New Origami Folds, Yay!

Two new folds that I've been working on, the first is a 50's style dress, this one is fun because the top can be altered to make it a sundress, off the shoulder, camp dress, etc. Lots of fun with my older papers and 50's style prints.

The second is more of a party-prom-ballerina dress in two parts, not as versatile a fold but it sure comes out pretty, and is very striking. Plus I finally found a great fold for my glitter paper!

Both were a bit tricky to master in parts, but once I got the fold down and practiced they came along swimmingly! Other new diagrams coming up soon are a worm, octopus and flower.

Yay, Hollyhocks!

Visited my mom the other day, her garden is marvelous and she gifted me with a TON of hollyhock stalks.

Red, pink, white, singles, doubles...after popping the seed pods off the stalks, I was left with this:

About half a shopping bagful! She says at the end of the season I can have more since she just cuts them down and tosses them. I plan of spreading them along the chain link fence in the front yard along with some ornamental sunflowers.

Also, this year's Chickam chicks have come into lay!

Eggs on top are a couple of Brahma/Giant Cochin eggs for comparison, the three on the bottom are from the chicks. The two small ones are about the size of pigeon eggs and are likely from the d'Uccles, don't know who laid the other one.

Lastly, more origami! A few Little Green Men, my very own creation.

For these guys I really like the oval eye put on sideways the best...more monster-y.

Also some diamonds, this fold incorporates two pieces of paper and for some reason I am among the many who had trouble finessing them together. It took some practice and discovery of a specific technique, but finally they worked, yay!

One of the local churches had it's huge annual rummage sale recently and I scored some vintage 60's-70's-80's wrapping paper which I'm now folding with. Most of it is OK but one is a very pretty pink and gold 60's paper which is a bit delicate and will only work for simple folds that don't take a bunch of handling. That rummage sale was amazing and I'm looking forward to it again next year!

A Most Wonderful Bug!

The babies got their first live grasshopper today. I found it while watering and after smacking it with a shovel two or three times (damned things are TOUGH) to stun it, I tossed it in with them. They all came running over...

...and stood on it. So I shooed them away a bit and flicked it around with a stick. They pecked excitedly...

...at the stick.

By now I'm scolding them and the big chickens in the run next to them are yowling loudly and going INSANE because they know EXACTLY what to do with a damned grasshopper. The grasshopper, no fool he, is being perfectly still.

Finally the hopper made the ultimate mistake and opened his wings, trying to fly...

Georgia thought he was yummy.

But he's still young, so he didn't call the girls. He ran off under the roosts and gobbled it down. Though grasshoppers being very spikey, I could tell it kinda stuck going down...

Painting Progresses...

Because of how we need to move around furniture and plan ahead on unpacking boxes, painting is progressing rather strangely. The last two days I've concentrated on half of the dining room.

Before, universal boring white.

Although NO shortage of painted-over staples, tape and nailheads thinly covered with spackle...just enough to make you think it's just a spackle glop and run the power sander over it, haha. When this happens the sandpaper tears and makes a truly horrific, loud, rattling noise that is guaranteed to make your heart stop. Even more fun if you are up on a ladder sanding over your head. Added to this kind of fun is having to scrape big glops of painted-over acoustical ceiling bits from the walls & molding. Plus the truly craptacular spackle job from two previous paint jobs--especially where some bonehead used rubberized caulk for spackle and thought it'd work--and you've got yourself a fine recipe for foaming at the mouth and moaning obscenities at the previous tenants.

So yeah, the first day is mostly scrape, repair and scrub. Then came painting, the same Americaunas-egg green for the walls as I used in the kitchen, and a light brown to match the kitchen countertops for the trim.

So far in this room I just did this corner and the wall around the sliding glass door, so that I can move a large cabinet into this corner and hang the sliding door blinds & curtains. The door to the garage will be done later.

Once this is done, I can unpack the boxes in the living room, which will clear THAT room for finishing IT'S paint job.

Meanwhile, it's 100 degrees and time to stop for the day. Oh, and we believe we have a skunk living under the house.

But that's a whole 'nuther adventure involving mothballs placed in Mason jars with holes popped in the lids, then stealthily and *carefully* rolled under the house like Molotov cocktails--all while poised to RUN.

It's A Chicken Swamp Cooler!

Finally got a few burlap bags to hang around the coop, on hot days we wet them down and they act like a swamp cooler--evaporative cooling when the breeze blows.

It'll take a while for the chickens to appreciate their new curtains, for now Dinner and Weedcat are treating them as hostile, chicken-eating aliens and are wailing and running about in a silly manner. Scott and the older hens are much more curious and harder to rattle. After all, it might be food...

It's That Magical Time Of Year...

...fire season. Today we had dry lightning around the valley which sparked at least three fires, two of which are creating tons of smoke--these pics are about 50/50 smoke and clouds. Just before dusk the sky was glowing, it was making the chickens VERY nervous.

Another one off to the right, this one is closer and responsible for most of the smoke in our neighborhood. The local fire crews are right on top of all of them, of course.

Tonight the air is warm, close & still, we'll see what morning brings as far as how the fires are doing. At least the fires up here smell like a campfire rather than a trash fire!

Progress!

Got the front entryway painted, despite all the heat!

Before--on moving day, drab and boring white:

After!

Haven't done the crown molding throughout the room yet, that'll come after the rest of the living room walls are painted. I may end up taking down the crown molding, stripping it, painting it and rehanging it, depending on how ambitious I get. The previous owners slopped all kinds of acoustic ceiling bits on it, plus a ton of paint drips, and applied paint so thickly that it obscures part of the detailing in the wood. The molding at LEAST needs to have the gunk scraped off.

Spent today repairing the back yard fencing so the chickens can safely be allowed to roam the yard. We still have a few spots to finish before it's ready, but it's about 85% there! I'll feel so much better when they have more room and can settle into a more normal routine...also we need to incorporate the chicks into the flock.

Also, we had a HUGE fish fly spend one of the hottest days on our front window screen, he camped there till dark then went on his way.

He was very pretty, I love the grid design on his wings, that ISN'T the screen showing through! I told him he was darned brave to be hanging out at a chicken owner's house...