Very sad news

Hello

Unfortunately this is not a pleasant blog post but it would seem that some people have heard already and, I thought it only fair that this came direct from me rather than 2nd hand rumors.

Sadly I need to tell you that my husband Mick died unexpectedly on Saturday September 11th.

He was out riding his motorcycle and had a heart attack. He told a friend he didn't feel good and was on his way home. He had been working away in the San Francisco area with his new job for the previous 2 weeks so I hadn't seen him. He flew in late Friday night, was tired and went to bed quickly. I only saw him for less than half an hour on the morning he died.

He felt fine. He only planned on being out a couple of hours and was then was coming back to do some dry walling. I was painting when the police man and coroner knocked on my door.

In those few moments my life changed beyond belief.

Last week I was busy dealing with the funeral arrangements so am sorry this has taken me until now.

Because I am here on my own and have no friends in the new area, my dear friend Patti flew straight out to me from the east coast. I truly do not know what I'd have done without her. I love you Patti.

I plan on returning to England as soon as possible. I came here to live in America 8 years ago to be with Mick and for that reason only. I have no one here and it would hurt to much to stay.

I have loved living in America and Mick took me to see so many amazing things. Hopefully one day I will be able to get past the pain and come and visit again.

But for now I have to get home. Mick's Mom is not in good health and has been unable to come here which has broke her heart. I have to get what I need to do here done as quickly as I can and take her Son home to her.

As you all know we were in the middle of renovating our house so I have so much work to finish so I can put it up for sale. Most of our things were still in boxes as we didn't plan on unpacking until we finished the house. Now Patti has gone home I have to go though everything we own and figure out how to sell it.

Mick was a wonderful man. He was kind, thoughtful, generous and extremely non judgmental. I am so lucky to have had him as my best friend for 30 years.

The things I keep hearing over and over from his friends are how thoughtful he was, how intelligent and knowledgeable he was and what a sense of humor he had. Mick was so much fun to be around and will be missed by many, many people.

Mick loved his job working on life support ventilators. He would tell me how lucky he was to not only have a job where he was able to help so many people but how it combined his love of physics, biology, chemistry and medicine. And the more problems that were thrown at him the more he thrived.

He once visited an 8 year old girl who, although on a ventilator, was mobile. She loved the band N- Sync but was sad that she couldn’t dance because the tubes on the ventilator weren’t long enough. Mick custom made new, longer tubing for her so she could get up of the bed and dance.

If you asked him why he loved his job so much he would say it was ‘because he was able to let little girls dance again.’

I loved him so very, very much and am absolutely devastated so please understand that I may not answer emails for a while.

Please. please, please tell your family you love them each time you are saying goodbye.

Mick Woodward
March 5th 1960 - September 10th 2011

Indian room finished !

More or less :-)

As we had friends coming over from Australia I had to have one last mad push to get at least this one room finished.

As you may recall from previous posts, I purchased fabric to make the bedding and curtains. Hmmm that didn't work out as well as expected.

There were 2 lots of fabric...on patterned and one striped. I started with the stripes. It soon became clear that the stripes were not in the slightest bit straight. But I carried on and had to cut the fabric wonky to make a bedskirt and curtains with straight stripes. Problem solved...or so I thought !

Then it was onto the patterned fabric. Goodness me...had I started with this I'd have given up a lot earlier and wouldn't have wasted time with the striped fabric.

This patterned fabric just sucked...BIG time. It is woven but was woven so loosely I only had to look at it and it fell apart.

 

I tried....I really tried but after 3 weeks of battling with this and spending a fortune in fray check I had to give up :-(

I didn't particularly want to make it all myself but couldn't find anything ready made so bought this fabric. The seller is no longer online but claimed it was fabric left from making Oscar De La Renta bedding which retails at a crazy price. Oscar from Sesame Street perhaps cause if this is the quality of designer bedding I am glad I have more sense than money than to buy this junk.

But with guests arriving in a couple of days I had no choice but to go out and buy something so off I went.

All I could find that was remotely suitable was a purple and gold set which peacock feather details. Quite amused me as I'd started off with peacock feather embroidered curtains and changed my mind. 

But, with nothing else about I had to get this set. I wasn't crazy on the purple and was worried it would clash horribly with the amber walls but wouldn't you know the gold in the set matched the walls just perfectly. More of a dull bronze gold than a shiny gold.

And once I'd made the bed up ...well, I was rather pleased with it. The blues in this bedding go well with the splashes of blue I'd already added to the room and I'd got peacock feathers from my original plan. Plus I'd bought a candle for the sconce that just happened to be peacock colors and have a little peacock charm on it.

So from absolute disaster it all came together just like that. Wish every room was so easy lol

And at night time...well I just adore it. 

So cozy I am tempted to move in myself :-)

 

I couldn't find any bedside tables that allowed me to tuck the stools under so just made 2 large rustic shelves and added carved trim to the front and sides.

The ceiling lamp was actually a candle holder but Mick converted it so I could wire it up to the mains. It casts such a beautiful glow on the room at night.

The side lamps were white and silver to start...couldn't find anything more Indian looking but with some jiggery pokery I made them the perfect color.

 The mirror was a bargain find and I love the shape of it.

 I've had this carved Buddha art for some time....just waiting for the perfect spot.

This vase was handmade in Bangladesh...the inscription reads....

I am Dipali Rani Paul. My father is the late Sachindra Chandra Paul. From my childhood I was inspired by seeing my father’s devotion to his work with terracotta. I am dedicated to keeping up my father’s reputation. Today on his blessing I live on making terracotta goods. The trade keeps us still alive." 

I love being able to support small artists.

Add in some dried flowers and some peacock feathers and we are good to go.

The hanging ornaments were a fit from Susan...thanks sweetie...

they are perfect in here:-)

 This sconce fits nicely in this small space...complete with peacock candle.

And that is pretty much how it is right now. I have many other Indian things I could put in there but for the moment I think I'll leave it as it is...sometimes less is more :-)

Our guests have gone back home now but took them on a fantastic  trip though the southwest. Managed to fit in the coast, Vegas, San Francisco, Yosemite and Death Valley and a wonderful time was had by all.

Now it is back to reality, work and home renovating.

I couldn't say much on the last post as we were still talking about it but Mick just started another job. Moving from a very secure career with a big corporation to a brand new company with a brand new product was a huge risk which is why it took us a while to decide.  Hopefully we made the right choice.

His new commute is longer than the old one though and that was bad enough. 120 miles a day is a lot of time to spend traveling on top of the long hours he'll be putting in....so we might be looking at moving house again. 

Biggest problem with this is he is working right out by the coast where the property prices are insanely high so we need to look into this some more. In the meantime there is still a load of work to be done here before we could even put this house up for sale.

So I guess I am going to stay busy for a while :-)