On patience and giant eggs…

Somehow we got talking about patience this morning at the Frey home. Oh, yes, I know what started it. I was trying to make a copy and I had scanned something earlier, and the copy machine wouldn’t copy until I put it back in “copy” mode instead of “scan” mode. So when I thought it should have been done, it hadn’t even begun. Grrr. Kate was nearby and laughed. She knows her mother well.

Patience is a great virtue.

That’s one of our family’s favorite sayings, and usually it’s teasingly said at someone who is not being very patient at the time. It was a common quip of my Nana’s, and we loved to remind her of it! What is really funny is the most frequent comment I get when someone sees me papercutting is “You must have a lot of patience!” Ha! I’ll usually manage to respond with “Well, it’s taught me patience!” All the while Kate is trying not to laugh outloud! (And Hubby has gained enough age and wisdom to not say anything at all!) I think I’ve gained patience over the years in some areas and lost it in others. There’s been a major loss of patience for things electronic. But, I can sit for hours and cut out little pieces of paper. Go figure. 

Early American Life had the neatest article on the naming of children, and it mentioned how the Puritans and Quakers took to the habit of using “grace names”… giving their children names of character traits they hoped they would aspire to. Like Mercy and Truth and Honor. Those are incredible names, and we sort of did that with the girls! Their nicknames were Patience and Grace, (We won’t say who was who!) and I can attest to the fact that they truly grew into them!

Before I head out, I have GOT to show you this picture! I know I’ve posted similar pictures before, but I am completely amazed when I see one of these…

The bottom egg is a “grade A large.” I don’t know what to call the top one!

Color seems…

 

Just wanted to share a small treasure I found yesterday when Mom and I snuck out to an antique shop… I found a book published in 1972, called Color Seems. It’s a children’s book, and has all the markings of spending its days on a public library shelf. Its cover bespeaks “library book”… it’s that ugly hard-board-covered-in-fabric stuff that all children’s library books were covered in during the 1970’s. There are lots of smudges and fingerprints and dog-eared pages and even a few scribbles that made me think twice about paying $10 for it. (Probably should have dickered there a bit.) BUT, Oh! The story line.

It is pure first grade, which is exactly where I was in 1972. Each page has a thoughtful one-liner about color, and for all that it doesn’t make sense… to the right person, it does. Or at least it did to me.

Makes me wish I had a bunch of 6 year-olds sitting in a circle to read it to, and then we’d go play with paint.

Pancake Tuesday!

We had a late dinner tonight, and since today is Pancake Tuesday, we thought “breakfast for dinner” would be very appropriate! As Kate started the turkey bacon sizzling (Hey, at least SOMETHING was healthy. Sort of.), I pulled out the pancake making stuff and opened up my recipe notebook to our old stand-by pancake recipe. Across the page was a recipe that I had never tried… Pumpkin Pancakes! They sounded really yummy, and we were in an experimental sort of mood, so we went for it. I wasn’t sure how Hubby would like them, but he proclaimed them really good, so we thought that might be worthy of sharing the recipe with you all! I wish I could give credit to whomever this recipe came from, but it’s hand-written in my notebook and I honestly have no idea where I got it. Anyway, here is the Pumpkin Pancake recipe, and it comes highly recommended by the Frey family:

Pumpkin Pancakes

Sift together 1 & 1/4 cups Flour, 2 Tbsp. Sugar, 2 tsp. Baking Powder, 1/2 tsp. EACH of Cinnamon, Ginger, and Salt, 1/8 tsp. Nutmeg, and a pinch of ground Cloves. In a separate bowl, mix together 1 Egg, 6 Tbsp. Pumpkin, 2 Tbsp. melted butter, and 1 cup Milk. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Pour about 1/3 cup batter onto an oiled pan at a medium-low temperature until they bubble, then flip and finish off the other side.

It made about 9 medium pancakes, which was all we needed. Play with this a bit… we have a backyard flock of chickens, so our eggs are not exactly standard size, and I used a smallish egg. We also used soy milk and dairy-free margarine. The batter was a little too thick to pour, so we had to thin it with a bit of extra soy milk. Maybe next time I’ll use a bigger egg? Very yummy with some sliced strawberries and whipped (soy) cream. And Kate and Chris added peanut butter. 

I’ve been working on finishing up some old projects this week, and finally got the Jacobean-inspired papercutting done. The frame doesn’t fit on my scanner, so here it is without a frame…

The colors in this one are very subtle, and the black background helps bring them out a bit. It was fun to work in a slightly different style. 

I also finished the bird cutting I started in December…

I REALLY love the way the staining turned out with this cutting. If you stain the paper before cutting, you get an “all over” pattern, like the As the Deer cutting above. (Look closely… the stripes of stain in the verse area continue down into the picture below.) If you stain it after cutting, each cut edge soaks up the staining. Because it’s so fragile when wet, I’ll often leave a papercutting to dry on a piece of waxed paper, and it soaks up even more stain, making it very dramatic. This one has a lot of contrast in the verse area!

Wonder what I’ll get into tomorrow? I need to get a few orders out, but it’s been nice to de-clutter my desk a bit and get these pieces safely behind glass!

Oh, that I had wings like a dove…

Hello all! Just wanted to share with you the papercutting that finally got finished on Monday… it was based on Psalm 55:6, which I think I heard quoted in a movie (John Adams, maybe, near the end? Excellent movie… but the Mom/squeamish female in me must tell you to skip any scenes that involve tarring & feathering, surgery, or various love scenes in France!), and then happened upon it again a few days later while reading the Psalms. The picture has been swirling around in my head ever since I read it, and it’s one of those pictures that just had to be.

Oh, that I had wings like a dove! for then I would fly away at be at rest.
~Psalm 55:6

Here’s a detail of the hands… they were my biggest challenge…

 And here’s where they came from… I chased Kate down and took a picture of her hands for reference!

Digital cameras have got to be the artist’s new best friend! I can remember scouring through a filing cabinet full of reference pictures in my high school art class, or taking pictures on vacations, hoping one of them would be just right once we returned home and remembered to develop the film. Now if you need a reference photo, you can snap it and have it printed in a minute or two.

Another neat trick for artists… Switch a digital to black & white, and play around with the contrast, brightness, and exposure settings a bit. It lets you see, although exaggerated, just where the shadows are! I actually forgot about doing this when painting the Fly Away cutting, and I can see places where I would have added a little darker color. It’s always a bit scary to put a paintbrush full of Payne’s Gray next to a light colored painting, but the shadows are what brings it to life. Kind of like real life… it’s hard to appreciate what is bright and beautiful until you’ve experienced the lack thereof!

AND…

A very great big huge THANK YOU!!! to our dear friend who stayed up half the night to fix my banner! You went far and above the call of duty!

Help?

Well, Kate managed to venture into the world of CSS and gave her blog a personal touch, so I got brave enough yesterday to attempt it as well! I managed to upload a background I found at Citrus Moon, and then spent the rest of the day playing in Photoshop Elements and snipping paper to make a new header. Thank heavens Kate came home in time to rescue me (or the computer?) because I was having serious issues with “layers.” She was able to put my parts together to make this:

Now… how on earth do I get it from here to up there? And will it fit? Hmmm…

Any ideas on making the blog look a little more interesting? I love all the eclectic blogs I’m seeing out there, but I would say I lean toward simplicity and minimalism. I’d like to just soften things up a bit, visually. A little on the primitive side, but not too grungy. A little more colorful? Hmmmm again…

In other news, I had a quiet day, and spent most of it attempting to keep the woodstove going (we’re into greener wood now… used up all the well-seasoned stuff), though I did manage to finish a papercutting that’s been sitting on my desk since early January. It was a bit of a home-maky day… caught up on laundry, cleaned a bit, did some sorting and organizing, and cooked a turkey breast in the crock pot. 

And here’s a bit of fun… I saw an article in Hallmark magazine about using Shrinky Dink plastic to make Valentines, and got quite inspired. And ordered some. With grand ideas of making wonderful intricate cut-outs and shrinking them. Well. The plastic is a bit harder than I expected, and cutting it out wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. But I did play with it for the better part of Sunday afternoon, and with the help of watercolor pencils, ended up with this one sweet little piece. I only cut the outside edge, but I haven’t given up on the idea of interior cutting yet! And it was just as fun as it was when I was a kid. Here it is in reference to my 3 1/2″ scissors…

And a close-up… 

Just plain fun.

 

Inspiration.

Kate and I left a little early for one of her programs yesterday… it’s not every day that we go to the big metropolis, so we thought we’d hit the craft store and the fabric store. We realized that it was a Day Off for much of the world when we tried to go the the bank and post office on our way out, but didn’t think that would affect anything else in our plans. Turns out, however, that craft stores and fabric stores are favorite destinations for folks that have a Day Off. We homeschoolers are used to empty stores on weekdays, where one  can amble around aimlessly. There were so many people in the stores that we couldn’t even think, and one must think in a craft store or a fabric store in order to consider buying things, so we came home with little to nothing. Except we did buy some black fabric to line some curtains, and a copy of Artful Blogging magazine, and took turns soaking in the tub and reading it! There are some really neat blogs featured in there… Hubby even looked through it early this morning and thought it was a neat magazine! (And Hubby’s choice of magazines usually involves construction equipment or firearms, so that was a very good compliment!) 

Kate’s programs went well, although she nearly had no voice left by the time she finished! It was at an assisted living facility, and she decided she wanted to live there. We had mostly ladies attending, although there were a few gentlemen. One of them fell asleep, another kept saying “I thought this was about War!” and a third said “I’ve had enough of this.” And left.

Poor guys… I guess corsets and petticoats aren’t their thing! The ladies had a grand time, though, and we loved talking to them. The lady that sat beside me had been a seamstress, and another lady was 97, and didn’t look or act a day over 70! I hope I have that much energy at 97!

Well, I’m off to do something constructive! Before I go, let me share with you a tiny treasure I received on Saturday…a little tiny Valentine from across the country! I put it next to the happy little Mint Snowman to show how small it is! I think next year I’m going to have to start a miniature Valentine Tree!

 Thank you Mrs. Staggs!

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.
Philippians 1:3 

I. Am. Impressed.

Take a look at what our store ladies accomplished! These are only the papercuttings that ended up being framed here… there were quite a few more! I am so excited about how they turned out! Great Job Ladies!!!

 

And this wonderful surprise came in yesterday’s mail… I was expecting it, but didn’t know what to expect! The papercutter’s trade group decided to do a Valentine book, and a bunch of us cut a bunch of Valentines, and a very dear lady bound them into a book for us! It was so inspiring to see everyone’s contributions! Thank you ladies for sharing!

Procrastination.

Hello Everyone! Hope your Wednesday was lovely! Ours was pretty busy… I painted frames most of the morning, and now they’re waiting for me to paint the black edges. And here I am posting and drinking tea and eating Cool Mint Creme Oreos. (Trying to build up my stamina.) Here’s what’s waiting for me on the art room table…

All of these are destined for the wonderful papercuttings our store ladies made! I am so proud of them all! Three of our ladies have come back to pick up some more patterns… and one taught her grand-daughter to papercut since the class and needs patterns for her! I’ll post some pictures once we get them framed.

Another part of my day was spent de-germing the place. Kate came down with a very nasty bug this weekend. She was coughing on Friday, and by Saturday night she was down for the count. Almost. She had a dance workshop planned for local homeschooling families, and somehow managed to teach a few folks to dance while sitting in a chair holding a microphone. She doesn’t give up easily!

Then, she spent the next three days wrapped in a quilt cocoon in the living room recliner. She emerged today, and we decided to take full advantage of an oddly placed May-like day to disinfect her cocoon and hang it out to dry…

 

Then we headed out to search for crafts supplies… one can always use more of those… and I think we overdid her first outing a bit, because she’s just crashed again since dinner. Hopefully tomorrow will bring more improvement, and hopefully nobody else will come down with this bug!

Well, I guess I can’t procrastinate any longer! Off to paint!

Schnip, schnip, schnip!

Yesterday we had twelve ladies (including Mom, Kate, and me!) playing with paper in the art room! It was our first ever, “store ladies” scherenschnitte classes, and I think they all did a great job! Everyone created a small coffee-stained papercutting to take home, and we all had a grand time! As usual, we forgot to take pictures in the thick of the creative process, but we’re having another back-to-back snipping session tomorrow, so if you’re coming, be sure to brush your hair! But, we do have pictures of some of the results…

We had such fun with the two groups yesterday… the first group was larger, very chatty, and funny! We snipped and glued, drank lots of tea and coffee, and I was very glad to have Mom & Kate to help. They took turns with the staining & ironing area and snacks, and also kept one table of ladies on track. And we only had one tiny wound, which was quickly treated with a band-aid and antibiotic ointment. (Note to self: give more instruction on the sharpness of X-Acto blades!) Our second group was much smaller, and very serious. These ladies got down to business and were very quiet papercutters! As soon as they finished their work, then they started chatting, and we all schemed our next project… flower pounding! After laboring intensively with a craft knife, I think the idea of whacking something with a hammer was quite appealing! (Joyce, I showed them your beautiful quilt!) There was quite a bit of interest in doing some more papercutting classes, though, so I guess it wasn’t too intense!

Now I’m off to add some new Valentine pictures to our Currently For Sale page! Check it out!