Day: February 3, 2007

Art, Paintings, Photography

Reduce Reuse Recycle

Shelly

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I pick up stretchers at yard sales and thrift stores. You can get them cheap that way. I got four of these 24 x 24 inch stretchers years ago at a garage sale. They were covered with some godawful 70s gold-and-orange-on-brown patterned fabric. O ick. I pulled the old fabric off and stretched canvas over them. The other three are sporting paintings that I’ll probably keep, but the fourth was never finished. The underpainting on the old canvas was done about 10 years ago, and it’s not something I’m likely to ever want to finish, so I decided it was time to pull it off, restretch the canvas, and start over from scratch.

The stretcher is old, but it’s still nice and sturdy. The crack along one bar is only superficial. I’ll need to tighten up one of the corners, but other than that, it’s perfectly usable. I love the look of the old nail heads and the way the paint seeped around and through the back side of the canvas. No, that’s not a good thing. It’ll eat the canvas where it wasn’t primed. The seeping is a by-product of using heavily thinned, drippy paint. It goes where it wants, and there’s not a whole lot you can do about it. I primed the canvas along the edges, but that didn’t keep the paint from being wicked around to the back, where the canvas was left raw.

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Pets, Photography

Saturday Dogblogging

Shelly

Harriet has developed a deeper appreciation for playing with balls since moving to a place that has lots of floor space. Red Ball remains her very favoritest toy, so it’s fun to tease her with it. She is unamused! Then, clumsy me, I threw it for her and it bounced into a Rubbermaid tub. Harriet saw it go into the tub, but it was hidden by a plastic bag, so she couldn’t see it. I finally took pity on her and retrieved it for her.

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Crankypantsing

Happy Groundhog Day

Shelly

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I’m officially in hate with FedEx. The last three times I’ve had a package delivered by them (not by choice!), they have not updated the tracking information. That’s kind of important for us folks who have full-time jobs, especially as FedEx is often hit-and-miss about leaving packages when there is no one home.

For example, I came home yesterday to find a note from them on my door, informing me that they required a live person to be present to sign for my (two) packages. M’kaythen! Today I came home to find that they’d left one of the “requires signature from live person” packages sitting on my doorstep. Of course, it was the DVD burner I’d ordered. You know, the more expensive of the two purchases. The blank DVDs are still AWOL, and will presumably be delivered on Monday. That’s fine, as it turns out, because I have Mondays off, so I’ll be here to sign for them. Still, it’s kind of frustrating for me, and it can’t be very cost effective for them. Really, what sense does it make to come here three different times to deliver something?

How do people who work 9-5 M-F get packages from FedEx? Do y’all just wait until they’ve made their three attempts to deliver, then go to the FedEx office to pick up your packages? Gah! At least UPS A) updates their tracking info and B) has never had trouble finding me or been shy about leaving packages on my doorstep. Better yet, because I was on the early end of his route, the UPS driver at my old house used to leave my (and my neighbor’s) packages on the driver’s seat of my car. At the same address, the FedEx driver used to stand by the gate and yell for me. If I didn’t hear him, he’d drive off without leaving my things. The jerk didn’t even knock on the door. Of which there were two in plain view!

And, in fact, the last time a package was shipped to that address via FedEx, they claimed they couldn’t find my house. After having lived there for five and a half years, and after having had umpty packages FedExed to me, mind you! So, instead of calling me to find out where I was located, they just returned the package to the vendor without informing me.

No art today, I’m afraid. I spent my arting time installing my shiny new DVD burner. And, I might add, the installation of which went swimmingly. I opened the box, only to realize that I’d been a dork and had bought the wrong burner. This one came without any software or even drivers. The burner with software and drivers was only a couple of dollars more. Oops! The good news is that this is the exact same model as the one I meant to buy, and it turns out it didn’t need drivers or software. I pulled the old drive, popped in the new one, and Bob’s your uncle. I did a test burn, and everyone is playing nicely with everyone else. And they lived happily ever after. The End.

Pee Ess: Punxsutawney Phil supposedly says we’re going to have an early spring. What I want to know is, when is winter going to start?

Pee Ess Ess: Still working my way through Upstairs, Downstairs. It’s just as soap opera-y as I remember, but in a good way. Also, out of wedlock babies, abortion, and homosexuality? Lordy!