30 Before 30: My Wall

I've been living in the same apartment since I moved back to Pittsburgh in 2010. It's been two and a half years of blissfully living by myself. There are many excellent advantages to living alone: always leaving doors within the apartment open, ignoring the sink (and counters) full of dirty dishes, or falling asleep on the couch watching The West Wing (admittedly, also Teen Mom) three nights in a row. Included in that list is total and compete control over interior decorating. I always knew living in Boston would be temporary, so I never invested too much time into the apartments I could never reside in alone. Because I love just about everything about my apartment (shower stall: BE DAMNED!), I'm not interested in moving out until I find myself a house to buy. So, instead of moving, I'm starting to undertake a number of projects to give me a feeling of change, even if I'm staying put.

One of those projects was to redo my wall.

My wall is truly a favorite feature of this apartment, but its initial organization was fairly haphazard as I wanted to feel settled here as quickly as possible. So I put my wall on my 30 Before 30 list. For two reasons. First, I wanted to make sure it got done. Second, I wanted to make sure it got done right. I knew this was no undertaking I could start on a whim. It was something I needed to plan out. (I've been scouring DIY/lifestyle/design/decorating blogs for months.) That I needed to collect items for. (This was the fun part: new prints/new photos.) That I needed help executing. (Enter my dad.)

We spent a Saturday afternoon tacking the new arrangement up on the wall while listening to The Weakerthans. (I had bought my dad a bunch of new records for Christmas. So far, he's keenest on them, which is totally awesome.) It was a bit frustrating at first. My patience can easily wear thin. And also I have the attention span of a fly. But, after relaxing a bit and realizing this project was going to take a chunk of my day, I stopped rushing to get to the end. Though the results are far from appearing professionally done, I'm pleased with the result. It was the perfect way to refresh my place a bit before the new year.

View of Wall 1

View of Wall 2

Narwhal print by Tugboat; Downtown map print by Brian Taylor.

Map of Pittsburgh from Alternate Histories.

First CONFETTI poster, Phil Collins, and bikes and powerlines.

Next up on the apartment to-do list is slightly more terrifyingly tedious project. It involves sanding, cleaning, and painting. (Yikes!)

Take A Walk: Blocks of Penn

I've been meaning to take more walks. I feel like I've neglected nice walks when there's nothing else to do. So I made a point to walk down to Target this past weekend along Penn. There had been a few things I wanted to capture on a list in the back of my mind. So, with the sun beginning to set, I took a walk.

Sun beating down on Gross Street.

If I had money to spend on such things, this map painting would be mine. Maybe one day.

Mural on the edge of the Quiet Storm.

A gallery on the side of a building.

Mental note: Take a glass blowing class.

Do You Know Where You Are: The Hyperlocal Mapping Party

Maps are a handy item. They can show you where you are. They can tell you where you are going. They show you new places to discover as close or as far away from home as you want to be. One of my favorite "features" of my apartment are the tacked-up BikePGH bike maps, which are both informative and really fun to look at.

Maps were the guest of honor at the Hyperlocal Mapping Party hosted by Assemble on Penn Ave last Wednesday night. There were a number of activities and presenters, including the amateur cartographer Eric Lidji (he has been doing some lovely PGH-reporting lately) and his protractors! (You remember, the protractors? I wrote about them in my very first post!)

No one's found #33 yet! Someone get out there and find #33!

The string of protractors I discovered along the river on the South Side and along the Eliza Furnace Trail.

One of the other activities was "Mapping Your Body." Carrie was given a long sheet of paper, drew her body's outline, and filled it in with clippings from magazines - a representation of what Carrie is made up of.

By far, my favorite clipping Carrie chose was the reddish one with the cat on it. You can see it at the top of her head in the photo above. It's great because it says: "Cats, Little Tigers In Your Houses." I hope this is Carrie's actual thought process.

The map above shows the various abandoned or vacated plots in Garfield. This map isn't just a listing of properties in the neighborhood. The great amount of orange/yellow/tan on this map shows that Garfield is an area ready for a major infusion of life. Being that it borders my current location, I hope good things develop there.

Art in the Neighborhood: The Lawrenceville Artists' Studio Tour

A few Saturdays ago, I woke up from a late night. My college radio station friends have reconvened on the city and we were throwing ourselves something of a reunion. We'd been up until roughly 4 a.m., so when my alarm went off around 8:30 a.m., I was slightly grumpy. And slightly frumpy. I had plans to meet Allie for coffee and then check out a few places on the Lawrenceville Artists' Studio Tour. Only art in my neighborhood could force me out of bed in a possibly still-intoxicated-from-the-night-before state.

We only made it to two of the studios, but I think we may have picked the two best options. The first studio we visited was the one I desperately wanted to check out:

Tugboat Printshop

I've been a fan of Tugboat's handmade woodblock prints for some time, after discovering them on Steeltown Anthem. I love the detail and design of their prints. I love them so much that during last year's Handmade Arcade I purchased the "The Iceberg" print (now sold out!) because I love me a good narwhal. Tugboat is husband-wife duo Paul Roden and Valerie Lueth, and while we visited they were so welcoming. They explained the process of making their prints and we also chatted about Pittsburgh. They were wonderful. And their prints are incredible.

The other studio we visited was down the street from Tugboat. I'd walked past this home many times on trips from Bloomfield down to Butler and was always intrigued by the CDs hanging like drapes on the front porch. I wasn't sure what I would find inside, but what I did find was so right up my alley that it practically hurt to look at. The artist's name is Kitty Spangler.

The piece that seems perfectly made for me?

Oh, just a quilt of Pittsburgh where all of the different fabrics are cut out into the shape of neighborhoods making one absolutely incredible map. Every piece of fabric was chosen for a reason, so looking at the different pieces was like a game in trying to figure out which neighborhood was which just based on the fabric. Seriously. I was absolutely floored by this quilt. (And it instantly made me miss my mom, who probably would have made me one of these if she could.)

Wear You Live: Another PGH T-Shirt for My Collection

I am a sucker for t-shirts. I am a bigger sucker for t-shirts with a PGH theme. When I would fly back and forth from Boston, the PGH airport was a dangerous place because I could spend so much money on great PGH t-shirts. I have almost a full drawer of these now, and being back there are always opportunities to find new, awesome PGH tees.

Like this one.

I found out about Wear You Live on the I Heart PGH blog, and immediately went to Wear You Live's Kickstarter page and donated to get a PGH t-shirt. Cannot wait for it to arrive! My dresser drawer, however, is nearly overflowing...

Here There Be Dragons: The Undiscovered West End

This is an illustrated map from the City Paper's City Guide.

I loved that the West End is demarcated with a fire-breather and the caption "Here There Be Dragons." The West End does feel like an uncharted mystery in the Pittsburgh landscape, but Eric and I have ventured there, and plan to make a return visit soon, for Pedestrian Pittsburgh.