Teen1's Birthday

Look at the big beautiful smile. It's hard to believe it has been 17 years since this lovely lady came into our lives. But here she is almost all grown up. Driving a car. Flinging her flag. Thinking of college. Snif snif.

She requested carrot cake for her party, so I baked it last night and frosted it this morning. Once when she was in second grade I baked carrot cupcakes and decorated every one of them like this. We took them to school to share with her class. I like that she mentioned that this morning when she saw the cake. I love that girl. Happy Birthday Teen1.

Halloween Silhouettes

I worked on a little Halloween project last night. I saw something like this in a shop and figured this section of my bookcase would be perfect. They had lined the back of their shelf with orange paper, but I figured the red would be close enough.

I made a tissue paper moon and taped it in front of the light. Then I cut silhouettes of creepy stuff out of thin plastic and spray painted them black. You could use thin cardboard too. I also painted some little fence sections from the craft store. I quickly stuck it on the shelf and took this photo. I hope to add a graveyard scene too. And a scary cat. I'll show that when it's done.

I just love Halloween and all the creepy decorations associated with it. Over the years I've collected rats, bats, crows, caldrons, pots of fire, tombstones, spiders, cockroaches, skulls, and pumpkins. I'll show you some of it in the next few weeks.

Sunflower

I thought you'd enjoy this jolly sunflower. Have a happy Friday everyone.

p.s. Becky was right about yesterday's mystery photo. It was a seed pod from a hollyhock. Such a wonderful cottage flower. My niece Karen gave me the seeds.

Mystery Photo and an Award

I found this interesting thing in my garden yesterday. I'll bet some of you will instantly shout out what it is. So post a comment with your ideas.

Tara, at Days Missed on a Hammock, has graciously given me this award. Thanks Tara, I love your blog too. I know the rules say to award it to seven blogs, but I'm just lazy, so I'm giving it to Have Paints Will Travel. Her blog is gorgeous and inspirational and makes me jealous to the bone! I soooo want to travel and paint.....Check it out - I think you'll love it too.

Boyfriend

Remember the praying mantis (above) that I showed you yesterday? Well, she's got a boyfriend! I noticed this thin handsome chap (below) near her last evening and I'm pretty sure it's a male. He was just sitting there staring at her not moving at all.

Teen2 and I watched them for quite a while, hoping to see some action, but nothing happened. I suggested some wine and soft music, but we had to go to "Back to School Night" so we couldn't do that.
I could swear he was saying, "What we need is a little privacy!"

More Creepy Crawlies

I keep seeing more and more creepy crawlies in my garden. Here is a praying mantis that I found on the roses last evening. I put my camera on macro and got real close.

Everything was ok for a while, then I guess I pushed in just a little too close....

and suddenly it got defensive and crawled up onto my camera. It's really hard to take a good photo when your subject is crawling across the top of your camera! Realizing that I'd molested this bug enough, I put it back on the plant and moved on.

Then I found this tomato horn worm. It's not full grown, only about 1.5" long. I usually find them when they are about 4" long: huge, tomato chomping devils! I simply pick them off and fling them into the field because we're all organic here Amongst The Oaks.

Argiope

We have a fascinating visitor in our garden just now. I first saw it yesterday morning and quickly ran to get my camera. When I approached it ran to the bottom of a leaf to hide, but then another hapless victim flew into the web and I was instantly forgotten.

I think it's an argiope, but the marks on its back are a little different than I've seen before. Can someone help with the exact identification?

I enjoy watching spiders and usually appreciate their value in the garden, but this victim was a honey bee so I have mixed emotions now. Let's just hope she eats flies and such today, shall we?

Cottage Progress

The Lord of the Manor made good progress on the cottage yesterday whilst I merely held the tape measure, swept the dust. polished the sign, installed two light fixtures, and cleaned the windows.

We also went to the High School to watch Teen1's band perform. It's the beginning of their season so all the parents showed up to support, volunteer, and check out the new show. I generally ride on the bus to the out-of-town performances to help with costumes, hair, makeup and chaperoning. It takes a lot of help to make it all happen, but I really enjoy it.

So back to the cottage; here is the kitchen area, all finished and waiting for paint. The sink will be where the black pipe is. The refrigerator will be to the far left with a counter or dresser between the two. Today we hope to put up the wallboard in the bathroom area. We'll soon be covered with dust again here Amongst The Oaks.

Work

The Americans with Disabilities Act has changed our industry quite a bit. Lots and lots of our customers have Braille and raised letters on all their signs. First we cut and paint the blank signs. Then we apply a thin plastic for the letters and route them out quickly before the adhesive gets to aggressive. Last we pull off the excess plastic leaving the raised letters. Our CNC router is invaluable for this type of sign as it cuts the letters and drills the holes for the rasters. Lastly we press the rasters into the holes and clean up the sign.




Here's a stack that I helped with the other day. We have a little tool that sucks the rasters up and holds them until you press them into the holes. It takes quite a bit of pressure to seat them, so my arm was sore by the end of the day, but we got them done. And now Kaiser Permanente is happy, happy, happy with their signs.

We put in about 4000 rasters that day. Who wants to help next time?

Acorn Cottage

The Lord of the Manor has decided that his shoulder is healed well enough to begin working on Acorn Cottage. Maybe I should explain Acorn Cottage a bit...


When we moved to this house 12 years ago, there was a decrepit old shed on the property. It had a cracked concrete floor, lots of rotten boards, and spiders everywhere. All the windows were painted shut, one door was falling apart, and the roof leaked. We used it to house the gardening tools, camping gear, bicycles, and other assorted clobber. Eventually we remodeled the house and the shed looked really tatty. Suddenly it was way worse than before, so early in 2007, we decided to renovate it into a studio/guest house.

First we cut the shed roof off and suspended a wood floor over the cracked concrete. Then we cut new openings for windows and a door, built a new roof, and made two bump-outs to gain extra space without increasing the footprint. The photo above shows the kitchen bump-out. We put in all new vinyl windows, painted the outside, roofed it ourselves, and tiled the floor. Then the Lord of the Manor's shoulder started giving him trouble. Hmmm, I wonder why?


So over the three day weekend, we started working on the interior finish work. We got a fair amount of wallboard up in the kitchen area. And the Lord of the Manor made these window casings. Most finish carpenters take the little pieces and cut them to fit the window, but my finish carpenter just makes the whole unit and slips it into place.

And here it is in place. Isn't he brilliant? And now I've got to get busy with the paint. I'll keep you posted on the progress here Amongst The Oaks.

Horse Woman's Birthday

Here is my other sister back in the 1950s. This had to be Easter; see the eggs and basket? Well, it's her birthday today! Let's all wish her a Happy Happy Birthday. I love you sister.

To Market, To Market

I spent some time wandering around antique shops over the weekend. I found this green wire basket that looks like it belongs in the cottage. When we got back from the farmer's market on Sunday I played with the produce and the new basket. And PW's actions again. Dreamy, isn't it?

Then I finally stopped playing around, set the table, and had a relaxing evening outdoors Amongst The Oaks with BIL & SIL.