Muse strikes again..

One day, she will stop and let me finish my house swap..
Here's today's urges:

Poppy Girl:

Poppy girl is on a vintage dictionary page, and I used rub-ons to accent her and add some intrest..And a whole other style of face..still working that out, but they seem to lean toward the painterly/folk art style below.


The jury is still out on this angel, I've not signed it yet, so I think I'll look at it again later and see what I need to tweek:

sorry for the blur..thought it was better than that..

On the Work table

On a forum I am part of, one of the gals asked if anyone could use some paper mache' items..
I raised my hand..and low and behold at the door in a couple of weeks were boxes of the stuff! yea!! new collage fodder...She had included these little plates, they are about Seven and a half inches..Being in the Christmas mood, I thought I'd play around with one and see what happened..I knew I wanted a Christmas theme..but not what at that point...so I layered on some old dictionary pages and gesso'd them over..then inked and softened that..then, things started to take shape..I used rub-ons, which I always seem to screw up and this was no exception... had to tinker with some colored pencils hither and yon..basically, just played with the whole thing with not a set purpose in mind..( I read in an artist newsletter I get, that we need to let our 6 year old that is within us, out and play, you put something on the canvas because YOU LIKE it..and go with it from there, so that's what I was doing...but I'm usually a fly by the seat of my pants artist anyway..as things jell as they are happening for me..)


I couldn't get the image to fill up the plate the way I wanted, so since Santa was cut off before the end of the plate,I wanted to hide that straight edge..Going through on of my Elementary Readers, I found the perfect words..thinking about some kids and how they go on and on and on when they get into Santa's lap(remember standing behind them waiting your turn?)...I came up with this list..I really wanted to put something snarky on it..but chicken'd out..

I'm smelling a several more of these in my head...before I'm done with these plates..

Hope your Christmas season is going well..
Have a great day!
t

Wondering around

This week, I have been back in the 'hometown'...Keeping the grands at their house. It has been a good time, so far and wondering down memory lane..

While here, I've been wondering over old roads. Driving around town, remembering.
Who lived there, and how that house used to look so nice. How that house used to look so big and now it's really not...how it used to seem like a pain to find a place to park at the post office.

How it used to seem like so many cars were coming down the road when you wanted to get out in traffic...Going down thru the 'rich' neighborhoods and now they don't look so expensive..not after seeing and working in the McMansions of today..

How the grocery store only has few choices of salad dressing, instead of a whole isle of it...How nice it is to leave your house unlocked during the day while you putter around in it..how nice it is to know almost everyone in the bank when you go in..How nice it is to be able to park near the door at school to pick up the grand...

The place where I grew up was just 2 blocks away from where the #1 grand is going to K..the house is long gone, my mother sold it a few years after my dad passed away and the people who bought it moved it off, they were just wanting the land..we went down that road on the way to pick her up the other day. It was a sad road..the houses that are there are so very run down, it was full of older folks when we were living there, ..all the houses were neat and tidy little yards and walls painted and windows repaired..but not now... The huge pecan trees that were out front are in sad shape. My dad was always tending to them, getting the sprayed and triming them up when the need be...Our yard had flowerbed always full of something blooming now it's just pasture grasses and weeds....We had lived there from the time I was 5, so there were alot of memories on that road..All the times I rode my bike down that hill to coast all the way to the highway..Walking home from school..roaming the fields out back...watching out for rattle snakes, for my dad had drilled that into my head from day one..never saw one though..Did find a dead on in the front yard once, the gas meter guy had killed it when he was reading the meter, and left it.... skeerd the begeebees out of me..Running around the near by streets at Halloween, when I was old enough to go out alone..I'll just bore you with all the others, so we'll leave it at that..

The girls and I are going to paint crowns and hearts on their closet door and bedroom door today. Awhile back I painted swirls on the walls and butterflies/dragonflies. The oldest wanted princess crowns someplace and that seems to be the logical place on the doors..we'll have fun with it, they are going to help me.

Prayers are still welcome for our family...
Thanks for the ones you have sent up for us so far.
Thanks for the comments too!
hugs,t

Still no photos

We used hub's little camera, and I have not been able to down load photos....BECAUSE...hub's not brought home the cable from his office...dork...so, no photos today...

I've been painting walls in a bedroom today..faux them tomorrow, then do some cabinets at the end of the week.....it's rained off and on since Sunday night..it's been nice to see the rain..but now some places are flooding..not us out here , thank goodness..just a muddy mess..


My Uncle passed away on Friday. That's the only thing I hate when I go on a trip..phone calls like that.., it was a Call me ASAP message from my sister, YOU know something wrong when you geth those...at first I thought it may be my dog..she had my dog...but Uncle Jimmy's health has been going down hill this last couple of years..so it was not a surprise. Just sad, his daughter said he was tired and it was time, when I spoke to her.

My Uncle Jimmy was my dad's only brother. My dad passed over 24 years ago. Uncle Jimmy was 87, I used to spend a week each summer with he and Aunt Ethel out on their 'farm' outside of Weatherford TX. He was a school teacher..

Sometimes, it was just me out there with them, sometimes my second cousins would be there too..when that was the case there were anywhere from 4 of us to 6 of us there at a time..Lots of good memories..I'll be seeing those cousins on Saturday at the Memorial service. I keep in touch with one, but the rest I just see on occasion.

I'll miss you Uncle Jimmy. I know you're catching up with Daddy, up there in heaven...

Maybe photos by Thursday...
t

Whatta Mess...

Last week, I was off doing a faux job. I glazed Walls, Walls, and more walls..then I had to work on the fire place Mantel and an Art Niche. The home owners were on the way to Hawaii as I worked. I hope they enjoy their new look when they return! It was a mess, they were remodeling this house, moving out of the old house and moving collage kids from one place to another...

My mess was with the painter. They painted the mantel and niche in Oil Based paints, I was on a ladder 12 ft up, when I was informed the mantel and niche were being painted...not too much I could do when it was already half way done..I work in latex for the most part, so I decided to make lemon aide out of lemons..it takes alot more work and alot of stinky products to get oil based painted furniture distressed...I was taking that guy's name in vain as I did it. But, I did it, (now my finger nails look like I'm a motor head) here's the before:

After:
These are not the greatest photos, I forgot my camera (along with my computer) and had to use my phone. The base color was called coco pecan, we over painted it with a satin black, which went flat after I did my thing. I can not get the niche photo to upload..sorry..

One day I finished up early, Andreea had some time, so we hit the thrift stores. And we scored big time! She took home 2 nice chippy white bird houses to use on her front porch along with some goodies to used in altered art. She also scored a huge storage tower for just 4 bucks!I found a small wire birdhouse and some antique canning jars, 2 wall clocks to alter, 2 games, cards and other little goodies to add to my stash...

One night we all went out to see Mama Mia! it was a good show, we had alot of fun watching it and then went to eat ice cream and continue the good times..We all decided to buy the DVD of this when it comes out, for it will be a good 'dreary' day show to have on the TV.

Plans with Paper Cowgirl continue and we are going to have a sign up deadline at the last of August. So, don't wait till the last minute. Dale has her samples ready to show you and I'm working on mine this week. Cindy has info of the other 2 teachers to upload this week. Vendor night on Friday promises to be a shopping mecca for altered goodies and such.

Have a good week!!

t

Gone but not forgotten

Thought I was dead?
I'm off away doing a hugely large faux job...no computer, so bumming off the friends I'm staying with...So, I'm still alive and kicking!!

Go to Paper Cowgirl and tell Cindy to post her goodies she has, she's been dragging her feet on this, but don't tell her I said that... :0)

later ya'll
t

Birth of a Mural

Here is what I worked on Saturday:

This area is round, I then added these on the smaller walls:


All in all, I think it was about 6/8 hours of work..I did some then would stop to get away from it, then worked on it Sunday, and messed with it abit more yesterday. Liked what I had and signed my name to it..

Here is the ceiling:

That, I finished up yesterday with a final coat sprayed on with the HVLP sprayer. I love this ceiling...gives it a whimsical, open feel in this back hall area off the kitchen.

Almost finished up here and will begin the adventure home...see the hub and Scooby and then the rest of the family for the 4th holiday..I'm ready..

I'm bummed out though, looked down last night and the diamond had fell out of my wedding ring sometime yesterday after lunch. I remember washing my hands and picking paint out of it then..I've wore it everyday almost for the last 25 years...we bought it from hub's aunt, when we'd been married a year, she let us pay it out..it was about a quarter of a carat solitaire with just a nice medium wide band...dang...

later,

t