Street of dreams

Instead of a trekking sock, I have decided to do a wandering mitten. I took the mitten to the Street of Dreams yesterday, and sent it on a tub crawl, taking pictures of the mitten cuff in the sybaritic soaking tubs of each master suite in these multi-million dollar homes. Hope the pictures come out ok. So far, the mitten is only a longish cuff in Lorna's Laces "Lakeview." I am going to try the self-heating mitten pattern from my book and see how it works up in hand-painted yarn.

The houses were surprisingly attractive. Yeah, lots of teensy tile in impractical places, and yeah, you are going to HAVE to get in professionals on a regular basis to clean the two-story windows in the parlor, but really, many of the homes were actually liveable. One sort of rambled, with charming alcoves here and there, just big enough for an overstuffed, double-wide chair and a side table with a good reading lamp. One had a "Juliet" room with a balcony over the closet (reached by a ladder) and a little boy's room with the bed framed in to look like a box-car. Real wheels under it and everything. It would break your back to try to make it, but it sure was cute.

DH loved the outside rooms - sort of deep covered porches with built in gas barbecue grill, sink, refrigerator. Lots of comfy, casual chairs and tables. In the Pacific Northwest there are about three months in the year that you would actually want to use these places, but since we were checking them out on a day that would have been perfect, it's hard to be practical. I can see taking the laptop and a cup of tea out there on a sunny morning. And a quilt and a coat and a warm hat and heavy socks . . .

The beautiful outdoor furniture will need to have all the comfy cushions taken in every night, or the possums will pee on it, rip the cushions apart and make nests of the stuffing. If the grills aren't cleaned completely every time they are used, the raccoons, with their clever little paws, will get into them lick the racks for the last bit of flavor, and poop on what they can't reach.

And still, I loved the fantasies. The dun-gold bedroom with the cream silk duvet embroidered with cream and pale peach peonies . . I can see myself propped up amongst the huge fluffy cream-colored satin pillows, gazing out at the green and leafy view, wearing a gorgeous silk pegnoir, and smiling as DH brings me a cup of tea from the espresso machine in the walk-through closet. Reality check. I sleep in old t-shirts and don't OWN a silk pegnoir. I sleep without a pillow. Given a chance, I invariably wake and rise before DH. And as for the view, The surrounding lots will be developed just as soon as the show is over, so at best, I can gaze at the neighbor's roofline, and at worst, I will be looking into their kitchen window.

But the muted earth-tones popular this year are definitely do-able in ordinary houses. The interesting window treatments can certainly work for Jane Home-sewer. And as demand grows, the price of some of the nifty toys (like the roll-up screens) will come into the ordinaary budget level. As for landscaping - wish I knew more, I saw a stunning rock garden, but I just don't have the patience to do one. It takes so LONG to grow rocks!