The View of Autumn

Beautiful isn't it? I love the colours that aspen trees give us when the Fall comes around. It is so brief though. At this point, all of the leaves up North have already turned and gone. I was lucky to be down South where this is delayed. The rustle of leaves was so dramatic as we climbed the hill to the family crypt. It was time to put Itchy's urn in its final resting place. Yes, there were tears. I'm still out of comfort without her.

The rest of the day was spent taking down the tent for the season. That's when you really notice the wind. We are over with the tarp burrito we put everything in for the Winter. So we will continue to drive up here until we are done with the shed. I wanted the shed to be done by now but genius here decided to use her knowledge in timber-framing. I used my Japanese saw & chisel to make a large, weather-treated skids. By-hand = time consuming.

I'm super excited about my other project that I completed this month. My niece's third birthday was one that I have been waiting for with great anticipation. The third birthday was the milestone that she would be ready for her first dollhouse. I made a three-year old appropriate, two story, townhouse doll house. If you know me personally you know that I can go above & beyond, I have a hard time restraining myself & get carried away.  This is for a three year-old so I made it pretty simplistic. Maybe I did learn something from architecture school? Function = Form. I sure am glad that still had my miter box so that I could do all those 45 degree cuts and little trims.

We brought it into the house & my sister had placed a little red table next to the window for it. It came with a bunny family named the Bunningtons. My mother found a what-not display on the free-table at her building. It had all these little cubbies filled with doll house toys. I took those apart, cleaned them up to go with the house...and that was the last we heard of her. When she wasn't swinging on her swing or playing with her soccer ball, she was quietly engrossed in her house. My brother-in-law gave me the thumbs up.

Miss you more than wallpaper mucus & The Ultimate glue for doll houses - V

Fall Equinox - The first day of Fall

What a beautiful day it is. Instead of my usual Thursday spent working on a friend's tiny house, today I'm busy around the house preparing for a new season.  I think that too much press is given to Spring Cleaning, why don't we hear more about Fall Cleaning. Without it you end up with a huge mess in the Spring.

Fall cleaning for me involves uprooting the summer plant crop & storing away the pots. Finishing outdoor building projects. Taking down the wall tent in the mountains. Rearranging the house & organizing the garage just so we can get the Halloween decorations when the time comes. Getting the Winter/Spring class schedule out. Then make the Winter hat collection.

This is right on the heels of finishing all of my half-completed hat collection for the Nan Desu Kan convention. I'm glad that I did it but it was a Hat-A-Day Challenge. So I documented it on Facebook, all 49 of them. It all paid off because September 2-4th at the convention, with the excellent salesmanship of Nicolas, 69 of them sold. My Etsy store looks almost vacant now!

I think the funniest day before the convention was the photoshoot. Remember, I was bringing 99 items with me to the convention & most of my images where product shots Nicolas took. The shoot was a multitude of theatrical pieces, therefore we decided not to try to bring outfits to match, the idea was naked except the hat. It came out marvelously.

Ray wearing the Blood Orange tilt hat with class.

Now to flip everything on its ear..or horn. Yup, I'm teaching the soft-sculptured horns workshop after the Denver Post did an article on my technique over a decade ago. I haven't changed my email since then so I still get emails yearly asking if I will teach the class again. It will be on October 22nd at the Art Students League of Denver.  

As my supplies get delivered I've been spending steamy afternoons infront of the hat steamer making felt hats. I met a dear lady that was selling her 92 year-old mother's hat block collection. I now have eleven MEN'S hat blocks. Some of them are for gi-normous head sizes so I'm searching for larger crown blocks. My evenings though are spent infront of a hot-glue gun making kanzashi (Japanese fabric flowers).

I hope to share all the new creations with you soon.  Cheers, Victoria