Join, or Die.

Hubby and I laughed while setting up our table at Mount Vernon… I told him it looked like “War and Peace.” Half of the pictures were peaceful… Lions & Lambs in peaceful kingdoms, Distelfinks standing on hearts that say “Peace,” and lots of gentle quotes and Bible verses. The other half was a stark contrast… a Patriot on horseback brandishing a sword, tea being tossed of a ship in the Boston Harbor, and Patrick Henry raising his clenched fist at tryanny. After a good chuckle at our attempts to make these themes fit on the same table, we decided Thistle Dew Mercantile is definitely well-rounded.

One of our newest silhouettes was inspired by the “war” side of our well-roundedness. Friday morning, as we were packing to leave, I had an idea. The kind that’s not always the best thing to have as you’re packing to leave, as ideas can often mean that we don’t leave quite on time. This idea was inspired by a political cartoon created by Ben Franklin and published in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1754. Hubby was a good sport and gathered up framing supplies to take with us, as I worked feverishly on the pattern. I was just finishing cutting the first one as we went over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. It’s a little different from most of our cuttings, since it’s in pieces, instead of all one piece. I think that’s the point of the cartoon. I had to be really careful not to lose the snake pieces with the AC blowing in the van!

And it was the first thing to sell on Saturday morning.

A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.
~Thomas Jefferson~

Schnibbles and Bits… or the state of things.

This photo just about sums up my life at the moment:

That’s about all the schnibbles I can balance on my cutting board without spilling them. I think I dumped at least three loads of schnibbles in the trash today. Yesterday I had an incredible creative thought to save them and make handmade paper with them for Christmas presents. Today that thought seemed absolutely insane, so I threw away yesterday’s collection of paper bits. Wild imaginings and occasional melt-downs sometimes often happen the week before shows start.

Hubby said to take a picture of the tables, so as to give a better impression of the state of things. Here’s the art room table (Note the Very Important Cup of Coffee!):

And the dining room table… which must be cleared for birthday cake by tomorrow night (Somebunny’s turning 20 tomorrow!):

Extreme papercutting. It should be a new sport.

I’m off to soak in a hot tub with lots of bubbles and MJ’s latest magazine. Maybe I’ll get some more creative ideas!

Oh dear.

Framing…

Well, today was framing day! Whew! We didn’t quite get everything finished because Hubby took a break to cut the grass and I took a break to take a nap. (I thought that was a fair deal.) Kate attempted to go yard saling with her Nana this morning, but they couldn’t find any, so she came home, did piles of dishes, and balanced her checkbook, which provided hours of entertainment for us. She does some very interesting things with numbers! It went sort of like this…

“New Math”

Well, not quite, but you get the idea!

One of our Lady Liberty’s made it into a frame! I accidentally reversed her when cutting her out, but those following her will be facing the same direction as the watercolor. I liked how she turned out…

Long may our land be bright,
with freedom’s holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King! 
~ My Country ‘Tis of Thee ~ 

Happy Chickens and a Surprise Visitor!

We have happy chickens at the Frey Farm. Here is proof…

And this is the state of my refrigerator. It overfloweth. (Ignore the expiration dates… we recycle old egg cartons!)

In honor of our productive poultry, here is one of the new Spring papercuttings…

Yesterday we had a bit of a surprise! We were reading together, and heard a familiar sound coming from the woodstove. There was a bird in the chimney. Actually it had been there the day before, and we left the woodstove door open, because they usually work their way up into the stove, thrash around in the ashes a bit, and then fly around the house until one of us manages to catch and release the poor frightened creature. It is nearly always a starling, and Oreo the cat gets very excited by the whole adventure. However, this bird was having trouble getting out of the bottom of the chimney. It sounded big, and did quite a bit of flopping around. Finally we thought it might be a good idea to open clean-out door on the chimney bottom to see what we had, so Hubby headed outside to remove the starling. And he came back in, with the news that it wasn’t a starling, but something bigger. There was an upright brick blocking the opening, so he had to remove that to see what was had.

And it was a duck! Kate grabbed her gardening gloves and pulled out this beautiful male Wood Duck!

And before I sign off… the Frey Family Quote of the day (So far. It’s only 9:30.)…

Me: (scrambling for a contract I needed in order to make a phone call exactly at 9:00) I think I’ve lost my mind!
Me: (Finding the contract, a second later) Oh! There it is!

 

Ouch.

I took a flying leap last night. We all got busy with things when we first got home, and then around 7-ish I thought it was about time to start something for dinner. I browned some turkey bacon, fried some apples, and was scrambling eggs when Hubby asked me if I wanted him to finish them. “Sure!” I said… “I’d love to get in my jammies and just be comfortable.” So I FLEW up the stairs, rounded the corner into our room, and simultaneously started to pull my ankle length jumper over my head. And… got my right foot tangled up in SOMETHING. While airborne, I wasn’t sure if I should clear my vision, untangle my foot, or catch myself, so I attempted all three. I would have gotten a “10,” had I landed on my feet, but I ended up on my backside, my foot wrapped in a stool I had used to open the attic stairs, with my jumper wrapped around my head.  I was still trying to assess the damage and figure out what was hurting by the time Chris and Kate made it up the stairs. Not my most graceful performance, and thankfully I’m just sore, and nothing was broken! I don’t usually write about changing my clothes, but that was definitely the most impressive thing that happened to me yesterday.

I cleaned up the website a bit the other day, and added some of the collage pictures we did with Jo’s Spencerian flourishes! In the works this weekend are kits for the papercuttings we did with the class (Nearly done!) and Lions and Lambs and Chickens! I’m hoping to pull things together this morning so I can cut at the store this afternoon. I can get quite a bit done there on a Saturday afternoon… even though it’s busy, I’m not looking at laundry or dishes!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Paperwork.

We’re crafters, not accountants. Hubby Dear is determined to finish taxes TODAY. (Fine way to spend a snow day!) He’s done most of the preliminary gathering, and is now trying to make sense of it all. In our efforts of avoidance, Kate has made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and I’ve made potato vegetable chowder. On the woodstove. As we’re buzzing by, this is what the conversation sounded like…. names have been left off to protect the innocent and to keep you guessing who said what…

… What’s this charge… is it business?

… No, that’s laundry detergent.

… How about this one?

…Ummm… perfume.

…Amazon, Amazon, Amazon, Amazon

… If you spend $25 you get Super Saver Shipping!

…Where is your W-2?

… What’s a W-2?…

…Is this it?

…No, those are quarterlies. They were probably supposed to be sent in last year.

…Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Amazon…

…I put everything that looked like taxes in the pile on the counter.

… Michael’s, ASW, Dick Blick….

… Anything that was in the pile stayed in the pile…

…Is THIS it?

… Yes, the words on the outside that say “Important Tax Return Document Enclosed” gives it away.

… Are you sure these are the only receipts you have?

…I was supposed to keep them?

…Call the number… maybe they can tell you what we bought.

…I need your assistance.

… Hold on, I’ve got to add one more thing to the blog post….

…Amazon, Dick Blick, ASW, Amazon…

…Would you like another muffin?

A reminder from yesterday’s post.