As you know, I’ve been trying to improve my ability to draw what I see since I’ve moved to Thailand. I have a small ‘art alcove’ where I have my big, fat sketchbook, regular pencils, colored pencils, a small set of watercolors, and some pastel chalk. I’m enjoying the challenge of the sketching and then trying to paint the sketches.
I have to admit I miss the other art forms I was doing before we moved. The newest one, just before we left, was trying to teach myself wood-burning. I had just gotten started, figuring out which tip did what, experimenting with various techniques, sizes and shapes of wood, etc. I would have loved to continue that here in Thailand, but I simply don’t have the space, and I have no clue where to get the supplies and tools I would need to continue.
I’m just going to share some of the pieces I did, hoping you enjoy them.
Sue wrote me, saying she liked ‘another’ of my cat sketches and had saved it in her favorites. What a NICE compliment!!!! So, this post is for YOU, Sue. I’m showing the cat sketches I’ve done since I’ve been in Thailand. Pick, choose, pitch, whatever you like. You made my day with your NICE comment!
Hope you find something you like, Sue. Thanks again for making my day.
One of our favorite things to do up on top of our ridge line in Arkansas was create yard critters from scrap metal. We originally went to scrap yards, but insurance liability issues caused them all to close access to their yards. We ended up using used 20 gallon propane tanks and scrap tools and things we found at yard sales, plus things we had in the shop.
Our “Welcome Robot” doffed his hat at visitors, while giving the house number. We used a larger propane tank for him. He weighed about 200 lbs. A huge gust of wind would blow him over, or down the hill to the side of the driveway. We ended up putting a large chain around his neck, then attaching one end to a tree down the driveway farther and the other to the pole behind him – the stand for the owl and a driveway bar we put down when we were gone for any length of time. The wind would still make him LEAN, but we could pull him up and put something under a foot or two to stabilize him.
Our “Flying Pig” hung from a tree over the driveway, attached by a strong line to a branch. He ‘flew’ down the driveway, informing visitors that the time had come for pigs to, indeed, fly…
Our “Farmer Robot” stood to one side of our garage door. We had fun attaching tubing for arms and legs to the propane tank body, then finding the box for his head, flattening tubing for his feet, installing cat’s eyes marbles, and then adding the work gloves and his bandana.
Our “Mallard Duck” was attached to a pole in the middle of a brick planter in the back/side yard. He was up in the air, taking off. His head and beak were some kind of cutting ax type tool we got at a garage sale. Wings and tail were cut from sheet metal and attached to the propane tank. Rods were bent into shape, welding shorter parts for his feet.
Our “Patchwork Popadoo” Bird is shown here in our shop at my painting table before we put him out in the yard. He had fan parts as wings, various tool parts as his head, beak, and head ‘feathers’. He had bended metal for his legs and feet.
Our “Penguin Cleaning Robot” was made with a propane tank, oil funnel for his hat, farm disk of some type for his head, metal cone for his nose and other welded parts for his feet. We put fireplace tools in his gloved hands and spruced him up with his bright red bowtie. bowtie.
Our “Thanksgiving Turkey” received a permanent reprieve from becoming someone’s dinner. He’s made of a propane tank body, cut out feathers from sheet metal, a farm tool part for his head and beak, rolled up metal for his headpiece and wattle and ‘wings,’ and rods for his feet. He lived at the base of a tree at the top of the driveway.
And, finally, we didn’t create anything with this one – I just painted it. We had a 1,000 gallon propane tank between the house and the shop. It was white and really stood out. I tried to make it look like a watermelon. The propane fill-up guy laughed his head off when he came up to fill it, took a picture, and left laughing. It made my day. :0)
We had a 650 foot STEEP driveway when we lived in Greenwood, Arkansas. One of the joys of living outside of town on top of a ridge line was making decorations for our mailbox and yard.
We used a CNC set up in our shop. This consisted of a computer-guided torch and a table on which we could use the torch to cut out designs from 8′ x 4′ sheet metal.
We would decide what we wanted to make, looking for ideas from the net. My husband had a program that converted pictures to computer language. We would take that information from the office in the house out to our shop.
We cut out the design, then my husband would weld on a mounting bar that we would use to attach the finished design to the mailbox at the bottom of our driveway.
I would transfer the design details onto both sides of the sheet metal with a magic marker and an overhead projector, then use outdoor paint to paint both sides of the design. I protected the finished designs with polyurethane spray.
We changed the decorations twice a month. Some of the designs were geared to what month it was, holidays in that month. and others were favorite cartoon characters. Other married people ‘fight’ about money or the kids. We fought about what to make next and what colors to paint them!
In the background of these pictures, you can see part of the robot we made from scrap metal, welcoming visitors to the house and one of the two owls who stood on either side of the driveway.
I’m continuing the tour of our ‘critters’ than my husband and I have made from scrap metal and strewn all over our acreage. The tour started at the road that runs in front of our place, at the bottom of the driveway. If you would like, you can read that first post HERE.
The ‘sunflower’ sits on the back edge of our property before it starts sloping steeply down the hill behind our house. This is quite sturdy and is taller than I am.
This is a ‘shovel bird’ who is mounted on the railing of our back deck. He holds birdseed for any visitors.
The “dog with bone” stands close to our ‘watermelon’ propane tank. His head is moveable. I like that because I can turn him so he is looking at you as you drive up to the top of the driveway. :0)
The ‘dragonfly’ is part of a whole group of critters we affixed to the brick at the garage end of our house.
These ’emus’ stand to the right side of the driveway at the top. I love to put colorful flowers in the pots they hold.
The “farmer robot” stands to the right of the garage door, welcoming you to our home.
I call this one a “Patchwork Popadoo Bird”. This photo was taken in our shop, but he now hangs on one part of an old ham radio tower in the yard.
We’ll continue our trip around the yard when I do Driveway Tour # 4. I hope you like our weird critters. :0)
I took you on a tour recently from the bottom to the top of our 650+ foot steep driveway. TOUR # 1 . Today I’ll show you some of the ‘critters’ my husband and I have built and scattered around the yard.
Black Hat Shovel Bird
We built this from a shovel, some rebar, scrap metal and googly eyes. He keeps watch on one side of our driveway pad.
“Box” Turtle, of course.This is along the top edge of our back yard before it slopes down to the valley below. Our dog with bone stands beside our 1000 gallon propane tank.This is a “Patchwork Popadoo” Bird that hangs on a short tower thingie on one end of the propane tank. And this is our main propane tank. It didn’t move fast enough to avoid me painting it to hopefully look like a watermelon.
As you come to visit, there is a decoration we made attached to the mailbox at the bottom of our driveway. Right now, it’s Yosemite Sam. We have made 34 decorations in our shop, choosing favorite cartoon characters and holiday decorations.
Our robot welcomes you, doffing his hat and grinning. You can see one of the owls behind him. (We have one on either side of the driveway.)
Here’s a close-up of them.
About halfway up the driveway, our flying pig hung from a strong line over the driveway. The huge branch AND the pig came down in a storm. The pig is now in our shop, waiting for me to refurbish him. We’ll bolt him to one of the big boulders beside the driveway, so it looks like he’s about to take flight.
Meet our guard dog. He’s ready to defend us from harm.
This crow is on the other side, at about the same level as the guard dog, watching everyone who drives up.
Toward the top of the driveway is our sun face. He weighs a LOT and was really hard to attach to the tree.
Below the sun face on the same side is our turkey, made from an old propane bottle and scrap metal.
This turtle sits beside the turkey. We didn’t make this, but I painted his shell.
And there you have it. You have almost reached the house. You might have missed the signs on trees, “Is there life after death? Trespass here and find out,”“Trespassers Will Be Shot. Survivors Will Be Shot Again,” and “Trespassers will be composted.”
Welcome to the Lewises! We’ll continue introducing you to other ‘critters’ another time.
“Bloom” is what I finished yesterday and it’s listed on Etsy now. I did the wood-burning, then used alcohol ink and finally pastels to finish.
My good friend, Marsha, suggested that I do some practical items, such as pegs on signs, and I’ll think about that next.
Meanwhile, I’m heading back upstairs to do a bit more cleaning of the art room. If I live long enough, maybe some day the room will look halfway organized again!
As we’re getting older than any dirt around, we’ve slowed down on doing some things.
We made twice as many mailbox decorations as we have months and used to change the decorations on the 1st and 15th of each month. We have all our decorations hanging from an overhanging rod in the shop, each hanging on a hook. It is getting more difficult for us to get a decoration down and back up again safely. They are heavy and awkward to handle and trying to get them down and back up, standing on a ladder, trying to balance them and get them off and on the overhanging hooks is hard.
I, of course, suggested that we make a huge set of slots that could run on the floor along one wall of the shop, so we could slide each decoration in and out. This was greeted with a, “Humpf.” response I’m taking as a negative. I’ve planted the seed of the idea now, so it MAY take root eventually.
Meanwhile, we changed the decoration yesterday, after I was talking about how the Amazon delivery lady had been quite complimentary about the critters up and down the driveway and our mailbox decoration. I said I thought he should choose which one to put up.
We had his favorite decoration up –
This is his favorite because of the legs on the Roadrunner. It was the first time we tried to go 3-D on our decorations. It was a challenge, but turned out reasonably well.
We replaced the ‘Sonic’ decoration above with this –
This is another favorite of my husband’s. The character’s name is “Wonder Warthog.”
“Wonder Wart-Hog is an underground comic book character, a porcine parody of Superman, created by American cartoonist Gilbert Shelton and first published in 1962.” ~ Wikipedia
As with most of my husband’s favorites, he is described as, “Fearless, Fighting, Foulmouthed Wonder Wart-Hog” in Bacchanal (Mar. 1962)
Top looking downBottom looking upTop to bottom – looking over the rimUpright – ready to use
My new drink holder – lovingly machined from aluminum by my husband over LOTS and LOTS of hours at the lathe so that the cat won’t dump my cold drinks.
(He made one for himself several months ago because HE kept dumping his drinks onto the tray table next to his chair and the carpet. It worked really well, so when Jet (aka Monster Cat) started giving me problems, I asked if he would make ME one. He made mine deeper than his for more stability, he says. Mine weighs 11.3 oz. His 7.8 oz.
Mine is on the left. I used it last night and it works beautifully. I put a marble coaster on top so Jet can’t just walk over and drink from my glass the way she wants to, and though it’s possible she could still dump my drink, it’s much less probable. HOOORAAAY!
I just finished this little sign. It’s a combination of wood burning, paint, and pastels. I’m having fun experimenting and learn a TON each time I do a new piece. My poor brain is overflowing with ideas I would LIKE to do now. I’ll have to start a list so that I can sleep, instead of trying to MAKE the ideas happen in my mind with my eyes closed. :0)
I’ll try to get this sign added to HandmadeHavenby Linda on Etsy by the end of the day.
I told you yesterday that I FINALLY got my drafting table cleaned off in my art room and was ready to try my new wood burning kit. I think I’ve also mentioned that I have been really intimidated, since my efforts thus far have been less than stellar and made my hand arthritis act up so I couldn’t do anything for more than about 15 minutes.
Yesterday evening I finally decided to try again. I had no trouble installing a wire tip in the tool. The holder with a sponge perfectly fits the tool, so it feels safe to use. The pen itself is light weight, so I practiced for half an hour before I stopped. I used two of the tips, experimenting, and also working on a present I’m trying to make for Christmas.
I am now officially over my intimidation about the process. With the new tool, I can better control the degree of heat. I don’t have to wear the two-finger-and-thumb gloves to keep from burning myself. It’s easy to install the tips, and I was able to change tips, using the screwdriver provided, using some pliers to pull the tip out and place it carefully in the top of the metal canister provided for the tips – so it could cool. I got a new tip installed, turned the heat back on, and in just a few seconds was able to continue my experimentation, instead of having to wait 5 minutes.
I left the tool in the holder when I was finished, unattached it from the heating unit, and unplugged the heating unit. I feel safe using this new tool.
Natalia Blauth – Unsplash.com
I’ll need to do a lot more experimenting, but I’m SO ENCOURAGED now, and EXCITED about a new world opening up for me. I may actually be able to do some fun things! HOOOORAAAAAAAY!
We just got our mail and put up this mailbox decoration of Catbert, the evil HR director in the Dilbert cartoon series. I was planning to put up our Jack-0-Lantern, but my husband wanted this one. I forgot to take my phone, so I’ll have to get a pic of the front the next time we go out.
Unsplash
We’re due for some heavy thunderstorms today and tomorrow along with cool fronts that will take the highs into the 70s and 80s. The rain is supposed to start around noon. I’M READY! Woo HOOOO!
Amber is acting much more like herself now, although she is still over-exuberant at times. I went out with her this morning, just planning to walk around with her a bit. I didn’t put her on her leash. She immediately went to a spot in the yard, put her nose down, held the pose a few seconds, then started digging furiously, having probably found a mole, vole, or other ‘ole.’ I stopped her quickly and brought her back in. She seems to be healing well now. She is still on antibiotics and eye cream and I’m washing her wounds carefully with soap and water daily.
“No Rain, no flowers” 8×10 Hand-Painted Inspirational Sign on hard board – $16.95 with FREE SHIPPING to the contiguous U.S. – HandmadeHavenByLinda on Etsy
Boys’ and Girls’ Name Signs – Made To Order – 4″ x 4″ Personalized name signs great to add to a gift, put in a baby shower basket, affix to a backpack, assignment book or journal, prop up against something in their room. Just the thing to remind them how special they are!
Greenwood is just southeast of Fort Smith, Arkansas – just above the “Feels Like 110-115” part of the image. (High of 106 this afternoon). It’s always hot in the summer, but I don’t remember having so many days of ‘excessive heat warnings.’ I think that’s new, and I really don’t consider it a good thing. I’m always griping about the weather, it seems, but Mother Nature just can’t seem to get her head on straight. Thank goodness we’re spoiled by not having to be outside for work and having good air conditioning!
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LesterLousDesigns-Etsy
Yesterday I finally finished liquid etching the stencils on the glassware I’m working on in my art room. The etching worked, but I’m pretty disappointed at how delicate and faint the etching is, even though I left the medium on as long as they said was the LONGEST time to leave it on.
Today I’m going to start experimenting, using my Dremel tool. I’m going to see if I can add names to the glassware with the tool. I’ll keep adding and adjusting to see what I can make of this. This will be a long, slow process. I’ll take my time and just enjoy. (Actually, this is the part I enjoy the most. What I WANTED didn’t happen. Now I’m free to ‘play.’ If something fun comes of it, good. If not, I can always pitch these and start over with something else. :0) )
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Red and White 3 Disc Light-Weight Hand-Painted Wooden Dangle Earrings with Bling – Length: 2.5 Inches; Width: 1.2 Inches – $13.95 with FREE SHIPPING to the contiguous U.S. HandmadeHavenByLindaonEtsy
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Shout-out to Mary Lou – just thought of you when I saw this –
Plaque – 9″ x 11″ Oval Hand-Painted Solid Wood – “Cherish” Ready to hang. This is a nice gift for someone who shares your life. $41.99 with FREE SHIPPING to the contiguous U.S. HandmadeHavenByLinda
All week I’ve had trouble with what day I’m having. I keep having to look at my computer, watch, and/or calendar, several times each day. If you find my mind, I would appreciate it if you would return it. It isn’t worth much, but I’m kind of sentimental about it.
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Mini Notebook – Pocket Notebook – “Apple” – 100 blank pages for notes, reminders, etc. Actual fabric retro patch affixed to the front. 3-3/4″ x 5-3/4″ x 3/8″ – good size to throw in your purse or glove compartment, or a fun gift for a caring teacher. $14.99 with FREE SHIPPING to contiguous U.S. HandmadeHavenByLinda on Etsy.
I had a nice surprise this morning. I was doing my normal quick morning look through Twitter and found a post by Simon! He posted an excerpt of my email to him after I finished reading his wonderful book. He added, “Getting reactions like this one is why I write. It’s the goal. The entire point of the endeavour. ”
Isn’t that terrific? :0)
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I finished my “Wreath” Christmas cards yesterday. I’m thinking of putting them on Etsy as a choice for my group of hand painted Christmas Cards. What do you think?
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Today I will start the glassware etching. I’ve watched some videos now and read the directions several times. My friend Marsha suggested that I use a glass jar to practice. I have a couple them waiting to be used as grease jars. Then I’ll take a deep breath and DIVE!
Mini Notebook – Pocket Notebook – “Live, Laugh, Love” – 3-3/4″ x 5-3/4″ x 3/8″. 100 blank pages for your thoughts, dreams, lists, reminders, memories. Great size to carry in your purse or tote, glove compartment or school bag. $14.99 with FREE SHIPPING to the contiguous U.S.
Note Cards – “Purple Glory” – Package of 5 Different One-of-a-Kind Hand-Painted Note Cards and Envelopes. Each note card is blank on the inside for your message. The cards measure 4-1/4″ x 6″. $19.95 with FREE SHIPPING to the contiguous U.S.
We actually don’t have “Hot Man” on the mailbox because it has been TOO HOT for us to make the effort. AND the forecast is for “Hotter temperatures the next 10 days.” The website shows 100+ for nine of the next ten days and little to no chance for rain. My husband is hopeful that the grass will become his favorite ‘brown and crunchy’ so he won’t have to mow. I can’t blame him. I’m more than grateful our a/c is functional.
We haven’t changed the mailbox decoration in some time, basically due to laziness and having other priorities. Since school will be starting here in August, I talked to my husband about it. We agreed that we’ll change from
“Sylvester and Tweetie Pie”
to
“Yosemite Sam”
just in case the school bus kids (or someone else) watches what we put up.
We have a totally different traffic pattern in front of our house now with the bridge between us and town being rebuilt, so it will be interesting to see if we get any comments. (Oh, update on the bridge – we drove down to the site yesterday. They have finished two of the three supports needed for the bridge. Things have gone slower than the workers would like because the sporadic heavy rains we’ve been having fill the area with water that has to be pumped out in order to proceed. )
Journal – “Ship’s Wheel” Spiral Bound Hard Cover Hand-Painted with 3D Wooden Wheel – 5-1/2 x 7 hard cover spiral bound journal. 10 manila ‘envelope’ pockets inside. $17.99 with FREE SHIPPING to the contiguous U.S. Questions: lindawlewis1@gmail.com Link to item on HandmadeHavenByLinda
We’re leaving soon to get our mail, see if anyone else is there for Lunch Bunch, and shop for a few groceries before coming home.
Note Cards – “Purple Glory” – Package of 5 Different One-of-a-Kind Hand-Painted Note Cards with Envelopes
Package of 5 different abstractly hand-painted note cards in glorious colors (purple, rose, white, green and black with web spray for added texture) plus envelopes. This is a one-of-a-kind set. Each note card is blank on the inside for your message. The cards measure 4-1/4″ x 6″. Exploding with color, these note cards are fun to use at home or at your office, and even more fun when people remark on them or ask you where you got them! $19.95 with FREE SHIPPING to the contiguous U.S.
Link to these on Etsy – If you prefer to buy these or other products directly from me, please contact me directly at lindawlewis1@gmail.comand we’ll discuss details.
We’re about to put this month to bed and I couldn’t be happier about it. I’m hoping we’ll get a cool-down soon – with more than a tease of rain chances – so I can enjoy being outside again.
IndiaMART
Even though my scales are still laughing at me, I saw improvement this morning. I found a new snack – 1 oz of Blue Diamond Lightly Salted Almonds with Sea Salt. The 1 oz is about 28 almonds. 170 calories. Filling and delicious. I’m enjoying them with a bottle of water after my yoga practice (DAY 47).
When we leave for errands today, we’ll change out our mailbox decoration. This scarecrow helps us welcome hopefully cooler weather with open arms.
Right Attitudes
I’m going to concentrate on my bookshelves in our bedroom today. I’ve moved a bunch of books out of there into the guest room, plus gathered a grocery bag of books to donate to the library. Today I’ll see if there is more to donate and then clean the shelves and reorganize the books.
I hope you woke up this morning feeling good and ready for the day.
IndiaMART
I’m finally down a couple of pounds this morning. I had to look at the scales twice to be sure I was seeing them correctly. :0) Maybe my new regimen is starting to work. Since we are eating a fair amount of individual frozen dinners, I’ve made a list of the ones with the most veggies. I’m also serving a side veggie. We’re eating a LOT more fruit. I’m watching my husband’s blood sugar numbers, and so far, no problems. I’m on DAY 21 of doing my yoga stretches every day.
YouTube
We have Lunch Bunch this morning. I’m hoping everyone will be there. It seems that something has come up each week lately, so it would be really nice to see EVERYONE today and catch up on what they have been doing.
Yesterday I had gotten the mail and was starting to get back in the car when a car started to pass our driveway on the road and then stopped. I waited a moment, and then someone motioned for me to come on. I did, and then the window of the car went down. The lady introduced herself and asked if I was the one who made the mailbox decorations. I told her my husband and I did. She was really complimentary about our efforts and said she passed by our driveway to see what we had up. She said she is a teacher in Fort Smith and was asking if we would make her a ‘Snoopy’ or a ‘Roadrunner.’ I told her I would have to talk with my husband. I gave her my phone number. If she calls, I’ll be able to tell her that my husband agreed, what we would charge, and see if she wants us to go forward. I thanked her profusely for stopping and making my day. :0)
Colorations
My Christmas card project is coming together. I’m planning to start doing the inside of the cards this afternoon. The presents are now finished and I’ll bag them up to store until gift giving time.
We’ll leave for Lunch Bunch in about an hour and a half. We’ll get our mail, see if the trash has finally been picked up or if I need to call again. We’ll shop for groceries after lunch. And that’s our day.
We changed our mailbox decoration and got our mail as we left the house to go to Lunch Bunch. This decoration makes me smile. I had forgotten how hard we worked to get Sylvester’s whiskers and Tweetie Pie’s hair welded on. Everyone seemed pleased with the bags of lettuce from our garden. We had a nice time catching up.
Afterwards, we stopped at the grocery. We just finished putting everything away.
I think the weather people were optimistic when they said the high would be 71 today. It’s almost 1pm and it’s still only 58 and overcast. It’ll have to hurry if it makes it. So I’ll wait until tomorrow, when it hopefully warms up some, before I spend more time in the yard.
I’m going to enjoy a cup of coffee and rest a little and then I’ll go put together the sausage, egg and cheese bake for our dinner tonight.
My newest paperback in the J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts “In Death” series is on its way to me today! I’m re-reading the previous books so I’ll have them all fresh in my mind before I dive into the newest one, “Forgotten in Death.”
justforbooks.tumblr.com
Each of these books stands alone, and I’m really impressed by how little repetition there is from one book to another. I enjoy revisiting the crimes, but my favorite part of this series is the building up of friendships, the sharing of their lives and their interaction with each other. And especially the wonderful relationship of the main character, Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her love, Roarke.
My husband and I will change our mailbox decoration today to our celebration of another Happy New Year.
I’m finding it hard to believe that December is almost gone. AND 2021. May 2022 be a wonderful year for all of us.
Our weather is still absolutely amazing for December here in Arkansas. I noticed that we had the first day of winter on the 21st. Sometimes we have already had some snow by now. Our grass is green again. My husband refuses to mow in December and I can’t blame him. I’m still trying to get my body moving to get our planters in reasonable shape before we have a cold weather snap and it’s too cold to get out there. I’m TRYING to get one planter done each day, but so far, my INTENTIONS are speaking much louder than my actions.
I visited my friend Kay again yesterday. She is still in pain from her recent fall. She did find a rib support that seems to be helping her. I hate seeing her hurting. We all feel helpless to do anything but show we care.
I sent an email to a long-time friend on the 30th of November, his birthday, wishing him a happy celebration. Yesterday I saw his email address pop up on my incoming mail. It was one of his daughters, telling me he had died of complications from cancer. He was creative, funny with a wicked sense of humor. He loved his family. I will miss him.
This is the time of year when Amber, our 95-pound yellow lab, starts bringing deer parts into the yard. Over the years I have built up my ability to take care of this myself, rather than bothering my husband with it. Today it was just deer skin. This is the first time for this. I can only think that someone killed a deer, field dressed it, and left the parts he didn’t want close enough for Amber to find. GREAT. :0(
While I was out, though, I saw a rose in bloom! It looked especially lovely with most of our plants gone now. I cut it to bring inside, then found one red rose bud on another plant, plus two twice-blooming iris. It really lifted my spirits to be able to bring them inside.
We are about ready to run some errands. On the way out, we will put up this mailbox decoration. We will have a very quiet Christmas, so this will be a fun way to wish any passers-by a wonderful celebration.
Yesterday I finished the cards and ornament I was working on in my art room. I’ll take pics and share them with you in another post.
We are back from our trip to Ft. Smith for our dental cleaning. We are still alive, with clean teeth, a good report, and I didn’t bite anyone – a good thing because, although I’ve had my Covid shots and a booster, I have NOT had a rabies shot. :0)
As we left, I took a pic of the refurbished greeter robot at the bottom of our driveway. No green. No rust.
As I type, we have not had the predicted thunderstorm, though it looks darker and darker outside and looks like the rain could come any time. Until then, we’re enjoying having our doors open to welcome a truly wonderful breeze.
I’m going to enjoy some time with a good book and a cup of coffee now.
We have finished our errands for the day. We will have some lunch and relax a bit, and then I’ll head down to the bottom of our driveway in the truck with the supplies needed to refurbish the greeter robot.
I was surprised to see how well the mold/mildew/elephant remover spray worked. I hosed him down twice and the green disappeared! Now the sweet robot is showing his rust. :0)
He is basically black and white, but there is a lot of masking to do so that I can see if I can use the spray can of white I bought. I’m hopeful that I can. This would make his refurbishment a lot easier. I have a can of hiding white and a brush, otherwise. I hope to do this all this afternoon, as we are scheduled for a cold front tomorrow afternoon with colder temperatures and rain.
Mother Nature is smiling on us today, though, so I’ll try to take full advantage of that.
One of the first things my husband and I did on waking this morning was to congratulate each other on doing our grocery shopping yesterday while the weather was nice. This morning we have 45 degrees F., rain, gloom, and blustery winds.
We will meet our friends for Lunch Bunch, but we won’t do anything else outside.
Cliff Harden, of Safe Elite Transformations 479-849-0520 safeelitetransformations@gmail.com called and then came to look at my porch yesterday afternoon. He made us a new ceiling, repaired damage, and then repainted our porch last year. One trim board had fallen down and needs to be reinstalled.
After I got a wonderful hug and he looked at the porch, he said he would be here sometime next week to fix it. When we met, I was his first customer after he used the pandemic lock-down to get his builder’s license and start his company after working for others for several years. Now he has three full crews working for him and is scrambling to keep up with the business. When you’re good, you stay busy. :0)
We got our Covid booster shots Wednesday. My husband and I are in the high-risk group. Even though my husband tends to think everything is a conspiracy, he agreed to the shots, and finally to the booster. Thankfully, neither of us had a bad reaction to the booster. Our son, who lives in Thailand, is in the group that has had bad reactions with heart problems. He is healthy, so has decided not to get the shots or be tested. Since our government has now decided that you MUST have been vaccinated or present a negative test in order to fly, he won’t be able to come home for any reason until the order is changed. We will be on our own until the world rights itself again.
I finished the re-painting of the back of Wonder Wart-Hog. We will hang up the mailbox decoration with the others in the shop now. Monday, weather permitting, we are planning to put up Sylvester and Tweetie Pie.
I have the paint, tape, and stepping stool ready to start the refurbishment of the greeter robot at the bottom of the driveway when the weather permits.
Since our weather is so unfriendly today, after Lunch Bunch I will clean a few things and then do a combination of playing in my art room, reading, and listening to YouTube compilations of “The Voice” auditions. All that talent just fills my heart and makes me feel good about the world!
Just between us, I’m getting really tired of painting the Wonder Wart-Hog mailbox decoration. This is one of my husband’s favorite comic book characters, so I really tried hard – though totally out of my league – on painting him. After we cut him out, he was essentially a green blog with a head and a nose.
I finally finished doing the best I could, and my husband was pleased.
Then, while we had him up on the mailbox, someone sprayed the back with ‘something.’ When we brought it in, I had my husband put him on my painting table in the shop so I could clean him.
I spent an hour trying to get whatever it was off. I finally gave up and started trying to re-paint him.
I have now spent three days working on it again. I THINK I will be able to finish it today. I really don’t enjoy this piece. It points out my lack of expertise on painting body and muscle – something I try to avoid. :0)
I have never understood people who do this kind of thing. Thankfully, this is the first time it has happened to us in over 30 years of living here. I’m really hopeful that this was a one-time thing. If it keeps happening, we’ll have to stop displaying the decorations and that would take a lot of fun out of life for us and the people who DO like what we’ve done.
We have Yosemite Sam up now. Every time we go out, I brace myself to face another case of damage. I really hope this can be just a bad memory one day.
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