A wee bundle of joy...

Our son and his wife had their baby girl Friday--a first child for them, the eleventh grandchild for us.  She and her mother are fine and healthy after an arduous labor and a scary bit at first.  I didn't get to be with them up in Colorado, but they've sent pictures.  Grannies being as grannies are, I have to pass them along. Despite the nature of all babies to look like Winston Churchill, I think she's especially beautiful. 

We're in...sort of.

We've been in for almost four weeks, but it still feels like we just got here.  The loss of three hundred square feet from the old place means this place has a lot of work to do in order to "absorb" us and all our crap stuff.  But it's coming along.  The hubs has installed so many shelves that he mutters in his sleep now..."where's the level?  What'd I do with that stud finder?"  but he makes things work for us, no matter where we go.  Go vertical, young man!

I had a trip to the emergency room a week ago Sunday--sliced my ring finger open and "degloved" the knuckle.  Stitches, a splint, etc.  The worst part is that it's my right hand, and the second worst part is HELLO we just moved!  I have way too much to do to be sidelined like this.

I've managed to get things done--oddly large motor skill activities are easier than small ones.  I can dig and mow a lawn, but trying to paint a cabinet or write my name is exhausting.  Being the adaptable woman that I am, I put this odd truth to work and got some digging done, to the accompaniment of the hubs admonishments to stop, go sit down, read a book or something.  Right.

(The hand is healing fine, no worries.)  But day before yesterday I realized I was getting ahead of myself on the landscape.  I was putting things in the ground, cutting down those awful boxwoods, etc. BEFORE getting any "before" photos.  Years from now I'd have been really mad about that.  I know, because I didn't get nearly enough of those on the last house, given the changes we made there.

So. pardon the picture heavy post...but my hand is tired of splint-typing--another frustratingly slow activity.  Hope all the moms had a lovely Mom's Day!

The "dead" spots are where I killed the grass in order to dig beds.   The hubs has said I can plant the entire yard as much as I want--as in eliminate the lawn altogether.  Few people know how happy this makes me.  It will take YEARS! 

The garage and back gate...and a Loquat tree that is not long for this earth.  Small messy fruit and bird poop seem to be its major contributions...we will put a Texas Redbud there for shade later.

View of the back yard from the corner where Phil will install a new gate.  Need a place to park the hauling trailer.

A new desert willow tree w/ companions...Schultz is posing so I will have a sort of "comparison growth chart" photo.  :~)

The teeny tiny tree next to the wheelbarrow is a Southern Magnolia my son and his wife sent me for Mom's Day.  This is at the front corner of the house...and this evergreen tree can get up to 60 feet tall.  We'll see, right?

Our messy back yard...the view from the bird bath, with all the waiting-to-be-planted cannas, irises, roses, etc.  Also the waiting-to-be-mowed tall grass and weeds.  The rain barrel has come in handy already.

View from the covered porch.  Happy birds here--in the evenings, the doves are out in force at the feeders.

City ordinance prohibits dogs out--even in their own front yards!--without a leash.  This does NOT make the Schultz very happy.  He's used to keeping me company while I dig.

The next project: along the fence there (where the dead spots are) will be roses, jasmine, and drought tolerant perennials.

More later of the inside of the house...it's too messy right now for a camera to come anywhere near it.  Cheers!

My cup runneth over.

I've been packing.  Yeah, I know...I've been packing since December, what's new?  But we're down to the actual moving part, so it's packing in earnest.  Everything, even the paint.  You know she's serious when she packs up the craft paint.

Not the house paint, though.  We close Monday on our new house.  I'll paint (more!) walls for a few days, then we'll move that Friday.  So there won't be time next week to pack...it's gotta get done now.

The work began this morning in my studio.  As I scooped up all the brushes on my work table--great fistfuls of brushes!--I was struck by two things.

One, how marvelous they look all fanned out like that.
Two, how lucky I am to have so many.

I looked around...cones of extra thread on the window, plastic drawers chock full of supplies and materials.

The abundance of working materials is not something I take for granted, or at least I didn't think so until today.  So today I am consciously grateful for such a bounty.  When I unpack in the new studio, finding places for paint and fabric and wood and clay...I will do my best to honor this bounty and make the very best of it.  I will include in my prayer of gratitude a thanks for the time, focus, and space in which to create. 

Izzy Heads! Or...two thirds of a pun: P.U.

I'm learning to make plaster molds.  The basic principle is fairly simple, when you get right down to the chemistry and physics of it.  Of course, the basic principle of aerodynamic flight is simple too, but you don't see me zooming around with my arms out.

I have some Izzy head & torso sets all made up and ready to paint...I'd sculpted their faces and were happy with them, but they won't do for making a mold because they are cloth heads sewn onto bodies in a unit. 

What I need are just the heads.  So I made molds of the faces with Amazing Mold Putty.  Then I made paper clay "masks" using those molds.  Then I made heads with balled-up foil as an armature, and applied the paper clay masks of the previously sculpted faces. This took a ridiculously long time.

I'd thought this would save time, but it might have been faster to start from scratch over the foil, and re-sculpt the faces.  The proportion gave me fits, but it finally came out all right.  I ended up with four heads, three of which I was willing to use to record for posterity in pressed cloth dolls.

A friend of mine said, "Do NOT stick those good heads in plaster until you try a practice one!"  Or something to that effect.  She was right--I had not planned to do so, but that was the smart thing.  Sooooo I used the fourth head...sealed with Modge Podge and then sprayed with cooking oil as a mold release.  The head released well and without damage, and I was satisfied I could proceed with the "real" ones.

Life intervened with chores and more chores, paperwork and more paperwork.  When I did get back to the plaster, I was so impatient to get started!  SO impatient, in fact, that I...forgot the mold release spray.  By the time I realized what I had done, I was barely able to save them.  One came out with a minor scratch here and there, the other two are "in the shop" for repairs.  (The shop, in this case, is the oven where they are drying with their paper clay patches.) 

Lesson learned?  Slow down.  Breathe.  Pay attention.  Count off a checklist...whatever it takes, but don't get a-head of your self, or you will lose. your. heads. 

I would apologize for that horrible, double, almost-pun, but I really have to laugh at this point to keep from crying.  More on the Mold Making Progress later.  Right now I have to take my head(s) out of the oven.

Bad Bunny Humor.

There might come a day when the bunny bites back.

Isn't folk art fun?  Hope your day is full of lovely Spring surprises and no vengeful chocolate bunnies.