iseecerulean

The house and I are taking a break.  Not because I'm stuck, I think I've worked that out, but because my work table has been taken over by Susan's Halloween present, which is a surprise, so I can't share it here until after we've exchanged gifts.

I'm currently building up something in layers of air-dry clay, which requires 24 hours of drying time between layers.  I love to read, so this is a great opportunity to catch up on my National Geographic subscription and escape into a few novels. 

I hate finding novels.  I love reading them, but I hate finding them, there are too many to choose from, it's overwhelming.  I usually depend on Amazon's recommendations, even though my tastes vary widely enough that it gets confused sometimes....but I bought Origami paper to make mini-plants with, a few graphic novels for my niece, and a pair of knife resistant gloves, so now my recommendations are 80% Origami books, 15% graphic novels, and 5% cookbooks.   Amazon isn't even trying anymore.

While I'm retraining Amazon I thought I'd ask you for a recommendation....what novels do you love?

Here are a few I've read recently that I enjoyed:

• The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt
• Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman
• All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
• Paper Towns, by John Green
• Big Little Lies, by Liane Moriarty
• Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline
• Bad Monkey, by Carl Hiaasen
• Secrets of a Charmed Life, by Susan Meissner

I haven't posted in a few days because the house and I are having a rancorous argument.  Even Ester is hiding.  I'll be back once we've reconciled.

It's not potted yet...and the glue hasn't dried all the way....

I was busy with other things, so only did a little bit of mini work over the weekend.

Three small plants.  I don't like the one on the right, but I haven't given up on the bulbous base concept, I've just got to work on it more.  The middle one needs more shaping, I got called away by a timer then didn't get back to the plant after I put the next batch of zucchini bread in the oven.

Some goodies from my brother-in-law....

I received an order from my favorite etsy sellers yesterday, Lucy and Gillian of abasketof.  This is the third or fourth time I've made a large purchase and I've been delighted every time.

It's too tall to fit in the house, so I'm going to have to truncate and re-pot it. 

(See what I did there, Susan?)

Laser cut leaves from JMG Miniatures.

It took me all day yesterday to make these.  ALL DAY.  I've got to put 'dirt' in the pots yet, but I'm going to give the air-dry clay a few days of rest first to ensure it's completely dry.

Now that the all the furniture is built it's time to move on to the last interior piece I need to make.  It's a considerable focal point, combining a fireplace, shelves, and a ladder to the loft.  I haven't quite worked it out in my head yet.  I know what I want it to look like when it's done, but constructing it is going to be a little complicated in order to make the shelves float without visible support.  Plus the whole thing involves wiring...sigh.

I decided to make some books for the bookcase while I work it out.  I printed and cut the covers, then got bored, so turned my gaze and attention back to the problem at hand.

As I sat there staring at the house , deliberating, I decided to try something with the dining table. 

When I originally envisioned the piece I saw a table like this, only with a glass top....

I couldn't find the right glass top to make it with, then Pepper sent me an awesome laser cut acrylic table that's the perfect height and diameter. 

It occurred to me that if her table had wooden legs it would be truer to my vision, so I traced the legs onto a piece of thin basswood, cut, sanded, stained, etc,  which all progressed more smoothly than I imagined it would.

Wallah...

Now that I've realized the vision I'm not sure I like the wooden legs better than Pepper's acrylic legs, though I do like not seeing the jumble of all three chair's legs at once.   I'll leave it in place while I contemplate.  Maybe it's just the stain I used that I'm not happy with.

Then I thought I needed a large potted plant in the front corner, so I retrieved from my stash an ugly brown plastic pot with a great shape, did a bit of sanding, then spray painted it with the same green paint I used on the chair in the Michigan Lake House.  That should be close enough to the green in the headboard to bring that accent color downstairs.

As long as I had latex gloves on anyway, I decided to try out Husband's chrome spray paint on the legs of the white desk chair.

While I was waiting for paint to dry I cut wire and glued stems to some schefflera leaves I already had shaped and sealed (again, left over from the Michigan Lake House build). 

As long as I had wire out anyway, I might as well put stems on the palm leaves too.   But I really want to make the corn plant from the kit I bought at the Bishop show in April, so let's pull that out....

Then I said "Honey, my brain is hyper, let's get out of the house." 

Away we went!  We headed east, since there is road construction to the west.  We stopped everywhere that looked interesting....antique stores, a rock shop, art galleries, a kitchen goods store, a farm market, etc.  We wore our swimsuits, since it was a very hot day, but because it's the last holiday weekend of the summer we couldn't get anywhere near a beach.  We drove, we talked...it was a nice day.

Unfortunately, all my unfinished projects are still sitting on my worktable this morning...the shoemaker's elves didn't visit during the night.