Vol. 2, No. 211, July 30, 2017

2211 - Farewell Flower.

Today was the final performance of Oliver. To celebrate I used one of the extra programs to make an origami flower. I gave the flower to the director, who I happen to call mom.

Vol. 2, No. 210, July 29, 2017

2210 - Production Increase.

I am continuing to get things ready for the county fair, and I decided I needed more stationary. So, using the designs I created earlier in the week, I made 2 more zentangle drawings and 5 more rose finger stamps.

While I was stamping, I discovered that if I dip my finger in water before pressing it on the ink pad, I get a much brighter stamp.

The stamped stationary is a set of 6 and the drawn stationary is a set of 4. Both sets include envelopes.

Vol. 2, No. 209, July 28, 2017

2209 - 6 Month Tree Time-Lapse.

I decided that I wanted to do a tree time-lapse photograph for the county fair, but I wanted more than just one month. So I began the long, tedious task of putting all of the picture files into one PhotoShop document. The file was too large to save, so I had to resize the whole thing before I could even start on the time-lapse process.

I realize I should have started sooner in the day, but it turns out I really like to nap. With the slow speed of my computer, and my many distractions, it was 11:50 pm when I finally got the photograph sliced, only to find out that I calculated the slice width wrong and I had about 10 pictures leftover.

I decided this was good enough for today's project and I will work out the details/start over tomorrow.

Vol. 2, No. 208, July 27, 2017

2208 - Tree Time-Lapse.

Well now that July is almost over, I decided it was time to get my June collage finished. I usually do my collage on the first of the next month, but on July 1st, I was still making skulls, so I put off the collage. Then as the month wore on, I never felt like getting out my computer and doing all of the necessary uploading, and editing that the collage requires.

Well now it is done. It only took me an hour or so. It's still not perfect, but not too bad either. Maybe by December I will have a perfect collage.

Vol. 2, No. 207, July 26, 2017

2207 - Charcoal Coffee.

Today's county fair project was a charcoal drawing. I decided to draw my standard teacup and saucer. CC was with me while I was drawing and said I should have it on a wooden plank table, so that's what I did. Looking at it now, it looks more like the mug is on the floor, but either way it looks nice.

Vol. 2, No. 206, July 25, 2017

2206 - Sew Colored.

I decided that today I would make my colored pencil drawing for the county fair. The only problem was that I didn't know what to draw. I decided to check out National Day Calendar to for inspiration. I found that today is National Thread the Needle Day. What makes a cuter picture than some thread and needles? About an hour later, I was finished.

Vol. 2, No. 205, July 24, 2017

2205 - Up, Up, and Away.

I needed pencil drawing for the county fair. I decided to make a positive/negative space Zentangle drawing. It took me a while to cone up with a design that I liked, before settling on a hot air balloon. The drawing took about 2 hours.

Vol. 2, No. 204, July 23, 2017

2204 - Stationary Bike.

I am continuing to prepare for the county fair. Today I made two sheets of original stationary. They include small Zentangle drawings with an outdoor theme
 The theme was inspired by my working environment. I drew them while sitting at a bonfire, listening to my neighbor's running water after having enjoyed a beautiful summer day.

The drawings were really quick, taking less than 20 minutes.

Vol. 2, No. 203, July 22, 2017

2203 - Window Wall.

Today was another Set Work Saturday. One of my projects was to paint a window. It's not glorious by any means, but it is finished. In fact I, with a big help from my family, finished the all of the set today!

Vol. 2, No. 202, July 21, 2017

2202 - Christmas in July.

Today I took the Miller Littles out for a day of adventure. We had a picnic, played at a splash pad and wrapped up our day by going to watch the Great Theatre Camp's production of Elf. My sister was the intern at camp this week, so during the show, I used the program to make her a bouquet of 5 flowers. The picture isn't the greatest, but the flowers are actually pretty cute.

Vol. 2, No. 201, July 20, 2017

2201 - Quick and Easy.

I really procrastinated on my project today. All of a sudden it was 11 pm and I didn't even have an idea in mind. So I phoned a friend; no help there. Then it hit me. I had been looking at the County Fair Premium Book and deciding what projects I could bring to the fair. One of the categories is Stamped Stationary. I thought this would be fun.

I found a OJ cap on my floor that I had been saving because it had an orange slice texture to it. I thought it would make a good stamp. Turns out it was an okay idea, but it wasn't working with my drying out ink pads. So I turned to fingerprint stamping. I made 3 pieces of stationary each with a different fingerprint flower. My favorite is the rose, so I think I will make more of that one or the fair.

Vol. 2, No. 200, July 19, 2017

2200 - Happy Birthday.

Like the past few days, I should have been at the theater working on sets. However, today is my birthday so I figured I could give myself most of the day off. Rather than go into the theater to work, I brought one of the props home. I needed to decorate a cake that would be used in the opening song, "Food Glorious Food". I was lucky enough to find a cake form in the prop room. Therefore, I just had to "frost" it, and decorate it.

It took me a while to find a recipe for pipe-able fake frosting that will harden and wasn't expensive to make. I ended up using Plaster of Paris, water and acrylic paint, piped through a plastic baggie. The cake is by no means perfect, but it was well received at rehearsal tonight.

Vol. 2, No. 199, July 18, 2017

2199 - Summer Fun Days.

This morning I brought the Miller Littles to a Summer Playdate. It was supposed to be an outside event, but because it was raining, it was moved indoors. That didn't stop us from enjoying all the fun outdoor activities. One activity was sidewalk chalk.

A large piece of black paper was rolled out on the floor and we were invited to draw pictures. Littlest Miller and I drew popsicles, Oldest Miller drew a love bug, and others added their own pictures as well.

Vol. 2, No. 198, July 17, 2017

2198 - Maids-A-Milking

With only one week left until Oliver! opens, I was at the theater again today. One of my projects was finishing the milk pails and yoke that others had started. Rick built the yoke and Mary and Brenda created the milk pails. The pails were made by wrapping 5-gallon buckets with masking tape, then painting them. Special shout out to my Milk Maid Model.

Vol. 2, No. 197, July 16, 2017

2197 - Farm Fresh.

This evening was Setwork Sunday for my family. One of my tasks was making a basket of eggs. I took plastic Easter eggs and spray painted them a whitish color with brownish specks. They are pretty cute and from a distance they look real.

Vol. 2, No. 196, July 15, 2017

2196 - Sandy Shower.

Today was my sister's bridal shower. After the chaios of the morning, and a fun afternoon at the lake, I realized I needed to do my project. I was going to just draw in the sand, but then I noticed an umbrella shaped seaweed covered rock. I added some reeds for the handle and top spindle.

Vol. 2, No. 195, July 14, 2017

2195 - Hamburger Surprise.

I was busy with bridal shower prep today, so I made part of the prep my project. One of my tasks was to make scones. I was making White Chocolate Raspberry Scones, and my sister looked at the pan and said that they looked like raw hamburger.

Despite the look, they taste delicious! To make the picture more artsy, I laid the scones out in a flower shape.

Vol. 2, No. 194, July 13, 2017

2194 - Keg Party.

Despite the title, there was no drinking involved in this project, and it was a party of one. I was back at the theater this afternoon painting sets. One of today's projects was painting a tapped keg that was hung on the wall of the bar.

I can't take any credit for the construction of the keg, that was the amazing Rick Fischer.

Vol. 2, No. 193, July 12, 2017

2193 - Wall Wednesday.

I spent about 5 hours painting at the theater today, working on the set for LCT's Oliver. Because of this I didn't have time or energy to make anything else. So my project is a wall. The base coat and horizontal gray lines were already done. I added the vertical lines and dry brushing to create a wall that looks like old, weathered wooden slats. This picture shows just a small portion of all the wall.

Vol. 2, No. 192, July 11, 2017

2192 - Twine Tea.

I took yesterday's twine ball and some hot glue and after only a couple small burns, I created a twine teacup. It's not perfectly even, but it will make a great decoration for my sister's bridal tea on Saturday. The diameter of the saucer is about 4".

Vol. 2, No. 191, July 10, 2017

2191 - Twine Ball.

Today, I was working to get things ready for my sister's bridal shower. Since we grew up in Darwin, the home of the World's Largest Ball of Twine Made by One Man, we decided that one of the games at the shower would be to guess how many feet of twine was used to make a mini twine ball. So I took a length of string (I'm not going to say how much in case someone who is attending the shower reads my blog) and wrapped it into a tight ball.

Now as I type this, I am thinking that it would have been cool to use the twine to make a teacup rather than just a ball as it is going to be a bridal tea. Maybe I will have to make that my project for tomorrow.

Vol. 2, No. 190, July 9, 2017

2190 - Pageantry Puppets.

Wrapping up the Watercade festivities, I attended the Miss Litchfield Coronation. I got to the auditorium a little early and was talking to the spotlight opperator when some friends and I decided it would be fun to make shadow puppets. Shining the spotlight on the wall, I helped to position the others to create some fun shapes on the wall. If we had more time we maybe could have done a shadow story, but people started arriving and we had to stop.

Here are a few of my favorites. On the top row we have a weird monster, complete with an eye, and another creature; and kissing swans. On the bottom row we have a peacock and a turkey; and a butterfly.

Vol. 2, No. 189, July 8, 2017

2189 - Daisy Chain.

I was out and about today taking in various events including the softball tournament, Art-in-the-Park, and of course the parade. While waiting for the parade to start I looked around for something to use for my project. The most prominent thing was clover. I began picking the flowers and then braided them together to make a chain. I wasn't patient enough to collect enough long seemed flowers to make a full sized crown. Since Little Miller wouldn't wear it as a bracelet, we made it a crown for her bear instead.

Vol. 2, No. 188, July 7, 2017

2188 - Carrot Collaboration.

Today I brought the Miller Littles to story hour at the library. The subject was carrots, as that is Litchfield's One Community One Vegetable vegetable this year. At story hour we learned that carrots come in a wide variety of colors including white, red, yellow, orange, and purple. We also learned that carrots are biannuals which means that if left to grow, they will produce flowers and seeds in year two.

After learning about carrots, reading a book and singing some songs, it was time for a craft. We made a carrot collage. I collaborated with Little Miller to make my collage. She drew the ground line, and cut out the some of the carrots after I helped her draw them. She could have drawn and cut them all out herself, but she was having a stubborn 4 year-old moment.

I cut out the carrot tops and she glued it all down. Then when we got home I used colored pencil to add a little more detail.

Vol. 2, No. 187, July 6, 2017

2187 - Polished Piggies.

My toenails were in desperate need of re-painting, so I decided to make a fun nanny activity out of it and paint my nails and those of the Little Millers. Of course, Middle Miller opted out.

Oldest Miller just wanted lots of colors, so I did polka dots. Little Miller couldn't decide between watermelon or strawberries, so we did both. It was pretty cute, so I did mine the same way.

Vol. 2, No. 186, July 5, 2017

2186 - Fancy Pup Blotter.

Not having a theme is really getting to me, I might have to pull out my book again. After much research, while sitting down for supper with a can of pop, I decided to make a butterfly out of my pop can. It was a fairly easy project. The hardest part was getting a good butterfly shape that was even on both sides.

After the butterfly was cut out and details were add, I brought it outside and placed it on a flower to be photographed. Then came the really hard part, adding a title to my project. I decided to use an anagram of Pop Can Buterfly.

Vol. 2, No. 185, July 4, 2017

2185 - Melon Shark.

I was excited to not have to make skulls anymore, but I found myself stumped unsure what to make. So when my mom asked for someone to cut the watermelon, I jumped at the chance to try my carving skills.

I chose to carve a shark. I cut off one end, carved out the insides, and then cut in the teeth and eyes. I concluded by putting the shark on a plate, filled it with the watermelon pieces and added a fin.

Vol. 2, No. 184, July 3, 2017

2184 - Celebration Skull.

In celebration of my 30th day of skulls, I took CAT out for ice cream. Before I ate my ice cream I carved a quick skull. I love how it looks like it is melting away just like my skull project.

Vol. 2, No. 183, July 2, 2017

2183 - Cotton Skull.

My family gathered at the lake today for an early 4th of July celebration. Our lake lot is surrounded by cottonwood trees, so there was cotton covering everything. I decided to use this to my advantage and "harvested" some of the cotton from the pontoon and dock to make my daily skull on the pontoon deck. The fun part about cotton and the carpet on the pontoon is that they stick together, which means that my skull is still there for others to see.

Vol. 2, No. 182, July 1, 2017

2182 - Set Work Skull.

Today was another Set Work Saturday. This time for LCT's Oliver. There was much painting to be done and I almost forgot to do my project. I remembered in time to use a bit of spilt paint to finger paint a skull on a step. I think it looks kind of like a monkey.