Starting Early This Year

What does one do when one cannot ride her bike? She gets it tuned up, adding new chain and shifting cables. She cleans her old bike and puts new tires on it. She starts to work on the Christmas Village (what else?)

I am on the floor ironing canvas. This canvas is doubled as you see it--it's really twice this size. It is going to be treated with gesso and painted for a backdrop for the village. A really big idea; I hope I can pull it off. (notice right knee extended--can't kneel on it, can barely bend it. Hurts when I walk; hurts when I don't walk. Seeing orthopedist tomorrow).

Above is a box of k'nex pieces. We decided that since Bill has a circus train he's had for 50 years, that the Christmas Village needs a circus! We pondered over how to make the circus tent frame and I remembered that we had many thousands of k'nex in the basement!  The box above is just sticks--we also have 8 smaller plastic bins filled with the various connectors for the sticks.

I'd been working on the tent frame for a couple of weeks, and thought I was done. I bought some circus animals, a couple of clowns and a ferris wheel and carousel. Today my friend Lisa came over with fabric to start working on the canvas for the tent. She insisted the tent was too short, so we made it taller, reinforced it and added more pieces to stabilize it. We had a nice lunch and she left a little while ago, taking my tent frame with her. I can't wait to see it done! Red and white stripes of course!

 

Now that the tent is gone from my dining room table I guess I'll have to put away the animals--I'm sure the grandchildren will be disappointed. They've been playing with them for weeks!