From the back porch - January 31, 2025

This has not been a very productive week, as far as output is concerned.  I did not do a single painting, and none of my little carvings turned out well.  

Tomorrow, I am going to attend a "vendor presentation" at a local farmer's market.  I do not intend to be a vendor any time soon, but I'd like to know what's required if I ever do set up a booth.

My BFF and I have been wanting to do something with our various talents.  She makes lovely baskets and jewelry, and she builds birdhouses and such.  Gives it all away.  I make things with needles and thread and give it all away.  We wonder if selling our wares might help justify the amount of time and money we spend on indulging our creative urges.  

I've done booths at two street fairs.  When I did the first one, I was making ladies hats.  Not knitted/crocheted hats, but "real" hats.  However, at that time, few ladies wore "real" hats, and I did not even recoup the cost of the booth.  Hats would probably sell better now, but I became so totally OVER making hats that, during "the great purge," I donated all of my hat-making paraphernalia to a fashion school in Texas.  I didn't do much better at the second street fair.  

If BFF and I decide to try a booth at a craft show or farmer's market or street fair, we probably should not expect to strike it rich or become famous.  ;)  If we do a booth at the local farmer's market (which would be something of a production, since we live 300 miles apart), it can't happen until next year, as neither of us currently has anything left to sell.

And I don't even have a plan.  When I imagine what my side of the booth might contain, it's full of stuff that I'm not yet good at making.  

This is a problem.

Whittlin' - January 29, 2025

Sunday morning, I went outside to find some wood to whittle.  I lopped small branches off live cherry and Polonia trees.  (The Polonia wood is strange. It has a hole in the center of the limb.  Is this characteristic?)  I gathered dry sticks from limbs that had fallen during the snow storm. The new wood proved easier to carve than the dry wood, but it was still tougher to carve than the wood that came in the carving kit.  I managed a rather messy tiny owl using the cherry wood.  

Mid-morning, I left off carving and went to pick up my grocery order.  On the way home, I stopped by the hardware store and got some pine sticks to try.    The pine was pretty tough to carve, too.  

By nightfall, my right index finger was giving me fits.  This is the finger that swelled up for no apparent reason the day after I retired (a few days after Christmas).  It's hard to even hold a pencil.  I suspected that the swelling was from arthritis, but worried that I'd cracked a bone or jammed it or something, so Monday I went to the doctor's office for an x-ray.  Diagnosis: arthritis.  

Lovely.  

Reasoning that using the finger would not damage it further since it wasn't broken, I whittled all afternoon, using the store-bought wood.  I got an ugly, half-finished, little bald pine man for my efforts.  

Yesterday morning, I went out to breakfast with my sister and our two aunts.  We had a lovely time.  Afterwards, I stopped by the hobby store to get some soft wood.  They had basswood and balsa.  I got a little of each and came home and carved a gnome out of the basswood.  I accidentally cut off his nose twice.  He got smaller and smaller and smaller.  Basically, he's a floppy hat, a honkin' big moustache, and some feet.

This may not be my "calling."  :)

I am scared of the knife, and with my sore index finger stuck out like a flag pole, it's hard to make deep, precise cuts in the wood.  

Nevertheless, it's a strangely calming hobby (blood-letting worries aside), and I'm going to keep at it until something else demands my time.  This morning, I sketched out a beaver on a 1" x 1" x 2" piece of basswood.  It will most likely lose its big protruding teeth at least once.  ;)

Funny (unrelated) story:

The LRB got in trouble this weekend.

Her mother noticed she'd gone quiet and went looking for her.  They have four dogs and a cat in the house, and one of them had pooped in the floor, and my D-I-L stepped in it on the way to find the LRB.  She called out to Granddaughter #3 to go see what the baby was doing while she (the D-I-L) cleaned up the poop.  Granddaughter #3 came back giggling.  She's found the LRB in the bathroom.  The LRB had also stepped in the poop and was busy scrubbing it off her shoe . . . with her mother's toothbrush.

The Birds - January 26, 2025

This Bird . . . . 

My last post showed a picture of The Bird in progress.  At that point, the instructions weren't making good sense to me, and I was stalled out.  My bird looked too thick, but I was scared to shave him down in the manner the instructions seemed to indicate.  There was a video to go along with the instruction booklet, but it didn't answer my questions.

So I YouTubed.

As a result, I now have a burning desire to carve little men, and owls, and rabbits . . . . oh, my!

This guy was my favorite.  

Whittle a 2" Man -Simple Beginner Friendly Full "Knife Only " Woodcarving Tutorial (1x1 series) - YouTube

There were also other videos about carving The Bird.  I watched them.  Finally, on Friday, I picked up the knife, wanting to get The Bird off my plate so I can carve little men and owls and rabbits.  I managed an acceptable bird.  It needs sanding and waxing.  I vowed to get that done this weekend.

Yesterday morning, my arthritic finger was pretty sore from Friday's workout, so I piddled around with other things for a while, and later in the afternoon, Granddaughter #3 and the Little Rotten Baby came over.  We painted and sewed and read books, and I did not get any more work done on The Bird.

I'm going to finish it TODAY, after I pick up my grocery order.

The grocery order is supposed to include some 1" wooden dowels.  If they're out of stock, well, there's a hardware store right next door.  ;)

My BFF gave me the bird - January 20, 2025

So far, I still have all my fingers.  

I hadn't been carving on that block of wood for 10 minutes when I nicked myself enough to draw blood.  There are two little stab wounds in the palm of my left hand.  

I kinda like this whittling. "Arthur" won't let me work for long at a time, and there's a lot of wood to remove, so this project may string along for a while.  

I can predict how I will screw this up.  I'm already wanting to modify the design.

Crazy Car - January 19, 2025

Yesterday after the LRB's birthday party, the temperature started to drop, and the wind picked up, and I nearly froze walking home from the party.  I'd just walked in our door when I realized that I'd left  something at my son's house.  Because it was so cold, instead of walking back across the road, I grabbed the keys to the Cherokee, drove to Son #2's house, and left the car running while I ran inside to get my stuff.  When I went back to the car, I discovered that it had locked itself.  RUNNING.

SHIT!  Now I've got to walk home in the cold to get the spare key.

You may remember that The Husband bought this old car from an estate sale.  What I did not know was that he'd gotten only ONE KEY.

The Husband grabbed a wire coat hanger and headed across the road.  I started making phone calls.  It was 5 p.m., and all of the car dealership service departments had closed, so we could not get a key made.  I called a locksmith.  No answer, straight to voice mail.  SHIT!

I went back across the road and started calling/texting relatives on the hill to see if anyone had anything that might help us break into the car.  Son #2 and The Husband were out in the cold, freezing, trying to burgle the car with the coat hanger.  Just then, the locksmith texted me and said he could be here in 20 minutes.  One minute later, my son managed to pull up the lock button with the coat hanger.  I was able to catch the locksmith and cancel the call before he headed out.

Thank goodness this crazy locking business didn't happen to us while we were on the road.  We'll be getting a spare key made this week!

Granddaughter #1 was originally planning to head back to college tomorrow (Monday), but the weather-persons started predicting bad weather for Monday, she decided to leave today to get ahead of it.  I just went out to the porch to discover that it's snowing, already.  I'm praying that it quits SOON, before the roads get too nasty, and that she has a safe trip back to school.

In yesterday's mail was a box addressed to me.  It was a wood-carving kit, with two blocks of balsa wood, a knife, a bird pattern, and some miscellaneous finishing supplies.  No note.  Though at first she pretended not to know anything about it, my BFF finally 'fessed up.  Said it was a retirement gift.

Pray I don't do permanent, serious nerve damage with this knife. ;)

The Purple Cake - January 18, 2025

It's a good thing I made that half batch of "practice" frosting for the purple cake.

I played with the piping tips and the food coloring and managed to make a few acceptable pink rose-like flowers and some leaves, which I piped onto little squares of parchment and froze.  My intention was to make some better ones with the "real" frosting, but the real batch was a little too loose to make flower petals that would stand up.  I ended up using the practice flowers.

I thought it turned out not too badly for a first try.  

When I texted a picture to The Husband, he said, "I thought you were going to put purple sprinkles on it."

O.M.G.  I had completely forgotten about the purple sprinkles.  I'd planned to dust the whole top of the cake with purple sanding sugar before I put the flowers on.  

There was no room left for purple sprinkles.  I took off some of the little roses, stenciled a purple sugar butterfly in their place, and dusted the rim with purple sugar.

I thought it looked better before the purple sugar additions.  

Oh, well.  The Little Rotten Baby liked it.

Friday - December 17, 2025

It's a balmy 37 degrees on the back porch this morning.  I went out for a little while, but the wind is blowing, making porch-sitting intolerable at present.  It's supposed to be nearly 60 degrees this afternoon and for the next couple of days.  Come the weekend, we'll be back to freezing temps again, and I'll be all grumpy about it.

I so hope the spring weather won't act this year as it has done for the past few years.  Last year, a late frost got the plum tree blooms.  Our old blue mophead hydrangea has not hoisted a bloom in several years, having had its buds nipped by cold snaps.  

Today I need to make a birthday cake for the Little Rotten Baby.  She is on a purple kick - for Christmas she wanted "a purple scooter with a purple helmet for safety," and in her new room, she insisted on purple walls - so I looked for a recipe that would make a purple cake and ordered all of the necessary supplies.  When I unpacked my order, the purple food coloring was missing, out of stock.  I figured I could make purple with red and blue food coloring, which I had on hand.

This morning, I woke up at 4:30 and just went on and got up.  When The Husband got up at 6:00, I was putting the cakes in the oven.  The batter colorants were grape soda and grape Koolaid.  The cakes are, indeed, purple.  They came out of the pans without incident.  I wrapped them in plastic wrap and put them in the freezer.

Time to tackle the frosting.

I want to make flowers to go on the cake.  Years ago, I tried my hand at this; it was an utter failure, and I ended up giving my cake decorating supplies to a relative.  With my supply order, I got an inexpensive kit with four tips and about a dozen bags.  Yesterday, I watched some videos.  This morning, I stirred up half a batch of frosting and gave it a shot.  

It ain't looking good.

I had to make a flower pin (or whatever they're called) out of a sour cream container lid and a skewer.

I'm going to keep practicing.

Wednesday - January 15, 2025

There are still patches of snow in the yard from Friday's blizzard.  It should melt today, and I'll be glad when it does. Seeing it makes me cold.

I ventured out yesterday to have lunch with my former boss.   We sat and talked for two hours.   We had a lot of catching up to do since we'd missed our December lunch date.  She brought me a Christmas present, a set of watercolor paints and a book - a real, paper book, by John Grisham.  It's been a long time since I've read a real, paper book.

Before leaving for the lunch date, I did a little painting, following along with a YouTube video.  It was a painting of snowdrops, one of the birth flowers of January.  It's hard to paint white things in watercolor; you don't actually paint them, you paint around them, leaving white paper showing, and then paint their shadows with very thin blue-gray. 

My first attempt at the painting was not terrible, but there were things about it that did not suit me. I sketched out a couple more snowdrop paintings and finished one before I left for lunch.  It was not *quite* gift quality, but I took it with me and gave it to The Boss.  When I came home, I squeezed out some of the new paints and painted the rest. I did not do a background on the first two snowdrop paintings, but they needed one, so I painted backgrounds on the next two, after I'd already painted the snowdrop flowers and foliage.  This was hard.  These last two are not quite gift quality, either, but they're going to be birthday cards for my two aunts who are having birthdays this month.  My sister's birthday is in January, too, and we have tentative plans for a January birthday girl luncheon later this month.  She'll get the first card, unless the fifth one that I'm about to paint turns out better.  On this one, I've masked out the snowdrop blooms and will do a wet-on-wet background before I paint the flowers.  

While I wait on the masking fluid to dry, I'm going to try some carnations (also a January birth flower).

Who gets to pick these month flowers, anyway?

Do carnations bloom in January anywhere in the world, other than in a greenhouse?

* * * * * * * * 

Over the snowy weekend, I made a little progress on the quilt for Granddaughter #3.  You may remember that I cut off the seam allowance on one of the 20 embroidered blocks and had to make another one. I am 1.5 cross stitches away from being finished with the embroidery of the replacement block. You might also remember that I had embroidered start/finished dates on every block. As I approached those final stitches, I was pondering what dates to embroider on that block.  Should I use the dates of the original block, or the dates of the replacement block?  I'd been deliberately starting or ending the blocks on family-significant dates, such as birthdays or anniversaries. When it hit me that The Little Rotten Baby's birthday is this weekend, the dilemma was solved. I saved those last 1.5 cross stitches for Saturday.  ;)

It was a long, cold weekend.  

Friday afternoon, I roasted a butternut squash, some carrots, and an onion, intending to make butternut squash soup for dinner.  The roasted vegetables were on the chopping board, and a soup pot was heating up on the stove, when The Sister-in-Law called to see if we wanted to brave the snowy roads to go to the Mexican restaurant with them.  I turned off that stove so fast!

Except to scatter some bird food, I haven't set foot outside the house since then.  The birds provided us with a little entertainment.  We saw "the usuals" - cardinals, wrens, chickadees, the occasional woodpecker - and a few that we don't see often enough to name them.  Whole groups of little blackbirds swooshed in and out.  I watched a cardinal clamp a sunflower seed against a crape myrtle limb to hold it still while he cracked it open with his beak.  Come spring, I'm probably going to regret throwing those seeds so close to the flower beds.  

Friday afternoon, a bird burgled its way onto the back porch.  We searched the porch screens for holes, but didn't find any.  The screen doors don't fit precisely, but the cracks at their tops and bottoms seem too small for birds to squeeze through. No clue how it got in. We opened both screen doors to give it an escape route, but while the doors were open, a second bird - a female cardinal, I think - came in.  The Husband managed to catch the cardinal and let it out the door (it bit the sh*t out of his finger - you could see the V shape on his skin).  The other one eventually flew up in the rafters and would not come down.  We didn't want to leave the doors open indefinitely so this bird could get out for fear more birds would come in, so we closed the doors at dark.  The next morning when I opened the back door, TWO birds flew out of the rafters.   Over the weekend. we had several more birds find their way into the porch.  We need to figure out how they're getting in and plug the hole.  They go apesh*t trying to get out, and I'm scared they'll hurt themselves flying at the screens.  Not to mention what their beaks and claws do to the screens.  

I finished the butternut soup Saturday afternoon, and we had it for supper with grilled cheese sandwiches.  It was delicious.  We had it again last night, with chimichangas made from Friday night's Mexican leftovers.

There's still a good bit of snow in the back yard this morning.   Although the roads are fairly clear, I probably won't go anywhere today, either.  It's just too stinkin' cold.

I don't really have a plan for today.  

I have been dabbling with bookbinding.  So far, I've made two little sketchbooks and started a third, but they all have issues.  Instead of wasting any more paper trying to hone my skills, I think I'll cut the finished ones apart and re-use the materials.  

Snow's a-comin' - January 9, 2025

The weather predictors warn that snow-mageddon is on the way, arriving sometime between tonight and tomorrow morning.  They say we might get 6" of snow.  This was a signal for people to run to the grocery store and empty the shelves of bread, milk, and snacks, even though the snow will probably melt by Sunday.  I'll be making my own run before the morning is over.

* * * * * * * *

1/10/25

Well, it's here.

I abandoned this post mid-stream yesterday and went out in search of snacks for the long, snowy weekend. There was a Hobby Lobby in the same parking lot as the grocery store.  I could not resist popping in to H.L. to see if they still had any Bob Ross toasters.  They did, and I got one.

I can't say that I'm impressed with Bob's toasted likeness.  

Irksome Inhabitants - January 8, 2025

My sister called yesterday morning and asked, "Are you bored, yet?"

I immediately answered "No!"

It was the truth.  I could think of a million things I'd do if I could only lay hands on the supplies.

"But wait," you might be saying, "don't you have a house full of craft supplies?"

Why, yes!  Yes, I do!  

But there is some sort of sentient, mischievous being living in my space who hides my stuff from me.  

It can't be The Husband; he knows better.

It's a fey, or something.  

Maybe a Little Person who lives behind the cleaning supplies (where it's safe from detection).  

It's remarkable in that it hides things from me right before I need them.

"It was just RIGHT HERE!"

Yesterday, I must have spent two hours looking for a set of plastic stencils that I bought for Granddaughter #3 to experiment with.  She didn't have much interest in them, and I didn't have immediate interest in them, so I put them away.  Yesterday, I thought of a use for them, and they were not where I remembered putting them.  I tore the house apart looking for them.  

The creature who lives here is particularly mischievous, for while I'm in another room, it puts the things back in places where I've already looked.

Cold! - January 6, 2025

Winter is roaring in today.  It's supposed to get icy and nasty later this week.  

I don't like this one bit.  The local schools are starting back after the holiday break, and The Grandson now has the Wrangler.  He has very little driving experience, and zero experience with ice/snow.  I hope the adults in his house make him take the bus if the schools don't close again because of bad weather.

I am SERIOUSLY worried about Granddaughter #1, who is scheduled to drive back to college all the way across the state later this week.  She, too, has not had much experience driving on snow/ice, and I-40 is crazy on a good, clear day.

With all of the traveling, health issues, and remodeling at Son #2's house in recent months, we have not yet winterized the back porch.  We may not get to it at all this year, which may seriously hamper my wintertime mojo.  I do my best thinking out there.  

Last week, I succumbed to YouTube bait and now am somewhat obsessed with bookbinding.  Over the weekend I tried my hand at making a couple of notebooks/journals/sketchbooks.  It was not a complete waste of time and materials, as I built them with scraps and ended up with a couple of usable sketchbooks. but they are not by any means "gift quality."  (There's a third one in progress on the studio table; it'll be a little better.)  It occurred to me that this might be useful knowledge if/when the county archive gets up and running. 

  

Milkweed - January 4, 2024

I planted milkweed seeds this morning.  Last year, the State gave away milkweed seed packets to anyone who asked for them. Five packages.  I scattered 4 of the packages in the phlox bed in the fall of 2023, but none came up (that I recognized) last year.  We found this 5th packet under the Wrangler seat a week ago.  I planted them near the back porch, where I can keep a good watch on them.  They should get some stratifying before spring.

The Husband has been trying to put together a shoe rack this morning.  It's a wood-like thing, came in a zillion pieces, with oddly-shaped screw heads.  It looked to me like it needed an allen wrench. We spent a long time looking for a screwdriver/bit that would turn the screw.  I said, "I can't believe a company would send you a weird screw and nothing to turn it," and left him to keep trying things.  He subsequently re-examined the hardware bag that came with the rack and found - guess what? - an allen wrench.

:-X

;-)

I picked up The Grandson about 11 this morning, and we went to pick up Eugene (the Wrangler).  On the way, he narrated the 'coon huntin' trip.  He said he did put it in 4WD in a muddy spot, but it didn't get stuck.  When we got to the shop, one look at the Jeep told me he hadn't buried it bumper deep in mud; it just had splashes on it.  

The mechanic was on the phone when we went inside.  The Grandson immediately took out his phone and went to googling, or whatever.  I strolled around the room looking at the racecar pictures on the wall.  They were pictures of the mechanic's race team holding up giant checks. I summoned The Grandson, pointed at the pictures, then pointed at the mechanic.  Dude has evidently been racing since he was born.

The mechanic said all he did to Eugene was put his transmission fluid line back where it belongs.  Nobody has a clue how/why it came off, except that maybe the shop didn't put it back on tightly enough when they worked on it in the fall.  When we left the shop, The Grandson shook the mechanic's hand and said it was nice to meet him.  When we got outside, The Grandson said, "That old guy was sooo cool."

We parted at the driveway; he went north, I went south.  To Hobby Lobby.   Got some sketchbooks and a can opener.  Almost got a Bob Ross toaster (it puts his face on the bread!), but talked myself out of it.  Now I wish I had bought it. ;)

Happy New Year - January 2, 2025

Happy Near Year to you.

I'm freezing my butt off on the back porch this morning, looking out at the frost in the back yard, listening to crows yelling back and forth.  The other birds are quiet; I suppose they're huddled up somewhere, trying to stay warm.

It was a quiet day around here yesterday.  About 12 people had showed up for our New Year's Eve supper, more than I was expecting, and I had under-estimated the amount of food that adolescent Grandchildren could consume.  I ended up making another pan of biscuits mid-party, and we had a few of those and some ham left over, so I didn't need to cook breakfast yesterday.  I spent the day piddling around in the sewing room - errr, studio - doing a little re-organizing and a little painting.

I don't have much of an agenda for today.  The transmission shop called Tuesday to say that the Wrangler is ready.  The mechanic said that it appeared that someone had had some fun in the mud in the Wrangler.  I could call The Grandson today to go with me to pick up the Wrangler, but I think I'll make him wait until tomorrow.  While we're there, I'll get the mechanic to caution The Grandson about "dogging" a 26-year-old Jeep with an "iffy" transmission.  

I hope to do some more painting today, if "Arthur" will let me.  Tuesday morning, I woke up with a swollen, sore index finger on my right hand.  It is one of my most useful fingers - it rolls mouse wheels, punches buttons, picks noses - and I'm right irked that it's acting this way.  There's sh*t I want to do, now that I've retired.

By the way, I intend to be selfish with time for a little while, so don't tell anybody I've retired.  ;)