Friday fragments

in which our plucky heroine returns to blog posting...

The last few days have been really focused on enameling, and something about spending much of the day standing in front of a 1500°f oven, alternating with intensely close focused work (basically one grain of sand at a time) is exhausting. I've done very little else this week, other than basic maintenance ie showers, cooking and eating, sleeping, and movement early in the day before the hot yellow daystar gets too enthusiastic

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~ progress report~

Pelican enamel took more time than anticipated to complete, but eventually by the end of last night was ready for me to set aside time this weekend to make the setting. If all goes well, it will be in the post on Monday. I enjoy trying at least one new thing in each piece of regalia, and in this one I chose to add texture to with an assortment of bent wires meant to evoke the sense of "bird nest". Am pretty happy with the result.

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"find out who you are and do it on purpose" - Dolly Parton 

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Finished all the knitting on the Tabby Cat bandana cowl, and will do the same sort of 2 color/2 stitch i-cord bind off as I did on the Cloud Mountain bandana cowl...  here are a few helpful links for Future Me, as foolish Past Me left no notes on my blog or on my Ravelry project page: 
i-cord bind off and alternating 2 color i-cord

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I was going to focus today on fabricating the setting for the Pelican, but since I am hella tired on account of getting up at first light to spend some serious time with the loppers and the Felco pruners, in order to fill the greenwaste bin before the big truck came to pick it up. Shall try and remember to do that task just a tad sooner next week, eh? Decided that instead, defrosting the freezer today was a better choice for the amount of spoons available rather than working with sharp objects and fire, and getting that kitchen task done and dusted before Monday's faucet replacement made sense. The empty freezer, slid away from the wall will allow both the annual mopping behind, and attaching the second Talenti tub shelf. 

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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	2 Talenti shelves	Talenti shelf up	greenwaste bin
2	acorncap earrings	2nd pot lid rack	recycle bin
3	teaspoon earrings	painted mailbox	greenwaste bin
4	glass button earrings	Strombecker lamp	recycle bin
5	poppy pod earrings	reglue earrings	greenwaste bin
6	red cube earrings	porch storage	greenwaste bin
7	Pelican enamel	painted grille	x
8	x	defrosted freezer	x
9	x	2nd Talenti shelf	x

today's gratitudes - 
- binder clips, which are great for keeping bags of foods clipped shut in the chest freezer
- someone put magazines in the local little free library, two of which have provided me with a plentiful supply of smooth paper to use underneath when sifting counterenamel
- "Ka" by John Crowley (am about a quarter of the way into it and very curious about where it will go...)
- four of my digital library requests all arrived this week
today's gratitudes
- Acantha generosity, in particular the 2qt Dansk cookpot
- Pelican enamel successfully completed
- Using doubled mylar bubblepack grocery delivery bags as temporary cold storage for freezer contents has worked really well. I've been saving all of them for ages, for various uses, and had enough to double bag the entire contents of the chest freezer. Put down several layers of bath towels in the tub, then stacked the food in doubled bags, then covered with blankets.

Time of Isolation - Day 2233

Monday miscellany

in which our plucky heroine tries to keep cool...

It was supposed to be less hot this weekend, but I must have blinked and missed it. The bubbler/waterer attachment for the garden hose finally arrived, and my plan is to move it from one young tree to another in order to try and reduce their heat stress. 

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~ well begun ~

Meant to share this image last week... Bending the cloisonné wires is the slowest part of the whole process of creating an enamel peerage medallion. It requires great precision at a very small scale, and takes me multiple hours to complete this step, before the layers of enamel can be added.

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I realised this weekend that I almost never ever leave the house door open (with the screen in use for air flow) which is why I've not noticed for at least twenty years that the screening itself is damaged. I can safely ignore this particular problem that I have been obsessing about for the last few days, and move on to deal with other house issues.

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The porch flooring repair and the kitchen faucet replacement are scheduled for the beginning of next week. Fingers crossed it all goes according to plan and doesn't turn up any further damage that needs repaired. In addition, I was able to pick up two more cans of the hammered dark bronze Rustoleum from Fred Meyers closeout shelf, for  painting at least the exterior front screen door, plus as much of the other two as is feasible. 

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Very incremental wardrobe progress over the last week. My batik summer dress is slowly being pieced together from various leftover scraps, one or two seams per day. Though if we get the Super El Nino winter that is threatened, I'll still have a great many more days to wear it. No great loss without some gain. The Tabby Cat Cowl is also coming along bit by bit, as I mostly only knit on it during zoom meetings.

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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	2 Talenti shelves	Talenti shelf up	greenwaste bin
2	acorncap earrings	2nd pot lid rack	recycle bin
3	teaspoon earrings	painted mailbox	greenwaste bin
4	glass button earrings	Strombecker lamp	recycle bin
5	poppy pod earrings	reglue earrings	greenwaste bin
6	red cube earrings	porch storage	x
7	x	painted grille	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes - 
- located two more cans of Rustoleum spray paint 
- finished bending Pelican wires
- frozen organic blueberries

Time of Isolation - Day 2231

Friday fragments

in which our plucky heroine is feeling scattered...

An assortment of small chores all day long starting by waking up early in order to do more fig tree hacking before wheelie pickup happened. Found a ripe fig hiding in the green fig tree that was actually yummy. Filled the bin with chunks of fig branches, and got it to the curb in time. Yay me! Still lots of pruning to do, but also managed to roughly cut back the forsythia, which seems to be trying to take over the sidewalk

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~ ongoing refurbishment ~
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The front door of Acorn Cottage, with a repainted screen door grille, but not yet fully refurbished and repainted. The other photo shows why replacing the screening is a good idea. Today I washed both the glass panels of the storm/screen door, which took more time than imagined, but along with cleaning the door itself, has made a big difference. My plan is to use the rest of the spray paint to paint it the same bronze color as I did the grille and the mailbox, which will coordinate with the dark brown future trim color. The actual door itself, currently purple, will be painted turquoise.

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All the Jill Barklem Brambly Hedge hardcopy books the library has are always checked out. Not surprising. Aside from the four seasonal ones, there is "Sea Story" where the mice travel downriver to the ocean to acquire several barrels of salt from their coastal cousins. I'd never read that one before, and it wasn't available as an ebook, so it was a treat once my number got to the top of the holds list. Rode my bike to the library this morning to pick it up, and it is now probably my favorite of all.  

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My adventure taking the free summertime shuttle to Pittock Mansion was foiled by the limited schedule; the idea of sitting there on the mansion grounds for several hours waiting for the next go round of the bus was not the best way to spend the better part of a day. Chores and work may not be as novel, but are also necessary, and since the weekend is forecast to be slightly cooler than usual, enameling is on the docket instead. Possibly interspersed with some sewing, since those happen in the same workroom... 

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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	2 Talenti shelves	Talenti shelf up	greenwaste bin
2	acorncap earrings	2nd pot lid rack	recycle bin
3	teaspoon earrings	painted mailbox	greenwaste bin
4	glass button earrings	Strombecker lamp	recycle bin
5	poppy pod earrings	reglue earrings	greenwaste bin
6	red cube earrings	porch storage	x
7	x	painted grille	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes - 
- did not break my toe when I dropped the clipboard on it
- woke up early enough to fill the greenwaste bin before the truck arrived to empty it
- zucchini stir fried with panko and lemon is really good

Time of Isolation - Day 2228