I'm finally settled into the lodge and had a chance to explore my new home town. On the drive into town I began to see signs of a major invasion. Bears! Whimsical painted bears had taken over Grants Pass. Eighty in fact. Starting in May the bears roll in to town and stick around until late summer. Thankfully I have plenty time to see them all.
Turns out there are some very talented artists in Grants Pass. The bears range from farmers to Egyptian Pharaohs. Here's a few of the ones I've seen so far.
Farmer bear waiting for a ride
Backpacking Bears
Kung Fu Fighting Bear
Portrait Artist Bear
Sphinx Bear
King Tut Bear Cub
I can't wait to discover more bears in the coming weeks. Makes going to the grocery store an adventure. Just another thing I love about my new home town.
I can finally sit
down and write after being buried in boxes for weeks. Still have some left to
unpack but the house is finally set up. The lodge has come together nicely. Decorating
it has been a blast. My over the top Victorian furniture fits right in with the
huge logs that frame the walls. I call the homes style, lux gothic lodge with a
little Game of Thrones thrown in. The living room is a prime example of the
look.
My Victorian parlor
chairs look quite at home in the master bedroom.
The dining room is almost
as over the top in the lodge as it was in the Victorian. Just need to add my
1880's chandelier to finish it off.
The inside isn’t
the only thing getting a new look. My SIL’s house warming gift looks great on
the pool house. It’s temple bell sound reverberates down the hill all the way to
my neighbors a few acres away. I love that it’s made from recycled metal parts.
Life in the country
is good. From picking up fresh produce at the farmers open market, to hearing
the neighbors sheep baa in the distance, to the planetarium-like star filled
sky at night, to the amazing sunsets that blaze across the Rouge River valley. It‘s
everything I hoped for and more.
I’m still running a
bit on city time and need to learn to slow down. But I’m sleeping better than I
ever did in the city. No more helicopters buzzing or sirens blaring at all
hours. Amazing what a little peace and quiet can do. I look forward to writing
up a storm in my new office. I’m sure the
beauty of the countryside will be a big influence on my writing. I can’t wait to see where
my new life journey leads me!
I’ve been MIA from the
blog for far too long but I have a good reason. I’m making a huge life change
in 2014. I’m moving to Southern Oregon! In the spring my husband and I are
packing up our antique filled Victorian home in the big city and moving to the country.
We’ve lived in Pasadena
California for over 15 years and we’ve been itching for a change. We went up to
Southern Oregon on vacation in September and it’s been a whirlwind ever since.
We fell in love with the friendly people and the beautiful countryside. We went
up again in November to look at houses and flipped over a beautiful lodge
home high in the hills of Grants Pass. We put in a low offer not expecting the seller to accept it but she did!
I’m a country girl at
heart so the move is something I’ve been dreaming about but never thought would
actually become a reality. The last couple of months have been filled with a
few “OMG we did it” moments, and several major to-do lists. During the holidays
I’ve been squeezing in time to say good-bye to some wonderful friends. It’s
tough to leave a place I’ve enjoyed for so long but I knew it was time to do
something big. From the moment we drove around the countryside of Southern
Oregon it felt like home. Parts of it reminded me of Colorado, where I lived
for seven years, and the other of upstate New York where my family is from. It
also has a little bit of California thrown in so there isn't a ton of rain like in the northern part of Oregon and the winters are mild. Southern Oregon
seemed like the perfect place to start a new chapter in my life.
I have a lot of work ahead
of me purging years of stuff tucked up in the attic. I also have a house full
of collections and antiques I need to pack. But I wanted to let my faithful
blog readers know I’m alive and well. I’m crazy busy but I’m looking forward
to my new life in the country. My office has a view of a small stream with a
waterfall. It’s going to be a wonderful place to write.
My husband will be in
heaven in the huge barn aka ultimate man cave.
I had plans to head off
to Tuscany in October but unfortunately I’ve had to push out the trip to 2014.
That doesn't stop me from dreaming about one of my favorite places. Florence is
such an amazing city and I think I’ve only scratched the surface of all the
amazing churches and palaces it has to offer. I long to return to the over-the-top rooms of Palazzo Pitti. I wasn't able to tour the royal apartments or see the costume exhibit on my last visit. I want to hop in a tiny Fiat and hit the road and explore the wonderful hill towns.
One of my favorite things to do is focus in on the little details that make
each town unique. In Assisi the churches and cathedrals like the Basilica di San Francesco take center stage. But as I wandered the streets I
became fascinated by all the intricate wrought iron lamps and posts that jutted
out of the stonewalls.
They were held up by the most spectacular gargoyles.
I found myself
looking up to make sure I caught all the wonderful creatures that loomed above
me.
In Poppi, the town is
centered around the huge medieval castle that sits high on a hill. When you
enter the castle a massive stone staircase commands your attention. The shear
scale of the castle is impressive enough, but what really caught my eye was the immense
ballroom. The walls and the massive vaulted
ceiling were covered in faux painted marble panels and wonderful stenciled
designs. A decorative painters dream. Having faux painted quite a few walls myself;
I could appreciate the amazing skill the painters used to complete such an
enormous space.
I continue to dream of
Tuscany. Next year can’t get here fast enough.
I'm sure some of you have noticed I've been MIA for a couple of months. Life has been a bit crazy and unfortunately the blog had to be set on the back burner. But I'm back with good news. I sold my Young Adult novel Toyko Dare! For those who have been following my blog you know how much I love Japan. I wrote Tokyo Dare so that teens could read and learn about Japan through a fun adventure driven novel. I'm so happy to announce that an editor fell in love with my story and it will be published soon. I'll post details as we get closer to the publication date which should be sometime in August.
Here's the deals report in Publishers Weekly!
Young Adult
Anne Van's TOKYO DARE, in which a dare sends a high school student to Japan where her host family thinks she's the devil and a wacky to-do list turns her world inside out, to Jude Pittman at Books We Love, by Dawn Dowdle at Blue Ridge Literary Agency.
I'll be blogging about the crazy times ahead as I get closer to the book release. I'm lucky to have a publisher that will let me design my own cover. Those years of art school are finally going to pay off. : ) I'll be posting cover previews as I go along.
One of the things I love about Paris museums is there
are all kinds of hidden treasures right under your nose. A gold mine for an off the beaten track traveler like me. Take the Louvre for
example. Right next to the most famous museum in France is an amazing museum that
many people miss
—The Museum of
Decorative Arts. As you can imagine the French are the consummate kings of
decorative arts.For decades its royalty
demanded the most elaborate furniture and accessories to fill their palaces. To
the French, a bed isn’t just some place to sleep; it’s a work of art. Like this
amazing example.
I’m a sucker for beautiful rooms filled with furniture to
match and the museum had me practically salivating. My favorite period is Art
Nouveau, (French of course) and the museum had the most gorgeous rooms filled
with accessories to die for. How I wished I could move right in. The museum had
done their job. The rooms were so inviting I wanted to live there.
A friend of mine tagged along on my visit and her jaw dropped when we stood in front of this Nouveau showstopper.
"Wow, the room is beautiful. How could I not know about this place."
Unfortunately she’s
not alone. Despite the fact that the museum is right next
to the famous Louvre hardly anyone pays it a visit.
I rolled my eyes. "Because you don't think out of the box. You go to all the predictable places. "
She hung her head. "You're right. If it doesn't make the top ten in the guide books it's not on my radar."
"Exactly. Think of all the amazing things you've missed. You've been to Paris twice!"
Right then and there she made me a promise. On her next visit to Paris she'd be sure to seek out all the little museums the city of lights has to offer.
If there's one thing I've learned from my time in Paris, famous doesn't always mean the best. The Louvre is amazing. Seeing the Monet water lily paintings
in person
—unforgettable. But the highlight of my trip were the hidden treasures of The Decorative Arts Museum.
