One of the almost-last-minute activities was a trip to Illinois for lunch with my mother and my cousin Dawn. Dawn had an appointment after lunch but went back to Mom's for a while after, so Mom and I hung out and "helped" my stepfather, John, while he was working on cleaning out the shed. We found some neat things in there that have come home with me, and they are my topic for the day.
Almost three years ago I posted about the hidden treasure I found in my garage - a wooden box with dividers. If you missed that or want a refresher, click here.
I know I posted about two more wooden boxes I found in Mom's basement, but I wasn't able to find the post. I use those boxes when I do bead shows. Kits fit in them nicely, and they add a nice rustic look to my table. I've had to keep an eye on the boxes, though, because various friends of mine have expressed interest in them and have "joked" about them walking away.
Well, yesterday in the shed we found more wood boxes and a tin! I found another box in the garage, and John cleaned them up for me and put them in my trunk. Here's the haul:
I may have to start sharing them. I love that one of the boxes was for prunes (the one under the orange tin). The small box in the front has a bunch of door hardware that I'm either going to put on eBay and/or make something artsy with.
This wasn't the whole haul, though. Sitting on top of a work table in the shed were four pieces of petrified wood and a quartz fragment:
The quartz is being soaked because it was pretty filthy.
If you're thinking that doesn't look like you thought petrified wood would look like, check out this site. If you scan down the article, the second picture in the left column looks a lot like the pieces here and ones John found in other parts of their house. (It's a treasure trove in there.)
Oops! It's 2:30. I have to run to today's last-minute activity, getting my teeth cleaned. I was going to do it tomorrow, but something unexpected-but-necessary popped up for tomorrow. I'll wrap this up when I get back.
Home again! Where was I? (Um, you were at the dentist. What did they put in that fluoride polish besides fluoride?) No, no, where was I in the blog? Oh, yes. Petrified wood.
I used other pieces for photographing a few pieces of my jewelry. You may have seen them before:
I've been telling my husband that it's a pity to keep all the petrified wood in a box. We should put it on a shelf or something. But when I brought the new pieces home I had a thought. Dare I say it was an epiphany? Why don't I use the petrified wood, the quartz that's soaking, and anything else I have like that for displays at my shows instead of just for photo shoots?
So for the purposes of this blog I set up a quick little display:
I've been using a white tablecloth lately, but this purple napkin was handy. I'd space them out more and have a few of them up on risers or something, but this should give you a good idea of what it would look like.
In case you're curious about the designs, the pieces are (top to bottom, left to right): Shadowed Diamonds, Double Decker Daisy, SDN15 - Dino-spine, StarLite Mini Flowers, Cobblestone Path, and SDN15 - Intertwined Pyramids.
Here are a few of the displays close up:
I like it! It shows the pieces at different angles and gives you an idea of the drape. I'll try it at my next few shows and let you know how it goes.
But who cares what I think? What do you think? Let me know in the comments!
For those of you looking forward to pictures of Clinchfield, I will not disappoint.
Here he is last Tuesday after the whole water-splashing escapade:
Turns out he had a bit of a buzz from the pain meds (instead of getting sleepy) and was quite the crazy cat the rest of the afternoon. I could not keep him out of the sink until I forced some quiet alone time on him in his crate.
Even though he's calmed down from that, he's still a kitten. One of his favorite activities is making a mess out of the shelf above my desk:
All the destruction wore him out, the poor baby, but he still had enough energy to reach for the Darth Vader Pez dispenser he had sent flying towards my head.
Guess what he's doing right now? Yup! Back on the shelf:
While shelf-destruction ranks high on his daily to do list, his absolute favorite activity is pestering Pixel. Clinch jumps on Pixel or lies underneath him batting at his head, and Pixel whines and grumbles and bats back. Then Pixel swishes his tail back and forth in irritation, which Clinch thinks is strictly for his benefit:
Let's look at that from a different angle, shall we?
It's most fun when Pixel is on a level higher than Clinch. Most fun for Clinch, that is. Pixel just gets more and more annoyed. We usually just yoink the kitten and try to distract him from Pixel for a little while. They'll get it figured out eventually.
