Sunday, June 29, 2008

Grill

Torvicia's new smile, Red, White and Blue! She is doing great in spite of the fact that she hurts! The new appliances feel like
commercial size refrigerators at the moment. It pushes her jaw forward to correct her bite so she thinks that she always looks mad. I think it is quite cute myself. She will not be able to use her back teeth for 9 months. That is going to feel like a long time. They have given her a canker sore, but I am sure she will be used to it after another week. For now she is getting pampered a bit and that is always popular.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

"Vintage Roses"

I am so pleased with the framing of my painting. It cannot be described how rewarding it is to have something I enjoyed working on, became incredibly frustrated with, worked on some more with angst, and finally called finished get framed and hung on a wall. Sure, I still see things I could have, should have done differently but now I feel inspired to pick up the paintbrush again and go through another struggle. This painting is large for me, 18 x 24 (26 x 32 framed) and fills up the wall nicely. It looks like it belongs there which is nice too. Oh, it is a watercolor- the "blooms" in the background are intentional to make sure everyone knows that it is a watercolor...grin.
I hate to go on and on but my favorite part now that I have a bad bad habit of ebay-ing for vintage tablecloths, is the tablecloth in the painting. Man, I wish I had one like that to put on my table....I'll have to look. Hee hee. (Victoria says...no!)

Monday, June 16, 2008

By and by....(the constant refrain of Huckleberry Finn)

Don't you just adore Huckleberry Pie? By and by, there will be...huckleberry pie! If the birds don't get them all first of course!

Come on in, the water's f..f..f..fine!?




Happy Father's Day!...And a fishing story.

Aunt Lois, Grandpa, Grandma


I may be late, but the sentiment is very current! Yesterday I spoke with my dear Daddy and got some great old stories, some I had forgotten the exact details of so I am writing them down. You can skip over any part that bores you since this is past history!

After my mom and dad were married dad was going to take forestry and there was no forestry program in Wyoming at the time. So he was going to go to Ft. Collins where they did have one. He and mom lived on the farm and worked with my Aunt Fern and Uncle Ed and then they moved to Laramie so dad could go to school. He was working at the Diamond Horseshoe truck stop as a mechanic at the time to pay for the tuition when an old friend of his dad's came through by the name of Eddie Bassin. Eddie was related to the Adam's that had the Adams dairy in Rawlins, and this family lived across the street from them when they lived on 11th St. (Dad's family home was condemned by the city so they could build a school house there. They later moved farther out of town.) So Eddie asked dad how much he was making and tempted him with the wages that they were paying out at J.C. Dad says it was this same Bob Adams of Adams Dairy who started up Western Nuclear. Funny, since Gentry and I were talking about how that the decisions we make when we are so young and inexperienced are what lead us to look back a few 20-30 years later and make us say....what were we thinking....or, I sure lucked out on that one... or whatever. I need to ask dad if he ever regretted not going to school.

A side track, and my dad always has one, is a fishing story, and can you believe- "The one that got away." Seems this Mr. Bassin, my Grandfather and another friend of my Grandfather's a certain Dr. Button, who was the local dentist, would often fish together. Let's see if I can capture Dads train of thought here... Seems Dr. Button was interested in making lures and made Dare Devils in his shop. They had a mold, and he would get sheets of copper and stamp out these lures. Dad says he still has some somewhere. (Side tracked again....Dr. Button's wife was the one that introduced my grandmother to the gospel although the Dr. was not interested.) Back to the story, Grandpa, Grandma and the family were fishing on the Platte River east of Rawlins (with Dare Devil lures of course) and Grandpa had on a beautiful rainbow trout of remarkable size for a river trout, estimated to be about 8 lbs., and he had his old reliable reel. This reel had been oiled up and was all ready to go but grandpa was quite aware that a fish that size could just tear the hook out so he was gently "playing" it, trying to get a better hold on him. You can't just horse a trout like that out of the water, and he was trying to tell his wife and children all this as the trout kept coming up to the shore. Grandma tried to grab the fish and missed, he told her he had it handled, but the next time it came up to shore she grabbed his line. There was no more "give" anymore, and the fish tore out the lure and swam off. Grandma felt just terrible! Grandpa on the other hand had a great "fish that got away" story and this time he could blame his wife! Guess it's true about the fisherman's wife getting too greedy....ha.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Embroidery? During this day and age?



It started with me looking at vintage flour sacks (and bidding on them!) on EBay. I only won one set by sheer luck I think and so it occurred to me that once upon a time, a long time ago, mom had taught me how to embroider. It did not come back to me terribly quickly, but after a few false starts, (and those French knots are a mystery to me...how did we do those?) I think I am on to something. There is nothing as absorbent as a vintage flour sack! They make great table toppers, biscuit warmers, fly keeper-offers, and can also be used as aprons. Hey, they are great....really! And I am NOT old! (Last message is to my dear daughter.) Another great thing is that I don't snack while I am doing this, a definite plus.)

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Encaustic Meadowlark

I am trying something new...encaustic crayon painting on fabric. This is on linen, an old napkin to be exact. As my first try I don't think it completely stinks, and I have learned quite a bit. Slow learner that I am I did discover several times how hot my hot tray really is when wax has been pooling up on the surface for awhile. Yowza! I did finally learn it was best not to touch! The fabric is much harder to work with since it takes much more product to saturate and give it time to work so it is more "painterly". It also likes to bunch up and move around quite a bit. If I do it again I will secure it much more carefully. I will try it again sometime I suppose, but I am not sure what to do with one meadowlark.....I am afraid the photo might look better than the real thing. The thing that is likable about it is that it looks old already since I did it on a yellow napkin that shows though somehow, pretty cool really. A happy accident.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Summer Vacation has started for these two...they are sleeping out!

It is very difficult to actually get a picture of these guys sleeping. They always wake up before I can get a shot. This time I did it through the kitchen window, so although it is not real clear at least I finally captured it. I later tried to get a better picture but as soon as I moved towards the door Fireball's head shot up. So here is your warm fuzzy for the day. Aren't they sweet?

Monday, June 9, 2008

Welcome to 'June-uary'? | KOMO News - Seattle, Washington | News

Welcome to 'June-uary'? KOMO News - Seattle, Washington News


SIGH....... The weather is ugly,my two children are poorly, Gentry is trying to pour concrete today, in the rain, in between trips to his bucket. He is one sorry fella today, and this concrete job could not be put off. It was the only time he could get mud, pump truck , and guys lined up for a week. As a self-employed individual, one does at time wish for sick days! If Gentry were to stay home today, a pump truck driver, concrete truck driver and helper, concrete finisher and helper and his own helper are all out of work for at least part of the day. Jobs are not so bad now are they? Luckily the kids are doing a bit better and so far I have only had to do the bidding of others. Don't they love to boss me around!

Saturday, June 7, 2008

A Beautiful Biscuit


I think I have found my favorite biscuit recipe. I have tried all of the biscuit recipes I have in all my books and in magazines and even some ones I have seen online. I used to always make Bisquick biscuits but since the mix has artificial flavor and preservatives it has now been crossed off my list. My criteria for the best biscuit is that it has to be simple with no special ingredients (like cake flour for instance) and easy to memorize. And most important it has to rise up puffy, with a crunchy crust, soft inside, with fabulous flavor!


Here is my favorite: Simple and tried and true.
2 cups of flour
1 Tablespoon of Sugar
1 Tablespoon of Baking Powder
1 tsp. of Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. of Salt
1/2 cup Cold Butter- cut into bits
3/4-1 cup of Buttermilk
2 Tablespoons of Cream (optional)


Oven 450. Mix dry ingredients together well. Cut butter into small pieces and add to mix. Using a pastry cutter, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles meal. Make a well in the center of the mixture and stir in buttermilk until it comes together to make a ball.Transfer to a lightly floured surface, pat dough into a round about 1" thick and cut into biscuits. Dip the top of the biscuits into the cream , or brush it on. Bake 10 minutes.


Friday, June 6, 2008

Gallery Walk

Even though Grant was telling me how bored he was, he looks pretty happy doesn't he?
This is Grants palette knife painting. The kids were all asked why they chose the piece of artwork they did for GW and Grant's quote was, "I liked working with the palette knives and I really like the swirls in the sky." I do too. I think he did a marvelous job. I also like the brush in the fore-ground, and the debth created by the trail in.
And here is the display of the palette knife paintings that were chosen. There was so much to look at. I had a wonderful time. Most of my pictures didn't turn out so well. I need camera help.

Victoria served drinks as part of her community service requirements for Honor Society. She found a few friends that she rides the bus with that have younger siblings at Mark Twain. She didn't think that she would know anyone since she didn't go to this elementary. Great to see her working! Smile.



Sunday, June 1, 2008

Yes, spring had arrived. Puddle was having mud season. Yay!




Cleaning up can be a bit chilly since the spring is fed from snow melt! But the sun was warm so they loved it. Good "clean" fun!
What started out as a making mud pie experiment (cooking 101?) , escalated to the mud fighting experiment. You are right if you guessed that they had a great time wallowing around! If I could, I would share the commentary that went with it. It was great entertainment! The one comment I do remember was from Grantius "Think of all the people in the world living without mud!" said with sincere empathy. It was totally worth the laundry.