14 November 2011

Red Flower Ornaments and some other stuff

Hello Readers!

Just as I started this post that silly Lola cat decided she needed a nap on the desk. When I let her nap on the desk, she sleeps laid out between the keyboard and me with her head atop my right arm. This works out OK for both of us when all I'm doing is playing Mahjongg or some other mindless game, but it doesn't work for me when I'm typing. She had plenty of my time throughout the night when she slept on me. I woke up to a cold kitty nose about two inches from my own nose! And my feet were nice and warm with Billy's head draped over them. Fred's not allowed in the bed. He has his own pallet to sleep on.
He forgets he has his own bed sometimes and sneaks into mine when I'm not in it. He always looks so defeated when I catch him there...I'm holding strong though! Dogs are not allowed on the bed!

It's a beautiful day in my neck of the woods and the critters can't decide if they want in the house or out in the sunshine. My weather page is telling me it is 58F.
I've just let Fred and Lola outside again. Fifteen minutes ago I let all three of the furkids IN the front door. Gonna be a busy day of donning my butler's outfit!

Looks like you're in for some chatter before I show you the Red Flower Ornaments

Ma got a new cat with built in extras. This lady had a mama cat and four kittens she wanted to give away. She was already trying to give these tiny kittens out to anyone who'd take one. They aren't old enough to be taken from mama yet! She wanted to give all the cats away cause she was moving and couldn't take them with her. Ma only wanted a kitten. She's been hunting for a new kittens for months now. She took mama and the kittens when she saw the two little siamese in the bunch. 

Sorry it's not a very good picture. I want a new camera! 
Not sure how I managed to walk to Ma's house without Fred right on my heels but Ma and I had a good ten minutes of kitten time without that fool dog sticking his nose in the thick of things! He do love himself some kittens! Mama Cat wasn't too impressed with that big black dog sniffing her kittens. She didn't attack but she growled the whole time Fred was near. He paid that cat no mind at all and just kept on sniffing! 
I think the only thing that saved him from an attack of black cat is the fact he's a BIG dog! Mama Cat only knew about little dogs. About 10 little dogs that did not like cats! I think she wasn't quite sure what to make of that big black dog, that and Ma was petting her telling her Fred wasn't going to hurt those babies. 
Those babies are ADORABLE~! No, no, no. I don't need another cat. 
Ma's already got the little gray kitten given away and she's going to keep the two siamese. She's thinking she might keep mama cat too so all's that is left is the little black kitten to find a home for. I do not need another cat. Two is plenty, thanks!

After we mauled kittens for a few minutes we sat in the livingroom shooting the breeze and I said I was headed home. Ma said she'd give me a ride to home. She lives two doors down from me...about a city block away....anyway we get in the truck and she drives right by my driveway and says we are going for a ride in the country. 
I was glad I had the camera along!

Pictures don't do these hills justice! They're gorgeous this time of year!
We took a drive of about 20 miles or so...out in the middle of nowhere! I'm not sure just how many miles it is on the route we took. It's a nice drive though. Even better when you're the passenger, as I was!

We stopped on the bridge on 20 road to look at the water and look who was looking back at us!

I zoomed in as far as I could. He just stood there, looking back at us. The flash on the camera didn't seem to sink in to him. He was awfully pretty and mighty nice of him to pose for a picture! I think I got six or seven shots of him before he took off. This was the only living wildlife we saw on our drive. 
The spot the deer was is only about a quarter mile (as the crow flies) from my front door. There's really not a lot of water in the river right now. That's the Solomon River.
It was a great day for a drive. I'm glad Ma kidnapped me!

I promised you red flower ornaments in the title of this post.

Egg cartons, green yarn, gold jingle bells and acrylic paints. 
I love them! I ended up with 28 of these. Still seven more to be put together but they will have to wait till it's time to paint the new hatch of paper mache birds. I ran out of green leaves when assembling these. 

This is a terrible picture of an inchie cube colored with sharpies. It's simply a cardstock box on a string. I inch square. I made five of these things and forgot to take a scan of the four I sent off to Scotland a few days ago. 

I have the makings of nine birds drying on the kitchen table. I started on them day before yesterday. All of them have tails, only one has wings and a tail. They're coming along though. 

Paper folding for the Paper Flower Ball Ornaments is going slowly. I got one whole ball made yesterday but it wasn't really progress. I made it out of copy paper that I wrote some poetry on in red sharpie. It turned out pretty cool. I have yet to take its picture. I have enough paper cones folded to make about 2 entire balls but I need at least another 7 to have as many as I'd like to have. 
I've determined for this project to be a success I will need 14 of each ornament. 
Here's the rundown of what is already in the works:

1
Paper Mache Birds
have: 13

2
Elf Shoes
have: 5 pairs

3
Angels
have: 38

4
Spiked Paper Balls
have: 23

5
Folded Paper Map Wreaths
have: 16

6
Tufted Paper Balls
have: 53

7
Flower Balls
have: 9

8
Red Flower Ornaments
have: 28

9
Inchie Cubes
(not this particular inchie cube though...will be the ones I showed you all some posts back that are made from inchies and taped together. This is one is made from a box template.)
have: 34

I still have to come up with three more ornaments and finish up what I need from these on the list already started. I have about 40 days to do that....
I have cut the covers and some of the paper for 22 little book ornaments. Those will take a few hours to finish preparing and an afternoon to put them all together. 
Still a lot of work to do in 40 days!
I'd really like to have an even dozen ornaments for each gift. That isn't set in stone but it's a much nicer 'set' than say 9 ornaments, or 10 or 11...I'm shooting for an even dozen! We shall see if that happens or not!

So I'm busy with my hands and staying out of trouble! 
Be good to one another! 
It matters!
Peace, my friends!
831







10 November 2011

Paper Flower Balls and some other things

Hello Everyone!

I see I have a few new followers! Thanks for reading my ramblings!

I've been a bit under the weather here of late. Got the blues big time! Happens this time of year EVERY year so it really doesn't come as much of a surprise to me. I'll snap out of it eventually. I always do.
I get to thinking of what I don't have instead of what I do have and it gets me down. If you all knew what I have lost over the years, you would better understand the reason for the blues this time of year.
I won't go into all that's been lost over the years cause there isn't any way of getting back what's gone. I wallow in my memories of what was, what is and what will never again be. 
Simple as that.
Life. 
You take it one day at a time and hope for a better tomorrow than you had yesterday.  

I continue on though cause to not continue on is not an option.
And I continue creating things from castoffs.

The ornament project is coming along slowly this passed week. You'll understand when you see what I've been up to!
Pretty, isn't it?
Would be a lot prettier if it were all one color but I ran out of the pink, which is actually purple, just looks pink next to the purple color I had to substitute. 
I forget what the correct name of these balls are. Kudsama or something like that....really should go look that up.... kusudama....almost had it right! 
I found the tutorial for these guys here:


I knew I didn't have enough of any one paper (except orchard paper) so I decided I'd make them out of magazine pages cause I have enough magazines to last three lifetimes!

I cut the magazines into 2 inch squares and started folding, gluing and assembling. 
I've devoured many hours of watching movies and television programs on hulu.com
Each ball requires 60 little paper cones. Takes almost a minute and a half to make one little cone. The  more I made of these, the faster I got at it, but still takes over a minute for each one.
I started out with mostly black and white cones and the more I made, the more colorful they got. 
Takes five cones to make a star and 12 stars to make a ball. 
Tacky glue holds the cones together and fast drying glue holds the balls together.
(My supplier quit carrying the fast holding glue so I will have to rely on the tacky glue to hold the rest of these together that I make. It will work, will just take a little longer in the gluing time is all.)
I'm thinking they will get spray painted either silver or gold instead of just leaving them as is.
Each ball is about 3 inches in diameter. A good size for a tree ornament! 
Putting the little devils together is no mean feat! It takes concentration and a good steady hand to line up all those petal points so you don't end up with a cock-eyed ball!

There are 8 of them in this shot, all hanging from their white cotton strings from the cup hooks under the upper kitchen cabinets. Yes, I did have to remove a cup to put them here for photographing.

I'll be adding a plastic pearl to each star on the flowers when I get them all completed.

My two pink containers are once again filled with flower parts in preparation of putting more together. It's moving along nicely though, right on schedule! 

I've sewn another pair of elf slippers too.
I still need 8 pair of elf slippers so expect to see some more of these!

This is the second pair of yellow elf slippers.

When I downloaded the pictures of the elf slippers and the paper flower balls, a whole boatload of pictures came up on the download that I'm sure I already downloaded from the camera smart card but there they were, staring me in the face!
Thought I'd show you all a couple of the tasty pears that came off my trees this year!
These pears were delicious!
Last year, the pears were hard as rocks, misshapen and not fit to eat!  They were not sweet at all. Was like chewing on tasteless cardboard! The only thing the pears were good for last year, was to throw for that fool dog, Fred to fetch! He ate quite a few of them but we can't take his word that they were any good to eat. Fred is, afterall, a dog! And what do dogs know about quality pears?
Nothing! That's what dogs know about pears!

I sat the nice yellow pears on the dark green counter and took about 50 different pictures of these two. This is the nicest of all those shots! 
I never claimed to be a good photographer!

I'd still like to make some pear brandy! We had a bumper crop of pears this year! I'm hoping for another good crop next year! And next year, the old body willing, I intend to harvest more of them myself. Never did get to make that pear tart I wanted to make. The old body just hasn't been cooperative this year when it comes to physical work. Pears don't wait for a better day! When they're ready, you better be ready as well. I wasn't, not this year. 

I have green yarn now so I can finish up the red flower ornaments. You'll see those in the next post.
I also have some fishes started. I'm uncertain at this point, if those will materialize into actual fishes for this ornament project or if they will happen later. All depends on the progress of the elf shoes and the flower balls. 
Next post I'll do a recap of all the ornaments made thus far so I can see what's ready and what still needs done! I do believe the little birds will be in the ornament packages this year. I just love those little paper mache birds! LOVE THEM! I'll need to another batch of those for sure to have enough of them for the project but they go rather quickly so that shouldn't be a problem.

I'm going to try to keep a good attitude while these blues hang around. 
You all be good to one another! You really don't know what is in the minds of those you love. Remember to give some hugs and lend an ear from time to time!
Without love the world falters. Don't let the world falter on those you love.
Peace
831

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