Friday, April 21, 2017

all play and no work


Wednesday evening looking east

A thought occurred to me yesterday while I was at an estate sale with my sister that I might not be semi-retired like I've been saying but actually retired. I have not been pursuing the etched/carved glass for some time now and I think we only did 3 jobs last year even if one of them was the big A&M job and only one very small job so far this year, more of a favor than an actual job though we did get paid for it. And we sell the occasional pate de verre piece. I'm not retired from that, just the etched glass even though I haven't made anything new in months. It's just that the weather and the garden and the yard and the flowers and the birds and the bees and all that. There's still some work to do out there but it is starting to get hotter and I can't spend all day doing it like I have been. So today I'm cleaning off the two large horizontal surfaces in my 'in house' studio in preparation for starting some new models during the hot part of the day, even though one of the horizontal surfaces has all my wax working tools and wax spread out all over it. It all needs to be cleaned and neatened for a fresh start. Right now everything is covered in dust and cat hair.

it's worse than it looks

probably should have shown you the before picture so you could be properly impressed

These estate sales that we go to are all pretty much alike. They were a treasure trove when I was collecting glassware to make the totems. I still manage to score something cool now and then like this rusted metal candle lantern shaped like a firefly that I got yesterday, which speaking of fireflies have been out the last several nights. It's going to get hung outside next to the back door.


I picked up these paper fans at another one a while back.



I have to wonder at who prices some of this stuff though like this totally rotten wood falling apart covered with spider webs and filled with ancient nesting material bird house for $3. That should have gone straight in the trash.


The other thing we did was stop at a plant nursery on the way home to see if I could find a new porterweed (that's the butterfly magnet shrub that made those long stalks with the small pink flowers that I can never remember the name of) to replace the one that froze and I did. The other thing I was looking for they only had in big pots and I didn't want to spend that much so I got a bulbine (which also froze and didn't come back) for the new flower bed.

Then Minnie and I went for our walk and checked on the garden and listened to the birds and watched the fireflies and that sounds like retired to me.




9 comments:

  1. Well. Sounds good to me. All of it.
    Here we are. It's about time we were able to do that which makes us happy.

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  2. So maybe artists don't really retire, they just use their time to create what they like.

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  3. When you've been self employed for ages it's hard to know when you're retired. I guess I'm retired although I still receive royalty checks for my illustrations from time to time. My studio is also in need of a good cleaning.

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  4. I need to clean off space to work too. Just too many other things to do.

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  5. That sounds pretty sweet to me - you're doing the things you like to do. Mike has been telling people that he's semi-retired. I wish he enjoyed it as much as you are. If we didn't have to worry about money I think I have the perfect retirement mentality - ha!

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  6. Yep, I'm pretty sure that's retired.
    Your cleaned off desk, impressive! And how wonderful it's in front of a window, best place for a desk.

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  7. It is fun to say retired, but I never seem to be all the way.

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  8. "Retired" or "semi-retired" sounds to me like a rather pointless distinction. I'd say you're just living your life! If you don't need the income and can afford to work only on projects that suit you or that you enjoy, well, all the better. Your estate sales sound fun and that firefly is awesome! The birdhouse, I agree, is trash.

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  9. The best definition of "retired" I ever heard was "doing what I want on a limited budget." From that perspective, I'm already retired, and have been for .... many years.

    I was up in the hill country this weekend and saw fireflies for the first time in several years. I was ecstatic. Now, you say you have them, too. That makes me even happier.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.