It's A Gingerbread World...

One of the things I do every year at Christmas is a huge cookie bake-off. I pick several kinds of tried-and-true cookies to make several dozen of, and then gift friends, neighbors, and relatives with mixed containers of colorful sweet confections. The star of every cookie box though is the gingerbread cookies, my most requested one. Some years back around Christmas time I was standing in a supermarket checkout line that was moving like a turtle on dial-up. The rack next to me was filled with those little 3x5" booklets on miracle diets, horoscopes, and writing your own will. One of them caught my eye because it was titled Christmas Cookies and More, so I thumbed through the contents and tossed it on the counter with my stuff. Good thing too, because in there was not only this gingerbread cookie dough recipe, but the one for my thummies (AKA thumbprints or jamprints). I will have pictures of all the other cookies in another post. This one is about gingerbread.

Cookies make great gifts because people love them so much, and hardly anyone has time to bake anymore. I have the time, so I do bake like a fiend for several days. I have never had anyone ask me not to give them cookies next year - in fact, I get plenty of little hints and comments from folks from Thanksgiving on, wondering and hoping I will still have time to make and share more cookies. LOL So every year I go on a marathon baking spree, and currently I am making 7 kinds of cookies. If you multiply that by the 4-5 dozen of each kind, you can see why it takes me three days to bake. And with the gingerbread, they must be decorated after they have cooled completely, and the surface must be dry, so there is at least 1-2 more days involved there. It is a labor of love, but it is exhausting. I do it every year anyway, just because I can.

The baking starts out with rolling and cutting the dough to shape and re-rolling the trimmings. The cookies are baked, cooled and they go into boxes until I have them all done. The batch below was actually toward the end, when the reindeer cutter, which had popped its tack weld last year, came home to me repaired. That is a favorite that I found at a yard sale along with the 'chick' which I call my partridge in a pear tree. They are not so much antique as unusual. The ovals were just the end of the dough pieces, rolled out freeform.


Lee took a couple of the next pictures over my shoulder as I worked. Yep, that's me, doing my thing. It took me two sessions to decorate the gingerbread cookies because I made extra this year. I'll admit I am not great frosting artist and I use the commercial squeeze tubes and mostly writing tips to lay on the color. But I do add some detail wherever I can, so a few sprinkles and jimmies get called into service. I want them colorful and themed for the season. I have favorite cutters I use every year, and buy new ones periodically. I have two sweater size plastic tubs full of cookie cutters. I also make a vanilla rolled cookie, and some are designated for them.

One trick I've learned for laying in the detail sprinkles is to dip the tip of a toothpick into the color of frosting I am currently decorating with and then pick the little dots up out of their containers one or a few at a time. The little candies stick well to the frosting and when it hardens (usually overnight) they stay put. Toothpicks also help with a line of decoration frosting that lays wrong by redirecting it without squishing it out of shape. And they do some fancy designs. You will see more of that in further pics.



For cookie decorating I pull out all my sheets and trays - another reason to have most of the baking done by then. The cookies are thick with frosting and that needs an overnight period to dry and firm up. Then they can be stacked again. The idea is to just give some detail and indication of what the cutout is. We've found the frosting is a necessity, as it really enhances the taste of the cookies. Might as well be pretty too.

The elephant and wreath cutters were also in that original yard sale batch. I would guess they are at least 25 years old.


Below is how I stack them to dry, and why I prefer similarly sized trays and sheets with a lip. When I am done for the night, they get completely covered with clean old towels or sheets over a big cooling rack. I put another rack over the top to protect them, and discourage my ever-curious cats from investigating what is underneath. In spite of my primitive decorations, don't they look pretty? The snowflake is a new one for this year, and I have been experimenting with how to decorate it. It's true what they say, no two are alike. You can just see some of the plastic storage boxes off to the right.


The individual sheets are fun to look at too. I like to add homey little details to the houses, having lived in New England all of my life. The lighthouse was a gift cutter from my neighbors Bob & Shelly, who are avid boaters and fishers. They gave me a lobster cutter too. They look forward to cookies every year. *w*


I have been collecting different house shapes for a few years now. The rocking horse and the tree were also from that yard sale batch. I think that star might have been too, though I have several stars. This particular Santa is new this year, I got it 75% off in January last year. The stocking is older too, I think that was from a flea market.


The candy cane cutter came from the same flea market deal as the stocking. The small gingerbread boy was from Goodwill this fall, the Santa face, ornament and present are all new but purchased after the holiday when they were discounted. I have bought multiple sets of the plastic frosting tips for decorating so I can have a lot of colors going at once, but I also have some of the name brand metal decorator tips and sleeves that will fit certain tubes. Someday I will take the time to mix my own royal icing, I just didn't bother this year because I had so much of the squeeze tube stuff left and found more at a discount store. BTW, only buy the tube frosting and not the gel or the canned stuff for this type of work, as neither one of the others will harden and they get too messy.



A different reindeer, one that I bought to replace my old one in case it proved to be unrepairable. Got the snowman the same day. The sailboat is a couple years old now, I do them for Bob & Shelly. The houses are about the same age. The pig and old world Santa were also in that original yard sale bunch. For years I didn't use the Santa because I could not figure out what is was! It looked like either a skinny upright penguin or a weird sleigh. You can see that without the details, the shape is not easy to discern. But one year I looked at it and said, "Oh, it's St. Nick!" and worked out a design I follow every year. You just have to frost these, they look best that way.

The train engine is new, purchased this year for grandson Ben, who loves all things blue and pertaining to Thomas the Tank Engine. We saved every one of those for him.


Found the holly leaf a few seasons back, and originally used it for the sugar cookies. I like it better this way. The dots on the wreaths and trees I added to the house cookies are laid-in sprinkles. The rest is frosting.


There's my partridges! I do them and the elephants and reindeer the same every year, and always in white. I just noticed some of the snowmen don't have carrot noses. I can't remember if I fixed that...



A different star and the lobsters, I usually make a couple of those. This was the end of one baking batch. It is always a relief to know you are done. Squeezing those tubes and keeping the line going gets harder as they empty, and I have arthritis in both hands. I use big wide elastic bands (like you get on bundled broccoli or asparagus) to fold the tubes over and help keep the air out, but it is still tough. Good thing I like doing this, it's a lot of work!

Actually I enjoy seeing people's eyes 'pop' when they get their cookies. I've been told they are too pretty to eat, yet they always get eaten. I have my fans at this time of year. *w*



Below are the last batch of cookies baked, all frosted in the same night since I just had a few to do. For the ovals I had opened up the last two empty tubes of white frosting and smeared it on with a spreader. I gave them to my sons that evening, a reminder of the days when they were little boys who helped mommy make Christmas kitchen magic. Brian decorated a few cookies himself this year, and he said never realized how hard it is to make them look good. He has a lot of respect for me for what I do now, because his contribution was just a token portion of what got done.

BTW, that chromed steel tray is not what they got baked on, it is an old bottom tray to my long since defunct Farberware portable convection oven. When we had to get rid of it after many years of service, I kept the tray and the oven rack, which I also still use as an auxillary cooling rack, since it has 4 little wire bump 'feet' that fitted into the slots you see on the ends of the tray. I saved a heavy chromed round rack from my Amana micro/convection oven too, because that has tall legs with flat disc 'feet' so that it sits very secure and is great for cooling stockpots. I may be more than a bit eccentric but I won't toss out anything that can be repurposed. The more I can find uses for these things, the less likely they are to wind up in a landfill. I would at least consider donating them to a thrift shop, where someone else might have a use for them.


It takes time, patience, and resources to do baking on this scale, and I know most people don't have a lot of either. What could be doable and affordably fun is to start a Christmas cookie exchange with several friends, and then make up multiple batches of one kind of cookie to trade to others for they have done. You have to make sure that everyone does a different type of cookie so that there is some variety. And I'd tend to stay away from cookies like chocolate chip or oatmeal that most people do whenever they bother to bake, and save certain recipes strictly for the holidays. You also want to think about where your cookies will be stored, and how well they will transport if you are going to share them. I have mailed cookies to Florida with good results, and will discuss in another post how to pack them for that.

For me this is all about making memories. Long after the gifts are forgotten and the cards put away, people will still be talking about the cookies and fudge I made and shared with them. It's part of my holiday tradition, and the couple years I was unable to do that, it just didn't feel the same. I am proud that this year, except for Roger's cookies (which he just received yesterday) everyone got their cookies before or at least by Christmas Eve. And what we kept for ourselves is almost gone. Ho, ho, ho!!!!

The First Snowfall Of The Winter...

Opening weekend in December, and we got our first real snow. We'd had a few flakes before this, but nothing that didn't melt on contact. It was about 2-3" and stuck to everything because the temps were on the warmer side. Then it got cold overnight and so it stayed put. These pictures were taken the next morning.

Everything was limned in white. I love when it coats the branches like that. Both these pictures were up back on the hill behind my house. You can see far into the woods at this time of year, but in the midst of summer, the underbrush and trees leaf out and block all view.

Doesn't it look like the trees exhaled those clouds? In a way they did, the warm moisture rising off the land creates clouds.

I love how the blue of the sky and the white tipped branches work together. I guess I will always have a poet's soul and a painter's eye for beauty.

Below is my Shiro plum, which in spring was a cloud of tiny white blossoms. With the snow, it blooms again.

I love sky shots and we get some spectacular ones here. Many of the oak trees in my yard are close to 100' tall. The hill behind the house gives a sense of height to even the shorter trees. One thing I like about the bare branches of winter is that you can see all the intricate lacy details.

Even at ground level there is a lot to see. Every little fallen twig and boulder top has a snowy flocking. I guess some folks would find this a bit stark, but I like seeing the bones of the land. I am always grateful to live where there are four distinct seasons. The landscape is an ever-changing palette of hues.

An old cedar wren house hung in the east side yard looks fresh and interesting with a coating of new snow. I like the waviness of the branch over it, something you might not have noticed without the snowy highlighting. I believe chickadees last inhabited that house. I put that house up where my mother could sit in her window rocker and watch the birds go back and forth, feeding and caring for their young. We have birdfeeders all over too, for the same reason. It is good to recall that there is life around us that will go on, even when we think things are out of control, as they often are in our everyday human world.

The mail and paper boxes are sort of a declaration to the rest of the world that this piece of nature is being inhabited by us. Notice the road is well sanded and salted. It is early in the winter, and the budget is still intact. This snow was no match for the plows, and it was warm enough for the road crew to scrape it off the pavement. This is the northeast corner of the property, and the state forest starts a few steps from the boxes.

Part of the woodpile, covered in snow. Kind of reminds me of cakes or nut breads with sifted confectioners sugar. Those are forsythia bushes behind the wood, we have a line of them in front of the house, in an untidy hedge between us and the road. My house sits very close to the road. This is shot from the front step looking roughly northwest.

One of several feeding stations, this is the one in front of the house. We really have no front yard to speak of, just a couple of huge trees and an uneven strip of land. You can't see them in this picture but there are birds in the bushes chirping and waiting for me to leave so they can feed. The feeder needs refilling too.

That is Bob and Shelly's house, across the road. They have been here longer than anyone else in this area, having lived in that house since 1963. Their house was built by the son of the people who built the original one we bought, and it is designed exactly the same way, and is still only the four rooms and bath. It's cozy, and plenty large enough when you add in the garage, carport, and outbuildings. The long red bow on the wreath caught my camera's eye. In the summer you can't see much of their house. Having that kind of openess at this time of year helps you feel less closed in when the winds howl and bite.

The next three pictures are closeups of dark-eyed juncos, or what we like to call 'snowbirds'. Here they show up in the late fall and stay until mid spring before migrating north. They hang out all over the yard, and spend plenty of time investigating twiggy underbrush, untidy gardens, and the base of my feeders, where plenty of seed drops. If you go up into the woods, you can hear them rustling through the branches of the low pines, trilling back and forth to one another.

It's cold sitting there in the forsythia, and I bet he or she wishes I would move along so there will be time to feed. I like these shots because you can really see how the snow has clung to the branches.

Hey lady, go inside and have some hot cocoa, and leave us to our foraging!

I love my digital camera, it has an awesome zoom that allows me to get up close and personal with the animals and scenery around me. All of these shots were taken from either my front or back step. You don't have to go far to see something interesting or amazing here. You just need the open eyes to recognize it, and the open heart to embrace and tell the story.

Did You write? 12-28-09

Did You write? 12-28-09
.
Ho, Ho, Ho! I hope Santa brought you all the toys you wanted. The best presents for writers is
1 ) good ideas,
2 ) time to write
3 ) Gumption to make use of that time.
and possibly
4 ) a little bit of ability that might make the piece publishable.
If you did not get that, then there is always this note, designed to prompt those of us who are not regular writers, to develop the habit to open SOME project and put some words down. You see the note coming and want to report your writing. You sit down and write for a few minutes, an hour, sometime during the week, so you can proudly say that "YES, I DID WRITE!"
We are not too picky as to how much you write as long as you do write. It can be a sentence, or a paragraph or as one author said. "I wrote one word. But it was the Right word."

As to what is writing, we are not picky about that either. The list I always put up, has things many of us might disagree as to it being writing. What is more important is that you think it is writing. The list is mainly to give you permission.
Any new writing is of course, writing. Because few of us are any good on the first draft, Editing is also writing, even if it is the work of someone else. Critiquing is also writing for the same reason.
Poetry, blogging, article writing, writing assignments, world or character building, are also all writing. E-mails can be writing as long as they are wordy and pertain to story or writing.
In realty, any of these are writing only as long as you agree that they are.

As for me, I did write, in spite the hectic weekend. It was not much, less than five hundred words, but it was two sessions and I really advanced the story. I am working my way into the meat of the story now that the beginning is written. The whole beginning will have to be rewritten as it is missing key information. My main purpose is to get the action of story written. I will worry the details on the next passes.

I am still doing well on the story ideas. One of my projects is to get the statistics for the year on my ideas. I will have it easy this year. I installed wordperfect 5.1 for dos, and can look into absolutely any file. I have the numbers at the end of each file so I can read them and write the numbers down without having to open each one.
I do know I am a few ideas ahead, but not sure exactly how many for the year. For this month, I am on schedule.
My compost pile is at 37 today, including what I am posting tonight. I really don't like it below 40, but the ideas have not been coming very fast this week. I did get some good ones, a couple I botched the presentation. You can usually recognize those by my telling what the note said at the bottom of the piece. One would likely never care if one is simply reading for pleasure, which I understand many do.
Of course, some of my idea listings (held on the computer rather than on paper) in the compost pile have several ideas in them. I dig out the individual ideas once in a while. They are all counted as one since they might not happen.

I found the past few years that there is a pleasure in creating gifts to give. I did not make anything really spectacular this year, but had some projects that took time.
I did paint my own Christmas cards and that turned out to be a challenge well worth the effort. They would have been a whole lot easier if I started when I knew I had to start. Instead, "I am a PROCRASTINATOR. I am not an amateur."
I also started my ornaments late. I never got all of them done but had enough made for what I needed. I will make more of them, plus a few other ornaments that I know I need copies of.
My printer decided to commit suicide this weekend. I had used the printer to print the inside and back of the cards, something new for me. I replaced the ink after the printer refused to go any farther. I had given out all the cards I needed and was finishing the last few when the computer decided the printer was not there. I was checking the wiring, get behind the printer, when it "leaped" off the shelf in a perfect swan dive from what I could see. There was some minor case damage, but the bad part happened because it was still plugged in. The socket in the case was jerked to the side and now sparks. I plugged it in and it was on, but the computer still did not see it.
I have a second printer but have to get the driver for it from my nephew.
It was fun to have a working printer while it lasted.

I already did a story idea on the angry printer concept. In that one, the printer had its own mind, had arms to feed itself, and it tended the desk, making sure everything is neat and clean. During a rush project, it gets the idea that it is being bled to death, to be trashed and stops, refusing to give up the prints it so deservedly created.
It snaps at the owner and when it is given more ink and paper, throws it at the owner out of spite. It ends up dodging what it thinks is an attempt to unplug it, and it falls to its death.
Another idea is that the old printer is on the last project. It does miracles to make sure the prints are good, even though the heads are skipping. the project is done, the printer is done. The owner wants to repair it instead of getting a new printer. the printer leaps off the desk to its death, to force the owner to get a new printer to serve him well for a lot more years.
The project could be something so special that few printers could even do it when new, for a cause that is worth perfection.

while I did not produce much writing this week, I can proudly say,

YES, I DID WRITE.

DID YOU WRITE?

Still More 'CAT'ching up

This blog entry is brought to you by Max, who says, "Baby it's COLD outside!" Actually he was busy watching the birdfeeder in front of the house and resented that my presence was scaring off the prey...



For some reason, the bargain scarecrow I got at the craft store didn't make it into the last thrifting post. This fine fellow was a whopping $2 because I got him 75% off after Thanksgiving. My home has a country heart, so he will stay out year round. I have a scarecrow lady packed away somewhere. I should introduce them.


My pride and joy, my new 40" dual fuel kitchen range. It has 5 gas burners and two electric ovens, and the larger oven has an optional convection feature. Boy did that come in handy on Thanksgiving and for Christmas baking! I found the convection was a bit too much for the cookies, but it did a lovely job on my pies and turkey. It sure is nice having that extra burner and oven too. The small oven is very narrow, but an 8" cake pan will fit in there, and that is how we did our sweet potatoes - baked in foil and laid in a cake pan so they wouldn't drip all over. No more tucking them in around the bird, only to have them roll out and hit the bottom when you pull it out to baste.

The downstairs part of the house is an ongoing project, so yeah, there is no wall behind the stove right now, just the chimney and studding. No cabinets either, and only subflooring. I just work around it. :P


The last thrifting trip before Christmas was in early December. I got too busy to go out after that. On this one I scored on books. I have varied interests.


Found a couple more pieces of Corelle and some tableware. I like heavy older silverware and don't care if nothing matches. It's all about utility. We are a busy, active group, and we love to cook and eat. The green patterned plate did turn out to have a little chip, but it was not too noticeable. No worse than the ones I already have. The plates were bundled together with tape for $1.99 so I took a chance. I need more of those salad size plates because that is what I eat off of to control portions. I've lost over 60 lbs this year with that as one of my many tricks.


The Nestlé tin still had the dregs of flour inside, and that had gotten damp, so it is a bit icky even after washing. I will use it for some kind of dry storage, maybe something like pens or clothespins. I just loved the design. A good friend of mine who has passed on used to collect fancy tins and had them all on the exposed rafters of her country farmhouse. I just like having things around me that remind me of my life here.

Recently I was going through some old booklets the boys brought home from elementary school, reading about what is special about their mom for Mother's Day, and what our holiday traditions were. I was always a stay-at-home mom, and I love to cook and bake. Baking cookies was mentioned several times over the years by both sons. So I look at this tin and smile, because it brings back memories. And I still do bake cookies, especially at Christmas time. I will have an upcoming post about that too. *w*



Oooh, we have a Max-in-a-box. Actually I was working on a project, and Max hopped into my sewing box filled with embroidery notions and floss to take a nap. Yeah, that's me, in all my glory, sad looking hair and all. It is the end of the day, and I have it in my usual working ponytail, and it tends to frizz like that. My hair is long and unruly, and I don't care because I am too busy to get worked up about appearance most days. The box BTW is bamboo, and I got that at a local flea market a year or two ago for $5, and it came stuffed with all sorts of sewing and embroidery things.



This is one of Roger's hand carved owls that he gave me when he came up here for vacation this summer. Isn't it darling? It was watching me from on top of the TV in the livingroom, reminding me that I have a lot to do before Christmas. No pressure of course...


Well, she's done now! The first witch of the season, off the crochet assembly line. She was a fun project to do and I immediately wanted to do another, but got sidetracked by another mermaid doll talking to me. Hmm, what to name this one...???


This is the latest mermaid doll, also finished, the third one I've made. I didn't bother unravelling her hair, it looks very good the way it is. I think this is the best one yet. I have her facial expression the way I like it. I think her name is Aquarina...

The second mermaid went to live with Roger, a handmade gift in his Christmas box. I can tell you that now because he's long since opened it. Her name is Aurora, and she had the pearl of wisdom in her hands. The first mermaid I gave to Lee, since he collects mermaids. My friends are not hard to please, they are all crafters and understand how much work goes into these things.


And at the end of this post, Max again reminds us not to let the holiday rush stress you out too much. Take a cat nap when you need it, and you will feel much better afterward. *s*

Week 520, Woodworking diary

year 9, Week 50, Day One (week 520) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 12-26-09 Saturday
62 degrees early morning, sunny with sparse light clouds. 73 in late morning. 71 after unbroken clouds came over the area. I worked in the morning shade until the sun got high enough to shine on a seating area, and then sat in the sun and read until I finished a section and had thawed out enough to go back to work.
This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

I finished most of my Christmas cards on Wednesday. I had some cards that needed some items on them, but enough were done to be said to be done.
I had painted the picture on the card. which was a palm tree with lights, and presents around the base. I had three types.

On small card stock, I had the lights up in the fronds.


IN the large card stock, I had eight where I had drawn lines with a marker, then painted the lights on them.


I then did another batch of cards where the lights were on the trunk of the tree. I got a lot of compliments on the quality of the cards.

For the lettering on the inside and on the back, I tried using the printer. That turned out to be almost as much work as doing it by hand. It is hard to hide some colored inks. The hardest part is getting the card orientation right. ON the small cards, which I did first, I drew what I wanted to be in a drawing program I had. I took one card and printed it twice over the drawing by accident before I got the back lettering in the right place. I printed the inside twice, once upside down on the wrong side.
The key to printing, is to figure out the orientation. With most printers, the side you want printed goes down in the paper tray. Then you have to make sure the graphic is in the right place in the page.
it would have been easier to print lettering first, then do the painting. Using the printer was a afterthought.

I gave out most of my newest ornaments as presents this year. I would have not given out quite as many if I had more money or if there were more people getting something. As it was, I have my selection in my ornament archives I can refer to when making new. I do plan to make more.
Other than the ornaments I make new, I am pretty much done with all my ornaments. Owls are my main concentration of making more of, and I will make some Christmas trees. Of course, I have some swan blanks that need to be carved. the main carving will be when I want to sit and relax rather than wood turn, or when I am not in the mood to do much, or if I cannot use the lathe. One can essentially sit anywhere and remove wood.
I got a compliment on how I painted the hobby horse. It came out pretty good. I intend to make more, but they won't be painted. I am told I can sell them easier.

We have the tradition of opening our presents Christmas eve, so the kids can spend all Christmas morning, playing with the toys from the moment they wake. This really worked well as we always met at my Mom's house. We would then get together again on Christmas day for a big, Thanksgiving style dinner.
I gave well and I got well. We were very meager on what we gave, no one went crazy. I had received, and had given a few bigger presents earlier because they were needed then.
I enjoyed making the cards, even though I should have started a while lot earlier. I knew I needed to make them last month. I knew I needed to start the ornaments two months earlier than I started. I could have made the last couple weeks a whole lot easier if I had started on time.

Saturday
I started the morning by dropping my printer. It is shorting out at the plug. Not good.

I petted Beggar during seven different sessions today. each time he got closer and closer to acting like a real cat. Much of the time, he was more interested in just having company than being petted. I am slow to get a clue. Part of that is that It was my petting him that lead him away from being an attitude in a cat's body. I tend to want to keep that up, to tame him even more.

My first project was to make more owl ornaments. I got a lot of corner chip out, but got them made to a point I can work with them. I use the corners in the design. The wings and tail are on each corner, so is the beak. These also have the college miter cap on them and those corners are not supposed to be broken out. That can be fixed though. The main thing was to get the blanks made. I will need more.

My next project was to sort out some stuff I have moved around all over the place the past few weeks. I separated them by content, and projects. that has helped quite a bit.

I got a great idea. I would make some small bowls and add duckling heads to them. I cut some pieces from Dade County Slash Pine branches I have, and tried making the bowls. My first attempt was working pretty good. I was getting down to the bottom of the bowl, after shaping the outside first, and got a catch. The tenon which the chuck hangs onto, broke. I set it to the side and started again. This second piece had some shrinkage cracks in it. I was cutting down, stopped for a quick glance and saw a bit of chippage on the edge. I got going again. The tool slipped and the thin edge was gone in an instant.
Looking at the project, I realized that the wood I am using, two and one quarter inch diameter, is just too small for this project. I really need four inch wood to make it work right. I do have a 4x4 cedar that would work. I would have to round it a little before I got to making the bodies. not a problem though. It might work pretty good, but I would rather use a stronger wood with a lighter color.

I also was making a goblet. I misjudged how deep I went inside the bowl as I was cutting the outside, working my way to the stem. I cut in some more to round the outside of the bowl and saw a color change of the wood. I stopped and looked. I had some holes. I had made the wood at that point so thing it started breaking. I removed what was left of the bowl and removed the wood from the lathe.

Today did not go right, but I enjoyed myself anyway. I do have some key projects I am going to have to start working on.

From now to March, I have to concentrate on the art show I am always in. Now for a listing of the projects I have in process or plan to do between now and then. If I get all of them finished, I will have done great.
I have to go through all my existing pieces and see if I can improve the quality of the finish on the items I hope to have on display.
I have a flower vase started and I need to sit down and continue carving on that. This is in Norfolk Island Pine and the ring of knots will be the centers of the flowers.
I need to make some more of some ornaments I am short on, finish the ones I have blanks for. I should start looking for new ornaments to make.
I need to make a fruit plate or two. I have some apples started, but need to make more fruit and finish the ones I have started. wooden fruit is high in fiber and low in calories. They also strengthen your jaw.
If I make a bunch of those hobby horses, unpainted, I have an outlet to sell them. they would not be hard to make and might sell in several locations.
I would like to make some decorative platters again. If I c0ould come up with one for the art show, that would be a fun gift to the director of the show. A few other carved platters would make for extra interest.
I would love to carve another fairy. A new fairy would be a nice addition to my collection.
There are other projects, but these are what I am looking at. My problem is that I have about eleven weeks to do this and the smallest of these projects would take about two weekends to finish if I am efficient. Many take a couple months to finish.

As for tomorrow, I know I will make a few more owl blanks. More than likely, I will be using the dremmel to grind wood away. Of course, they are talking about 59 degrees tomorrow morning. It should be a lot warmer by the time I get there.

Will see what I actually do tomorrow.




year 9, Week 50, Day Two (week 520) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 12-27-09 Sunday

58 degrees in the morning, 71 degrees when I got to Mom's house, 78 as the high. Light breeze, blue sky with scattered thin puffs. Day after tomorrow looks like it is going to get real cold, Down to the 50s. I hate it when it gets that cold.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

As the day wore on, Beggar started acting more and more like a cat. The last time I saw him, he settled down between my feet in a perfect cat immitation. I was then called for lunch and had to disturb him.

I assembled my tools and projects first thing. I dug out my flower vase and started carving using the dremmel. I cleaned up the stems going into the flower pot at the base. Once I had that, I went to the flowers. The flower centers are the knots of the Norfolk Island Pine branches. They run as a ring around the vase near the top. Being knot-wood, it is harder than the wood surrounding it. I made the knots into shallow domes, then I carved at the petals radiating from there.
The main thing was to locate where they are. I have to cut deep around them and the leaves to have a really deep relief. I am going to have a whole lot of work to do. I am just "sketching" with the grinder right now. Some flowers will be tipped so half goes behind another flower. The leaves will be intertwined going over and under each other.
I will likely cut the weight of this vase in half when I am done.

I got an idea today. It is based on the duckling bowls I played around with yesterday. The idea is a napkin holder set. large duck I made would hold the bulk napkins, then the little ducklings would hold the individual napkins.
I have to work on the size of the saddle bowls that the duckling heads would be attached to. I did check one design idea. Operator error and lower quality wood prevented the idea to work but the proof of the concept was there.

To do the ducklings properly, the heads need to be a whole lot higher than the tail. What I did was to take the six inch long piece of cedar post, and mount it between centers and knock off the corners. I then located the center around it. Since I had drew on the ends from corner to corner before I started, I used them to get a line going down the length of the piece on what I decided was the top and bottom. I first measured one inch off the center in opposite directions top and bottom but found that was too much. I went half an inch in opposite direction top and bottom. When I put the drive spur on one mark and the tail stock into the other spot, the wood was on a really sharp angle.
I turned the piece, flattening the tail stock side and then making a tenon. This is fun turning, but if you have never done anything like this before, it is very intimidating. All you see is the ghost of the wood ends flying around. One goes more by feel than anything. One knocks off the edges slowly flattening the bottom until you have a flat area that the chuck can grab onto. You set in outside that area so the chuck has an edge to grab. it is useful to turn the lathe off periodically to see what you are doing to the wood.
I also rounded the flying ends but knocking off the corners all the way across the flying area. Once the tenon is formed I flip the piece around and mount it into the chuck.

My bird bowls has what amounts to a saucer around the base when I am making them, that will become the feet. The bottom is flat, but the toes bend up, I set the bowl back, so the feet stick out. I use thin tools like parting tools, to cut the wood back from the top of the saucer, following the bottom of the saucer angles. I then do the body more rounded to meet the saucer at the base.
I shape the upper part of the wood. I am finding that having the top rim straight does make things easier on me in creating them. When I make the carved heads, it is easier to match one radius, the side to side radius, rather than also dealing with a top to bottom radius.
These being small pieces, a straight side also makes cutting the inside easier too. I remove some of the wood from the inside while the tail stock is holding the bowl against the chuck. It is sometimes a strange angle to work because the tail stock is in the way, but when you knock down the high spots some, there is less chance of the piece coming off the chuck by breaking the tenon. There is less banging going on. At this point, I am leaving the wood directly in front of the tail stock, sort of a post in the center of the piece.
I finally pull the tail stock away and get right in from the center of the piece. the post disappears and I can cut the sides right to the proper thickness. As you are cutting, you can see the tool in the gaps and see a ghost of the thickness of the wood you are cutting. Work the center along with the sides, always following the outside shape you created. Get down to the bottom of the bowl and flatten in, clean it up and you are essentially done turning. sanding and finishing comes next.

The one I did as described above was working well, then the tool slipped and sliced off the high bowl wall, nice and clean. It is still higher than the lower wall. On another one, I did pretty good but not spectacular, that one was done level. Both of these need to be shorter so the saddle shape is more pronounced.
I took the one I tried to make yesterday where I broke the tenon, and mounted it backwards. It just fit over the chuck. The tail stock was set hard in the post that still existed when I made the tenon while it was between centers and I created a new tenon.
When I started turning the inside again, I was doing well. then the took caught and went sideways. The thin walls were suddenly gone. That is now in the trash.

I took the cedar apples I made a while back and cleaned them up with the dremmel. I drilled partway through the base of the apples and then cut in the bumps on the bottom with the dremmel. I did some sanding to get rid of the dremmel marks. I have some more sanding to do, with finer grit, to make them ready to finish.
I took some pine and shaped it into stems for the apples. With an apple I had from before, I now have three apples in my fruit plate. I need to make pears and bananas for a simple fruit plate. I always consider making grapes but that is too much work.

I made headway today on my projects. Each requires more work. My off center bowl test will work nicely. Having decided that my ducklings will be napkin holders makes it easy to use some existing stock. I used cedar as it was about the right diameter, I thought, and was available. All I had to do was remove the corners. My Dade County Slash Pine branch I have is a smaller diameter, but that will work nicely.

I have loads of projects for next week. What I actually do will depend on what comes up, what mood I am in, and what materials are available.

I will see what I actually do next week.

December 21, 2009 Did You Write?

December 21, 2009 Did You Write?
.
Hear Ye, Hear Ye, Thus ist thee proclamation of the week.
It is time to announce how much writing you did over the past week. If you write regularly, excellent. If you do not write regularly, I hope you are using this regular note to prompt you into sitting down and writing something, anything, so you can proudly report that you did write.
What day you choose to set your week by, Monday night, like when this note is posted, or Friday, when you finally get around to posting on this note, It does not matter, as long as you write.
Until recently when I have had some exciting projects o work on and life had not gotten totally in my way, I struggled to get anything on paper, let alone write regularly. This note is to give you a regular reminder that you need to sit down and open a project.
We never say anything about how little you write. I have not felt myself a failure to have added just a sentence to a project. I did that two different days this week to my work in progress. It is something and that much less that has to be written in the next session.

I often list things that I consider writing. IN essence, you have to decide whether it is writing. We give you permission to stretch the rules. Work related, class related writing is quite acceptable. So is blogging. It does not even have to be story related, though that would be nice. The act of applying words to a page, aids in later placing stories to a page. Writing is writing.
Many comments over time have been about not working on something new. Few of us write perfectly the first time, so editing, even if it is someone else's work or critiquing the work of others. Seeing ways to improve a work aids in your own skills.
I consider E-mail writing, as long as it is wordy and pertains to story or writing, to be writing. In my lists, I am essentially giving you permission to choose your definition and stick to it.

As for me, I can proudly say I am writing. Life has limited my writing time, but I did work on my Second waxy story. I dislike what I have, but I figure I will edit it into shape later.
As it is, I added two pages to the story and two thousand words. What I have needs work and details, but I am about to get into what the story is really about.
I have not worked out the details of what is coming up, but I am getting a better picture of what will happen. The key is to show where Waxy learns of a place she will visit often in later stories. It introduces other characters so she will know of them, if not know them well, later.

ON the story idea front, I am one idea behind right now. I have in my compost pile, 39 story ideas including what I am posting tonight. A lot of them are good and usable, but some require more time to write them, or I don'[t quite have the handle on making them work. Tonight's story idea had no handle, but I decided it needed to be written. The handle and the plot that explained the idea, came out of the keyboard, developing as I went. My concept of what was going to happen, appeared maybe a scene or two ahead of what was happening.
I started writing my story ideas in December 1997. At first, they were not an idea a day, but it became so after just a short number of months. I simply was posting some ideas I had no use for, that I did not have the time to develop. I posted them in hopes that someone else might decide it was useful and develop them into something publishable.
It is one thing to simply write a paragraph to explain an idea. What I have done is to spin a story around the concept to show how the concept might be used. I tend to start with a detailed explanation of the science, the situation, the world, so an author knows what I am basing the concept on, and then get into the situation. the expectation is that the author would slip the information into the work as the reader expects, not have the data burst at the start.
My story ideas tend to be telling what a novel would be about, a synopsis kind of thing. I have, though, and more lately, written pieces that are nearly complete short stories. They simply had to be edited to be made complete.
The thing I love most about the story ideas is that I get to take a brilliant concept, start something new, finish it and forget about it, all within one session. Those are the best parts of writing. I avoid the hard work in between those steps.

The Christmas holiday is here. Because I am short on cash, and have done so anyway, I am making a number of my gifts. Right now, I am in the process of painting my own Christmas cards. These are not the best I have done over the years, but there is a bit of pride in being able to say "I made these."
I also made a hobby horse for a grand nephew. I am in the last stages of painting it. I make Christmas ornaments out of wood, I carve th em, and will be giving some of them as presents. They tend to be items that can be on the shelf all year long.
I do have some purchased gifts, but not very many and not of any real value. I also have picked out some items I have had in my household that I know certain people will absolutely love to have. I have had to fix those items up so they are like new.
These projects are why I have not had time to write.

To make the above into a story idea, He is poor. He has some wealthy relatives and there is a gift exchange every year among them. they let him know he would be invited to attend. Bring gifts.
He has spent the year among them and has seen their interests. When he is told he is invited to the party, He looks in his wallet and realizes that all the money he will make till then, will not buy one of the presents they would expect. He does do crafts and has several hobbies. He goes to his workshop and gets an idea of something one person wants, so he makes that. He finds something in his house that he knows someone else would like, and fixes it up. He then buys something cheep and modifies it to make it a bit more personalized. One person at a time, he accumulates the presents he is to give.
He arrives at the party with his presents. They are already passing theirs out. No one looks impressed or really happy with what they are getting, simply being polite. He starts handing out his stuff, handing a little girl a wooden doll he made. It can be positioned in any pose and has a couple simple outfits it can wear. The little girl gasps at such a wonderful present. He passes out an old pot to the cook of the family and she is giddy. She had not seen a pot like that since she was a kid.
When all the presents are exchanged, everybody is proud of what they have, from the millionaire down to the little toddler.
His presents were the very best, and he spent almost nothing to provide them.


As to the question of the day, I can proudly say,

YES, I DID WRITE,

DID YOU WRITE?

Week 519 Wood Working

year 9, Week 49, Day One (week 519)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-19-09 Saturday

62 degrees when I arrived, a high of 68 degrees, sunshine, high feathery clouds that did not effect the sun at all, and some low feathery clouds early that dimmed the sun a bit.
I was getting cool about ten so I sat out in the sun for a while and it sure felt good. After that, I was nice and warm all day long.
It is supposed to get down into the low 50s tonight.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Department of Tourism.

I started painting my Christmas cards this week. The pictures on half of them could pass as being finished. I knew I needed to make my cards as early as last month, but did not have a design in mind. I finally got a design and then delayed about two weeks. Now I am running late to get them done.
I am thinking of using the printer to do the lettering inside and on the back. Will have to see how that comes out in tests first.
I found that I can do the cards faster if I have five paints out at the same time and adding them to a card before I go to the next, but I found it is harder on me in the long run. It is a pain to put the colors back and close everything up just to rest, then open them all back up to work more. It is also messier.
If I work with one color at a time, and do all the cards with that one color, It is slower over all, but I can take breaks sooner. There are also less errors such as sticking the blue brush into the yellow paint.

The cat was in a good mood today, except when I was clueless as to how he wanted to be petted. He swatted my hand five times once, but did not use his claws, a big difference from how he was this time last year. Today, he was more into company than attention, and his attention was on his hind quarters. There were little pin scabs so he may have been fighting again. I ended up petting him about five sessions.

My first project for the day was to drag out the lathe. I mounted a stick of yellow pine into the lathe and made three owl blanks. Things went well. I did get some corner chipping on the wood, but was able to hide that in the finish product.
At about the time I finished the blanks, I decided I needed to get out in the sun. I dragged a chair out, my carving basket, my drink (mint green tea which had become ice tea by then) and my owl blanks. I sat and carved all three blanks. It is hard to believe that this is yellow pine. Either it is a softer piece of wood or my knife is sharper than I expected. The wood fell away nice.
The owls I am doing have professor Miters on top their heads. One had really bad chip out on the miter, so I used the disk sander to cut the edges back until the corners were sharp and the miter was square enough to convince a blind drunk.
I later used the dremmel to cut in the circles of the eyes, then the dimple in the middle of the eye for the pupal, and finally drew with a Stabillo around the eye. I painted the miter and gave them a coat of varnish. I have to sign the owls but they are essentially done. They went well.

I turned a finial for the sea urchin shells. I then needed a top piece, which is short. I had some fun problems getting things right. I used the wrong wood. I intended to use yellow pine, but instead used whitewood. They don't turn the same. What I did was have black walnut for the finials themselves and on the top, I made a whitewood collar around the big hole for the nob on top the ornament. If I had good execution, this would have been a great project. Instead, I miffed it a little, but it came out right.
Last week, I had filled the shells with expanding foam. I got some on the outside of the shells. That stuff is hard to clean off. It sticks just enough to make removing it a bother, especially since the shells are not smooth and has bumps all over them. It is not a slick shell either, so the foam sticks like it was glued on.

My brother showed up and we went to WOODCRAFTS today. I intended to bring some of my ornaments to show someone there, but I grabbed the wrong bag. My brother picked up a few items there. We also stopped at SEARS and my brother picked up some tools for work there.
While at Woodcrafts, I looked at a block of Basswood. I would love to carve another fairy, but this time, use the right wood. I got hold of some Tupelo and it was too soft for the type of carving I was doing. It tended to crush rather than cut. I thought about getting a good chunk of basswood to start over on that fairy.

I keep an ornament of each style I make each year. It has nearly overfilled a gallon recloseable bag. I added one of each kind of swan, and one of the owls with a miter. The owl that gave me the idea for the miter will also go in there. Those tend to be the very best of my ornaments.

For tomorrow, I am not exactly sure what I will work on. I will likely make some more ornaments. I have to gather my stuff together and into the truck. Next week, we will be gathering at my brother's house for Christmas eve and Christmas day, so I will want to have my carving stuff with me so I have something to do while I am there. I have to bring it with me tomorrow so I can be sure I have it.
Starting next weekend, I need to begin my preparation for the March art show. This includes cleaning up pieces and getting the finishes better on them. I have several pieces I want to finish making, and a few I want to make. If I start now, I MIGHT get them done on time.

I will have to see what I do tomorrow.


year 9, Week 49, Day Two (week 519)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-20-09 Sunday

59 degrees at four in the morning, 56 at about seven, 62 degrees by about ten. I never noticed a breeze but there might have been. The clouds started out a few puffs high up, sunshine blue skies. Then a pebbled shield of high clouds slowly passed from the west and effectively blocked the sunshine. Temps stayed the same but the sun was not able to smile on us. It is scheduled to be cold, 46 degrees tonight. Have to watch for ice on the roads in the morning since it is below the 56 degree frost temperatures we have in subtropical florida.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of tourism.

I stopped by WOODCRAFTS to find out when they opened on Sunday. I was there around ten and they opened at noon. I was not going to wait around.
I drove on and decided I would stop at LOWES hardware.
The past week or so, the two tendons on the back of my knee had bothered me a little. I had not known why. I walked into the store and suddenly felt a CLICK in my knee. The discomfort in the tendons now made sense. I walked a few isles until I happened to go by the hooks and hinges isles. I first looked at hooks, but they were all too big for my ornaments. I then noticed hinges. Ah, that was something I needed. I had to look around a bit since most hinges were for doors, but I finally found the small hinges. I was about to take a brass hinge, then saw a cheaper one in steel. I looked carefully at the small hinges, and decided to go with two packets of their smallest hinges.
I stopped and picked up a knee wrap at the dollar store next and put that on my leg when I got to Mom's house. I quickly found it to be solving my knee problem, at least temporarily.

My first project was to put those hinges into use. Yesterday, when I was packing up, I noticed the hinge of my dremmel box was breaking. This is the original box the dremmel came in. the entire thing is formed in one piece or the interior welded to the exterior. The hinge was just a thinning of the plastic the entire length of the box.
The plastic started tearing. I screwed in all four hinges into the box. Right after I opened the box with all the hinges in place, the final bit of the plastic hinge gave way, likely partly because of the different swing of the new hinges.
I have to loosen the screws, align the hinges slightly, and will solve a stiffness because the hinges are not quite in line with the swing of the box. A couple are slightly tipped.

My brother arrived and after Lunch, We went back to LOWES and also SEARS looking for some parts. There are new nuts out called SPLINE nuts. They have a new tool to remove them. They are designed to be removed only by the special tools. My brother is messing with a set of spline nuts put on with a hex driver and with impact wrench. Until he showed it to me, I would never even known there was such a thing.
He also had a puller and needed a bolt that goes into the center. he found a bolt with the right thread, but he has to thread the bolt to the head, and he wanted the bolt to be a bit longer, but they did not have anything longer than what he found.
My knee was doing well with the wrap on it.

We made a run to one of my brother's job where he needed to do a two minute thing to get the system up and running, pushing in a reset button. I never bothered to get out of the car.

Back home, we sat outside and I carved at two of my swan ornaments. I pried too hard on one, removing a chunk of wood and heard a crack. The neck is still attached but should be glued.
I then carved a bit on the second one and decided to give up. About that time, the sun was behind the high clouds and it was not as warm as it was. I packed up and my brother went inside. I have my carving basket in the car and some fittings for my lathe. As I type this, I realized I left the shaft of my cutting tool at Mom's house. I will have to work with the fittings I already have if we do metal working next weekend, to get things right.

I petted the cat several times today, but a couple times, things my brother was up to, caused the cat to run. I thought about how he had changed since I started taming him. Even when we were able to pet him some, one never had a hand in front of his face, nor would you reach under a chair if he was there. I was doing both and he let me pet him.

I have all my Christmas cards painted to a given level. I have some more colors to add, and some piddly things I have to do to make it right, along with lettering the cards. If I can get the setup in the printer, I will use the printer for some things that need to be lettered.

For next weekend, Christmas comes Friday. I will head over to my brother's house around ten, and sit outside and carve or work with metal projects until dinner time. I will likely work outside until near dark.
Saturday and Sunday will be more like normal woodworking days.
We have a tradition to gather Christmas Eve and open our presents. That way the kids could play with their toys from the moment they woke Christmas Morning. It just dawned on me that I have to have every thing packed so I can gather my stuff when I get home from work on Thursday and dash over to my brother's house.

My woodworking plan for next weekend, is to start the process of getting ready for an art show I do in March. I need to finish projects I have started, start projects I want to include then, and to re-finish pieces I have already made so they are up to my newer standards of finish.

I will see what I actually do next week.

SOLSTICE a poem by Nancy Hansen

Today the light grows shortest

And the darkest hours long

I think I'll light a candle

For the year is almost gone

Another season of promise

Another harvest past

And a whole new set of priorities

Replace the old at last

Some see this as a somber time

When winter winds do chill

But I see in dark the return of light

Because the sun still crests the hill

It's a matter of perspective

You can focus on the gloam

Or see the light that comes at night

When your loved ones all are home

And if you have no one to love

Nor a special little nook

There are plenty out there needing you

If you take the time to look

Give of yourself and you will see

What you offer, is what you reap

You can have warmth thrice returned to you

When the winter snows lie deep

For the solstice teaches patience

And to have a caring heart

The brightest lights shine from within

When the world is cold and dark

© 2009 Nancy Hansen