Books, Books, Books and Books

I love to read. I have always loved to read.

I remember some of my favorite Golden Books from before I could read them myself. There was "The Very Best Home for Me" about the woodland animals that lived together in cozy disharmony, mostly over food and who went in search of homes where they could have food that better suited their particular appetites. Another was about the Campbell Soup Kids and the main thing I remember about that book was a recipe that consisted of a leaf of lettuce on a salad plate, topped with a pineapple ring into which half a banana was placed (pointed end up), a dab a mayonnaise on the banana tip and a maraschino cherry on top. I remember making and eating that salad. Now that I think about it, it was a weird salad, to say the least.

I went to the library as soon as I was old enough to go and got piles of books to read. I don't remember what they were, but there were piles of them. I still do that. Once a week, I take my library bag to our local library and fill it with books. I don't read all of them, but I figure if I get enough of them, I'll find one or two that I'll enjoy. Sometimes, I don't particularly enjoy any of them, so I have to go back and give it another try.

I favor mysteries, particularly short mystery stories. I think I've read all of the Mystery Writers of America best picks for every year since the beginning of time. Other times, I love true adventure stories about mountain climbers, shipwrecks, being stranded somewhere and other exciting stuff. I think I've listed some in my Favorite Books list here on the blog.

I'm reading a book right now called "A Girl Named Zippy" by Haven Kimmel. I just picked it off of the shelf and it's good - sort of. I've been pretty absorbed in it for two days and I have to say that it is kind of starting to wear on me. It was the author's first book and so it is somewhat too clever and I would say, a little unpolished. However, it has kept my attention for long periods of time, so it must be pretty OK. It started out as a small town memoir and then somewhere along the line I feel the author began a subtle and sometimes not so subtle campaign to really put down her religious upbringing. Once that started, it sort of lost it's charm for me. I just wanted to laugh and be entertained, not assaulted by her need to purge. I don't imagine I'll read another of her novels.

Occasionally, I like a good western. However, I really only like one writer - Elmer Kelton. He is just wonderful. His stories are simple, good hearted, well written and keep your interest. My husband is also a fan. I got him started and both of us have read most of the Elmer Kelton in the library. My favorite Elmer Kelton character is Huey Calloway - a tough old cowboy who works hard, loves his horse, requires little maintenance and doesn't want to be tied down. Elmer Kelton has written a few novels starring Huey - they are super.

There was a time when I wanted to marry Sherlock Holmes. This was a long time ago before I realized that he was a little to anal for my tastes. Plus, he strikes me as probably not capable of any type of romantic feeling, although I think there was one story where there was a woman of interest......... Whatever the case, my love interest in Sherlock Holmes has long been dead.

Think I'll go peruse my bag of books and read.

Bathroom Cabinet Transformation

I wish that I had taken a picture of this little cabinet when I first picked it up at a flea market for $20. It was dull brown and had a glass mirror in the door. You can't appreciate how much different it is without that to compare it with, but whatever the case, I neglected to get the "before" pictures. This is what it looked like after I painted it, including the back wall piece. I removed the mirror and got a piece of glass cut to the same size for the door so that after it is completed you will be able to see inside of it, including the cool painted back wall, originally brown also.

It's circus/carnival themed and I've still got a long way to go before it becomes the work of art that I intend it finally become.

I painted the top piece with a blood red velvety looking curtain in front of blue sky and white clouds. I then started looking on Google images for circus or carnival related pictures that I could use for a collage. Over the past few weeks, I've been revisiting the project on and off as I also completed another abstract painting (shown at the end of this post. I found several images that I printed out on the computer and then painstakingly cut out with little scissors. Today I arranged them on the top piece and glued them down. Here's what it looks like now including a couple of pictures showing some of the image detail.

The original aqua color of the cabinet was too bright and I wanted a more aged look, so I brushed/wiped the cabinet using a watered down mix of acrylic Yellow Oxide and Raw Umber. In addition, on the door frame, I added dots and then brushed/wiped it with the same Oxide/Umber mix, but also a bit of Cadmium Orange.

I'll keep you posted as I make progress. I've got some little people I ordered on Ebay that I may paint and put somewhere. I'll look to find a very ornate circus knob for the door and will decorate the cabinet sides. There's a little towel bar along the bottom that I am thinking about in terms of something or things hanging down - we'll have to see what evolves.

Here's the painting I completed - well, almost completed, I think I may do something more over in the left hand corner area in lime green.

Art in the Family

My husband has always had a creative streak in him. Many years ago during our courtship, he drew some interesting and rather depressing pictures in pencil of dark branches in bleak landscapes (I hope this didn't reflect on our relationship at the time). However, art has never been a passion with him and he hasn't really pursued anything along those lines until recently.

When we visited Santa Fe last fall, both of us were enthralled with the art on display there. We spent two days (and could have been there more), just cruising Canyon Road gawking at some amazing and some so not amazing works of art. Abstract sculpture is one of the things we enjoy and there was plenty to enjoy there.

When we returned home, he decided, inspired by the works of Woods Davy, to make some sculpture of his own. Since then, he has created 4 sculpture and I, for one, am a fan. I believe it is very unusual and very attractive. Here's a slideshow of his work to date.

He will be including some smaller table top pieces shortly.

The sculpture are created from various sizes of veneer rock that we get at a local landscape materials company. We spend time going through large bins of rock looking for color, shape and unique features in the rock. The veneer rock is finished nicely so that it is smooth and shapely. The size rock he can use is limited by the size of his drill press and the weight of the finished work. He cannot make something so big that it requires a forklift to move. The pieces are assembled according to his artistic tastes and secured in such a way that they are very sturdy for indoor or outdoor use. The pedestals are challenging in that he has to keep the cost down, so they are comprised of some Lowes stock materials and then custom cut steel plates from a local metal fabricator.

We are submitting a joint application to one of the art shows here in our hometown for August. It's lightly juried, meaning that I think that you can generally be accepted as long as what you have is good. Unlike other shows I enter that are swamped with entries due to their popularity and your chances of being one of the chosen ones are less of a sure thing.

Our art, my abstract paintings and his sculpture are good - at least some people like them and in addition, I feel they compliment each other.

I feel very confident that Merle's sculpture will be well received and hopefully he will make a few sales.

Miniatures and Dioramas

(miniature travel trailer kit - click the pic for the link)

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I've always loved miniatures. I think this love of tiny things germinated back when I was very young and we visited a museum in Denver, Colorado where there were lots of intricate dioramas depicting the life of Indians. I loved this museum. At that time, if I remember correctly, it was housed in a very old home that had lots of dark wood. I have vague recollections of a staircase with massive carved end posts. This may be a dream, but I don't think so. Anyway, at some point, that museum was closed and the Colorado History Museum was opened. Some and maybe all of the dioramas were moved there. It's been awhile since I visited, but it seemed to me that there were fewer of them. However, this may be because I was a child when first I saw them and many things seem bigger than they really are when you are little.

Here are a couple of pictures I found on Google images showing sections of a couple of the dioramas. They were very detailed and great works of art.

I've created a couple of dioramas, but nothing that comes even close to something like these. However, it is fun, somewhat time consuming, but when completed is a thing to be enjoyed. I gave several as gifts and have only this one left.

I made the little fireplace out of balsa wood that I cut with an Exacto knife, sanded it and added some depth using watered down acrylic paints. I made the fire out of card stock. I hand painted the bricks and the flowers. The picture over the mantel is a picture from a magazine over which I glued a frame made of foam board covered with gold painted trim from the fabric store. The rest of the things are obviously miniatures I purchased. I covered the backing piece with fabric.

Lastly, I found this great website: NATASHA. What she does is apparently so good it's in museums. I'm not surprised, her diorama original artwork is FANTASTIC!

The Wall A/C Cover

Sometimes there are "things" on the wall that we would like to cover, permanently or by season, such as this air conditioner unit in our bedroom wall. In this case, the cover also works as an insulator, keeping out cold air.

My first job was to find a fabric that I felt would go well with the decor. I found a print with a somewhat southwestern theme online. I had done some final dimension calculating and made sure I ordered enough. You will read about the fabric dimensions later on in this post.

For the wood pieces, I then measured around the unit in the wall, adding about 3" to each width and length dimension (or 1-1/2" per each outside edge). This is so that there is plenty of clearance between the wood framing and the outside of the wall unit. So if the width was 20", I called it 23". The length 18", I called it 21". Add up the total inches of wood needed (+23" +23" +21" +21" = 88") and purchase 1/2" X 2" wood boards in lengths that will allow you to cut whole sections of the final required 4 lengths of framing. Cut the wood pieces to the predetermined lengths and using metal brackets inside each corner, assemble them so that the wide wood dimension comes out from the wall surface (you want depth). It may be that the item you are covering is deeper. In that case, just adjust the size of wood board you will need. If you are handy with a table saw, you can cut custom sizes. It should be noted that the larger the wood, the heavier the final product will be, so using a 2"x 4" board would probably not work well.

If this needs to be an insulating frame, use some type of heavy material for the first layer of covering. I used a table cloth padding material I found at the fabric store. Add an extra 10" to each overall dimension previously calculated so that you will have about 5" per side to pull over and staple to the back of the frame. Lay the material face UP on the floor, making sure that if there is a pattern, that it is straight. Cut it to dimension.

Turn the material face down and center the wooden frame on it. Starting with one side, staple the material in to the back in the middle of the board. Go to the opposite side and pull the material slightly to remove slack and staple it also to the back in the middle of the board. Do this on the other two edges and then work your way around the frame until the side edges are stapled. Finish it by making a neat corner as shown below.

It should now be ready to hang.