Year 14, Week 48, Day One (week 694)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-21-13 Saturday
84 degrees, strong southerly wind with some gusts, clouds racing North over the Everglades, blue sky above. What clouds there were in the morning past noon were too thin to effect the sunshine. I did see some clouds to the north of me heading west, riding the off-shore winds into the Everglades northerly train. By about three, the Everglades clouds got heavier, and moved East and started blocking the sun. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
I've painted some of my Christmas Cards. I planned on painting 48 cards at once. I found I only had flat space to allow 40 cards to dry. After 2 colors, which gave me the tree on the card, I realized that my legs and my time would not allow me to do all 40 cards, so I set twenty to the side and painted on only half the cards.
I finished the artwork Friday night and then rushed to letter the backs of the cards before I went to bed.
In the morning, I picked out five cards and lettered the inside. I figured out that while I have a couple hundred envelopes, I did not remember to bring them with me. Later in the day, I lettered the inside of the rest of the cards. I ended up with only a few cards left when the evening was over. People seemed to like the cards.
We did two sessions of yard sailing. With one session, we stopped at one yard sale and I ended up with a handle-less suit case with some yarn in it. The good thing was that the yarn had some wool in it. I love wool. Those might be used for my "stuffies." I hope to make this next year. Stuffies are stuffed animals, stuffed ornaments, dolls and so on.
I headed out later in the morning and hit another yard sale that netted me some good crochet and knitting books.
I took an oak slat and prepared it for turning, squaring it slightly cutting it in half, finding and marking the centers, and mounting them on the lathe with the intention of making drum sticks.
This is old oak. It was originally a wine or beer barrel and was cut in half and sold as planters. Mom had a bucket inside it and had it part of a wishing well. When the metal bands rusted through and broke, I got the slats to work with. Being old and weathered, there is a lot of surface checks in the wood.
Both pieces I tried to turn, split in half before I got them completely round. I decided to pack up and let discretion be the better part of valor.
I brought all the scarves I had and with Mom, I picked out who would get what scarves this year. Later in the evening, I gave away two scarves at a fellowship I go to. Both women loved them. One wore hers all night long and the other just happened to have a shirt on of the same color I gave her.
I spent much of the day finishing a scarf. It was close to being done, but just had a little more to do. I brought the wrong yarn for the tassels that dangle off the ends. it was the right color but too much lighter than needed. It happens that the yarn I purchased had something that was very close to the right color, just a dye lot off and I used that. The scarf came out perfect. I will eventually gift it, but for now, I have it hanging next to me so I can enjoy the color shades I developed in it.
I spent a lot of time petting the momma kitty. I put her on my lap and she would melt into my hands as I gave her the attention she loves. All three times I had to put her on the ground, she looked at me with a very disappointed expression. She is not quite ready to sleep on my lap yet. The rest of the day, she was right nearby sleeping on the ground.
Tomorrow, I won't be going to Mom's house to work wood. I have a bunch of projects to get done. I don't want to be doing them Christmas eve or really early Monday morning before I head off to work.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
Year 14, Week 48, Day Two (week 694)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-22-13 Sunday
I really have no idea what the weather is like as I have not been outside. I do know it is sunny out and warm.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Sunrise Department of Tourism.
Besides catching up on sleep, my main project was to finish the rest of my cards. As of the time I am writing this, the painting is still in process. There is one really good advantage of doing the cards in batches rather than all at once. One can correct for "mistakes" in the first batch, doing things a little different.
Little design changes can improve the looks of the picture and one usually does not see them until the first batch is done, so the second batch, by nature, is always a little better.
Of course, I will likely be up late tonight lettering the cards to give out tomorrow.
I started some bread dough today. Again, I used some frozen dough as my starter, breaking it into small pieces after it had thawed, and mixed it in with the liquids before I added the flour. it is rising nicely right now. I really don't need to bake it until Tuesday so I might let it rise over night, work it in the morning, let it rise all day long and then let it rise over night again. I learned previously that while letting it only double is quick, it does not hurt the dough to let it rise longer.
I dug out some items that will be gifted. These items I got FOR ME over the past year and have decided someone else will enjoy or use them as much as or a lot more than I do. Those are really fun gifts to give.
A couple months ago, I had knocked my stand mixer on the floor. It seemed all right then. I found that there was damage, but I am not sure how it got damage at the base of the handle rather than at the top. That spot is protected. Of course, I don't use the stand mixer at all. It is more a shelf ornament. If I had a break hook attachment, it would be better. I tried a different beater style, which I was not sure what it was used for. It did not work well as a bread hook. The hook releases the dough and throws it around. This one caught on the dough and spun the dough around. not useful. I went back to kneading by hand. The mixer does work well. It is one of those things where I had seen another of these mixers at a yard sale a couple months ago and did not get it. At this second, it would be nice to have the second one.
I've done some other cooking projects while I was at it. I am ready for some sales on meat so I can pack my freezer again.
I don't plan to do any woodworking until the weekend, even though I have days off between now and then.
I will see what I actually do next weekend.
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