BS: Productive Days

Subject: BS: Productive Days
From: LilyFestre
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 11:51 AM

I don't know about the rest of you but I have all these things that I want to get done and there never seems to be enough hours in the day or sometimes the steam to get the job done. Have you finished something lately that you are proud of? Maybe something that has been waiting in the wings for a bit?

For example, I just finished priming a wall that has been waiting for about a month to be primed. Since it is a fast drying kind of thing, I'm hoping to have at least one coat of paint on the wall (or maybe two depending on how fast the paint dries) before my husband gets home from work. SURPRISE! :)

So how about it? Even the little stuff counts because after all, that little stuff adds up!!!

LQF

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 11:57 AM

I re-covered the posts in the basement, changing them from badly-applied and then ripped-off-for-work cheap paneling to being covered with plain white wallboard.

This was NOT a small job, even though it started out to be.

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 12:33 PM

I didn't make an new resolutions for this year, I resolved to try to finish up all of the old ones--that will keep me plenty busy! Toward this end, I have put down most of the floor tile in the front hall (that matches the tile already down in two other halls). I haven't finished the cut tile yet because it was too cold to use the wet saw on the front porch and because I don't have a plug out there so I was using an extension when I discovered it was too cold out there.

This morning the electrician was here to work up an estimate. I'm going to solve two problems at once next week: get an electrical plug installed on the porch and then plug in my wet saw to finish my tile.

Today I'm taking my lawnmower and a cultivator the neighbor is giving me in for a repair estimate. Having them in working order (the mower developed a loud clunking noise at the end of the mowing season last fall, the tiller hasn't run for a year or more) will let me work on other projects that I always do (mowing) or mean to do (put in a new garden).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 02:13 PM

We have fresh snow on the ground and this morning I saw a little guy being productive.

He had a toy lawnmower out on his front walk making regular passes round and round in sober concentration.

He was obviously working with his snowblower. I could practically see the wheels in his brain.

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: mrdux
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 02:56 PM

I'm the editor and co-author of the a collaborative book project, and I just (yesterday) finally finished editing the last chapter. And heaved a major sigh of relief.

Speaking of surprises -- after years of indecision, my wife, who is the landscape designer/gardener in the family, finally took a deep breath, made the decision, and had an attractive but misplaced and highly invasive tree removed from our front lawn. Having to decide to cut down even an invasive tree tree created quite a dilemma for her (not a decision I was able to help with), and she's feeling majorly pleased with herself for having gotten it done. I wasn't expecting it and was seriously surprised when I got home from work to find the decision made and the tree gone. Looks pretty good, too. Good for her!

michael

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: LilyFestre
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 03:19 PM

WOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! After spending an hour of trying to pry off the paint can lid which had rusted, I finally got the lid off! Of course I had to use a screwdriver and a hammer to pry the lid off (broke the screwdriver...oops!), but I got it off!! I also put on the first layer of paint....a very rich, deep oragne...and after years of white walls (couldn't make up my mind which color I wanted), it is looking AMAZING! I'm not sure I am going to do the other walls in the same color because I think it might be a bit much but OOOOHHHHH I LOVE how it looks with just the first coat of paint! I can't wait until RidgePlucker gets home to see it!!!!!

LOL I'm all proud of myself, can you tell?!?!?!? LOL

It's been a long time coming!

LQF who is spattered with deep orange bits of paint

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 03:27 PM

LilyFestre, orange can be a very satisfying, fresh color. Up the street from here is a stucco-type house, and when the new owners bought it, they changed it from the cream color it has been for yers to fairly dark orange walls with loden green trim. There may be some people who don't care for it but I think the house just glows.

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: Mooh
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 03:58 PM

It would be easier if appointments didn't go from well planned and prepared to no-shows and last minute cancellations. I've missed six students today (2 illness, 2 no-shows, 2 weather related, with 3 to go) and I could have been much more productive if I'd cancelled the whole day and spent time in the shop instead of the studio. I did manage to get considerably more housework done, but much of the day has been idle. That long list of incomplete projects, instrument building and repair, household fixit jobs, even reading, has to wait.

However, I've spent some quality time with the dogs...does that count?

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 04:05 PM

Of course! Time with the dogs is therapeutic--I spent a few minutes this afternoon enjoying the sun with the dogs. We're all the better for it.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: LilyFestre
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 04:09 PM

Of course it counts! I spent some time with my dog today too! While the primer was drying, I did some laundry, washed dishes and gave my cocker spaniel half a haircut. He decided he was finished and off he went. It's ok by me, I hate to force him to sit still and I know he will let me finish the cut later in the day...it's just his way! WOOF!

LQF

PS. Ebbie...I love your description of the house with orange walls!

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: Mooh
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 05:59 PM

Ebbie...We once had an apartment with an orange bedroom and it took two coats of primer and two coats of paint to cover it...we didn't want to traumatize the baby (now a poster here, btw). Even then we thought it had an orange tint. It's taken me years to accept orange things, LOL!

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 07:03 PM

Hmmmm. I'm not sure, Mooh, that I would want an orange bedroom. On the other hand I love a bedroom that has peach accents, along with some contrast.

As for paint, I long ago gave up on multiple coats of paint for that purpose. In managing rentals I go immediately to a stain blocker such as Kilz before I paint it. There is no bleedthrough.

One tenant once painted his bedroom a deep, deep red. That was a challenge.

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: gnu
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 09:34 PM

I am once again able to sit up and take nourishment. Productive days are next. But... there ain't no way I am ever painting anything I own orange. Everything white... "kids room washable white"... everything... even the garage.

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: Sorcha
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 10:34 PM

I painted ONE wall of a fairly large room a burnt orange once. Once. The diff. pigments kept separating out, even in the paint pan. Sucker took about 4 coats to get it evened out colour wise.

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: Amos
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 11:35 PM

In the last year we have put on a new roof, changed all the windows in the house, replaced the kitschy 60's wood trim with stucco and had the whole house painted. I finished a waterfall I had been daddling over for several years and started a wall. We refurnished the living room and reorganized the master bedroom. We tore out the 1960's lino and plywood bath and put in a modern one in tile and glass and good looking wood. Oh, and I started flying lessons and BBW got a new job.

We're broke but very happy with the year's work.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 11:42 PM

I'm painting too. I finished a 6 ft tall undersea oil painting and a 3 ft deep space picture of the ferris wheel nebula with planets passing through the center. I finished a 4ft painting of a rose with a lady bug seeking refuge from a thunder storm. THe raindrops on the petals show a lightning flash. I finished an ink on enamel of Leonard Bernstein conducting his very last concert. In oil pastel I finished passion flowers in the morning. It is done on cardboard given to me by a homeless man in DC right off of his card board shelter. I am nearly finshed with a painting of the centerfield seats below the big TV scoreboard at Fenway with Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and others in the stands.

I started a spring time oil that has a seedling a kitten a puppy a baby, daffodils and a blooming cherry tree.

I also started a portrait that can be seen both front and back at the same time by painting on glass with a linear parabolic mirror behind it. The first one I did with the mirror trick was of a 3 1/2 ft tall humming bird.



I am starting water lillies painted on a mylar canvas I created from a windshild cover that reflects ripples in the water with great intesity.

I am planning a picture of me playing cello with my 1 year supporting himself with both his hands on the lower part of the cello.

I also planned round glass paintings that show coy and gold fish just below the water. These fit nicely on black round tables.
I am thinking of a loosely conceived project titled "The human body: A user's manual" that will show humorous but factual illustrations of our senses, our organs, our muscular skeletel system and lastly the mind.

I dropped the music project of Earth's religions since I don't seem to have that talent color in my box. Its outlined but orchestration is too daunting.

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 23 Feb 07 - 11:04 AM

I'm painting too, a whole load of shelving before it goes up, and some thin board for placards. We're doing a mixed Scottish dance dem at a festival next weekend, to tracks from the Sound of Music, and the placards will read:

Doh, a beer, a pint of beer

Ray, a man who buys me beer

etc, etc

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Feb 07 - 02:24 PM

I'm so glad I got two bids on my electrical work. The first guy figured he could give me a quote over the phone and came in way high. The second one, mentioned above who has worked here before, came over and looked. His bid on two of three things I asked him about specifically was so reasonable that I added the third project back in and am still way under the first guy's bid.

I also wanted to put a low wall plug in my hallway (mostly for using the vacuum cleaner), fishing a wire down from a box near the ceiling where there was once apparently a wired-in smoke detector. I questioned him about code and learned that I need a detector in each (3) bedrooms AND the hall. (Now I have that hole covered with a battery operated smoke detector.) I'm going to have him wire those in and add my plug. I wasn't going to touch the project based on the first estimate because if the village caught wind of work in here and anyone touched that outlet, I figured they'd compel me to put in the smoke alarms to code at that time. And based on the first quote, that would have gone way out of my budget.

I don't know if that's entirely clear, but I'm feeling virtuous that I can finish a couple of projects I've been wanting and also one that I didn't even know I was needing at a reasonable price.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Feb 07 - 03:55 PM

I finished a piece of cross stitching that I started about 18months - 2 years ago - a youngster compared with some of my pieces!

It turned out not too bad and I may even get a frame for it by next week.

Only another 23 pieces to finish left.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Feb 07 - 11:36 PM

We set up an easy way of recording all the Saturday night church services and all the lovely comments the band gets at the end of the service, as well as the burst of happy fellowshipping that always seems to follow the dismissal at that service. Our bishop should enjoy the chance to hear it, and so will the band members who have not played with us at that service.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 24 Feb 07 - 05:51 PM

Even better day today... charted another green man for cross stitching and found two great new kits/charts to sew. Three more things for the 'to finish' pile!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 03:39 AM

I finished another page for a friend's web site. I've been meaning to get to this forever. This page. I am going to go through and redo the body text in the rest of the site because it never looked the way I wanted it to. This page and the home page have the "corrected" font, the others have the more compressed look that I'm getting rid of. This is a work in progress. The bio page is up in time for the new tour season that will start up soon. (And yes, I know there is overkill in some areas, such as the reviews, but he WANTS it that way. . . I haven't sold him on "less is more" yet.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: LilyFestre
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 02:16 PM

The day started out nicely with breakfast at our new local favorite restaurant, complete with the entire staff coming to see the new pup. We've been instructed to bring her with us everytime from now on! They said, "We'll have her socialized in NO TIME!" The cook came out and stuck his nose near her face and she gave him a big old puppy kiss (skunk breath and all) and he grinned from ear to ear saying, "Yep, has to be a girl!" :)

Ok, from there, we stopped at the market (a feat in itself on a weekend but add to that that there is an ice storm and more snow predicted for today), made another large pot of chili (by request), and am now ready to paint another wall. Cookies are also in the future for later today (another request!).

LQF

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 04:38 PM

Productive and didn't even know it! I got a new dog named after me! My pooches will be thrilled. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: LilyFestre
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 07:26 PM

WOOF!

;) LQF

Subject: RE: BS: Productive Days
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 08:29 PM

today the handyman spent an hour & a bit fixing the following:

lid on wooden trunk (broken for many many years!)

3 kitchen cabinet doors hinges - 2 recently started getting loose, 1 door was removed years ago (before 1999) cos I couldn't tighten the hinge.

broken hinge on 1920's dresser (only broken for a month or so!!)

moving kitchen venetian blind so it better covers the glass area.

advised me on a couple of things I can do myself & suggesting a cabinetmaker for a big job that (replace sagging particaleboard bookcases). Suggested a nearer supplier of materials I will need for the stuff I can do.

and all this for $80 ($50 per hour & nothing for materials).

Yesterday I did quite a bit of work on my latest craft project (patchwork cushion cover/panel with fans in Japanese fabrics) & I'll get back to it this afternoon, so I expect another productive day.

Liz, I recently decided to frame an elegant cross stitch lace fan & posy that I finished at least 20 years ago. I'll visit the framer today or romorrow. (dunno where it will fit, tho, but I'll make a space)

Maybe one day I'll finish the cross stitch garden & crewel work bouquet I did not finish about 20 years ago! And all the other stuff.

sandra