Projects So Far

This was my first project of the summer:

That would be hummingbird nectar if it had been cooked about 15 minutes less. (This is reminiscent of last summer: http://snippetygibbet.blogspot.com/2009/08/hummingbird-nectar.html) I never said I was a quick study.

That was yesterday. Today was a little more successful. I started working on a piece for my Granddaughter. She's spending a week with us soon, so I am making something for "her room."

A Little Snipping Before Going Back to Work

I really am ashamed how little snipping I achieved in the last week and a half. All the shoveling of multi-feet deep snow just kicked me hard.

There were a few things that got done, however.

This is an illustration regarding a friend's tweet. Her class' frog had been sitting all alone at school for a week. Hungry. Cold. Lonely?

Some kind coworker actually made their way to the school and fed the poor creature.

Then there are these.

I decided to snip a few bookmarks. For Etsy? For gifts? For a change of pace? I've ordered plastic sleeves for them. They may or may not get background textures. I'll be playing around with them a bit before committing.

Actually, after having snipped a bit, I felt better about myself. It was validating to know that not every moment of the last week was spent napping or watching tv....or shoveling.

Squirrel Nutkin and Deja Vu

I was reminded today of those movies where someone dreams an event and then it happens. This time, however, it centered around a kindergarten lesson I taught.

This week we read Beatrix Potter's "Squirrel Nutkin."


Do you know the story about Squirrel Nutkin? It's the story about a squirrel who instead of gathering nuts with the other squirrels, spent his time pestering a wise old owl. Eventually he pestered the owl so much, the owl pulled off Squirrel Nutkin's tail.

So here's the deja vu part. M and I were out in the yard today picking up sticks. I got to a spot where the ground was oddly dug up. I wondered what on earth had happened there.



Then I saw this.

Poor Squirrel Nutkin. I guess our resident barred owl had him for dinner.

Whimsy

I'm spending the weekend drawing on notecards. I love whimsy and so these are just fun to do.


I'll put them up on Etsy, and if they remain there past Christmas, I'll be happy to send them out myself. So often I have trouble finding commercial cards that "speak" to me.


By the way, if you have an Etsy shop, would you leave a comment for me? I want to do a post sometime soon where I give the links to my favorite artist/friends.

Quicky Camping Trip

This was my second (and last) week of Fall Break.  M took off the week off as well.  Since we never could firm up any exotic travel plans,  we fell back on some easy choices nearby.

One of our quicky trips was a car camping trip in Shenandoah.   This was my second car camping trip during break.  Since it was mid-week, and pre-hunting season, we were the only campers around.  It was in a national forest, so it was relatively primitive camping.  (i.e. in the middle of the woods and without any amenities except for a fire ring.)

Here's a shot of where we slept.

One of the reasons that I bought this truck was so that I could use it as a tent.  That saves me the hassle of dealing with setting up the tent, dealing with wind and rain in a tent, and taking down and drying out a moist tent at the end of the trip.

No, we're not "getting our drink on" in this photo.  Some slob left this box sitting in the fire ring before we came on the scene.  M used it as a surface for getting a flame going. 

 

He finds satisfaction in building a fire without a match.  Here he is trying to ignite pine needles with dryer lint, magnesium, and a flint.

Ta da!

 

We slept fitfully that night.  The temperature was in the low 40's.  The sky was shockingly starry.  With the back of the truck open, I often woke in the middle of the night to just gawk at the stars for a few minutes before sticking my head back inside my sleeping bag.  Living in the well lit suburbs of D.C., we rarely see but a few stars at night, so seeing thousands of them is quite exciting.

There were the occassional animal noises; most of which we could identify.  Scurrying chipmunks; barred owls; whippoorwills.  There was one shreiking animal that I suspected was a fox. M woke up multiple times to the sound of a bear, which he came to realize was me....snoring.   Nice.

The morning was still chilly until the sun had a while to rise up high in the sky.  We didn't want to stir up a fire again, so warmth came from my down coat, fleece pants and my fleece hat.

We headed out of the woods before the gnats got warm enough to wake up and drive me nuts.  I guess we left around 8 am or so.  I'm guessing that this will be my last camping trip of the year.

The Dirty Dog Camping Trip

Fall break has finally come!!!!!  This is one of the reasons I don't complain TOO much about going back to school in July.  We get awesome breaks every season of the year.

This past weekend M and I went camping with old friends from back home.  Our camping spot was in the National Forest near Charlottesville at a place called Crabtree Falls.  Weatherwise it was pretty decent.  We got a tiny bit of rain, but that probably kept some people away....which is a good thing.

I ate way too much junk food, which we don't keep at home, and then was too full to eat the extraordinary food my friend cooked on the campfire. Doofy, I know.

This is one of my friend's six pooches and he was one of three that joined us this weekend.   Sebastian is 14 years old.  My friend says that he is blind, deaf, and somewhat senile.  At home he spends most of his days sleeping.  At camp, however, this fellow wandered all over the place.  He probably wandered as much as he slept.  Occasionally he bumped into something, but he got around pretty well.  We often caught site of him just rolling around like crazy on his back.  Furry critter that he is, when he got back up he would be covered in leaves and dirt.  He looked like a dirty dog Christmas tree.

I had a great time visiting with friends.  Often I felt like rolling around for joy in the dirt as well.

Rooster Remix

4.5" x 6" 9" x 12" Scherenschnitte

The rooster snip that I cut yesterday was okay, but it was huge. You'd think that after cutting these things for about a year now, getting the size right would be second nature. When I started out on the rooster snip, I had something about 4" x 6" in mind. But when you are snipping these symmetrically, you have the piece folded in half. When you open it, the size doubles. Makes sense. But sometimes I just don't think. So I ended up with this large, and slightly floppy, paper sculpture.


Today I went back and cut one the size that I really had intended. Small and sturdy.


This one is 4.5" x 6". I am happy.

Tastes Like Chicken

Hopping around from blog to blog the other night, I found one that gave me an inspiration for a new snip. I'd never been to this blog before, and evidently didn't read the post very carefully. What I saw was notice that Friday was "Rooster Day," and everyone was supposed to display their roosters on Friday. My mind read that as "create something with a rooster motif." So I did.


Going back to check on the particulars tonight, I found that this really wasn't what the originator had in mind. I think that her blog isn't a craft blog, which was what I had assumed. (Here go my doofy assumptions again. I just think that all blogs are either art/craft blogs, education blogs, or bike blogs.) Actually, I think that the hosting blog is themed towards lovely homemaking. So, I think you are really supposed to show figurines and the like.

Anyway, I made my roosters.



I felt guilty that perhaps I didn't follow the directions. After all, wasn't it moi who was frustrated about 12 hours ago when a student or two failed to follow my directions? Directions that had both been vocalized and projected on a big 5' x 6' screen??? So to rectify my breech of etiquette, I dug around and found some rooster chatzkees. My Mom collected all things chicken. When she passed away I gathered up some of the ones I had given her over the years.

When I bought this one it said "boot scraper." It rings like a bell though. I always thought Mom really liked this one.



This glass one I thought was lovely. All I remember about it was that I bought it one day when I was with an old boyfriend. I wish it reminded me more of my Mom....or chickens....or anything but that old boyfriend.



This is a fun one. It isn't an antique, but I suppose it was based on one.



Its fun to play with for just about as long as that video. Can't you just picture some kid playing with it ad nauseum to annoy the heck out of their sibling? Anyway, I like it.

If you have an interest in seeing the hundreds of roosters that other folks posted, head over to Bella Vista tomorrow and check them out.

I liked having someone give me a springboard for a snip idea. Anyone know of any other special blog events that I can alter to my own liking?

Last Week of "Summer"

This is where I spent the past week.

County Line Guest House, on Allegheny Mountain in West Virginia.

I spent two days alone; two with my friend, Lynda; and three with M.

Lots of time was spent drawing....


.......and snipping. This is a silhouette snip of my Granddaughter and it actually resembles her.

I snipped profiles of folks whose photos were already on my computer


or of folks who had sent me photos with which I could practice.


I did a couple of 3D pieces that might end up in my Etsy shop....that was supposed to open last Monday....before I made a mad dash to West Virginia instead.


I had this whole big place to myself a lot of the time and it was delicious.


Lynda and I did some sightseeing, napping, reading, and lots of gabbing. Lots and lots of gabbing.

At the end of the week, M and I visited our friends, JoJo and Vernon. Vernon took us on one of the best mountain biking excursions on which I have ever been.

I got one nasty bruise on my quad from the ride. My wheel went down off a rock and into a mud puddle, and then got wedged in by another rock. I, along with the rest of my bike, kept going....over the bars. But it didn't dampen my fun. I had a blast.

Part of the trail was even named after JoJo.


JoJo and I visited her beloved horse. Beautiful, isn't it? It's a rescued race horse.

A young horse, whose nose is to the left of this photo, galloped behind me at some point, and JoJo said it looked as though it wanted to mount me. ??? It knocked me pretty hard and sent me careening down the pasture. JoJo and I had a good time though and I didn't get bruised...nor mounted.

Last night it stormed hard all night long. We didn't get a lot of sleep.

This morning M and I did the three hour drive back home.

Tomorrow, my school year begins again. = ( I really could use just one more week in West Virginia.

Snippin' in the Cabin

I just got home from a three night stay in a cabin at Blackwater Falls, West Virginia. It's only a few miles from the place we went backpacking last week. This time we opted for indoor plumbing and a soft bed.

I got in a lot of paper snipping while I was there.


scherenschnitte 5" x 7"

We had a ball mountain biking. M knows the level of riding I am capable of, and can usually lead me on trips that are perfect for me. I rode two days and he rode three.


scherenschnitte 5" x 7"
The one snip above is reminiscent of a family gathering that we had last week. Lots of playing around in the waters of the Mobjack Bay in Virginia.


scherenschnitte 5" x 7"
This snip is not representative of any particular event of late. Thank goodness. I've seen the view over the handle bars of my bike enough over the years though. That "over the bars" kind of wreck is called an "End-o." If you mountain bike, you know an "end-o" up close and personal.


scherenschnitte 2.5" x 3.5"
And then there are the bug snips.


scherenschnitte 2.5" x 3.5"
I don't seem to ever get tired of snipping bugs.


scherenschnitte 4" x 6"
I have two weeks of summer break left now and hopefully I will get tons more paper snipping done.

Fire, Rain and Fossils

One of my favorite spots on the planet is a wilderness area in West Virginia. M and I try to get out there backpacking at least once a year. When we go, we usually see less than five or so folks in the time span of 3 to 5 days.

We just got back from a two night trip there. Wouldn't you know, the morning of the second day there, I awoke with an intense headache and a slight fever. I tried to be a good sport and hike around a bit, but I really felt like crap. I kept that headache the entire rest of the trip.

I always try to snip and draw while I'm out there. This is the only snip I managed to do this time.

It's 2.5" x 3.5". I was watching M build a fire as I snipped this.

My favorite pastime in this place is fossil hunting. We have found one hotbed of fossils at this spot.



While we didn't spend as much time fossil hunting as I would have liked, we did see a fair variety.

This is a fossilized tree trunk. Though you can't tell the scale in this shot, I'd guess that the diameter of the tree would have been around 56" or so.


Below is my favorite fossil. Lepidodendron. In life it was a tall tree with a narrow trunk. You can find long expanses of this tree's fossil laying just as it fell millions of years ago. They are found in the earth's layers that also contain coal. As the creek goes down to the bottom of the mountain, this layer of the earth seems to be only exposed in this one area.



Here's an impression fossil of some veiny plant. We find lots of these around.


Here's a fossilized impression of a lepiodendron in this rock.


We did a bit of hiking, but not nearly as much as M would have liked.

Did I mention that we got tons of rain as well? Saturday morning we napped in the tent from 9 til 12. Then around 7:30 in the evening the rain sent us to the tent again. We just stayed in at that point and slept...or tried to sleep....until the morning.

Not the best of trips this time, but we do hope to get back out again in August for a few more days.