2nd and 3rd Visits to the Fair

I promise, we are now done with the Fair.

2 things before we get to that:

1. I joined a choir, yay! I’ve been trying to find a choir for years, and I was really unsure that I would make it (it’s audition-based), but I did! Yay!

2. I got a job, yay! It’s an entry level position at a children’s book publisher (so, not in my field) but at least I can, ya know, HAVE A JOB, while I continue on with this seemingly impossible dream of finding a counseling job.

Ok, and now for pictures from the rest of the fair!

First things first, baby animals in the Miracle of Birth Barn!

Look at that sweet little lambface!!

Look at this litttttlllllle piiiiiiiiiggggggggllllletttttt

Crop art (made from seeds)

Giant pumpkins!

Caramel apple

Oh look, there’s that giant slide that I tried once as a kid and ONCE WAS MORE THAN ENOUGH.

Got some sarsaparilla at this shack in the old timey area.

Chipwich

Parents bought a Sleep Number bed. People really do buy things at the fair.

Mini goats!!!!!!

Goats are the best. This little guy let me scratch him up real nice. Look at dat faaaaaace

New thing this year- spray misters for the heat

Butter heads!

GIANT FALAFEL BOWL!

Mini donuts

Cat Video Festival. Lil Bub and Grumpy Cat were there! For real!

Nightly fireworks

Latest Activities

Here’s what I’ve been up to lately.

Went to the Arboretum…

Went to a Japanese Lantern Lighting Festival…

Chopstick Challenge! Contestants had to move small food items using chopsticks.

Goldfish Catching! Kids used small, delicate paper paddles (that tore easily) to catch goldfish.

Kendo- Japanese fighting with swords.

The crowd waiting for the lanterns.

They place the lanterns in the water using a long stick-thing.

I’ve been drawing a bit…

This is what happens to your hand when you draw a lot.

Jane likes to make drawing difficult by sleeping on me. She’d prefer to sleep on my paper, of course, but my lap is acceptable.

Went to the State Fair (opening day)…

We ate breakfast at Andy’s. Never had breakfast at the State Fair before.

Caramel Rolls

Egg Croissant

Cheese Curds. Now we’re talkin.

The crowd looms.

Apple Dumpling

Guess what they sell here.

Police Canine demonstration.

In the art building…a diorama box thing.

Bottom drawer of the box.

This is a hat. And an armadillo?

This is a ship made out of a cello!

This is very cute. Can’t really tell from the picture, but it’s a miniature house inside of an old tv set. All 3D. It looks like a painting or something here.

End of the day laser show.

Soren’s ABC Book is Finished!

About a year ago, at my sister-in-law’s baby shower, I presented the idea of making an alphabet book for the new baby. I asked all of our friends and family to contribute;  they each chose letters from the alphabet and came up with little sayings to go along with each letter. I drew pictures for each letter, and then…….realized I had no idea how in the heck to get the pages into actual book form. Have you ever made a book? Like, a physical hard cover book? I had not. I was a bit in over my head.

I looked into having a local bindery do it for me (would have cost at least $150 because I had decided to use thick paper for the pages…great…), I tried to find a photo album or good-looking three-ring binder to put it into (couldn’t find anything the right size/orientation), and I finally ran into a friend of a friend who has made books. So I bugged her ceaselessly to help me, and she graciously relented, and we bound it ourselves at a local book arts center.

We had made accordion folds (I royally screwed up mine, oops!) into the binding paper, and I glued each page to one side of each fold. Then we put really heavy brick-things on top to smoosh it all together.

She has measured and cut the boards for the front and back covers and the spine, and is now applying the cover fabric to them.

She then glued one piece of binding paper to the spine of our accordion-folded pages, and she’s now applying glue to the end papers (which will then be glued directly to the cover boards).

Here is the cover. I just glued my page to the front cover, and then bordered it with washi tape.

The beautiful end paper. It’s a soft Japanese paper with a lovely, rich red scalloped pattern. The note is a thanks to the contributors of the book and a dedication to Soren’s late grandmother.

An example of what the bound pages look like. I lined the folds with washi tape to clean up some glue vestiges and some imperfect page positioning.

Some examples of pages:

Final Thoughts!

1. If I do this again, I’ll decide on the method of binding prior to beginning. It would be much easier to just use regular paper (I basically used cardstock) because then binderies could do it for me for a somewhat reasonable price. Or I could use some sort of technological assistance (there are websites for making books).

2. Colored pencil doesn’t show up well on brown paper. I like the look of colored paper (white just seems too stark to me), but it was really difficult to get vibrant colors (or even visible colors).

3. It was really fun to learn how a book is made!

Look What I Did!

I just painted this hutch thingy! Boy do I love Before and Afters. Here’s the before:

It belonged to my grandparents, and after both of them had passed away, I received a few of their wonderful pieces of furniture. This one had been in my garage for a while, because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it. But I had some left over paint from another project (I’ll show you that project someday soon), so I dragged this out, and got it started!

It had one of these fantastic drop-down lids, and became a desk. I really like it this way, but I would never use it as a desk, and I didn’t want to keep it closed at all times, so I decided to remove the lid and storage shelf (which was broken, see above pic). I kept them, in case I decide to add them back someday.

I would have felt pretty bad about painting this if it were in really good condition, but the varnish/lacquer/whateverthiswouldbe needed to be updated anyway. And I don’t like large chunks of brown in my house, so I had to change the color.

Ahh chevron. I might have to change the pattern someday when chevron becomes just so “last season” that I can’t even stand to look at it anymore. But for the moment, I really like chevron (trends are trends for a reason, no?…usually). I ended up kind of marking out a grid onto the desk with a pencil and ruler, and then laying the tape down to fit into the grid (to ensure that my stripes weren’t off-kilter or poorly proportioned). Don’t know about you, but I can never get painter’s tape to work properly for me. So after pulling it up, I went back in with a tiny brush and fixed up a bunch of spots.

The white outlines on the drawers were a pain in the neck!! I couldn’t use tape or a ruler or anything since they’re not straight (I was outlining ridges that were already on the drawers), so I just had to freehand it. Which took forEVER. And if you look at them closely in person, you can definitely tell it’s hand-done. But it’s good enough for me.

Final Thoughts!!

This was my first time painting furniture (I know! What a newbie!!), so it was really fun to figure this stuff out. I haaaaate painting (like painting walls), so I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to this, but it was soo easy and quick!

Just how easy? Here are my steps:

1. Remove hardware, clean item (I just used a wet paper towel and then dried with a cloth).

2. Paint it! I used just some gray paint with primer in it from Home Depot (it was actually exterior paint, because it was from a previous project). I did about two coats. It probably took me about a half an hour (aside from the chevron and outlining on the drawers…that’s a whole other story).

No, I did no sanding. I know! The surface wasn’t super slick or anything, so I didn’t feel it was necessary (and I’m lazy), and it seems to have worked out just fine. Now I’m looking around my house at the million other things that I can paint. PAINT ALL THE THINGS!!!