I've been thinking about courage a lot lately. In fact, you might notice a new little box on the right side of my blog that says "This is my Courageous Year". I signed up last night for an e-course with Kate Swoboda that will start in January 2010 and I'm so excited about it. There are a few changes I've been wanting to make in my life and now is the time. No more waiting. I already have support from my good friends and family. I decided that Kate's e-course would be just the thing to shore me up if I start to falter. The first 10 weeks will focus, among other things, on Self Care and Balance. Certainly something I'll need to be reminded of as I move in a new direction! We can't be successful by any standard if we're not taking care of ourselves, right?
Taking a deep breath now and moving boldly toward what I love instead of just away from what I fear. Feels better that way, don't you think?
Sorry to be so enigmatic. I'm realizing that I didn't really tell you what my new direction is. But for now, I'm keeping it under my hat. I've noticed that sometimes talking about what I want to do takes the energy right out of actually doing it.
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Take these three ingredients and combine to get...
A homemade chalkboard! It won't fit in my pocket like a sticky note, but it will sure look cute hanging by the front door. I think I'll make one for my office too.
Love the edges of these wood rounds.
Hoot! This girl-owl was made by my friend Meg. Love that little flower on her ear. :) We had a 'making felt things' get-together last weekend, which gave me a great excuse to buy some nice wool felt. Turns out that a 1/2 yard of every color is waaay more than a person needs to make tiny ornaments. Now I'm set for life.
This is the little house I made... That's the back view with the barn doors & snow on the roof. This is the front view after stitching it all up...
Glad I remembered how to do a blanket stitch for the edges. Usually, I have to look it up online before diving in. I like how my little house turned out. Now I just have a zillion yards minus about 5 square inches to use up! :)
If you'd like to see some houses by someone that really knows her felt, check out the beautiful work of Melissa Crowe at her Etsy shop Little Pink House.
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Moose. :) They consider any produce left on the front porch to be dinner.
This group was actually pretty unusual. It's not uncommon to see a Momma & baby...a little less so to see a cow with 2 babies. But this seemed to be a family of 4...
A bull was following close behind the other three. Wonder if it was the Dad? In 30 years of living in Alaska I've never seen a group all together like that. It was pretty cool.
This is Camilla, striking a pose mid-scratch. Quite the looker, isn't she? She's a character too. I had no idea birds could be so funny. I'm thinking of posting a chicken video so you can see how busy they are when they're out in their run.
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Here we are (me & my friend Meg) at the visitors center of Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. And the view without us in the middle of it...
Inside the visitors center we found these SO cute felt ornaments...
Aren't they sweet?
Before we headed back into Denver, we made one last stop at Meg's uncle's farm to meet... Noodles the Cow! Awwww.
Thanks for inviting me along, Meg! The trip was just what I needed. ♥
This gorgeous print (titled: Afternoon at El Tapatio) is the only souvenir I brought back from Colorado. While we were exploring Manitou Springs, we stopped in this great little gallery & met the proprietor, Kathleen McFadden. I'm always so happy to see a woman earning her living in a creative field! Her work is really beautiful and she was so nice to talk with. She felt like 'one of my tribe' if you know what I mean. I couldn't put my finger on it exactly but, from my perspective at least, we spoke a common language. Isn't it nice when you meet someone like that?
Check out a few of my other favorite images from her gallery...
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The Peeps! That's the name of this public art display by Liz Szabo in the cute town of Manitou Springs, Colorado. Probably since I'm a new chicken-owner I seemed to be spying hens everywhere. :)
The whole downtown area was sprinkled with artistic touches. Loved these store fronts...
The basket on this pink bike says, "See the World". It was sitting in front of Black Cat Books & Wine. Books & wine?! How great is that? :)
It was a perfect walk-around kind of town. We left with some locally made chocolate and a photo purchased from Range Gallery. More on that tomorrow! We packed so much into this vacation, but I didn't want to put it all into one mile-long post about the mile-high city. ♥
I'm back home from Colorado and what a great trip! We had blue skies every day. Good food, good company, beautiful scenery. I couldn't have had a better time.
Such a different landscape from Alaska...
Some teensy wildlife from our hike...
And some unexpected color as we made our way downtown...
More to come as I settle back in and sort through all the photos. Tomorrow: a lovely small town called Manitou Springs.
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So, I had meant to finish my little witch to show you a couple days ago but...I had a great opportunity come up at the last minute for a visit to Denver, Colorado. So here I am! This is the house we're staying in. We've got the whole third floor apartment for $100 bucks a night. So much better than a hotel, right? If you look up in the darkened windows at the top, you'll see the gargoyle that's roosting on our balcony ledge.
Peeking out over his shoulder you can see the blue VW bug we're tooling around in. Pretty darn fun!
More to come, but I thought I should mention why I had dropped out mid-project. :)
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Getting into the fall/Halloween mode here. I'm going to make hair for her out of that pink wool roving. Now, on to make a little cape.
...and a bit later...
Cape done! A few details yet to come. I know I've mentioned this before, but I always get nervous at this point in making a girl that I'm going to ruin her when I do the face. :) I'm sure she'll come out OK.
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"Winter is an etching, spring is a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all." ~ Stanley Horowitz
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The official end of summer. Snow on the mountains! It had been raining for a couple days, and when the clouds lifted ~ snow caps ~ signaling the "termination" of summer. I wonder if that's just an Alaska thing? Do they call it termination dust when the the first snow lands on the mountains in Montana?
I'm kind of looking forward to nesting in for the winter. :)
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Love Coffee and love this artist! Micki Wilde a.k.a The Art Hermit is the talent behind this wonderful original painting. I found it on her Etsy shop and had to snap it right up. Looking at this cute girl with her cup o' java just makes me happy. I thought I was going to hang the painting in my office, but I kind of also want it at home in my kitchen. So while I decide, I've been carrying it around with me all day! Luckily, it's painted on a wooden box so it's pretty sturdy.
I know you're going to get tired of looking at the hens, but I'm so in love with them right now! Luckily for you, the amount of photos may just be regulated by their tolerance for being photographed. Every time I brought the camera out tonight, this is what Henrietta did... She even pecked the lens! Silly girl.
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Gave the girls a little outside time today after I got their run built. We only have another month or so before there could be snow on the ground & once the temperatures really drop they'll be in for the winter. Best to take advantage of the good weather while we can. They looked totally content pecking around for bugs. I think it's cute how they stay grouped together like that...never more than a couple feet apart even though they have 32 square feet to run around in.
It was relaxing to watch them, especially after a bit of a stressful day. We were in what was thankfully a minor car accident today. We were hit from behind pretty hard, but luckily we were in our SUV and not our tiny Ford Focus. I just about wanted to hug our car for keeping us safe. Everybody was fine, other than the sore muscles that come from that kind of unexpected collision. The damage to the car belonging to the young man that hit us was pretty extensive. But again, I was just glad nobody was hurt.
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Meet my new girls! Left to right, this is Henrietta, Penny & Camilla. Henrietta is a Plymouth Barred Rock, I think Camilla is an Araucana (so she should lay light blue eggs) and I'm not really sure what Penny is. I had wanted a Golden Laced Wyandotte or a Brown Leghorn, but the nice guy that helped us at Triple D Farm said they were out of those. So I have one mystery bird. But aren't they pretty? They're not quite 3 months old, so they'll get much bigger & fatter. It will be another few months before they start laying.
Today was picking-up-the-chickens day because we had to make the hour drive out to Palmer anyway to pick up my doll from the fairgrounds. (Oh, and it turns out my blue ribbon also came with a check....for $6 dollars. Kinda nice, right? Enough for a celebratory soy mocha and a cookie!)
Our second stop was at Budget Feed & Farm to pick up 80 lbs. of chicken feed. The owner of the store, Mike, was super helpful and we had a nice chat. He gave me some good tips on keeping the hens happy & healthy over the winter. I left feeling like I had definitely made a country transaction. You don't get that kind of service at chain pet store. Plus, they mill the feed right there on site. Pretty neat.
Something tells me that these three hens will only be my first. I'd still love to have that Golden Wyandotte...(here's a photo of a lovely one from the fair):...and there's plenty of room in the coop! ♥
Searching through my cupboards today, I found the Beignet mix that I brought home from Cafe Du Monde last summer. Can't believe I hadn't made my own yet! During my visit to New Orleans, every evening was finished with a trip to the cafe for beignets & coffee. Guess that's pretty tame compared to how most people end an evening in the French Quarter, but I thought it was the best.
Here's my home-made version accompanied by my iced soy mocha... Seriously yummy. :)
After indulging, I worked on my chicken coop for the rest of the day. We're on chicken count-down now. Only 5 days left!
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Ok, do you know what kind of critter that is? When I saw it from 10 or 15 feet away, I thought it was a bunny. It's a chicken! A Silkie Bantam to be exact. We visited the state fair today and the first stop we made was the chicken exhibit. Who knew there were so many kinds? I can't wait to get my own ~ next week!
After spending some time on my chicken education, we moved on to the rest of the barn. This little piggy was a-snoozin'. Totally oblivious to the kids running around & the general bustle of the crowd.
The animals are always my favorite part of the fair. But today, I also had another mission in mind. Did my dolly win a ribbon? She did! Very exciting indeed.
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~ Thanks to my daughter for portrait she took of me in my "fair attire". I think I'll use that as my blog photo for awhile to remind me of our day. :)
The Jardin box on the bottom is the one I mentioned yesterday as the "before" of my project. When I saw them at Michael's, I really loved the shape & they were a great $ deal. {About $4 each I think?} I knew the word on the box was French, but actually had to look up what it meant - Garden, of course. It's not a word that speaks to me, plus I think they were supposed to look aged, but they kind of looked dirty. After sanding off the word & most of the paint from the outside, I painted the inside a bright white to clean up the look a bit.
With the inside white, I thought it would be easier to see buttons or whatever small things end up being stored in there.
Then I got busy on the design for the outside. This was going to be the back, but I actually like it better than the image on the other side. :)
My favorite part though is the little bee hive on the end! The holes there on either side of it are where the handles will be screwed back on. Just have to paint them white too before they're reattached.
So, why all the bees? I've been following Sharon Stiteler's blog. It's mostly about birdwatching, but she's got a whole bee-keeping section that I just love! Through her writing & wonderful photos, she really makes a person want to try having their own bees. Fresh honey ~ neat! I haven't read all the way back to the beginning yet, but from what I gather, she's keeping bees with her husband & two friends. The friends happen to be Neil Gaiman and his assistant Lorraine! Kinda crazy. If you're not familiar with Neil Gaiman, that won't seem weirdly interesting. But trust me, its pretty cool.
Speaking of which ~ if you don't know Neil's work {pretending to be on a first name basis with him...ha!} please do look into it. He's an amazing author, but has his hand in so many creative projects - not the least of which beekeeping! - that it would be hard for me to give a short run-down. If you're in a story-listening mood however, I really recommend checking out his reading of The Graveyard Book. It's so great to hear the author read his own work + it's appropriate for all but perhaps the most easily spooked really young child. It's so good. I enjoyed it last October while working on miscellaneous Halloween crafty things. So good! :)
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More fun with the wood burner!
Earlier this summer I purchased 3 little tray/box things from Michael's. (I'll show you a "before" photo tomorrow.) I knew when I bought them that I would sand the finish back down to plain wood. But where to go from there? The watercolors were giving such promising results with my last project, I decided to continue on with them.
I like that fat bee! ♥
Yesterday I mentioned my last-minute crafting. This would be an example of some way overdue crafting! I made this is as wedding gift for my friends that were married on the 4th of July. For some reason I just couldn't decide if it was quite done so I held onto it all this time.
The house & grass were painted on watercolor paper {with watercolors...of course!} and then carefully cut out and glued down to this little round of wood. Since I had my wood burner out last night, I wrote a note on the back, added a hanger and called it good! I think it turned out quite cute actually. Hope they like it!
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