Giving Thanks

I am grateful, all the way to my bones, for my life.  Health, strength, a good mind, busy hands.  I have a beautiful loving husband who is my best friend and we have this dog who makes us laugh every single day (and the dog's foster-cat who insists he is NOT domesticated, but purrs at our feet when we sit out in the evenings.)

My husband has a good job that allows us to build the business we plan to retire on...and while he might not enjoy the job as much as he does the business, he does appreciate it for the steady platform it creates.  And while he might not admit it, he enjoys some of the friends and coworkers he sees every day.

We live in a warm climate.  No snowy Currier and Ives holiday scenes for me, but I can revel in a day of garden work in January, wearing no more than a flannel shirt for warmth.  Tomorrow we'll go hiking through some local nature trails, which is a tradition we started once the last kid moved out. 

My children and grandchildren are everywhere--Oklahoma, Oregon, Louisiana, England and Japan--too far and too many for me to visit.  But they are there, they are healthy, and they know I love them.  We had a new little grandson join the family just last night, in fact, and I look forward to the trip next spring to meet him!  Someday, I'd love to preside over a noisy, rambunctious, family-filled traditional Thanksgiving, the kind I grew up with when all our family lived close.  Since I plan to live til at least ninety, I have time.  But even if they're scattered all over, I know they're there, and as long as they're happy, I'm good with that.

I have a blessed life.  A quiet day of thanks is a pretty good tradition...
Whatever kind of day you have tomorrow,
I hope you have much to be thankful for.

My silly boys.

Going through the paper clay!

I had eighteen more doll-body blanks from when I started the wooden jointed doll project.  I decided most of them will be rabbits and cats.  Went through a pound and a half of paper clay between yesterday and today!  Now to start making their paws--they'll be sculpted onto the dowel rod pieces I cut and drilled last summer.   (Back when I sanded all my knuckles off on the hub's belt-sander.)

Here's a sneak peak at the critters in progress.

Wascally wabbits, waiting for their lucky rabbit's feets.

Cats.  Coming soon to a theater near you!

I don't know what happened, but this isn't a cat OR a rabbit, in case you were wondering.

I'm thinking of putting a feather in the mouth of the left one...

This one kinda has a Cheshire thing going, doesn't she?

I have to be patient and wait for them to dry...the cats have styrofoam in their heads, so I can't dry them in the oven.  (I tried that...it seems that stuff expands with heat.  It gets ugly.)  The eyes will look better when they're cleaned up a little, and they'll all get arms and legs and maybe some clothes.  Oh, and Alien Boy will no longer be an alien.

Wimbley, my first wooden-jointed rabbit...

Sydney, my first wooden-jointed cat.

Rain!!!

This is a good thing and a bad one.

Bad (to get that out of the way) because apparently one of our rent houses suffered hail damage in the last storm, and now has a leak from the roof, down the walls, and into the master bedroom ceiling on the first floor.  I don't EVEN want to think about that yet, because we're still waiting to hear whether the insurance company will cover it before we can get a contractor on it.

But good because, of course, we have a lot of landscaping that was getting pretty desperate for rain, not to mention all the trees.  The hubs got took pictures this weekend of the Palo Verde my father-in-law brought us back in March of '09.  They're desert trees, but with a regular water, they grow pretty fast.  Lots of teeny thorns--you want to be careful when pruning these puppies, but beautiful little yellow flowers in spring, and fine lacy foliage all summer long.  The best part is that "Palo Verde" means Green Skin, as you can see by the trunk--it's green all the way to the ground!

(Pay no attention to how I'm dressed in either picture...I live in my "play clothes" pretty much all year.)

A chilly morning in March of '09...

Not sure what the face is about...probably laughing because Gabe was yelling "You're killing it!" as I pruned.  But a good gardener knows that the planting-pruning will help a little tree get off to a good start.  (Cruel to be kind?)

Now it's not such a little tree, but it will likely get another five to ten feet taller, with mild winters and steady water.  It's leaning out away from the trees behind it...ideally it should be out in full sun all day--they thrive in Arizona in 115 degree summers.

A Confession

I know they're part of America's history, and that in a way, they can symbolize the dichotomy between opposites in each of us--light/dark, good/bad, etc. With a Master's in archetypal mythology, I ought to appreciate them as the purest example of the primitive collective unconcious in physical form...

But can I just say that topsy-turvy dolls 

give me the heebie-jeebies?

The creative aspect in this folkart is admirable--I know some doll makers over on the Maida site who have made such gorgeous examples, with their sweet little faces.  To see a real antique one (two?) is intriguing, if for no other reason than their historical value.  When I was a kid, a friend of mine down the street had one(s) that was Little Red Riding Hood with Grandma and the Wolf on the other...end. 

But there's just something about having two torsos and heads and no legs...it's like Siamese twins joined at the waist.  Poor things.

Maybe I need to get more in touch with my dark side (or is it my light side?) and embrace the symbolism.  Maybe I need to get off the computer and go write out the grocery list for today's trip to town.

There are lots of things I could have posted today. 

This is what got posted.  For that, my apologies.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled Thursday.

More time to make dolls?

Ordinarily, that's a good thing.  A great thing!  But in this case it's looking like our Thanksgiving Trip to Phoenix is soon to be our Christmas Trip to Phoenix.  (Sorry Mary Jo, if you're reading this...Phil plans to call home this weekend.)  Which is hard to see as a good thing, because I miss those people something fierce.

The reason  for the delay...is, well, constant delays.  The contractor working the rent house rehab is making a lie of all the good things he told us about himself.  Into the third week and very little done, and half of that done incorrectly.  The house is rented, tenants to move in December 1st...and our "final walkthrough" date set for Nov. 30th--the day after the return from ten days in Phoenix.  We can barely get him to show up at the job site now, I can't imagine what a week and a half of no supervision would bring.  Well, I can imagine it...and it's ugly.

It makes me sick to my stomach to think of coming back to find it still undone, with this guy still making excuses and promises...the tenants with their U-Haul loaded and ready for their move.  This real estate thing can be fun.  And then there's now.

So I'm trying very hard to look on the bright side: I love to spend Christmas with family, and it looks like now I'll have the chance.  In the meantime, we'll be here over the next few weeks, poking this contractor with a stick (a.k.a. threats of no pay and bad Angie's List Ratings) to get the house done in time.  Since that isn't a 24-7 job, despite how it feels, I'll have time to get more of Phil's leather listed in his shop and work on some dolls.

But I miss our Phoenix people.  I'm looking forward to this visit, and looking back fondly on past visits.  You know how you can start planning, practically on a cellular level, for a certain experience?  Good times, a gracious home, chatting with Mary Jo while we (heh, I said "we") cook supper, a game of password, maybe?  Coffee with Gabe, feeding the quail in the mornings.   Love you, Gabe and Mary Jo.  Well, we'll still be there, just a few weeks later.

Fun with Walnut Ink

Played around with ideas for hang tags.  I've been using some I'd cut and doctored up, but I'd hand-write JDConwell Folkart Dolls on them, which is okay, but sort of...hasty-looking.  

So yesterday's experiment was to make some with printed card stock, stamps, and walnut ink.  This is not a new concept, I know...any stroll through a "Hang Tags" search on Etsy will net you plenty of cool tags.  But I wanted to make my own, and I had these wonderful little vintage stamps...you know how it goes.

Lots of experimentation with the walnut ink crystals.  Where has this stuff been all my life?  It doesn't smell, like coffee or tea.  It lasts pretty much forever once you mix it up.  In a spray bottle, it mists over a doll's clothing to age it with that light-and-shadow effect that old stuff gets when some of the fabric is exposed and some of it is protected...if that makes sense.  If you sprinkle a few grains of crystal over a wet surface, they dissolve to create "old spots" (as the husband calls them) on the paper or fabric that look really convincing. 

I played with various strengths and application methods (certain spray bottles are great, others are an unholy mess).  Of course, while the ink is water soluble and does wash off, there is still a little bit of staining, so my hands and nails might look better if I wear rubber gloves next time.  :~)

So far, at least for hang-tags, my favorite method is to sponge it on both sides, bake them dry, then iron them flat.  These are the ones I made yesterday.  Of course I'll tweak them a little here and there, but I like the primitive look of them.  I see Christmas gift tags in my future.  Ooh!  Maybe a little bunting that spells out Merry Christmas?  Yeah, I'm in trouble.