In the Crow’s Nest

It’s a pleasant day at Bywater Farm. The sun is shining in spite of predictions of rain.  It’s a breezy 83 degrees.  I did the minimal housework this morning and baked a loaf of bread.  Now I’m in the Crow’s Nest, my upstairs craft room.  It’s a good place to be.  There are windows on three sides, and I have a good view of the bayou from my desk. The birds are busy today - flying in and out of the nearby maple tree.  There are mocking birds, red-winged black birds, blue jays, and - of course - sparrows and wrens.

The Crow’s Nest is pretty tidy right now.  Work spaces have to ebb and flow, it seems to me. If your work space has to be ship-shape all the time, you never get anything done for fear of messing it up.  If it’s a mess all the time, you don’t get anything done because you can’t find anything.  If things are tidy, and I can find the tools and supplies I need, it’s fun to do stuff.  And I’ve been doing stuff.  I finished this rock painting last week, and Jerry hid it (in plain sight, of course) somewhere in town.  Nobody has posted a photo of it on the Judybug Rocks Facebook page, so maybe it’s still waiting to be noticed.  

I’ve also been doing some paper crafting.  I have quite a stash of 12 inch square scrapbook paper.  I’ve accumulated it over the years because I was going to do some - you know - scrapbooking. Ha! I can count on one hand the number of scrapbook pages I’ve done.  But you can do other things with scrapbook paper.  While looking around on YouTube, I discovered directions for making a nifty little book with one sheet of 12 inch scrapbook paper.  (Blogger is being contrary today and refuses to let me include a link. If you want to watch this video, go to YouTube and search for "Mini Book with Pockets using Only One Sheet of Paper.") The little book turns out to be 3 inches by 4 inches with handy little pockets inside.  What do you do with little pocket books like this?  I don’t know, but they sure are fun to make.  Maybe I’ll keep my postage stamps in this one.

Part of the fun of making these is decorating the front and back covers.  I added some scrapbook cardstock weight paper to the front and back to make it a little more sturdy.  Then I rubber-stamped and embossed a butterfly, cut it out, and glued it to the cover.  Here’s the inside of another little book - with a tiny envelope tucked in one of the pockets. 

 

When you fold the paper to create the pockets, the wrong side of the paper shows.  This is no problem if your paper has a design on the front and the back.  But if the back of the paper is plain white, it will show.  You might want to leave it white or decorate it somehow.  I used a rubber stamp ink pad to create a design of sorts on the white area.  

When I folded one side of the paper up to make pockets, I discovered that the manufacturer’s name and the price was visible.  I covered it will a scrap of gingham paper.  These little problems just lead to more creativity!

Now I’m off to start a new rock painting.  ‘Till next time . . .

This and That

 And you thought Alice's White Rabbit was late . . .
     I mentioned this stuffed rabbit project in my last post.  It may have taken 21 years to finish Miss Bunny, but she's a cute little thing!  Who says I don't follow through?

Ergonomics
     Bending over a table to cut out fabric is hard on the back.   I've tried cutting out on the bar in the kitchen, but find that it's a little too high -

especially if I'm using a rotary cutter.  The table in my craft room is 29.5 inches.  The bar is 36 inches.  Obviously, I needed something in between, and this got me to wondering.  I'm about 5 ft. 5 in. tall. What is the ideal work table or

counter height for me?  According to ergonomic experts on the internet, ideal counter height is three to four inches below your elbow.  No kidding!  Who knew?   This means my ideal counter height is 33 to 34 inches.  After looking around on the internet, I found this set of furniture feet, and my enterprising hubby attached them to the table legs.  Now my table is 33.5 inches high, and what a difference it makes to my temperamental back!  Someday I'll get around to painting the feet to match the table legs; but I've got too many projects going right now, and I need the table.  (Yes, I know my craft room is a mess.  It's even worse than this sometimes.)

Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin
     I've been re-watching the Nero Wolfe DVDs that Charmain gave me for Christmas several years ago.  I'll paraphrase an interesting conversation between Nero, the detective, and Archie, his assistant.  This calm exchange came after a heated argument between the two of them.

Nero:  It can't be helped, Archie.  It's just the way we are.  You are hot-headed and impulsive while I am . . . (he pauses to think) . . . magisterial.  We are bound to clash.  It's a miracle that we get along at all.
 
Archie:  (on his way out the door) . . . Yeah, well, I've got errands to run, and I need a break from the "miracle."

Don't we all have a few "miracle" relationships like this in our lives?  And don't we all need a break from them sometimes?

Under a Buttermilk Sky

I was out in the pasture - on the tractor - early this morning to help Jerry with the routine manure-moving detail.  The temperature was bearable, and we worked under a perfect buttermilk sky.  I'm not sure what a buttermilk sky means weatherwise, but I like the atmosphere that it gives to all outdoors - and it reminds me of that old cowboy song called "Buttermilk Sky."

Bathing the horses was next on our agenda.  The fungal and/or bacterial skin infection that Tesoro developed a few weeks ago is cleared up now, but it took several baths in an iodine shampoo and regular treatment with an anti-fungal spray.  Summer is the worst season for the horses when it comes to skin problems.  They do a lot of sweating as they graze under the hot summer sun.  The salty sweat attracts all kinds of biting insects, and that makes existing skin problems worse.  The best prevention is frequent bathing and daily spraying with fly spray.

We've purchased a new washer and dryer - catapulting ourselves into the world of 21st century laundry.  These appliances are a far cry from the ones they replaced.  They're computerized and are, no doubt, smarter than I am.  I was most surprised by the washer's repertoire of sounds - falling water, pounding surf, airplane sounds (taking off and landing), and various groans and moans.  None of these sounds are loud.  In fact, these machines are remarkably quiet.  They are big - the size of small automobiles.  Ok, I'm exaggerating, but the dryer door definitely has the feel of a car door when it closes.  Will they clean the laundry better than the old appliances?  Maybe.  We'll see.  I can certainly wash and dry more clothes at a time in these big high-capacity machines.  That means I finish the laundry in about half the time - and that's a good thing!

Activity in my Addis post office box has increased lately. I've managed to find the time to send a few letters and do a little paper crafting.  I recently sent this summery watermelon card off to California.  In the last two weeks I've received letters from Texas, England, Australia, and India - and posts cards from Indiana, California, and New Mexico.  I like hearing about the daily lives of my pen pals.  No matter the geographical and cultural differences, we have a great deal in common - children and grandchildren, as well as homes, pets, and gardens to care for.

 

The twins are doing well, and their sister, Ellie, is adjusting to having them at her house.  I guess she's decided it's sort of like day-care at home.  Wallace and Arabella have started school up in north Louisiana.  Arabella texted me yesterday that she has ten teachers this year!  Was that a typo?  Can she possibly have ten teachers?  I'll have to text and ask for more information.  Texting with my grandchildren!  What would my mother and grandmother think of this new technology!

My current sewing projects are burp cloths for the new twins and crocheted doll clothes.  The tiny burp cloth on the top of the stack is for Ellie and her dolls.  My mornings and evenings are spent in the barn, but the blazing mid-day is a good time to be inside - sewing or reading or writing letters.

I've joined an online book discussion group, sponsored by the Trollope Society.  It's called "Take a Trollope on Holiday." Ha! The assignment is Anthony Trollope's Phineas Phinn - one of the Palliser novels.  Trollope is one of my favorite authors, and I read The Palliser series years ago.  But a good book is always worth re-reading.

 

It's true that August is the middle of high summer, but - along with the heat and humidity - it always brings hints of fall.  The angle of the sun is noticeably different.  The pecan tree in the pasture is shedding leaves.  It's always the last to put out new growth in the spring, but the first to send fall leaves raining down.  This morning as I walked to the back of the barn, I saw a large flock of birds along the bayou bank.  I startled them, and they all took flight at once.  I don't know what kind of birds they were, but their lift-off was a beautiful sight.  Migrating birds - another hint of fall.

Artist Trading Cards

It's amazing how you can rock along with your normal routine life and suddenly stumble on something that you didn't know existed.  The internet, of course, is a fantastic place to stumble on new things.  Like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, I've recently fallen into the world of Artist Trading Cards.  And believe me - it's a well populated world.  There are enough websites and YouTube videos about Artist Trading Cards to keep you busy for hours on end.  There are websites that facilitate the trading of ATCs.  There are websites that sell ATC supplies - boxes and albums for storage, plastic sleeves for protection,  and rotating stands for displaying.

The only firm rules about Artist Trading Cards - often referred to as ATCs - is that they must be 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches and must be traded, not sold. (There's a way around the "not sold" rule - more about that later.) Any medium can be used to create an ATC - paint, ink, chalk, colored pencils, rubber stamps, collage elements, etc.  Some ATCs are made of fabric and stitching.  Some have three dimensional features. 

I had lots of fun this morning creating the ATC pictured above.  The lighthouse scene is a rubber stamped image that I colored with watercolor pencils.  The sky was "painted" by dabbing a sponge on a blue rubber stamp pad and then dabbing the sponge lightly onto the sky area.  The water at the bottom of the card is a torn piece of aqua-colored paper.  The torn, ragged edge of the paper conveniently looks like surf pounding the rocks at the base of the lighthouse.  The pretty young miss was cut from the glossy cover of a mail-order catalog and glued onto the card with a glue stick.  I wasn't happy that the young lady was glossy and the rest of the card wasn't.  I remedied this by using a small artist brush to apply a thin coat of matte gel medium to the dear girl.  I'm pleased with the result.   As Dee Gruenig, the queen of rubber stamping, often says about her own creations, "It's so cute, I can hardly stand it!"  Is it really art?  I don't know, but it sure is fun!

I've created four or five ATCs in the last two weeks.  I have to confess that I like them so much, I'm not sure I want to part with them.  They may never be traded.  I've ordered a couple of ATC boxes for storing my creations.  Maybe when I've made enough of them, I'll be willing to part with some of them.   I think the only reason great artists are able to part with their work is that they are confident they can produce more good work.  When you're an iffy artist like I am, you're never sure you can pull it off again.

Now, back to the "not sold" rule.  It appears to me that if you want to sell your little works of art, you just call them ACEOs.  I'll bet you didn't know there's a whole 'nother world of ACEOs - Art Card Editions & Originals.  There's brisk commerce in the ACEO world - just search for ACEOs on E-Bay and you'll see what I mean.

Whether you call them ATCs or ACEOs, creating these little works of art is a lot of fun.  It's an inexpensive hobby, requiring few supplies.  If you're on a tight budget, you can cut your cards from cereal boxes.  If you want your cards to be a little more sophisticated, 100# Bristol board is perfect.  It's sold in tablets at Michael's and Hobby Lobby and is not too expensive.  Old magazines and catalogs are great sources for collage elements. 

One of the best features of this hobby is that an ATC is a small project that can be completed in one sitting.  And I imagine if I ever decide to trade some of my ATCs, I will probably make some new friends.