Happy Zombie's Hens

Lisa E. and I had a very important mission yesterday: to adopt Monica's three hens for reasons we aren't allowed to reveal just in case it might get back to the girls whom Monica loves. This is the place we stopped at on our way back from collecting the precious cargo for a quick panini to go. You see why we had to stop here, right? Monica actually mentioned this place and we were happy to have found it right before we shriveled up with hunger. The paninis were pretty good, but kind of sat like lumps in our stomachs afterwards. The best part was watching them get made by a swarthy Italian-American beauty whose middle name is Angelina. Not quite as good as having it for a first name, obviously, but pretty good.

Here's Philip, Rex, and Lisa posing with the boxes in which the hens were transported.

There's Georgie peeking out at her new chicken yard.

Rex and Elena are very excited about the new additions to their coop!

Here's Omelet looking not particularly sure about anything. She was a little reluctant to get out of the comfy box.

And here's Snow-Ball who was right at home immediately, like most Americanas are. I have a soft spot for Americana's and am sad I don't have one myself anymore.

(This is for Monica's benefit) Here is the spacious chicken condominium in which your three girls will live. Very luxurious appointments!! It even has a skylight.

Here's my tired boy holding Georgie.

You are probably asking yourself how come there are no pictures of Monica and her house and her FABULOUS studio, huh? You're wondering what kind of moron doesn't take pictures of the first "real life" meeting of blog friends. Me. That's what kind of moron. I am not particularly shy as a rule, except with my camera. About fifty times while we hung out for two hours and drank delicious iced tea and gossiped about all of you out there in blog land, I thought "I should ask Monica if I can take some pictures". Then I didn't. Because it always feels so disrespectful and invasive to punctuate a friendly gathering with photo-snapping. Unless you know everyone super well.

So there are no pictures of Monica or her studio which I've never seen full pictures of on her blog (just partial pictures) and which I pretty much never wanted to leave. It's a wonderful cheery well organized CLEAN space. I've decided that she needs to coach me on fixing mine up. You know, in between all the packing and moving she's going to be doing in the next few weeks.

Seeing a person's quilts on the computer is nothing to seeing them in person. I have such a deeper respect for Monica's quilting skills and talent. She embroiders in tight clean stitches and all her work is really meticulously done. My aunt who is also a quilting perfectionist would absolutely love to see such fine work. It drives my aunt crazy that I don't care if some of my points don't quite match up, or if a few squares are wonky, or if perhaps I make it up as I go along. I have a deep respect for all people who pursue their passions with an eye to detail and I do the same in my apron and garment sewing, but when it comes to quilts I let myself go a little because I just enjoy the process and for me, if it's a little messy at the end it just adds a little mischievous charm.

I believe we should all do some things we enjoy that we don't feel we have to be perfect at. I would never make a shoddy garment, I would never leave a zipper buckled or seam unpressed. However, quilting is my playground and I don't impose the same strict rules of conduct on myself while doing it. This doesn't stop me from admiring the greater works of quilting art done by others.

Just as I expected, Monica is such a wonderfully lively warm person that it took only a couple of minutes before I felt I could sit around with her all day long chatting, looking at patterns, talking shop, and politics, and just everything. I would love to belong to a sewing circle with her.

Well, now her lovely birds have a good new home and I've met another blog friend. It was a good Friday! Canning cherries and picking up laying hens for Lisa's coop are great farm-girl adventures to begin the summer with. Now I must go attend to business so that I can start to work on my studio and complain about the heat.

The Williamson Ranch report

Pearl photographs well. I wonder how much like Lindsay Lohan she'd be if she were a person? Personally I think Pearl has more dignity. She never gets caught in compromising photos. You might be able to make the argument that if there were any roosters in the run she'd be a whole different creature. I don't know, she could be a lesbian. There's no way to know these things.

A few days ago I was the poultry paparazzi and caught Flower Bud in the act of laying an egg. This is a rarely seen activity as they prefer to do their laying away from prying eyes. If she had hands, she would have taken my camera and smashed it like Tom Cruise. You can tell by that angry glare in her eye. Isn't she cute?

There are over six hundred daffodils and other Narcissus out there beginning to pop up in my garden. I love that, the first hint of a spring in our future. I'm in no hurry to shuffle out of winter though, especially since it might snow tomorrow. Still, one of my favorite flowers is the narcissus.

I realize that I am boring you stiff with all these photos of the boxes. But, whatever. I got lots of work done yesterday. Working on more variations. Future Girl had some interesting suggestions, most of which I will probably stubbornly ignore. However, I think she mentioned something that I agree with.

She suggested having only one strap. I did the two because it adds more of a color splash on the news print. But I could do a thicker strap and only have one. It would simplify the production process. I haven't decided yet. I'm going to mull it over today while we are visiting Astoria.

There are three sizes of boxes. I've decided to come up with prices for them empty, and then do a few gift sets in them where you get a big price break on the boxes. I think they're pretty enough that I would buy one just to put lovely things in. Like a hat box. What do hand decorated hat boxes adorned with silk roses cost out there? I have to do a lot of work for these, but I can't make them prohibitively priced.

This one only has one strap because it's all that would fit. No star because it's too small. This box is only seven inches across. The smallest one.

I've thought about this and I think I may offer two wrapping options at Dustpan Alley: the standard (free) wrapping with the fabric rosette on kraft paper, and then offer one that costs five dollars that is the one with the newsprint over the kraft paper with the band of red fabric, and the poppies. I really love wrapping presents fancy, but I couldn't do that poppies and vintage newsprint one for free because of the cost of the materials. I think I'll show an example on the wall so people can choose.

Things are picking up around the website. We got another order yesterday. Yay! I can't even tell you how exciting it is to us. Also: I sold a Bitter Betty Industries decoupaged box yesterday. It was something the girl who bought it had seen in our store and come back to buy after thinking about it.

I still don't have my Valentine window complete, and I have my mom here now. Somehow I will have to spend some time in the store this week to complete the sewing for it. I'm already trying to plan out my spring windows. Naturally my mom has lots of ideas. She's an amazing artist and has a good eye for composition and a wonderful way of putting colors together. However, I told her that I have to do it my way, I have to be cautious as I learn this new window dressing art which isn't quite the same as painting a still life. I need to apply the things I've learned from Bitter Betty first. I can't just jump in and do some elaborate theme. I need simplicity first.

Well, I suppose I had better be off now. I have to go study some Oregon maps to see how far away Astoria is. Max is not at all thrilled at the idea of a road trip. So that will make it extra fun. There's nothing like a reluctant traveller strapped to the back seat. In fact he has informed me that he plans to lock himself in his room so we can't make him come with us.


*We chickened out. We decided to go to Pacific City because it takes half the time. Which means that if Max is going to be difficult, we'll only have to be in the car with a super grump for half the time.