Work.......Where's the Play??????

Well I got all of the string of lights on the tree.  Of course the one with 100 lights had half the set not working.  I just placed the lighted one on the tree and the dead to the world  half is hanging at the back of the tree where they cannot be seen.  Problem solving means creating the illusion and not showing the reality.  Once the lights were up on Saturday we decided to wait until Sunday to put on the ornaments.

I discovered a setting on the camera that gives me a twinkling photo.  I wanted the night setting but I think it is the movie setting.  Whatever it is it is another illusion.  It makes me look more intelligent than I am.  I really like the twinkle effect.

I see these guys are being reintroduced into the market just in time for Christmas.  This furby doesn't work very well anymore.  If I put new batteries in it, it says hello and then says he is tired and makes snoring sounds and goes to sleep.  He use to be very irritating to my parents when my brother first gave it to them.  The eye above the eyes would pick up  movement and he would be chattering away all the time, night and day.  His chatter was not in English most of the time.

A novel ornament on the big tree.  I am not sure if she is the cupcake angel or what, but she is colorful.  We took an hour to put the ornaments on and it was not done in great precision.  We have a lot of ornaments and the job became a game of finding an empty space to hang the ornament.

I am the sub for the art teacher for the next four days. It is going to be a lot of work and I already can see I am grumpy about it.  I know the job and I recognize what has to be done in an informal classroom.  So that makes it a lot more work than just walking in and following simple teaching plans. I have a kiln to fire each day and unload each morning. I have behaviors to deal with in a lab which are so different than having students all lined up in a row. Passive aggressive behavior is ever present in today's students. Then Friday the teacher will be returning to do grading as it is the end of the semester. I am really glad that I am able to help her out as she is having surgery today.

I hope all is well out there in blog land.  Thanks for stopping in today.

Late Day Posting.......

The tree is up and it looks lonely sitting in the bay window.  The tree hasn't had its branches fluffed and the tree hasn't been shaped in this photo.  Each branch has to be opened to look like a branch and when you are in a hurry I have to rearrange the parts of each branch to get that evergreen look.  Our tree was purchased so  many years ago from a set of display trees that had been put back in the box.  It looks really good when I groom it into shape.  The branches all had a bath a couple of years ago in the bath tub as the years of dust collect among the needles. 

The lights were put on the tree Saturday and it is ready for ornaments.  The angel tree has been set up also with lights and it too is awaiting the placement of ornaments on its branches.  Both trees are still taking second place to all the things we are doing in the gallery frame shop.  That is the frame shop that we said was closed two years ago in October.  People keep coming for special favors to have things framed.

I have framed many wedding memories of the grandchildren of this couple who live nearby.  It makes sense that I do it again for them as they want them to look similar on their wall and the size has to be the same.   They have one more grandchild to get married and then they will be done.  I do think that some of the ones I framed for them were horizontal but the photos that are brought to me determine the direction of the frame. The ribbon with name plate was hand constructed and is uneven.  I had to design a slot for it and encouraged it to have a look of being handcrafted.  Orange with silver was the color theme of the wedding.  I am waiting for the frame to arrive and I can get this together in an hour ready for delivery.

The walnut frame job is still hanging around for me to finish.  I am custom designing the frame as I don't want it to look like his grandpa had made it.  The grandpa is an elderly highly skilled woodworker with many power tools.  I decided to create a frame to highlight the burl wood pattern on the front.  On the back, instead of routing a grove, I have added red oak strips to make an area to insert the glass, matted piece and foamcore backing.  When it is done the frame will project from the wall about a half inch or less and will be seen while handling it.  Is more of a rustic, simple woodworking look.  Maybe it is somewhat like an Amish design but could lean on the simple modern approach.  When it is finally completed you will hear shouts of joy all over the US and Canada and I will share the end product. I plan to put a finish on it tomorrow after school.

I am late posting this today so I will shut down for now. The big tree is now totally done and that is a relief.  It will be easier to do all the other small ones and those trees have been brought up from the basement ready for me to set them up for decoration.  Thanks for stopping by today. 

Coffee Break Time...

It is a busy day today and I will share tomorrow the condition of the state of the household of all that is occupying our time.  Have a good day out there!!!! Thanks for stopping by anyway.....

Friday the 13th of December......

 

Sitting on the edge is what life is like right now.  I know that we have a lot of things now done so we will probably make all our business deadlines.  I really hope that no one comes in now with last minute jobs as we are moving along well enough with our present projects.  We deliver three of Della's work tonight after school.  She has one more commission to finish up and I have three things still hanging over my head.  I do plan on getting our large tree up tonight.  We don't always decorate them right away but the main job is reassembling that tree and getting the lights on it. Other smaller trees that we put up may become be seen this weekend and the decorating will come sooner or later.

The heritage mug also reminds me of the movie I showed yesterday in history class.  The students were watching the movie 1776 about the American Revolution.  It is a complicated story and they tried to include everything in the musical.  John Henry Lee sings a very irritating song in the beginning but it is an interesting way to depict history.  Henry sings while riding a horse and then dismounts and sings and dances with Ben Franklin and John Adams.  That particular scene must be their comedy part of the movie.  Kids were suppose to catch all the clues from the movie including the daily weather report from Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin's gout.

Local tv, no cable at our house, tends to get really bad this time of the year.  So we watch some of our favorite movies.  Usually we do that during snowstorms when we can't get out.  It is December and we have already started the first movie of the Narnia series of three.  TV has had to be really bad as we have already finished off the three Lord of the Rings movie.  I think that was back in November. I am in a rut with the coffee mugs but I am pulling photos from archives today.

This bell was found in a box of things that I bought at a auction back when I was younger.  I think I was in college and I was at the auction of a farmer who was a brother to the John and Iva connection. John and Iva gave me a lot of antiques and his brother had a homestead that was older than theirs.

The box had many wonderful old things in it and I can still smell the powder box that was in the cluttered old box.  I , in later years,  decided that this is a brass bell that was use to be placed above a business door like the ones of the businesses in town.  It would be hit by a projection on the door as a customer would enter the store. It may have been a spring action set up but I just don't remember it.  I can still hear that ring from the old Lasalle store bell that was near us in Lasalle, Iowa.  It was a very small store and filling station run by an older lady who lived up stairs above the store in an attic apartment. Lasalle was a very small French settlement that never grew larger than a hundred people. My dad bought his cigars there and we got candy or ice cream bars. This happened whenever the King Edwards cigar box got to be close to empty.

I found this archived photo of the model of the Split Rock Lighthouse.  The real thing sits on the northern shoreline of Minnesota. It sits on a large rock formation overlooking Lake Superior.  I am finishing off with this lighthouse matching the first photo of the cup in a light house shape.

I am in the high school math room today. It is a work day for them and it should be a smooth day except for a couple of students in each class who can't even handle a free work day.   Thanks for stopping by today.

Thursday's Things......

 

I have too many mugs.  I can post mug pictures from the past for weeks.  As you know that I take a lot of pictures of them.  Anyone who follows me knows this mug pops into the blog every year at this time.  As a gift from one of my staff that I subbed for last week, she gave me another mug.  I don't like to accept gifts as I am paid to do my job.  She was so sick that she was grateful that she knew things would still be in one piece when she returned.  I also spent a lot of time getting her classes back on schedule content wise. The mug that I received is one of those supper large ones from Starbucks. I can fill it and have two cups of coffee without having to refill it.  I assume I could take it with me to Starbucks and get it filled with a mocha latte.  I usually don't buy that size as I could buy a can of coffee for the price of one of those.  I will share a photo later.

The angel tree has been set up.  I was able to squeeze that in while doing other framing jobs. Maybe we will get the ornaments on it this evening.  It usually is the first tree we put up each year.  I moved furniture around in the dinning room to help a heat vent to do a better job.  It meant moving two wooded pieces of furniture and the humidifier.  The humidifier messes with the thermostat in the dining room so I have to place it just right to keep it from changing the temp settings.

My wife had three commissioned dog portrait paintings to do for Christmas.  Last night we matted two of them and have them ready for delivery.  Another commission that she had to do was a portrait of a man who was playing santa clause.  That was a first for her as the man's wife wanted to have him painted in costume.  I was really impressed with the results and maybe after Christmas I can share it with you.  We had to get a mat cut for it and we were successful in getting that done.  All will be delivered tomorrow.

I will be working on a wedding composite tonight and maybe squeeze in the walnut frame project.  I refused the Saturday school job so I can work all Saturday to get things finished.  I do need to mention a former student approached me about painting names and designs on a concrete garden bench.  I said that I would but it will have to take its place in line with everything else.

I will finish by sharing a past post of some of the faces of Christmas we will have in our house.  I do think the seven less days at Christmas time will create a crunch on a lot of things around here.  The down time for me will be the after Christmas time as the winter time off from school is larger this year. A Wednesday Christimas and New Year really messes with the school scheduling of classes. If I could have some of that down time before Christmas it would have been nice.

I am not in the Talented and Gifted room today.  I am in the high school and middle school social studies room today.  We will cover world religions, emperors of China and the 1776 time period in United States history.  It should be an interesting day. 

We are warming up a little but not really thawing out.  I hope you all have a good day and thanks for checking in today.

Wednesday's Wanderings........

Two of my wreaths were hung last night.  I did bring up one of the trees but it is still in the box. I worked on my sanding of the walnut frame.  It is about ready to be assembled and finished with a clear sealer. My attitude of moving through the projects is to make a mark on their progress every single day even if it is a minimal amount. 

Snow is really not the problem for us as much as the cold is very difficult to deal with on such a continual time period.  Our temperatures are cold right now and it is to be colder by this afternoon.  We had a light snow again last night but it wasn't really that measurable. I am grateful that the wind has not picked up too much as it makes it very uncomfortable no matter how many layers of clothes that you are wearing.

I am really getting anxious to get started on the Christmas trees.  I have an early out today so I might see more time to get started on them.  The ornaments are still in the basement in the boxes ready for me to bring them out into the light. I again am subbing in the Talented and Gifted room today.  It is like a resource room for the more successful student to get work completed.  In the old days we called them honor study halls because we behaved well and worked hard.  This group is sort of like this but it is more like they just don't want to be stuck in study hall.

There is a project going on where they created a robot from erector set-like materials.  That is going slow as they need stronger leadership and direction.  I am going to insist that they draw out some sketches and to check out their requirements. I don't think they know what really is the problem that they have to deal with.Before Christmas break the students also tend to go into a sluggish gear.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope all is well where you are.

Tuesday's Tidbits......

It is an old train.  I found it in the toy bucket at the house of John and Iva Horton.  Those who follow me know that I have many things from the John and Iva connection. I have always valued it mostly because of the connection but I  also thought it was rare. It is an old cast iron toy.  I destroyed its value as an antique because I painted it some 30 years ago.

It has always been special to me and then the hardware owner, who has a store up town full of antiques on display, put in his window this engine and all of the cars with caboose.  Then another friend of mine said she had the entire set with windup key and its original box and track. She had received it for Christmas as a child.

I guess it still is very special too me but it isn't one of a kind. I need to thoroughly clean this engine and it may show up on Photo a Day some of these days in a more precise pose. If you ever have read the Little Prince story, the Prince thought he had the one and only rose in all the world and then he ran across a whole garden full of roses, his rose seemed less personal and special. The little Prince had to reevaluate his feelings and reassure himself that he was going to be ok with the one rose in his life.

The snow rocks are most all completely covered with very fluffy snow.  We had a light scattering of snow this morning but it was more like a salt shaker of snow that didn't require any shoveling. We did wake up to 8 degrees F today.
I keep being puzzled as to how Des Moines is 14 degrees this morning, Ames north of us was 11 degrees F and my thermometer is at 8 degrees.  I don't see how any consistent  measuring of the temps in this country would be accurate as everyone in the city is always warmer than those of us on the prairie.  You could never average that out to make it accurate.  Most all measurements of the past were done by people who had weather boxes out in their back yards in a country setting.  I see people are predicting now we have global cooling, oh my!

I am glad there are some nice shots that can be taken of the snow but I think we should be done with it for a while. The Christmas season is coming like a tidal wave and all of a sudden I have a lot of things to do. Fortunately I have work lined up for the next two weeks with one guy gone as his wife had a baby.  Another teacher is going to be gone for surgery. I need the work but then I now need bursts of energy when I get home from school.  I need to get four frame jobs done and mats cut for my wife's commision work that go out before Christmas. All the other standard Christmas stuff has to be done along side of this. It is more than a tidal wave and I need to start swimming. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.  Stay calm, stay warm and stay safe.