Back to Square One

Finally got to show hubby what I wanted and he said that the countertop I picked out looked like vomit. Of course this throws me into a loop. I am at my wits end to find a light enough kitchen for him that pleases my green/blue fetish.

Help me.

Vizualizing the New Tile Design

Through the power of Photoshop I was able to visualize what my new backsplash might look like. I will go to Home Depot to verify, but i think it might work. The question is: will this Cypress Green paint work?

More Kitchen Stuff

Went to The Big Orange Box to look at paint and tile and found this lovely combo to go with the Madras Indian Slate countertop. It is a way to bring in real stone without breaking the bank. It would be under $150.00 in materials to make the space more finished. Right now, we have this textured offwhite wallpaper that was not applied very well and is coming undone. My favorite part is the slate mosaic because it ties in all the colors of the laminate. Seeing the slate up-close makes me want to redo our brick fireplace with larger slate, since the colors are so awesome and would go well with the pale blue walls.

So basically I have to come up with an 8 inch tile design with these tiles. With a 8 inch design we will need less tile since I was planning for 12 inch backsplash. Hopefully I can do two rows of slate sandwiched between a Giallo Sienna (cream tile) with cream borders.

Below is an alternate backsplash that I am looking at. It is more formal and elaborate. It is amazing how the colors match up to the Madras Indian Slate. The picture doesn't do it justice. It does play up more of the blue slate. Another option is to do a combo of both the diamond pattern with the mosaic tile. I can find a thin cream tile border, then have a row of mosaic tile, large cream tile, diamond pattern, large cream tile, row of mosaic tile, and thin cream border. My preference is actually for the top one because it is so simple and unpretentious. I really, really love the color of those mosaic slate.

Would it be too much to just have the mosaic slate tile? Hmmm.


My reasoning for a tile backsplash is that it will make the laminate look less like laminate if there is no laminate backsplash. Pictures of both Autumn Indian Slate and Madras Indian Slate had a tile backsplash without the Formica backsplash. I guess that is the trick to making your Formica look little less like Formica and more like stone. We will paint the kitchen walls green, put up new shelving.

Now I am going to have to check if my contractor will help us with this.

I promise! No more after this. What is great about this plan is that allows us to update the kitchen in stages.

Kitchen Mini-Makeover

This all started before we moved into the house. Someone made a kitchen peninsula with a bar, but failed at math and made the bar overhang precariously by the back burners. The work-around would be just to use the front burners. This was great as long as the front burners worked, but they soon failed. There were many attempts to fix the Kitchenaid cooktop to no avail. So we have burn marks on the Formica back splash. Finally, the family faced the reality that the cooktop needed to be replace as well as the counter top.

What we will do is to make the peninsula all one level since we never used the bar as a bar. Then replace both the cooktop and the Formica counter. The new counter will be 5' x 3' and the cooktop will be 30" to allow for workspace.

After long research and comparing all the cooktops in person with our largest pots, we ultimately decided on the Wolf 30" gas cooktop. Initially we were interested in the open burner cooktop from Blue Star. With its 22k btu burner, I was worried about whether our kitchen was able to deal with the heat generated and have the expertise to make sure we had the gas lines for it. Then I researched comparable cooktops from Viking, Thermador, and Miele. They were all in the $1500 - $1700 price range. We did look at lower end cooktops with our pots and pans, but nothing looked that good. Our Kitchenaid that we paid $900.00 didn't last 5 years until it started giving out. The mid-range GE Profile and Monogram cooktops didn't really float our boat when we saw them in person with our pots. The Wolf had the most room for our biggest pans we use and had the controls on the side instead of the front. It seemed to be the most solid. We liked the knobs and the dual burner system on all 4 burners. You can turn on the burners by turning it on high to low cooking that would control the top burner. Then you can press down the knob and go into simmer mode which is a feature I cannot wait to explore.

I did the research and Wolf had the best burners. Best simmer. Really strong boiling. The majority of our cooking is boiling, steaming, simmer, and saute.

In person, the burners just looked better -- made of a composite material that is considered to be superior.


At first, I didn't want Formica Laminate. I did order many samples just in case the quotes on solid surfaces (ie. Corian) and Quartz (Caesarstone) were too high. You would think that only having 15 sq ft of counter would be cheaper than $1,500.00 dollars or $1,920.00 dollars for the Caesarstone. My instincts were right. When we saw the quote for Formica for one counter, we figured that we could go ahead and have the other counter done as well. That means that I was unleashed in the color I can choose. So I think I am going to go with the honed Madras Indian Slate (pictured here).

I think that to go with a marble like surface for this kitchen is a little silly. We have a small kitchen, so going with a more modestly scaled slate is the way to go.

The honed Madras Indian Slate also has a matte testure to it that I like. Many of the top of the line HD Wilsonart that I was considering had too much shine to it, even though I liked the design on them. The Madras Indian Slate has golden hue that picks up the floors and the current cabinets. Since the color scheme in the house is blue and green, I appreciate that this surface features green and blues. You can also see wisps of cream and brown. I decided against a light color surface because it would hide stains better. With my light washed maple I figured that it would be a nice contrast.

It is true that I wanted Caesarstone over laminate. It just didn't make sense to do so now when we were not doing a major redesign and we have a son who is almost 7. I can see when he is a teenager and his friends are over looking for food things can go wrong. I would rather spend the money on high quality appliances for now and the near future, because that effects the functioning of the kitchen. This house is going to be in the family for a long time, so we do not have to think about putting surfaces to please potential buyers. If that were so I think we would have invested in a neutral quartz top.

The picture above gave me an idea that we can paint the cabinets this green color if we want to change up the kitchen even more. I really want to steal this look. I am still looking at green paint we can use for the cabinets and a wall color.

My long term vision for this kitchen is to redo the corner by the cooktop where the wall oven and refrigerator. I would replace the oven, when it fails, with a double oven. I would take out the current refrigerator and get a larger one and put it at the end of the counter with the sink on it. This would give us room to replace the 27" oven witha 30 or 36 inch double oven. Then we can put a counter for additional space and put the microwave and shelving there. Where we would put a large refrigerator (not too big for the scale of the kitchen) we can continue the cabinets into the breakfast nook to provide the storage space we lost with the double oven.

What we are doing now I will be sure to post before and after photos to let you in on the fun.

Love and the Human Soul

~ Amore e Psiche ~, originally uploaded by dujarandille.

While searching around for James Tissot's paintings, I came upon this statue, Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss by Antonio Canova. This can be found in the Louvre and now I remember this as I remember being struck in awe over The Winged Victory of Samothrace. Winged Victory stood out more since it was so much older (190 BC) and I marveled at the movement of the piece. Not only could you feel the sea breeze, but you could tell it was a damp sea breeze. At the time, in 1984, I was 18 years old and developed the deep appreciation for statues. Some people get hung up on where the head or arms are. Fate or circumstances collaborated with the artist to edit the form to its essential being. To me, Winged Victory of Samothrace is absolutely perfect as it is.

Canova's Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss is more conventially beautiful and intact, but still impactful. Psyche's gaze upward and Cupid's tender examination of her face creates a moment where stone isn't stone. This moment is not unlike the moment created in Dore's Enigma between the angel and the Spinx. Instead of the Spinx' paw on the angel's head, you have Cupid cupping her head in his hand. Knowing the legend of Cupid and Psyche adds another layer to this piece. Their daughter is Delight or Goddess of "sensual pleasure," but the relationship between Cupid and Psyche is plagued with problems. Psyche's future Mother-in-law, Goddess of Love, is jealous by her beauty and perhaps doesn't think a mere mortal is good enough for her son. So she devises tests and tricks, which Psyche for the most part passes with help from those who are taken with her. She falls into sleep when she opens the box that was supposed to have beauty in it, but only had a sleep spell. Her vanity sets up this moment where Cupid brings her back from sleep. One could say that this moment in the story portrays how immortality and the divinity appeciates the human soul even in its imperfection.

Thanks dujarandille for taking this photo and capturing its spirit. Photographing a statue requires the ability to find that certain angle and lighting that brings out the essence of the piece. I think dujarandille does this and his sepia filter gives it the sense of romance and warms up the statue.

At some point, I am going to have to share with you my impressions of my visit to see Michaelangelo's David and his unfinished pieces in Florence, Italy.

WTF Pablo?!?

"Pablo Picasso was never called an a**hole" - Burning Sensations by way of The Modern Lovers

In 1907 Pablo Picasso and his girlfriend Fernande Olivier adopted a 13 year old orphan, Raymonde (one source has her being 10 years old). They adopted her after childless Fernande nagged Pablo to adopt an orphan. How hard could it be as Matisse had a 13 year old daughter? Again, with the rivalry with Matisse. It took only 4 months to figure out that this girl was just getting in the way. In Wayne Andersen's Picasso's brothel: les demoiselles d'Avignon cites that Pablo did some sketches of Raymonde that were disturbing in its sexual undertones (ew!). Biographers get the impression that Raymonde herself may have picked up on the creepy vibes from daddy Pablo. It has also been pointed out that Pablo dated younger and younger women. The sketch on the left here was a sketch of Raymonde on May 1907.

This couple didn't have the courage to send her back themselves. They got their friend Max Jacob to do the deed. He took her to the orphanage where the workers told him he was a bad father and that if he goes through this he cannot adopt again. Raymonde cries. Max cries. Max takes Raymonde for a meal, but ultimately he has to dump her at the orphange. Max covered for Pablo and Fernande while they never really treated him well. Pablo and Fernande end up breaking up anyway and later Pablo cites that they really broke up over Raymonde.

When the Nazis came to take Max away for being Jewish (even though he converted to Catholicism years prior) Pablo did nothing to help his friend. WTF, Pablo. Practice cowardice much?

I may very well end up reading several biographies to figure out what happened and WTF is wrong with you. I love your work. I was close to being 18 in 1984 when I took the AP European History exam where one of the essay questions asked me to analyze Guernica. My heart danced, my eyes brightened, and I said to myself, "Cake!" I rocked that essay and ever since loved that painting. That painting is timeless as it describes the horror of war and the innocence of the civilians who get caught in the crossfire. How can someone so brilliant can be such an (shall I say it) a**hole? I will probably end up reading about your biggest supporter, Gertrude Stein, too. She indulged you like so many others because of your brilliance.

My thoughts turn to Raymonde. What happened to Raymonde? Born in 1894, she is most likely dead. Did she survive the Flu epidemic? Did she survive WWII? That could be an interesting story.

It's Uku-Licious Baby

At the end of April I bought myself a Kala Tenor Ukulele (KA-TEM) at a local music store. This uke stood out with its beautiful grain patterns and when i plucked it the sound was warm and full. It was on sale for $124.00 so I took it home. Almost immediately I printed out songs from the internet and went about learning songs and building callouses. For the longest time I longed to play an instrument and the uke is small enough for my short fingers. When I get into the groove of a song it is such a high for me. I am still a year or two away from really being able to perform anything. At this point I have to get my friends drunk before I play for them. So when I bring my uke, I also bring a bottle of booze.