workaday Wednesday

in which our plucky heroine returns to the workroom...

I've been spending some time in the last few days bending wires and preparing backing plates for the several Peerage medallions on order, and the sunflower pendant. Since most of these are for upcoming elevations, I shall have to wait to share them until they have been awarded, but the sunflower is intended to raise funds for Ukraine humanitarian aid, so will have to stand proxy to the rest.Today I turned the kiln on, and began enameling. I have had so little work these last two+ years, that it feels a bit like going back in time.

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time in the tinyworld:

tiny paper Phalaenopsis orchid (mechanical pencil for scale)

On days when my ability to function is impaired with despair, making tiny things is my one respite. I recently indulged myself by purchasing two botanical paper flower kits from Georgina Steeds online Etsy shop "TheMiniatureGarden". The Euphorbia wulfenii took a lot of time to assemble, with myriads of tiny flowers and almost as tiny leaves. The resulting plant looks very much like the actual one that grows between the driveway and the sidewalk here at Acorn Cottage. The second kit, the moth orchid, was not quite as complicated, and so I took it upon myself to add a few complications. I rolled up bits of floral tape and glued them to the ends of the stem to look like orchid buds, and decided to make two smaller stems rather than the one, for a plant that would be slightly shorter. I also did a bit of dry brush painting to turn the white moth orchid to pink.

I have a new strategy for miniature plants in pots. I glue in some steel washers, or steel bolt-nuts in the bottom of the pots, to add weight and make them less likely to tip over. Then I use a mixture of clean sand and tacky glue to fill the pot most of the way up. (I first pour in the sand dry, to get the correct amount, then pour it out again into a small bowl and mix in the glue). The sand gives enough support that the plants stay put until the sand dries. If desired, a bit more glue can be added to the top and other material such as tea leaves, tiny pebbles, or coffee grounds added to give a more soil-like or mulch effect...

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~ creativity challenge ~

The 4th 48hr An Tir Scribal Backlog Challenge was the last weekend in March, though as usual for me, it took rather longer than 48 hours for me to create an original scroll. I found a 14thC Book of Hours manuscript, in the collection of the Mt Angel Abbey, to use as inspiration. The challenge theme was "fairy tale" and I was able to find the Grimm's Fairy Tale "The Lily and the Lion" which let me include the Lion of An Tir as part of the imagery. The heraldic challenge color was "gold" which I used for the initial letters, as well as both as ground and as floral decoration in the sidebar panel illumination (and the upper panel is enclosed by yellow ochre columns which are also "golden"

I am fairly pleased with my artwork on this one, particularly the tiny 1¼" high landscapes in the upper panels, as I've not done anything similar before. I also learned what-not-to-do as far as calligraphy... I thought I would try just using upper and lower guidelines rather than also internal ones, as I see in manuscripts. Well, the scribes back then did a lot more calligraphy than I ever do, and on a much more frequent basis. I am not happy with how some of my writing goes up and down like lumpy hillocks. The only solutions are to either pencil internal guidelines, or to practice calligraphy more often...

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I am really falling behind in discarding things from around the house and yard, in part because the Goodwill no longer has outdoor donation bins available... Maybe later in the month, after taxes, I will be able to put some attention towards a bit of decluttering and organising. Goodness knows that the house could use it!

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	tiny Euphorbia	jacket snaps added	-
2	tiny moth orchid	-	-
3	Countess scroll	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	-
7	x	x	-
8	x	x	-
9	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's gratitude - Yesterday a friend stopped by with two miniatures, a perfect metallic watering can charm, which will be ideal for the tinyworld, and a little plastic rubber chicken (very silly indeed). I love how my friends aid and abet me!

Time of Isolation - Day 752

Saturday snippets

in which our plucky heroine continues to notice the slow if determined advance of springtime...

Twice now I have ridden my bike in my shirtsleeves, albeit in the warmest part of the day. My new chore jacket is the perfect thing for evening walks. Soon it will be time to turn the heat off. About half the time I've been able to hang the laundry out on the clothesline. There are new small leaves coming on the elderflower, and the plum thicket in the backyard is getting dusted with small white blossoms. I saw honeybees clambering around the rosemary bush in the front yard. And I am way way behind in dealing with the grassy lumpy backyard. Perhaps it is time to consider getting hens again?

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The colors of spring are so delectable, various violets, bright chartreuse, the soft pink/white of magnolia petals, red young leaves with white fruit tree blossoms... I just love seeing those combinations. This pink violet is growing in a crack in the sidewalk leading up to my front walkway.

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This morning was the ever-wonderful Sewing Nomads zoom meeting... I was able to show them my completed jacket, which I spent several hours last night hand sewing the snaps on, as the final detail. I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out, and how useful it is being. Seeing what others are working on, and the way we can all help encourage and do our best to problem solve just makes me so happy! I hope that some of my suggestions were helpful...

Speaking of sewing, I am considering what my next sewing project will be? I am not quite ready to dive into raincoat-land, but only because that would require me to clear off the worktable, and I have a few projects still in situ. (well, and we are getting to the end of the rain season, probably) I am thinking about putting together my "Indigo Tiger" summer popover, as that would be a fast and easy sew. Then there was the Very Inspiring discussion we had this morning about sewing bras... it would be so good if I could DIY my lingerie leaving only my shoes and socks to purchase readymade.

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time in the tinyworld:

(two views: daylight on L, LED light on R)

A day and a half later, there has been noticeable progress on the Euphorbia kit, with almost half of the foliage and blossoms spikes completed,(mechanical pencil for scale). I'm going to need to make something for a suitable planter, since the egg carton miniature flower pots I made earlier are all too small...

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well dang! I was so delighted to have fresh pad see ew rice noodles show up in the options for grocery delivery last month... I immediately looked up recipes for my favorite Thai noodle dish, and successfully made it for dinner that day, but apparently the noodles were a one time only. They aren't available locally where I can access them, and certainly are not a DIY project. Fresh noodles are not something one really can order online!

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I've an appointment to get my second Covid booster jab, and this time it is at a local grocery store. Since this one is close enough to ride my bike to, I won't need to arrange for transportation. This afternoon, I did a trial run through to see how long it takes to ride there, so as to make sure I allow enough time.

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	-	jacket snaps added	-
2	-	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	-
7	x	x	-
8	x	x	-
9	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's gratitude - I can still ride my bike, and I still have a bike to ride.

Time of Isolation - Day 748

Thursday thoughts

in which our plucky heroine enjoys a small satisfaction...

time in the tinyworld:

I think my next area of focus for the tinyworld will be a few more garden things... my small friends need some garden tools, like a trowel (perhaps), definitely a watering can, or even a garden trug with a trowel, a garden fork, maybe a wee ball of twine? And I want to make up have started on the new plant kits, which means also making some new planter pots. The trowel could be made from tealight foil and a fancy toothpick, and when I next make more planter pots, they will have metal washers glued in the base for extra weight to guard against tipping over.

As seen above, I've started on the tiny euphorbia kit. I had no idea how very challenging it would be, but I expect from the progress so far that it will look truly splendid when completed. Each flower cluster has over 60 blossoms, each of which start as a 1/8" green paper circle, then has a center dot painted, is formed to a dished shape, and finally glued in place. The prepared armatures needed a way to be held in place while the glue dries, and since there is no scrap styrofoam lying about Acorn Cottage, instead, I figured out that a coil of corrugated cardboard, held together with masking tape and wedged into a tealight holder would stand duty allowing the flowers to safely dry between gluing sessions.  The partially finished flower cluster (in somewhat fuzzy focus) is about a half inch long altogether; the finished kit has five blossom clusters and an additional five foliage spikes... The Euphorbia wulfenii currently blooming in my front yard are rather larger than that...

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My visit today to the endodontist was both good and disappointing... because finding a good practitioner is always a plus, and disappointing because the TL:DR of his advice was "if it was my tooth, I would have it extracted"... He was very thorough about going over the various options as far as root canal surgery, and after yet additional specific xrays, pointed out the very odd things going on with my CrankyTooth TM... So far it has been deemed peculiar by four different types of dental specialists.

I am trying to mull over the best way to balance all the effort I have made so far to save CrankyTooth, with my desire to not have an ongoing infection, and my concern, which was independently brought up by Dr Y, that a root canal might both not solve the problem and might discover that the tooth is irreparably internally cracked.

In thinking about what is my dental care goal... I want to have teeth that basically just need maintenance care, not continuing to have infection which is a great risk for other health dangers, and also not do things that will require further surgeries in the future when I will have even less ability to heal and less financial resources, and when our society as a whole may be significantly more austere than it currently is.

I felt like Dr Y was being really honest with me, after thoroughly going over all the options his practice could offer in either a total root canal, or a partial "exploratory" root canal, when he said that his recommendation, if it were his own tooth, would be extraction. (If he weren't honest, he would have no reason to have said that, but rather would have just encouraged me to have the procedures done at his office, even though they would likely fail).

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March SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	tiny tulips	more compost liners	yard waste bin
2	tiny crocus	mended gloves	recycle bin
3	yet moar tiny books	more apple pruning	books to LFL
4	little ladle	tiny bucket handle	recycle bin
5	tiny aprons	acquired 2021 tax forms	-
6	chore jacket	clock movement replaced	-
7	x	x	-
8	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's gratitude - having found not one but now two GOOD dental practitioners

Time of Isolation - Day 746