Renovations March On

This is drywall the upstairs of the extension week. That means I am tied to the house so the work can be done. Have you ever noticed how, as soon as you can't do something (leave house) you have a bunch of things pop into your head that you could be doing (school shopping)?? The work is moving along well and looks good. Since I am not trying to hang the drywall I am happy. That stuff is heavy!! I'm splitting my time at home this week between trying to do a bunch of things I've been putting off while Hubby was home (he's travelling for work this week) and fooling around on the computer. Guess which group is going to get more of my time.....

#2 has 1 1/2 weeks left of his summer program and then it's a break and off to kindergarten. I'm still getting all the stuff ready for both to go to school and haven't really had the chance to stop and think about the fact that the baby is going to school. I think I'm supposed to feel sad or like I want another but it's just not there. I tend to be very matter of fact and not prone to sudden tears so I'm betting this is like #1's first day of kindergarten 2 years ago- hang out and wonder what I've forgotten to put in the backpack and hope she makes nice friends. And take a dozen photos of her in front of the house waiting for the bus in her cute first day outfit. Note to self- gotta get #2 a first day of school outfit. We got the backpack and lunch bag- the back pack is almost as tall as he is and twice as wide so that ought to make a great picture- my kid the turtle. Both are taking after me in the skinny lanky look. Either of them would have to stand up twice to cast a shadow (as my step father so eloquently described me once- but I was an adult and beyond the self conscious phase). Hey Richard, too bad you didn't get to meet these guys- they are quite a pair and I'd bet they would give you a run for your money. My step-dad died in 1998, my mother had worried that he and I wouldn't get along. We were opposites in many ways- He was VERY tall (6'7!!!) and I'm NOT, he was a hunter and I'm a take care of the little critter kind- not that I'm against hunting but I can't eat it if I knew it. The list of opposites goes on and on while the only similarity was that we are both opinionated. The recipe for clash was writ large here, folks. Oddly enough, we got along quite well- once we worked out that we could have differing opinions without the world ending. We both got a kick out of the darndest things. He could laugh with or at me for my softie tendencies without my hitting the ceiling and I had no problem saying things like "sit down I want to look you in the eye". Perhaps it was finding out that we both knew lots of bad words and could use them really well without being offended by the others use- shock value is not reserved for teenagers- it works equally well far into the adult years. As a matter of fact it gets more shocking to hear certain words fall out of someones mouth as they get older. I think it was mostly the fact that we were both adults (ok with some tendencies toward childish pranks) when she met him, plus my parents weren't divorced- my dad died unexpectedly and young when I was in college. I didn't view him as competition for my mothers attention as much as a great diversion for her. And of course there was no question of my parents getting back together if not for him- a dead parent doesn't have the same emotional turmoil as a divorced parent. The upshot here is that he would have gotten a real kick out of these two. But then I have a whole cadre of dead relatives I think would have loved these two (not just because of the family thing, either). Ok, enough dead family for today.

So I'm spending most of my free time doing needle felting for a fall festival in town. I've got to put together a display of items, an information display and will be demonstrating the technique. #1 is helping me with this project and will have a scrapbook of her flat work there. Needle felting, for those who have never heard of it, is the use of specially designed barbed needles to poke wool and cause it to tangle. The tangling is what causes it to dry felt. Dry felting is different from wet felting in many ways- one being no water used. For a detailed explanation visit my website-
http://electricmomma.googlepages.com/home and click the needle felting page. I have to get some photos on the website and maybe a video if the basic techniques. #1 is very keen on making a video since she discovered You Tube. Most of what I do is 3D animals. Some are done over a wire armature and that allows some gentle posing. The rest are static pose animals. They aren't meant for children to play with so much as for collecting. It's amazing how quickly the creative well runs dry when there is a deadline on the horizon. So I need to run off and make an armature of a small squirrel that I want to get working on.