In Which I Prove Handy with a Hammer

So, art projects have mostly been either Not Happening or Happening Badly, with one exception (posted at the end).  Bird watching occurred, but it was the usual birds, such as pelicans and Osprey, which I already have a gazillion photos of, so nothing new to say about that.

Dog walks have been short and unexciting.  We have to go out by 8am nowadays, thanks to daytime highs of 95-105.  Yay.  And then we hunker down with the air conditioning on full blast.

But I did get one thing accomplished recently -- I put together a bookcase! 

This is a deconstructed bookcase after it comes out of the big cardboard box that landed on my doorstep and which weighed 65 lbs.  Actually, there were two boxes, because I ordered two bookcases, but I've only put one of them together, so we can safely ignore the other one for now.

There were a lot of parts.  Thankfully, I've put these bookcases together before -- I have two of them, in a lighter oak color, in the library room.  I got those over a year ago, and my memory of the process was a tad hazy, but the instructions were fairly clear and all went smoothly.

Pippin tried to offer assistance, though not of a terribly useful kind.

There was much hammering involved.  Lots of hammering.  So much hammering that my shoulders are still sore, which is why I'm not going to put the second one together right away.

They are very sturdy bookcases.

The fun part was putting the books in, of course.

This one was put in the living room to add some height to the overall decor scheme.  The second one will go in the library. 

That was a rewarding project.  And here is the only other rewarding project that turned out this past week -- yet another Good Omens portrait of the character Crowley, in his trademark sunglasses, done in watercolor:

Finally, in other art news, I am going to get a portrait of Pippin painted by Vivian Swift!  Vivian is the artist/writer who asked her blog readers to volunteer for a special task last year -- taking a painted rock from Stromness, Scotland on a tour of the U.S.  Eleven of us volunteered to host the rock, and take photos of it in various local spots. 

Here it is at Gingko Petrified Forest in Vantage, by the petroglyphs:

See:  http://mizmak.blogspot.com/2019/11/a-little-scottish-rock.html for the full story of the rock's visit to southeastern Washington.

The Scottish rock has now made it around the country (over 8,000 miles) and back to Vivian's home on Long Island, NY.  As a thank-you to the hosts, she will paint a pet portrait.  She's a miniaturist, so it will be small, but her work is wonderful and I'm excited to see the results. 

Since I already have a fabulous painting of Truman, I decided it was Pippin's turn, and I sent her these two photos and gave her the option of choosing which one she most wanted to paint.

Such a handsome boy!

That's it for this week. 

Note:  if there is no post on a Monday, it means nothing happened that was worth posting about.  Which is not a bad thing at all, these days!