please distract me. Or point me to my ever-growing list of things I need to do in December. Anything to get my mind off of designing

CARDS

So the weekend was nearly over and the weather was getting more gorgeous by the day, meaning bright sunny days. The previous weekend we actually had about 4 overcast days. In a row. Yeah, we’re not used to that. Spoiled is what were are. In the winter, anyway. Spoiled is what you northerners are in the summer. While we broil in our shells.

So we just go to the beach to make up for it. Our Sunday afternoon/evening was completely open so we went to Jekyll Is. Lovely except for a few sand gnats determined to eat supper. Oh, and by the way, that’s Jekyll Island, not Jekyl is. I have a good friend who was going to Edisto Is. with some friends and she kept wondering what was up with the Edisto Is. signs. She said, “Edisto is what?”

For you locals, in case you wonder where these were taken, we were on the north pier at dusk. Dusk lighting is the best. St. Simons Is. in the distance:

A grackle doing aerobics:

Another grackle is speechless:

Telephoto shot:

Wide angle shot:

A cropped shot:           

Trawlers on their way back home:

And so they returned home that evening, so rested that they had to drag themselves in the house, and drop onto the couch in a puddle of  …

Nevermind.

Still playing when I need to whittle on my list. Rachel, here are 2 I threw together tonight.

There are so many cool ways to use damask!! Christy, I hadn’t thought of selling them.  I should send you a “pattern”. That way you can adjust the size and angle if you want.

 

 It is lovely having a few days off of work!!! Had a good Thanksgiving with some of my immediate and extended family. The only thing I don’t like about vacation is how fast the days go. Faster than a speeding bullet …. sludging through peanut butter.

The other evening I learned a new photoshop trick: how to make a damask pattern. And all night long I was designing them in my sleep, only I could never actually get anything finished. In case there is anyone out there who doesn’t know what damask is, it is an offset repeated decorative pattern. Learning this will be handy for cardmaking. Once I come up with some actually good patterns, that is.

Here is one I made that I affectionately call:

And antoher one I threw together called:

And

wherein the pattern looks like it’s embossed. So many options, so little time. Right now I have a dozen things I need to be doing including but not limited to: packaging the rest of the fried hamburger for the freezer, folding and putting away laundry that’s been in the basket for 2 days, trying out the new dvd/vcr player, making enchilada soup for supper, editint the J Overholt family pictures, going for a walk, working some more on the church calendar. Well, you get the picture!

Don’t you love my creative names?? It’s good I don’t have kids cause they’d end up with names like Junior 1, Junior 2, Junior 2b or something like that.

Here is a snowflake one I put together:

Oh, yeah, you can angle the pattern at any degree.

Change the effects and colors.

And that’s just the beginning. In the mean time, I’ve things to do. Hope you’re weekend is fun (and going slower than mine.)

 

So tell me, what do these two pieces of furniture have in common?

 

Maybe more than you think:

1. They both are furniture. (Duh.)
2. They both have drawers. (Another Duh.)
3. They both belong to me. (Maybe Duh but you didn’t know if I just borrowed it or not.) (Duh.)
4. This list is really Duh.

See, I’ve been wanting a nightstand to add to my bedroom. I’ve never had a complete matching bedroom set, and that’s really not a problem with me because I’m more of an eclectic person anyway. But I’m afraid my furniture is probably too eclectic to even be eclectic. It probably plain long clashes.

While we were in Tennessee for a family reunion …. did I even tell you we were in Tennessee? I bet you saw my header up there ^ and thought we have beautiful fall leaves here too. You didn’t think that?? Good! Whew!

Well, let me just tell you, it is still green here. We should be getting a hard frost in the next couple of weeks or so. I just picked 6 lovely jalepeno peppers from our garden the other day plus several green bell peppers. And we have ornamental corn that has tiny ears on it although that probably won’t actually have time to ripen before the weather gets cold.

We live in the semi-tropics I tell you and we just don’t have hardwoods that turn brilliant colors. The Bradford pears usually have spectacular color once a hard frost comes. If they haven’t all defoliated (?) by then.

So while were on our way to Tennessee I openly drooled over the brilliant colors and was sad that I couldn’t take more pictures. Surely at the campground there would be lots to photograph. We ate a picnic lunch at a lovely rest area.

 

 

Once we got to the campground west of Nashville, we noticed most of the colorful leaves were already on the ground so I gave up that dream.

And I only took 2 pictures at the reunion. Here is one of them:

My uncle Harold bravely striding back toward the main meeting room. He is a used car salesman and would be very happy to purchase a car for you if you need one. I’ve purchased the last 3 I’ve owned from him.

Anyway Lois and I went junk/antique shopping while were were there and I found a nice little night stand that someone had done a shabby-chic job on it. And I wanted to find one that I could paint and since this one had already been painted and I could just paint over it. Nice. $35. That was nice too.

And I found a tree:

But they had a No Trespassing sign so I didn’t go inside the fence.

So anyway, this past Saturday I finally had time to paint the nightstand. It is far from perfect but if you see it hopefully you’ll be far enough away to not notice the blemishes. I found antique gold paint at Walmart in the crafts which came pretty close to matching what was on the chest of drawers. And get this … the pulls on the chest of drawers are pewter. Pewter with antique gold?? It looks okay on the chest but the night stand (Yeah, the pulls are kind of odd here. They were left over from Lois’ bathroom when she decided she wanted black pulls after all.).

So now what do they have in common?

 

You probably don’t want me to start another list. Mine are kind of dumb.

And we’ve been to Tennesse and back.

And my bedroom furniture is still eclectic. See the footboard there? I’ve been wondering what that would look like painted black…..