Acorn Cottage Artifacts

02:05 pm: ninety-six degrees in the sha-a-ade…

11:09 am: culinary herb garden & etc

Hopefully , this will become the kitchen herb garden, just a few steps beyond the front walkway. For the last few days I've been gradually turning the broken brick bits into the edge of a new planter in my front yard. Though there are not enough bricks to complete the circle, I've had a few folk say that they have some extra old bricks in their yards, so I can finish the design. I had initially thought about one of the "permaculture herb spirals", but already had the star magnolia in the center, and don't want to transplant it. For now the circular planter will get lots of sun,  and in future years, when the tree gets big enough to shade the planter, I can create another herb garden, and use this planter for happy shade things, like lettuces...

For the last several months I've been trying to get brave enough to talk to my neighbor about the overhanging young-but-sickly birch tree  in his yard. It was not giving him any shade, but if it grew up, it would totally shade my garden. Yesterday when i went out to feed the hens, the birch tree was gone. I am going next door, the next time neighbor and girlfriend  are home, with a gift of eggses and some homemade jam in thanks.... Now hopefully he won't plant something like a dawn redwood instead!

02:22 pm: well begun and partly done

Yesterday I started assembling? the herb planting area, which is made using the little broken brick pieces that Sif gave me, stacked to make a circular planter around the star magnolia near the driveway. Got about not quite a third of the circle done, and put in the lovage, and the winter savory. I hope that I have enough brick fragments to do the whole circle.

Today Chance came over to help me with the bathroom vent fan. The fan is now attached to the ceiling, and only a bit of the sheetrock needed to be romoved, which is good. When the project is done, the ceiling can be patched, and anyway one of the projects for the summer is to paint the bathroom.  The difficulty is that the fan wiring up in the attic is apparently totally wierd; despite numerous efforts, the fan does not communicate with the wall switch. (so it is currently not hooked up at all) The best we came up with so far was to have the fan always on, which seems wasteful, even if the new fan is an EnergyStar. Chance is going to go home and look in the BIG 'lectricity book, and see if he can figure it out. The project is still farther along now than I could do alone, and hopefully will be resolved in the next few days. If need be I can try and get in touch with my Norse electrician friend, but that will take longer...

Have got the gown for 

young_ravenalmost finished, just needs hem binding and hemline trim applied. The trim is lovely, and about four inches wide so application will be interesting...

I just wish that there were more hours in the day, and that I didn't get so tired so quickly

 

01:39 pm: dates for enameling classes

There are two weekends in June that area available for enameling workshops, June 13-15 and June 27-29. I am willing to teach both weekends, so folks can pick whichever one works best for your schedule.

Details about workshops: 
Cost $175 Minimum two, maximum of four students, 
all supplies included to complete one quarter size circular pendant, 
class time will be Friday evening 7:30-9:30, Saturday day 10-5 and Sunday day 10-5. 
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I'm thinking about offering an option for folks to do a partial barter for the workshop. There would still be a supply fee ($50) but the remainder would be trade at my usual rate - hour  for hour.   

03:30 pm: enameling workshop - feedback wanted
I had no idea that so many folk are interested in studying with me... 

I've been thinking really seriously about how best to put these workshops together, and would like some feedback from you, my potential students. 

Acorn Cottage is small, so can only accomodate maybe four students per workshop, which is good, as allows more student-teacher time, as needed. Am thinking about having workshops be for a weekend, with a Friday evening overview and design lecture/discussion and "social" time, so that the studio time Saturday and Sunday can be utilised fully. 

Could start workshops in June...

Priceing -  the workshop will be more than Ithra cost, but less than the school up in Seattle where I teach, I'm thinking around $150 to $180, but materials would be included...

01:11 pm: W-T-F!!

This morning when I went to look at my website, to check some information, it was missing, and there is someone elses crap at my address! I am not happy. I've sent an email to my web host, apparently someone has stolen my bandwidth. Not a nice thing to do! Sometimes it is just one damthing after another...

On the good side, just to balance things out, Bill came down from Oly with two new tools for me to borrow. The small wet-grinder, and the cutest little wee tumbler for mass finishing, complete with steel shot, it looks like it holds about a pint. 

So, i'm thinking about putting together an enameling workshop here at Acorn Cottage, anyone interested...?

12:25 pm: ongoing slog
Am still feeling under the weather, which makes everyday life and home improvement move at a snails pace...

I keep reminding myself that while I can't do everything, I have accomplished a lot, and am continuing to do so, with little more than determination and a modest amount of knowledge, and helpful friends

02:21 pm: everything put together sooner or later falls apart
I am getting better, slowly. Yay!  can get through the night without  major coughing attacks...

Yesterday saw the acquesition of four more 55 gallon plastic barrels, to become part of the water-harvesting scene. Once I get them scrubbed, and can find the time for dealing with the plumbing of said raincatching devices. I took pictures of a clever rainbarrel setup I saw in Sellwood, that shouldn't bee too difficult to create. Need to get some concrete blocks to raise the level of the barrels. Yeah yeah, just one thing after another...

Speaking of which, the dang bathroom fan just quit working. anmd those of you who have been to Acorn Cottage know that the bathroom has no window, so the fan is IT for ventalation. (at least for now, Someday I shall rip out the plastic shower surround, and put back in a window where the window was originally, and put real tile on the wall...) but now I need to read up my fixit book about testing the wall switch, and the fan, and probably will end up needing to replace the dratted thing. Slow and careful, as always,

02:42 pm: a field trip down near Mississippi...

Thank you to my dear LJ friends who sent me good wishes. I am feeling quite cheerful, but this dang cough means I am still sick, able to do about a half day work before being so tired that I need to rest and sleep. Today I almost fell asleep while riding the Max, (not a good idea).

Yesterday I acquired two painted porcelain wasabi dishes from a local artist (at the ceramics shindig) , both with waterlily leaves, one with a black catfish and one with a spotted jumping frog. They are now hanging on the bathroom wall, alongside the Japanese postcard of the woman bathing, which is now in a better frame from Goodwill. Eventually Acorn Cottage will be closer to the house in my head, and as it is now warm enough to open windows and paint, that will begin happening soonish.

As we are having a non-rainy day, I decided to get a closer look at the house where I saw the interesting rain-chain… There are a group of tiny houses near the ReBuilding center, with lots of handmade and re-purposed details. Interesting rafter ends, an underwindow flowerbox made from a bracket-hung upturned range hood, a chunk of wall pattern-sided with tincan parts… 
   
but the thing I am most interested in is the crafty rain chain. Which seems to be made from parts of olive oil cans, and electrical wire. 
  
This might be good for adding to the Acorn Cottage waterbarrel project, as rain-chains do not get clogged like downspouts. Hmmm…anybody out there have some empty olive oil tins?

03:43 pm: which side are I on ?...
On the positive side: My taxes are done for the year, had enough money saved to pay them, and have an idea of how to make doing next years taxes not such a horrible long-drawn-out process; both baby apple trees are putting out leaves, and flowers!; have started moving forward on four projects put on hold for tax hooha, including the big dragonclaw coronet project. I've also a few ideas of how to do some minor rearranging of furniture at Acorn Cottage to make the spaces work better, and some longer term ideas for future improvements, like a bench for removing shoes near the front door. did some measuring, and only 4 1/2 sheets of masonite are needed to replace the carpeting in my bedroom

On the negative side: I have the worst sore throat I've had in years. Not a cold, and according to the two minute doctor at urgent care,"it doesn't look like strep". Which is good, since having someone medical look at my throat is alarmingly expensive, given that they didn't do a throat culture. I want affordable health care. Really. and I want my throat to stop hurting. And I'm glad I went and looked up the medicine that the doctor perscribed before I filled it, since I actually have a condition that is listed under "do not take this medicine". Sigh. At least the meds were only to make me feel more comfortable whilst whatever virus is living above my soft palate completes its life cycle, and not something that would actually speed the recovery. 

Anyhow I'm off home to go back to sleep

03:51 pm: visited countries map...



create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

visited states map...



create your own visited states map

I guess I've traveled a bit, but not as much as I'd like to. I'd love to see the Norse countries, and Japan, and the Roof of the World...

05:46 pm: arithmetic is not my favorite subject
I am an artist, not an accountant... I am still alive. I am just trapped at my desk at home, surrounded by little pieces of paper. Every year I swear to come up with some kind of easy way to do all this arithmetic during the year, and every year I don't. Look for my return after April 15th

02:42 pm: sprung, sproing, spring
Today is the second day in a week that it has been warm enough to hang the laundry to dry on the clothesline. And in the front yard I have violets blooming, and the little snowdrops and tiny blue iris. No sign of the grape hyacinths yet, but the hellebore that my friend Sharon gave me has a lovely rosy pink blossom, and what look like more buds. pretty amazing for a plant that went through last year with basically only one leaf. 
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Had a great visit this morning with  a_pinkmonkey, , yummy sushi goodness for lunch, and a very inspiring trip to the Craft Museum. The current exhibit there (Touching Warms the Art) has some amazing jewelry made from non-traditional materials, and is intended for the visitors to be able to actually handle and try on the art jewelry. Really got the creative juices flowing, there were some amazing felted pieces, and things made from rubber and plastic fruit, and wood and wire, and old x-ray film, just lots of fun things from all over the world. Go have a look if you are in Portland, admission to the museum is free!
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I'm getting eager to start working on the garden, even though the studio has current necessary priority.  I managed to acquire some discarded fence boards, which should be useful for another raised bed in the yard. Given the length of the boards it will be smaller than the other beds, but I'm thinking about using the curved concrete scallopy bits that former owners left behind to add half-round beds on either end, kind of a long oval bed rather than rectangular... And then there are the big window screens from the Rebuilding Center that I am hoping will work as hen-barriers. Yup, the warm weather really gives me a touch of spring fever.
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Months ago, I submitted my "tiny recycling center" to ikeahacker,  since it met their guidelines, and today they published my "hack" online. 
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Yesterday  I bought a two zone bus pass for March, and did more travelling on the Max, even figured out how to get down to the MetroPaint place in the industrial zone, and picked up a gallon of recycled light blue paint. At their store, they have a chart/book of many colors that are possible by mixing the fixed colors that they carry. I discovered that I can change the "baby blue" light blue to something more like a "bird-egg" blue by mixing it with light brown, which I hadn't thought to do. This year, the rooms in Acorn Cottage will be painted, at least some of them, and not white.

Yesterday I think I only walked about three miles, will look for the old pedometer, just for curiosity sake. The hot tub after potluck was soooo welcome. I 'm signing off to go walk to the Post Office now, while they are still open.

01:07 pm: Previewing the post-petrol possibilities
Some of you may know that for the last several weeks Nimblefoot (my faithful little station wagon), has a transmission that no longer includes first gear. Well, Saturday my transport situation devolved further. The car started losing power, sounding ill, and there was this not-good "shaking" going on in the engine compartment. Then the "check engine" light came on as I was limping the car home. Managed to get home without incident, but whatever is wrong did not go away and be better in the morning. My car is kerflooey for the indefinite future <sigh>
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Sooo...Yesterday, spent most of the morning being productive around Acorn Cottage: got a bit further on the studio/workroom, put up shelves in my closet to hold guest linens, re-potted my spider plant babies, and put mulch and a "half-brick" border around the new persimmon tree in my parking strip. Jen (&  Bill and Cathy) from up in Olympia were down here in Portland for a school field trip, and called to ask if I wanted to join them for sushi at SushiTakahashi downtown. Oh yeah! Now I live about a mile from the Max line, so there was definitely some walking, since I missed the bus and the Sunday schedule is not as frequent. Met up with my friends at the Craft Museum, and then on to sushi. By the time we had all eaten our fill, it was no longer daylight, and I decided that the best (safest) option was to walk up towards Powells and across to get the Max, rather than down through Old Town.  So, all in all about three miles of walking yesterday.
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Today I've already walked two miles, since I wanted to check my mailbox at the Post Office and see if anyone has sent me a mobile for the swap, or anything else. The mailbox is empty...at least I know that the mobile I sent out last week arrived. Later this afternoon, I'm going to walk to the grocery, which will add another two miles. If my knees hold up, I should be getting into really good shape this Spring...
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I called around, and it looks like it will be possible for me to rent a car for the two teaching gigs I have in March. Since I have a lot of stuff to transport, taking the train is unfortunately not realistic, though it would be much more pleasant than driving, and cheaper.
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My legs are really wishing that my massage therapist hadn't moved to New Hampshire...

03:32 pm: Updated snippets: no electron is going to be the boss of me
 

11:11 am: … every time that wheel turns round, bound to cover just a little more ground …
Heather and Chris are by now back from their coastal honeymoon. Last Friday Bill came down to Portland to do some City business and to drive me up to Olympia for the wedding, and I spent the weekend up there, being something analogous to a godmother of a no-longer-child; I've known Heather her whole life, and her mom for most of mine… feels a little weird to think of Heather as a married woman; I've got pictures of a snowsuited child in my photo box, and memories of a little ballerina sprite tagging along at Country Fair… I guess I'm getting old…

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It was great to visit with my friends:

Jen has been taking a mosaic/art history class, and showed me some of the projects she has been working on. Very inspiring (hmmm… maybe Acorn Cottage needs some mosaic decorations) and Bill has more ongoing studio projects than ever. 

I also had a chance to talk with Mindy at the reception on Saturday, she and her husband moved, with her father, to a farm-housey place on the other side of Olympia. They have a small neglected orchard of assorted fruit trees on their new land, and with pruning and caring for, hope for future abundance.

Ceilidh (almost ten) is now about as tall as I am, and her aunties Beth and Karen are surviving the transition to total self-employment. I suggested that they look into "Basic Health", since Washington, unlike Oregon, does have sliding-scale state health care for working poor, uninsured  folk. (sigh, there are only three things I miss about living in Olympia; my Olympia friends, the amazing food co-op, and having medical insurance… but I love living here in Portland, and I love having so many Portland friends, and I have put my name in the OHP permission-to-fill-out-an-application lottery)

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Nimblefoot went and had a transmission oil change. Just as suspected, the transmission gears themselves are okay, but part of the Mysterious (to me) Mechanism that shifts is broken. Leo, the kindly shop owner, told me not to drive up into the West Hills, and not to let anyone else drive my car, since attempting to force a shift into first gear would cause further damage, necessitating a more immediate V.E.T. (very expensive transmission). And realistically, there will be no VET till sometime this summer, since I do not have $1800 just hanging around somewhere with nothing else to do with it… Leo also pointed out that with over 200,000 miles on my car, it might be time to think about a different vehicle, since everything will be wearing out… Argghhh, cars! While public transit and bicycle are both possible for some of my transport needs, I cannot go teach a workshop in Seattle or an Ithra in Fire Mountain Keep and drag my gear and the kiln and the dog without a car…

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The shelves in the studio are all attached, and my arms are still sore from the installation. It was good to take last weekend off. Many, but not all, of the boxes are moved onto them, box moving continues as I can make time. Then will come "box sorting", and eventually I will have the mother of all crafty shelf walls. I've moved the extra, less sturdy, standing workbench out of the studio, leaving the middle of the room empty; I can visualise a worktable for students to sit at, which can be folded away when not in use. The former workbench, minus the formica top, may become an outdoor stand for growing salad greens… wrap the legs with copper foil and it is slug-proof, and the greens would be right up at countertop height. I read an article last year in the NYTimes Home and Garden discussing the idea… and the Ikea kitchen island, with 4x4 legs and 2"thick butcherblock top, is far more suitable for shop use. I want to rebuild my small seated workbench, maybe with locking casters so I can move it about the studio as needed… Hmmm, many ideas, and Bill showed me drawings he did of the six-student workbench at Brian's school in Ireland. I'd like to build something like that eventually, as resources allow and need dictates.

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Snowdrops blooming in my yard, and I found in the side yard a plastic pot chock full of bulbs that I forgot to plant last fall, all tangled and sprouting and starting to bloom; baby iris and snowdrops and probably grape hyacinths. Maybe I can dig a hole in the front garden and drop the whole pot gently in??? I feel so absent minded at times, trying to keep track of all that needs doing at Acorn Cottage.

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I've been working out what I want to make for the mobile swap I signed up for last month,

I know that adding an additional craft project into my busy life seems like a crazy thing to do....but most of what I do is "work", satisfying work, but primarily task-driven.  This is just for fun, and with the added whimsey that somewhere out there someone is making a mobile for me...

After deciding what I wanted to make, I cut the horses out of a scrap of really thick watercolor paper



and though I really liked how the pieces looked as ghostly silhouettes, I decided that painting them would be fun.



Now I need to turn them into a mobile. With wire and thread my idea will become actual. Whee!

This weekend I will assemble the mobile and mail it off to my swap partner. It has been interesting seeing the various mobiles already in progress,(images posted in a Flicker group), and I am not the only person who is wondering "is one of those for me…" I hope that the person I'm making this for ends up liking it. I know that I do.

07:13 pm: This is your Craft-Tea-Party reminder notice

What : the theme this month is "fun with felt"...We'll have felted sweater pieces for those who want to play with making tea-cozies or whatever, and

young_raven  has said she'll bring her needlefelting tools and expertise. Or just come and visit... bring your knitting and enjoy tea and snacks and chat...

When : Sunday afternoon, 1 PM onwards

Where : Acorn Cottage

potluck tea snacks welcomed happily

 

 

 

02:57 pm: I am woman! watch me rebuild my studio!...

03:10 pm: trying to keep calm... and an invite for later in the month
On the way home from my housecleaning job today, my car stopped having a first gear. As in when starting up the shift lever no longer shifts into first gear. But since it still willingly shifts into second gear, and third and fourth, I was able to drive. The car dIdn't do anything that I noticed other than stop having a first gear access. UGH!  I hate when my car breaks.
But I don't know what is wrong, and I don't have any idea how to fix it. All I know is that it will cost more than I can afford. Just when I  was feeling like I was getting a bit ahead. And planning on getting internet access at my home. And planning on driving up to Olympia next weekend to attend the wedding of my very dear young friend Heather.

I'd be tearing out my hair, if I had enough to bear offering it up in frustration....

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On a cheerier note, this is your early warning for the February Craft-Tea-Party..
Sunday February 17th afternoon tea - all friends of Acorn Cottage welcomed.

Expanding on the suggestion of young_raven   that we make tea cozies, the activity will be fun  with felt..
Make something from a felted sweater, or try out needlefelting
(of course, your own projects of choice are always welcome too)

10:57 am: one egg - well chilled
I went out this morning to feed the hens, and swap the frozen waterer for the thawed one from in the house.  During this current cold snap, the hen water freezes overnight. Indeed, my water barrels have frozen overflow hoses, and when driving home from Hillsboro yesterday the icicles on the hillsides along near Linnton were spectacular...some were at least 5 or six feet long and sharp! all sparkley! But I digress...

Looking in the nest box, I found the first egg of the season. Yay HennyPenny! She has been looking quite perky, with really yellow feet and a really red comb, but I wasn't expecting any eggs till maybe next month. Henrietta molted several months ago, and has most of her feathers back, but it is obvious where some are still growng in, and she still has a pale comb and pale yellow feet, so it will be a while before they are both laying. I wonder if this year they will get back to the two eggs a day I was getting last year.  (Chicken literature says that as they age, they lay bigger eggs, but not as frequently)