Week of 4 April

Since Dad ended up in hospital on Monday and I have been commuting back and forth, it has not been the most productive week. I did make a range of word plaques varying from intricate to simple:

 The last two days I have worked on and off on some 'Word critters' which entails drawing a font from A to Z in caps and lower case. I'd like to present this in both printable format and TTF - but will have to invest in font-making software first to be able to turn my drawings into a true type font. It also does not seem possible to save the vectors from Adobe Illustrator as a TTF file type, so more investigation is needed...

What next?

I should have known better than to pre-plan my day. After tidying the shop I no longer felt like starting the projects so I will tackle them early in the week.

My big boy had his favourite ball replaced this morning and he is one happy chappie! Rogan, adult Doberman male, known for instilling fear in all strangers who cross his path, has a thing for a rubber squeak ball - a pink one no less. His fondness for this pink object is topped only by his love of food. He is a strange one, but very lovable and good-natured with those close to him. He is my best friend on four legs :-)

   
When I asked for pattern suggestions on Facebook last month I received some great ideas from various people. As a result I made a large range of Dream catchers, some Flower-themed word art signs, a range of rustic Stacked crosses, the Fairy garden stakes, and the Ukrainian ornaments/plaques/crosses.

All of these proved to be popular and now I have to decide what next? With my own ideas and the constant stream of suggestions I receive, there is no shortage of inspiration - it is just a case of deciding on a theme/topic and then I can run with it. Maybe some shawl pins, or multi-sided bowls, or a few font sets for scrolling. To do the latter I need to first invest in font-making software so that people can install the font and use it that way.

Tomorrow is family day and I am doing a leg of lamb with lemon & herbs, roasted potatoes and some butternuts halved and filled with a mixture of feta, garlic & olive oil - roasted in the oven to golden brown. Mmmm, now I'm hungry. Maybe some fresh green beans from the bean plants I put in the ground 2 months ago - if Rogan hasn't eaten them all :-) As fast as the beans grow, he strips them off and devours them - the wayward child!

A new start

I joined Blogger years ago and never used it, so this is a new start - a place to talk about my work, and my life.

Friday, April 1 - April fool's day, luckily no one played the fool with me :-) The first day of the month is the one day I allow myself to take it easy - spent limited time on the pc, produced only one pattern today and took care of the financials. Got some chores done and went out to do grocery shopping. 

The pattern was made especially for a fellow-scroller named Alan, who makes projects that are sold in Australia to raise funds for an orphanage in Burma. Alan has made more than 2500 items at his own cost and he says they made enough money through sales of his cuttings last Christmas to plant a rice field that will help to support the local village in Burma. I always find it so amazing when scrollers use their talent to help out others, and my pattern donation is just a small contribution to the wonderful work Alan does.

Tomorrow will be spent in the workshop, starting the next three projects for Creative Woodworks & Crafts, August issue. There is a rustic layered cross, an oval trinket box with inlaid butterflies on the lid, and a teacher plaque to be done. 

I may have to do some shop clean-up before I can start...many odd pieces of wood have found their way off the shelves and on to the floor lately. This tends to happen when I start searching for the perfect piece of wood for a specific project :-) The wood search was for a selection of 'comfort crosses' I made, they are small freeform crosses that fit in one's hand. This cross idea is the brain child of Al Ernst, one of my scroller friends. I made them from pretty hardwoods, rounded over the edges, and sanded them real smooth. Mom and Dad each received one and another went to mom's friend Siela, whom I felt was in need of comfort. Of course now others, having seen the little crosses, want them too. Scrolling the pieces is easy enough and the rounding over is done with my disc sander and rotary tool, but the hand sanding is a problem - my hands don't do well with the intense work required to obtain the silky-smooth finish that is required. Well, I'll just sand one every now and then, and not try to do a bunch all at once. I already told a few (younger) people they can have one, as long as they do the sanding themselves ~grin~