Craft it forward.

I first heard about this on Facebook, but then a friend had this in her blog, which makes it seem more official somehow. :) This is how it works: the first 3 people who comment on this post receive something handmade by me. The only catches are: you must be able to "pay it forward" yourself (i.e., have a blog, post the image and continue the giving) and I'll need your mailing address so I can mail you the whatever-it-is.

Here's a link to my crafty blog, just in case you were worried I might send you a total piece of junk: lynnerdhandmade.blogspot.com I think I make pretty good stuff.

Good luck!

The Baby Animal Exchange.

This idea got its start more than a year ago. It seems that the young transients in Arcata always have puppies, not full-grown dogs. I figured they must need puppies so that they have the cuteness factor when they panhandle, because the young Arcata transient usually isn't all that cute on his/her own. So, there must be a puppy exchange somewhere... like an animal shelter, but they take the older dogs back when they've outgrown the adorable stage and give the dirty, penniless 20-something a new puppy.

Now, I like puppies as much (no, maybe more) than the next person, but I'm more than happy to have an adult dog, too. There are a few animals that I would love to have as babies, but I'm not so sure about owning an adult one. The Exchange started as The Baby Cow Exchange, but then we realized that there were others that should be included. Example: I would LOVE to have a calf, but what do you do with a full-grown cow? It's not quite as cute as it once was, but I'm certainly not going to sell it for meat. (I couldn't do that to a friend.) So, what do you do? You exchange it for a new calf. Since The Baby Cow Exchange was dreamed up, we've also added pigs, sheep, horses and a whole fleet of specialty non-domesticated animals. We're open to suggestion. Granted, there are a whole lot of details that need to be worked out, so this remains a fantasy of ours.

Goats, dogs, cats and chickens fall into the category of not needing to be exchanged. Look for them on the Jones acre in the future. In the meantime, we'll just have to talk to our friendly neighbor cow, who now has a buddy: a goat! They really like each other and were playing in the yard when we visited on Friday.


Yesterday, Andy and I drove up to Crescent City to order our cabinets and pick up the insulation for the house. We had some time to kill, so we drove around for a bit. The weather on the way up was 2 minutes of rain, 3 minutes of fog, 5 minutes of clear, 30 seconds of hail, etc. all the way there. In the afternoon, though, it was gorgeous. This photo was taken from Point St. George, looking north toward Oregon. This photo doesn't really show it, but it was SUPER windy and pretty cold.

Yay Spring!

We have just had the two nicest days ever, weather-wise. Adam said it was beyond gorgeous all day out in Blue Lake today. He said they were even seeking out shady spots to work in, it was so warm. Well, I was in Arcata all day, where it was nice for Arcata. (Which means sunny, but not really all that warm.) He's right, it's going to be nice to live a little bit inland.

Andy spotted this field with lambies in it yesterday and I had to go check them out. I had to do my "baby animal squeal" on the inside since Ava was asleep in the back seat.

Here's the house as of this morning... They're siding like crazy and it looks SOOOO good! We still haven't decided what colors to paint it. Good thing we have all summer to do that.

A wider shot gives a better feel for the Craftsman feel of the house. Seeing shingles on there instead of Tyvek house wrap makes a big difference!

I made plans to take some time off work so I can do some of the plastering, painting and tile work myself. (That'll be April 4-10 for anyone who wants to help. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.)

Other than exterior colors...

... the house is progressing quite nicely. Every time we see Adam, we have the tendency to talk his ear off about the house. It's easy to; there are just so many decisions that need to be made. Even though I thought that I had finalized everything, more things pop up everyday. Here are some of the latest things that needed our input:

Here's the house as of March 12, 2009.

Here's a closeup shot of the corbels we settled on. (I LOVE THEM!) Adam and crew put up a typical bracket, and decided they didn't look quite right, so they suggested just horizontal posts without the diagonal and Adam gave us a few houses in Eureka to look at for examples. As we drove around town to look at the ones he had mentioned, I wasn't totally sold. However, when I saw the ones they made for our house the next morning, I was blown away. These are so much nicer than any of the ones we saw in Eureka. (I don't know if Adam, Dustin or Aaron came up with the design for ours, so I'll give credit to all of them until I find out.)

They started putting up the HardiePlank siding material, and actually finished the north wall complete with corbels on Friday. I haven't been out to see it yet, but I'll make sure I get out there tomorrow morning.

My girlfriends and I have formed a quilting group... The guys are pretty good at patchwork, maybe they should join! (This is a very thin plywood covering and protecting our floors from falling tools, plaster, paint, etc.)

Ava needs our input constantly! This picture was taken on her 11-month birthday. It has all gone so fast! The plumbers are done with the rough-ins, the electricians are getting there, the county inspector (grumble, grumble) is expected soon, then the guys can put in insulation and the drywall contractor can come. Andy took a class on American Clay Plaster this weekend, so we're planning on doing that rather than having the drywaller plaster and then we'd paint over that. Anyway, that's another story for another post. We're going to be in this house before we know it!

...all through the town.

The wheels on our car went round and round earlier today as we drove up and down the streets of Eureka looking at house colors and taking pictures. Ava slept through most of the outing, luckily. If the sun is shining in some of these pics, it's because they were taken at an earlier date. It rained most of the day today, but that means we didn't have the bright sun and dark shadows to contend with while taking the pictures... just raindrops. Here are the highlights. We'll be messing around in Photoshop to play with these colors on our house before we settle on anything.



I love the Japanese Maple in this front yard.



I think some really cool people must live in this cute house. :)

It's hard to tell from this picture, but the trim on this house is really a very muted purple.

We both really liked this one... We'll have to see how it looks on our house.

I'm not so sure about this one, but Andy liked it. We've decided that many of the color combinations we saw in town wouldn't work on our house, which is more our in the open.



I've liked this house for a long time, but always found it funny that the chimney doesn't continue past the roof.



Adam had us drive by this one the other night to look at its corbels (the faux beam extensions that are a Craftsman style hallmark.) Turned out the colors were pretty nice, too.

Thanks, Valerie!

Ava is watched by Valerie two days of the week. Valerie has her own little girl, Sylvia, who is 2 months younger than Ava. Those two get along like peanut butter and jelly. Valerie took these pictures recently and shared them with me. I just have to share them with the world. The world could use a smile about now.

Today's house news. (Really. Too tired to think of a better title.)

Here's the house. The roof is complete except for that south side of the garage. We were planning on plumbing for solar hot water and solar panels in the future, but now it looks as if just the plumbing will be too expensive.

The guys built the exterior window trim in the comfort of their shop at home, then installed them today. I like them a lot. The notches mimic the notches in the headers on the dormers and the rafter tails. (We're apparently still fighting the county on having to enclose the eaves, but that's a story I don't want to get into.)

This is the backside of the house, this time with window trim, roof and skylights installed. The house is dry inside! That means that the guys laid down a layer of protection over the floor, and the subcontractors can come in on Monday. That'll be electrical and the spray foam insulation for the ceilings. Once that's done, the drywall can be put up. Exterior siding was ordered today and should arrive sometime next week. Things are really cooking now!

This is the garage/laundry room/my future printing studio. We'd like to build a carport on the side of the garage so that both cars and my printing equipment have dry places to live.

Spring is springing! That's Art & Ann's house in the background.

I'm pretty sure our neighbor will be happy to see some warmer weather.