What's more fun than Insulation?

Putting up 4'x8' sheets of ceiling panels, that's what!!

Mr Foxaz gets it in his mind to do a project, and it's a one-way highway towards his goal.

He has his epidural pain shot this coming Tuesday, so it was important to get most of the rough stuff done before that. He's supposed to take it easy after the shot, and he usually does. So a week ago we got the bundles of insulation and paneling, and rassled it all into the workshop last Friday. Started on Friday night and got to the paneling at the end of the weekend.

Yikes! What a job! At one point, we had ropes and pulleys hooked up to lift the panels into place. Talk about Two Stooges! Mr Foxaz is quite particular about how things should be perfect. Me, I'm just standing there, holding the ropes and the pushing stick, saying "put the screws in, put the screws in already!!" I'm type A and get frustrated easily. He is so much more calm than I am- just moves forward in a careful, calculated way.

He's one of the only people I know who can measure, cut, and have the piece fit perfectly.
I just try my hardest to keep my mouth shut - but it's not my nature to stay quiet. I try though.

Back from the 300 miles drive

We're back from our all-day drive. Mr Foxaz's eye is no worse. The ciliary body mass is the same size, no larger. The doctor excised a chelazion, we got a script and went on our way. Ordered Quiznos subs from our hotel room- yum!

We drive down the day before (takes all day) then the appt is the next day, then drive back the following day. I missed my exit on the way back though, and wound up in Peoria for awhile. But thankfully, no horrible wrecks on the highway, no road closures in the heat.

It's good to be home. It's too darn hot out there to be driving all day. 54 mpg isn't too bad though. Yay for the Prius!

The Wolf is at the Door

I'm taking my felt pins in a slightly different direction. This is the first of what should be an iteresting series of animals, birds and insects. Minimalist, yes, and hopefully different in a good way.

I love making things. My Bucket List is mostly things I want to make, projects I haven't finished, promises I've made about one thing or another. As I get older, the weeks just seem to fly by, and what with my fixation on keeping updated on blogs, current affairs, Etsy, Artfire, Artistry Arts, etc- I'll often spend hours reading on the net.

My photo project is HUGE! Every time I open a box or bag I find more pictures to document. And Mr Foxaz has been making a lot of new pieces, which I need to photograph, edit and list. As you can see up above, there are lots of new things in our Etsy shop, which I've decided to focus on his work with antler and turquoise. I think he'll be doing some Cherry wood and turquoise pieces for the vegans in the audience, too. So stay tuned! (an Etsy turn of phrase)

I know I'm a critic of Etsy in the forums, like so many others these days, but I have no intention of closing shop there. Not willingly, at least. I have too many business cards with my Etsy address! And the forums are addictive. So hopefully my big mouth won't get me kicked out.

Artistry Arts is a new selling site. They just moved to an all-new site, here:
http://www.artistryarts.com/index.php?/
and they are definitely worth a look. If you had stuff listed before the move, you'll have to re-list it all (bummer) but it's fairly easy to do, and they have a "list similar"function if you sell a lot of similar items. It costs $5 a month, with no selling or listing fees.. Check it out!

Here's a wonderful picture of a couple of the old folks at home:

Facebook

I'm on facebook, here: http://www.facebook.com/susan.d.fox?v=feed&viewas=1096466571

I don't use it much, because it seems to generate spam, and such. Over the course of time, perhaps I'll get into it more. Maybe when I don't have so many things to do in real life.

Etsy now has a cute little button where I can uoload my items to facebook. It seems like spam to do that, since the info would go to my friends, who already know about my shop.

It's a lot of work keeping up with all the blogs and shops and reading others blogs and flickr and facebook. People who manage it, and do it well, have my utmost respect.

Old Pictures, Bittersweet

Relatives I hardly knew, people I can't name, houses I wish I'd lived in, wars that surely shaped my fathers' personality. I'm putting my parents photo albums on disk. My grandaughter Shay was here for a week , taking pictures of each old photo, with me uploading them to my computer, editing them, looking into faces I can barely remember. My mom & dad on the beach at Stony Point; my sister and I, my dad as a high school soccer player, my parents at her parents house, smoking cigarettes in front of the fireplace.

My sister and I rarely smiled; perhaps we knew what was coming.

Both my parents have passed, dad in 1966, mom in 2006. So we'll never find out more than the cryptic statements near the pictures: Seneca Falls, 1937, Niagara Falls, Lake Lucille. Winters in deep snow (it was New York) and summers in backyard blow-up swimming pools, and, like clockwork, the posed pictures of Easter Sunday, and every Sunday "ready for church."

We hung out with bunches of neighbor kids, dressed in Cowboy and Indian suits, building forts for plastic army men, carving acorns into doll dishes. It was actually a pretty idyllic childhood, there was a brook to explore, dams to build, frogs to catch and release. The outdoors was a wonderful place to play. Indoors was another story.

I'll post more pictures as I work on this project.

Lovely Days, Lovely Nights...

Here's Betty, checking me out while I take pictures of some of my latest creations. She's a very good helper, making sure things are set up right and everything's in focus. She helps Mr Foxaz also, keeping track of his turquoise and watching out for intruders.

Sometimes I wonder...

Does anyone read this blog?

I know it's not as exciting as reading other blogs, the ones with giveaways and gossip and drama.
But drama really isn't my thing. I leave that to others.

I also wonder:

do men wear cowls in the summer?
will my cucumbers produce great cukes?
will Sotomayor be confirmed?
has the housing market hit bottom?
will we get rain this week?
how many goodnplenty would fit in a gallon jar?
is Etsy really a cult?

If anyone has answers to these questions, please leave a note.