Photo of the Week - "My Workspace"

I am blessed to have several work spaces in this old farmhouse, but this one is my favorite. The north facing window lets in beautiful light on all but the stormiest days, and right now I can look down on a pasture full of
pregnant cows grazing peacefully in the morning sunlight. If that sight doesn't bring down your blood pressure, nothing will. :-)

I love working in this room even though it is tiny, and a little messy at the moment as I am in the middle of a major purge. I have already gotten rid of several boxes of stuff that I have been giving storage room for far too long. It is already so much more pleasant to work in there - it is going to be wonderful when I finally get it ship-shape.

Monday Photo of the Week - "Something New"

Ack!  What has happened to Blogger?  OK, so let's see if I can figure this out...

OK, photos are up.  Oh my, this is different.  Anyway... our challenge this week was to photograph "something new" so I am sharing my very favorite kind of new thing - new art supplies!  (Picture me rubbing my hands together, grinning maniacally... LOL!)

These shells were sent to me by my good online friend Linda (oh wow... another new thing and that was so easy!) for no other reason than that she is a wonderful person doing something wonderfully nice.  I don't know whether it's more fun to fiddle with the little bumps on the sea urchin or stroke the beautifully glassy inner survace of the little spiral shell - they are so much more beautiful in real life than in this photo.  The cut-away shell is already designated for another sea spirit project.  Now I just need to work up the courage to get started.

I picked up these little canvases last weekend on a whim because they are irrisistably cute. I wish I had put something else in the photo to indicate scale - they are *very* tiny. Now I just have to think of something to do with them.



I think my very favorite part of being an artist is buying new art supplies, LOL.

Photo of the Week - Moonrise over Mount Hood

We are having a late burst of beautiful Indian summer weather, just in time for this month's full moon. (I used to know the monthly moon names, but my memory is failing me today. I think November's is the Hunter's Moon?)

Anyway, I got outside a little later than I intended, but it was still a most rare and beautiful sight, don't you agree?


If it is still clear this afternoon I am going to try again and see if I can catch it while it is still just clearing the horizon. Ahhh... I love the moon.

Monday's photos - 2 Little Canvases

This weekend has not gone as planned - nothing new there for life on a dairy farm - but it wasn't completely without a bit of free time. I got some work done on my Retreat piece, but when I just couldn't concentrate any more, I dug up a few little canvases and started making colors without thinking. These paintings are based on an online class taught by Jean Bernard, though I'm afraid that there is an essential connection that I have missed while trying to learn her techniques.

(I'm sneaking these in as my Monday photo because I am still trying to learn to shoot interference colors accurately. Can you see them?)


I am not disappointed in how they turned out, only that paintings are "splotchier" than hers. I am going to try again for the smooth color transitions that she achieves.


And she didn't instruct us to add the sprinkle of microbeads, but I can't seem to resist the little things. Using them just makes me so happy!

Photo of the Week - Night Photography

One afternoon last week in the middle of the milking we had some trouble with the milk pump, or so we thought. Jake couldn't find anything wrong, so he called out a technician, who also couldn't find anything wrong. That is, until he put his little gizmo on the power line to check the power feed and saw that we were getting only a trickle of the electricity that should be flowing - the failsafe switch on the transformer that feeds power to the milking parlor had been tripped. (Fortunately we discovered this before the pump burned out!)

A call to the power company brought out a lineman to reset the transformer. It is always fun to watch a lineman do his thing, but just imagine our surprise when a huge tongue of flame shot out of the transformer when he flipped the switch! Fortunately noone was hurt, but... now we had a very big problem. No electricity in the middle of the milking shift, and it would be hours before the power company could send out a crew with the equipment to deal with the situation.

Jake and the guys hooked up the generator while Lydia and I went into the house to cut the power to all sensitive electronics. Sigh... It was going to be a dark and cold evening at Cascade View Dairy.

I was a little shocked by how absolutely dark it gets around here with no moon and no barnyard lights. It was a great feeling to watch the big utility trucks pull into the driveway.


I didn't have anything else to do, so I grabbed my camera and attempted some night photography using full manual settings. It took some trial and error, but eventually I hit upon a good combination of settings.


I think I ended up using ISO 800, F/4, and a shutter speed of about 1/2 second. I was able to take these shots hand held using "da grip" - I am making an effort to always compose my photos with my left eye at the viewfinder after this!


I had plenty of time to experiment, as it was nearly midnight before they finally finished. They actually replaced all 3 of the old transformers, so here is hoping that we won't have this issue again!

I have gotten some good work done on my Retreat doll as well, but I will save those photos for another entry.

Monday's photos

I fully intended to put up some in-progress photos of my Retreat doll today, but have you ever had a project where everything (Every. Last. Thing.) just goes WRONG? I keep plugging away, and at last I have an assembled doll and base complete, but I still need to add paint and ream out a support hole that somehow got filled in with apoxie. And so it goes... sigh...

Trust me, she is not ready for photography, LOL!

Instead, I bring you one of the most spectacularly beautiful nuisances of this or any other region - a swarming flock of starlings.


There is a vineyard across the street whose fruit is irresistable to these voracious pests. The owner of the field has set up a noise cannon that keeps them from settling on the fruit, so they settle on our barn roofs instead.


Watching them dip and swirl in the sky is quite a sight. HOW do they know how to move in such perfect unison??


You should just hear the racket they make. If the cannons don't deafen you, this flock will.


"Firebrand" the alpaca doesn't really care about the birds or the noise. Until some feed shows up, he is content to sit and enjoy one of the last beautiful sunny days of the season. Smart critter!

I really will try to get some of those doll shots posted soon.

It May Have Been Worth It...

One of the more interesting tasks you can expect to be faced with when you live on a dairy farm is the rounding up of animals who have gotten out of where they are supposed to be, and are now wandering around where they have no business being, usually causing damage as they go. Early Saturday morning we awoke to the sound of a commotion in the calf house. (Oh no... not the young stock!) Sigh... the yearlings were out.

Older cows are pretty easy to convince to return to where they belong, especially if they are hungry. The young ones just like to run, and they are agile and FAST. We did get them rounded up eventually, and as I trudged back to the house I looked up and this is what I saw...


There is nothing as beautiful as September in Oregon.

I have a few other little things to share to make up for being absent last week - these are my bring-alongs for the Iowa Retreat. (This week!) This is a 4"x4" canvas to commemorate the first Retreat held at Sherry's new school. It is collaged with foil gum wrappers, then painted and glitzed up with some metallic paint and microbeads.


There is also going to be a pincushion exchange one evening... This little frog is my offering. The lily, pad, frog, and pin heads are all of polymer clay, while the cushion itself is needlefelted wool/mohair blend embellished with yet more microbeads. (Is there life without microbeads, LOL?) I still need to paint the details on the ladybug pins, but I have a little time left before I leave to get it all done. I hope!


I can't wait til Thursday!