So, I thought I'd post a few photos of some artsy stuff I was working on a couple of weeks ago.
When I first saw our future house on the internet from San Diego, I was intrigued by the architecture and the comment in the realtor's notes that it was designed to resemble a stamp mill at a gold mine (this being gold country, after all). At the time I didn't get it and wondered what sort of stamps. Well, not postage, for sure. But what? Google to the rescue. It was usually the largest building in the mill/town housing a phalanx of huge iron rods mounted on cams turned by water power to crush the ore into powder as it was conveyed on belts underneath to better extract the gold. They were big-time noisy and ran 24/7 (the one at the Empire Mine in Grass Valley housed 100 stamps).
Stamp mills had a certain look about them (slanted roof, side of a hill) because the belts moved the ore downhill. So when I mention the architectural theme to visitors, most have the same blank look about a stamp mill that I had. So I thought I'd better draw a picture. And here it is. This is from a photo I found of the stamp mill at Bodie, CA, a cool ghost town about 75 miles SE of Lake Tahoe near the Nevada border. I've hung it near the front door.
Click to enlarge.Next is another of the quotes I decided to write out. I love Mark Twain's humor. And I think fake nose and glasses are always funny.
And finally, for now,
I've puzzled as to what kind of hat rack/coat peg to put near our front door and I had an idea. We have lots of manzanita around and I'm crazy about the bark and the twisty forms of the branches. A big one fell over in a snow storm last Christmas time and I had Tom help me haul it into the shop where it's been drying out. 
When Tom was away for a few days recently, I went out and cut it down a bit and then sprayed it with some varnish. Voila! A hat/coat rack! It fits just right in the entry way. I have some plans for a little table nearby, too...