Strolls through my hood get me out of my studio, they help me get unstuck and often I get inspired by what I see and get new ideas to create something. It is part of my philosophy about Artful Adventures in Mixed Media – which is the subject of my book. Here are some photos that I gathered in the last couple weeks.

December already, things are slowing down – the cats are hanging out in the art studio in their new cat tree … don’t they look as if you could just pluck them off there?

We also decorated our stoop – we are all in this year – our first Christmas in this house :)

In other house news- we have still some loose ends construction and painting wise- but we stripped those plaster brackets that were painted over and over the past decades that no details were visible. I couldn’t believe when I found all those different patterns like dots and grids in there …those things make me so excited – it is ridiculous LOL

We went an artfair held in the Armory nearby – I always wondered how it looked inside and well – now I know. Love the floor

But these old wooden gym seats with the brick wall just are my fave!

The building on the left is in a very sad state but must have been magnificent back in the days- nonetheless I love this little view with the Queen Anne on the right, a church visible in the middle and the brick apartment building with fire stairways on the right …it is so typical Jersey City to me!

This is one of many identical apartment buildings on a neighborhood street and I find it just so interesting – the oval windows next to the columns- the door obviously not original . And then the very long quoined window units on the left and right of the second floor …was this ever ONE window? or how did the middle look in between back then …these are the weird things I ask myself when I walk through the city- LOL.

This building is being renovated and I love love love the massive entrance – isn’t this amazing? I just wish they would have created a different stairway or will still do something with it -the stairs do not fit at all with this.

Hope you enjoyed the stroll this month – see you next month :)

Nat

Strolls through my hood get me out of my studio, they help me get unstuck and often I get inspired by what I see and get new ideas to create something. It is part of my philosophy about Artful Adventures in Mixed Media – which is the subject of my book. Here are some photos that I gathered in the last couple weeks.

So hard to believe that it is already November – and while I am dreading winter before it even started I nonetheless loving the ambience that comes with the seasons …and hey …I got an antique oil lamp and I looooveee it.

I am also taking a class at NYU in Historic Preservation and a lot of my assignments are to take a stroll through the hood and take pictures of certain architectural features – HA – great – you asked the right person LOL. Anyway- for my assignment to photograph pilasters I thought the class would enjoy this gem of a house ;) No sugar coating back then!

A wonderful Cafe in our neighborhood offered a great dinner and we went with friends. The theme was 1894 – the year the building in which the cafe is set, was built and the owner and cook not only researched all those recipes, he also told the story and background of each course. It was so much fun.

Now I am sure you are as nervous as we were about the “Pickled Ear”

I am happy to report all was good- no Jersey Style chopped ear was served ;) An ear of corn ….which was delicious.

Other than that we are still doing a lot of renovation and updates in the house. The picture above is the curtesy of the seller …we call this usually a landlord’s special – when they just paint everything with flat paint – including hardware etc. without doing anything like priming etc. In this case it was especially stupid and bad as it was painted on top of a layer of oil paint. Don’t ask me how I feel about taking this all off …I am ready to pickle an ear ;)

We are also working on a new guest powder room and we cannot wait for it to be done. This used to be the super dark laundry room in the basement. I actually think that initially the cook might have slept here as the cook often times was also the laundress and according the censuses from 1890 and 1900 they lived in house. Plus this room downstairs has a window. So I think the cook was here and the other servants have lived upstairs …but we will probably never know for sure. In any event …this is what it will be in the future. The blue on the wood panelling is called Skinny Jeans …I love the name!

Hope you enjoyed the stroll this month – see you soon :)

Nat

Strolls through my hood get me out of my studio, they help me get unstuck and often I get inspired by what I see and get new ideas to create something. It is part of my philosophy about Artful Adventures in Mixed Media – which is the subject of my book. Here are some photos that I gathered in the last couple weeks.

I really love the light in my new studio and I am looking almost forward to colder months that make us stay home more and me spend more time in the studio.

Our stained glass window in the kitchen needs a lot of love as it is starting to sag and bulge and I had to take some photos to get things in motion for the restoration – isn’t this just amazing? I love love love all the little bits and pieces and color variations.

This old cemetery – which has it’s first recorded burial in 1680 is the last resting place for a lot of the older families from the Netherlands that settled here around the 1630s. It is never open – so it was a treat to be able to go in finally.

A lot of the gravestones cannot be read anymore- but every name is a street in Jersey City.

This one has this interesting skull engraving on the top.

And then we stumbled across this stone …and I gasped – not only because it was half eaten by the tree but because I recognized the name and the dates right away. Albert J. Vreeland’s widow and his children lived after his death in our house for a couple years – and I had found his son’s WWI enlistment etc. It was somehow touching to see the gravestone …I know weird, but then I thought- hey, there hasn’t been anyone in decades probably who stopped at this stone and thought of this person…so it is meant to be.

Across the cemetery is the Old Bergen Church which has been re-built several times and has each of the old headstones in walls. It was the first time that the church was actually open as well and I could see it since we moved here

It is a pretty church and quite similar to some of the Northern German churches I have seen.

This one is a bit sad as the two buildings had a huge fire – everyone is ok. The reason I am posting it, is because of the cornice. For years I walked by this building and said “I bet there is a really cool cornice underneath that ugly vinyl siding” and there it is. I am glad the people in the houses and business owners are ok. So scary.

Meanwhile this guy just sleeps on my desk – being a Pretzel

And this guy loves lettuce …don’t ask …

Hope you enjoyed the stroll this month – see you soon :)

Nat

Strolls through my hood get me out of my studio, they help me get unstuck and often I get inspired by what I see and get new ideas to create something. It is part of my philosophy about Artful Adventures in Mixed Media – which is the subject of my book. Here are some photos that I gathered in the last couple weeks.

Lots of House pictures this month – as we are still working on a lot of stuff. Here is the bathroom floor – pretty much the only nice thing about our main bathroom which is a Frankenstein of DIY throughout the decades …and believe me…it is not good and not shown are the holes in the floor that I patched temporarily. I love the pattern though – I always think about which stamps I should take to recreate it – and maybe I should just tackle this ;)

And yes there are still boxes – but I am happy to report that they are now finally unpacked. Mingus was caught like this judging the mess …it was all fun for him on the ladder until he decided to jump down and the ladder tumbled …then it was a scaredy cat for a little bit …but don’t think he learned from this ;)

(no cats, windows, floors or else were harmed in the cat flight)

We finally got our wonderful home commission artwork by Natalya Khorover back from the framer and now it hangs in our dining room. I loooveee it.

Pretzel loves the Fainting Sofa

Always love this row of houses downtown! The iron work is so beautiful.

Wallpaper hung, walls painted and trim painting in progress.

I love our floors- it is simple but beautiful! I am actually thinking of using the border pattern for the bathroom when we redo it next year or so. Imagine a black tile border like the darker wood and the rest in white tiles …still adding to my little idea board.

My studio while filming the new Artful Adventures with Matisse Class – it was hot hot hot in that room- but I love my studio so much.

In the bathroom which will not be touched as long as we are in the house is this contraption which I think I never showed you. It is actually a common thing in old bathrooms on the east coast still – but we had no clue what it was when we bough the house, until we ran the water in the bathtub and we couldn’t figure out how to drain the water LOL. It is a Standing Waste and Drain Tub Tower – pull on the top or push it down …mystery solved.

Speaking of gorgeous floors, we had dinner at our friend’s house which is close by and look at this gorgeous pattern on the floor.

And I may have serious radiator envy …it is a thing …trust me.

They also still had this crazy antique breaker box in the hallway …

This made me laugh hard at our local music store

I leave you with a little wavy glass love – the reflections of our 130 year old window glass are just my favorite thing.

Hope you enjoyed this stroll- until next month! See you

Nat

Strolls through my hood get me out of my studio, they help me get unstuck and often I get inspired by what I see and get new ideas to create something. It is part of my philosophy about Artful Adventures in Mixed Media – which is the subject of my book. Here are some photos that I gathered in the last couple weeks.

It always amazes me ..and not necessarily in a good way…how the cable jungle transpires. On that note on my way home from the gym last week I saw a truck had snapped off low hanging cables and people came running out of the house because they lost power, internet, cable…who knows what. If you like for some line inspiration in your artwork …well there you go.

Sunset a gorgeous look of Jersey City, Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty.

My friends Dan and Alicia and their band -Forget the Whale had a great concert at Lincoln Park. it was a wonderful treat to see them there – they are really good.

A building that is abandoned and dear to my heart – you can see pieces of the floor – makes me really sad. No I wasn’t in the building but a friend did a tour where you could look through a side window. I am sure next time these pieces are gone – either broken or stolen – like the rest of the building.

Another gorgeous view of Manhattan – it is summer and so there is a lot of biking and hanging out in parks.

I was super excited that we finally got our custom made pocket shutters. They were missing in our front windows and they are so practical and amazing. they fold back into a pocket of the window trim and are hidden and look like part of the paneling. It was so sad that they were just open gaps. Little fun snippet: The company who made them for us also did some staging of shutters for The Gilded Age on HBO. Such a small company!

Looks so good!!! The wood will darken a bit of course. It took a whole day to fit them in because nothing is straight in an old house – and that’s why we love it ;)

Little street art action in Jersey City

I took my friend Sandra to see some of the murals

Amazing, isn’t it?

Speaking of my friend Sandra, she came from Germany for 10 days – a trip that had been postponed for the past two years and it was such a great time. And because she is rocks wallpapering …we wallpapered a wall in her guest room. It was super fun…and super hard…again …no wall in our house is straight. LOL. But the result is awesome.

Do you see the hidden message? “Be a better human and spread love”

Awesome exhibition at Deep Space Gallery- we called up and were all by ourselves seeing some really cool artwork including those gems by Citty Kitty who finds the always super confusing NYC Metro Service posters and creates commentary art on them …sometimes even hangs them back LOL.

We bought 5 for our long hallway and are still laughing – it is hard to grasp I think if you do not see them close up but here are some.

The one on the right that says Update was just an empty poster and the cats say “Uhh…There’s no Update” and ” I hate Updates” . Check his instagram out – love the humor.

That was it for this month – see you next month again for another stroll through the hood.

Nat

Strolls through my hood get me out of my studio, they help me get unstuck and often I get inspired by what I see and get new ideas to create something. It is part of my philosophy about Artful Adventures in Mixed Media – which is the subject of my book. Here are some photos that I gathered in the last couple weeks.

We found this astounding instrument made in our neighbor city Hoboken in an Antique Store – it is a Ukelin – a mixture of violin and a ukulele. “Ukelins were sold to people under the impression that the instrument was easy to play, but this was not the case.” (No joke man.. I can tell from just looking at it LOL) “They were also quite limited as to what they were capable of playing because they were designed as diatonic instruments. As a result, many instruments were returned to the manufacturers, who ended up with piles of instruments that they couldn’t sell. Salesmen misrepresented the instruments to customers, who felt as if they had been tricked into buying a worthless instrument.”

Well – we give it a home …it is fun to look at

When you sit on your stoop you sometimes have to look up

I found this cute little glass bottle on the right in our yard it is from around 1890-1900 and was a glue bottle – so interesting LOL- and of course…also a keeper.

succulents …this red one is so pretty- let’s hope it will survive me

Wherever you look you find some little treasures.

And this sign made me really laugh “They earned eternity in a little hour and are not dead” TROLL…I mean, if this is not the original troll I do not know.

This is one of the few know remaining gas street lanterns now on a private property. Very cool.

We found a really nice art deco spice jar set for our old possum belly bakers cabinet in the kitchen- love it.

And I finish with the obligatory view from Liberty State Park. Until next month for a new Stroll my friends!

Nat

Strolls through my hood get me out of my studio, they help me get unstuck and often I get inspired by what I see and get new ideas to create something. It is part of my philosophy about Artful Adventures in Mixed Media – which is the subject of my book. Here are some photos that I gathered in the last couple weeks.

I love my new art deco floor lamp – the colors just make me happy – also green and yellow- a combination to use a bit more often for me.

We found an overmantel that fits great onto our fire place and I love it.

This is one of the oldest houses here in Jersey City – it is from 1740 – it is a little gem.

Lovely view of Manhattan from Riverview Park – we went up their for the Farmers Market and I always love having a little bite for lunch while sitting on a bunch and taking in the view and then do some veggie shopping.

Look at this magnificent facade!!!

Love this little colorful house – the muted green, pink, rost red, and yellow is a fun combination.

Of course Liberty State Park is back on the after-work-bike-ride

As you can tell Lady Liberty is exhausted and needs a bit of a rest – I cannot blame her

This street is just lovely with all it’s brick buildings but I also really love the blue stone-brick sidewalk!

Old Cigar manufacturing building with some graffiti.

Bobby Pretzel and Mingus enjoying our new stair runner. We had this one made by a small company in Pennsylvania – Family Herloom Weavers . What an amazing company! From dying the yarn to the yarn entered into the loom and then being woven, we received videos and photos along the process. The family owned business is doing all kinds of period carpets for museums (for example the Emily Dickinson Museum) and has done work for a lot of TV shows too (think The Guilded Age). I cannot overstate how amazing the quality and customer service was and the price was more than reasonable.

We joined 4000 other bicyclists for the annual Ward tour through Jersey City. It was super fun!

Picked up some art work at Mana Contemporary- always love this building.

And attended an Open House at the Apple Tree House – also from 1740 – which is hopefully becoming the new Jersey City Museum. Look at the amazing medallion! The house may have been the site of a meeting between George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette in 1779 and has been used for decades as a funeral home, then fell almost apart and finally was restored in 2006. I really hope the Mayor will keep his promise and we will have a City Museum again and in this building.

That was it until next month – hope you enjoyed the little stroll :)

Nat

Strolls through my hood get me out of my studio, they help me get unstuck and often I get inspired by what I see and get new ideas to create something. It is part of my philosophy about Artful Adventures in Mixed Media – which is the subject of my book. Here are some photos that I gathered in the last couple weeks.

It is a late spring here but we are enjoying some time on our stoop with the newly restored banister. I love sitting on the stoop- you meet all kinds of wonderful neighbors including Alvin how walks up and down the block every day to collect trash because as he says “You gotta stay human and we have to be good to ourselves.” Thank you Alvin- you are a treasure!

Loving this Queen Anne house and the magnolia tree – icing on the cake. The soft colors of blue, yellow and pink …yum!

Meanwhile in the studio – someone is really helpful …

Those two Queen Anne Houses on our street are also amazing – I love the right one for all its amazing wood shingle applications – the wavy pattern in the triangle is my fave. The Blue house on the left has an open Turret – so fun!

Such a great building and brick work and my favorite thing about it of course is the old shop sign and the font.

Hello texture and hello gorgeous! The color combo is also intriguing …the different shades of grey and white and the muted red – very inspiring.

How cool is this iron work and also …it is the most beautiful and smart protection guard i have seen so far! Safety but not for the price of making it look like a prison.

I feel watched!

The Liberty Park Nature Center finally reopened after it was basically destroyed in Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Loved seeing those Kindness Stones all around it in the park.

Low tide – always gives the illusion you could just walk over to Manhattan

We took a little bike tour through the park and explored the old Bay View cemetery as well. It was established in 1848 and holds the graves of many mayors and important historic family members of the city and it also holds a Jewish Burial ground. It is in really rough shape which is pretty sad.

Some people might find it weird but I have always found cemeteries very peaceful and beautiful places …

Finishing the stroll through the hood with this magic picture …I love spring :)

Hope you enjoyed the little stroll – see you next time!!

Nat