today I finished the "lucky penny" group of 18 Advent Swap treats. I'd wanted to stamp the back of the origami pinwheel envelopes with a four leaf clover. So I had to carve the stamp, using an old eraser, first! Then I had to make a stamp pad from a saucer and some felt and some acrylic craft paint.

Pretty pleased with what can be done with a cotton swab, a small acorn cap, glue and craft paint... These little amanitas were partly finished last week before my eye damage escapade started, and today I managed to attach the string ties. {1" tall}

Started some smaller lunaria ornaments for the Advent Swap for a Better Year in 2026, painted with canal rose style flowers. The pods are 1" across, on white wool felt. Will have a silver hanging cord and be backed with light blue wool felt. Less than 4 weeks left to prepare all the swap treats.

Painted decorations on lunaria pods. Next a coat of nail polish on both sides, a backing of bright purple felt, then each one was embroidered with a border of beads, and another layer of lighter purple felt attached, with a ribbon loop for hanging. Treats for the Daily December Dopamine swap...

In the last week or so, ever since it rained, there have been bees again this year at the hydration station. I don't know if they need more water in autumn, or if it took them that long to find it again.. On days when despair dogs my footsteps, the life of the natural world lifts my heart.

The "Acorn Hill Pony" pattern on Ravelry turns out a very shapely knitted pony, and will make a good gift. The mostly flat "skin" is meant to fold and be stitched up in a clever way. I decided this pony also needed some little felt ears.

I live in the city, and today I went to two different farmer's markets. I came home with 15# organic roma tomatoes, some heads of garlic, and a punnet of beautiful ripe hot peppers. Preserving season has begun, and it is time to start making a years supply of Awesome Sauce

This is why we thin tree fruit...

Began harvesting elderberries today, and removing them from the stems. The berries, once washed and dried will be stored in the freezer until time to process them... This year my plan is to make an alcohol based tincture, as that is the most shelf stable option.

The tiger patches have cured long enough for stitching together and attaching to the hemline of the indigo tiger popover dress. 13 create a great carousel, but don't quite span the hemline, so need to fill that gap with either part of the final tiger patch, or some plain black fabric...

14 turquoise tiger trapezoids have been blockprinted, and are on the drying rack curing* before becoming a hemline border for my indigotiger summer popover dress. Really pleased with the design! *oil based fabric ink needs to oxidise (rather than be heat set) for the color to be washfast

This tiny (1½" x ¾") plant stand echoes the shapes of Arts and Crafts Bungalow style furniture. It was the second thing I made at the Intro to 3D Printing class at the library today. I like the shape and details, and will try some layered paint colors to add subtlety to the bright green plastic.

This 6" x 8" lino block is almost exponentially larger than my miniature book blocks. Still, I think that the print will be fun, both to decorate the extended hemline on my indigo tiger popover dress, and it is just the right size to be a "patch" on a future pinafore pocket

The (20+years at least old) roof here at Acorn Cottage is being replaced this week. The lightest color of shingles available from my roofing contractors. Given that shingles are made from asphalt, they can't be solid white. Given my budget and expected life span, this was the best option...

Jambe scroll for my friend Raven Qara Ton. Started in 2023, finished 7/1/25. There were gaps in when I worked on it, for various reasons. Art is inspired by Scythian artifacts circa 400 BCE, the background from felted intarsia, and the metal motif from a repousse gold ornament

Today was the "Makin' Kraut With Moriarty & Sharon" zoom, so combined the small savoy cabbage from the fridge plus one of the purple carrots. My fingertips are now a peculiar blue, the brine in the jar is a murky purple, but with luck, there will be some tasty tangy condiment in a week or two...

Slow knitting is what I do and enjoy... by the time this cowl is completed, the weather will be cool enough that wearing it will be a welcome treat. (pattern is "Murano Squares Bandana" on Ravelry)

I finished making the setting for the Laurel medallion last night... a complex setting two-sided that required much cogitation to fabricate. This is what I do.

The heraldic enamel Laurel cloisonné work is done, (after grinding away four tiny air bubbles not visible last night, and re-firing this morning). Everything always takes longer than estimated. Now to build the complex hexafoil setting, with luck will have that finished tonight...

No Kings Day - porch flag

werk werk werk...Custom SCA Laurel regalia project. This is about 6+ hours into it so far (not including design prep time. Hoping to get the cloisonné enameling finished tonight (that may be a bit optimistic) so I can start building the complex setting tomorrow.

The first harvest of very tasty Sugar Magnolia snap peas from the garden. I was surprised twice when cooking them for lunch: first that the purple color only faded very slightly (was expecting them to turn green); second that the cooking water turned turquoise... (dissolved anthocyanins??)

a good sized domestic honeybee swarm up in the plum thicket this afternoon... not sure how long they were resting there (a neighbor let me know about them), and a while later they all flew off to continue their journey to find a new home..

In which our plucky heroine has fun with acid dyeing silk/wool/mohair yarn using paste food coloring. Grey yarn on left is the original colorway, chocolate brown yarn on right is after overdyeing...

It may not be a perfect (trellis) but it is a perfect whatever-it-is... hopefully this will give my SUGAR MAGNOLIA snap peas a bit more growing room. Done is better than perfect.

I was asked to make a rectangular pendant, a very specific size and shape with pierced holes to attach charms. Once the sketch was approved, it was straightforward to fabricate. The piercings along the lower edge is 14ga, which should allow 16ga wire charm attachments free movement...

Walking through the alleyway a few blocks from Acorn Cottage, these borage flowers looked like fragments of sky fallen to earth... (must remind self to find a way to add borage to the yard here, as it is both edible and beautiful)

GUYS. The comment period for this ends in THREE DAYS. PLEASE if you have even a little bit of time, submit a comment here: www.regulations.gov/commenton/FD... Let them know EVERYONE should be able to get COVID vaccines. They BACK DOWN when WE PUSH BACK. www.statnews.com/2025/05/20/f...

Marigolds surround the tomato plant in the backyard, so there will be extra spots of bright cheer to see every morning as well as good companion planting. And don't we all want to be that? "Be the marigold you wish to see in the world" seems like a Useful Contradiction to Despair

Took a very long transit trip today to get the baby Seckel pear. Three pollinator pals now planted in the front yard.They are actually almost 2 ft apart from each other, and will over the years be pruned to form a cluster of pears (if all goes well)

partially painted Pegasus is one quarter of a heraldic plaque (much larger than my usual cloisonne heraldic regalia projects) that I'm painting for Kateline and Dean. What looks grey in the photo is actually metallic silver acrylic paint, and very shiny in real light.

food for thought, food for planning, maybe food for action?... ko-fi.com/post/Hulk-Sm...

baby Bosc (young pear tree) is precocious: It has been a little over a week since I noticed a cluster of flower buds on the tree planted just a few months ago ... Now there are blossoms! Tree is much too young to support actual fruit, but this sign of vigor is encouraging

Caer Cardboard isn't yet any where near fully furbished, but the tinyfolk can't wait to begin preparing it to become a gallery space... Kenya is resting upstairs after unpacking some artworks, and talking with Nandina about what needs to happen next. #timeinthetinyworld,#CaerCardboard,#1:12scale

Suitable vintage buttons were selected for this project, that will be part of the future Advent Swap. The structure of the book is simple and the "pages", merely ⅝" across, show ink drawings of a variety of mushrooms. #bookarts, #adventofabetteryearswap, #buttonbook

Kenya Ogidni is quite pleased with the new flooring (days of gluing coffee stir sticks to cardstock) for her art gallery. Next: trim boards, picture ledges, maybe a gallery bench or some plinths. Eventually a space for (miniature) artwork shows #timeinthetinyworld, #1:12scale

Friends of Trees team planting new young persimmon tree in the backyard Saturday. The parking strip persimmon, planted in '09, the first fruits in '17. Somehow I didn't think about that timeline. With luck, I will be here in 8 years, but planting trees for the future is in itself a good deed!

Rather than lie down on the wet grass for a portrait photo, I took a trowel and carefully dug up one violet plant*... Somehow, for the first time ever, the drift of violets in the front yard is all white instead of cerise pink!? Can they change color? * plant returned to location after photo...

Who wants some good news? The overwintering monarch population, which had plummeted last winter, has doubled this winter! www.worldwildlife.org/stories/east...

Secondary concept was as "blue print on yellow background", not green-on-yellow. My blue ink is translucent, I find out! At first impression this felt like failure, further thought shifted to "what did I learn here"... a much healthier point of view. #makingartforachange, #linocut, #blockprinting

The second proof printing of current linocut project, after I cut away and replaced the wrongly cut letters. The printing shows no sign of the correction! Needs some edge trim to better match my postcard stock and I want to try a colored background... #makingartforachange, #linocut, #blockprinting

Happy Pi Day! (tiny quince pie with crumble topping)

‪Fjorlief‬ ‪@fjorlief.bsky.social‬ Turning the unfinished 1:12 scale Caer Cardboard (c. 2020) into an art gallery below and garret above. Started a "hardwood" floor downstairs from coffee stir sticks glued to Bristol board. #timeinthetinyworld

wrongly carved letters have been cut away completely through the block, corrected "patch" carved to fit, and they all are attached to a plywood backing with wood glue. Drying flat overnight under heavy weight. I'm eager to see if the repair works! #linocut, #blockprinting, #makingartforachange

Oops! Didn't notice that I had carved the "a"s in Maya backwards until I did this first printed proof. Figured out a way to hopefully repair this without needing to recarve the entire block, (will cut away and replace the error with correctly oriented letters). Sigh, still frustrating though...

There are a lot of different versions of watershed-based maps, and most of the ones I played with for A Half-Built Garden were at a higher level that gets you a much smaller number of "states" - seeing one at this granularity level is fascinating!

Slowly but steadily, progress is happening with the new block, now almost three-quarters of the way carved... Not yet sure if I want to give the block a wooden backing, or leave it as is, but that choice can be made later on in the process. #linocut, #blockprinting, #MakingArtForAChange

bsky.app/profile/fake... Might be a good time to not just do my writing online (a 19 year blogging habit). But also start hardcopy writing

Start with the proof of concept drawing, add a thick layer of graphite pencil, and then transfer the reversed image to the linoleum. Because this process is only ever partially successful, the next step is to refine and darken the lines with a Pigma Micron marker (linoleum on left, drawing on right)