Tile and a Gift

I have had a fascination for tile for a couple of years now. This is the tile that started it all. My daughter Maili gave it to me as a gift - either Christmas or my birthday or perhaps, just because.

These are a couple that could be put either way but I liked the idea of the flower in the middle instead of the diamond shape that would have appeared if I had hung them the other way. These are above a window in the dining room - except we use it as a computer room.

These are in the same room but are hung above an archway leading into the living room.

This one is almost 8 inches square and was given to me by Casey, Maili's boyfriend.

This is the smallest one I own at 4 inches square and is probably supposed to be a coaster. I purchased it on a trip to California. It just had such wonderful bright colours - and it was on sale.

Since I own a treadle machine, this tile means a lot to me. It was a birthday gift from my eldest daughter Laila last year.

This is the companion piece to the one above and since I am a quilter, it is perfect. Both of these tiles are 11 by 14 inches and were delivered by Canada post from British Columbia. Both were wonderfully intact.

And lastly, here's a photo of my Mother's Day gift from my son Mark and his wife Kate. It is a scarf with a reproduction of a map of the University of Toronto. I love it. The legend goes from 1796 to 1935. Upon inspection though, I noticed that they left out a street. It no longer exists because when I was little they built a huge building complex on the site. It was called Division Street and would have appeared in the lower left corner where that blotch of red is. Maybe I should do some research to see when they put the street in. My children do seem to get me stuff I like.

Tile

I have a love affair with tile. I love the colours, the repetition and the way it is used. These are photos taken from our trip to Southern California last February. I really didn't know how many photos of tiles I had until I went to compose this blog entry. I hope you enjoy viewing them.

 

There is a unification in a lot of the tile used at this residential complex. You can see it in the green and the rust coloured sort of star-shape above and in the floor tile below - same shapes.

 

 I have one of these red clay floor tiles. My daughter gifted me with one.

 

 

 

The tiles above have the same star shapes in the tile that I have mentioned.

 

 

The outer tiles of this fountain have the same star shape as mentioned above.

 

 The photos above were taken at a new housing complex in Irvine that my daughter's work was involved in landscaping.

 

 

 I'm pretty sure the photo above was taken at a train station close to San Clemente.

 

 

 The two photos above were taken at an old hotel/apartment building in Santa Monica called the Embassy Hotel Apartments. Click on the link to see more photos. There was a really old elevator that could fit four people at the most with a door that you had to close manually. We only took the elevator once since we really didn't trust it. We only stayed there one night (very pricey) and then went to Venice Beach and also to see the houses that are situated along the canals that give Venice Beach its name.

 

 This was at a restaurant in San Clemente. (Please ignore the date stamp - it is incorrect.)

 

A dry fountain just outside of the San Clemente Community Center which also housed the art gallery. Guess where I was heading.

 

A fountain at a shopping mall in Irvine.

 

Downtown San Clemente outside a Mexican restaurant (Del Agave) where we ate an authentic Mexican meal.

 

 This was taken in the washroom which was located just outside the restaurant

 

This last photo was taken in a walkway close to where the restaurant was. It may be hard to figure out but these were inset into the ceiling. In other words, I aimed the camera up to take this shot.

Some of these photos have been shown before on this blog but I thought it would not be a complete grouping without them. 

NOTE: Please ignore the dates on the photos. It was a new camera and when a new battery was installed, I didn't know that the date had to be shut off or re-set.