Opening of Filling Station Studios

It's official.  My friend and studio partner Nancy Stark and I took the plunge this month and opened a small art studio - Filling Station Studios - which will also be the base for The Red Pantry (which will feature vintage cookware, cookbooks and garden decor such as my handpainted  birdhouses).  It is by all means a labor of love and a work in progress but we are excited about experimenting and sorting it all out this coming year.  

Nancy is in the process of designing a logo (and painting!) while I work on our business cards, event postcards, mailing list, Twitter accounts (@FillingStudios, @RedPantry) and Facebook page.  Eventually we hope to launch a website in January and begin to have events such as pop up supper club dinners and paint workshops.  Our plans are to open up the studio to the public one weekend a month to sell our artwork, furniture and Red Pantry collection.  

And of course to display 'the Ox'....more about that later!

Please email me at fillingstationstudios@verizon.net if you want to get email notices about openings and events (or follow us on Twitter).

Let it Snow

This weekend Irv is solo in CT eating hot dogs by the fire, reading Zane Grey, and cursing Ikea once again as he puts a bedframe together.  

Irv sends me a picture of his Friday evening while I send him a picture of mine out in Lambertville with my friend Nancy.

Nancy and I are celebrating what I hope (snow and ice permitting) is the open house of our joint art studio venture we call 'Filling Station Studios' which is located in a gas station in Hopewell NJ.  Nancy will be painting and selling her art, furniture and signs...

...while I run shotgun making and selling my birdhouses and perhaps some vintage cookware and books from my 'red pantry' collection.

If you venture into Hopewell, come visit us (corner of Maple Ave and Route 518). If we get snowed out we will have a (re) open house on Sat Dec 21

Propane at last, Propane at last, Thank God Almighty Heat that Lasts

FINALLY we can (somewhat) stop worrying now that we have propane and heat.  I never thought this would be so stressful.  Over the holiday week Irv and I managed to finish the painting and trim work in the library.  Now onto killing all the mice that seem to be eating the soap in our bathroom!

After Thanksgiving Irv and I decided to treat ourselves by visiting Mystic Seaport on a rainy Sunday morning.  At one gallery we were greeted and then led through the rooms by a very eager and over exuberant museum guide who talked to us about virtually every item and asked us questions and waited for the answers (one question when looking at a chinese robe brought back to the US by a sea captain "Do you know how Chinese Warriors got to battle?" Wait for it pause...um, by horse?  Yes!  Score!). I told her I wasn't expecting a pop quiz this morning.  The comment did not faze her as she continued to educate and quiz us.  Thank goodness we got most of them right! She later told us she was a retired 3rd grade teacher.  No surprise there.  At one ship model, she said "What do you see painted on the sides?"  "Cherubs?", I said.  "Nudes!!", she said.  I bet she doesn't point that out to 3rd graders!

By the end of the rainy day, Lewis enjoyed sleeping by the fire in a bean bag chair.  Lucky boy.