It's an Infusion Day - Oh Joy *NOT*

Today is, as usual, a busy day. I start by driving out to the ends of the metro world for my semi-annual infusion. I absolutely hate these shots, but they're holding my bones together, keeping them from turning into Swiss cheese or dust. So I will do what I always do - I'll persevere. 

My bones are crap - always have been. They're getting worse, 
though. Just taking a daily pill was no longer working, so I've 
been switched over to infusions every six months. Today is 
that lucky day *sigh*. 

Today will also be a "find the right frame" day. I have those two artworks and I want to get them into frames ASAP. I'm hoping I can find some that already have UV conservation glass, but if not, I can cut some to fit at the shop. I laid the pieces out for Chickie yesterday and she's totally in love with them too. Said her Mom would love to have "Dawn". Although I would love to give it to Claire - she's been such a support over the past few months - I just can't afford to ignore the close to $200 each picture will fetch after being framed appropriately. So no ... they'll be at the shop and sold to someone who will also fall in love with them. 

I wish I could spend the time to give you a much 
better idea of the true colors here. The dark is purple, 
the light is more beige, and the painting itself has 
a lot more mid-pinks in it than evident. Of course, 
the mats aren't taped either, this was just a quick 
photo for my reference. 

I'll have to do a minimal grocery shopping trip also, but if I don't, I'll probably be OK until next week. I still have a watermelon on my counter that needs cutting up. We won't starve - LOL. 

I already cut up the honeydew, but still have a watermelon 
on my kitchen counter that needs to be cut up. I do love 
my summer fruits. 

Not much to say today, just focused on what I need to accomplish over today. All things considered, it's not bad to be focused every now and again. Have an excellent Friday and Slava Ukraini. I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up the week. 

After Forever, I Finally Was Able to Play With my Mat Cutter - Connie Seabourn Artwork

I had the usual things on my agenda yesterday - grocery shopping, cooking, and bit of housekeeping. I decided to make some of my baked pork chops because it's easy, tasty and doesn't take up a lot of refrigerator room. My refrigerator room is being taken up with cut-up honeydew and cut-up watermelon. I took the time I had left in the afternoon and worked on the presentation for two small Connie Seaborn pieces. I'm very happy with how they turned out, although I'm still slightly off square on the mat cutter. I'll have to play with that a bit more and see if I can get it 100% square. 

This first piece is titled "Pueblo Dawn". It's 
a lovely small piece with more depth every time I 
look at it. I chose an off-white texture for the 
inner mat, on top of a blue/purple for the outer mat.
 The mat choices are identical for the pair. 

The first piece is called Pueblo Evening. It's in blues and purples on her hand-made watercolor paper. The finished size is 8-1/2 x 11, and I'll try to find a frame tomorrow for it. I know what I want, but would rather not have to order it. 

This is the companion piece - Pueblo Evening. 
Although I'm framing them at the same time and
purchased them together, I doubt they'll be sold as a set.
I think that would be cost prohibitive for most of my
customers. In this piece, you get the sense of
timelessness that I always feel when I'm
visiting the pueblos in New Mexico. 

The second finished mat is for Pueblo Evening. She's pulled out the warmer peach and pink colors, keeping the basic blues and purples, making it a bit softer and more like a moonlit scene. 

I'm using my C&H Signature mat cutter for these. 
I took it completely apart last week and cleaned 
everything. I'm pretty happy with this first attempt 
at a mat, although it's still very slightly out of true 
90 degree cuts. I'll have to work on that a bit more 
tomorrow to try and improve it. When adjusted properly, 
it should give me perfect 90 degree cuts. Adjustments 
are very fussy, however. 

Ideally I would have preferred to frame the two small watercolors as a single piece, but they retail for $125/each unframed, and the combo framed would retail between $375-$450. That's a lot for small pieces, even if they are original watercolors from an established artist. Will I actually get what I'm supposed to when I sell it? Who knows? I know their worth. DH doesn't like her work, so as far as he's concerned, it's money wasted. I actually have quite a lot of her work still to frame - larger pieces, mostly. I thought I'd start small while I'm still fine tuning the equipment. 

Connie Seabourn is a well-known, respected watercolor 
artist based in Oklahoma. I'm not finding tribal identification 
on her website, so she might have married into the tribe. 
I know she was exhibiting at events that required tribal 
identity. Given her area of the country, I would say that 
she's Cherokee or Choctaw, but she doesn't have to be 
full-blood to be Native American and qualify for the shows 
where I first met her and her artwork. 

So, I'm off to the pool for my final swim of the week. We'll possibly have showers, but if there's no thunder or lightning, we'll still be able to swim outdoors. Have a great day and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It's Not Starting Out Well Today *sigh*

I'm not having the best of mornings today. I realized I left my audio book waterproof headphones at the shop, so I have no book to listen to while swimming today. WTH you might think to yourselves. Yeah. Well, I listen to books because otherwise swimming is boring - just pure boring. I don't particularly enjoy boring. I might make a really quick post today and run to the shop before heading to the gym. I might not have any power to the headphones, so I'll be in the same mess, but at least I'll have them at hand. *sigh*

 

I use Shokz Underwater Headphones to listen to audio books 
while I swim. Other people probably would prefer music, 
but I've always had my nose in a book. 

Things were messed up last night, and that's why things are messed up today. Chickie ran a charge through the machine for $4 less than the actual transaction amount. Yes, I can get it adjusted. But it's a total PITA and took me an additional 30 minutes of time before I could shut everything down and return home. I'm quite sure that's why my headphones were forgotten. ARGH! 

I'm heading to the shop to retrieve my headphones. I'm sure 
they'll be out of power, but maybe not. At least I'll have them 
back. If I can't find them, I'll buy a new set today. I need my 
books in the pool. 

So, I'm going to do that. I'm going to take a quick run the opposite direction to drop by the shop and see if that's indeed where they are. So I'm wrapping this up and I'll catch up with all of your comments and your own posts a bit later today when I've got things cooking and have a bit of spare time. Have an excellent day and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Boxes and Water - the Texas Floods and Swimming Pool

We've been so busy with getting the store into shape for sell-down, I've hardly had room/time to think at all. I'm really grateful that I did drop out of LJ Idol this time. I don't think I would have been able to handle that stress on top of everything else. DH and I are snapping at each other, I suspect the stress is getting to both of us. Add to that the lack of customers (at least yesterday) - I had three people through the door, only one purchased anything, and that was under $10. Not exactly a stellar day, although I did get a lot of busy-work done. 

Our wall of boxes is NOT this organized, but it's equally 
intimidating. It's stacked 3-4 deep up multiple layers, but 
it's boxes of various sizes and weights and really is a 
mish-mash. It's all stuff that we need shredded, but we only 
want to contact the shredders a single time. 

DH decided he wanted to clear some sales bins from the back of our leather/hides area. Great ... except we really don't have any space in which to put them or their contents. *sigh* He wants to tackle our "Wall of Shredding" - apparently he needs to double-check some boxes that were put there early - meaning they're at the bottom of the pile, and close to the back. The pile is at least 4-5 boxes high, and more than 3 rows deep,. so a lot of digging for him to find whatever he's looking for. *sigh* You'd think he would have thought about these boxes two-three years ago! But no ... he has to go on a tear to get to them now. *sigh*

It's always a good day when I can start it out with a swim 
under the rising sun. 

I can work out some of my frustrations in the pool today. I'm totally in favor of that because I really need to de-stress a bit, and swimming is a great way to do just that. The weather should be great - not too cold, and not overly hot. I'm already looking forward to it. 

That horrific flood in Texas - quite amazing the power of 
water and how quickly it rose. The current death-toll is 
104 people. As I was listening to the news throughout the 
day, it seemed the death toll was increasing by the hour. 
What a tragedy! And so many kids! So very sad. 

And then, there are the floods in Texas. OMG - what can be said about something so horrible and destructive. I've been on the outskirts of several floods in Colorado over the years, and they're so frightening. The power of water ... it's amazing and awe-inspiring. But all of those kids drowned ... tragedy doesn't begin to describe it. My heart bleeds for those families who have lost a loved one to the waters. 

It's always good to look at what you did during your day 
that helped someone else in some way. You can make a 
real difference one person at a time. 

Have an excellent Tuesday, I'm off to the pool. Be kind, say positive things, and try to make the world a bit better because you're sharing it with the people you're interacting with. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It Was Good Sunday - Plants, Framing and Watercolors

I hope all of you had a great weekend. Today it's Monday, the holidays are behind us until Labor Day, so it's time to get back to a normal schedule and work hard at whatever tasks you have planned. We're moving ahead with getting the store closed. It's fits and starts, but it's slowly getting to the point where we'll be able to work with the consultant I've chosen and get this going. I've almost got the mat cutter aligned and set up, ready to cut. I'm actually hoping to get my first pieces cut and framed this week. Just a couple of more details to go. 

I've totally cleaned my horizontal cutter, and lubricated it. I need 
to double-check the alignment of the cutting heads, and if they are 
parallel to the materials stop bar, then I'm ready to go. I should be 
able to finalize the set-up on Wednesday. I replaced both the 
straight and the bevel blades this morning, so I'm ready to cut. 

We have a pair of hawks that have decided to include our house in their territory. I suspect that's one really good reason why I'm not getting hummingbirds to my feeder this year. They're not stupid birds, and if a predator is stalking the area, why go here when there are so many other flowers available nearby? The male hawk is a beauty. He sits in the tree that's just south of our utility shed, up in the very high branches. Although he also roams the territory, he always seems to return to one specific location in that tree. After looking at him through binoculars, we've come to the decision that it's a Broad-Winged Hawk. We know he's part of a mating pair because we hear his mate calling to him now and again. 

Isn't he lovely? This is a Broad-Winged Hawk. He likes 
sitting in the tree nearest to my storage shed. He gets a 
great view from that location. His mate is in a tree on my 
neighbor's property. They'll call back and forth to each 
other now and again. 

The garden is doing really well. My tomato plants are almost as tall as I am, and I really do need to start harvesting and drying some of my herbs. Anyone got any good recipes out there that use fresh basil? After a rocky start, my basil is growing like crazy! 

I've never had fresh basil before and am not 
exactly sure what I want to use it for. So ... any 
hints or recipes you could send my way would be 
very appreciated. 

I should be able to finish fine tuning the alignment of the horizontal mat cutter on Wednesday, and then I'll try to frame two original water colors by Connie Seaborn. I adore her work, DH isn't as fond of it. She did two small pieces for me. Normally on pieces this small, I'd frame them together in an offset position, but they retail for $125/each, so I'll do each one on their own. It would be great if they sold as a set, but $250+ (framing costs will be additional money) ... well, I think I'll have much better luck selling them individually at the price I'll have to ask. 

This is a larger example of Connie Seaborn's work. She works 
in watercolors on thick, absorbent papers which allows her to 
lay on layers of color to create some wonderful depth. She's 
a very fun lady, also. I always liked her, DH was less fond of her. 

So, I'm wrapping this up and heading for the shop. It's a Monday, so no Chickie until tomorrow. That always makes for a interesting day in terms of times for bathroom breaks and whether I get a lunch break or not before 4:00 pm. *sigh* Have a wonderful day and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Independence Day Celebrations are Over - Back to Work

I hope all of my US friends had a wonderful 4th of July. There were idiots around me who were setting off fireworks last night, but I fell asleep quickly in spite of them, and simply hoped that my yard would be unharmed when I awakened this morning. It's raining now, so any missed sparks or embers that could have been a concern are being dowsed by Mother Nature. Yesterday, however, was the 4th of July, a day off, and the weather was absolutely perfect! 

Yesterday was the 4th of July - Independence Day in the USA. 
So we had a day off, and enjoyed it by spending time in the 
garden and doing minimal cooking for maximal effect (my 
favorite type of cooking - LOL). 

I dislike fussing in the kitchen, and DH had purchased a pork shoulder for our dinner. I didn't have an immediate recipe at hand, so I did a quick search and found this one, which sounded pretty good. I followed the directions and it was AMAZING. I will TOTALLY make this one again and again. Minimal work, maximum taste - a total winner. It's called "Slow Cooker Pork Shoulder (Crockpot Recipe - Fall-Apart Tender!)" and it's posted by Foodess. Incredible! (https://foodess.com/slow-cooker-pork-loin/) Highly recommended. I've given it 5 stars and I'm putting it into my SAVE pile. I only used sliced onion at the base - didn't have carrots, don't eat potatoes, and skipped the garlic. It didn't seem to make any difference because it's the slow cooker liquid that really works the magic. I also didn't make gravy - it really was unnecessary, and I don't use cornstarch in things that I eat. 

The sear and the marinade for this pork 
loin was absolutely fabulous. I'm making this 
one again, for sure! 

Most of it cooks in the crock pot, so we headed outside to enjoy the shade on the patio while the dinner did its' thing. After it had cooked for the requisite amount of time, I pulled it out and put it into a hot oven (450F) and started the basting. I had made the basting sauce, and per instructions, poured 1/3 over the roast. Then, putting the roast into the oven, I basted it by brushing on the sauce every five minutes for at least 6 times. Instructions said until the basting sauce was used up. I'll need to clean the oven door - there was some dripping on my part. But it was absolutely amazing - so very tasty!! And all things considered, it was a pretty easy cook. 

My oval crockpot is a bit older than this version, 
but it's a fabulous appliance and I use it quite a 
lot. This time it saved me a lot of kitchen time and 
allowed me to make a total winner of a dinner without
a lot of muss and fuss. 

So I hope all of you had a lovely and safe 4th of July in the USA, and I hope that the rest of my friends who live in other nations had a great Friday. Today I'm returning to the shop for one day of work, and then I'll get tomorrow off. Two days off in three days total is so rare. I'm going to enjoy every little bit of it. Have an excellent weekend, I'll be back on Monday morning. Slava Ukraini. 

Fighting With My Equipment - But It's Actually a Lot of Fun (Most Of the Time)

Happy July 3rd to all of my on-line friends and readers. I'm warning you that you'll get a 4th of July "Splash Page" tomorrow, but not a full post. It's a holiday and I'm going to enjoy it. I'll probably still work out on the treadmill, but no absolute guarantee. I might allow myself a bit of a sleep-in instead since there will be no more holidays until Labor Day in September. 

I had the black metal edges of each side above removed for 
cleaning and adjustment. Getting them off was easy. Getting 
them back on was another matter entirely. But I persevered, 
and after more than 30 minutes, finally succeeded in getting 
everything reassembled perfectly. Now to test the actual cut 
and whether the blade track will need adjustment at all. 

I started a serious cleaning of my horizontal mat cutter yesterday afternoon. It needs a good clean, the blades need to be aligned, and everything needs to be totally square up. At the time I chatted with Aearwen a bit later, I had the placement blocks at the top and bottom of the cutter unscrewed. That was easy. It turned out that the hard part was getting them back together properly. I discovered a great deal about a specific set screw, but putzed  with it for the full hour I was chatting with Aearwen. Then, within 10 minutes of hanging up with her, I finally managed to get the equipment properly reassembled. "Whew"! That was a bit of a job. I changed one of the blades in the head, but the other blade is a total ARGH. It's next to impossible to get out of the blade holder. I don't have a replacement blade of that shape either (that I could find), so I may have to order a packet, then take EVERYTHING apart once again. I'll do that on a day when DH is working and I'm home since it's obviously picky. 

The mat cutter is a precision piece of equipment. It's factory 
adjusted, but things can happen over time to knock the cuts 
out of true. I'll be testing the settings on Friday. I got everything 
thoroughly cleaned yesterday and managed to get everything 
back together again (eventually). THAT was a challenge - LOL. 

But on something like a machine like this, it has to be precise. Even 1/16th of a inch off will show in a larger piece. If all I'm doing are small pieces of artwork, it's not as major. But if I'm doing something that requires an opening of anywhere from 24 x 36 or similar ... that small 1/16th inch difference really can play in and make the end product trash. DH brought home two pieces of matboard for me, though. I need one piece to cut and one for the "scrap" piece that is put below it. When cutting a mat, you always have a "scrap" or "slip" piece underneath. It allows for a clean cut through the actual mat. 

A mat cutter, when properly aligned, will allow the framer 
to cut precise 90 degree angle corners in mat boards, 
allowing the artwork to look great on any wall. Even a small 
amount out of alignment will show, and it won't be a good 
thing for any customer. 

So, now that I've bored all of you, I think I'll wrap this up and head over to the swimming pool for my final swim of the day. Yesterday was crowded. I ended up with three in my lane, so we circled. Ruth swims slower than I do, and the young lady who joined us a bit later swam faster than us, but we managed quite well. It was a boring swim for me, though. I had managed to forget my underwater headphones at home, so I had no book to listen to while swimming. *sigh*. I can manage (and did manage), but I really prefer to listen to my audio books while in the water. It makes the time go faster. Have an excellent 3rd of July. I'll be back with a full post on the 5th. Slava Ukraini!