Pictures and News

Hello! We have an official Snow Day here in the Valley. The perfect kind of day to sit around the fire sipping hot chocolate (which Jai is making as I type!) I've been having lots of fun playing with my new camera, but so far I haven't been able to take it outside, as there's all sorts of warning about taking it out in minus 10 weather, and about sudden temperature changes. So, for now, I'm a window photographer. I'm ok with that, as I kind of feel that I should have all sorts of warning on me about minus 10 weather!



I've been having lots of fun, though. Jai hung a bird pie outside the library window for me, and it's had all sorts of interesting visitors.




Plus the cedar waxwings swooped in for a day, and I got some pictures of them in our oak tree. If you zoom in on this picture (by clicking) you should be able to see them pretty good. I just love them, and already see several marquetry pictures looming in these photos.

I finally framed the little bird portrait I made a while ago. It looks good, I think. I'll list it on Etsy some time this week.



The newspaper article about us came out this week. I think if you zoom in, you could probably read it from this photo, but if not, here's a link to the on-line version:
http://www.novanewsnow.com/article-176705-A-Sleeping-Forest-through-the-trees.html

Other than that, not too much news here. I've got a couple of big walnut pieces I'm working on, which is nice, since walnut is my favourite wood. I'll post pics of a couple of them, as they are finished. Jai has been salvaging firewood pieces for his lathe masterpieces, and is working on a really nice little container out of figured maple right now.

Hello! Well, I was trying to hold off posting until my NEW camera arrives, so I could put up some amazing new pictures that will blow all your socks off! But it didn't come in the mail today, and I did say last time I would try not to leave it so long between posts. Oh well. Now that I've set up unreasonably high expectations, I've also used up all my news.
Mostly I'm just excited about my new camera arriving. On Monday, I'm sure of it! (I've been saying all week, "Tomorrow it will be here for sure!")
We had a big winter storm earlier today, with lots of snow and blowing winds. Now it is perfectly calm. Tonight I've got a couple of girlfriends coming over for some tea and visiting, while Jai is working at the theatre.
Jai and I went for a walk along the old rail line a couple of nights ago, before there was snow on the ground again. Here's some pics from that:



And my favourite:

Something about blurry pictures...

And we've gotten some work done in the shop over the last week. Jai finished his bowl, and it looks great!

We didn't get as much done as usual, though, because we took a couple of days to do a big clean-up and get the office closer to being usable. We had the interview with the Spectator reporter on Wednesday, and the article will be in the paper this coming Wednesday. I'll take pictures, so you can see it.
Anyway, that's about all for now. On Monday, when my new camera arrives...

New Years News

Hello! I guess it's about time I updated on our news. The sad thing is we don't really have any!
We had a lot of snow over the New Year, which was really fun. We didn't do such a good job on the whole clearing the driveway thing, and there was a couple of times when we almost didn't make it out. That would have been a great excuse to miss work, hey? I'm sure everyone here was a little disappointed, as all the major snows happened before school started or on weekends! Anyway, I totally enjoyed walking around in the snow, where it didn't come up past my boots.




This last week has been very warm, and all that snow has melted completely! We even had a day that hit 15 degrees! It's 8 degrees right now, but next week it's supposed to start cooling off again. I guess it's a good chance to get a fresh start on keeping the driveway clear.

We've pretty much been homebodies the last couple of weeks. I finished making a couple of more books - here's a pic of one of them. They came out nicely, but I had a lot of problems with the tools. It was good because I ended up with a new bandsaw fence, a new resaw blade, a new benchtop jointer, and a fresh set of blades on my planer. Let that teach me for trying to work with arbutus!


Jai has started a new bowl out of some burl that Dereck's parents gave us to play with. I think it will be beautiful when he finishes it. It was a little scary to share the shop with him while he was balancing it, though. The whole floor was shaking, and I kept picturing it flying off and braining me. It's such a small shop, there's no way to get out of the line of fire. I'm still here, though.

Today we have spent most of the day cleaning up the house. We have a reporter from the Annapolis Valley Spectator coming on Wednesday to interview us about Sleeping Forest Studios, so we want it to kind of look like a house someone might actually want to live in, instead of a big storage area and unfinished renovation project. There's not much we can do about the unfinished renovation project part, but we're trying to work on the rest. It's getting there! We got a bit further in the bathroom, and added one of our auction finds to the top of the dresser. It's looking pretty good, I think.


A little organization can go a long way. We were so busy before Christmas that everything just started to pile up.
Right now we've got more work than I really know what to do with. I think we need a chalk board or something in the shop so that we can keep track of what's been ordered, and when it's due. Sometimes it's too overwhelming to keep all that in your head. Probably if it was written down somewhere, with a few items checked off, it wouldn't seem like much at all. Right now, everything is written down, pretty much, but it's all in different places, so I keep coming across something else that I forgot I had to do. The worst part is that I'm in work avoidal mode, and would much rather work on my new marquetry panel.
Anyway, I don't want to sound like I'm complaining - I'm glad to have the work! As Jai says, it's kind of a good problem to have.

So with all that exciting news, I'll sign off for now. I hope this finds all of you well, and enjoying your New Year. I'll try not to leave it so long between posts, next time!