Fall Colours

Hello! Ah, it's been so long, but I haven't forgotten about you! We've been so busy over the last couple of weeks, it's a little bit nuts. On top of all the regular work, and trying to get ready for our Christmas show, after a year of being on "the list" I finally got a call from the Post Office. I applied for what I thought was an actual job there last year, went through the interview, was told my name had been added, and then I never heard from them again... until now. Apparently this is very common, but it was a bit of a surprise to get that call. Anyway, so far I've been working a couple of days a week at our local Post Office, but I'm just their "casual" person, so basically I am on call. I'm having fun working there, though. And I can see the Post Office from our house, so it's nice to get a little bit of work so close to home.
Speaking of getting ready for the Christmas show, Jai and I have spent the last couple of weekends working on our booth. Luckily, Stephen is letting us do it in his shop, because there's no way I could build it in ours! Plus he has this nifty clamp carousel, and since I (perhaps foolishly!) decided we would build it out of solid wood instead of plywood, we needed to glue up forty-two panels before we could even get started!
Other than that, we don't have a lot of news to share. Our Mac miraculously fixed itself, somehow. That was a relief - if only the car could have done the same! Jai finally got his wholesale order finished up and I shipped it out this morning. It feels good to get that out of the house!
Last night we had Carolyn and River over for a nice dinner. Jai made Mulligatawny soup for the first time, and it was delicious. He reminded me that it wasn't actually the first time we had made that soup. Last time we tried it was several years ago, when we were first starting to cook actual meals for ourselves, and we were both such picky eaters that we eliminated about half the ingredients and ended up with soup that may as well just have been chicken broth. It was much better this time!
Tonight, I am off to the theatre where Jai works as they have started up their film society movies again, and we have started up girl's night out again. Last time it was "The Stone Angel," which was a pretty good movie, but quite different from the book I remember having to read in high school. Jo and I were joking about how much we hated that book, but she read it again before the movie, and said she loved it this time, so I may have to give it a second chance. Good old Hagar. Tonight it is "The Visitor" which I know absolutely nothing about.
Anyway, my point was, it hasn't been entirely all work and no play, it just feels like it sometimes :)

It's funny because it's true...

Hello! No pictures today, because our beloved Mac has crashed! Jai spent very many hours yesterday trying to fix it, and talking on the phone with support guys, but all to no avail, so far. He says he thinks he can fix the computer, but he's not sure if he can save any of our stuff off of it. This is unfortunate, because we didn't have anything backed up. We talked about it sometimes, but...

Anyway, that is today's major bit of news. Luckily we still have the laptop, so I can sit here and update the blog, and we can still get into our e-mails. Although, I was saying it might have been nice to have a day or two that were e-mail free, with no guilt. I feel like I've been spending a lot of time lately answering questions for people who may or may not end up ordering custom items. Wouldn't it be nice if makers could just spend all their time MAKING things? Oh well, I don't want to sound ungrateful, since it's nice that people are finding us.

We got confirmation of our spot in the NSDCC Christmas show. We'll be in booth # 405. It looks like a good spot, so I'm very happy with that. This week, I've been working on doing up some smaller marquetry pieces. I took the camera out a couple of days ago, and shot all sorts of photos of branches and leaves from around our yard and the park behind our house. So far, I've finished two pictures, and I'm all set to start on a third. They were pretty fun because, relatively speaking, they go so fast. Some of the bird pictures have upwards of 40 pieces individually fitted together, and with these there might only be ten or twelve. It's a little less taxing on my brain, and I'm happy with the results. It was Sarah's idea to make some smaller marquetry pieces that people could find a little more affordable. We'll see! I wish I could post some pics, but I'll try and remember next time.

The days are definitely getting cooler, and already it's at the point where we need to start a fire in the shop if we are going to be comfortable out there. Jo and I did a Frenchy's run last week, and everyone is looking for sweaters and scarves. Sarah and Rachel and I are trying to get back into our routine of knitting together once a week, and I'm hoping to knit myself a new scarf before it gets too much colder. The days, however, have been beautiful and clear. I know I've written about this before, but I just really can't overstate how much I enjoy the cyclical nature of the year here. I know most Canadians are used to this, and it's only because I grew up in Victoria, where we get two really long, drawn out seasons (spring and fall) that kind of mush into each other, that I find it so fascinating. But I love feeling the nature of the world around me change. I love how things are getting colder, and I know that Winter is coming. There's a lot more anticipation of what's coming, and appreciation for what is, when you get four distinct seasons. Things are ending now that won't be back until next year.

Speaking of which, tomorrow we are hoping to get down to the Annapolis Royal Farmer's market, since it's the last one of the year. I bet the whole market will smell like apples. I'm hoping someone there will be selling Honeycrisp apples, straight off the tree. I can't wait until we are growing our own! They really are the crispest, juciest, sweetest apples I've ever tasted. If you get a chance to try one, don't miss it. They make most other apples seem kind of bland in comparison. And they'll only be available for the next month or so, so I feel like I have to eat as many as possible while I can. Kind of like mandarin oranges when they first start appearing on the shelves, and they're so good that we eat multiple oranges a day. Only these are locally grown, so they're even better. Anyway, clearly somebody should be paying me to promote local apples!

Oh, and I don't often talk about politics, but we do have an election coming on Tuesday, and there is a lot of really interesting talk right now about the role of the Arts in society. Some Canadian artists are creating some very interesting pieces in response. I had to laugh yesterday while I was driving home from work and listening to the good old CBC. They played a skit by Jane Testar about a little girl who wants to grow up to be a concert pianist. It's very hard to find, the only way I could get it was to download a podcast from CBC's Comedy Factory called Testar-Sterone. Anyway, I did manage to write down one of my favourite moments from it, so I'll leave you with this:

Girl: But, then I can be a pianist, right, Daddy?
Dad: Absolutely, sweetheart. A pianist, a teacher, an administrator of a small arts festival, and a waittress at The Keg, all at the same time!

P.S.

P.S.
Our amazing friend Brandon has built us an all-new web-site, so if you haven't been to our Sleeping Forest Studios site in a while, hop on over and let us know what you think!
I tried to add a link, but it kept trying to find a blog. Anyway, there's a link in our menu on the right side of the screen :)

Finally...an update!

Hello! Yes, we're still here. It's been a while, I know. Thanks for the notes of concern. Mostly, I just got lazy :)
I was downed for a whole week by a truly nasty cold that has been making the rounds. Luckily, Jai didn't get sick, because that might have been trouble! Oh well, it was a little bit enjoyable to have an excuse to eat all that soup. I sure do love soup.
Then there was a week-long delay after I realized that I forgot to change my camera format from RAW, after taking all those wedding photos. I'm sure if you have the right software, it's an easy fix to convert RAW images to Jpegs, but apparently we don't have the right software. So Jai converted some of the photos for me, and I'll probably throw the rest out. Some of the Ciderfest events, you will just have to picture in your head! :)
We haven't been up to much around here. I went to do the Nova Scotia Designer Craft Council (NSDCC) jurying a couple of weeks ago. Things were a little frantic around here for the week before that, as I was trying to get some new pieces done to replace the pieces we put in the Trees Gallery. Anyway, we passed the jurying (whew!) so now we can officially call ourselves juried members of the NSDCC, which does carry some weight for those who care about these sorts of things. Plus, now we can do the NSDCC Christmas show, which is supposed to be one of the best shows in Eastern Canada. So that's a whole lot more to get ready for. From now until after Christmas, we are going to be supremely busy.
Also that same weekend, I got to be the photographer's assistant for my cousin Emma, who does wedding photography. I had done one other wedding with her, years before, but it was super fun to do another one. I'm hoping she'll ask me to do more. Here's a link to the album - I took some of those pictures! http://www.emmarosephotography.com/galleries/thecitadel/ Anyway, that was actually a super fun way to spend the day, and the food was pretty delicious, too.
And, after that, it was pretty much lying in bed feeling sorry for myself. We did get out to see some of the Ciderfest activities that happened here in Bridgetown. Ciderfest is Bridgetown's big annual cultural festival, and this year was it's 25th anniversary. There was all the traditional activities like pancake breakfasts and pig roast dinners, but I didn't get to any of those. We did get to the giant pumpkin weigh-off, though. That was really fun, there were lots of giant pumpkins, and the biggest one weighed 651 pounds! We grew pumpkins in the garden again this year, but the biggest one we got, you could easily hold in the palm of one hand.
After the pumpking weigh-off, there was movies in the park. National Velvet for the kids, and The Quiet Man for the adults. So Jai and I took a couple of quilts and our big winter coats down to the park, and cuddled up for The Quiet Man. It was a little cold, but they provided hot chocolate and popcorn, and the movie was pretty fun. There's something so nice about sitting under the stars, huddled under a blanket, sharing a little moment like that with your neighbours.

Other days there was a night party on main street, where they shut down the street to traffic, and put out a bunch of carnival games and a main stage where they held the finals for Bridgetown Idol. Unfortunately we missed the end, so I can't tell you who won. The next day, there was a bunch more events on the main street, including a petting zoo and free cider giveaway. We kind of missed the Rubber Duck race down the river, as we waited on the bridge, with all the other people from away, and it happened down by the park. Oops. We did make it back to the park in time to catch the cardboard boat race, though, and I'm so glad we did.
The boats had to be made of carboard and tape only, and there were all different categories for different age groups. It was so much fun to watch them go, and of course there were a few contestants who ended up swimming most of the way, dragging their soggy cardboard boats behind them. Everyone got cheered on equally.
Other than that, things have mostly been quiet around here. We've both been pretty exhausted, but trying to get more work done. Summer is almost finished here. We had the peaches off our tree (yum!) and now the frosts have begun. The leaves are starting to go the most spectacular colours, and there have already been a few nights when we lit a fire in the stove to warm up. Another season change is upon us, and it's almost time for me to knit a new scarf. I'll try and drum up some news in the week to come, so you don't have to wait so long for another update. Until then, keep well!

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!

Canning Shenanigans...Canninagans!

Hello! I had a bunch of computer work to do today, and photos that needed to be uploaded, so I thought I would take a second to write here as well.
Things are going good here. Still no word on our car - our mechanic has narrowed it down to some timing problem inside the engine, but doesn't want to take the engine apart, so he's going to find someone else to do it.
On the bright side, though, we did some canning this week! We started with dill pickles, which were pretty easy, and lots of fun to do. Although I think next time, we could get the jars a little fuller, I think we did pretty good for a first try. And the jars look so pretty!

Since they were so easy and fun, I thought I would do peaches the next day. Sarah and I had been to a local orchard, and split a bushel of seconds to do our canning with. And now I've learned my lesson. I will not be buying peach seconds next year, no matter how cheap they are. The ones that weren't mushy and filled with ants were rock hard and tiny. I did about a quarter of the half bushel (about 20 peaches) and then gave up. I was blanching them to get the skins off, but, I think because they weren't ripe, they wouldn't slide off like they were supposed to. They kind of mushed off and tore and shredded. Then they weren't free stone, so they didn't come off the pit easily, either. So between the stuff that stuck to the skin, and the stuff that stuck to the pit, I had about 1/4" of mush. Luckily we had some Ontario peaches which were big and juicy, so I used those up as well, and they worked just like they were supposed to. The skins came off easily and they were easy to slice up. Then I almost canned them in salt water instead of sugar - luckily I had recruited Jai by that point, and he stopped me before I got too far! When they were finally finished, hours later, I ended up with only two jars of peaches, and I was feeling pretty discouraged, although I know they will be yummy later.
We had a big pot full of sugary peach water left over, and I didn't want to dump it, but couldn't think what it would be good for. And then I remembered the ice cream maker! We bought it on sale 90% off in the sidewalk sale at Home Hardware last summer, but never used it. We took the sugar & peach water, and some home-grown frozen strawberries that we blended with some of the rock-hard peaches, and dumped the whole thing into the ice-cream maker. Twenty minutes later, we had the most delicious peach-strawberry sorbet this planet has ever seen.


And then it was all worth it :)

There once were two Ladies...

Hello again! Another week has passed...


We've both been working a lot. Here's Jai in the Summer Toy Factory:


The weather this week has been beautiful - I would even venture to say Perfect. These are the kind of weeks we have to store up and savor later. I have been taking lots of pictures outside, partly just as an excuse to be out there, and still be doing something semi-productive (heavy emphasis on the semi.)

Our car has been in the shop all week because for some reason it won't start. They've had it all week, and still can't figure out what's wrong with it, so it looks like they will have to tow it to the dealership in Middleton for further testing. Big sigh. Anyway, that's meant that I've had to drive the big brown truck to work all week. If it wasn't so darn expensive, I would want to drive it all the time. It's a lot slower, and a lot noisier, but somehow it's a much friendlier drive. You're high up, and bumping around all over the place, and for some reason when you drive a big old farm truck, lots of people wave at you as you go by. So that's been enjoyable, if a little hard on the pocketbook.

Jai made a delicious tomato soup, right out of the garden the other night, with homegrown tomatoes, leeks, and basil. I'm a little disappointed in our tomato crop this year, I was hoping for a lot more, but the ones we got are mighty tasty. I'm hoping to get some pesto made up this week, and to sun-dry (well, oven-dry) some of the paste tomatoes. The more food we can store away, the better.

I've been continuing to work away in our own shop as well. I've made some new books using vintage photos. These two some of you out there might recognize:


That is my Step-Dad, Errol, when he was a little boy, and my Grandma and her twin sister when they were little girls. So, I just spoiled the surprise, but if either of you are reading this, I do plan on sending these books out to you. Jai and I were wondering if this is a service someone might like - I can take an old favourite photo of a family member, and turn it into a customized photo album/journal cover. I don't really know if that's something we could sell or not, but I thought I'd put the idea out there...
I also did a book cover titled "Jimmy's First Day" which is based on an old photo I found in the antique store in Bear River. Fun!


And last but not least, my latest masterpiece:
The words say:
There once were two Ladies who set sail in a small boat on the vast Sea. They didn't know their destination, so they followed the path of the Moon for night after night. Eventually they reached the end of the Earth, and stopped to look over the edge.

This is my first real Automata, and I love it! The photos turned out pretty good, but the best part is turning the crank, and watching it come to life.

"An inventor is simply a fellow who doesn't take his education too seriously."
~Charles F. Kettering (1876 - 1958)

A is for Automata

Hello! This week has flashed by! It seems I sort of took a break from doing work, and let myself have a week of playing in the shop. Sort of a mini summer camp. Stephen didn't have any work for me this week, and it seemed to take all the urgency out of my own work! So what I did instead is teach myself about building automata. Fun!
I started with this book, and built the basic tester box and cam gears that he recommends. It is such a great book, and everything was pretty easy to follow so far.
I've only started diving into the different mechanisms and movements, but I thought I should start building an actual piece, so I get some practical use out of all this knowledge. So this is the first stages of my first automata.

When you turn the handle, the waves roll up and down and the boat rolls up and down and side to side. I have started on the box that will house this, and the whole thing still needs to be painted, but I'm already in love with it. I'll keep you updated as I go. Speaking of which...

I finished the book I gave a sneak preview of, earlier. I'm pretty happy with it, and have set myself off on a new tangent for book-making as well. It seems every new idea leads to a hundred others! Oh well, I suppose I wouldn't have it any other way :) Although at some point, I'm going to need to start selling some of these pieces!
Other than that, life is going well here. We've been eating out of the garden as much as possible, which is super fun. I love going into our yard and harvesting food. My fingers have an almost permanent blackberry stain on them because I just can't get enough. I'm going to have to read up on getting our blackberry bushes to expand down the fence line. I'm too impatient to wait for them to do it on their own. More blackberries, please!
We're starting to see some local corn in the markets, although ours isn't ready to eat yet. This is a shot of our beautiful popcorn and kidney bean patch. The kidney beans are meant to dry on the stalks, but Jai just couldn't resist opening one up today and trying it out. They were pretty and red and Jai thought they were tasty, but I didn't really like the flavour. I think I'll wait.

And last but not least, our sunflowers are finally blooming. They look beautiful and majestic out there, and I'm glad we planted them where we can see them from the house this year. I can't wait until there are enough blooms that I feel like I can cut some and bring them inside.

And so, in short, I feel I can sum up the week with a quote:
Procrastination isn't the problem, it's the solution. So procrastinate now, don't put it off.
~Ellen Degeneres.
Well, all right, if you say so...

Rural Living

Hi! Wow, I can't believe it's August 10 already. Everyone here has been talking about that inevitable shift that seems to happen, when you realize we're heading into Fall. Not that we aren't still having beautiful, hot sunny days. This is actually, I think, my favourite time of year. The days are warm, but not muggy, and the nights are cool enough to be comfortable for sleeping. The gardens are ready for eating out of, and life seems to be teeming. Crickets chirping everywhere, chickadees flying about, and bumblebees busy, busy, busy. Unfortunately there's still some of those biting insects around, but everything else is so nice that even they don't seem so bad. Plus, it's blackberry season, which might be the best part of all.

This week has been pretty full. On Friday, Jai and I packed up the car and headed down to Mahone Bay, where we met with Lynn from the Trees Gallery. She runs a very nice, higher end Gallery for Wood and handcrafted Tree-related products. And now she carries a whole lot of our stuff, as well. The more observant among you (or maybe just my Mom - thanks Mom) may have noticed that our Etsy store shrunk by half over the weekend, and that is why. Anyway, with any luck, that could be the start of a very positive and beneficial relationship.
Also, we stopped in at Windhorse Farms to pick up some lumber. They are in New Germany, and they are a woodshop that mills and sells FAS certified Eco-friendly wood. All of it is selectively logged, and some of it is even brought out by horse. PLUS (as if they even needed more in their favour!) they have beautiful wood that you don't see in a commercial lumber yard, and their prices are very reasonable. We love those guys! I picked up a couple of beautiful spalted boards to make into some new meditation benches and book covers.
Here's a sneak peek at my latest book project:
I have been having SO much fun, sourcing out old photographs with a little bit of character in them, and creating drawings from them. In addition to the whirligigs, I thought I would do a few special book covers, and that is a shot of one of them, in a partially completed stage. The cover of that one is done now, but I have to get the paper cut for the pages, so I'll post another shot when it's finished. Also, I dug out some of my favourite photos from within our family, and have started up covers using them, which I am totally loving. I don't know if I'll be able to sell those, I might be too attached, but I'm totally enjoying making them.
And we couldn't resist picking up this Zing Zong. It's an early Button Spinner, made from printed tin. It's got angled holes in it, and it sounds just like an owl when you get it going. The string needs to be replaced, but I love how it looks. Plus Zing Zong is so much fun to say :)

Last night was deliciously fun, we went to a backyard barbeque hosted by our friends Brandon and Jo. Those guys sure treated us! They made chicken fajitas, and sangria, and amazing fruit salad. I went back for thirds, it was so good. It was the perfect night for an outdoor event, and it ended with a fire under the stars, and excellent company. We even had S'mores, toasted over the open fire. We all agreed that rural living agrees with us 100% (of course, we're all ex-city livers, so I suppose we would!)