What… There’s A Sofa In THAT Box?

If you’re like me, your favorite chair when you were a kid, was a beanbag! My brother and I both had beanbags and we loved sitting in them. We even took them to ride on in the back of my parents van on trips, and boy was it ever a comfortable ride. Of course that was back in the day before seatbelt laws, and when there weren’t seatbelts in the back of vehicles or even in the front of some for that fact! The good news is that we survived just fine while bouncing and rolling around in the back of the van as we headed down the road!

Noticing that many people living in Tiny Houses and catamarans, have and prefer sitting and lounging in their bean bags, got us to thinking about doing the same thing ourselves. Having loved my beanbag so much, I thought this was a great idea! So we started searching online and discovered what many of them are using are actually filled with memory foam chunks instead of styrofoam beans. So we found what’s called My Foam Bag, and decided perhaps a love seat option would work best!

 

So we placed our order and the day the small box finally arrived, and we couldn’t believe a “sofa” could actually be inside! Anticipation mounted as we carefully opened the box, then both worked to free the lovely purple bag from inside. We slowly unzipped it, revealing a tightly sealed plastic bag contains something that looked like a huge brain! As soon as we removed it from the bag, it started to grow!

And as we worked to break up the foam pieces, it continued to grow . . . and grow . . .

and grow some more! 

It was amazing how quickly it grew in size as we continued rolling it and breaking up the pieces inside.

We let it sit over night and the next morning, it was even bigger . . . Yikes!

We went ahead and put the tan micro fiber cover on it, and let it continue to expand, joking that it was taking over the living room… Ha Ha! We’re currently in the process of building a short platform to sit on, which makes it sit a little higher. And while it may not win an award for a piece of beautiful furniture, it is very comfortable to sit in and feels like it’s hugging you! Besides that, in a small way it makes me feel like a kid again, which is always a good thing! We’ll finish the platform after the carpet is installed (which sadly is still another week away!) and I’ll share a photo of the completed sofa with you then.

See our miniatures in person this week

Society of Animal Artists Art That Matters to the Planet Show
August 14 – October 25, 2021:The Roger Tory Peterson Institute, Jamestown, NY

Society of Animal Artists Animal Impressions Show
August 21 – November 7, 2021: The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, AZ

Exquisite Miniatures is currently at the beautiful Elliott Museum located in Stuart, FL 

We are delighted to have our history-making tour on display in this beautiful museum! So if you’re in, or are going to be in the area, plan a visit to see over 60 of our miniature paintings in person, grab a magnifying glass and experience the “wow factor!” And if you fall in love with one . . . well, it can be yours forever, as all paintings in the exhibition are available.

To see our available miniature paintings, visit our WEBSITE here: artofwildlife.com

Contact us by EMAIL here: siegrist@artofwildlife.com

Until Next Time ~ Rachelle

And The Work Goes On

Firstly, I want to apologize for ads being on the blog once again. I know it’s terribly distracting, and these are not monetized ads, and I do not make a cent off of them. They were absent the past couple of years, because we paid $100 a year to keep it ad-free, and have decided to no longer do that, so once again my apologies for the inconvenience. 

Now, to this week’s happenings… Wes and I continue to feel as if we’ve enrolled in work camp, and after several setbacks, thankfully we’re slowly making progress. The back porch roof is getting very close to being ready for the roofing panels. However, we’re going to stain it before putting them on to make it much easier to apply the stain. This has been a BIG job thus far, but I’m sure we’ll enjoy it once it’s completed. It’s not the first porch we’ve built together either, but as we’ve grown older each time, it takes a little longer than the last time. But that’s okay, because the tortoise did win the race after all!

Between days of building, we’ve taken a couple breaks to work in the yard. I went to the “Free nursery” (AKA the woods) and dug up three large beautiful clumps of fern and transplanted them into one of the front flower beds I’ve made. It looks so nice to see something green and thriving in them, and after we moved several loads of semi-composted mulch we found  by the driveway, and spread it around part of the bed, well it looked even better! 

The birds seem to enjoy the new ferns as well, as they explore and search for bugs in them! Speaking of birds, I’m thrilled to report this morning while I was sitting on the front porch eating my breakfast, that Chickadees and Nuthatches finally visited my feeders and seed pile on the wooden picnic table! I can’t tell you how excited I was to enjoy watching my feathered friends, and it made my week! I’ve been waiting since we moved here, to see one go to the feeder, and am so thankfully they’ve found it!

Many times when we’re walking or working outside, we see something interesting, whether it’s an interesting mushroom, wildflower blooming or insect. Well one day this past week, I couldn’t believe it when I saw this gorgeous purple beetle! I’ve seen lots of beetles that are iridescent blue or green, but had never seen a purple one, and it was quite lovely indeed!

We’ve had to make a couple of trips into town this past week to get more wood, screws etc., but thankfully it’s a beautiful picturesque drive most of the way, with pastoral scenes and water crossings such as this one by Caney Creek below. In the lower left corner you can see a kayaker fishing, and we can’t wait until we can get back on the water in our own kayaks soon! There are numerous places to kayak around here, so I’m hoping to be able to share many beautiful photos from times spent on the water with you in the future.

But for now, we’re trying to get certain things done here at the house, especially before winter. Unbelievably, we’re still waiting on our carpet installation, and finally received a call earlier today, informing us it will still be over two weeks before they’re coming to do it. I know good things come to those who wait, so this must be very good carpet! We are waiting on the carpet to be installed, before finishing unpacking and moving the remainder of our stuff, as we sure don’t want to have to move it all twice. I think the best part will be sleeping up on a regular bed and real mattress, instead of on our little camping mattress on the floor. Nonetheless, we’re making memories.

See our miniatures in person this week

Society of Animal Artists Art That Matters to the Planet Show
August 14 – October 25, 2021:The Roger Tory Peterson Institute, Jamestown, NY

Society of Animal Artists Animal Impressions Show
August 21 – November 7, 2021: The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, AZ

Exquisite Miniatures is currently at the beautiful Elliott Museum located in Stuart, FL 

We are delighted to have our history-making tour on display in this beautiful museum! So if you’re in, or are going to be in the area, plan a visit to see over 60 of our miniature paintings in person, grab a magnifying glass and experience the “wow factor!” And if you fall in love with one . . . well, it can be yours forever, as all paintings in the exhibition are available.

To see our available miniature paintings, visit our WEBSITE here: artofwildlife.com

Contact us by EMAIL here: siegrist@artofwildlife.com

Until Next Time ~ Rachelle

The BIG move

Wes standing out front of the cabin after we got the moving truck unloaded.

Well, I’m finally back! We just got our satellite internet hooked up a couple of days ago, and what a process it was. Actually just about everything with this move has been a major process. After we shared everything that has happened with our dear collector friend, Mike, he called it “The move by Murphy” since nearly everything that could possibly go wrong… did! But here we are almost 3 weeks later now . . . I believe, as I’m having a very hard time keeping track of the days currently. Things are slowly improving though and we’re starting to get settled back into a semi-routine of normalcy thankfully.

My house warming gift was an amazing collection of over 74 chigger bites! Wes says it’s the most he has ever seen on anyone, and I look like I have the measles! I made some homemade spray using tea tree and eucalyptus essential oil, and thankfully have only added a couple to my stunning collection since using it.

Our first supper on the back porch

I won’t bore you with all the details, since most of you already have enough stress and problems of your own these days. So I’m going to keep it on a positive note, while focusing on our many blessings, and mainly share photos with you from our new property. We bought a 1 bedroom log cabin that the seller actually built himself, and he did a beautiful job! His name is Wesley as well, so it’s very easy to remember.

The lovely view down our driveway

The home is situated on 6.3 acres of mixed woods and an open area for gardening. The amazing surprise is that there is already a perfectly level spot where he had an above ground pool, so next spring I’m going to get a belated Christmas present! I haven’t had a pool since leaving home when Wes and I were married, and can’t tell you how much I’ve missed it, so as you can imagine I’m already counting the days until next spring!

The view from the front porch

Several deer frequent our woods and enjoy eating the plentiful acorns. There are so many acorns in fact that I’m thinking about getting a hard hat to be able to safely walk through the woods this time of year… HaHa! I’ve seen a few squirrels off in the distance and although no birds have visited our feeder, the woods are full of them. I must admit I greatly miss all of my wonderful critter best friends from the yard in Townsend, and look forward to the day when I make some new ones here. I do have 3 female Ruby-throated hummingbirds that hang out almost constantly at the feeders and are thoroughly enjoying their new diners! 

My new best critter friend!

We have found several amazing salamanders while working in the yard and walking through the woods. One was very BIG and another was very tiny, both great surprises!

I believe the big one is a Red Salamander (Pseudotriton Ruber) and the wee one is a Woodland 

This adorable baby turtle was yet another awesome find, that Wes made one day!

A wonderful family bought our home in the Smokies, and the best part is that they absolutely LOVE my critters! I can’t express in words how very happy this makes me, and she has been texting me, telling me how they are doing and how much their 2 young boys adore the bunnies, birds and squirrels, especially Bunny and Growlin’ squirrels! They love how they lay on their bellies to eat. And eat they are, as this delightful family is feeding them and taking great care of them, and probably spoiling them even more than I did, if that’s possible. A BIG heartfelt thank you to them for taking such awesome care of them all for me!

The front of the house prior to our porch renovations

The dining room, which is where I’ll probably paint part of the time

We’re currently still using a card table as a dining room table and sleeping on our camping mattress on the floor. Hopefully the new carpet will finally get installed this next week, and we can build a new bed frame and move what little bit of furniture we brought along with us, into its proper place. I think then it will start feeling more like home to us. We’re in the process of building a roof over the back deck, and will spend tomorrow spreading 6 tons of crusher run gravel on the driveway, as there’s a steep area that has washed out with all of the unbelievable recent rains. There’s one thing we don’t do anymore, and that’s get bored! 

Wes building shelves in the new SAA office, studio, and framing area.

I’ll be sharing photos of the progress on different projects as we go along, as well as photos of critters we find, so be sure to visit the blog each week, to see what’s new! Soon I’ll start painting on miniatures again too.

See our miniatures in person this week

Society of Animal Artists Art That Matters to the Planet Show
August 14 – October 25, 2021:The Roger Tory Peterson Institute, Jamestown, NY

Society of Animal Artists Animal Impressions Show
August 21 – November 7, 2021: The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, AZ

Exquisite Miniatures is currently at the beautiful Elliott Museum located in Stuart, FL 

We are delighted to have our history-making tour on display in this beautiful museum! So if you’re in, or are going to be in the area, plan a visit to see over 60 of our miniature paintings in person, grab a magnifying glass and experience the “wow factor!” And if you fall in love with one . . . well, it can be yours forever, as all paintings in the exhibition are available.

To see our available miniature paintings, visit our WEBSITE here: artofwildlife.com

Contact us by EMAIL here: siegrist@artofwildlife.com

Until Next Time ~ Rachelle