dry heat

in which our plucky heroine is tired of the evil daystar...

If I wanted to live in Mordor, I would have moved to Mordor. It never cooled down last night, and we are ramping up into record breaking heat, forecast to be between 105 to 110F by Thursday. And the haze this morning was not my beloved marine layer of respite, but instead the particulates aka smokey layer pushing down here from the fires up in BC Canada. My beloved PNW is now a kind of hellish sandwich filling caught between the bad air from the north and the hot air from the south. All I can do is hide and wait for it to be over..

media Monday

in which our plucky heroine takes a day off...

Trying to get in a tiny bit of yard work each morning, before it gets too hot. Today I finished pruning the sage in the front yard, which is done blooming (it is a bee favorite when in bloom, covered with purple flowers). The blossom stalks take a few days of careful cutting back to live growth, but now the plant looks "tidy" again, and my hands and arms smell delightfully herbal

※※※

Yesterday, whilst hiding indoors from the daystar, I decided to go ahead and make the collaged mirror I had been planning as part of the baby gifts.

two vintage Little Golden Books* were combined to create this...

I cut apart the scenes in the book and layer the component pieces to become a larger landscape... I like how this one reminds me of looking down the Columbia River towards the west.

The cows in this corner remind me of the cow sculptures in the field as you come down the hill to Mud Bay

It can be a real challenge to get the various pieces to look like they belong together...

Foxes added to a scene with washerwomen and a cow... some of the background images in these books from the 40's are odd, though charming...

* the books were not in good condition, so I had no qualms about cutting them up. I do not destroy useable books.

※※※

I love Steven Universe, and wish that I had the kind of media access that would let me watch all the shows... (I also love Adventure Time. My nephews accuse me of not being a grownup. Sometimes they are entirely correct.) The surrealism amuses me, and the meta-content delights me.

※※※

July SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	20 enamels for Wastekeep	apron dress	yard waste bin
2	tiny peach enamel	workbench refurbish	bag to Goodwill
3	tiny linen bag	closet cleared left	bag to Goodwill
4	octopus rattle	pruned sage	bag to Goodwill
5	rainbow booties	cleaned 4 box fans	recycle bin
6	mirror collage	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

Saturday snippets

in which our plucky heroine keeps hiding indoors...

Though no one showed up on Thursday night for charter painting, I still took the evening off and started in on another local Baronial award... Even if this was not one that I myself had done the original artwork for, I would still enjoy the design. It is a lot of fun to see how it can look in a totally different colorway than the last time I painted this one, back in October of last year...

When painting the flowers, I was thinking about borage blossoms...

While there is obviously still a lot of detailing (and some of the base layers of paint) yet to finish, I couldn't resist adding some patterning to the garment on the righthand figure...

※※※

Remind me not to check the weather, forecast looks really ugly. Heat is ramping up. Current prediction for next Wednesday is 107F, Thursday 110F. Might have to go fully crepuscular/nocturnal next week. Good thing my local grocery store is open til 11 PM, 'cos riding my bike to go shopping is not really a good option when the air is hotter than the body riding.

※※※

July SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	20 enamels for Wastekeep	apron dress	yard waste bin
2	tiny peach enamel	workbench refurbish	bag to Goodwill
3	tiny linen bag	closet cleared left	bag to Goodwill
4	octopus rattle	pruned sage	x
5	rainbow booties	x	x
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