Week in Review (or why I haven't visited you, dear friends)

I love visiting blogs. I love meeting new friends. And as you know, I ALWAYS visit YOU my dear friends and leave a comment. Except this week has been different. Things have been very busy here, and life got in the way of computer time. What little computer time I had, I used it to put out fires. So, I promise to visit next week, but this week is pretty much shot.


In a recap of my week, on Monday I went to my friend Billie's to see her new home. Now I showed you her new back yard, but failed to mention that if you look directly across the river, you will see a portion of her former three story home she and her recently deceased husband/partner owned. Yep, she moved directly across from her former home. She traded one side of the river for the other side.


On Tuesday, my friend Scott asked me to come by and bring some of my pneumatic (air) hoses, a splitter that would allow more hoses to be attached, and my pneumatic paint gun. I gladly loaned them to him, since he had all his tools stolen about a month or two ago and was only now slowly replacing what he needed to work on his home. I took my Wednesday Wendy doll with me for company. In this photo, she is soaking up lots of sunshine and is all washed out.


At Scott's I got to play with cool tools.


I got such a laugh out of the air nozzles. The one in back had been attached, because I brought it on one of the hoses. The other, the colorful one, is Scott's. See how technology has changed? They both do the same job, but Scott's is compact, much lighter weight, and easier to manipulate. I call this old school meets new school.


After using a few power tools, I offered to help paint a few boards. You can see the sun is high in the sky as I found a way to set up the boards, then brush two coats of paint on


these trim pieces that Scott built himself.


At the end of the day, I went around and took photos of his roof project from the south side,


the front,


and across the street.


I even got a photo of Scott that wasn't blurry.


As I was taking a photo of the roof line on the north side, I noticed for the first time


how he had draped the rope to simulate a makeshift fence after he removed the chain link fence that had been there before.


I'm getting the evil eye as Scott drinks his coffee and inspects his handiwork. In this photo, you can just about see all three peaks.


Before I left for the day, it was back to work using power tools. This time it was Scott using the table saw. Now I admit it! There are not too many machines I'm afraid of, or don't like to use, but table saws scare me, and always have. So, I gladly let Scott do all the complicated angle cuts using the table saw.


After his break in, Scott installed a four camera system around his "construction site," which is also his home. This is what it looked like Wednesday morning right before I drove back to his place. I stopped by the grocery store, then headed over to help. I didn't bother taking my camera. I was just there to work and I like the idea that it really looks like a construction site.


You can see a big difference at the end of the day (Hint: look at the upper left camera shot in each photo). These are screen shots from my computer. I have his code and can watch his house any time I like.

After having been gone for three days, I was anxious to catch up on all my friends' blogs and what was going on in your lives. I really love reading all about theiryour interests, seeing your art, and sharing your joys and sorrows. But I had the Friday challenge to finish, as well as some art to make for a swap.

Then the bottom fell out from under me on Thursday. Now I'm not one to complain, BUT, I am hosting two 12 Days of Christmas swaps that are based on the song "12 Days of Christmas." Each person was to pick a number and make 12 of their chosen day, send 11 to me and keep one for themselves. The due date had come and gone, and I kept sending e-mails to the two people who were holding up the swap. On Thursday, I realized they were not going to respond. Now there is nothing worse for a swap host, than a participant who flakes. However, in most swaps, the host (meaning me) throws up her/his hands and sends the ones that s/he has and returns one or more of the participant's own back to them. However, in a 12 day swap, where you open a package every day, that option isn't available. There was nothing else to do, but make up for the missing days myself. Others offered to help, but I knew by the time they got here, I could have made them myself and gotten them out the door.


So Thursday, I got out brushes, Staz-on reinkers and 91% alcohol, along with various paint, cardstock, and watercolor paper, and began making backgrounds.


I woke on Friday to find a sick Bleubeard, and a few of the swap backgrounds I left to dry. I have even more papers drying on my craft room floor, but moved the mostly dried ones to the living room since I am totally out of room everywhere.

Bleubeard is still not feeling well, but hopefully he'll be fine by Monday, at least that's what the vet thinks. Some blood work, a shot, some pricey medicine, some reassurance from the vet, and he will hopefully be feeling his old self soon. He woke me this morning, once again sick and shows the same symptoms that had me in a panic yesterday! I started my day cleaning up his "sickness." That's all I need because I must buy a needle or several, if I am going to continue making swap pages. So, after I attend to him and call the vet, I will be out and about at the Singer Sewing Center I go to.

I apologize to everyone who has been here, slipped quietly in and out, or generously left a message or comment. I am sorry I haven't been around to visit you this week. Your friendship means more to me than you know. I WILL catch up, but probably not for a day or so. Life, and circumstances beyond my control, sometimes gets in the way of art, and if I weren't so committed to this blog, I wouldn't be quickly writing this post today, but would skip it altogether. But, I wanted to get these photos off my camera anyway, so I thought it would be the one thing I could post today. Then to make matters worse, I keep getting this silly 503 error. Will life ever straighten out? I sure hope so! Thanks for being such a friend, and have an absolutely perfect weekend.

My blog pick of the day will have digital artists and lovers of steampunk sitting up and going WoW! Adam Tredowski, who lives in the UK, combine both, along with a bit of fantasy, and pure imagination. Now Adam has a blog, but I'm sending you to his web site, because all the photos from his blog are also in his gallery and his blog isn't written in English. The one thing I found annoying was the ad at the top of the gallery page, which I was unable to close or minimize as it covered part of the photos. I hope this doesn't deter you from visiting, and I hope you enjoy this digital steampunk world of Adam Tredowski's fantasy today.