WIP - Untitled Vine 112211

The hand stitching to the far left is bothering me, am setting the piece aside and will pick it up again in the morning, maybe I won't feel so froggy in the am.

WIP - Untitled Vine Piece 112111

Now with more stitching, I'm thinking I seriously need to go dimensional with it though using coils, etc.

WIP - More Vines

Lots of hand stitching needing to happen now.

Vine Piece

From this

to this.

Now to dye some more threads and yarns tomorrow for additional vines. 

Dinner 112011

Dinner: florence potatoes (named after a woman named florence) home canned green beans, pickled beets, and honey orange marmalade ginger glazed smoked ham.  Here's the ham sitting atop my 1952 kenmore stove, even though we baked it out on the grill.

Not Convinced

I stitched the flax down and now wish I had not done so, I was hoping to capture a creek here locally that has several ox-bows coming off of the main stream.  I may cut some back, may add some hand stitching not sure yet.  Thinking.

Window Trim Colors 111411

There are three colors adorning the windows, ruby red for the crowns, a dark sage for the outer trims, and a very dark blackish sage for the inner window trims.  We'll finish the storms on the second story next spring, as the metal will have to be primed first to accept the paint.

House Update 111411

And now with more trim colors!

My clematis trellis has been removed so John can scrape, prime, and then paint the soffit on the west side of the porch.

The east side of the house still needs another coat of paint and for all of the trim colors to be added.

Almost done, one more week and weekend of warm weather is all we need to finish this part of the porch!

Studio Update 110811

I still need to clean out the hutch, paint the inside, and then load my painting and drawing supplies and still life goodies. 

Studio Redux 110211

Working on the drawing/painting space portion of the studio. I still need to move the canned goods out of the hutch and then paint the inside of the hutch a hot carnation pink color!

From peach to black in less than 30 minutes!  The hutch is the future home of my painting and drawing supplies, along with still life objects and inspirational items.

My $70 a Month Heat Bill

 Everyone always wants to know how we can have a $70 a month heat bill in the dead of an Iowan winter - in a 1905 Victorian house - well this is how we do it.  NOTE the house is 1105 square feet.

We keep the house at 65F during the day and 58F at night or when we are not home. Caulk around the outsides of every window, door, etc. and do this every few years, oh and LOTS of insulation! We use mortite on the inside for the windows, the windows are original except for two modern windows and it's the modern windows that leak like a sieve. 

Winter 2010

Make sure to change those furnace filters too.  Another tip is to put insulation behind outlets and switches that are on outside walls, these are also major draft stoppers.  Repair any storm windows with new spline and the fuzzy insulating stuff every 10 years or so.

It also helps that we are on budget billing, and the gas company keeps bugging us to pay the new rate which is $59 a month but John keeps refusing.  November is our reconciliation month, and by paying the $70 a month we don't get a "suprise" spike in our heat bill.

edited to add:  The orignal builder insulated the house and big time, way back in 1905, he filled it with woolrock from the basement all the way out the attic rafters.  We're thinking he didn't like being cold. The house maintains and beautifully, it's been 65F in here for two weeks now.

Rivers and Trees

Getting ready for my upcoming solo show at the Grimes Farm Conservation Center, Marshalltown, IA.  I will be showing my Ghost Trees Series and my Blood River Canyon Series.

Paint Update 103011

Caulking around the windows.

The Scaffold Shuffle

The top two towers have been removed, so we can paint the area between the windows

Setting up another four stage tower, I'm too tired to explain it I'll take pictures tomorrow.

Paint Update 102511

Now with some color!

oak leaf vats

It's time to start thinking about putting these oak leaf and acorn vats away for the winter.

Paint Update 102411

working one section at a time, slowly but surely the painting is getting done.

Paint Layer No. 1

In progress new deep face frames for my artwork.

It's Orange

New garden tub, soon to be filled with weeds, leaves, and other compostable yummies.

New Frames - In Progress

John set up some stations for me, with lots of clamps, so that I could sand the frames and quickly.  Tomorrow they will be painted, right now he's sanding them with 220 grit paper for the final finish, I sanded them earlier with 120 grit.

11x14x2.75 inches each
Poplar