Drawing A Dream House

Baking Cookies On A Rainy Day

8.5" x 11"

pencil

Plane geometry is the only math that ever made much sense to me and didn't give me a splitting headache. I looked at the angles as corners of a house that I might design, and I could see something there. When it got to the letters and rules, though, that gave me a headache again.

I would start out to do an assignment, and , soon, I was turning my angle into a kitchen or a house.

I always liked to draw houses and would design the dream house that I would like to have someday.

Pappy actually did design her dream house and got to live in it. A 1950s ranch style house near the park. All the ladies in the family always wanted new things and saved up to get things they wanted.

Cashiering at her husband's store, Pappy was able to save up a lot of money. She would sit at the cash register, on her ladderback chair with the cushion on it, and put change into the cigar box under the counter. They kept the extra change in a cigar box for when it was needed, with more in the safe. Only Pappy had two cigar boxes under her cash register. Extra change went into one box, but the other box was reserved for all the quarters. Pappy kept all of those for her new house fund. Almost every quarter that came to the cash register went into Pappy's cigar box.

A few times, Uncle Tom wondered why there were no quarters in the cash register, and he asked everyone, except Pappy, if they took any quarters out of the register. He would look in the compartments of the cash drawer, move coins about, and have a puzzled look on his face. Wisely, Pappy would sometimes add two or three quarters to the quarter section, just to satisfy Tom.

Sometimes Pappy would give me a nickle or a dime for an ice cream cone or popcorn at the Eloia movie theatre, or a Coke at Taliaferro's drug store, but quarters were reserved for her box. If I needed a quarter for the picture show, I had to either do a dance and sing on the counters, and hope that customers would give me a nickel, or I would have to go around to each of the relatives and plead, in my sweetest voice, for a nickel (hoping for a dime or a quarter!) It didn't come from the cash registers, but from someone's pocket-unless Grandpa would go to his register in the dry goods store and give me a nickel from there. Occasionally, someone would be generous and give me a quarter for the picture show, popcorn, and a drink or ice cream at the drugstore after the show, but usually I had to gather the coins a nickel at a time.

For years, she dreamed of moving from the frame house where she had lived across the street from her sick mother, Augusta. She wanted pretty new things, in a beautiful new home. Built just for her. She had a way with her husband and could get him to do most anything she said, with a little coaxing. She didn't have children to buy things for, but did do things for nieces and nephews. Her husband, Tom, didn't pay a lot of attention to the store. His main interest was his land, cattle, and other enterprises. I don't think he liked being cooped up inside, too much.

So Tom would sit around the store for a while, and soon was off, down the street, or to one of his places in the country, checking on work or workers, looking for possibilities.

Pappy stayed at home most of the time, but on busy days or when someone was sick, she would come to cashier.

Secretly, Pappy was drawing plans for her dream house. She begged Tom to build it for her. But he wasn't interested. He liked his old place.

Their store and the dry goods store in front burned one cold night, and Tom decided that he would not rebuild his part of the building. His safe was pulled out of the rubble and put into the new dry goods store. He also had a rocking chair where he could sit and do business between his visits to the country.

They had bought lots near the park, as did Pappy's sister, just a block apart. Pappy still asked for her house and worked on the plans .

She started visiting an architect and a contractor and, before long, her dream house was started.

Tom insisted that he wasn't paying for a new house, and he was not moving. Work on the house went on.

Pappy spent most of her time at the site of the new house and made sure that everything was done to her satisfaction. When time came to pay for the house, Tom still refused. Pappy was not to be denied. She pulled out her quarters and paid for the house herself. Tom never did miss the quarters, or know where she got all that money!

In fact, he didn't really want to move from the old house to the new, but, when she started moving, he went along.

The architects and contractors told her that she should have been an architect.

The house had a 10 foot steel and concrete reinforced foundation, and the garage had an 8 foot steel and concrete reinforced foundation. She designed for cross ventilation, since this was before people had air conditioning in their homes. The only thing she said that she should have done differently was to design lower kitchen counters, since she was short.

The house was built to last.

I never completed plans for my dream house. I sketched out a few thoughts and read a lot of house plan magazines. Sometimes, I gave that as a sketching assignment for my students-draw your dream house.

It also came in handy for the writing assignment that helps you to remember things-Mapping. In that activity, you simply start with a big piece of paper and something to draw with-marker, crayon, pencil, etc. Think of a place that you remember and try to remember a room in that place. Draw a floorplan of that room.

Pretty soon, you will start remembering details and can draw a floor plan of the entire home or building. Besides physical features, memories will start to flow.

In the above sketch, I showed someone putting a pan of cookies in a built in oven. This was part of an image I had for a dream home. A built in oven at the end of counters in an open kitchen. The counters would be in a u-shape and lined with glass bricks to let light flow across the counters. Opposite the built in oven, there would be a large island or work table, stove top, sink. Haven't worked out the rest of it yet. Sliding glass doors would open out onto a patio. Not sure if that would be a sitting area or dining area, though.

I've had that kitchen image in mind for years, so I thought I would put it on paper.

I'll have to be content with my fairly big kitchen in my mobile home, though.

I don't draw dream houses anymore. I do draw memories, though. Especially things that I don't have a photograph of .

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Watch the tv program "Texas Country Reporter" in February. You can look them up on the internet to find a station near you. Locally, we get them on KCEN and KMAY.

Jody from Zamykal Gourmet Kolache Shop in Calvert sent word that she has been recorded and the program will air sometime in February.

That should be a fun segment to watch. We'll all be drooling for a kolache!

When I find out the date, I'll pass that on to you.

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I hope that you will sign up for V....Vaughan's Workshop in Calvert, if you haven't done so already. Plan to come and bring a friend with you. If you aren't local, there are rooms available at the Pin Oak and the Bird Nest, B&Bs in Calvert. Pass this on to anyone who might be interested.

You can read a nice article about V.... at http://www.countrylifestyle.net/node/227 . This was in "Country Life Style".

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If you are interested in things like Sketch Crawl here, drawing and painting in the Brazos Valley area, you might like to join in the Yahoo Group that I started-Brazos Valley Sketchers. Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BrazosValley_Sketchers .

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Blue Monday-Wash Day Today

Blue Monday
Wash Day Today
8.5" x 11"
pencil
Previously, I posted a drawing of wash day, always on Monday, when I was growing up, and I wrote about how it was at our house, and in most of the community. Monday seems to be the day for washing in many places besides our little corner of Texas.
To see that drawing, along with the one about ironing day on Tuesday, and heavy cleaning day, waxing floors and such, on Wednesday, look back in the older posts.
Today's drawing is of wash day today. I thought that might be appropriate since it is another Blue Monday, with clothes in the washing machine and more, sorted and ready to go. It's a gray day outside with warnings of the first freeze of the year tonight. I'm sure glad that I don't have to do my laundry over a wash pot and a sink with a rub board, then hang clothes on the clothes line outside, wait for them to dry, and have to carry all that inside to sort, fold, sprinkle, and get ready to iron on Tuesday.
In my picture, above, there are stacks of laundry on the floor by the utility room, sorted and ready to wash. The washer and dryer are beyond the open door, along with the central heating and air conditioning unit. A variety of products for making the clothes clean and soft line the shelf about the washing machine and dryer.
I'm sitting in the den, in a recliner, feet propped up, while I draw and watch an old movie on tv. Bitsy, my elderly Manx cat, is perched behind my head while she naps. Beyond the double doors is the dining room and living room, with the organ. My mother's painting of what we called "the big house" or "the two story house" (my great-grandfather's house), hangs over the organ. There is a fireplace on my right side. That would be nice for a warm fire tonight and tomorrow after the cold weather comes in. It won't be cold for very long, though.
I don't know if very many other people wash clothes, while they are drawing and watching old movies on tv! That's the way I do my washing, these days. I might even be painting, or in another room, working on my computer, while the machines do the heavy things. That's really amazing, if you stop to think about how things were done not so long ago, and how they are done today. I wonder what new inventions they will come up with in the future to make our lives even easier. And, of course, along those lines, what will they come up with so that everyone can have these same easier lives.
I won't need to iron tomorrow, Tuesday. I caught up with that on Saturday. Most things don't need to be ironed, these days. But, an occasional purchase by my new-to -purchasing- his- own- clothes, grandson, means a few 100 % cotton shirts that have to be ironed. I think that he will read the labels better next time he buys his own clothes.
Let me know if you see something that you are interested in purchasing, or if something appeals to you.
Thank you for reading and sharing. Be sure to check out the various things on my sidebar.
I'm having a little trouble typing this right now. Trying to hold a puppy with a tummy ache! Pluto, our Chihuaha, Dachshound, Beagle, mixed puppy, was clearly in pain last night, yelping and crying in pain, so that we couldn't sleep. A call to the vet at almost midnight, revealed a big fee for emergency calls. I thought for sure that he had chewed on something he shouldn't have found, and was having stomach pains. We gave him some bread, which might coat any foreign objects, and I remembered a vet telling me to give my dogs grease, like from bacon, butter, or Crisco, if they were ever poisoned. We were contemplating giving Pluto some Crisco, but he went to sleep, finally. My daughter took him to the vet when they opened this morning.
It turned out that the tiny dog had just eaten too much food and was a little constipapted. And that was expensive, too. So, he's taking a laxative. At least, he isn't crying out in pain like he was last night, and we know that he didn't eat something that he found. He's been chewing on the fireplace rocks, the wood for the fireplace, socks, laundry, he even pulled the fuzz off of a tennis ball we had given him to play with. We threw out his toys that weren't well made and I encourage the family to keep tiny things picked up, like Legos, paper clips, wraps off of straws and snacks, and clothes. He chewed a hole in my favorite flannel gown while I was holding him! I'm pulling him away from things he shouldn't have, like the fireplace rocks, and substituting his chew bone for them. But, I know the chewing will be going on for a while. We moved the pet food from the floor and will feed him just when he needs to be fed. The cats will have to jump up on something to get their food.
When pets, and children, get sick, usually in the middle of the night or weekends, and you don't know what is wrong, or what to do, and can't take them to the doctor or vet, it is so upsetting. Makes you wish that you were a doctor or a vet or a nurse and had some concept of what to do. Some way to get relief for that beloved person or pet.
It's a relief to know that Pluto is going to be fine and that he didn't eat something that could hurt him. Honestly, I never heard of an animal eating too much and having a tummy ache! My pets have always eaten what they needed, then left to do something else. This little one takes a few bites of food, or a little water, runs off, then is back for more.
Finally, he is running around, now that my daughter is back at home. Pluto is so attached to her, he wants to be with her constantly. He usually just wiggles and his claws scratch me, when I try to hold him. Today, while my daughter went to the store, he wanted me to hold him, while he chewed on my fingers.
Stay warm and enjoy something indoors, a warm drink, a hot meal, or soup, or, maybe even one of my favorites. I like to eat ice cream when it's cold, and while I sit by a heater, or stove!