Fun Friday 8-5-2022

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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.

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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.

I hope you’re having a fun Friday.

In For the Day Now

Sylvester and Tweetie Pie

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.

We All Need a Hug

“Calvin & Hobbes.” This is one of my favorites of the mailbox decorations we’ve made.

Thoughts on a Monday 12-27-2021

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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.”

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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.

Enjoy the last week in December!

Thoughts on a Saturday 12-4-2021

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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.

Have a fun Saturday!

Clean Teeth and a Robot

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.

Perfect Afternoon!

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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.

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Cold, Wet, and Blustery

Erin Forest-behance.net

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!

Happy Friday!

Thoughts on a Friday – 11-5-2021

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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.

The Hunt is On

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The hunt is on for two things:

THING ONE – The spray container of the stuff I bought awhile back to kill mold/algae/fungus/elephants.

THING TWO – the actual gallon container for the rest of the magic stuff.

I bought this ‘stuff’ particularly to treat some of our yard art – and in particular, the “Greeter Robot” at the bottom of the driveway. He is much too big and heavy to bring in for any type of refurbishment, so cleaning and repainting will have to be done down there.

It would SEEM that a gallon container of something – anything – would be easy to find. ALSO easy would be the finding of a large spray container. And yet the ‘elves/gnomes/and other mysterious critters have made finding whatever you’re looking for a character-building exercise around here.

We came through our severe storm last night well. It’s truly gorgeous outside and I haven’t found any damage yet. It’s a PERFECT day to drive down to the bottom of our hill and hose down the robot -IF I could FIND the magic stuff….

Oooooo!

Michelle Loving

Isn’t this little guy cute?!

I drove to the bottom of our driveway yesterday afternoon and started another refurbishment project on one of our yard critters. This will be a multi-process refurb –

• He’s outside and as far away from supplies as possible while still being on our property
• He weighs about 150 pounds and is chained to a tree.
• He is almost buried in branches and weeds
• He is covered with algae/mold/fungus/mystery.

I’ve been putting it off for quite awhile, but since our weather is finally cooling off, I decided to tackle it.

I took some branch loppers (large and small) and used both to try to cut back all the ‘greenery’ around the robot so that he is no longer buried. Here are some pictures of the sweet “Greeter Robot” (before refurbishment) –

The weather really does a number on our critters and this is no exception. Now that I have the greenery cut back around him, I’m going to try to find the spray container of algae/whatever spray I bought and start hosing him down and see if that does any good.

Nice Lady Made My Day

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On the way to Lunch Bunch today my husband told me that while he was repairing the mailbox front yesterday, a nice lady started to drive past and then stopped. She told him that she and her sister live on down the road from us and that they look every day to see what we have up on the mailbox! This is what we have up now –

Wonder Wart-Hog

We hear very little about our ‘artwork.’ I like to think that the school bus kids enjoy our stuff, but that may be only wishful thinking.

This kind lady told my husband that they loved what we do and that they were so pleased each time we changed the decoration. Isn’t that amazing?

My husband and I have now resolved to do a better job of changing the decorations more often, now that everyone is getting out more. What a NICE lady!

Wonder Wart-Hog is Finished!

We just went to do errands. It was NOT raining! Hooray!!!!!

We put up the new mailbox decoration as we left. Wonder Wart-Hog is one of my husband’s favorite comic book characters. This is NOT my favorite, and he was really beyond my painting capabilities, but my husband said it was, “Pretty good,” so I’m happy and relieved.

Thoughts on a Wednesday 10-13-2021

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Yesterday on the way home from our errands, a white-tailed doe jumped across the road in front of our truck. She was absolutely beautiful. Amber was in the back seat – one of her favorite places, but Amber didn’t see her. This gives you an idea –

WDFW

I worked an hour and a half on side 2 of “Wonder Wart-Hog” yesterday. Right now he looks like a big green blob with a head. Hopefully, I can get that to change. :0) This is the front –

It rained while I was working on the mailbox decoration in the shop. We’re supposed to get more rain today, tomorrow, and Friday. We may need a boat! All this rain is bringing cooler temperatures, though, and for that I’m grateful. We have our doors open to get a nice breeze through the house.

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I’m tearing my hair out trying to find a replacement for our phone carrier. We changed the credit card used to make our automatic payments. We got a late notice. I called and they told me, “It takes 6 to 8 WEEKS for our system to recognize a change like that.” I’m still having trouble believing that. Anyway, I asked them to take us off the family plan and the unlimited everything we’re on. Only one of our phones is smart and we basically use our phones for emergencies and some texting. After spending almost an hour on the phone with them, they told me the plan we’re on is the cheapest they have. Since we’re seeing ads for half the price, I’m trying to research the question.

joemarino.org

My scales confirmed that I am past the 30-pounds-off mark now and have begun to make progress toward the next goal. :0)

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

Approval

My husband came out to the shop while I was working on the Wonder Wart-Hog mailbox decoration.

After looking at it for some time, he said, “Pretty good.” (high praise from him. )

So I’ll let it dry the rest of the day, then turn it over tomorrow to start side 2.

Whew!

Working on the Wart-Hog

Raising Children Network

This is Wonder Wart-Hog, one of my husband’s favorite comic book characters, marked for painting. The piece is about 2-1/2 feet tall. The outline for cutting him out on the CNC set up with computer-guided torch, was pretty simple this time. The painting – front and back – is intimidating because of all the detail.

I’ve been doing a bit each day. I think I will finish one side of him today after we get back from Lunch Bunch and errands. I hope my husband is pleased with my efforts. If he is, I’ll try to get a pic when the paint is dry before I turn the piece over to paint the second side.

Creating ‘Wonder Wart-Hog’

This is Wonder Wart-Hog. We cut the design out with our CNC set-up plus computer-guided torch from fairly heavy sheet metal. My husband used angle iron to make the piece along the bottom that attaches the design to the mailbox. We hang the piece from an iron stake on an old wheel base so that we can mark it for painting.

If you’ll look carefully, you can see his ears at the top. Wonder Wart-Hog is sitting on big boulder. You can see a knee.

Using our overhead projector, I marked key areas as best I could with magic marker front and back. I will try to refine this using a color printout.

This will be a difficult piece for me to paint. There is a lot of detail, most of which is done with paint, rather than cut out on the machine. It’s one of my husband’s favorite comic book characters. He overcame some problems in trying to do the creation and welding of the attachment piece.

I’ll do the very best I can to make his character come to life.

Thoughts on a Sunday 10-3-2021

Onegreenplanet.org

We received some much welcome rain the past couple of days. My husband is muttering because the rain means our grass will grow and he’ll have to mow again. :0) It was nice. We opened front and back doors, enjoying a beautiful breeze and nice, fresh air throughout. I’m very happy the worst of the summer hot and humid is behind us now.

It was a fight, but we got the “Wonder Wart-Hog” mailbox decoration outline cut out on the CNC table last night. I don’t have a copy of the image we’re using, but I’ll take pics as we progress. We hadn’t done a new decoration for a long time. My husband had to figure out again how to make the program work that converts an image to G-Code, the language the computer can follow. We then had problems because the image was WAAAY too large. We came back in, changed the dimensions, and went back out to the shop, but the computer out there wasn’t seeing the changes. After several times back and forth, he figured out that while he saved the changes, he hadn’t run the “G-code” part of the program again. He did that, saved it, and we went back out. This time things looked good.

We ran the program without the torch turned on to make sure the torch wouldn’t run off the edge of the sheet metal anywhere. We had only part of one 4×8 sheet to use, so if we made a mistake, that would be the end of the project until we were able to go to Ft. Smith to buy more. Happily, it looked like we had a good amount for the image.

We changed the torch tips, then turned on the air compressor and the torch. I’m always fascinated to watch the torch move on its own, moving in a mysterious ‘dance’ over the sheet metal in a magical way, cutting a line trough the metal. We’ve had problems in the past with the torch acting up, but this time everything went well. The torch was going exactly the right speed to cut through the metal like butter.

The next step will be for my husband to make the metal attachment that we use to attach the piece to the mailbox. His hands shake now, so this may be a real challenge – one of the reasons we haven’t made many decorations lately. We are not in a hurry, so I’m encouraging him to do the welding in really short sessions, waiting for a less-shaky day or part of the day. If we can get this done, the next step will be marking the design on the cut out metal.

A young lady showed up at the door last night, asking if we had seen her dog. I’m not sure what kind of dog she had, but the picture showed a medium-to-larger sized dog with brindle coloring. She said her name is Bella. We hadn’t seen her. She left me her phone number. I will text her later to see if she has found her sweet dog.

I hope you’re having a good Sunday.

New Month – Different Mailbox Decoration

It was my husband’s turn to choose the mailbox decoration. He chose Fritz the Cat.

Fritz the Cat is a comic strip created by Robert Crumb. Set in a “supercity” of anthropomorphic animals, the strip focused on Fritz, a feline con artist who frequently went on wild adventures that sometimes involved sexual escapades. Crumb began drawing this character in homemade comic books when he was a child. Fritz became one of his best known characters, thanks largely to the motion picture adaptation by Ralph Bakshi. ~ Wikipedia

Since it is harder for us to get the decorations down from their hangars in the shop these days, we are changing the decorations less frequently. We are focusing on cartoon characters in the hope that they will make kids on the bus smile and maybe bring some nice memories as drivers pass our driveway.

Getting Older

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Hahahahahahahahah!

I woke up crackling and popping this morning. Even my husband heard it!

I will do a longer yoga practice this afternoon to see if I can improve things. That and W-D40….

My husband found an image of Wonder Wart-Hog, one of his favorite comic book characters from his childhood, and wants us to do another mailbox decoration. “Wonder Wart-Hog (the “Hog of Steel”) is an underground comic book character, a porcine parody of Superman, created by Gilbert Shelton and first published in 1962.” (Wikipedia)

He worked on the computer much of the afternoon, coming up with a program he hopes will work as it should to translate the image to the computer out in the shop and allow us to use a computer-guided torch to cut the image out of sheet metal. Then he’ll make an attachment that allows us to bolt the decoration to our mailbox, welding it to the sheet metal. We’ll use an overhead projector to mark the key areas of the bare sheet metal front and back. Finally, I’ll paint both sides of the piece plus the attachment. I’ll post a picture when it’s finished. :0)

Right now we have Godzilla on the mailbox. We’ll be exchanging it for Fritz the Cat in another week.

Latest from the Art Room and the Shop

Dragonfly Yard Art Refurb

Good Start to the Day

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(The above is NOT what I’m making for my friends, but the picture make me smile. What FUN this child has had, thinking of something and trying to make it come to life.)

Since our heat index here in Arkansas is forecast to be 110+F. this afternoon, , I decided to get my body moving earlier than usual this morning and get out to the shop to continue work on the refurbishment of the dragonfly plus working on my Christmas presents for friends.

I’m working on the eyes of the dragonfly now. I cut a black rubber ball with knobs on it in half and glued them on the dragonfly. Now I am using glitter glue paint to try to make the ‘eyes’ sparkle. I finished the main part of the work on the 6 Christmas presents out there. As soon as they dry, I’ll work on the accents and finishing touches. Upstairs in my art room, I think I’ll finish the 3 other Christmas presents I’m working on up there today. I love it when I figure out what I want to try to do early and have lots of time to work without feeling rushed. I find myself remembering lots of happy times with each of the people I’m making a present for, hoping they’ll enjoy the gift. :0)

Since today is the first day of September, and kids are in school here now, we will change the mailbox decoration, hoping to make the bus riders smile as they pass our driveway. Here is the decoration we’re putting out today –

Godzilla

Have a happy first day of September!

Christmas in August/September

Prahaas

This year I’m trying to make something for many of my friends for Christmas. I’m having a good time, going out to our shop each morning to work on some of the presents, plus repainting the dragonfly metal/glass critter that lives on the side of our house. It was down to the bare metal on a lot of the framework for the wings, so it’s taking many coats of paint to refurbish it. I think I have the underside done now, and I’ve started on the side that shows when it is hung up.

In the afternoons, I’m working on more presents up in my art room. I feel good, not feeling rushed, but making steady progress on everything.

The presents are coming along. At least my friends will know I spent a lot of time thinking of them and trying to do something unique for them. :o)

Thoughts on a Friday 8-20-2021

Franklin Silvoira – flicker.com

I love this giraffe.

YARD – My sanity may be waning. I’m really trying to tackle the waist-high grass and weeds that have taken over behind the shop and beside the garden. When it’s not raining and dry enough to work, the heat index is 100+. ARRGGHHHH!

Yesterday morning I did get a start on it. The first part of the project is trying to ‘free’ the 250 gallon propane tank out there. It’s almost buried with all the high grass around it.

The reason that I have this project is that, due to the guy wire making one corner of the garden fence border secure being in the way, my husband can’t mow this area. (actually, he DID do it once, being hard-headed in the extreme. He got the grass cut, but had tears and rips in his arms and on the side of his head from forcing his way through the small opening while on the mower – and then back out again – while I was occupied elsewhere. I ripped him a new one while cleaning up his wounds, making him promise not to try this again. I told him that I would use the weed whacker on the area.

Since I’m a lazy, procrastinating person, I’ve let it get totally out of hand. My husband noticed it the other day, so I’ve redoubled my efforts to get this area under control before he decides to ‘handle’ it again.

It rained overnight, so things are too wet right now. We will go to Lunch Bunch in about an hour and then I’m hoping to be able to do a session or two when we return, though the forecast is egg-frying-outside this afternoon. Fingers crossed.

SHOP – I should be able to spend some time out in the shop this afternoon. I got a bit more done on the Christmas presents I’m making, plus am now ready to start re-painting the dragonfly after making sure the glass is secure on his wings and gluing new eyes on.

I hope that you are having a good Friday, too.

Thoughts on a Wednesday 8-11-2021

onlyinyourstate.com

Isn’t this guy beautiful? – and the photograph is awe-inspiring.

We don’t have any outside errands today, so we’ll get our mail later and consider it done. :0)

Audrey Hepburn – Katiedaisy.com

As soon as I finish this, I’m going to fill up my two-gallon spray container with EIGHT and go out to the garden to spray it in the garden boxes, murdering any bugs there. (I’m still having to treat the ONE sting/bite a fire ant gave me the other day, though my arm is finally not swollen anymore). If the heat is not yet lethal (it’s supposed to FEEL LIKE 110 this afternoon) I’ll fill my other container with KillzAll and spray the boxes for weed roots I missed while cleaning out the boxes. Fingers crossed.

Clipart

I had an idea of what I would like to make for my friends for Christmas this year! I ordered some things and received them a couple of days ago. I started work on them yesterday in the shop and will turn on the a/c while I’m out spraying so I can continue working today on them – plus a dragonfly I’m refurbishing.

agirlandagluegun.com

We’re getting to the very last of the tomatoes now. We were delighted to find these yesterday right before dark.

Have a great Wednesday.

Our “Peacock” is Preening Again

When we got home from errands this morning, I brought the finished “peacock” out to his place in the yard.

This was a pain to re-paint, due to how wide and unwieldy he is. There are lots of angles that hide from you as you paint, and he doesn’t want to ‘sit’ quietly, making it easier to work on him. He also had lost most of his beads, so those had to be replaced.

He used to be high up on the tower above where we put the “Belly Vested Whapadoo,” –

but I thought he could enjoy a new view.

There are some other, smaller pieces we’ll have to take down from the side of the house, and some larger ones, like the robot at the end of the driveway, but we’re due for summer to come roaring back, so I’m going to take a bit of a break.

Beginning of a New Week 8-2-2021

Dolceluna

I’ve been using a new face cream. What do you think?

We just got back from doing errands and I’ll fix our lunch in a minute.

The scales are finally beginning to notice my efforts to lose the lard more. I’ve lost 2 pounds in the past 2 days. Re-losing – so no confetti thrown until I’m in new territory.

The new addition to my exercise regimen starts this week, too.

• Monday – yoga stretching plus exercises with weights
• Tuesday – yoga stretching plus 15-30 minutes on the elliptical trainer.
• Wednesday – yoga stretching plus exercises with weights
• Thursday – yoga stretching plus 15-30 minutes on the elliptical trainer
• Friday – yoga stretching plus exercises with weights
• Saturday – yoga stretching plus 15-30 minutes on the elliptical trainer
• Sunday – yoga stretching

Yesterday I cleaned and started re-painting the “peacock” yard art critter in our shop. The biggest part of the refurb project on this one is gluing new beads on the ‘feathers’ and around his neck. I’ll show you when he goes back outside.

Yesterday I also cleaned off my drafting table in my art room. I gathered my supplies for my “acrylic pour” experimentation. I also watched several YouTube videos on various techniques several really talented people are using. Today I bought some Minwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner to add to my supplies. I will find a heat gun or grab my hair dryer. Later this afternoon I hope to gather my intimidation and throw it in the trash.

I hope that you’re having a great day, too.

Mama and Baby Snail

Mama & Baby Snail are refurbished and living on our front porch now. I finished repainting these yesterday and brought them out late yesterday afternoon.

Next will be cleaning and repainting our “peacock.”

We have Lunch Bunch this morning, so I don’t know whether I will start the peacock cleaning today or start earlier in the morning tomorrow.

Shovel Bird is Back

I brought out the second finished shovel bird and put him in place last night before dark. He is at one edge of the top of our driveway, ready to greet all comers.

It feels good to be getting our yard critters cleaned up and re-painted. Things were beginning to look at bit sad around here.

I hope he brings a smile to someone’s face.

“Dog with Bone” is Feeling Frisky

Our “Dog with Bone” yard critter is back up and feeling frisky. With the rains we’ve had, he had been in three pieces in the shop for quite awhile. In fact, when I took our dog Amber out with me, she wasn’t used to seeing him and barked, running over to check him out.

I plan to start cleaning another “shovel bird” today.

One of the reasons I was outside with Amber was to check on our elephant ear plants. They seem to be happy.

Super-Busy, Good Day

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We’ve been super busy since I wrote my first post today about 9am. It’s been a good day – full of errands. We got most things accomplished and made it home for a late lunch. It’s very hot, so it was wonderful to get back into the air conditioning. We had lunch and a nap.

Yesterday I finished the refurbishing of the 4 ’emu’ planters. They are ready to come out, but it’s WAAAY too hot now to do it. We’ve figured out where we want them to live, and maybe it will cool off enough before dark for us to get them out. We get gusty winds here, so we got some U-bolts we can use. I plan to put one over a ‘toe’ of each of the ’emus’ pounding the U-bolt into the ground to make them steadier. I’ll take pics when we get them back together outside.

My husband is having a bit of trouble welding now because of shaking hands. He got upset the other day, thinking he would have to give it up. Since his shaking varies from day to day, I reminded him of that and suggested he just wait until he’s have a ‘good’ day and weld then. Today we got a full cylindrical bottle of argon to replace the empty one we took in. He was able to finish making a brace to make a beautiful, specialized welding table yesterday. :0)

I have finished 10 yard critters so far, and we now have 3 more in the shop for me to clean and refurbish – a ‘peacock,’ a shovel bird, and a dog.

We’ve had SO much fun making these wacky critters!