SUNDAY RERUN: Manners School

It's time for a Sunday Favorites entry, hosted by dear Chari. Click on the button in the lefthand sidebar to go see her and the favorites of other bloggers, and to join us!

Here's an entry I posted, oh, nine years ago. How can the time go by so quickly?

Parker, at about 9

My granddaughter Parker is six and a half. She told her mom this past week that she wanted to go to "Manners School".

Sarah said, "But Parker, you're so polite! You always say 'please' and 'thank you'. Why do you think you need Manners School?"

"Because," said Parker, "it sounds funny when I say, 'Excuse me, Madam'".

So, let's see. Solution to the problem would be....I'm still laughing!

SHOW & TELL SATURDAY: 1ST ATC

Today I finished my very first ATC (Artist's Trading Card). It was an absorbing activity, and took longer than I'd anticipated, maybe because of my lack of experience. I was surprised, too, by just how small 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" is. I can't even imagine how patient and painstaking a person would have to be to create an Inchy or Twinchy (1 x 1 and 2 x 2, respectively).

This was also the first time I've tried to do anything with rubber stamps, and I fear it could become as addictive for me as it has for so many others.

Well, then, without further ado, my first ATC:


A few notes on the process:

I started with an image I found on the net, and altered it, changing the colors, heightening the contrast, and a couple of other things in that vein. Then I printed it out, and added some black pen outlines, and squiggles to the branch the bird sat on.

After that, I found the heading "Musicians of the Month" in one of my old Etude magazines. I already knew I wanted to add the stamped bird, so the plural was perfect.

Online again, I found some cool, very old, sheet music, which I printed on erasable typing paper, which is somewhat sheer and also has a kind of pebbly texture. I put a strip of it in the larger bird's beak, and cut individual arpeggios to become the calyxes of the flowers. That didn't show much after I added the black feathers, but I'm still glad I did it, just because I know they're there.

I stamped a fanciful bird on the printed image in brown, and then darkened areas of it with black pen, and then I stamped curlicues in the upper left and lower right corners, using two or three other stamps, and both brown and black ink.

Lastly, I added the brown feathers as a crest for the larger bird, and the black tail feathers to the other. The black feathers are ostrich I got at an estate sale some time back; the brown are out of an old feather duster.

Oh, I should say that the black around the ATC isn't part of it, just the chair seat I set it on to photograph it.

My DH studied it when I showed the finished card to him. He didn't say anything for a few seconds, and I really thought he was going to tell me it was kind of a dumb way to spend my time, but as I moved to leave, he said, "It's really cool."

"Really?"

"Yeah. It's cool. I like it."

Well, then. That was a nice surprise. It isn't exactly what I thought I was going to make. Pretty pale for starts, but I think I like it, too, and it is my first, so I think I'll decide to be very happy with it!

FRIDAY FENCE POST #56

I found an interesting, if difficult to photograph, fence over at Harbor Freight the other day. It didn't help that I was trying to take pictures from the vantage point of a busy parking lot. I do let myself get self-conscious, especially when people are looking at me suspiciously, or like they maybe think I'm a freak for taking pictures of something that doesn't look like photo-worthy material.

Both of these photos are, I think, worthy of being clicked on, so as to see more detail. The second one gave me some real filter fun.



I'm looking at the photo as you'll see it if you don't click on it, and it looks almost normal. Just saying....

THE DAILY LIST: MY BEST TOOL

My girlfriend Alice, many years ago, gave me some of the most valuable child-rearing advice I ever received, all in a single eight word sentence: "Begin as you mean to go on."

Many times I've stopped to think, Do I want to start down that path? If I say Yes now, will it lead to problems later? Rarely was it anything earth-shattering that was being considered--letting the girls do, or not do, something "Just this once!" that I didn't want to become a habit and could see how quickly they'd turn that "once" into, "But you let us yesterday!" It really saved a lot of arguing later.

But that really hasn't got anything to do with my entry, except that I looked at my list and realized it was a map for "beginning as I meant to go on".


Each morning, usually right after breakfast, I pull out my notebook and make out my daily list. As you can see, I divide the page into four quadrants, with the headings, "Errands", "Call/Email", "Do", and "Write".

Those quadrants are essential to this ADD woman, and keep me, mostly, from making grasshopper leaps from one thing to another, especially important in the Errands department--I do Not want to go out and come home, only to discover I've missed a place I meant to get to.

If I leave the house, the list goes with me. Otherwise, it sits at my place at the table and is regularly referred to, and Oh! the satisfaction of marking something off! Some days I do pretty well. Other days, I look at the list in the evening and just sigh: Where did the day go, and how could I have accomplished so little?!

It's okay, though. The things I don't get to one day generally get moved to the next day's list. Some things I forget to transfer, which is why keeping the lists in the notebook works so well for me; I frequently go back through and review the pages.

My preference for anything hand-written is graph paper, preferably 5-to-the-inch. I seem to need those little boundaries to keep my penmanship tidy. This notebook has graph paper on only one side of the page, but that's handy, too--the facing page is great for jotting down notes and ideas, which is another reason I review past days.

Anyway, this helps me keep my days somewhat on track. I hope there's a bit of something helpful here for you, too!

Signing off for now,

Anitra

NOT "SHOP BEAUTIFUL" but Oooooh!

There's a fabric store just up the street from our house. It is definitely NOT a candidate for "Shop Beautiful", but it is a treasure trove of the fantastic. I've told a number of people about it, but this morning, as I prepared to run up and look for fabric for wings, the lightbulb came on: Blog this place!

This is the shop, as seen from the Safeway parking lot, at NE Fremont & Sandy Blvd. Definitely not an exterior to make you long to enter, is it?


Unless, like me, you have a nose for a bargain. I wanted to know how true that "FOR LESS" was, the first time I went in. Turns out the sign maker got it right, in spades.

Table full of trims, at mostly $1-$2 a yard, & mostly beaded, sequined, and/or embroidered.

Lots of sheers, many sparkly, at $3 a yard

Cottons, velours, knits, more sheers--$4 to $8 a yard

Richly beaded trims, with top price of maybe $5 a yard

Quite a lot of beaded evening and ethnic wear

This photo does not do these luxurious sequined and embroidered fabrics justice!
Price? Just $10 a yard!!

Need I say it? If you're looking for fabric and trims in the Portland, Oregon area, check out Fabrics for Less. It's true that there isn't much "ordinary" there, but it makes up for it, I think, with a whole lot of Extraordinary!

TAKING THE ATC PLUNGE!

Gulp. I've been reading about Artist's Trading Cards (ATCs) for years, and admiring the work done by many artists around the world, but frankly, kind of not getting it.

There are some art forms, I have to admit, that either don't make sense to me or seem beyond the scope of my abilities. ATCs have been the latter for me.

And then a dear someone actually sent me one. I have it propped up in front of my place at the table where I see it every day. It draws my eye ad makes me smile.

Oh, yeah. Who wouldn't smile?

Now, technically, I guess this isn't an ATC, because it's bigger than the required dimensions (2 1/2" X 3 1/2"; 6.4 X 8.9cm, the size of a standard playing card), but it's small, and it's art, and it draws me. I started thinking, Well, maybe I could do that!

You know what comes after that thought, don't you? Yup. From there you have to progress to, "I'm gonna try it!"

But where to start? How do I begin? Flutter-flutter thoughts. Stymied, I was. Then I got a clue: Artist's Trading Cards! These are created for the purpose of sharing, trading, swapping, and that being true, there would be places where you could find people doing that. Could I join up with them?

Over on MizMollye's blog, I found a button leading to Blissfull ATC Swap. Ooooh, beautiful. But daunting. Not a place for a rank beginner to, well, begin.

Enter SwapBot. This totally cool website is a clearinghouse for people who want to swap things--postcards, crafting supplies, handmade items of all sorts, and yes, ATCs! I'd joined ages ago, but never did any swaps. This time I looked for and found an ATC swap, with birds as the theme.

I am on it! I am in it! And the creative juices are flowing, and I can't wait to get started!

Now tell me, have you ever created an ATC? I would adore it if you'd leave a link in the comments and let me see yours!

SUNDAY RERUN: Moving Day

It's time for a Sunday Favorite, a repost of a blog post from the past. (The Blog Party is hosted by Chari, over at Happy to Design. Click the Sunday Favorites logo in the lefthand sidebar to join!) I've chosen one from about eight years ago, called Moving Day.

"The Baby" at Seven

We helped Lauree and Toby move last Thursday. Their new home is beautiful. I am so thrilled for Lauree. She really is the kind of woman who loves being a home-maker, and stay-at-home mommy. I spent most of the day over there holding Abby, who was put off by the strange surroundings. I felt kind of useless, but Laurie said not, that it was a great relief to her that I could hold the baby and let her get things done and direct the moving in. RC's mood in the forepart of the day was abysmal. So, of course, I wrote a poem!

Moving Day

How can there be so much in the world to yell about?
He shouts his way through the hours.
I mutter.
I mutter, because if he hears me
there'll be one more thing to roar about.

But then it's finished.
The boxes are stacked in the garage,
the furniture is helter-skelter in the rooms,
and we lounge, chatting,
my head on his chest,
staring at the U-Haul parked at the curb,
and suddenly I realize:
This day was perfect.

---

And while we're doing poems. This happened a couple of days later. True story!

Renovator

Standing with one foot on the top of the ladder,
the other swinging free in the air,
my arms stretched over my head,
I squint as tiny, grey Chiclets of old paint
rain from my putty knife's edge
to my face.

I have spent so much time in the sun this year
that I am as dappled as the earth under a shade tree,
tawny shoulders sprinkled with russet spots.
My legs are sheathed in short denim
and a long summer's tan.

Yesterday, a man in a shiny white pick-up
swung into the driveway and proposed marriage.
You weren't here,
but I told you about it later and we laughed together.

Today, back on the ladder,
precarious,
I have leaned around the corner just in time
to see you walk chicken-style
the length of the scaffolding.

Is it any wonder I smile as I work?