The Gourds Have Arrived

The gourds I ordered along with the gourd dye has arrived. Now the decisions as to what do I do with each one. One will be a carved votive and a one of them will be decorated with a carving. I also want to make another banana leaf one because I gave the other one to the couple that gave me the gourd. So much to do and so little time. I still have some wood carvings to finish and class starts in another week.

Tulip Gourd Revisited

This is another attempt to fix the tulip gourd. Its still not what I want, so strip off the paint and try something else.
This is the tulip gourd in its new form. I think it just goes on a shelf of rejects to remind me that all things do not turn out as you want. Hopefully the gourds I ordered from Wellbern Farms will come in this week.

Tulip Gourd

This is the latest gourd, I'm not so crazy about it. Maybe an artist out there could give me a hint on how to improve my painting. Or maybe I should just stick to woodcarving.

A Rainy Day

Its a rainy day, and a good day for working on my tulip gourd. This is the second go-round with this one. The first time I made the tulips too big. I scaled them down and now I think it looks better. I'll look at it some more before I put the poly on it.

Gourding

I just ordered some cleaned gourds and gourd dye. Can't wait to get the dye. You can make some cool gourds with the dye. I also got the dremel out to see how that works on the gourds. Very interesting. Right now I am working on a tulip gourd using pastel colors.

Banana Leaf Gourd

This is the latest in my gourd work. A friend gave me a couple of gourds that he grew and also cleaned on the outside. The finished piece is about 6 inches tall. I cut it out with my mini electric jigsaw, painted it and then a couple of coats of poly.

Karrie and her friend Billie and Billie's baby Meila came out today and we went to the Church's rummage sale and then to downtown Lemont for the taste of Lemont. It didn't seem to be too successful. Few people and few vendors. We went to one of the restaurants on Stephen street for lunch and now the girls are back on their way.

Lemont Artist's Guild Art Show

This morning Lee and I went to the library to help set up for the art show in the library. The various artists have their paintings and photographs hung on the walls in the Athens Gallery and at various places inside the library. The three dimensional artists have their display in this display case. I only have 5 pieces on display of which only two are for sale. Lee has a few more of her pottery pieces which are on the third shelf. The show will run till October.

Here is a close-up of my carvings, the gnome home, the mouse, the chipmunk, the Indian, and the golfer.
And while I was there I renewed my expired library card.

Kohlrabi

The kohlrabi was quite tasty. It has a little flavor of cooked cabbage, but not as strong. And the sour cream sauce was lush. If anyone wants to try it, here is the recipe, which I think is Scandinavian or Dutch based on the foreign words.



Kohlrabi (karaalade tejfollel)
6 pared medium kohlrabi
1/4 C hot water
1 onion ,chopped
1 tbs. flour
3 tbs. butter
salt to taste
1 tsp. paprika
1 C sour cream

Cut kohlrabi into cubes. Cook onions in butter until lightly browned. Add paprika, kohlrabi, water and salt. Cover and cook until tender. Stir together the sour cream and flour and add mixture to kohlrabi stirring continually until sauce is thick.

I cut this recipe in half and used 3 kohlrabi.

Farmer's Market

I went to the Farmer's market in town and bought some kohlrabi. I haven't had any in probably 40 years. I found a recipe for a sour cream sauce for them. I'm anxious to try it. Probably tomorrow, as I have a meeting tonight and must eat something quick.

I also bought this necklace pendant and earrings made of fused glass for a gift. The crafter is a Lindsey, a girl Karrie went to school with.

And I couldn't pass up some caramel corn made by a local vendor in town.

Tuesday

Yesterday I cleaned the grill, what a messy job. It had to be done, I was afraid of a fire in the bottom of the grill that could spread to the deck and burn my house down. What a frightening thought, but it did happen to Spike O'dell who was a talk show host on WGN. Boo hoo he retired.
I'm still working on carving the horse's head and haven't really picked up the tiger's head for a long time. Will do when classes start again in September.

Guilty

I feel guilty when I don't post for a couple of days. Nothing new or exciting. I did just finish a good book, its been around for a while. It's The Hiding Place by Corrie TenBoom. Its about the Nazi's in WW2 and how this family hid people in their home. That sure was a sad time.

Another Good Day

Yesterday I took my car in to Discount Tires for a slow leak. They fixed it for free, I don't know if all tire stores do that, but I sure appreciated it.

And today I got a letter from Comcast that they are crediting my account $25 because they were late. They said they would be here between 10 and 1 and the guy got here at 1:05. So I'm a happy camper.

Since I was in such a good mood, I thought I would attempt to clean the dried gourds that I bought last year. I think in the future I will buy cleaned gourds because I'm not having fun. The top one is waiting for its bath. The other two are soaking until I get out there with a scrubber. And then I have to clean the insides.

Farmers Market

The Lemont farmer's market has grown from just a couple of tents to at least 10. I bought a little lemon tart from a French speaking nun, and some cheddar cheese curds, a couple of cukes and a half dozen of the Mirais sweet corn. It is so good, I had an ear for lunch along with a small tomato and a few cheese curds. Reminds me of when we would go to my Grandmother's(Busia) near South Bend. She would cook up a bunch of corn and we would see who could eat the most ears. I think my limit was four; my cousin Berni could down six.
I did get out this morning before the toadstools wilted, but the grass was wet and I didn't want to kneel down to get a picture, so I didn't get a good picture. Maybe tomorrow. If I get a good one, I will send it in to channel 5 10:00 news for fungus Wednesday.

Monday

Its Monday and a little cooler today. Will leave the a/c on so it doesn't get too muggy in here for this evening.
I was going to post a picture of some toadstools that I saw this morning through my window and they were all shriveled up by the time I got outside to take the picture. The early bird gets the worm and the picture.

Its a Hot One

I think a lot of people stayed home from Church this morning due to the heat, but I was surprised that there were a few elderly women that did come. It was warm, but thankfully we had a breeze flowing through.
Today, will probably be another stay in the house day. The air is on and I'm cool.

Didja know?

That gnomes grow to 15 cm or a little under 6 inches?
That their lifespan is 400 years?
That females wear drab colors, almost camo?
That gnome children wear diapers till the age of 12?
Just some of the info I've learned since reading my new book.

A New Book

Since I carved the gnome's home, I have acquired an interest in gnomes. When I was at the plein aire, one of the artists mentioned a book about gnomes with great illustrations; so off I went to Amazon and found the book and it was delivered yesterday. It is really a cool book, it tells everything you've ever wanted to know about gnomes and then some. I figured I would like this fantasy as my favorite book is Watership Down, a book about a rabbit family living underground. This could give me inspiration for some new carvings, but I would like to finish a couple that I have started before moving on to something new.

Wednesday

The weather promises to be glorious. Low 80's and low humidity, although we still need at least an inch of rain. My water bill will be sky high. Great day to sit on the deck and carve.

Sunday on the River

The photo below is a picture of our hosts for the day, Rich and Mary. They are snowbirds that come up here for the summer and down to Florida for the fall and winter.

This is Pastor Mike washing Al and Andy's car. They bid on the car wash at last years dinner dance. So they decided that he should wash their car yesterday.

That's Andy sitting on the left, supervising the car wash. Pastor's son. Jack is sitting on her lap.

Getting ready to cast off. The boat holds a lot of people. Had a relaxing time cruising the river.

The food was great. Mary made mostocolli and sausage. I brought sweet sour cole slaw. And we had bruchetta, a grape salad, fried chicken, bread, watermelon, jello, and deviled eggs and plenty of desserts.

Below is a picture of Pastor's head so you can compare to the watermelon previously posted.

Sunday

Today is the annual potluck picnic at Rich and Mary's on the Kankakee River in Wilmington. They have such a lovely setting with big trees overlooking the river. Rich takes us on a tour of the river in his pontoon boat. They also have a wave runner that the younger folks enjoy. This is really an enjoyable afternoon. Hope I remember to take pictures.