Thread:Superkenzie/@comment-33437691-20200103172834/@comment-33437691-20200116175441

Endangered species, indeed; just as I thought! I had a chuckle about that, too; my ex-husband wouldn't have done it either.

I checked up the designers you mentioned. Those shadow boxes are really sweet, I had no idea what you meant about the cushions, so now I do. Having a house gives you wall space galore; I'm pretty limited here, so many of my projects are finished but unhung, laying flat in a drawer. So far, no silverfish have damaged them! Thank goodness for airtight plastic boxes. You asked it I had done any projects with birds; not cross-stitch, but I painted a hummingbird from a photograph. It was coming in to land, and the series showed its landing frame by frame, which made it look clumsy! A high speed camera had to be used because they are so very fast. I was going to do a series of small paintings, but I liked the photos better. Maybe if I get better, I will try again (that good ol' perfectionist coming out again, because the painting is just fine! On it's own, of course, it looks exactly like what it is: a clumsy landing!)

I have Juncos, too! Lots of them. I adore my little hummingbirds. If I'm out on the balcony they often come to the feeder in spite of my being there. They hang in the air looking at me. I'm sure some people would think I'm nuts, but the birds do communicate with us--especially the blue jays. These winter mornings I'm sleeping in more often, and if there are no peanuts in the feeder and the sunflower seeds are gone, one of them will sit in the trees opposite my balcony (2 feet away, they are that close) and caw loudly. And I'm certain the hummingbird was doing something similar one spring: the fushcias in the hanging baskets weren't flowering prolifically yet and the hummingbird was hovering at the window, looking in at me, going to the flower basket, coming back, like it was saying, "Where's the feeder?" And talk about noisy: the hummingbirds use a clicking sound that carries; I can always hear them when they are around. It might be a territorial sound, warning others they have arrived, or they're just checking to see if other hummingbirds are in the area before coming to the feeder. Saves on fights!

You mentioned cardinals, which I think of as being more an east coast species as I've never seen a live one: I was born in the prairies, Regina Sask (so I know all about that sticky snowman/snowball kind of snow). There is another very colourful bird whose name escapes me, it's bright yellow, but again, whenever I've seen them on TV the location is always in the east. I would love to see them around. Nature is so bountiful with its colours. Most of thetrees on the west coast have earthy/mossy colours, dark greens and browns, with fronds and needles, unlike the colour feast from the leafy maples, elms and poplars of the east coast--where the birds can hide better. Here, their colours would announce "lunch" to any predators!

I meant to say this yesterday: when I used the word copyist, I meant nothing bad in it. I didn't get the sense you were offended, but if there was any sting in the words, I want to take it out! What we do is FAR from paint by numbers type copying!! Converting a painting to a graph is one skillset--and I really think that, for some of the patterns I'm doing, the colour graphs are computer generated. The quantity and quality of the "confetti" stitches is extreme, so I'm positive there is a program with all the DMC colours with a corresponding legend of symbols; the painting/photo is scanned and voila, a graph is produced. Still, the designer created the painting, and I'm not turning my nose up saying "humph, that's not TRUE art!" My art teacher referred to my Roman mosaic floor painting as "craft" which, honesty compels me to admit miffed me a bit, but it also made me chuckle: yes, I had to use geometry to set up the borders and circles and arcs, but that's where craft, as I understand the word, ended. And, it's a detail, but most artists use geometry to set up their perspectives, even the masters. So, I'm not a snob about what's art/craft/copying! I copied a few of Van Gogh's paintings and I love them, and am justifiably proud of them. We do make hundreds of decisions in our "copying" (including the decision to set aside valuable time to do it!) and as my cross-stitch comes to life, it is mine. Ditto for all the music I play: I didn't compose the music; I'm following the 'instructions' but it's different every time I play it depending on a variety of factors (mood, how long I've warmed up etc). Ditto for movies: the screenwriter is just one component of the work. I'm pretty sure we're on the same page on that topic!

Coffee's finished; the piano calls. All the best!