i don't really know what i need from this curtain yet. having little electronic fabric "swatches", though, is a good way to know how you want things to go together!
we know some of the artwork and memorabilia that's going on the walls, too, but i'll save it for another time!
for valentine's day
ben
gave me this kit -- an eggplant designed by kaffe fassett. i have been wanting to do canvas needlepoint for a long time. i have always loved how it looks -- much more than i like cross-stitch (which i do not really like at all).
when i was a kid, both of my parents did canvas needlepoint. i remember my mother transferring a drawing i had made when i was about four, to canvas, and stitching it -- in garish colors that were historically correct considering the photowhite drawing paper and felt tip markers i had used to make the drawing. it was never completed, this canvas, and i had it in my possession for awhile, but think i have since thrown it out.
i remember my dad working on, in fact, a chart of a green pepper. he used a book -- this is a real thing people and i am entreating him to look for it in his house to prove it -- called rosey greer's needlepoint for men. yes, that rosey greer -- the thing with two heads, o.j. simpson's spiritual counsellor, and, oh, wasn't he a football player? and needlepointer. again, i have asked my dad to look for the book but know that i run the risk of him not finding the book but instead "finding" a bunch of other things that he will then try to bring here. the man needs to learn to use ebay. (well, except for that oak sideboard, daddy).
the eggplant i believe is meant to be a seat cover or maybe a pillow but also maybe a wall hanging, so it will go on the wall down in the grotto. there is precious little info online about best practices in canvaswork. i am remembering what my parents used to do, i guess, or at least trying.
i have been meaning to get to this for some time now; you will notice over to the right there that this "grotto" thing is a whole new category. some entries in it will also be in other categories, and some will just be here -- because they will involve things like sewing -- which, although not out of place on this blog, probably will not warrant an entire category, since i don't much care for it.
you see here, our basement. at least one part of our basement -- there are two parts. the "finished" part and the "unfinished" part. the finished part is currently occupied not only by cat items and a washer and dryer and a concept II rowing machine, but an ugly clock and a big ugly couch, both left by the former owners of the house.
here's another view of it. you will note that in this photo hillel is giving his famous symposium on How Not To Be Seen.
anyway, we knew that eventually that this "finished" part of the basement would look like something other than this, but we didn't know what. and then, i got a gift for my birthday -- a tablecloth.
this forty inch square linen tablecloth just took my breath away. the linen. to touch it -- it's incredible. i was very, very in love with the tablecloth. but where to put the tablecloth? i didn't want it just draped over something. i wanted to see it flat out. i also wanted it protected.
then, one day, i was taking laundry into the basement, and there was cat puke on the floor, and it hit me -- we should be eating down here!
thus, "the grotto" was born. or begun to be born. we think of it as rather, say, a north african-inspired rumpus room, for eating and knitting and board meetings, or something. we shall document its progress here!
as for the "unfinished" portion of the basement, that's pretty interesting too. we started seedlings in it this year. it would also work as a darkroom or place to keep ungainly bookbinding equiptment (if we had any.) currently it houses my collection of poultry wishbones, giving it a kind of "chez de leatherface" feel.