Our intention, Dylan's and mine, on Thursday, was for me to drive him to Sac to catch the Amtrak back to SF. But, it was a 2:10 train, and we arrived at 2:15. So, I took an unscheduled trip to San Francisco. It was fine. More time to talk, and, at the shop I got to see Charlie and Troy, plus all the Twist shelves he took to New York (so cool!). The shipment had arrived from New York! While he was here at our house, he showed us website after website, from several different countries, that were featuring his designs--either the tree table (Shady) or the shelves. His task now is to turn that momentary attention into some concrete orders or contracts. I was back home by 8:30.
Our neighbor, Scott, and his crew nearly finished the electrical/phone trench, yesterday. Here's Bob filling in by shovel, as Scott fills with the Bobcat--the same Bobcat that he uses to plow the snow in the winter. Handy little vehicle. I saw him clearing brush with it last week. The actual cables should be "pulled" next week, sometime.
And the garden is moving along, as well. We removed the long-since unproductive fruit trees in the garden beds. I have a bit of soil amending to manage, then I'll plant the seedlings. The blackberries look happy, but will need a trellis soon.
This entry needs a little 'zazz. Here's some fun. Check this out. http://www.google.com/holidaylogos.html
It's the site where all the little special Google logos are archived. I would like to have that job.
As I write this, Dylan is still snoozing downstairs, and our neighbor, Scott, has a crew of guys digging a trench to lay electrical, ethernet and phone lines out to the shop.
Dylan is here because he was visiting Rachel and Megan in Truckee this week, and they all came for dinner last night. And Dylan's (34th) birthday is tomorrow. I'll drive him to the Amtrak station today so he can get back home to SF. 
We had a bit of fun crafting pizzas. Dylan was a little thrown, at first, by there not being any red sauce. Duh! I forgot. It's funny, but I don't even think about red sauce for pizza, any more. Just some olive oil and seasonings, plus the toppings (one of my faves is the pear/gorgonzola combo they used to have at California Pizza Kitchen). 
But, next time I'll try to remember to make some. Least popular topping? Broccoli, hands down. Who puts broccoli on pizza? What was I thinking? Asparagus, maybe. Rachel discovered she loved anchovies in Italy, but they didn't appear on too many other pizzas. Megan indulged her inner (and outer?) child and made a pizza face. The cheeses ranked Mozzarella, Jack, Parmesan, Gorgonzola, and Goat, in that order. Note to self--ease up on the salt (I had the "pucker" pizza). 
The four of us love lemon desserts, but we were completely noncommittal compared to Megan's enthusiasm for the lemon meringue pie. That girl may need professional help. A little chocolate therapy, or something. 
So, we're back to our respective worlds. The girls drove back up the hill. Dylan continues to do follow-up work from the last design conference. And the trench gets longer...
Llama Fest was a difficult act to follow. Sorta front loaded the whole weekend. But we stumbled on.
The Sierra Arts Festival dodged a bullet and it didn't rain on Sunday. It's a close-down-Mill-Street-and set-up-the-canopies kind of thing in downtown Grass Valley on the Sunday of the Weekend. Some good stuff, some not so much. 
But we were casing the event for possible participation next year. I think the weather might have dampened the turnout, a bit. Didn't dampen the bellydancers, though. I'm not sure exactly how it fits in, exactly, but bellydancers show up at almost all these kinds of things. Who knew there were so many of them around here ready to don their jingly costumes and jiggle at the drop of a hat? Forgot to snap a pic. 
Then we headed down the hill to Home Depot, Costco, and Rubio's. I love Rubio's. We don't get down to the Roseville Shopping-Overload District that often, but when we do, I try to work in a visit to Rubio's. It's possible to find fish tacos up here, but...well. 
Today, we used the stuff we found at Home Depot, yesterday, to put a gate in our garden fence. Somebody living here sometime in the past, nearly completed a fence around the little terraced garden and left the extra materials. We set one more post, stapled the deer mesh, and installed the gate we'd bought at HD. And now, it's done! 
It's necessary up here to fence off anything deer enjoy eating, which is just about everything, if you want to keep it. Most things are expendable, but working a vegetable garden/berry patch would be a wasted effort without protection. I'm guessing we haven't foiled the jackrabbits, quite, but I'll have to figure out some ways to plug a few gaps. There's still a bit of soil-conditioning to finish and we'll get the seedlings into the beds.
Sometime soon, I'm sure.
I llove llamas. Always have. Alpacas, too. Cute little faces, big eyes. Sweet, shy, quiet. I would always try to go see them at the San Diego County Fair each year, but the timing wasn't always right--or a Certain Someone would be tugging in an entirely different direction from the animal barns.
There seem to be quite a number of llama/alpaca operations in our area and last year, at the Nevada County Fair, I enjoyed quite a bit of time with the alpacas and their people. But I missed the alpaca ranch tour because it happened to be scheduled for the day we arrived home from Germany. So, imagine my enthusiasm about the 12th Annual Grass Valley CAL-ILA (Cal. Int'l Llama Assoc.) Llama (not Alpaca--that would be the CAL-IAA) Show generously advertised for this weekend. "One of the biggest llama shows in the western United States" declared the Union. All manner of llama activity was scheduled from fiber and spinning demos to competitions of various sorts. Will there be hundreds? Thousands? Cool yarn goods to buy? Fun food? Andean music wafting through the air? I was planning to wallow in llama-ness!
Uh, Llamapalooza, it wasn't (seriously, that's what some of these events are called). Perhaps it was the cold, rainy weather. Or maybe llama folks are more than a bit like their charges. Sweet, shy, not big party people. I arrived at the fairgrounds, hoping to find a good parking spot. No worries. There was only one other car in the lot. Wrong place? Wrong time? I parked right next to that car (why, I wonder?), and walked through the open gate, which was the one and only indication of an event in progress. No signs, no greeters. I needed a few tumbleweeds to blow by to the tune of "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" to complete the creeping sense of ghost town.
I did find them. Up by the animal pens, as if the whole event were huddling close to keep warm. The stalls were, indeed harboring some llamas and their keepers. Aha! Now we're getting somewhere! But was I the only non-llama owner in the small group of humans? Very possibly. 
On one side of the stalls, there was a fiber-judging event. Some llamas and their owners lined up waiting for the judge to feel a little patch of fluff left on the flanks of the recently shorn animal for that purpose. A very quiet affair. I patted a few (llama) necks and tiptoed away. On the opposite side, there was the, um, Llama Olympics. This consisted mostly of llamas refusing to step over 8"-high bars or 4" cardboard circles on the ground, or not trotting as the handlers pulled with all their might, or not getting into a van or truck no matter what the owners did to coax them. More like llama trauma. They apparently find it beneath their dignity to comply with the hilariously simple tasks on demand. Can't blame them, really. The one bit of excitement I did see was one little guy who stood between the low-bars and peed and pooped and peed and then pooped again. He got an ovation.
As for the country-fair type merchandise booths and delicious South American cuisine, there were two card tables and a catering truck. The truck was selling tacos, and the tables, sheltered by inadequate canopies and "personed" by two friendly, but obviously uncomfortably-cold women, offered crystal suncatchers (ironically-named and completely unrelated to llamas in any way) and a few pieces of wool jewelry. Really. Llama-wool earrings. I smiled and wandered off. 
I learned some things. There were the pack-llamas and the show/wool llamas. The Huacayas (fluffy llamas) and Suris (straighter, crimped wool), like the alpacas. Folks were friendly and answered questions, as they stood waiting for the wool-judge or watching uncooperative llamas not do stuff. One guy was working for the ranch just down the road and invited me to stop in sometime and get a tour. Gave me a card. I'll do it, one of these days. After I recover from the disappointment.
Still, they ARE cute, aren't they?
Here' s a quick snap of this week:
1. Actually began to till up the garden. The goal is to plant the little seedlings before they die. One year, I did actually grow about 50 seedlings (as usual) that never got close being planted, poor things. This time, though I'm late, I've promised them some earth time before they die of neglect. Berries are going in, too.
2. We met Rachel for Burrito Night in Truckee. Fun.
3. I finished two stained-glass designs for CCChurch, which will remain under wraps, for now. Must wait for electricity to be run out to the shop to build them.
4. We started the process with an electrician which will result in sufficient power for us to use out in the shop (which currently-pun almost unintended-has none). Of course, instead of the simple hook up we'd imagined, we're looking at 300' of trenching, first (sigh). More time, more $$$.
5. Dylan returned from the design conference in NYC. He called yesterday and today to brief us. It seems it all went very well. His shelves were a hit, he made lots of contacts, and got lots of ideas. He and his partners now have specific steps to take to become bona fide furniture business guys. It's quite exciting, actually! More, as it unfolds...
6. I've taken to sitting on an exercise ball when I work at the computer, especially for long periods of time. I know. There are actual exercise-ball chairs out there. But I don't need them. And when I sit for awhile designing in front of the screen, like for stained glass, it just keeps my backside from calcifying into one position. And I love to bounce!
7. Tomorrow, I'm going to drop in at The Western Llama Show. Now that I've mentioned it, I know there'll be great gnashing of teeth and rending of garments until I report about it. Be patient.
8. Sunday is the annual Memorial Day Sierra Art Festival in downtown Grass Valley. I won't be a vendor, this year, but next year...
9. Continued to snoop on the growth of two baby red-tail hawks by binoculars. They're about three weeks old, now, and getting so big! And growing dark feathers, too. It's the same nesting pair from last year (we think), in the same nest in the same tree. It's fun to watch!
10. Cooled down, again! Ahhh. It went from 90 degrees on Monday, to closer-to-normal 68 on Wednesday. Today we won't crack 60. We might get some rain this weekend.
So, I hope you were able to maintain normal heart rate for this one. For those of you who waded through it, here are a few websites I've found amusing recently, for dessert:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7415911.stm
Just got this today from our friend Mark . So cool! It's a real-time, double-ended "telescope" from NYC to London. I also love the Jules Verne-like design.
http://manbabies.com/
Oh, so odd! It's a site where, in a photo of a man and a baby, the heads are switched. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes just goofy. Sent this site to Rachel and she recognized one of the guys...This came from Tic.
http://www.engrish.com/
It's a little un-PC in spots and the commentary is a bit unrefined, shall we say, but somebody is collecting goofy English translations of mostly Asian-language signage. It's very funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LHoyB81LnE
This is one of many videos on YouTube showing elephants painting. Yes, it's a touristy thing, and the canvasses aren't true "self-portraits", but it is still pretty impressive! One can (and I do) have compunctions about training animals for entertainment. So, this is a bit of a guilty pleasure to watch...
http://www.thispeanutlookslikeaduck.com/quack/
Stuff like this cracks me up. And changes the way I see things, for awhile.
That's it, for the moment. Too much dessert isn't good for you.
Holy Handcuffs, Batman! We're buried in Blotter Bits!
Hurry! Biff! Pow! Krak! Get typing, Robin!
"11:47 a.m.--A 6-year-old boy called 911 to report his father left him with his grandfather and he was locked in his room with nothing to eat. Police contacted the boy and advised him of the proper use of 911." [something tells me it's not the kid's first "time out"]
"6:23 a.m.--A man called from the 100 block of Ruby Ledge Court to report that when he went outside in the morning, he found an extra bag of garbage next to his garbage can. Police determined the bag contained garbage." [I guess you can be too careful...]
"7 p.m.--A caller from the 700 block of Sutton Way reported a friend who has not been seen since she walked into a local pharmacy. The missing woman then informed police she had returned home and was OK." [The caller, on the other hand...]
"3:45 p.m.--A caller from a Nevada City Highway business reported a man at a business parking lot got out of a vehicle with no pants on, got into the back and put a pair of knit shorts on. The man told responding officers he was unaware anyone was watching him." [How embarrassing! Who wears knit shorts?]
"11:33 a.m.--A threatening email left on a person's Web site was reported from the 16800 block of Indian Springs Road." [Quick! Get an APB out for someone in the, uh, world with a computer...]
"8:56 a.m.--A woman reported her neighbor on the 12000 block of Polaris Drive was stealing water from her NID [Nevada Irrigation District] connection. A deputy took a report for malicious injury to [wait for it...] a reservoir." [Couldn't resist. A first, for me]
"8:33 a.m.--A woman called from the 13000 block of Ridge Road to report the possible theft of Christmas decorations. She said she saw some reindeer that looked like hers in her neighbor's backyard. A deputy determined the claim was unfounded." [Strange, since most Christmas decorations are so unique...]
"5:29 a.m.--a caller from Greenhorn Road reported a person on a motorcycle was messing with mailboxes. The CHP responded and determined everything was fine. The person was a newspaper carrier." [Neighborhood Watch program run amok]
"12:42 p.m.--A man calling from the 14100 block of Mount Auburn Circle said he woke up about 45 minutes before with a strange woman in his bed. The caller said he was intoxicated [no kidding] and had no idea how the woman got into his residence. He said he had been drinking for the past day and didn't exactly know how much he had had to drink. He then stated there were multiple people in the house, including transsexuals. Responding deputies found nothing and will refer the case to the man's son." [Dad's colorful OZ will be turning back to into Kansas...]
"6:12 p.m.--A man called from the 16000 block of Oscar Drive saying he though someone had been inside his residence and canceled his vacation booked online. Nothing else in the residence had been disturbed, he said." [Curious. I guess there must be thieves out there just to steal people's fun]
"10:30 a.m.--A caller reported that a man with a backpack was lighting incense and waving it around Church Street. Police could not find the man." [Just another concerned citizen trying to improve air quality]
"10:42 a.m.--A caller said vandals smeared peanut butter on her property at Pleasant hill Road and suspects it might be a neighbor." [I'm trying to pictures this...]
Well, Batman. That's about half of 'em. Kaboom! Smack!
It's enough, Robin.
'm not complaining. I'm not. It's a small thing. So small. But a pesky high pressure system over Oregon (didn't know that was possible) has created summer-type heat here the last couple of days. 89 degrees, today. In Sacto, it was 102. So, because of that and about a million other reasons, I'm not complaining. I am saying that the temps went up 30 degrees (6:30am walking time) in a few days. So, I quickly snapped a bunch of pictures of the more than 20 different wildflowers I've been enjoying along the road because I know they'll be gone in a blink. I don't know all their names, yet. Most of you can tune out, now. I'm going to indulge (a teeny bit) in my fascination with the flowers, around here. But come back at the end, OK?
Last year I basked in the profusion of yellow flowered bushes that grow everywhere, especially along roads. I-80 is thick with them, and they're stunning. They're blooming now, too, but the enthusiasm, shall we say, has faded since I've learned that the plant is called Scotch Broom and is a Class-C Noxious Weed (along with the delicious Oregon blackberry). It's a landscape plant run amok, and is taking over huge swaths of natural flora. Besides that, if you look at it cross-eyed, it explodes into flames. Really. So dangerous. That bad little plant is the third picture, down.
The first pic is of my dutch iris, which finally popped up. So pretty! Of course, I thought that they would be up with the daffs (for a stunning yellow/violet combo), but now I know. I think I'm going to use that unusual wooden water-tower-type planter as an experiment with bulbs. I'm going to plant as many different kinds in there as I can squeeze in and try to have a succession of bulbs blooming in there all growing season. Like very slow fireworks. So far, there are crocus, daffs, dutch iris, ixia, freesia and something starting with an "m" (I know it's not "meconium"--thank goodness--but it's something like that).
The second photo is the little wild iris that grows along the road. Very cute! There are yellows, whites, lavenders, purples, pinks, blues. I know there are red ones down the slope. Alas, no pictures of it, yet.
OK. Come back, now. The last photo shows one of my recent studio projects. Over the last few months (yes, months), I've been working (very sporadically) on a t-shirt design for a ministry in Pennsylvania called "The Pittsburgh Project" They do so much cool stuff for the poor, that I can't even begin to tell you. Here's their website: http://www.pittsburghproject.org/ But I'm finally in the last stages of the design prep. That's just some of the work on the table. Some of it's on the computer. I'll post a few photos of the actual shirts, when I get them. The other thing I've been working on this week is a stained-glass design for our El Cajon church. It will be the sixth in a series of eight panels for the sanctuary. It's early, so no pics, yet.
Talked with Dylan yesterday and today (from the shadow of the Empire State Bldg). He and Charlie should be finished with their booth, now. Their space is about the smallest in the whole convention. The booth directly across the way is Spain. The country. And, I guess it's proportionately larger than theirs.
So, that's it, for the moment. Next, is catching up on the Blotter and the hawklets we're snooping on.
Dylan is getting ready to hop the red-eye to New York City this evening to work the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. He and one of his shop partners, Charlie Sheldon, will have a booth at the conference, which is one of the major (perhaps THE major) event in the contemporary furniture biz. They will display a few of their best pieces in the booth, and they've prepared extensive print material to hand out (and candy, I hope) to the folks who are wandering the aisles looking for new designers and interesting designs to promote and/or produce.
The guys have shipped their stuff by truck. One set of Dylan's twisty shelves will be displayed in a special area sponsored by their local chapter of, uh, some guild I can't remember, the current president of which is Charlie. Should be a very interesting week.
If you are interested, here are a couple of websites that Dylan just uploaded yesterday. The first is the site for Link Studios, which is the cooperative workshop of which Dylan and Charlie are a part.
http://www.linkstudios.net/index.html
Click on the furniture to see other related pieces and views. Dylan also designed the logo. The second is Dylan's personal site. http://www.dylangold.com/index.html The homepage features an ambigram of his name. In this case, it reads the same right side up and up side down. More on ambigrams another time. Anyway, both sites are simple, at the moment, but he will be adding to them as time goes by, and probably soon.
So, check them out and see what you think. The "tree" table on both sites is on display at a design showcase in San Francisco this month.
Could be an interesting turning point for the both of them, so stay tuned...
It was Mother's Day. Perhaps we Boomer moms take it less seriously for ourselves than the generation before us. But, there it is. And even though they have my permission to go about their own business on the second Sunday in May (something I somehow always forget to mention until after...), our kids always make an effort to make a connection of some kind with me on that day.
So sweet! Dylan is busy getting ready to attend the design conference in New York, this week, so we chatted on the phone. But Rachel and Megan were kind enough to invite us up for dinner, yesterday. 
There's still quite a bit of snow, up there. Less in the town areas than up higher, but you can see Megan in her skirt and flipflops grilling the shrimp kabobs whilst a few feet away is a patch of snow in the back yard. It's a back yard that they are seeing for the first time, as it's been covered with snow since they moved into the house April 1st. Room for some horseshoes, perhaps!
So, we had wonderful cheeses, poke and crackers followed by delicious shrimp kabobs, veggies, salad and bread. Megan baked chocolate chip cookies to go with the Cherry Garcia (my fave--and a killer combination) for dessert. They worked the meal like a finely oiled machine! I haven't been hungry all day, today!
By the by, we're enjoying getting to know Megan. Mellow and funny! She and Rachel are exploring the town, making new friends, taking hikes, and Rachel has begun to take guitar lessons. Says she's close to playing "Leavin' on a Jet Plane" all the way through, and hopes to build up calluses very quickly. All in all, they're doing great! Mainly, I just wanted to post some pics, so here they are!
I drove the 227 miles to Fresno, yesterday, straight into the eye of the birthday/Mother's Day hurricane that is my sister's family in May. Terry's birthday is May 8. Her daughter, Andrea's birthday is also May 8. And granddaughter, Ella's birthday is, you guessed it, May 8. So, they wrap into a big, cacophonous celebration! With heavy Mother's Day overtones. It's big fun!
Just about everyone was there. H and all six kids--Corrie, Frank, Katie, Lily, Andrea and Annie. Son-in-law, Jeff (Corrie), and daughter-in-law, Lisa (Frank). Son-in-law, Dave (Katie) was conspicuously absent. I hope he has a note from the doctor, or some such. I counted all 7 1/2 grandchildren--Ella, Tabor, Quinn, Gigi (Corrie and Jeff's kids), Gavin and Parker (Frank and Lisa), and Grace (Katie and Dave). And Katie's due in September. Andrea had several friends in attendance. There was Annie's friend, Sarah. Lamek (sp?) came. Then there was Mom and I. 
In a flurry of movement, food, chatter and wrapping paper, it sometimes seemed as though there were several parties going on in the same space at the same time. I guess there were, really. Anyway, it worked. And just about the time it was all cleaned up, and most folks had gone, so was all our energy. Terry, Mom and I flopped on the sofa for 15 minutes to watch Ace of Cakes (Harry Potter episode) and that was about all we could wring out of the evening.
I went back to Mom's house with her, then took off this morning for the return trip. I was home by lunch. But it seems farther, in some ways. 
Our house is a Trappist monastery compared to theirs. Without the monks. Especially since Tom had been called away to LA right after I left for Fresno and won't be back 'til tomorrow. But change is good. But I think I'll go turn on the radio...
We welcomed Jim and Becky Powers to our house on Cinco de Mayo. They are having a bit of a drive through California for a week or so in their little go-go car, an electric blue Vette (can you see the Sube and the Camry looking on from the shadows? I couldn't tell from which one, but I thought I could just hear a little sigh). Becky is doing most of the driving because Jim is working on his laptop as they zoom along, connected by his cell phone to the internet and the other guys at work. Fixed a couple of programming bugs somewhere on I-5 in the San Joaquin Valley on the way up here. Then, after they arrived mid-afternoon, he set up on the dining table to work some more. Jim might need to learn how to relax a little more...
So, of course, we took them to Nevada City for a little walk (doesn't take long to see the whole thing, including the beautiful Victorians at the top of the hill). Fortunately, it was long enough to explain the invention of the Pelton Wheel (see last entry) and show them a sample of that and other mining equipment one can't help but notice scattered about town. I'm pretty sure they were grateful for the information though they didn't say so, in so many words. I think they look fascinated, don't you?
After compulsively snapping more photos of the blooming dogwoods (you can see Jim and Becky captivated by the one tree that produces both pink AND white flowers), we went back home for some green cheese enchiladas. After that, an introduction to the PBS show "Antiques Roadshow". Doesn't get any better, they were probably thinking.
This morning, after Becky and I walked to get the newspaper, they took off like a, well, blue streak, headed toward Ferndale, near Eureka. Just about one minute after they'd pulled out of the driveway, Jim chimed in to the regularly-scheduled partners' meeting from the car. That Jim. They'll be back. We didn't have time to show them the old silo from the Idaho-Maryland Mine, and although they didn't mention it, specifically, I'm sure they meant to.
Have I mentioned that we live in a Gold Rush theme park? As such, it is our solemn responsibility to absorb as much Gold Rush historical information as possible. How else to bore the socks off of any visitors that might wander a little to close? In pursuit of such, we endeavor to visit all of the local historical sites/museums/state parks and other repositories of rusty old mining equipment (we should live so long!). One glaring omission, so far, however, has been the Northstar Mine Powerhouse Museum.
Northstar's claim to fame was its giant, 30' Pelton water wheel, which is still located on the premises (the old powerhouse), along with many others from who-knows-where. The Pelton wheel was invented in 1880 by a guy named, yes, Pelton, here in Grass Valley, to provide power to the hard-rock mining operations in the area and made it possible to chomp the earth and get the gold much faster than was possible prior.
It was so successful an invention, that a version of it is still being used today, in hydroelectric plants all over the world. We know this because Paul, the guy who runs the museum, is a walking, talking (take a breath, Paul) encyclopedia of local mining. It's a very dense experience, this museum. A lot to absorb. Life-sized tableaus, photos, maps, documents and an impossible variety of artifacts. Mainly, we learn, again, that we're very glad those mining days are history.
Well, maybe not quite all of it is history. If we were hardcore mine aficionados, we would plunk down $80-100 bucks each for a deep tour (including lunch) of the only mine still working in the area, the "16 to 1 Mine", a few miles up the mountain in Alleghany. For now, probably not.
So, after Northstar, and over-indulging at the nearby B'n'R (did you know they have Peppermint Patty, now?), we drove some backroads of the area for awhile to enjoy the beautiful afternoon, arriving home just in time for a little thunderstorm to do a quick hit-and-run over the top of us.
Tomorrow, one of Tom's partners, Jim, and his wife, Becky will be stopping over for a visit. I wonder if they realize this is Gold Rush territory...
I can hear the whispering from here. Partly because Tom's whisper voice is, well, unsubtle. "Now that she has a beautiful studio, what's she doing down there all day?"
OK. Well, I plan to post my work about once a week just to show that I'm not just lolligagging around, playing games or web surfing on that powerful PC with Vista (jury's still out, but very aesthetic) and big, beautiful monitor and watching the deer walk by through the lovely French doors. No, indeed! Well. Maybe now and then.
Already, a few small projects have wafted through. There was some calligraphy for a neighbor, a charcoal piece for someone at CCC, Dad's logo/stationery, among other things. Right now, I'm working with The Pittsburgh Project (a ministry to the inner city guess where) to design their summer project t-shirts (I'll post that when we settle on a design) and I'm just finishing up a set of illustrations to a story written by my friend, Ruth.
I've never cultivated an "illustration" style. Or a cartooning style. So, this illustration project has taken some time. It's been like going to Illustration School. I made 23 drawings overlaid with watercolors. Each is on 5"x7" paper. Here they are laid out on the floor. I scanned them into Photoshop and cleaned them up. You can see couple of the resulting illustrations. I'll leave you to make up your own story to go with these. 
I've placed them into the text of the story with Microsoft Word (that's it on the computer screen), but Tom installed Publisher for me last night, so I'm going to play with that a little today to see if it's better. Ruth hasn't seen them, yet. She gave me only the sketchiest of information (plus the story), so we'll see if it's at all what she had in mind.
Meanwhile, I'm trying to get my calligraphy chops back by practicing nearly every day, so that I can push ahead and find out how I can best use it.
So, I'll try to make this a bit like you can be watching over my shoulder, week to week. I hope it will be at least as interesting as Blotter Bits or my outings to the Certified Growers' Market. And I hope Tom reads it.
