October Festival!

Okay, I know I missed posting Maura and Daddy's Oct. 1st birthdays, but this time I have an excuse: I was sick.  No, seriously, I was.  In fact, I...ahhhh...choo!

Where was I?  Oh, right. Here's their birthday sum-up:

They both got a year older, they had the world's best poundcake ever (which, ahem, Maura made), and about three days after her birthday, I gave Maura a hemp-making kit (smart move, BTW...she made me a bracelet ;-).

Maura's become really good at making hemp bracelets since.  She made some for the fair last week.  Here's a sum-up of...

FAIR DAY!!!

Emori and I set up a vending booth last week, and it was a lot of fun (at least, the part that didn't include getting up at five a.m. and rushing to get ready and almost leaving all my inventory behind.  Everything else was just great! :-)

Emori's pen art cards.

Emori's prep work...

...which wasn't over until midnight (I know this because I stopped snoring long enough to get up, squint at the clock, slur, "Need'elp?" get told "No thanks," then go back to bed).

Here's one of Emori's window paintings.  Don't you feel like you could walk right into this picture? I wonder if the inquisitive cow is friendly.

Hemp.  By Maura. 

Setting up!

This was the booth next to us.  All day we were smelling the sweet aroma of squeezed lemons and fried pickles!

A look at Emori's stuff:

Folks filtering in.

Some of my stuff.  Aren't those flowers lovely?  Katie and Maura took care of the decor.

Music!

Me and Emori

Anybody know that Emily Dickinson poem?  You know, about the clover and bee and...anyway, it's a cute poem.

We were so glad to have the E family come see us!

"Here's the plan.  I distract the guards, you four go storm the castle."

"I think I'll take...this one."

Daddy

Good pear.

Thanks for stopping by!

Yours,

Callie

In Which I Respectfully Disregard My Sister's Advice

     So, when I asked Maura how on earth I was supposed to catch up on my blog news, she said, "Well, you know those posts you do when you jam together everything that happens during the month?"

Jam together?  

 I said, "You mean, like, the collages?"

     "Yeah.  Maybe...don't do any of those."

Well, it looks like I'm just too behind to take that advice.  Get ready for some "jamming together."

I'll start with the worms.

Okay, they're really called Black Soldier Fly larvae. 

     I started raising them last year...in a sad looking little bin that I fabricated myself (hence the "sad" part).  But this month, Daddy built a great new worm (ahem...I mean, larvae) bin using an old stainless steel sink.  Although there are still a few tweaks he wants to make, it's working pretty well.

 Here's an up-close and personal picture of the larvae.  And they're not all that gross-looking. They're kinda cute, actually...

...okay, maybe "cute" is the wrong word.

Cute or not, the hens love'em.

 Here's a look at the new field, complete now with gates!  With the First, Second, Third, and Fourth fields stretching beside it, we've decided to creatively christen this one "Fifth Field."

 

 Here's a picture of the Fifth Field's retaining wall -  our anti-erosion mission involving old telephone pole segments, tee posts, and Mamaw's daylilies.

Here's Maura, putting a cover on her new mattress, while Katie (off-screen) reads Henry and the Great Society aloud.  Great book so far, BTW.

 

 And here's Maura's couch recovering project.  She's really been into sewing lately.

Here's our new pup.  Great Pyrenees. 

This is just a pretty sunset photo Katie took while we were walking.

Here's another one...

 Peanut harvest! The smell was sooo glorious that afternoon.

 Last random photo...promise.

 This one doesn't count.

You've finished my jammed-together post!  High five!

Yours,

callie

Who Came for Lunch and What Ensued

In short...

  The E's came to visit and we had lots of fun eating sloppy joes, sandwiches, and pear cobbler, riding Hylla, climbing the magnolia, and playing a (very ametuer) game of volleyball until the cows called them home.

The Thinkers.  

Emori: "Which came first..."

Eric: "...the pear or the cobbler?"

Saddling up Hylla

"Aye, but dinna the lad set his mount like a true scotsmon?"

Evie astride the ethereal (and very sweaty...ahem, glowing, that is) white mare.

Ezra and Emily.

Maura: "There's only one right way to water a horse with a hose.  And you've got'er down."

Raccoons in the magnolia

Portrait of Edith

Portrait of Eric

We enjoyed it, E's!

Yours,

Callie

Inspired (kinda)

Okay, if you seek inspiration on how to become the tardiest blogger in cyberspace, feel free to take notes from a pro.

Got a pen?

First things first...

A) ...when blogging time comes, you'll need to shrug and say "I'll blog later," then spend your blog time either painting, writing, staring at a blank word document...or all of the above.

B) You'll need to be too lazy to take or upload pictures...and

C) ...when you finally upload bloggable (is that a word?) pictures, you'll need to dislike them so intensely that you dump the potential post.  Then,

D) if you've successfully let an entire month slip past since your last post, then you can consider starting a new post. 

 Maybe make that post be about what a tardy blogger you are.  

     

Whew, I'm inspired.  You?

Mama's Birthday (and the food that follows)

Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.

- Proverbs 31:28

Preamble:

I couldn't ask for a better mother than the one I have!  

When I feel like spouting off, I know I can get her to listen; and when I'm done spouting, I can count on her like me anyway.

When I need help (and I do, like, a hundred times a day) she takes time to advise me; and she backs up her advise by her example.

When I'm down, she's down; and when I rejoice, she rejoices. 

Okay, tired of my soliloquy?  Me too...

...though I meant every sappy word of it. :-)

Okay, don't be misled by the tale-telling date thingy on the photos...Mama's birthday isn't on July 18th.  It's on July 17th. 

Okay, so, why'd we celebrate it a day late?

And why is this post a month late?

Good questions. 

 Answer to the first question: Mama's real birthday fell on an "outta town" day. So, like the practical people we are, we decided to pretend she was born a day later this year.

Answer to second question: I dunno. But I'm sure the author has a good excuse.

Maura made blueberry pancakes on, um, Mama's day-late birthday! And she made sausage!

And she made this really tasty concoction of molasses, honey and butter...I will call it, "Molasses Honey Butter."  Copywrite pending.

Opening presents.  In my opinion, the best one was that jar of paradise sitting beneath Emori's expectant hand. 

Here's a closer look at the Jar of Paradise. Contents include: peanuts, dried cherries, espresso beans, and some other candy I can't identify. 

 It was so very good. Notice my use of past tense.

Oh yeah, and the jar has, "I Love You," written over it in purple marker.

If that message had been for me, I'd have said, "I love you too."

Me, blocking the Jar of Paradise from view as I grab a handful of peanuts.

Hot wings and blue cheese, followed by...

Chocolate.  Yeah, chocolate's a recurring theme at our place.  

Some folks say eating chocolate makes you live to be a hundred.

So...on my hundredth birthday, that's what I'll be having.

Thanks for stopping by.

Yours,

Callie

Portrait step-by-step

When I got this dog portrait commission I was like, "Yea!" Because, it's a load of fun bringing pets to life on canvas.

So, this is a painting of Abby. She recently died, and her owner (sweet lady) wanted a painting to remember her by. The lady described her as gentle and a little mischievous.

Here's a synopsis of the week-long project:

After receiving the photo via email, I sketched out the portrait on notebook paper (just the cheap spiral kind...why not?), then used tracing paper to transfer the image to canvas. This was followed by...more sketching. One of my least favourite steps, the sketching process takes me FOREVER. Okay. Moving on...

Finally time to paint!

And, yeah, I know these first steps look really sloppy. During this part, I just take deep breaths and tell myself it'll get better. 

 I start by just blocking in the main colours, moving my rake brush in the direction the fur is growing. Also, I choose the darkest shades of fur, lightening as I add layers.

Adding detail to eyes, then to fur, painting lighter layers of fur over darker layers to create depth, using poor sentence structure... 

Starting to look like a dog at last! Same rule of thumb here: light layers go over dark layers. I paint the brown and yellow into the eyes to give them more animation, and enhance the brows.

Then I paint the background. 

Right. I know you're thinking this looks like a weird canine version of the Cheshire Cat...don't worry. I'll fix it.

See? She's not a floating head! (sigh of relief) But she kinda looks more like a golden Newfoundland instead of a golden Lab. And she's supposed to be a golden Lab. You knew that...right?

 Okay, thinned her down a little.

 I add a mixture of white and yellow for the top details of fur, then darken the muzzle and define the nose better. But she's not done.  Is that left ear driving anybody else crazy? And she needs to look younger.

There! I made her a little more "youthful" by adding gold to her face, defining her muzzle a little more, and cropping her body.

Mrs. K (owner) was satisfied with the pic I sent her, so (yippee!) I mailed the finished product today.

Well, I'm sure there must be some clever and tactful way to wind up this post, but I can't seem to think of one. So, I guess I'll just stop here.

Thanks for lookin' in!

Yours,

callie