The Alien Christmas Lady

This year's dress form Christmas tree took a different direction than the last few years.  Usually I use greens to dress her up, but this year I decided to just make her a dress with a Christmas/winter theme, using table cloths, scrap fabric, batting, ribbon and lights.  I'll probably go back to greens next year but it will be nice not having to clean up pine needles when I take her all apart.  She's rather messy looking, but when the room is dark and the colored lights are lit she looks more like a Christmas tree than previous years with the big white bulbs.  Here are the past 2 years.

 This was her autumn costume the first year I got her.

I need to dress her up more often because it's fun.  I don't know if James likes having her in the piano room or not.  When I get up in the morning I say, "good morning Christmas lady".  It takes some getting used to, having her be right there when we walk out of our bedroom in the morning.  I think her hood makes her look like an alien.  I didn't do that on purpose.  I can't decide if she's done or not. I guess I have another month to make changes if I get inspired.

Rory

Raisa had another bull calf (turns out it was a little girl) on Wednesday, August 15th, 2 days before her due date.  Usually she has her baby right on her due date.  I was hoping the early delivery date meant this time might be different and she'd have a girl.  I was out of town at a painting workshop so James was there to see him all wet and brand new Wednesday morning.  I'm calling him Rory, thanks to the suggestion of my sister-in-law, Mary.  He's a cutie but Raisa hasn't let me spend much time with him since I got home.

Garden Gate Gown

The old gate I built out of wood many years ago rotted so it was time for a new one, this time out
of steel, copper and aluminum.  It's way heavier than the wooden one.  I think I overbuilt it.  It still needs some additions, like a gate latch and maybe something to go on either side of the bodice. I just haven't figured out what I'd like to go there so we hung it and I'll wait for inspiration.  I will color the copper blue over the next few days, like you see at the base of the bodice.

The top is copper tubing and roofing copper.

The bottom is made from rebar, bed springs and aluminum screening.  We'll see how the screening holds up over the years.    I used it because it made the bottom of the gown look more fabric-y.

Why the gown?  I don't really know.  I must have been in a dress phase at the time and James approved (he's the gardener and looks at and uses the gate way more than I).

The hanger is rebar and the outside frame is one inch angle iron, which is why it's so heavy, and perhaps wasn't the best idea, weight-wise.  Also, when bending the top arch I had to notch one side, heat it and then re-weld the notches.

Hopefully when the steel rusts and the copper is blue it will pop out more and look prettier. 

Breezy

I had a nice surprise waiting for me this morning.  Pessa gave birth to a sturdy, beautiful little girl.  I hadn't expected babies this year because Pessa and Luti are getting pretty old and neither showed any signs of pregnancy, even though we keep a buck, Dagwood, with them.  Two days ago I thought Pessa's backside looked a tiny bit swollen and then yesterday I thought her udder might be getting a bit bigger.  I was sure it was wishful thinking, because lately I've been envious of all the cute baby goat pictures I've been seeing on Facebook.  This was a very nice present, a single girl. I decided to call her Breezy, since we've been getting some serious winds the past 2 days.

 I'm kind of surprised by her light color because her mom and dad are brown and black with some white and her grandfather was almost all black and grandmother was brown like Pessa.  I've always loved light colored goats.  I'm sure she'll darken as she gets older.  This is her handsome dad, Dagwood.

She's very laid back and friendly so far.  Right away she wanted to be held.  She's not shy.  She took a nap in my arms for 15 minutes and then I had to put her down because she's so heavy for a newborn.  

It's still breezy here today but nothing like yesterday's winds that blew up some of the roofing on our garage and uprooted a big pine tree.  We're lucky we didn't get the snow like some of my family got in PA.  It was 50 degrees here but felt more like 30.