PROJECT CLUB

 

I asked my mom for suggestions about how to get/keep my home in shape, especially when I tend to be either trapped in my work week or focused on creativity, during either of which I'm not exactly keen on anything else. 

 

Her suggestion, which is indicative of how well she knows me, is simple and something I can do:  Take one hour of each day and use it to work on any house project that I want. 

 

I can do that. 

 

Some of my projects are so daunting that I don't even want to touch them, but one hour a day ought to be do-able, even during my work week when I only HAVE a couple of hours to call my own.  One hour for writing or planning, one hour for a house project.  Cut and dried, done deal.  I don't have to take on any huge thing all at once and will still make progress. 

 

I told Mom it sort of reminds me of when I was in the Construction Zone, where I had to do a daily reconciliation to make sure the day's data and whatever all balanced and all that.  I was darned good at it.  So now I can apply that same basic principle to my own stuff by doing this daily thing AND letting HER know every day!  Talk about keeping in touch!  I can certainly post it too, and then SHE has to check my blog every day too!  Ha.

 

My sister D has also given me a challenge and a deadline so I keep up with my artwork.  I'm supposed to give her one entry for next year's fair every month, physically take it and deliver it to her to put into the fair storage room, where SHE will also be putting whatever SHE gets done for that month.  

 

We're already talking about a club or some such geared toward FILLING the exhibit building with entries next year ... we're making our own beginning on it and will draft whoever we can find to help us.  She knows a lot of people.  It could be a lot of FUN for all of us!     

 

My new kitchen's  floor got its first coat.

 

 

Here's the BEFORE picture.

 

Once I have several coats of deck paint on it, I'll use my squares to random-check it, but with a lot more coverage with the red than is on the wall hanging.  Then several coats of poly. 

 

It's going to take a good while, because I have to wait a day between each coat of paint, but that's okay. 

 

I moved my fridge into the other kitchen.

Fair Results

And The Winner Is …

Drum Roll Please …

Grand Champion

Reserve Grand Champion

 

Red Ribbon
 

Red Ribbon

(This is a poor photo of what is actually a quite good little painting on a cedar shake)
 

 

Red Ribbon
 

White Ribbon
 

White Ribbon

 

All the ribbons are fun and that's all good, but for me,

the best part of this whole thing was letting the younglings choose what they wanted of the ones that weren't already spoken for.

 

 

Getting Ready For Entering Things In the Fair

BLUE RIBBON

RESERVE GRAND CHAMPION (PINK ROSETTE)

 

This painting is the first I did of aspen.  I set up in one of the front rooms of our house in Cripple Creek, near the window where the light was good.  Later on I discovered that our neighbors were keeping track of my progress on the painting, glancing up as they walked by.  One of them wanted to buy it but I said no.  It now contentedly resides in one of my sisters' homes.

 

BLUE RIBBON

GRAND CHAMPION (PURPLE ROSETTE)

 

This is the most recent of my aspen paintings.  It's happy in the home of another of my sisters! 

 



Both of them (the paintings, not the sisters)will be hanging at the fair this year. 

The last thing I remember entering in the fair was a VERY long time ago, for 4-H. 

The past couple of days have been kind of busy and kind of fun; tomorrow will be more of the same, maybe more so. 

I've gotten some of my own photographs printed and prepared for exhibition, with a few final steps to do tomorrow before I haul the whole works to the Women's Building at the fairgrounds.

I was focusing on the photos because a friend from where I work did some computer work with one of my full circle sun dog photos, got one that wasn't all there into a FULL circle.  Then he took it a step further and made a series of six different colored sun dog circles - and THEN put them all together into one piece. 

Because there are things he can't do, I did them for him.  I got the seven pieces printed; the big one is an 8x10 and the singles are 4x6.  After trimming them up a little, I made foam core mounting pads for the small ones and used spray adhesive to affix them.  Since the only mat I had that I could use was some blue or other, and I wanted black, I painted it.  While that was drying I dug around and found a clear plastic sheet to put in front of the big print to protect it, then taped it in place on the (now black) mat and taped the print in place.  Once everything was ready I glued all the small prints around the outside of the big one on a black foam core board, the colors opposite from where they are in the big piece. 

He also had a photo he really liked, of an ice-coated willow tree with the sun shining through it.  As that photo didn't take well to getting blown up, it was with tremendous relief to find yet another use for those sun dog circles.  I printed the grey one onto a sheet of transparency film and used it in front of the tree.  It's an impressive effect, and the center sun matches up with the sun coming from behind his tree in the original photo so it looks darned good.  When I put the display together, I left the two prints in the protective sleeve I had put them together in to see what they looked like.  A dark green mat with black foam core board finish it up nicely. 

Since I am anxiously waiting for my poppies to bloom, they were on my mind and I dug up some old photos just to play with them. 

Holy Cow. 

As a test of how well a photo will adapt to enlargement, I use the zoom feature to find out far I can go without pixelating. 

I was totally amazed and thoroughly excited to find one of my best shots could take a zoom right into a very close-up view!  Needless to say I got a nice 8x10 out of it. 

RED RIBBON

While I was in the flower mood I went once again into my files for a stunning white rose.  I had a black velvet backdrop and from the upper left corner a shot of sunlight came in from a window I hadn't covered well enough - hit that white rose and when I looked at the photos it looks like the rose is glowing from the inside.  Pure serendipity, that.  I had already cropped the rose photo but just out of curiosity I checked the zoom - and took it in until the rose almost fills the field.  That one, the white rose with black background in a 5x7, I left with a white border and mounted it on black.

By the time I was done printing out all the photos I plan to use AND the ones that didn't make the cut, my color cartridges (two of them) were dead and gone.  But they got the job done. 

My entries consist of the poppy, a sunset moonrise, a farmyard gossip set (horse seeming to whisper to another horse, second horse seeming to give a big haw haw, bunch of geese and other fowl running in the yard, and a quizzical goat), a series of my best tree shots, a nice landscape where the clouds and shape of a hill are synchronized, the rose, a pastel on fabric circle seashell, and one of my small rock wall paintings which is already framed. 

WHITE RIBBON

 

 

RED RIBBON

 

 

WHITE RIBBON

 

 

RED RIBBON

Yes, this was framed.  No, it didn't win.

 

I kind of want to see if I can borrow a couple of the paintings I gave away, just for these few days, but haven't asked anyone yet.  Tomorrow is entry day, so if I'm going to use any of those I have to get up early so I can go get them from wherever they are. 

Some of my paintings are at my sister's shop but I can't even remember which ones are where. 

The one I REALLY want to enter is out at my other sister's farm, the big landscape.  But I think I can probably snag the first aspen painting I did from my in town sister, and/or the snakes which are also pretty impressive in their own way. 

Like I don't already have enough to cart over to the fairgrounds, right? 

And like it's not three in the morning here, with a full and busy day ahead of me. 

All I can say is we shall see what we shall see.  I can always lug a few cedar shakes over, mount a collection of them onto one of the big foam core boards I have left ...

But for now - sleep I think.

UPDATE:  I did go get the paintings from my sister's houses - and they WON!  I also grabbed one of my cedar shakes with a painting on it, and it got a red ... the last minute things are the ones that did well; go figure. 

Oh For Pete's Sake!

HOW long does it take glue to dry, anyhow? 

I have things I want to be doing, you know, and waiting for that dratted glue to dry is throwing me completely off my schedule. 

Okay, well yeah, it’s deliberately thick and oozy, because I’m trying out a new technique to see if Elmer's glue dries clear if it’s thick and oozy to begin with – but I’m getting tired of waiting to find out. 

I’m looking for the effect of looking through a window running with rain.  Since I had a couple of bottles of glue I figured I’d try that first even though it’s water soluble and isn’t something I’d use – but I’m trying it anyway, just because. 

It’s been a while since I experimented like this and despite the frustration I’m enjoying it. 

I used first plain Elmer's glue on a couple of pieces, then diluted it by about half with hydrogen peroxide (don’t ask me how come I didn’t just use water – I swear to you that I haven’t got the faintest idea) and both are taking forever and a day to dry.

Sigh.

Of COURSE I could just go to bed and find out in the morning, but I also want to know how long it takes … next time I decide to do something like this I hope it’s earlier in the day than eleven at night, which was two and a half hours ago now. 

0930 Update
The glue does dry pretty clear but I have to remember to pop all of the bubbles, sigh.  Also, as one would expect, the hydrogen peroxide puts lots of tiny bubbles in - did we guess that would be a no go?  Not much of an experiment when you already know what's likely to happen, huh?  Oh well.  The regular glue, not watered down, STILL isn't dry but it's getting there.  Next time I do this, I'll use WATER to water it down, because it makes it nice and drippy, and I'll know it takes FOREVER to dry so plan around that. 
 

POPPY POWER

DUKE

 

LITTLE DOES HE KNOW ...

THE NEXT NICE DAY ...

IS GONNA BE BATH DAY ...

 

Poppy Pods Will Be Popping Soon!

The mashing of the poppy patch is Duke's doing but my fault as I brought him into my courtyard instead of making him stay in his own yard ... sigh ... maybe they'll recover.

 

 

 

Oh and the vines are beginning to vine on the lattice, too!

House And Yard Canopy

 

Used the outside scaffolding to get some branch trimming done on my House and Yard Canopy, loved looking through the leaves at the sky, had to take some pictures!

 

The trees you see towering over the house in these photos were part of a circle of saplings that began shooting up from a big dead stump that the neighbors said had shown no signs of life for I don't know how long, more than a decade.  They told me that they knew something good was going to happen when they saw new life popping up that summer in what was to become our yard that October.

 

There were well over a dozen baby trees in that circle; as they grew I had to thin them out but left these five - one for me and for each of my four daughters.  When we moved in that fall, they weren't any taller than me, and about as big around as my pinky finger.

 

Now they're WAY up there!

 

One branch (you'll see which one) has to come off as it's liable to mash the dormer on that side.  The good news is that I think that's an ash tree and so I can use a couple of the branches to make a shillelagh or two!  If I find enough, I can make one for each of us! 

 

 MY HOUSE AND YARD CANOPY:

 

Still Checking Out My New Kitchen

 

 

Painted checks onto the corners of dish towels.

Here I'm using another 1x4 to support an end of the trim - something to keep in mind when you have to do projects alone.  Use what IS there and just git-r-done.

These are the boards they sold me.  What's wrong with this picture?  Always get more than you need because if you don't sure as heck you're gonna get home with crooked boards.  I won't be able to finish all the trim work until after another trip to buy more 1x4.  SIGH 

Here's what I used:

1x4 boards

vinyl drawer liner (cut to six inches wide)

pencil for cut line

scissors to cut vinyl

saw and miter box

office stapler and standard staples

sanding block for cut ends

Center board on strip of vinyl.

Use checks to assure you're getting it stapled on straight.

Do one edge first, staples as close together as you want; I used a LOT of staples, every other inch or so.

Tug the vinyl tight and staple the other side.

VOILA!

Didn't need a support board for THIS one!  It snugged right in over the door perfectly.

If you're a perfectionist in search of imperfections, you'll find them by the hundreds at my house in projects I've done.

I am not a perfectionist; I am not a professional; I am doing the best I can with what I have to work with - some of the boards weren't quite AS crooked as others, so I went ahead and used them. 

 

As for those other crooked boards?

I HAVE A WOOD STOVE.