Tag Archives: cabin porch

Still Sitting Around

This cabin steps and chair look so inviting; I never saw anyone in residence there but did meet an owner at another cabin.

Something about a chair or bench on a porch is so inviting. One of the established but unwritten elements of cabin etiquette is that if someone is sitting on the deck, it is okay to stop and chat from the road. They can invite you up or not, but it is always good to exchange greetings as you pass by folks just sitting around.

This cabin belonged to some friends of my parents, but they were no longer around when I began work on the book.

A built-in bench? Why not, if it can handle a heavy snow year.

Final Decisions

Did you know that the more decisions one has to make during the course of a day, the more depleted one’s mental strength and willpower become?

This could be why I feel tired. (Or is it the mural I just finished? Maybe it is that old treatment plant for the neighborhood water system that I helped demolish. . . )

Here is the next slate of decisions before The Cabins of Wilsonia goes to press:

1. Re-evaluate the cover and end-sheet colors when the paper sample arrives.

2. Decide when enough proofreading is enough.

4. Figure out how to convert the whole shebang to a PDF. (Will the computer challenges ever end??)

5. Figure out the price of the book.

6. Figure out the right discount to offer as a pre-sales incentive. You all have to have a reason to hand me your hard-earned dollars before a product is available!

Will I see you in Wilsonia over the Fourth of July weekend?

Original Pencil Cabin Drawings Available

As I began selling the original drawings for the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia, I knew that the cabin owners should have first dibs on the drawings of their own cabins.

Since I am the one who chose which views and which cabins, there was a risk that some folks would not like my choices.

This means LUCKY YOU! These drawings are now available to anyone who wants to buy them. The link to my website with a shopping cart and Paypal is this.

The drawings vary in size from 6×7″ up to 7×10″ and range in price from $100-$150.

I feel pretty sure that there will be more. . . stay tuned!

Sold Cabin Drawings

Once I learned that the drawings for the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia did not have to be rescanned (GLORY HALLELUJAH!), I began contacting the cabin owners that I’ve met to offer them “first dibs” on the drawings of their cabins.

I only have contact information for about 37 of the cabin owners. (Like that “about 37”? That is sort of like saying “The time is around 12:08 p.m.”) So, if you suspect that your cabin may appear in the book, use the contact tab at the top of my blog and get in touch with me.

Meanwhile, have a look at a few completed drawings that now have a new home.

Sometime I’ll show you some of the drawings that the cabin owners decided they didn’t want to buy. I find it mildly interesting, and you might too. Or maybe I’ll give it some more thought and decide not to show those. More will be revealed in the fullness of time. . .

What? More Drawings?

Yeppers. I have to draw five more pictures for the upcoming book, The Cabins of Wilsonia.

But WHY??

When books are printed, they need to have their total number of pages divisible by 16. (That means 8 pieces of paper, in case you were getting confused.)

My book had 164 pages, 4 short. I thought it was no big deal – just put a little page here and another one there.

Wrong.

The design is locked up with chapter headings designed just so. One added page, and everything shifts from the one side to the other, and it looks wrong there, because it was very very carefully designed to fit the side it is on.

I did a tally of cabins per street from looking at a map and then counted the numbers of pages per street. Alta didn’t have quite enough pages for the number of cabins, so I am adding two more drawings and rearranging the others to fill. President’s Lane also didn’t have enough pages for the number of cabins, so I have three more to draw for that chapter.

“Unknown Dog on Porch”, sold

Good, bad, or indifferent, it is now necessary to put down the computer and pick up my pencils.

Will I ever be finished with this book??

Blue Things and Sunshine

Now that the drawings are finished (with the possible exception of a couple of do-overs and some frou-frous for wordy pages), it is time to work on the written parts.

But first, let’s take a little break and enjoy some sunshine.

blue things and sunshine

What do we have here?

First, the chair is my redwood throne, made by Bob Kellogg of Three Rivers. I noticed 2 of these chairs on the deck of a cabin on Fir Lane (FINALLY know what to call these streets!) and was aghast, nay, HORRIFED to see they had been painted. When I reported it to Bob, who is in the category of My Amazing Friends, he said he was the one who painted them, because they are not redwood. Always good to go to the source.

Next, there is a lovely blue garment, a congratulatory gift for completing the drawings in 2013. I LOVE blue, particularly this shade, and THANK YOU, PAT!

But wait! What else is blue? It’s a new briefcase to carry my laptop back and forth between the house and the studio. The old one developed holes on the bottom, and then the zipper permanently unzipped itself. It did pretty well considering I got it for free for joining the Book of the Month Club back in the 1980s.

I thought I could sit in my throne in the sunshine while wearing my new blue top, and work on the written parts of the book. Nope – it was too warm and too sunny too see the screen.

painted chairs

P.S. I’m sure that tree is leaning because Perkins The Outdoor Cat has been scratching on the same side, trying to push it over since it was planted in 2002.

P.P.S. (I think that’s the right to indicate a second post-script) I KNOW the studio needs painting. I’m busy putting together a book. Priorities, priorities. . .

SINGLE DIGITS!!

I’m in single digits! Less than 10 pencil drawings to be finished for the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia! (The Captain Obvious way of writing is to help Google find this blog in case people are looking for it – please forgive me for sounding as if I think you have forgotten what it is about.)

When the count dropped to double digits, I was elated all by myself in the studio but didn’t say anything on the blog. Now, I’m beside myself with the thrill of seeing the end within touching distance. It may not be by December 31, 2013 as I originally planned, but it will be very very close. That’s awesome, and I congratulate myself.

Wow, how peculiar can one artist be? Pretty peculiar, because if I were any happier, I’d be twins!

Sorry. Deep calming breaths required here.

Happy 2014 to you, cherished blog readers!

Brewer Lane

Brewer Lane is a very short street in Wilsonia. Officially, on the map there are 2 cabins on it. Maybe three. Hmmm, should have cemented that fact before writing this! When a cabin sits on a corner, sometimes it is hard to tell which street is part of its address.

This A-frame cabin is on Brewer. A-frames are very very hard to draw because there appears to be more roof than cabin. There are 4 A-frames in Wilsonia. This particular view doesn’t show too much roof, but it didn’t ring my bell. It might be because the porch is so simple, or because of the stacks of chairs. Guess you’ll just have to wait for the book to see how Brewer Lane will be represented!

Learning the Streets of Wilsonia

The Cabins of Wilsonia will be arranged alphabetically by street name. That is the same order in which I have been drawing all these cabins in pencil.

This is on Whitney. Now I’m on Willow Street. Willow Lane? Willow Road?

“Street” to me implies town or city. I think these “streets” should be called “roads” or “lanes”. Some are, some aren’t. It is getting on time to figure each of them out.

I wonder if I can name them all in order. Here goes:

Alta, Brewer, Cedar, Chinquapin, Fern, Fir, Grant, Hazel, Hillcrest, Kaweah, Laurel, LeConte, Lilac, Lily, Lupine, Manzanita, Mason, Palisades, Park, Pine, President’s, Sierra, Tehipite, Whitney, Willow.

Now I will look at my book design and see which ones I missed. I’m sure i will make me scream.

ARRRRRRUGGGGGGGGHHHH!

Goddard. Deepest apologies. You contain the cabin of the folks who used to own my home in Three Rivers.
Meadow! What is the matter with me? I can see it from the cabin where I have stayed twice. (Never mind the fact that it only officially contains one cabin. . .) Tyndall, how could I forget Tyndall?? I think I actually drew a cabin on Tyndall before I even did my book on the cabins of Mineral KIng. Plus, I know a kid (male child) named after this peak.

Once I begin working on the computer design, perhaps I will be able to name them all. Meanwhile, 25 of 28 isn’t too shabby.

Book Report

This is more of a progress report than a book report, but I like the sound of “book report”.

I think there are 28 drawings remaining for the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia.

I think this is #234.

Lots of thinking going on here, but not much accuracy in counting. Every time I try to count, I see something else that needs attention, and I lose count.

The total number doesn’t matter. Besides, when I begin the serious focused work of designing it on the computer, there might be drawings that need to be added, redone, dumped, replaced, or any number of too-hard-to-face sorts of actions.

I could segue into a rant about how life is hard and there are zillions of obstacles to getting a task finished. Probably would be a better use of my time if I went back to the drawing board instead.

Do you know anyone else who can say that they literally go “back to the drawing board”?

Lots of people use the word “literally” when they mean figuratively. Have you noticed this? “He literally shot himself in the foot.” Oh really? Is he now on crutches?

Sorry. Rants abound in my head. Back to the drawing board!