Famous Flourishes

One of my Freecycle calligraphy gigs was for a lady that was making a dollhouse for the Dollhouse Festival at the library. They have people make and decorate dollhouses and they auction them off for charity. She wanted me to make some wall hangings for a miniature florist shop, attourney's office, bridal shop, and lounge. They're all in Latin, as she wanted to cater to the lawyers that would be at the festival.

Aaron and I stopped by the festival last night just to see how they looked. They looked pretty good. While we were there, a lady at a candle booth asked for my contact information because she wanted some calligraphy work done for her candle business. I'm getting famous! :-)

"No one ought to accuse himself except in the presence of God." This one went in the attourney's office. It turned out a little big, even though I used the smallest chisel nib I own, so it's shrunken down a little in the dollhouse.

"You will not conquer nature unless you obey it." For the florist shop. This one was a little rushed, but I think it turned out okay.

"Love is the essence of life." This one was for the bridal shop and is by far my favorite in design and execution. I spent the most time on this one.

"Take care of yourself." The hand I did this one in is way cool, but wasn't terribly fitting for the lounge. Aaron and I agreed I should have used something more flowy and flourishy. (It was hard to fit it to the room because I didn't get to see the dollhouse beforehand.)

I'm going to the festival today to take pictures of the dollhouse itself, so I'll post those later.

More on Freecycle

A couple people have requested info on how to get on the Freecycle band wagon. For those of you in Utah, click here and click on the Join This Group! button. For those outside of Utah, just go to www.freecycle.org and click on the sign up option at the top of the page. The Utah organization is off of a Yahoo group, so I believe you need a Yahoo address. However, you get an email every time anyone posts something, so I'd use a spam account so you don't get 50 emails a day. That or make a folder in your existing account. Check on your freecycle emails often - a lot of these items go pretty fast, so you have to be kind of quick on the draw.

More on my freecycle calligraphy adventures in my next post...

One Man's Junk...

...is another man's treasure! I belong to an email group called Freecycle. The main gist of it is that people who have stuff that is still usable they don't want now have a venue to find other people who can use the stuff instead of throwing it away. People post just about everything from cats to washing machines to clothing to food.

So far I've gotten a baby swing, grapes, stamp pads, scrapbooking paper, and a ticket to the BYU vs. UNLV game for my nephew - all for free! I also could have gotten a treadmill, but I was lazy and didn't go to pick it up in time. I got to rid the closet in the nursery of a bunch of gift bags that I'd been storing for a long time. I gave it to a lady who was making newborn kits for unwed mothers at the hospital. Isn't that great?!?! I got to clean out the closet and donate to a good cause at the same time!

I also recently posted an offer for calligraphy services, and I got a HUGE response! I now have loads of opportunities to get some projects going and really get me practicing this talent. I'm super excited! I love you, Freecycle!