Midweek

I woke up this morning overwhelmed by the clutter in this house. No one wants to get rid of anything here so every year we just accumulate more stuff. And adding to the problem will be the boxes of STUFF that we have to move out of storage today. Where can they possibly go? We rented the storage a few years ago when we took down an older part of the house and built an addition. That space was our "attic" storage so all that stuff stored there had to go somewhere. Unfortunately that project has lasted a lot longer than we expected so getting the things out of storage wasn't an option. But at this point it doesn't make any sense to spend $40 a month to keep it there. Really that STUFF isn't worth that much.

Well all the boxes, broken antique chairs, old picture frames, rug hooking frames, and grandfather's fishing gear are stacked up on our porch. Along with that are many bags of clothes that are too small for my youngest now. I was saving these for her but could never find them. Somehow we will have to absorb this stuff into an already crowded house. But all this is motivating me to go through the house and get rid of a few things. Since no one else living here wants to cooperate I guess I will have to do this in secret. I see a yard sale in our future.

With all this I did not get much work done on my art projects. But it was quite an accomplishment to empty the storage so I'm happy enough with that.

Back to school

The kids are back to school again now that spring break is over. The next 2 months will be the busiest of the year for us.

I spent this morning getting messy with clay making my little pottery chickens. I have a wholesale order to work on so I had best get busy with this so they can dry properly.

I also have a few custom orders of needle felting to do as well. I put together another bluebird but still haven't finished my little orange bird. I think she will be so cute. I tried to work on her this morning but my youngest wanted to needlefelt too so she needed my attention.

My youngest is still half-day at school so when she got home I played outside with her. She made a little cute area under the crab-apple tree where the picnic bench currently sits. The forsythia is in bloom next to it so it looks just lovely. I gave her two of my windchime dingly danglies to hang in the tree limbs. Then I got busy clearing out the old rose branches. Ouch! And my tiny pond. Yuck! Nothing like the smell of decaying leaves and muck in water. But now its all nice and I put in a yellow iris plant so soon it should look lovely.

Now that the flowers are coming out I would love to sit down and do a few more paintings. I am just so busy with my needle felting and pottery right now that its hard to find any time. Plus life in general has to go on too. Here are a few of the ACEO's I did in March 2007.

Warm spring day

Yesterday was so beautiful. I spent the morning raking a few of the flower beds so I could admire my small bulbs a bit more. The girls went off to church with Dad and I had the place to myself. It was so peaceful once I got the dogs to quiet down. I worked more on this little pink piggy wiggy.



In the afternoon the girls each had a friend over so they all had fun outside on the tire swing or in the playhouse. Dad worked on the door frame for the closet and I worked on cleaning up and painting the old shaker door to go in that frame. After the friends left the younger two dragged out the sprinkler, bathing suits, and flip flops and had a little water fun. They really want the pool out but we will wait until later in May. I sat on the porch with some wool to hand card and pick out some of the bits of hay. With a wine glass next to me what more could you want.

In the evening we watched a rented movie and I worked a bit more on an orange colored bird. I haven't pieced it together yet. My Etsy store was finally back online and I noticed I had sold my ducklings and several other things. But the site was too slow to do anymore.

Canoe Race

This morning was our town annual canoe race. Our neighbor up the street borrowed our canoe for the second year to do this race. Every year at 10 am on a Saturday morning in April we sit down by the river and cheer on the canoe racers as they paddle by. This year was a bit strange since only 5 days ago the water level on the river was the highest it has ever been since the 1930's. The frightening water of last week has subsided to normal levels but there are subtle changes to the shape of the river bank as sand is washed down and redistributed. Last week the old stone bridge a few hundred feet down river had water up to the top of the arches. But now the levels are normal for this time of year.

It took only an hour for all the boats to pass. They have to pull out soon after they pass our river bank to carry over the bridge and around the falls.



My arms ached too much from yesterday's yard work to continue anymore art projects today. After lunch we decided on a walk to enjoy the nice weather. We settled on a walk along the old abandoned train tracks with the two dogs and the girls. It was a pleasant walk with the warm weather and lack of bugs.

Burning day

I finished up this little bird this morning. I think she is so adorable and I love her color. The pink wool was from the batch my daughter and I dyed with cherry kool-aid. The black bead eyes work well too.



Once I finished my little bird, I got the kids dressed and out the door because the sun was finally shining. This is the first day this spring that we actually worked out in the yard all day. The sun was warm and so inviting after all this cold and rain. After getting a permit from the town we started our brush burning at 10am. I always like this day every spring when we reclaim the yard from the fall and winter leaves and branches. As I watch the smoke rising and obliterating the yard I am conscious that this is probably not the most environmentally friendly way to get rid of brush. Composting would be better of course. But we have thorny blackberries that are taking over each summer and their prickly branches must be burned -- as far as I'm concerned. They are evil! And those invasive virginia creeper can't be composted either.

The kids were no or little help gathering sticks and preferred to swing and play softball instead. They did help tend the fire while I collected at least. It was fun to see them running around having fun.

So I end the day with my forearms scratched red and aching. The rest of my body feels the pain too. I feel some satisfaction in taming the blackberries a bit even while I know they are sending runners out to invade more space. I do love the berries though. And I am relieved that we did not let the fire gain control as we did one year when we were much younger and much more naive about fires. That year we nearly started the whole field and forest on fire when a burning leaf blew up and started the dry grass burning. The flames were a wall of 6 feet high. I had to race up to the house to connect and turn the hose on -- it was terrifying. Our neighbors helped with their hoses too. Since then I treat this day with a lot more caution -- thus permits and hoses nearby with water running.