Monthly Archives: November 2011

Photos and Assembly

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Angel from photo shoot

Because I’d like to use this project to illustrate a children’s Christmas book, today I tried to get some decent photos of all the A to Z parts before I assemble the project together. I set up a white backdrop and a couple of extra lights to shoot the objects against. It was ok but not wonderful. I got out my heat gun and worked on getting all the hot glue strings off and then taking several shots of each object. This took and while and my camera battery was flashing red by the time I finished. I sure hope that the quality of the photos is good enough to make a cute children’s book.

Next step was to decide final placement for all the parts and pieces. I thought I might need all four sides of my tree but when it got right down to it two sides for the ornaments was more than enough. I really should have made the tree shorter. I pulled out a measuring tape today and the project is bigger than I had originally planned. It is almost 60″ tall instead of being 3 or 4 feet tall. I’m not really surprised but I should have thought through some of the implications before I let the project grow that tall. It takes a lot more candy and time when it is at least 12″ taller than needed. The back of the tree will still be finished but it won’t have any of the A to Z search items on it. It took some trial and error to get what felt like a good arrangement under the tree and on the tree. Than I attached all the ornaments to the tree. The items under the tree are not glued down yet.

Tree with ornaments and packages

After attaching all the ornaments I added a bunch of large red gum balls to help fill the tree up and to give it more color. For the most part I’m happy with how it is looking. I then started the last big step of the project, gluing all the green licorice pastilles to the tree.

One Year Ago

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Banta and Prestwick

It was one year ago today that we put Banta on the truck for Guide Dogs for the Blind. So I sent an email to Mark and Banta to let them know I was thinking about her. Mark sent back such a fun message and pictures of Banta with his previous guide Prestwick. The two of them look so much alike in their coloring that I was amazed. She looks so happy and I can tell how much Mark loves her by the way he talks about Banta.

Here is some of what Mark said about Banta:

We went to a hospital today forblood work and another test.  Banta was very excited.  Banta wentstraight to the lab and cafeteria with no direction from me.  She got alittle confused on the way to the Dr’s office, but it is a huge hospital withmany connected buildings.  I was very happy she remembered since we werelast there in June.  She is so funny when she is remembering routes shelearned but does not do frequently.  When she finds something she startsdancing around wagging her tail like crazy, I’m sure the food reward she getshas no influence on her excitement.  People probably think I am crazybecause I am usually laughing and talking to Banta like she is a person on dayslike today.  My first 2 dogs would walk towards their target and then turnand keep going.  As Banta approaches her target she speeds up thensuddenly jumps and does a 90 degree turn in the air then takes off towards hernext target.  I can’t help but laugh because she turns her work into agame and has fun.

Candy Day 17

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Jazzed up yellow box

 Today was gingerbread day. I make two gingerbread men and broke one in pieces getting it off the tin foil. So I let the other one cool before trying to move it and it was just fine. While I was out getting molasses I checked out the Christmas candy that they were just putting on the shelves. I didn’t find anything exciting though. While the gingerbread was cooling I added some color to the extra yellow box. Wow! what a difference some color and a bow made to that box. When the gingerbread was cool I decorated him with licorice and a few little candies. Now all the little parts and pieces of the project should be done. The last thing I worked on today was getting some of the green candy around each of the lights on the tree. It seems like a good idea to make sure that none of the ornaments are too close to the lights so I can’t fit the green candy in. Tomorrow is a big day. I’m going to shoot the best photos I can of each ornament and then it is time to attach them all in place.

Gingerbread Man

Candy Day 16

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Quilt under the tree

Close up of quilt

Before I got back to work on the quilt I put together a simple ornament. It kind of slipped through the cracks and I forgot that I needed it. Then it was hours and hours of placing red Mike n’ Ikes. Each row got a little faster as each row was a little shorter. I listen to audio books while I’m working on the project so that helps the time go faster. Today the book was “Cruel and Unusual” by Patricia Cornwell. I still need to make a gingerbread man but I realized I have no molasses so I’ll have to pick some up I make a batch tomorrow.