Arontius of Bygelswade

.....We spent Friday in Seattle, which turned out to be a lot of fun. As usual, we started out with a nice and leisurely concept. And then added and added and added to it until it became one of those meals you have where your eyes were bigger than your stomach. :-)

.....We wanted to go to Ikea for a number of things that only they carry. Then a trip to Threadneedle Street was discussed. Then we talked about the Seattle Weavers Guild show. We finally had to sit down and figure out what we were going to do and not. The Seattle Weavers Guild show and a trip to Ikea won out the day.

.....We piled into Florence, the Wonder Van, at around 8:30, fortified with Starbucksm, and hit the road. :-)

.....countess_e had joined in on the conversation the day before, so we started the day by stopping by her place and picking her up for the ride. Cire was just starting to get over a nasty cold, so we ended up taking the puppy with us as well. For all his friskiness outside his portable kennel, the puppy was really well behaved during the transport. Most of the time we hardly knew the puppy and the crate were even there.

.....The first stop was Ikea. TBT and I were getting a lot of good ideas from wandering the store. I tend to be a little leary of Ikea as most of the 'stuff' I have purchased there has a short shelf life. But seeing the displays can be inspirational and lead to plans and visions of what we'd like to see.

.....I especially became excited in the kitchen area. For the first time I could 'see' the concept of the kitchen modules on display 'slipping' into the space we have for a kitchen right now. I don't know why my brain hadn't seen it as easily at Home Depot or Lowes. But I could see the house in my mind as a large box with smaller boxes for each space of the house. It was then pretty easy to see the box that was the kitchen being lifted out and a new kitchen module, pre designed and with all the pieces ready to go, slipping into its place. I'm not sure why the concept was as difficult to grasp as it was until then.

.....I'm not sure an Ikea package is the way to go. But it might be. The total packages ran upwards of $12,000. We'd do the demolition of the current kitchen, but I think I'd enjoy that part. We still need to figure out what to do with the wall that separates the kitchen from the Living Room, which will require a professional to come and take a look at it. I'm also going to push hard that professionals actually come in an do the installation. If we were to do it, the kitchen would be gutted and would sit there over the next five years as we slowly worked through that. Hmmm, I don't think I want to go through that. :-)

.....That false ceiling has got to go as well! I hate the cave-like feeling of the kitchen. The foot or two we would get from removing that false ceiling would be totally worth it. At some point we need to get the popcorn in the Living Room tested as well. I really don't think there is asbestos in it, but you can't be absolutely sure until you get it tested. The house was built in the early seventies and asbestos was still a regularly used item then.

.....We picked up a couple of folding wood chairs from Ikea that TBT really liked. We've been wanting to move away from the canvas camp chairs anyway. That will be difficult as they are so convenient. But I'm going to be weaning myself from them this summer and only bring a couple of extras instead of a half dozen or more extras. :-)

.....I wish we could get the organization of our camping equipment done before the Tourney Season, but sadly, I don't think that is going to happen this year. So I guess it is another year of hodge-podge. We'll make it work.

.....After Ikea, it was lunch at Mizu, which was as good as usual. Then the run up to the Nordic Heritage Museum.

.....The Seattle Weavers Guild show is on the second floor, taking up the space of little more than a large room. There was some amazing works there! Some incredibly intricate weaving on display! Madrun gave us a guided tour.

.....When you walk into the door, you were met by some pieces of linen and silk tapestries in white that hung from the ceiling. The designs were woven into the background. Amazing designs of scenic landscapes. All in white. Hard to describe in words, but incredibly beautiful. In another part of the room were some other silk shawls where the colors were all the same, but a design had been woven into the fabric. Really stunning stuff.

.....Lots of other weavings and pictures on the walls and displays. I actually wish there had been more space so we could have seen more examples of the work.

.....Madrun's work dominated the display case of card weaving. Her stuff is absolutely amazing! TBT took some pictures of it I think she might put on Live Journal at some point. There were also some other examples from others in the Guild that were also beautiful. There was a silk band with gold metallic thread woven into designs that was really beautiful.

.....After a thorough review of the Guild's displays we toured the rest of the museum. Displays separated out into the different homelands (Sweden, Norway, Iceland, etc.). Saw some good costume displays. Some nice bobbin lace displays. Even got a look at a display of Icelandic Spar used for navigation. TBT made sure to get some close up pictures of it.

.....Around 3PM I started getting anxious as I was thinking of Friday evening Seattle traffic. Yeah, it was there. Took quite a while to make it to I-5. Thankfully, the freeway was moving pretty good. After we dropped off Liz, the trip home went pretty quick.

.....After dinner at Gandhi's, a review of the day's e-mail traffic, I went to bed. Zzzzzz. :-)

.....Must get moving though. Theodoric wants one of the Gold Key racks, so we're meeting at the Storage Unit in an hour. Probably should get dressed before I go outside. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.