Happy Earth Day

Photo courtesy of Paul's Place

She contemplated the dripping rain outside her windows. Most everyone else is complaining. "Why must it keep raining?" "I want to enjoy Earth Day outside in the sun, not indoors hiding from the rain." "Surely I can't visit the park in weather like this." Why, they might melt, of course. It seems to her that these complainers, these know-nothings, can't appreciate Earth Day if they only worship a sunny, comfortable 60 degree day. No mosquitoes silently, threateningly gliding near, sweat dripping down the small of one's back. No bitter chill to the air, cutting through five layers of wool and down, instantly numbing los dedos.

A perfect Earth Day is one such as this ~ rivers swollen, potholes hidden inside puddles, and leaves dripping like gutters. That brilliant green so unique to spring popping each tiny branch. The ground, the dirt, the mud, the earth smells rich and thick and dark and ready for growth. The world is cleansed from the pall of winter. It seems a shame to hide inside and miss the start of the show.

"The fair weather gardener, who will do nothing except when..."

"...the wind and weather and everything else are favorable, is never master of his craft." ~Henry Ellacombe


This quote reminds me of the times during freezing rain in autumn when I'm digging in mud to plant bulbs for spring; of the blistering heat while I dug up sod in order to build our landscape wall, so much sweat dripping from my face that I couldn't see.  And every pedestrian stopping to ask me what I'm doing. Or my hands frozen and chapped while painting the fence in 35 degree weather, the absolute lowest temperature possible. More pedestrians stop to tell me the yard looks nice but they're worried that someone will wreck into my fence. They hope it doesn't happen! But nonetheless, insist they are worried.   ????  

I'm still slowly chipping away at a few blog changes. I've had to take a small break from my intensive Photoshop exploration while we work on refinishing some of our wooden floors, I make a few Easter/Passover gifts, and get the yard ship-shape. And I've been working my ass off at the gym (no snickering) so that adds to the exhaustion and my tendency to fall asleep on the couch. But meanwhile, I have many pictures of projects, past and ongoing, that I can share with you. I mean, c'mon...you're bored without me, right?

 I tried to take a few photos of my basement plant room a couple of weeks ago, but apparently they all came out blurry. Except for this one. So you can't see that I have two tables (the one pictured being 8ft long), and some plants stacked on boxes and on the floor. Plants everywhere. Some doing well, some not growing much, and some dead. But I bought a grow light to try and keep my plants alive over the winter. I can't put any houseplants in the main house because the cats will chew them to death and then hurl everywhere.

This arrangement has worked surprisingly well, as long as I remember to water them (the biggest reason my plants die). Particularly since the basement can't be reached from inside the house. Yes, that's right, I must go outside to get into the basement. It sucks especially for laundry, mostly during winter and when it rains. The previous owners took out the stairs to put in a closet on the first floor. I don't want to lose my butler's pantry. So until we build the addition, we must go outside! Oh, and we fenced the yard in last year so I have to go through an extra gate (while carrying laundry basket) and unlock basement door. Oh wait! AND we just had to add a PADLOCK to that gate because the neighbor kids decided a fence wasn't enough to keep them from cutting through the yard (which I caught them in the act of doing). So now I have to have the key for the padlock to unlock and remove it, open the gate, and use a different key to open the basement door.

In crappy weather, this routine does not encourage me to visit the basement. I have enough clothing to last me months. Seriously. And that makes it just that much harder to water the plants. But it has worked out well so far; so much so that a few of those pots on the end have newly planted seeds that will hopefully be bluebells, catnip, and some other flowers for hanging baskets come spring. Why should I buy ten million of them in May when I can grow them myself? Well, that's not a definite. But hey, I'll attempt anything once. My favorite hanging basket plant is million bells (calibrachoa) but you can't buy seeds for them. So I will definitely be buying those baskets in May.

We went to the Phipps Conservatory this past weekend and I love their spring flower show. I probably should be living somewhere like England and have far more money than I do. I love huge gardens with landscape mazes, very clean architectural type areas alongside crazy wildflower ones, and birds, birds, birds. I would love a pond with a small footbridge and colorful fish. A decorative iron bench tucked under a weeping cherry tree. I know, I'm so fanciful. Can I have a greenhouse, too? And of course, this would all be located behind my manor house/castle. With gates that lead to the forest. Or maybe an ocean cliff. Ever read The Secret Garden? THAT sums it up. I'll keep dreaming. Here in this picture, I am demonstrating to Hubby what our backyard should look like.

Little by little, I will turn my yard and home exterior into a landscape dream. With easy maintenance plants of course! These blue hydrangeas were at Phipps and they are my favorite. I love hydrangeas. Really, my favorite flowers are all spring flowers: tulips, daffodils, hydrangeas, etc. My little hydrangea bush that I planted last year seems to be coming alive, albeit slowly. I planted it very late last year and after a bitterly cold winter, I wasn't sure it survived. My hibiscus tree did not. I thought it was the hardy version until I stumbled upon the tag among my potting plants. I will have to purchase a much hardier small tree to occupy the beautiful pot I bought last year.

"He that can have patience, can have what he will." ~Benjamin Franklin

Photo courtesy of DesignsDelight.com

So it's taking me a bit longer than I expected to make some changes around here. First, I played around with Picasa and I thought that would accomplish the effect I wanted. It didn't. Then I started getting into GIMP because it would support the files I needed. But just in the nick of time, hubby came through and I now have a whole series of Adobe products which include Photoshop CS5. Exciting! But daunting! I haven't used it since, oh, my senior art class in 2002 and I didn't really know how to then either! So it might take a few more days. In the mean time, I changed my work computer background image to this adorable little guy! Happy spring!

"They say that time changes things..."

"...but you actually have to change them yourself." ~Andy Warhol

To coincide with spring's arrival, I have a few changes coming to my blog. A big, noticeable one will be evident sometime this weekend. I have a lot of ideas percolating in my head so I don't want to give it away. Another change that you may notice soon is my attempt to post more. Traditionally, I enjoy writing lengthy posts and sometimes this makes it harder for me to post more often, even though I have plenty of ideas. Therefore, beginning sometime next week, I will be embarking on a Blog Blitz (I don't know if this idea already exists out there but I am commandeering it). If you've even read just a couple of my posts, you'll see that I do (as advertised) write about many subjects. Some are personal, some are work-related, craft-related, food, etc. But I think this fails to cover the sheer number of ideas that are popping into my head fairly consistently as well as the numerous on-going projects I have. This Blog Blitz is going to showcase as many of those ideas and projects as possible. In smaller, separate posts. Sounds crazy, I know. And a little bit like spam. But enjoyable spam. Or at least I think so! This also rather serves as a "to-do" list for me. I am still very good about completing projects but I need deadlines. I LOVE deadlines. I work so much better when I have an end in sight from the beginning. And you, my readers, will hold me accountable.

So get your reading glasses all shined up and ready to follow my every move next week. I'm also in the spring changes mood and have finally started hitting the gym again, which helps my mood considerably. I'm still doing yoga at home since my favorite class was changed and I'm trying to fix my left knee. My left leg is weaker than my right leg (possibly also from my sacroiliitis) and I think that's been causing my knee pain when I run or overuse it. Since the doctors couldn't come up with anything, I've been strengthening it on my own and it seems to be helping. I would love to be able to run the 10k Great Race in Pittsburgh in September. But I'll think small...my first goal is a half mile without pain!

"A page of history is worth a volume of logic." ~O. W. Holmes

If you didn't catch this news article a little bit ago, here's a link to a story about a letter we received from a donor. By "preserved by archivists", they mean me. You can see the Hansch's signature on the back here. A very pretty 300 yr old letter anyway.

The first order of business was to deacidify the paper. Though it is in fairly good condition, the cotton rag paper is starting to yellow. We need to prevent it from becoming more brittle. This little spray bottle to the left has a formula that works wonders (see Preservation Technologies' website) and no worries! It won't harm the paper. Spray a fine mist on it, about 6-12 inches away, let it dry, and flip it over to repeat.

Once the letter was nice and dry, it's time to encapsulate it in polyester film (or Mylar for those of you who prefer that term). There is no adhesive involved. The edges are sealed with our ultrasonic welder and it melts them to seal it. We decided to seal it on all four sides to keep it from air, dust, etc. The air has been forced out from in-between the layers of film using weights before welding the edges. This also keeps a suction seal inside and the pieces cannot slide around (right now, it's one sheet of paper but there is a small tear in the middle). You can see in this picture that it is lying between the sheets of polyester film and the weight is lying on top of it. This final flap will be folded over, leaving only a small edge of polyester film to be welded shut.

Ta da! All four sides are sealed and it's time to trim the edges. You can see a close-up of the sealed corners here on the left, particularly if you click on the picture. Usually, we seal both of the longer sides first and then finish up with the shorter sides (if we are completely enclosing it). If the item was extremely large and couldn't fit into the welder, we may resort to using archival double-sided tape to seal the film. Luckily, this letter was a nice and easy size. Because this letter is exceedingly rare and valuable, I don't want to risk trimming the edges on our large guillotine-style cutter. (I must find you a picture of it). Instead, I trimmed the edges very carefully with scissors. I left a little bit of room on the inside bordering the letter just in case we need to open it up again. If necessary, we can re-use the same pieces of polyester film and weld them shut again.

I then had to decide if I wanted to put it back in its archival folder or do something special for it. All that had been requested was to deacidify and encapsulate it, but I couldn't just rehouse it in its sad little folder. I didn't have time to create a custom cloth portfolio, so instead a created a very thin tux box, custom fit to the letter. No glue is needed, just folding, creasing (with a bone folder of course!), and adding some double-sided tape to keep the two pieces together. When it's all finished, you have a four-flap enclosure that opens up to reveal the letter in the middle.

But this still wasn't good enough, I thought. The 20 pt board of the enclosure is a good step toward protecting the letter, but it's not stiff enough. Solution: Secure the tux box inside a pamphlet binder using thick strips of double-sided tape. PVA could work also, but then I'd have to sandpaper the pam bind to get a rough surface, let it dry, etc. Double-sided tape is quicker and isn't touching the letter, so I'm happy. I chose one that is a perfect size for our tux box and leaves a little space around it. It's a little dark in the picture, but you can see that it is secured inside the binder. All done! I feel a bit better that it's in nice, protective set of coverings. And we scanned it of course. This is the 21st century after all.

Apologies if any of the layouts of this post come across as wonky on your browser. I switched to the new editing software that Blogger has and though it's supposed to be easier, it really wasn't. Especially with putting in pictures and getting the text not to look too weird.

"St. Patrick's Day is an enchanted time..."

"... a day to begin transforming winter's dreams into summer's magic."~Adrienne Cook

Happy St. Patrick's Day! And what a beautiful day 'tis. It's a sunny 60 degrees and perfect for partaking of green beer, some Irish karaoke, and a little jig.

I promised you pictures of my little shamrocks that I would decorate my office with, but sadly I didn't get very far. I still only have my prototype half finished. The baby shower gift from my previous post has taken up much of my time. But no worries, I'll have to make the little shamrocks just because they are adorable.

Do you have plans for St. Patrick's Day? I couldn't attend the parade last week but I'm wearing my green and Celtic jewelry! Maybe someday when I start learning step dance I'll be able to BE in the parade. For now, I prefer the Irish Festival in September. All these thoughts of Ireland have me dreaming about our eventual visit. The Irish branch of my family is from Northern Ireland (County Tyrone: Cookstown and Omagh) but they have been here for about 200 hundred years, based in Ohio. I am eager, however, to visit these towns regardless of how long ago they lived there. And to see Ireland in general! It may warrant its own trip, separate from the rest of Europe. My family is also from Germany (Kappel Am Rhein in Baden) and Slovakia; it will be very exciting to someday visit these places but I would prefer to explore for weeks at a time!

Although my shamrocks aren't done, I can share with you the other little project I made for my friend's baby shower. It's green! Her nursery theme is going to be Super Mario Bros. 3 and I wanted it to tie into that. I had a bunch of ideas but ultimately, only enough time to make one. And of course, while I was working on it, I had great ideas to make it better. But not enough time! I constructed a stuffed Yoshi egg pillow from felt. It's stuffed full enough to make a firm pillow but it can also be tossed around. I originally wanted it a little more 3D, but decided to keep it flatter like a pillow since I didn't have much white felt. I also thought it would have been neat to make it more 3D, add a small zipper to the side, and have a little stuffed Yoshi inside! Maybe eventually I'll make another one. I traced a picture of a Yoshi egg that I had enlarged enough for an appropriate pillow size. I had first blown up a print-out on a photocopier, but that ended up not big enough. I then used that blow-up and took a picture of it with my webcam. On the laptop, I increased the size until it was about the size of my screen (a little bit bigger actually). I traced it directly off my laptop screen, adjusting the paper to scroll down for the rest of my image. I used my tracing paper just like pattern cutouts, pinning them to the fabric and cutting them out.

There were four spots in all. To attach the spots, I decided black thread would pop nicely. I used fabric glue to stick them down and then a running stitch around the inside edge of the spots to keep them secure and add a nice little detail. I didn't take any pictures of the blanket stitch I used to secure the two sides of the egg together. I decided to blanket stitch the two exterior sides facing each other and then flip them right side out. You can sort of see the black stitching, but I liked the effect since this is a prop from a video game (this is slightly visible in the finished picture on the top of the egg). And then I stuffed it using polyester fill, tiny little pieces that wouldn't make a lumpy pillow.

It was a lot of fun (I like using creative prompts, like the nursery theme, because it makes me come up with my own ideas to get excited about. I need parameters and deadlines!) and fairly quick. I pretty much finished it in one evening. And now to finish the other gift!

"When we begin life, we are all given a puzzle..."

"...each one very different, yet special. As we continue through our lives, we meet people and have some type of affect upon their life, as they do on ours. We share with them a piece of our puzzle and they share a piece of theirs, with us, in return. No matter what type of impact they had upon our life, we still carry along with us, a piece of their puzzle. Meaning that everyone we encounter has a special impact upon our lives, because they have shaped us into what we are today. This is called the puzzle of life. Each puzzle growing and changing throughout our lives, but always becoming better and always having the same foundational pieces." ~Erin Bridget Doyle

I know this quote is MUCH longer than the ones I usually dredge up. But it really seemed apropos for the post I wanted to make. None of the other puzzle quotes really worked (I certainly have no reason to discuss the NYT crossword puzzle since I'm more of a Sumdoku gal--and no, that is not a misspelling). I've been a bit silent online these past couple weeks because I'm working my fingers to the BONE trying to finish a gift for a friend's baby shower coming up this weekend. Which I'm also helping to host. And doing a million other things at the same time, of course. Of course! A horse is a horse...

OK, back on topic. I do love making and creating things, as you know. And this dear friend from high school usually receives homemade gifts from me, so how could I disappoint? I can't tell you exactly what it is (lest I spoil the surprise for her) and it's not finished, so it's not like I'm really keeping anything from you. This little lovely to the right is a sneak peek at what I'm making. There is probably no way I will actually have it finished for this weekend, unless I take the next few days off work and don't sleep (not that I wouldn't want to spend my days and nights crafting!).

I've had constant thoughts of how each little piece of this will add up into one "bigger picture" like a puzzle. A puzzle that I am hand-sewing piece by piece, much to the detriment of my joints. And this quote reminds me that not only are each of these fabric squares a smaller piece of the puzzle, but I am also a small piece of the life of my dear friend. And soon, her baby will be introduced to all of these pieces. I'm glad to be a part of your puzzle, Nicole!