Daffodil and Deer

Jodie reminded me that today is Daffodil Day. 

I took these two pictures while at the Raptor Center with our Idaho grandkids last week. On that same outing, we saw this deer.

Precious moments.

Micro Organizing

One of my favorite ways to spend time when life's been unsteady is to over-organize my belongings. This Threads and Bobbins Project has been on my radar for years. 

I've got around 50 spools of thread, each with their matching bobbin. My previous organizing system involved spool toppers that held the bobbin to the top of its matching spool of thread. The problem with the system is that because the spools are not of even height, the lids to my thread boxes wouldn't close. The stack was quite tipsy.

So I got myself some bobbin cases to hold the threads and bobbins separately. But how to match each thread to its corresponding bobbin? I decided to number them. My first attempt, using paper reinforcers, nearly worked. But not quite. 

So today I used a black ultra-fine tip Sharpie to mark the front and back of each bobbin, and the top of each thread.

Voila!

Completing this organizational task makes my heart go pitter-patter. 

When there's chaos in our world, in our household, and in my brain, having a small corner of order and calm delights me.

Life Update

It has been a month!

Dale and I had a number of events shake our life and rattle our hearts recently.

1. Our eldest is in the midst of a major life transition. Their health is in flux as well as a change in job status. As parents, Kit's struggles are hard to watch. But as a capable adult, the cascade of changes are being managed. Our job now is to give Kit space, support the progress, and keep from offering unwanted advice.
   
   
   
2. The entrance into the world of our first grandson was heightened by some challenges in utero. Born full term but two weeks before expected, Gabriel is tiny and beautiful and thriving now. Our daughter Jodie is recovering well from the surgery of helping her baby out the "sun roof."
   
   Unfortunately, the baby shower I was hoping to host was cancelled.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Dale felt unwell for a couple weeks, then became a resident of the North Springfield Resort and Spa (aka our local hospital) for 8 days. Throughout his stay, he charmed every member of the staff with his sincere kindness, cooperation, and patience.
   
   He came home two days ago with a drain in his side and a likely life-changing challenge. We hope to get a firm diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment plan next week. His tenderheartedness and gentle humor never flag. Though he is the patient, he remains my rock and steadying force on this path.
   
   
   
4. With a change in our Medicare plan in January, I'm having difficulty procuring one of my prescriptions which helps me manage my mental health condition. That condition is currently under stress (understatement). Dale's forbearance, persistence and diplomacy with our providers is helping to solve that problem. It's a waiting game.
   
   
   
5. Then on January 25th, I learned that my favorite co-worker and friend from my years working in the children's library in SoCal died last December. The news took my breath away. I grieve that loss.
   
   
   
6. Yesterday we smelled natural gas in our home's entryway. A kind, efficient, capable and professional young man from the gas company found a leak in our furnace. We'll be without that heat source until February 12th. But the gas technician got the fireplace working so we can stay warm through these frosty, foggy nights.
   
   
   

So!

It's been weeks full of challenges with more hiccups ahead of us. Our mantras?

"Follow the science"

"Look for the helpers"

"Be kind to yourself"

"Better together"

Through it all, our sympathetic, thoughtful, gracious neighbors became better friends. They each use their gifts, knowledge, talents, and compassion to help us with particular problems. We so appreciate their generosity and ongoing support. It seems we've become the neighborhood grandparents now, receiving the help of the next generations.

Any kind thoughts you can breeze our way are most appreciated. Please know that even if we don't acknowledge your messages right away, we are touched by them. It's simply ... we're a bit distracted right now.

In between doctor visits, Dale and I plan to continue sitting side-by-side with Puzzles and Podcasts, taking country rides in the convertible with the top down this Spring, short visits to parks, an easy geocache or two, and stopping to appreciate the sunsets each evening from our backyard vantage point. We still get to live some of our small dreams.

All in all, it's a good life.

~ Margaret

Puzzle Season - 10

A few months ago Dale and I bought a dozen used Wysocki puzzles from someone in town. I think they were decluttering after the Covid years when jigsaw puzzles were all the rage. So over the weekend we put another one together.

It's unusual for a Wysocki image because it's primarily a single building rather than an entire town. It's called Pickwick Cottage. Dale did the original sort, put the border together, and constructed most of the cottage.

I jumped in then and concentrated on the sky and water. I enjoy doing the gradients.  Then we both put the road and greenery together. This illustration has many of Wysocki's charming details, including an American flag, of course.

This artist usually has neighbors greeting one another, and a dog, and a cat. This puzzle was not an exception.

Wysocki added in a random gal sitting alone in a rocking chair on the front lawn, watching the world go by. (And look! No cell phone in her hand!)

It wouldn't be a Wysocki without at least one prancing horse pulling a carriage.

Dale said he'd like to do one puzzle per week during these wet months, so expect many more Wysocki's - and other puzzles - to come.

Play Like a Two Year Old

Our granddaughter received some Play Doh for her 2nd birthday. With her encouragement, I started playing.

I even bought myself my own set of dough and some implements. I never had a set like this as a kid. I figured it was about time.

On my own, I only played for a few minutes while backing up my computer. Predictably, I made a heart

with some details:

It's good for me to stretch this "creative play with no specific end in mind" muscle. I rarely engage in messy, unstructured play. Even before I started, I checked Pinterest for some ideas and a jumping off point. Confession: I literally had to mess up my tools before I took this photo because I tend to line things up in rows.

Somehow, little Abby doesn't need to do that.

Puzzle Season - 09

This last puzzle Dale and I finished to date is another illustration by Charles Wysocki. As distasteful as the last one was for me, the opposite is true for how much we both enjoyed putting this puzzle together.

This Americana scene is called Devilstone Harbor. Like so many of Wysocki's images, it's in three parts: The downtown street scene with the commercial shops, the outskirts of town with countryside in the background, and the horizon scene that has the waterfront.

There are always lots of character in the details:

And as usual, an American flag flies proudly over the town.

In troubling times, it's nice to take a break from "real life," put a puzzle together, and think of the kind of America we long to have.

View from Above

I climbed the hill behind the lighthouse for an alternate point of view.

Puzzle Season - 08

The second puzzle Dale and I put together in January is called All Good Things are Wild & Free. It's a quotation from Henry David Thoreau's essay, Walking. There's a lot to like about this puzzle.

It's manufactured by Flow, an international brand that celebrates mindfulness, creativity, and the simple pleasures in life. The illustration is by Dutch artist Valesca van Waveren.

The little camping and bug vignettes are sweet.

But one thing about puzzles made by smaller companies is that their quality can be lower than the standards of more established puzzle makers. Here, the cardboard is nice and solid, so the pieces feel good in your hand. But the quality falls apart a bit on the cut.

There are a lot of false fits ... meaning that pieces that are not meant to go together do go together "almost." But they don't come apart very easily. So the tabs get stuck and no matter how gentle we tried to be, they twisted, so the plies of cardboard pull apart. Unfortunately, by the time we found where the pieces do fit together correctly, the pieces became lumpy and bumpy. Note the few examples below.

For that reason, I doubt I'll put this puzzle together again. It's a shame because I do so like the image.

Shoreline

 

Rocky Oregon Coast

Puzzle Season - 07

Dale and I started out the year with another Charles Wysocki puzzle, A Friendly Good Day. We put this together on New Year's Day.

This is the very first Wysocki puzzle I've worked on that I did not like. It made me antsy. The illustration is great, as always. But the coloring and tone made it a nightmare for me. The overall yellow / orange tone made the pieces mush together too much for my brain.

Conversely, this was one of Dale's favorite puzzles. His color blindness was an attribute. Instead of trying to decipher what was red vs what was green, or what was purple vs what was blue, he could sort the pieces easily by tone and texture. I relied on the shapes of each piece.

It's a good reminder that we can each play to our strengths and find joy in our unique abilities.

I did enjoy picking out the pumpkins in the pumpkin patch.

Rock Island

I edited a few more photos from our trip to the Oregon coast. I'll share some over the next few days.

Puzzle Season - 06

The last puzzle of 2025 is all about Sparkle and Glitter

I put this small 350 piece puzzle together by myself. These color-rich puzzles aren't Dale's style. I can't seem to get enough of them.

This is my favorite kind of glitter ... the kind that doesn't shed all over my Studio worktable ...

or get stuck in the creamy middle of an Oreo cookie.

I'm Lichen It

Puzzle Season - 05

Dale and I spent Boxing Day constructing this snowy Christmassy puzzle.

Merry Christmas Shoppe is a nice-quality puzzle by Ravensburger manufactured in 2020. It had a number of tricky bits, but never so difficult as to stop us from progressing.

The details in this artwork from Janet Kruskamp have a dreamy old-timey feel:

I admit that we were happy to be warm inside, watching old episodes of The West Wing, eating BBQ chicken wings, and putting a puzzle together. It's awfully nice that we don't have to deal with snow-covered driveways and slick roads anymore.

Painting with Sharpies

My first art experiments this year were inspired by a few videos I saw on YouTube. (Thank you, Algorithm, for tempting me).

Using Sharpie permanent markers, draw a design on a background of choice, then distort the design with rubbing alcohol. The result is a tie-dye effect.

I gathered my tools, all of which were in my stash, er, retirement supply stores:

Clean white 4" tile

Sharpie markers in a variety of colors

Cotton swabs

Rubbing alcohol

Using scribbled lines, I created my design. Up to this point, I was happy with my process.

Next, using a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol, I placed droplets in the white spaces between the scribbles to allow the Sharpie to bleed. I was rather pleased with the results. 

So I grabbed the can of spray adhesive I had on hand and gave it a light coating.

and immediately moaned (or cussed. I'm not sure which). Apparently this spray has an alcohol base. My design immediately bled more than I'd intended. 

I tried using more Sharpie and alcohol dabs to fix it. No go. 

So I next tried coating the "revised" painting with Gloss Mod Podge applied with a disposable foam brush.

This time I'm positive I cussed.

The foam brush scratched the image, leaving this:

Ugh! I thought I was done with this experiment. I threw the tile away and went downstairs to calm down with a jigsaw puzzle (Hint, hint: more puzzles to come).

But the next day I thought I'd try something else. I have some canvas-covered boards on hand. So while waiting for a video call to start, I scribbled a similar design on the canvas with Sharpies. I used the same colors I'd used on the tile.

Then, instead of dabbing the painting with cotton swabs, I used an eye dropper to let the alcohol drip onto the canvas without the dropper tip touching the canvas. That worked well.

After the painting dried, I touched up the heart a bit and added a few more drops of alcohol. This way the heart shape is very distinct with the bleeding happening behind the shape.

I tucked my completed Sharpie painting into a frame I had on hand.

I don't know that I'll keep this version, either. But it was fun to try both surfaces to see how the Sharpie and alcohol reacted. I like the look of the tile better, but the colors are fragile on that slick surface. The canvas version, even without a sealant, feels like it will last longer.

Later I did a bit of research and learned that Dupli-Color Acrylic Enamel Sealant might be a better coating to use on the tile because it won't distort the finished painting. One could also experiment with the original formulation of Mod Podge. It's supposed to work well, too. But I don't recommend applying it with a foam brush. I'd use a soft paintbrush that I won't mind throwing away afterwards. Mod Podge is a glue. It's really hard to clean out of brushes.

I'm not going to try again right now. I don't feel like spending $15 on a sealant I won't use often.

Here's one of the videos I watched to learn the process: