Ta Da! I Tried It Thursday...

... Need a really good excuse to go to Starbucks & keep every little scrap of fabric you ever have?! haha  This week I tried this simple & super cool gypsy bracelet project by Candace Jedrowicz. I love upcycling/ recycled projects, wearing bracelets and there is no shortage of fabric in my studio, so when I saw this project I had to try it! There was only one drawback... I am not a jewelry maker, so I don't have nice jewelry wire. So I pulled the wire out of my wire ribbon to see if I would like these before I went & purchased nice wire. (it actually doesn't look bad at all) These bracelets make up quickly  & look better in person.  I like lots of texture so I used painted fabric, glittering ribbon, lace, vintage fabric that I did free motion embroidery on & a vintage zipper.  I think I like them enough to buy wire next time I'm at the art supply store.  I plan on adding beads, buttons, seashells & charms.  I am going to try putting some beads on the wire before I start wrapping it to see how that works out. The possibilities are endless. Just might find some of these one day in my shop.  I will post a follow up picture when one is completely finished. 

God Bless & Create a great day!

Loved & Loved Again

I got out and raked a little today. I have to admit it felt good. As far as gardening goes I'd say raking is about the extent of my talent. It's a shame I'm not kidding :) It got me daydreaming about decorating my outdoor room. It's a good size circle area with 2 granite walkways leading up to it in the middle of a little grove of oak trees in the upper portion of our property. Other than 2 black iron rocking chairs it's a blank canvas. Because I am not a gardener, I decided to divide my yard up and make little "rooms", that might help me tackle it or look at it in a different way and I have enough area to make a few good size spots. My goal is to make if flow and fun to walk through, not difficult to care for - container gardening all without looking like a junk yard.

You know I love upcycled/recycled/re-purposed art and objects. A well loved item transformed to love all over again. If you have some things you've made for your yard I'd love to see them! One of the things I plan to make/re-purpose are birdhouses made out of plastic coffee cans. My hubby feeds them so we might as well give them a place to live too. I plan to paint them and hang them at different lengths in those aforementioned trees. I'm calling it my "Coffee Condo Project." So stay tuned, that's soon, I can't wait to show you the project. Save a can! Here are some things I fell in love with. You can click on the pictures to be taken to the blogs, websites, tutorials, etc... I found some great places today!

Ut Oh. I might be saving cans now. I'm already saving coffee cans and we won't speak of my jar cabinet. Picture this spray painted with shiny copper paint, black w/ glitter to twinkle at night, turquoise or that lushious lemon-lime color next to it! Wouldn't this be a great outdoor room divider, or privacy screen? This Dino almost makes me want to crawl under the house to retrieve a box of old toys because I know there are a couple of dinos down there. Almost. Another super fun piece I will be making! There is scrap wood pile leftover from my hubby's wonderful deck I will be diving into.

These next 3 I saw at BHG.com and fell in love them. I think the chair shelf would be great in my outdoor room I am gonna be working on this summer. *summer? doesn't feel like summer, not yet* Next time hubby is in the mood for a nice cigar I'm gonna ask him to get me some more boxes, I used all that I had in an altered art frenzy. I do have one untouched box that is my hidey hole for the tv remote & other assorted things. I've got lots of hidey holes. The other day I couldn't remember what I did with a sink stopper. Oh yeah, I put them in a big ceramic acorn next to sink. I hid the sink stoppers & strainers in there. I'd much rather look at the acorn. My largest hidey hole is an antique armoire that we gutted, added shelves to and it houses all of our stereo equipment. I am now keeping my eye out for stray silver in my thrifty travels. I have so much stuff to box up to take to donate, it's now on my Things To Do List. Wait donate and then bring home stuff..hum.. hubby probably won't notice the camping silverware missing for awhile. LOL

Christmas Cards in January?

Why not! A Reuse/Recycle Christmas Card project is what I did today. I am the new moderator/fearless leader of the Reuse/Recycle art group, a subgroup of the Swell Sister Society. I hosted the first meeting at my home today. I got up early & made 2 quiches this morning. I haven't made those in years. Why? They are so good. My boys ate the leftovers for dinner with a little salad. I am going to make them more often. While searching for a recipe (I ended up making up my own) I saw one that used a large tortilla instead of a pie crust. I may try that next time. I'm thinking that would be tasty and a lot less calories. After I got those in the oven my son & I hopped in the car and headed for Heavenly Donuts. It's a little hole in the wall place down the street from my house that is well known for having the best donuts & cinnamon buns. We got 3 dozen glazed donut holes and they were almost gone when the girls left. Donut holes seem less evil than regular donuts. haha I even ate 2 of them and I am one of those odd people that doesn't like donuts. I also had grapes and beautiful strawberries, that came from who knows where this time of year, and they were big sweet and delicious. My hubby finished off the pitcher of cucumber water when he got home. I love cucumber water! If you haven't tried it, and you like cucumber, you must try it. Just plop in a few slices in your ice water next time you're making that salad.

The Christmas cards we made were from Christmas cards that we received. One of the artists, Mikie Spencer, does this every year and has her creations printed to use at Christmas time. She has made some really beautiful cards. I am not so happy with the one that I made & a little red faced to show it, and because of all the shiny gold choices (can't resist shiny) it does not scan well, so it's not a good candidate for printing. I learned in the process though. I still have lots of cards and will be making more. If you save your cards you might like to do this project with us. Hopefully I will end up with one I can use this year...we'll see. I think my cooking was better than my art today!

I am in the process of designing a knitting pattern for a neck warmer with my whimsical flowers on it. I also need to start something for my niece's baby so I went to the little knit shop we have in my little town. Ok that's another story....

Super Stars! A Recycle/Reuse Project

Sparkle, sparkle and so "green"! These were fun to make today & hang over my skating snowmen that are on my table. This Christmas Eve we are having the family dinner with the kids a la A Christmas Story. We are making oriental food. We are always up for an adventure and I love that about my family. I am making my Vegetarian Curry with Cashews & Banh Mi (Vietnamese pork meatball sandwiches), my special Egg Rolls taught to me by my friend Noi, Cucumber Sesame Salad & my own Red Ginger Noodle salad. I've never made Banh Mi before but I made the mayo for it already and it is fantastic. My son couldn't leave it alone & even ate it on toast, it's gone already! So it's fun that everyone is excited. I am grinding the pork for the meatballs so they should be nice & lean. I found the recipe in the new Bon Appetit Magazine . My oldest are bringing their famous crab dip & lemon squares. I don't know what my youngest is making yet. I bought red & white Striped Chinese cartons to serve the salads in & brand new chopsticks. The table will be fun. Both of my boys were eating with chopsticks when they were 2 years old and I plan on using those cute little panda bear chopsticks that I still have to teach my little JJ in the near future. My youngest son was once the center of attention when we popped into a little neighborhood Japanese restaurant in San Francisco, his blond hair almost white shining amid a sea of dark hair, sitting in his high chair, eating something most kids at his age wouldn't touch and with big boy chopsticks, he had the whole restaurant just going gaga over him. He was so cute.

These shiny stars are made of a recycled 2 liter soda bottle, fishing line, glue & glitter. Cut off the top & bottom of bottle. Then cut open the cylinder & cut into strips then squares. I got 12 squares from one bottle. I cut the stars freehand folk arty but you could use a pen & star template if you wanted them all the same. Using a needle make a hole & insert fishing line then tie a knot. Put glue on both sides of the star & cover with glitter. Shake off excess glitter & hang. I put a star on each end of the fishing line. Super easy & something you could do with kids. I think I'll be saving all my soda bottles to make stars for outdoors. I think they'd be great hanging from all my trees no matter what time of year it is!

Walk Softly & Carry A Big Stick...

...a big pretty gypsy walking stick!

The other day as we were walking I came across this big stick. It's almost as tall as I am, the top comes up to my eye brows! (yes I'm pretty short) My hubby is about 6'4 so you can see it's pretty big. It looked interesting to me & not very heavy. I couldn't leave it where it lay, I started to, but turned back & picked it up. A perfect walking stick, I thought, so I convinced my hubby to walk it home for me. He cut off some little branches that were sticking out a little & cleaned it up for me. Yesterday I began painting on it. Ok, I know you're thinking...why? I don't know! My insatiable need to turn trash into treasure with paint? It seemed like a fun thing to do at the time, however, I have only gotten about 1/4 of the way down the stick, now realizing this is not just a quick little project I have gotten myself into. I was hoping to be finished with it today but it may take a little while. So far it has clouds & sky, bumble bees, lizards, little leaves, sky & blackbirds, hearts, cherries, daisies, and fish. Things you might see on a walk...? Once I get all the main sections painted I can then start putting in lots of little details & of course more color! I admit I feel a little guilty working on this stick instead of a long list of other things I could be doing, but I'm having fun with it. It will be a great conversation piece that's for sure, whether on a hike or just to have! Wouldn't you feel grand hiking with this?! hahaha Definitely a unique piece of art! I will post another picture when it's all finished. Can you think of some things that need to be on my gypsy stick? What have you turned from trash into treasure lately?

Sentimental Journey

Just listed in my Etsy Store. I had a lot of fun painting & creating this Angel! She is painted on Side 2 Of a mint condition 12" vinyl LP record. "Sentimental Journey" is the 4th song on Side 2 of "Aurthur Murray's Dance Music. The song on the label was left untouched and shows through her hair and was the inspiration for this piece.

The 2 different expressions on each side of the Angel's face give her unique character & evokes emotion. She is bright & cheerful or somber & reflective. The moon represents a journey through time. The pretty flower in her hair represents the bright side of life & eternal optimism.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday??

hum.... has that happened yet? NOT yet!

I'm a member of the Folk Art Society of America and I thought I'd post this awesome recycle/reuse art/folk art that was on the cover of the Folk Art Society's Messenger journal cover. Personally if I came across one of these great old fashioned tubs I'd fix it and put it in the bathroom! I love those. A great childhood memory of mine is swimming in one of those at my Aunt Annette's house, with the bathroom reeking of a wonderful floral scent from an old fashioned soap. I stayed in it until she made me get out. To this day when I see old fashioned soap, the kind that used to be made here but now is made in Mexico, Palmolive & the like, I always pick it up to smell it just to see if it's that smell. I love the smell of the old Palmolive soap. I think Ralph Lauren's Turquoise perfume smells a lot like it. I had to be filthy dirty from playing outside is the only reason I can think of as to why I was even taking a bath there. Kids just don't play outside like they used to do they?

I am getting 5 paintings ready to mail out and then I'm gonna get to work on my gallery piece. I have to find time to pack today too. I'm heading off to San Francisco for a mini break/anniversary trip with hubby for a couple of days! Yippee! I'll take lots of pictures if I can figure out how to set up my camera to take more than 12 pictures before the memory is gone.

Stages

It's just a stage... that's what my Mom used to say. I'm sure I'm going through one of those right now because I've been in the yard for 2 days! and you know that's not like me. haha Today is really windy so I've only been out there for a few minutes to "plant" the mushrooms I made. I saw a video on how to make concrete leaves and she had done a mushroom as well. I thought the mushrooms in the yard were so cool but I don't have any concrete. What could I use to make me a mushroom? Then it came to me...easy, simple, cheap and maybe cute? maybe. I melted vinyl records! I have lots of those. (recycle/reuse) I only had brown, white, blue & copper spray paint so that's what I used. And as you can tell my yard is "woodsy"so the colors worked out well. The designs and possibilities are endless. I melted the records over stainless bowls at 250 degrees, shaped it, then painted them and stuck them on old sticks I found around the yard. I used hot glue to secure them better. They were really fun! I will probably make some more but actually paint them instead of spray painting them. If you make some of these I'm sure you will be able to come up with some really cool designs much better than mine.

Since it's really windy today I am going to finish up a painting that I started the other night which is like the Cotton Fields ACEOs. Those sold today on Etsy. The one I'm doing is on 6x6 canvas. I personally like these and think they would be pretty in my dressing area but I will be listing them. I was emailing with a buyer yesterday and she was surprised when I said I've had no art in my hallway for 15 years. She said she would have figured I would have art all over my home. I don't but since I'm in a cleaning stage - spring fever- I should rearrange and redecorate. I know I have things in some rooms that probably would look better in another. "Stage" my own house. Yeah!

Tuesday's Altered Thoughts

You may need to click on the picture to read. If you would like to see more Altered Pages & Altered Thoughts please visit my new blog here.

Yesterday I had my little doodle bug again. He was sick but the only time he cried was when I gave him green beans. It was hard not to laugh because he really grimaced & hollered! I had never seen him cry like that so it was a little shocking. He made it clear he did not want those green beans. Other than that he was an angel again. He can do razz berries now and is scooting around pretty well. His mom picked him up early and took him to the doctor. It turned out that he has a double ear infection poor guy. My youngest son (a preemie) is the same way. He was a very sick until he was about 7 or 8 years old but he would never complain. I would just know he wasn't well when his lymph nodes would swell (he had surgery to remove some of them) or by the look in his eyes. It's funny how JJ reminds me of my youngest son more than his dad, my older son. Anyway, I think he's the sweetest little guy on the planet. I take a picture of him every time he's over (at least once a week) so I am gonna have to get it in gear and start a scrapbook for these pictures.

Hayley Egan presented me with a blog award! Thanks Hayley! She has a lovely blog you should check it out. I have to list 7 things that I love then pass the award along. I have to give this some thought to come up with 7 things that aren't listed below, oh I'm sure I can do it! but will have to get back to you on that.

Something New!

I'm off to a Mardi Gras party tonight which will be a great time with a great bunch of friends. I may not be going all New Orleans on them but I may have a Hurricane...we'll see!

I started a new blog today! It's called Altered Pages, Altered Thoughts. Click here to visit! There is also a picture link on the right side bar that will take you there. It's for my new addiction/obsession of doing altered pages. I will just be posting Altered Pages to enjoy so I don't think it will be too much to keep up on. Don't worry I will still be posting some here on Tuesdays too! Some of my artist friends have already done some that are fantastic and I will be posting those. I'd love to see yours too!

The Final Work of 2008

New work, the last work of 2008. These Angels are all on 5.5 x 5.5 rugged wood. I will be listing these on Etsy or Ebay. This year has been magical and I am making plans & goals for 2009 and getting excited. Thank you for all of your support & visits to my blog this year! The wonderful comments and new friends I have made this year have meant a great deal to me! Many Blessings & Happy New Year!

I'll Fly Away...

I have been working for days on this moving Gypsy Bird Box. I have been fascinated with kinetic toys lately and decided to work on something a little different.

When you turn the crank the bird goes up & down and a bell knocks and rings. I started it for the Tangent Gallery bird show but may list it on Ebay I haven't decided. It sure would make a unique Christmas gift!

It is made with found objects and bits & pieces, glue & glitter. The box is an old cigar box, the mosaic is made with eggshells, the legs are bottle caps, the top is covered with old buttons, black feathers and the crank is an old wine cork.