not exactly pets and other Friday fragments

in which our plucky heroine is grateful to not live in Boston any more...

As it was warm enough to brave the front porch sans wooly layers, I made another attempt to photograph the black pinafore... Maybe I should have not been so quick to send the naughty fabric away to Goodwill, as it makes such a matte background that it may have been a good candidate for photographing my enamels! Anyhow, I'd been wearing one of my SCA underdresses around the house this morning, and had the idea to just toss the pinafore over the top, in the hope that the contrast between black and almost-white/grey plaid would show the pinafore better than my usual dark on dark choices. Still had to lighten up the photo a lot to get an image of anything other than a black silhouette.

This did give me an idea though, of making some loose blouses (not as long as the underdress in the photo, more like high hip than mid calf!) based on rectangular construction. It wouldn't solve my "getting the armsceye seam in the right place" issue with modern patterns, but it would give me some wearable inner layers. There will be some experimentation soon.

※※※

The first three fabric spheres for the year long temperature "graph" art/handcraft project. Each one takes me approximately 5 minutes to make, so it will be a negligible daily addition to my morning routine to check what the high was for the previous day and add another sphere.  Each one is about 1/2" diameter. After doing the arithmetic, at the end of the year, I will have a strand that is over 15 feet long. Maybe that is a bit long for a necklace! I shall have to see how that looks doubled up into a length that is wearable... My other idea is to weave the spheres into a grid, week by week, to make a piece of wall artwork, so either way, it will be interesting.

※※※

next time I decide to rehab the worm bin, I think I will do it in the summer... just saying that it is easier to give everything a good cleaning out and refurbishment when it isn't quite so brisk outside.

※※※

January SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	A/C cardigan back	worm bin bedding	bad corduroy
2	-	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

※※※

Today I am grateful for my "pet" worms... they live in their little habitat in my kitchen, and turn my food scraps into excellent fertiliser for the special plants here... I am hoping that adding some worm castings to the soil around the rhubarb will encourage it to be more vigorous and productive and have large enough stalks that I can do something with this year

doorway into autumn

in which our plucky heroine returns however briefly...

Have really been missing the ability to get online whenever the mood strikes, to record the daily activities of Acorn Cottage for both my own leaky-sieve memory, and for the friends and family who find me here. This morning on the way to the compost bin the rising sunlight hit this possibly abandoned arachnid home just right, and I was taken with how much the pattern looked both like a shattered windshield and a doorway.

:::

B&K have been visiting here since Thursday; it was quite the adventure for them bringing their electric car all the way from Olympia. Apparently electric vehicles are quite power-sparing when used around town (as they recover energy every time you go downhill or use the brakes and send it back to the battery for further travel) but long distance highway travel uses up power very quickly; they had to stop three times to recharge.

It is a very different experience to ride in a car that is so very quiet both inside and out, conversation is easy when not hollering over engine noise. I will admit, as well, to being quite charmed by the backup camera video display on the dashboard. There is, however, no likelyhood of a car in my future, electric or otherwise. I do appreciate, though, the rare pleasures that others take so for granted as just part of their daily life...

:::

October SMART goal challenge

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	gown muslin for L	sewing machine shelf	yardwaste bin
2	sports-bra pattern for B	salad table base	----------
3	sports-bra for B	small raised bed	----------
4	*	wall anchored lumber	----------
5	*	*	----------
6	*	*	----------
7	*	----------	----------
8	*	----------	----------
9	*	----------	----------
10	*	----------	----------

:::

chips here chips there chips chips everywhere

in which our plucky heroine manages to acquire several truckloads of chippings...

Thursday was long work day... when house cleaning in Sellwood I end up with about four hours transit time round trip which allowed me to almost finish the fingertipless gloves I have been knitting. A good thing, because all these Very Sunny Days are also Very Blustery Days, and new warm wooly handcoverings will be a treat.  On the way home from the bus stop, Molly Beard had a fresh load of wood chips in her driveway, and told me that there was tree work on the next street over, and more available. There is now a pickupload of myrtlewood branch chippings in my driveway, which is very fragrant. I am rather heartbroken that such a big tree is being taken out, one of the two that I collect nuts from. The wood chips will be useful though, as mulch around the future garden beds...

The same tree grinders that came by Thursday with a truckload of baynut chips brought more proto-mulch today. Whilst Leah and I were working here, we kept hearing what sounded like branch tapping noises, and people talking, and while I first thought it to be the neighbors, when it kept on I investigated, and found that there was another load being brought to the front driveway.

I hadn't realised that they would bring more, and managed to head off their filling the entire driveway with fragrant chippings, and re-routed the proto-mulch to the backyard, opening the alley gate for the first time in years. I haven't looked out back yet tonight to see how much they deposited, but it seemed like a win-win... they don't have to pay the dump fee, I get free mulch. The sad part is that there is one less big baynut tree in the neighborhood, but at least there is some small good come from that.

Today made some good progress on the Roman brooches, and wirebending on the current enamel commission, and (as mentioned) Leah was here, working on her studio project as well, what fun to have company in the shop! I wish that more students of mine ended up returning from time to time for studio time...

incremental progress, with notes on worm wrangling

Never dull here, but I wish I had more stamina sometimes. Yesterday I pounded in some of the salvaged metal fenceposts in the place where the new henyard will be. This task must be done while the ground is still soft from the winter rains, and I really couldn't put it off much longer. After just three fence posts my wrists were very unhappy, but that was all that is absolutely necessary, the henhouse will form the corner of the new run. I must continue making progress; the girls will be much happier with some shade this summer, but today my shoulders and wrists were pretty unhappy. Incremental progress is still progress...

~ : ♥ : ~

Fortunately one of the tasks yesterday was a bit messy and time consuming, but needs not very much in the way of upper body strength... worm wrangling requires only time, gloves, and a tarp. My little invertebrate pets have been working hard for months, and had turned almost the entire contents of their wormhome into fertilizer... time to separate the worms from the castings, and start the cycle again.

Since I will be doing a presentation on in-kitchen worm composting next month, I want to have the bin looking its best: actively in process, with fresh bedding, and worms eating food. I was given the worlds most wimpy paper shredder a few weeks ago, and it was mostly able to shred up some of the newspaper, as long as I cut each page into thirds, and fed them in one single piece at a time. Still, it makes much fluffier worm bedding than tearing the paper by hand.

But I'm getting ahead...what I did was to separate the worms, which means dumping the whole bin out on a tarp, (first removing any uneaten food and setting it aside to be put back in with the new fluffy damp bedding) and then gently forming the resultant damp soggy mess into a number of smaller heaps. The worms move away from the light and drier air, so after a while you can scoop some of the black castings from the top and away from the edges of each heap. This gets repeated over and over again until there are much smaller heaps that are mostly worms, which then get dumped back into the wormhome to start eating my scraps again.

After six months I harvested about ten pounds of very damp worm castings, larger families could generate much more, and worm castings are great garden food. And just for the record, not only are the worms completely silent, but the wormhome doesn't smell, and neither does their ummm... byproduct. If I don't tell people, no one knows I have a box of worms living in my kitchen. Originally I had them living outside my back door, but the first summer that the temperature went over 100F they all died, so now I keep them in the house.

~ : ♥ : ~

I've been making trinkets for our sale this weekend. Some felt flower pins, and started on a few kittyface needle-books. Hoping to complete a few soft fabric patchwork scarves, and new acorn and oakleaf earrings, and maybe scissors cases from the springtime colored leather scraps I found.

Media Monday + ornaments

Every day, in addition to my regular work, I've been making things for our Holiday Marketplace this weekend. It is always a real challenge for me to come up with ideas for things to sell for under $20, as mostly I make things that are very time consuming. This year I am focusing on small decorative ornaments, intended to sell some for $5 and some for $10. Today I finished using the last of some beautiful printed linen, combined with felt and a bit of embroidery...
There was one small piece left, and I decided that the front door of Acorn Cottage needed a bit of Dala horse holiday goodness. I added the holly leaves from a scrap of felted sweater and some leftover bits of red wool felt. I was over at Bolt, my favorite small local fabric store, on Saturday; I brought along the ornaments to show them, since I'd been buying the felt and floss there,(the quarter yard of printed linen was from Japan, by way of Etsy). Gina (the owner) asked me to let her know if ever I want to write some tutorials for their shop. When using public transit, local shops become very important, I could go to Fabric Depot or Mill Ends (never to the evil J-A empire), but that takes at least an hour or more; Bolt is only a short busride away, in the summertime I could actually ride there on my bike, and the folks who work there are both very knowledgeable and really friendly.

The front lawn is raked, and most of the leaves are now in the hen pen; the girls were very dubious about my dumping piles of leaves all over their spot, but soon discovered that there were bugs-n-bits in those leaves. Total time for raking and leaf moving is about four hours, spread over several days...not too bad. The henhouse is also all cleaned out and fresh straw installed. While doing all these healthy outdoor chores, I had a sudden flash of insight about the henhouse: I don't need to build a new one, I can remodel the one I have. If I add windows (probably plexiglass reinforced with wire mesh) to the main area of their house, it will be lighter inside, and less appealing as a place to lay eggs. Then if I add a different nest box that is both lower and darker than the main area (and maybe close off the current nest box), they will probably decide to sleep in the upper zone. Needs more thought over the next month or two, but has possibilities.

~ : ♥ : ~

I decided to hang the laundry outside to dry, as the sky is clear and sunny. However, it is so cold today that the dishtowels that I was hanging out froze stiff, looking very odd as they didn't flap in the breeze. but tilted. Hopefully the wind will gradually pull the moisture away, and if not, I haven't lost anything and can still put them in the dryer.

~ : ♥ : ~

And to start the week and the month and the holiday season off properly here's something slightly askew - I first heard this song as a freshman in college...

Wishful Wednesday - leafy longings

Autumn is my very favorite season, always has been. When I planted the garlic earlier this month, I added all the compost from the leaves I raked up last autumn, just barely enough to add some needed nutrients to the little 3 x 3 garlic bed. I'd dearly love to generate more leafy compost than that for next year... so, since this is the season that some folks have waaay more leafage than they need... if anyone out there has extra bags of leaves and would like to send them my way, (instead of paying to have them taken away as yard debris) I'd be very grateful, and so would my garden beds...

Tuesday newsday

The great worm bin experiment is working, though not exactly as simply as the way I had hoped it would. I built a "flow-through" worm bin for my kitchen a while back; I've really enjoyed having the convenience of the organic dispose-all right there in the kitchen, and unless I tell folks what it is, they think it is a rather unusual looking waste basket. No smells, and not messy.

I recently tried to harvest the worm castings from the bottom of the device, and that part had gotten quite dried out and kind of solid (the top area where the worms live is still quite moist). Also, not all the torn newspaper was eaten by the worms, there were large dried out clumps mixed in with the castings. Not a problem, I can simply re-moisten the paper and add it to the top of the bin. A visitor this winter, who is a Master Composter, suggested that I lay a damp cloth atop the inside of the worm habitat, to help stabilise the moisture and also that would keep down any fruit fly population. (In the winter, at 55F interior temperature here at Acorn Cottage it is far too cold for fruit flies to be an issue, but last summer when it was 85F+ inside the house they were quite a nuisance.)

I think that I may need to harvest the castings a bit more often. I'm also thinking about maybe making a new worm-bag, one that is not quite so long, so that the end of the bag is not as close to the ground (easier access for harvesting. That might require making a shelf to hold the drip catcher, but since there has been little or no excess moisture, it needn't be very stoutly built.

~ : ♥ : ~

I have also fixed a few small things that have been minor annoyances here at Acorn Cottage. After finding a long piece of ball chain on the sidewalk, I got a two connectors and made long extensions for the speed and light switch for the ceiling fan in the bedroom. Now I can turn it on and off without clambering atop the bed. Much more functional.

I also finally Did Something about the side chair in the bedroom. A long ago as-is purchase from Ikea, it had torn black wool upholstery on the back and seat cushions. I had a length of woven upholstery tapestry stuff just draped across it, for the last two years. It took not quite two hours to cut and staple a piece to the seat cushion, and to sew up a "pillowcase" in the shape of the back cushion and hand stitch the bottom edge closed. Much better now, much less like a dorm room. Eventually I'd like to paint the wood frame of the chair, but that is not a 2 hour project...

~ : ♥ : ~

Now if I lost ten pounds that would be a good thing, (I've been working on that) but my beloved Smokey has been looking a bit "different" to me... Her Own Darling Self has indeed been losing weight. I took her to the vet's office to use their scale and she has lost ten pounds since her last vet visit. When you only weigh 95 pounds to begin with ten pounds is a lot {{ worry}} Collarbones are not a good look on an Akita.

1PM - update on Smokey
I just got back from the Vet's office and the tentative diagnosis is Cushings Disease. He said that she is not in pain, and that given her age and my finances, that I should feed her somewhat more and love her a lot, she is as old as a human of 108 years. He said that there is no way to know how the disease will progress. I was crying as I walked home. This is hard.

~ : ♥ : ~

weak-end

I've been having very sore arms, due to raking up the very wet leaves in my yard. A task I loathe, so have been doing it in 15 minute increments all weekend. Set timer then go rake. Bell rings, stop, go do something else for a while till my conscience sends me to do it again, repeat. The front yard looks less like the yard of shame.

~:~

To help with the job, I made a burden cloth. Leaf raking entails leaf moving as well, which is something I've never really gotten the hang of (how clueless is that?) Last year I simply grabbed armfuls of wet leaves and dumped them in the wheelbarrow, which was well... wet, yucky, and inefficient. So this years innovation was to take a big square chunk of the formerly porch awning (formerly formerly merchant dayshade) and sew webbing loop handles into each corner. Now I can rake the leaves onto a piece of canvas, and grab the corners easily to carry and dump in the leaf compost bin in the backyard.

~:~

I started making a new clock for the house, with the intention to evoke the midcentury style of the George Nelson Ball Clock. With wooden beads from the craft store, and a bit of metal salvaged from an old chandelier (a large wire openwork circle with twelve evenly spaced prongs around the edge). I'm painting the beads sky blue, and the metal parts flat black. Somewhere I've another clock mechanism stashed away, I'm sure it isn't buried too deeply, and will be found by the time I'm done with the painting...

~:~

I've been quite amused by the Gmail theme I selected: "Tea House". Throughout the day, and night, the characters appear doing different tasks and activities, matched to the day and night of my location. SO far, little fox has picked flowers, and had a tea party with monkey, and is currently climbing the ladder to bed, leaving behind in the garden a lighted fish lantern, while fireflies dance above the birdbath, I know that later tonight small ghosts will play in the garden while fox sleeps. It would be really fun to make a miniature environment to match the images, like in the Rumer Godden books Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, and Little Plum, which I loved as a child, and still do.

~:~

In the interest of using up some little bits of the neverending boxes filled with supplies for crafty goodness, I've made five vintage style holiday garlands, using funky old paper "Christmas scrap" ephemera (from England, and from West Germany) backed with wool felt and stitched to ribbons. I'll be putting them into the store, as well as the button heart ornaments, and my mistletoe earrings... Must take more pictures...

monday musings and maunderings

Autumn is here. Time to take down the canvas roof from the front of Acorn Cottage; there should be few if any days now where sunwarmth in the front window will be excessive. The days are now, happily, cooler. This weekend, during an impulsive trip to Powells, there was a spell of very intense rain, glad I was to be indoors just then, and waited, browsing the books, 'till the squall passed....

Saturdays teaparty was curiously progressive in the temporal rather than the political sense. Only a few at a time showed up, which allowed for nice visity-talky, and over the afternoon a pleasant number of friends had come by. Rois and Chance brought over their former living room chairs, to be given a good home here. I feel so "grownup" now with a pair of matching chairs; they are small, in scale with my home, and look like a cross between Norse medieval and mid-century modern. When Bill stopped by yesterday, he commented on how Scandinavian they look, very Carl Larsson...

Chance also helped attach the Ikea shelf unit to the wall in the back bedroom, which is destined to hold stacks and stacks of fabric. It fits very nicely there, and will work even better once I get a sewing table to fit underneath, which will allow me to stop using the living room as my sewing room...

After teaparty time, we four who remained (Ian, Karyn, Jess and I) went over the river to have a tasty sushi dinner. Nothing better than an afternoon of visiting followed by more visiting sushi... Mmmm crunchy crispy dead baby cephalopods on rice...

~~~~~~~~~~~

Aaarg I hate it when I accidentally tap the wrong key and all my writing disappears

~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunday morning, on a quick trip to a "collectibles" market with Rafny I found a circular wooden "pipesmokers" rack that fits nicely on the workbench lazy susan. Now all my pliers have a home!

As I'd mentioned, Bill stopped by on his way back north, ofter dropping off the huge coronet and caps-o-maintenance shebang with the clients. I was glad to hear that they were very happy with the results of all our hard work. Bill and I chatted about projects, and teaching, briefly, then he left to go home, and I went back to my worm bin bag project. I found the plans online here. Spent the rest of Monday building the contraption, I hope my pet worms will like it. The worm-home fits easily in my tiny kitchen, and being closer to the food prep area will make dealing with the compostables simple. There was only one error in the plan supply list, you need more cordage than they call for; a bit of a pain, but not critical. I think that I can do a better job of patterning for the fabric cone that holds the worms, rather than a flat pair of triangles, I think a four-panel construction would fit the framework more neatly, and give a smoother 3-D cone-shape. Must acquire a bit more Ecospun felt and try it out...

This afternoon I wanted to see if I could get over to the Multnomah Art Center to find out about teaching possibilities. Turns out that Multnomah Village is just one bus ride away, about an hour, but no transfers. Along the way I saw the famous Voodoo Doughnuts, and later Food Front (the co-op here I hadn't seen yet, I'll need to go check it out another day, now that I know where it is).

On the way home I stopped at the Rebuilding Center, and found enough narrow flat molding bits to start working on the chalkboard project. Yup, I'm going to put chalkboard on the walls in the workroom, will be useful for teaching, and general note making, memory jogging, picture sketching goodness. I love chalkboards. When I went to Paris, I brought home two doorknobs and a child's chalkboard as souvenirs. You knew I was weird, but how many folks go to a hardware store in Paris? Even my family thought it was pretty weird, but they humored me...

T is for Toroid

Just want to remind folks that Saturday will be a toroidal craft-tea-party here at Acorn Cottage. I'll have the 5 gallon bucket of beads and wire etc available for crafting possibilities. Other handicrafts are always welcome, as are potluck tea snacks; I'll be making a bundt-pound cake, in keeping with the toroidal theme. Oh, yeah, after lunch and before dinner...

~~~~~~~~~~~

Last Friday, my young friend Heather drove down here from Olympia, with her 4 month old daughter, and her parents Sharon and Doug. It was great to see all of them, (last seen at Heather's wedding), and we had a nice long visit. Baby Elencia is a darling, alert and interested in her surroundings, and remarkably non-fussy. This was good, as we went to the Zoo for the afternoon. I'd not yet been to the Portland Zoo, despite living here for over two years. It was so uncrowded that we were able to go see the new baby elephant We didn't have enough time to see the whole Zoo, my favorite part was the visit to "Lorikeet Landing". Sharon bought cups of nectar for all of us, and the loud, but gorgeously colored, lorikeets inside the enclosure zoom down and land all over your arms and head, eager for the tasty treats. Odd, but fun.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The weekend was relatively productive. Lots of bike riding for local errands on Saturday morning, then a bus trip to the Rebuilding Center for wood bits for a new project. Actually I rambled about most of Saturday collecting parts for projects. Sunday Mila came over and spent several hours helping me once again clear off the worktable. We did get many of the storage boxes labeled, and stuff sorted into said homes, and the worktable is now actually cleared again. Hooray! Then spent the rest of the evening visiting with Aelflaed, and friends. I am consumed with knit-envy...

~~~~~~~~~~~

One project I was gathering components for is a new home for my pet worms. They have gone from living in a box under the sink, to outside the back door (where they all died in a heat wave the first year I lived here, necessitating worm-replacement), to living in a big rubbermaid tote atop my clothes-dryer (which is a bit awkward to access, specially with handfuls of funky produce). When I saw this worm home on the Instructables website, I knew this would be a better answer. I'll be assembling this in the next few days, pictures to share when completed, of course...

~~~~~~~~~~~

The other project I've happily begun is the designs for my 2009 calendar. I'm changing the format to vertical, and will be doing alphabetical drawings for each month.