Sunday, March 25, 2012

A Chicken In Every Pot...and some updates!

Hello all!

I am sorry to be so late, but have been working multiple jobs.  One is the "Crash Test Dummy" assignment I promise to tell you all about soon.  There are funny moments, but one gal described it as "Jury Duty In A Car."  We sit around and wait ALOT!

I let the ladies out to play in my backyard during the recent fabulous weather days in the mid 80s (frost tomorrow night here in Ohio.)  I believe it was President Herber Hoover who promised in 1928  "A chicken in every pot (and a car in every garage.")   Here is my "Petunia" taking a dirt bath...in a pot!


Buff Brahma Hen

During the waiting time on the test track I have been reading, writing and working on that needlepoint project of the Japanese Chin.  Of course, I don't know the rules, but I'm pretty sure knowledgeable stitchers would do it differently.  More on that in another post, along with progress photos. 

Here are some scenes from Spring at my 'hood:

Japanese Weeping Cherry


Ornamental Pear



Well, I am off to bed as 5:30 a.m. sure comes early!  I promise to be back in a few days at the most.  I think you will like the car testing stories.

Until then,

Gale

Quote of the post:  "When life hands you lemons...make lemonade!" --Unknown

Monday, March 19, 2012

Gale's Gallery V: Don't Be Afraid of the Needle!

Remember, the theme to this series is "Art Anyone Can Do!"  It may look complicated, but if you break it down in to steps and not make my mistakes, you will be fine...

As I've said before, enough people tell me what to do all day that I can't stand to follow instructions when I craft.  So, I'm a permanent student of the "art school of hard knocks."  One never graduates!  Some things are set in stone, but most aren't.  (Like using more than 3 colors of paint blended will usually make mud.  Though that is fine if it's the effect you are going for!)

So how do I do these cross-stitch pieces you ask???  The easiest way I can!  Not necessarily the quickest, but often the most stupid-proof.

I have refined my method a bit and may even try something different with my next project.  It will be a portrait of my darling Japanese Chin.  Only this time, I'm going to use fine yarn and brush it out so it will have the texture of hair (I hope.)  It will be sort of like the Japanese technique called "bunka," but my winging it version.

Below is Patrick, who winds up in lots of my art.  (Mainly because he was the only one kept in coat long enough to get good furnishings!  He is also a lovely, typey yorkie.}  You are going to think all my art is about pets, but it's not really:)  People are hard to do, so I leave it to the experts!  

"Patrick"


This is actually my third project using this method.  It's best to start small and simple, though I usually don't.  I'll try to break it down into steps:

1)  I had a professional photo of a nice breed win, but I hated what I looked like in it.  Rather than pitch it at $25 a crack, I decided I had to use it for something.  So I scanned it and cut myself out, focusing on just his head.  I enlarged it so I could see details.  It doesn't matter if it gets blurry because it's just for reference.

2)  After I decided on the size (this wound up taking 2-3 months to stitch mind you...) I laid Aida cloth graph paper over it and traced as much detail as I could using a black Sharpee marker.  Aida cloth is the canvas you sew on.  Now it comes in lots of colors.  

3.)  I used colored pencils to roughly determine the color scheme.  I bought a ton of embroidery floss in many shades, even if I didn't think I'd use them.  They're really cheap and it's better to have too many then to drive back into town wasting gas!  Plus, they say "variety is the spice of life!"

"Sunflower"  
This project helped me pass the time of a whole summer when I was too weak to do much more than sit in a porch rocker.   (I'm fine now!)  The background is actually painted and there is quite a bit of beading.  I drew the sunflower by tracing a coloring book page and free-forming the pot.  

4) I clipped both the picture and the graph artwork to the actual Aida cloth.  I use either 11 or 14 squares to the inch, depending on time and necessary details.  Then I just flipped back and forth counting the squares.  I think it's easier to start in the middle and work out if it's possible.  That way a boo-boo might be salvageable.  I am going to try using overhead projector transparency sheet (note: there are two kinds, copier and inkjet) and print the photo of the Chin.  I will probably use glue a second clear sheet to it to protect the artwork from any smudges.  Since the dog is just black and white, I think this is a good time to experiment.

"Tomatoes"

One thing I really like about needlework is it's portable.  When my friend Barb was in the hospital for several months, this was great for the waiting around.  I used the method above, but drew this off of a seed catalog.  This was a new variety of tomato that year.  Pretty, but I still don't like tomatoes:)  Instead of double matting this, I just ran an orange marker along the inside of the beveled edge of the red mat.

5)  Sometimes I wanted to blend colors and didn't have the intermediary floss.  So, I took a strand of each of the two colors and used that.  It's sort of a tweed effect and I like it as you can play with which thread is on top.  It wasn't exactly blending, but I thought I was pretty clever!  I nicknamed it the "Thompson Tweeding Method" LOL!

6)  Once you finish a piece that has taken forever, don't be stingy on how you display it.  You can buy whatever frame and get matte or regular glass, but if you aren't adept at blocking and applying the canvas to sticky backing board, leave it to a professional.  They don't charge much and it's worth it not to look "wonky."  You can buy your own matting or have them cut some and put everything together yourself and save money.

7)  One very important aspect is to hide your starting thread and your end knot.  Those little things tend to pop out to the front.  Also, be neat and tidy on the back.  It doesn't have to be perfect as nobody will see it, but it makes a difference if it's lumpy.

BTW, when I was looking for supplies at JoAnn's I saw this new stuff called "Color Infusions Memory Thread."  It's a washable thin copper wire covered in thread.  You can't stitch with it, but you can "couch" or stitch it in place to make embellishments/add dimension.  I can't wait to try mine!  For more info:  dmc-usa.com

Stop back and see what I get done with the Chin project!  I will try to take work in progress photos.  

Until next time,
Gale

Quote of the post:  
"Seven days without laughter make one weak." ~ Joel Goodman
  
PS:  The word "chocolate" was in the body of my last post 23 times!

Friday, March 16, 2012

Chocolate: The Good Mood Food?



I don't know about that, but I sure know I get cranky without it!  It's also been touted as an anti-oxidant and  I don't have wrinkles at my advanced age of 50.  (That could also be attributed to the added weight filling out the wrinkles???)  Long ago a friend nicknamed it Vitamin "C."  We've always called M & Ms "stress tabs!"

I don't claim to be an expert on this subject:  I know I am one!  Since "everyone is entitled to my opinion,"  I thought I'd share my favorites (I've never met a chocolate I didn't like, but maybe I didn't love it!) and some things I don't care for so much...

First, I have never, and will never eat a chocolate covered creature of any kind!  (I may pick off the chocolate coating, LOL!)  That is just a waste of perfectly good chocolate!  I'm not a fan of the chocolate fountains either.  That's due to a) gross people double dipping, b) kids sticking their fingers in it (and umpteen dipping), c) the stuff is essentially chocolate flavored vegetable oil.  No thanks.  I also don't like things that a merely scented chocolate--it's an annoying tease!  Chocolate covered bacon is only OK for me.



When I get up in the morning, if there is something chocolate in the house, it's history.  If there isn't anything, I often make chocolate milk.  I've learned to save money and a few calories by slowly stirring skim milk into Hershey's Coca powder with some sugar.  Then, if I'm at school, I can grab my tiny carton of skim milk at lunch and drink it plain because I've already had my fix.  It looks like I'm a healthy eater in front of the students.  (Just ignore that piece of pizza...)

I thought I'd give you a list of some of my favorites.  Know that I am not a snob.  I live in the country and don't always have access to "the finer things."  So in a pinch, I will lick the chocolate off a car tire if I have to.  That said, there is nothing wrong with plain ol' Hershey's or whatever is around.  Mark turned us on to those Reese's Fast Breaks.  They are really good!


A chocolate experience that wasn't as good was my Macy's Godiva bar I had to purchase in order to hit the $30 need to use a $10 off coupon.  That bar was almost fossilized.  I didn't check the date and it wasn't the first time that had happened...how stupid of me.  They don't have the turnover of a candy store, so I bet most of those bars at fine department store checkouts are old.  Best to buy Godiva at a Godiva store.  Duh!

I like Godiva, but now that it's fairly "common,"  I won't climb mountains for it anymore.  (Like I ever did. Well, maybe I drove up a mountain or two???  I did live in L.A. you know.)  Don't discount the local candy stores as some of them use good chocolate.  It's a matter of taste and price.  One of my favorite "local" places is called "Marie's Candies."  It's in West Liberty, OH in an old train station.  They always have samples!  Good thing it's about a half hour away from me.  I LOVE the chocolate covered soft peppermints in dark or light chocolate. (BTW, I often "do the dark" for health reasons LOL...)  They are online at Mariescandies.com

I don't tend to order chocolate online because you have to wait for it, but if one of these stores is in your neighborhood, try them.  A one stop shop online is Worldwidechocolate.com.  Many of these brands also have limited varieties at Whole Foods (WF) stores:

Lake Champlain Chocolatiers:  (WF) and lakechamplainchocolates.com
Callebaut Belgian Chocolate:  (WF)  and callebaut.com
Scharffen Berger Gourmet Chocolate (WF) and sharffenberger.com
Jacques Torres Chocolate (in at least NYC) and mrchocolate.com
Joseph Schmidt Confections (San Fran area), (WF) and josephschmidtconfections.com
Vosges Haut- (WF) and vosgeschocolates.com  (full of odd varieties and organic)
Ghyslain Chocolates- (WF) and ghyslain.com
E. Guittard Chocolate, Etc.- (WF) and guittard.com
Mondel Chocolates (NYC)- mondelchocolates.com (a favorite of Katherine Hepburn)
Conrad's Candy-  conradscandy.com (a favorite of Martha Stewart)
Max Brenner Chocolates- shop.maxbrenner.com
Recchiuti Confections (San Fran.)- recchiuti.com

Well, that's about all for today.  Need to go out and get some yard work done!  Just for fun:  Guess how many times the word "chocolate" or plural is used in this blog.  The answer will appear in my next post...counting will take the fun out of it...

Until then,
Gale

Quote of the Post:  The 12-step chocoholics program: NEVER BE MORE THAN 12 STEPS AWAY FROM CHOCOLATE!

Terry Moore  
(Bet you thought I'd use Forrest Gump's "Life is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get!"  But I didn't LOL!)

Sunday, March 11, 2012

The Things We Do For Blogs I: "Super Tuesday"

Election Poll Worker


A solar flare outage just made me lose all of this post!  It's also making my mouse do weird things...

Getting up at 4:30 a.m. isn't my cup of tea.  I was up before the chickens!  I know that because I got a lot of dirty looks when I opened their door.  What I don't do for you guys!  As usual, I had time early on, but wound up having to scoot out to the car to get to work on time.  I arrived at 5:28 a.m.  Winning!  

It was lucky that I only had to go three miles because the gas gauge allowed me eight before I would have to push.  Since I forgot to get directions, I had to drive by braille (as Mark says) thinking I knew about where this church was.  I found it first try, tucked behind some buildings on a side street.  Winning again!

If you've ever wondered why you can never find a parking spot at the polls it's because the workers park in front.  Many of them had handicap permits and used those spaces as well.  We weren't going anywhere for 15 hours!  It was also an unusually sunny day here in Ohio in March, so we weren't even dodging rain.

After swearing in, my first order of business was to change the roll of toilet paper in the ladies room.  Ahhhhh, just like home.  I can do this!

The set up hour went fairly quickly.  The other workers were very nice and chatty, which helped the day pass.  It was kind of weird to see the precinct tables lined up on the altar.  (The church uses it as a worship/multipurpose room.)  About 6 a.m. I smelled something odd and it took a few seconds to place it.  Chocolate chip cookies in the oven!  The wonderful church ladies had cookies and coffee for everyone the whole day!  (We tried to conjure up that smell as we teary-eyed-ly, but politely, helped a group of farmers who had just been in with hog poo... Ugh!  and they were on their way to lunch???)

There is definitely a senority "dibs" method to who does what.  I was assigned the "number a pink (R) or green (D) or white (other) voter slip to each voter in chronological order."   But, then I also got the "hand out the 'I Voted' stickers" job on top of that.  No problem, I was born to multi-task!  On my own I decided to keep a running tally to make it easier to balance during the day.  What initiative!  I also managed to knit half of a scarf... we weren't allowed cell phones (no service anyway), newspapers or computers.  Voter turnout was low because it wasn't a general election and there were no issues for our precinct to decide.

Of course we had to learn the other positions as folks took breaks, so I got to do the cool "put the cartridge in the voting machine and explain" job.  With us switching off and often doing several of the jobs, little boo-boos happened, but we balanced the books quickly at the end of the day.  We got out at 8:30 p.m. which I am told is a record.

If you are wondering about the pay, know you will not get rich from this.  Ninety percent of the workers are retired and call this their way of earning "mad money."  I was by at least a decade the youngest there.  They get to visit with their friends and see lots of neighbors if they are working in their own precinct (which I wasn't...dibs again!)  We get $25 for the training meeting and $100 for the 13-hr day before taxes.  They say it takes about a month to get paid.  (Just got check!  We must have gotten a $10 raise!)   I probably will volunteer when I get to that age as well.  I don't think I will be doing the prez election.  It will be crazy and I hope to be working a regular job.

So, on to the next assignment.  I've been hired as a temporary "Crash Test Dummy."  Seven 10-hr days in a row at the end of this month.  From the looks of it, it will be more like bumper car dummy.  But, the pay is $160ish a day and we can use it right now.  I won't be getting photos as we aren't allowed, but trust me, I will give you a full report!

Until next time,
Gale

Quote of the post: 

"A true friend thinks you are a good egg even though you're slightly cracked."  --Author Unknown

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Somethings Old...Somethings New!


"Carrie"  aka Darby Creek Carrera:  She is annoyed that she hasn't been mentioned yet in my blog.  She's always within eyesight of me and is a cuddler.   She is CH. Patrick's daughter.  
Hi all!

This will be a brief post, but I promise I'm working on several things.  More on this in a few paragraphs.

Something New! A friend Catherine told me about a website called "Pinterest" that looks to be pretty cool!  It is kind of a cyber bulletin board where folks post anything from artwork to recipes and anything in between.  It takes about a day once you request to be invited, but you really ought to give it a look-see.  It's pinterest.com.

"IZZY"  Appenzeller Spitzhausen hen enjoying weird February weather by swinging on the swing set!
(Can't seem to get my other weather pictures to load:(  Will try again soon.)

UPDATES:
The "Sophie Scandal":

She must have made her "choice" because other then a few dents, I've been getting 6 to 8 "good eggs" a day.  I make sure they never run out of food and try to do treats often.  I put berber carpet on the floor of the nesting boxes to perhaps soften the landing of the eggs, but I had already gone a few days without a problem.  Good girl Sophie!  I now have eggs out the wazoo (at least theirs LOL) so now I have to figure ways to use them.  Mark is getting tired of egg sandwiches every morning.  Got 11 eggs on 3/4/12 which means everyone is laying!!!

STEP INTO MY OFFICE:  Wherever that may be...I assure you that I hate getting dirty and am grossed out easily, so these will not put "Dirty Jobs" off the air.

I've been a substitute teacher (all grades and abilities) for 11 years, so almost nothing scares me:)  Though my goal with that is to always keep things from happening that are newsworthy, I'm sure I will probably post on it later. For now I plan to try new "jobs" or activities and report back how-tos and how it went (along with photos.)  I also plan to toss in my experiences as a movie extra/ bit part player, office temp in Los Angeles and other "odd jobs."  I've applied to do a 7 day, 70 hour stint as a car test driver (aka "Crash Test Dummy")in a few weeks and got a call for an interview, but first I will be serving as an...
Election Poll Worker

On the face of it, this doesn't sound to awfully funny, especially since I went to the training session.  I did laugh when I got the pink card assigning me as "Judge."  What?  Turns out pollworkers are called judges.  I will try to report details without giving away any government secrets!  I can't wait to be at the precinct dark and early at 5:30 a.m.  We might be there as late as 9 p.m. for a day rate of $100.  We aren't allowed computers, newspapers or cell phones.  They warned us that this will be a s-l-o-w day as there are no issues in most precincts and it's not a presidential election.  What have I gotten myself into???? Well, I am proud to help folks exercise their right to vote, so here goes...

(Note to self:  Buy some 5-hour energy drinks!)

Well, hope you'll stay tuned!  Would really appreciate it if you "follow" this blog.  I have a lot more readers than it appears and would like to have a more accurate count:)

Until next time,
Gale

"Quote of the Post"-“I am always doing things I can’t do. That is how I get to do them.” -Pablo Picasso