Beans and Stuff

Hello! I'm a little behind on posting this week. It felt like one of those weeks where we were constantly on the go, although looking back, it is also one of those weeks where I don't feel like we actually accomplished much.

The sad news first . . . Our car is toast. The second shop we took it to called yesterday to say that the motor was not fixable, and a new one would cost $3500, just for the part. This has left us in sort of a quandary (ok, I admit that I'm not totally sure if that is the right usage for the word "quandary" but I'm going to use it anyway, because I feel like it should describe our situation.) We only paid $2500 for the car in the first place, and we only bought it almost exactly a year ago - not exactly a good value, in the end. We aren't really in a situation to buy another car at the moment (or to fix the one we have!) but over the last two weeks, I have put $70 of gas in the truck, when I would have put $20 in the car. So we can't really keep that up, either. Hmmmmmm. Yup, quandary. (Maybe.)
Anyway, on the postive side, my beans are done! This is a giant bowl of the beautiful black beans that we grew in the garden. It's probably only enough for one or two meals, but it was just a small patch of the garden, and they were so much fun to grow, and harvest :) The kidney beans are coming along, but they aren't dry enough yet. Mmmmm - home-made garden chili. I can't wait! Plus we have been enjoying all our home-grown watermelons. It's amazing that something so juicy came out of our garden!

We finished scraping one side, and most of the back of the house, so we finally got some primer on. Then it rained for a week (still raining as I type) so we haven't gotten any further on it. That is a HUGE project that we are still hoping to finish this year, but it's starting to look a little iffy. They say we are about to get the remnants of Hurricane Hannah, so I think we're in for a little more rainy weather.

We did get a little work done in the shop. Jai has been making more tops (of course) and some pens that were a custom order.

And I played with bandsaw boxes, finally. I never was able to get 4" poplar, so I had to get 8/4, and glue it together. It's a bit of a pain, but in the end it works just as well. This is my first finished box, and I'm hoping to make more soon.

Also, still busy making books. I finished up this walnut one:

And my friend Jo gave me my first custom order for a book with this amazing picture of her father to draw on the cover. I started it already, and really love how it looks. I'll post pictures when it's done. The whole process of working with these old photos is just so enjoyable.
I also started a book with some cutout silhouettes in the cover. I had done several of these in the old style of book, and they were always popular, so we'll see if the same holds true or not. I started with a cutout of some maple leaves, in a birdseye maple book, and it is coming together nicely, so far.
We've got one week till the NSDCC (Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council) jurying. I will be taking three products that are representative of what we make, and submitting them for a judgment from peers. Wish us luck! I'm not sure yet which three products to bring, but I have to decide soon, because there is pages and pages of paperwork that has to be done on each one. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Have a great week!