Problem Solved

          I'm thinking.

          I'm thinking and thinking. Hmmm. I don't have much to write about this week. We didn't go anyplace. Didn't do anything special. Then I download my camera!

          The first thing I did this week was clean my desk off and took a picture to prove it. I put away the papers I wanted to keep and tossed the ones I'll never look at again. Now I'll be able to find my pen when it goes missing.

          Today when I look over there I see I'm up to my old tricks again. I have a book slid up against the side.

          "Peg, how about the other side?" you say.

          I cleaned that one too. Glancing over there, I see a piece of mail I'd gotten, read, and slid in behind the Pedi-paws and iPad.  

          "Peg, you get mail you keep?" you wonder.

          Not a lot of it. But I did get the prettiest thank you note from my Miss Rosie with the sweetest words written on the inside. On the outside are lots of my favorite things. Birds, owls, (not that owls aren't birds but I especially love the owls) foxes, deer, and rabbits. Center stage is a rosy-cheek snowman holding a broom and it's snowing! I just couldn't bear to throw it away just yet so I stuck it back there.

          "I thought Miss Rosie was your neighbor," you say.

          She is.

          "And she sent you a card in the mail?"

          I know, right! The first time she did it, I got on her. "You could save a stamp and just give it to me."

          "That's alright," she said. "Who doesn't like to get mail that's not a bill."

          And that's how Miss Rosie rolls.

          "What was she thanking you for?" inquisitive minds wanna know.

          I'm so glad you asked! I finished the Christmas wreath I made for her Christmas gift and took it down to her.

          This piece was a challenge for me. It's the largest piece I've ever made. Forty-six pieces. And I worried about it being too heavy and the seams separating.

          "Put a piece of wire the whole way around the outside," Mike suggested.

          I didn't wanna do that. I Googled it and discovered they don't even worry about reinforcing a piece until it's over three feet. This is about 12 inches by 12 inches. Does that mean it's a foot square? Anyway, I made sure I put the hangers on a seam between two pieces to give it added strength. 

          "Watch it for a while," I advised Miss Rosie. "If it starts to pull away, take it down and give it back to me. I'll figure something else out."

          Making this piece cost me.

          I bled!

          And bled!

          I bled more with this piece than any other piece I've ever made! I don't normally get guts... er.. cuts when I'm working with my glass but in this case, I used a textured glass for the red ribbon because I thought it would be ribbon-like and pretty and interesting. Do you see all those lines? I wanna say they're raised ridges but I think ridges by definition means raised so it would be redundant. 

           After I scored and broke a piece, those ridges left evil little sharp spears behind. If that weren't bad enough I had little splinters all over the place! Ouch, ouch, double ouch!

          "I'm not sure she's worth all this trouble," Mike said as I applied a third band-aid to my fingers.

          "Oh yes she is!" I quickly defended. "She's worth this and more!"

          I'm proud of this piece and I'm even more proud to call this beautiful lady my friend.

          You may remember my new recipe fail from last week. The seasoned, slow-cooked pork chops were tough and not very good. I took the leftovers, got my food processor out, and made them into a sandwich spread. That made it slightly more palatable and I ate my half made with Duke's Mayonnaise. Mike still didn't like the seasonings I cooked the chops with and his half, made with Miracle Whip, got tossed out for the critters.

          This week I tried another new recipe. I made Cauliflower soup.

          Oh well, I thought as I stirred it. If it's bad I can talk about another fail. But it wasn't bad. In fact, it's pretty good. I think this recipe is a keeper.

          

          I've also made some new crafty things this week.

          I've had it in my head for a while now to make a copper and bead suncatcher. One of the things I wanted to use was some pretty, homemade enamel flowers. You twist your wire into shape and coat it with nail polish. Sounds easy, right? Well, trying to get the bubble to form across the wires isn't all that easy and you have to use a lot of polish. Even then they sometimes pop and you have to do it all over again. I made two this way and the whole time my mind is working, wondering.

          Polish can get expensive. Can you use paint?

          The first one I did with paint was easy-breezy. I changed colors and it was downhill from there. The paint was thicker. I tried thinning it with water and still couldn't get the bubbles to stay. There I was struggling and thinking, what can I add to make this easier. And into my head pops, dish soap. It makes bubbles. That worked fabulously! But when it dried they all popped. The dish soap had no staying power. Glue, I'm thinking. And mixed the next one with glue. That didn't work any better to get the bubbles to form. I saw a video on YouTube where they dipped the petals in the glue first, let it dry, then painted it with nail polish. I tried that and could not get Elmer's to form a bubble. Still, all in all, I ended up with enough flowers during my experimenting to make the piece I wanted to make.

          The paint flowers dried and I had a problem with them. They weren't as shiny as the nail polish flowers. I ended up coating them with clear nail polish. I want to get away from using nail polish but for now, problem solved.

          I made my circle then twisted wire into a dragonfly. That does not look like a dragonfly, I thought as I examined my creation. It looks more like a butterfly.

          I made my circle then twisted wire into a butterfly. Then set about making curly qs for my butterfly to sit on. I laid it all out then drug out my box of beads and spent the next hour trying to decide on shapes and colors. I ended up with this.

          I got a fresh cup of coffee, sat at the table, and worked on weaving this all together. When I was laying it out I didn't take into account how I was going to attach things. Everything has to be anchored. I had to do a slight revision as I worked.

          It's kinda funny because sometimes things tell me how they want to be. And I'm always happy to let them have their way. Take for instance the little three-petal flower. I was working along and pick up the ring to twist a wire and he grabs on and holds on tight, right there at the top. Okay, I'm thinking. If that's where you want to live. And that's where I put him.

          "Peg, how long did it take you to make it?" you wonder.

          I don't know. I'm not into time keeping. But I worked on it for two solid days. If I had to guess, I'd say... ten hours? 

          Those little flowers are so much fun to make — despite the aggravation of getting the bubbles to form, and I wanted to make some more. I went back to the original way I was making them. I painted a blue one. After it dried, I decided to accent it with pink. Well, guess what. You can't put wet nail polish on top of dry, no matter how fast you swipe it! It dissolves the layer under it. I fixed it with some orange paint but you could still see where the hole was.

          Maybe I'll make that a ladybug.

          And I did.

          Problem solved.

          So now I know if I want to have accents and different colors on the same petal I either have to do it while the polish is wet or use paint.

          I really like the idea of having a base to paint on. It makes adding the color so much easier. So I went to work and tackled that problem. I had one more idea. I have some Mod Podge and decided to give that a try. I twisted a new flower and dipped it. The Mod Podge worked perfectly! I tried it several more times and it worked every time. That's the way to do it.

          Problem solved!

          My last problem isn't as hard to solve. I want my flowers to be shiny. I can either keep using clear nail polish or I can dip them in polyurethane. But I'm not running out to buy a can of polyurethane. I bet I have some here someplace. Twice! I went out to my shop twice to look for it. I went into the wayback. I even looked around the shelves in the garage and I couldn't find any. I'm not one to give up too easily when I want something so I went out into my shop one more time and there it was. A can of polyurethane I bought... mmm... five years ago. I'm sure it's been frozen at least once, maybe three times. Is it any good? I wondered. I worked on that lid and I worked on that lid. It was either on there tight or glued on, I don't know which. I used a screwdriver on it until the lip was bent almost straight and it was getting hard to find a pry point, then switched to pliers, then back to the screwdriver. Again, my persistence and never-giver-upidness paid off and I got the lid off. Another trip to the wayback nets me a stir stick and you can guess what I found. It was separated into two layers. Liquid on top, solids on the bottom. I stirred and stirred. It kinda looked like honey with big gobs of soft amber colored wax in it. I let it sit while I Googled it.

          Don't let it freeze, the internet tells me.

          Well too late for that, I think.

          If it's not any good it won't set up and it'll be tacky.

          S'kay. When I went back to the can I realized the gobs were smaller. I stirred it more and it was actually looking pretty good — almost smooth. I dipped a test flower or two in it. If it didn't set up and I threw the flowers out, it wasn't a big deal.

          I let everything sit overnight and checked them in the morning.

          They were tacky.

          I decided to try some heat. I got one of those old fashion light bulbs, you know, the kind that produces heat, put it in the light at my workstation, put the flowers under it and walked away. A couple of hours later, when I checked, they weren't sticky anymore. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I can probably put a whole tray of 'em in the oven on low heat. That'll be my next experiment. Now, I have a whole new garden growing. 

          Speaking of handmade things, my old friend Trish makes tissue box covers and has quite a following of ladies in her part of the world. Aren't they just beautiful!

           When I downloaded the week's worth of photos, I remembered we had snow. Even though it's warm out there this morning, a balmy 62 on a January Sunday morning in northeast Pennsylvania, we had a couple of inches earlier in the week — and I took pictures for you!

          Ginger and I walked up around the barn then down to the pond. She's off-leash and stays with me pretty good.

          Snow on a pine bough.

          On the spent feathery head of Virgin's Bower. 

          On the Bittersweet. These are the only berries I see out there. 

          Snow caps on the Bergamot.

          A closeup.

          Then I became aware that Smudge was following us. He's getting so big.

          Our pond has a good amount of water in it.

          A trip to town nets me a couple of truck pictures. We follow a county truck. "What's that hanging off the side?" I asked Mike.

          "A plow. They can move it off to the side when they're not using it."

          The dirty backside of a water truck we followed through the light. Don't ask. I don't know why I took this picture. But there you have it. Actually, now that I think about it, this is pretty much what our Jeep looks like. The mud and slop on our dirt back roads are just awful.

          "Why can't they chip and seal our road," Mike often laments. 

          Downloading my camera and looking at the pictures also reminds me that we visited some friends this week.

          Larry had pictures of a 900-ton crane. Mike found that fascinating and we went to his house to look at the pictures. P&G (Proctor and Gamble) needed this crane to set something on their roof. It took 27 semis to bring all the parts in, it took days to assemble, and they only used it for five hours.

          "I can't imagine what that must've cost them," Mike said.

          I took road pictures.

          An old playhouse. Pretty fancy-schmancy in its day, I bet.

          Larry's place from across the way. Can you see the deer? 

          Same deer. I took this one when we were in the driveway.

          Larry and Sherri are very gracious hosts. We sat and chatted and had coffee. Mike got to look at Larry's pictures as he explained about the photos.

          As we were leaving, Larry said something about his shop.

          "Yeah! I wanna see your shop someday," I said.

          "How about now?" Larry said.

          After all the coffee I had, I would soon be in need of a pee but I wasn't going to turn down a tour of his shop.

          Larry works with metal as well as wood. He made a fabulous spiral staircase for their home.

          "Wow!" I said when I walked in the door. "I love it!" Everywhere I turned, I saw a photo. A pile of bolts caught my attention.

          "Have you ever seen a bolt like that?" Larry asked. "They're for putting steel together. You put a wrench on the nut and another on the bottom here. One goes one way and the other goes the other way. When it's tight it'll click then the bottom snaps off."

          Cool, right!

         "Wanna see Sherri's shop?" Larry asked.

         "Yeah!" I'm not shy.

          One of the first things I see are these birdhouses high up on a shelf. "Look at the birdhouses!"

          "She made a lot of 'em at one time," Larry told me. 

          On the way home I spot something in a tree. "Is that a nest?" I asked. "It's huge!"

          Mike was past it by the time I got over my amazement and sputtered out the words but he backed up for me anyway. I can't tell what it is.

          Later in the week, we had another couple of inches of snow. This woodpecker is the same size as the Starling or maybe a little larger so I want to say he's a Hairy Woodpecker. Their look-alikes, the Downy Woodpecker would be a couple of inches smaller.

          I saw one of the Starlings snuggling down in the snow. Once in a while he'd dip his bill in. Was he finding something there to eat? 

          A little later Ginger goes out. When she comes back in I have to laugh at her because she has snow all over her nose. "What were you looking for in the snow?" I asked. She didn't answer me, but I wondered if she was snuffling around the spot where the bird was nesting in the snow.

          Now speaking of critters, we've come to regret some of our decisions. Letting Molly drink out of the bathroom sink is one of them. All the mornings I've been awakened too early by her incessant yowling for a drink!

          We shocked our well again and didn't think it would be good for her to be drinking bleach water so there were no more drinks from the bathroom sink for her. Needless to say, she wasn't happy about it either. After about a week she's given up asking and I get to stay in bed a little longer in the mornings. Now Molly's drinking out of the water fountain we bought for her so that's a good thing. Actually, several of our cats like the fountain and I have to refill it almost every day.

          Another regret? Anon. She's the prettiest gray and white female, not very big, mother of Smudge, and a bit of a loner. The other two outside females, Sugar and Callie are always together. In the cold weather they even sleep one on top of the other. And I felt sorry for Anon. She didn't have anyone. So we started letting her in the house — no, not letting her, but actually actively bringing her in. At first, it was for short periods of time but pretty soon she got to liking it in here with us and was staying longer and longer. Mike's recliner is the perfect place for a nap, don'cha know.

          Now I know why she's a loner. She's a bully and has a bad attitude. I've walked past her and she'll reach out and swat me. Not to mention she's taken to swatting at the girls and the other cats. If she swats Itsy or Ginger they'll bark and go after her. If she's just around someplace and Ginger sees her, Ginger's afraid of her and has taken to hiding behind me.

           The other cats get into hissing and batting contests with her. So far no blood. Now I actively toss her outside — and she doesn't want to go out. So she avoids letting me get close to her. I have to resort to food and trickery to nab her.

          The other day I had an almost empty peanut butter jar. Macchiato loves peanut butter so I put the jar down for him. Turns out Anon likes peanut butter too! Who knew cats like peanut butter!

          And now I've got a Miss Rosie story to tell. I'm sure she won't mind and it tickles me.

          I picked Rosie up for exercise class the other night. Just inside the church, at the door to the Sunday school room, Rosie stopped to chat with Annette. I heard water running and it was coming from Miss Rosie. I looked and saw it was coming from the bag she held at her side.

          "Miss Rose! You're leaking!"

          She held the bag up and saw the rivulet of water coming out the bottom of her exercise bag. "Oh my," she said and cupped her hand under the flow. "I hope my videos aren't getting ruined." She headed for the sanctuary leaving a wet trail behind her. At the table where we set up for class she set her bag down, dug out the offending water bottle and the videos. Then she took the still dripping bag back out and into the kitchen. I set my stuff down, took off my jacket, and went for the mop. I met Miss Rosie halfway. She'd already gotten the mop and I took it from her. I'd take care of the floor while she took care of everything else. I set about drying the floor (or just spreading the water around) and followed her trail from here to there and back again. I shook my head and smiled. "Miss Rosie!" I called. She came to see what I wanted. "Why didn't you just set your bag down instead of carrying it all over the place?" I asked and laughed so she could tell I was giving her some good-natured ribbing.

          She shrugged. "I don't know," and went back to drying the table.

          Oh well. It didn't hurt the floor any, it didn't hurt me any to mop the floor, the carpet would dry, the videos would dry, and Miss Rosie's getting a new water bottle!

          We've gone from one extreme to the other this week weather-wise. We started the week with snow. It melted and snowed again. It rained. Saturday and Sunday we were above 60! It was nice to be outside and not be cold. I took advantage of the nice weather and did a job I don't do near often enough, especially when it is cold outside.

          "What's that?" you ask.

          I cleaned up the poop from the dog run. I'm ashamed to say that I hauled out four shovelfuls of poo! Although, I think some of it might've been cat poo.

          I don't like the Jerry Springer show. Who needs all that yelling, cussing, fighting, and turmoil? Not me! I don't like most of the judge shows either. That one traffic judge is pretty cool though. He almost always gives people a break. And there isn't any yelling in his courtroom either.

          "Peg, what is your point!" you say.

          Hold on! I'm getting there.

          So there I am, shovel in one hand, rake in the other, and I remember something Judge Judy said. Actually, I remember lots of things she says. "They don't pay me because I'm beautiful. They pay me because I'm smart!" Another thing she always says is, "If it doesn't sound reasonable to me then it's not true."

          One day she was hearing a case between two neighbors and the one's dog would poop in the other's yard.

          "Big deal!" she yells throwing her hands up in the air. "Once it rains — it's gone!"

          That's not true, as my back yard will attest to, or I wouldn't be out there doing the backbreaking job of raking up those smelly little nuggets. And that's when I realized that Judge Judy doesn't know shit!

          Let's end with a couple of sunrise pictures I took on two different mornings. 

 

 

          And don't ever forget. You're all in my heart.

          Let's call this one done!