Tuesday tidbits and tears

in which our plucky heroine is limping rather badly...

This morning something went really wrong with my right foot, the one that is mostly functional most of the time. Intense pain, and I have a really high pain threshold. After a callback from the nurse hotline about what to do next, I got a ride to urgent care. After a two hour wait, urgent care thinks my foot isn't broken, (didn't do any xrays, because I didn't twist my ankle or drop anything on my foot?) and thinks there isn't any infection because there is no wound and no external redness. Still hurts like the dickens, I am using up spoons not to be crying, and foot is still slightly swollen. Their diagnosis is "strain of unknown origin"; their recommendation is to put foot up often, use ice, use Voltaren, try and stay off it, and if not better in three or four days, get seen again.

I made it clear that I was not there for antibiotics or for pain meds, but that I wanted to know what had gone wrong and how not to have it go wrong in the future, because not being able to walk freely is a quality of life issue for me. I need to be able to stand, and to walk about my house (and my neighborhood) in order to have any kind of life at all. Sorry, I am frustrated. My body is not cooperating.

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This strip by Lunarbabboon made me cry: "Stay"

These sculptures by Ronan Halpin make me happy

Amanda Palmer is always worth listening to -

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I really fell down this month as far as my decluttering goals. Not going to catch up in the next few days, or even the next few weeks, as work is taking a bit of priority right now, but I need to get back to making more steady progress...

August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	rainbow baby hat	buttons sewn on	bag to Goodwill
2	cloudlight	paper towel holder up	bag to Goodwill
3	x	x	bundle of wood
4	x	x	ø
5	x	x	ø
6	x	x	ø
7	x	x	ø
8	x	x	ø
9	x	x	ø
10	x	x	ø
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

cloudlight created

cloudlight = a structure to allow electrification of the paper entryway lanterns

I have had this design gradually taking form in my mindseye for a number of years, as a way to add additional ambient light to my poorly-lit living room, ever since our plucky heroine started collecting paper lanterns for the entryway, years ago... Last week, Farbjorn and I worked together to turn the concept into reality:...

A paper pattern, that was initially taped to the ceiling to mark the centers of the lanterns, then had the circumference of the lanterns drawn on each center, then a pleasing shape created to allow for running the cords to the wall. The panel is just under five feet long, and about 2 1/2 feet wide. With undulations. I used up about half a pad of tracing paper to create the pattern, taped together sheet by sheet (annoying but necessary)

Once the design was marked on the 1/4" plywood, Farbjorn used the jigsaw to cut out the stylised cloud shape:

Scraps of 2 x 4 are attached to the ceiling to create a chase between the plywood and the ceiling, to allow space for electrical cords run to each lantern. pretty chuffed that I had almost all the hardware needed for this project here to hand. Little brackets, wood screws, sheetrock screws, and the last of my Big Box of wall anchors.

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initial cloudlight panel, with keyhole openings pierced to allow the lamp fixtures to hang below the panel, while disguising the four cords behind a sculptural design. I had recently bought a chicken waterer kit online, that came with a set of hole saws... have yet to put the waterer together, but the hole saw came in right handy for this project! Rather than try for evenly opaque white paint, I decided that layers of thinned white paint in irregular cloudlike shapes would be more interesting visually.

Revised cloudlight panel with shaped layers of additional painted plywood to add extensions that will help obscure the blocking. Sight angles were not something I truly considered with the original design... I had to redesign my concept and add an additional layer of individual cloud panels, due to an error in blocking placement on my part, which meant that it turned from a one day project to a two day project... with luck, the revised design will look turned out to be even more interesting, or at the very least, like "I meant to do that..."

a closer view of one of the painted second layers of the cloudlight panel...

The revised panel, in situ.

four lamp fixture cordsets were fed through the allocated openings in the panel, here awaiting the return of the paper lanterns. It turned out that the keyhole openings worked well enough at holding the cords in place that no additional anchors were needed in that spot to keep the cords at desired length.

paper lanterns in place, waiting for the power strip to be attached to the wall near the lone outlet, on the other side of the big front window...

and... finally... the cloudlight is illuminated!

Whichever direction you look at it, the contuours change...

This shows *where* in Acorn Cottage the cloudlight is located - exactly as I had imagined. It forms a sculptural light installation between the front door and the living room, thus both defining the entry space, and adding a lot of ambient light to the social area of the house, which was in great need of more light.

The paper diffused light, which is much more lambent than the photos show. Eventually I plan to put a long strand of tiny white fairy lights all round just inside the edge of the plywood panel, but that will have to wait until they go on sale.

scavenger hunt Sunday

in which our plucky heroine makes progress...

my pal Randal organised "The Epic Photo Scavenger Hunt", as an online challenge between August 1st and October 31st. There are 67 items on the list, I had six the first week, the second week added another ten... the third week added five more, and this week added six more -

17. five

I noticed that the eggs from Boneclaw Mother and Nanny Og (my backyard hens) made a lovely design. Even more than I like the five eggs, I like the five different reflections in the steel bowl of my kitchen scale.

36. a silhouette

Farbjorn installs the cloudlight panel above my entryway. What pleased me about this image was the different levels of lighting, from the silhouette of his head to the way the light played along the panel with hard and soft shadows on the ceiling...


42. a sunset

setting sun seen through heavy smoke, view from Willamette bluff across to the west hills, early in August, when the smoke from multiple fires across the PNW blanketed the city.

47. a freight train

in front of Kate and Dublin's house, the train tracks are busy with freight trains, and with passenger trains. Caught this one in the morning while we waited for the eclipse to start.

48. an empty parking lot

New Seasons Arbor Lodge, just after closing, at about 11:05 PM

59. front page of newspaper

I'm hoping that this is the most exciting newspaper front page to show up between now and the end of October, I much prefer natural occurrences to politics.