Monday, October 31, 2016

Finally Finished and Miscellaneous

FINALLY finished the drawing I sketched out more than a month ago... Decided to do the shady stuff with a ball point pen instead of taking color pencils to it, as I wanted to try to grab the tail end of the Inktober thing, haha. I LOVE HOW EVERYONE'S HAIR ACTUALLY TURNED OUT. (Sorry for shouting lol Late night spontaneousness...)


OH, THAT REMINDS ME, there's another contest on Blick's site that's a black-and-white-and-gray theme this time, and some of us were thinking of possibly joining...?

And we did purchase some of the Craftsy online art classes that were on sale! We have about five lined up and will see about taking a day off work each week solely for art purposes. We'll keep you posted, of course. :)

Here's a peek at one of my crochet projects... Not sure if any of my family ever looks at the blog, so I am trying to not spoil Christmas surprises.


And here's a Reformation Day doodle, pen and color pencil...


The weather is getting colder here, and a lot of the leaves have fallen. Soon I will not be able to take my short bicycle rides...

Confirmation on Reformation Sunday

It's was a busy week as we prepared for the day we have anticipated all year, the confirmation of our two youngest boys as well as two of our creative girls from this blog, into the Orthodox Lutheran Church. Their journey through catechism studies was unexpectedly extended and in the end they had four different instructors. Finally on October 30 during the celebration of the Feast of the Reformation they were confirmed and we all celebrated with many family and friends in attendance.

Preparations for this day included some projects that I will share here.

The colours of the day were red for the Reformation and wait for the confirmation. I made flower arrangements for the altar at church-

                                  



I didn't want the gifts to have a Christmas feel to them with the colours so I printed variations of Luther's Seal for the gift embellishments.

      


The gifts had no names on them. Each confirmand had to identify their gift by their confirmation verse.

                                      

                                      


                                     



                                       

This was a gift for the pastor-

                                    

One more Luther Seal went on the celebration cake-

      
               (The yellow fondant bled color onto the icing and blurred the edge of the design)


Our new granddaughter was also baptized on this day so I made a celebration cake for her also-

       




       




        


         


It was a lovely, memorable day!











Sunday, October 30, 2016

Reformation Sunday

An Old Painting

I did this years ago. It sits still in a corner in my studio.




Blessed Sunday.

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Brockenhaus Again

Treasure Hunting

Guests left today for their homes. Then we spent some fun time in a Brockenhaus today. We came away with a foot stool and floor lamp and odds and ends, one of which was a spinning wheel for someone - which turned out to be "no charge." Can't beat that.

On the side of a "hill" along a lake...

...... down this tiny road....

.... is a town.....

.... with a Brockenhaus.



love that glaze








We found a hand-carved wood one for us.

Isn't he cute?



Afterward was a scenic drive to Maria's house on a beautiful fall day. I helped Maria with some yard work.

Sargans castle in the back

The Säntis, Maria's mountain


closer

The red poles are for the upcoming snows, which will get that high.

Bird feeder made by brother

Out for the winter

Front yard

Newly transplanted raspberries. Then inside for tea and talk.
Have a good weekend.

Friday, October 28, 2016

House Painting, DIY Tools, and a Birthday

Some time ago, I told you we were painting our house.  That was quite an intense project, especially considering I left when it was about three-quarters done and spent 24 hours staying with a friend and painting in their house which they were getting ready to sell.  Quite a week that was... here are the results.

Sadly, I did not take any "before" photos... (WHAT was I thinking?)  You can see from these pictures what the color was... we had stained this new siding when we put it up 10 years ago.  It was in sad shape and we were sick to death of the color.




I had help with the priming...



My job was to do all the low parts-- primer and two coats of paint.  Up to the tops of the windows and doors is what we deemed "low." Nathan is better with tall ladders (well, that is debatable considering the risks he takes... but he is bolder anyway) so he did all the high work.





Here is the finished color.  Not sure how you may see it on your screen, but it is a greenish gray.  In bright sunlight it looks more green.  I just last week painted the doors... and I don't like the door color.  I really wanted red doors.  Of course.  Of course I wanted red doors.  And my sweet, tolerant husband expressed being a little tired of my red accents.  "What's wrong with white?"  I said a door should be a cheerful pop of welcoming color.  "How about yellow?"  I didn't love the idea, but I set out to try yellow.  But this shade I ended up with is exactly like that popular 70's color, Harvest Gold. I just really don't like it.  But I'm stuck.  Not sure where to go with that.  Maybe I'll repaint it with the trim color for now and revisit that problem in the spring.

You can also see the new patio that Nathan did in the spring.  It's not done, of course... those front blocks that are slanted are temporary pending a small retaining wall with a flowerbed.  Next spring also, hopefully.




We painted not quite half the house.  You can see the old siding with brown paint almost all flaked off.  That siding all needs to be replaced still, hopefully next year, and then we can finish the paint job.  The sides that look bad are of course the sides that face the roads...  It looks really terrible, I can tell you that.  But it's come a long ways and we are glad for it!








After house-painting I have had several other projects in the works, none of which I can show you yet.  It will probably be a couple weeks before I can post about them, but I will.

In the process of these other projects, I really needed a light table.  I do not own such a thing, but I managed to DIY one, with much patting of my own back.  Behold:





I inverted a clean plastic storage bin on the table and put a desk lamp under it.  I used a piece of plexiglass which I have for painting and placed it on top for a clear, flat surface.  It was the perfect height to stand and work at, worked wonderfully, and my children were fascinated with the glowing box on the table. 

One more newsworthy bit is a birthday here this week.  I have always let the kids choose the cake flavor AND decide what they want the cake to represent.  They pick something out of their interests and imaginations and I do my best to make the cake as they specify.  We have had lots of fun with this tradition.  This time Andrew said "I want apple cake."  Okay, I said, but what do you want it to look like?  "Like an apple." was his reply.  





It's pretty crazy, but it is apple shaped, and everyone loves a caramel apple, right?  He insisted it have a stem, too.








 He turned 5!