Hive Work, New Writing, and Painted Furniture

My new foray into furniture painting.

I've been a busy girl these past few days, hence the delay in posting. Yesterday, Glenn, Michael, and I cleaned up the area around which we plan to place the top bar hive, so no branches fall on our little pollinators. The hive itself is painted and ready to go. We just have to wait on the package of bees to arrive at the post office. Now, that should make for an interesting drive home the day they arrive.

My article "Carnegie and Craft: The Next Chapter" appears in American Craft this month. You can read the article by clicking on the link, which will take you right to the magazine's blogpost page.

Soon, soon, I should be getting edits back from City Paper for the review I did of Sandow Birk's American Qu'ran, which I turned in on March 22.

Also, excitingly, I'll be contributing something to the winter issue of Strange, Weird, and Wonderful. I'm so glad to see that the magazine is back! The magazine's excellent editor, D.L. Russell, sent me three writing prompts to choose from this morning, so I'll soon be working on what I really enjoy: fiction.

What's in the picture above? My 'new-ish' foray into painted furniture. What, the daughter of a cabinetmaker has never before painted furniture? Oh yes, I definitely have. In fact, in our 2003 York Builder's Show booth, there was a black credenza with cherry blosom branches painted across the raised panel doors (to go with our 19th-century, Asian-themed kitchen display). However, I've never taken auction furniture and started to spray paint it. I guess, though, it's not totally unfamiliar work: anyone who drives past our house has seen our yellow garden gate with the blue and purple butterfly stencils and the marshmallow peep shapes stenciled on our brown garden shed. Now, I'm just taking old furniture and stenciling the willies out of it.
(Yes, furniture has willies you can stencil right out. I whacked two in the yard as they tried to run away.)