28 July 2013

Little Girl, Silly Dog and A Boatload of Art

Hello Readers!
I've been away from the blog for 21 days. Wow. Three whole weeks! A lot has occured in those three weeks. 

Once again the water pump has given us a hard time. Others more than I, I adjust readily to things I have no control over. The dirt walls of the hole in which the pump lives, collapsed, buried the top of the pump and the pipes coming out it. One of the pipes broke and a muddy mess ensued. The fiasco started on the 11th when I woke up to no water in the house. 
I had to find someone to come dig all that mud out of the hole before anything could actually be done about no water. My friend Kellen came out with one of his buddies and dug most of the messy mud out. We put a fan down the hole to help dry it out some more until RJ could come up. RW was totally unavailable to help. He was out of town the whole week with his job. So it took a few days for someone to come along and actually do something about there being no water. RJson  and his little family came down to access the situation. This happened on the 13th. 
I got help from the sons and a few other folks to get the water back on. While they took care of business, I played with a three year old and had a lot more fun than I ever would have had worrying how they were gonna fix the water issue. I was consulted as need be and they did what needed to be done.

You all have seen the singing fish trophy? Well, I have a singing lobster.
And Annie fell in LOVE with him! I got so sick of hearing Don't Rock the Boat that I wanted to rock the boat so that lobster would fall overboard and drown! I didn't though, I laughed right along with Annie and sang along with the pair of them. 

They were only here for overnight on this visit.. Her daddy assessed the situation and determined what it would take to get it fixed and had to go back home so he could go to work for a few days. 
Being without water in the house is a little inconvenient but not impossible.

Fred and Annie are a perfect match. That old dog loves that little girl as much as she loves him. She gave HIM a hug before I ever got one! 

While the son, his wife, and Ma were out in the garage digging out the hole Annie and I were out in the burnt house looking around at what we could find. I went in the garage to supervise the mud removal for a few minutes. Annie comes out of the burnt house with two sets of rabbit ears and plastic tiara.  Her mama put on one set of ears, Annie put the tiara on her head and then asked Fred if he wanted some bunny ears. Apparently he did. He did not put up any complaint and wore those ears for a good half hour before they became so cattywompas that they were a hinderance and he was tired of them.

He wore the bunny ears numerous times. He wanted nothing to do with that tiara when it was presented by Annie as his new headgear. He shook his head and that tiara went flying! 

In the morning Annie came into my bedroom to wake me up. She went back to the livingroom and told her daddy that I wasn't there. I was hunkered down under the blanket and she couldn't see any bit of me! He daddy assured her I was there and go poke me to get me to wake up. The smile she gave me when I rolled over to the edge of the bed was just priceless. What a way to wake up of a morning!
They went home only to return a few days later to put the pump pipes back together and get some water back on!
While I waited, I made art.

ATC
Elephant
markers on cardstock

I worked on some more fabric balls.

Aqua with pink thread.

Black with multi colored thread

WIP black with gold threads
the material came from a sock

WIP aqua fleece 

Denim colored wool and multi colored threads

WIP denim colored

WIP gray and white wool

This is what the inside looks like before I put the wool on the outside. 

The aqua with pink one got a little more embroidery on it. I forgot to take another picture of it. All of the balls are bout the same size; a tennis ball.

WIP nubby acrylic sweater material

Today is the 28th of July. I woke up yesterday with no water again. Much to my dismay I found the hole in the garage where the pump lives, filled with water and the pressure tank floating. I almost cried. It was a terrible shock but a relatively easy fix once RJ can get here to fix it again. It will be a few days. He can't just leave work anytime he wants to, unfortunately. 
So while I wait, I do art. 
There's an athon going on over at AFA right now and I have dove right in!

I saw a bird on ebay that was made from a wire armature...

with junk mail glued all over it. I honestly tried to glue the junk mail but it wouldn't stay where I put it so I taped it on and it just didn't work for me. 

So I covered him with purple glitter.

I covered him with varnish and put some dimensional paint wings on him. Then I popped some green google eyes on either side of his head and outlined them in purple dimensional paint so they wouldn't fall off and slapped a fabric flower to his chest. I think I should call him Ed.

ATC
tea tin
markers on paperboard

I showed you all that giant bag of shredded money awhile back. I opened it up and grabbed a handful to make a bowl with it. I covered a small bowl with plastic wrap. In another bowl I put a big blob of pva glue and added the handful of shredded money. I got the money all gloopy with the glue and wrapped it around the bowl covered in plastic wrap. I set in on my bed in front of the fan and let it dry for a few hours.

Ma says it looks like a bird's nest. I don't see a nest, I see a bowl. I was pleasantly surprised at how stiff the pva glue made the bowl when it was dry. It's a neat looking little bowl that would be perfect as a candy bowl on a desk or to hold little whatnots.

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duck in a suit
markers on paperboard

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orange tabby
markers on paperboard

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annie in autumn
markers on paperboard

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annie in spring
markers on paperboard

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annie in summer
markers on paperboard

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annie in winter
markers on paperboard

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Jesus saves
markers on paperboard

I got my very first negative rep for this card. The person asked why it was alright to offend Christians but offend another group of folks and it was a criminal act. Then she went on to tell me that if I could feel unconditional love just once in my life I could know true joy. 
I don't think this "funny" is offensive to Christians or anyone else for that matter. Most people thought it was hilarious. That's my thoughts too. It's just silliness, nothing offensive to it. It doesn't bash anyone or anything. 
I think what irked me the most about her negative rep was that in her profile, she references that silliness is highly underrated. I guess her humor and my own are on different levels. I won't call her out on her judgement nor her lack of frivolity. She's entitled to her opinions.  She did throw me for a loop though. I've known unconditional love in my life and she is correct, it is pure joy! 

I quickly recovered and continued making art.
My drawing muse has made a prolonged and productive visit. I hope she sticks around till the athon ends. The painting muse paired with the drawing muse to make these chunky pages.

I drew out simple outline drawings on matboard and painted them with pva glue and glitter. 4x4 inches.  I have a boatload of different colored glitter. This butterfly is my favorite of the four chunky pages here. 

Elephant
painted with pva glue and glitter
4x4 inches

Chameleon
painted with pva glue and glitter
4x4 inches

black tree
painted with pva glue and glitter
4x4 inches

advanced studies 
collage on matboard
4x4 inches

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self portrait
markers on paperboard

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hound dog sally
markers on paperboard

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green chair with cat
markers on paperboard

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eyeballs
marker on watercolor paper

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brown eyed girl
markers on paperboard

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martini pink
markers on paperboard

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tree house
markers on paperboard

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whimsical girl
markers on paperboard

sorry for the crappy picture

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orange kitty with flowers
markers on paperboard

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green kitty
markers on paperboard

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green kitty with pink spots
markers on paperboard

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purple kitty
markers and paint pen on paperboard

I have three more chunky pages in progress on the kitchen table and I have a turkey picture to get done in a few days. I will be working on more art for the athon throughout the weekend.

Thanks for hanging around for this extremely long post!
Be good to one another!
It truly matters!!!
Peace
831

07 July 2013

Balls, Fishes and a Bag of Money

Hello Readers!

I woke up around one this morning...slept the whole afternoon and evening away! There was no water when I got up. I went out to the burnt house where the pump is plugged in, thinking it had somehow got unplugged. It looked fine to me but I unplugged it and then plugged it back in again. Then I made the trek back to the house to see if it had come back on.
Still no water....no clue what's up with that. 

No water means no coffee for Donna. I had to settle for lemonade from the fridge. It ain't the same. Let me tell you! It ain't the same! Will call my brother at a reasonable hour and see what he suggests. I don't think the boy would be happy with me if I called him at 3:30 in the morning, which is what time it is now. 

In the last post I was all excited about the felt ball I'd just pulled from the dryer.

That felt ball is a lot prettier now!

I really enjoyed all this embroidery work. 
I never considered myself a needle artist. 

I don't suppose I do yet. 

I just kept adding stitches of different colors until the ball was covered to my muse's desires. 

I stitched my 'wineglass' on there and called it done!

My 'wineglass' is really a D and an H hooked together without the left leg of the H. You all have seen it on drawings. I put it on monsters and other stitched things as well.
This one rattles when you shake it cause it has a rattle in it. I'll show you the rattle in a bit.

I finished the white one and promptly started another.

This one has absolutely no wool roving in it. 

This one doesn't rattle cause I wasn't thinking ahead. I balled up some thick wool sweater material, sewed it so it'd stay where I wanted it.

Wound some thick macrame cord around the wool sweater material and then covered it all with a layer of cashmere which was also sewed into place.

The outside shell is black sweater material. I thought, when I bought that sweater at the thrift store, that it was 100% wool, but I was sorely mistaken. It is not wool at all. It is acrylic. It is nice and thick though and served wonderfully for the shell of this black ball.

The black sweater material is sewn on in random shapes, cut to fit the spot I needed to cover. The embroidery was then done just as the first one....

Random stitches with many colors .... I just kept covering the ball till I liked what it looked like.

Day two of making balls ended and when I woke up the next day,

I made another one!

The first two are a lot bigger than this one. 

this one is all thick wool sweater material. I embroidered until the ball was solid and felt right. This one had silk ribbon flowers embroidered on the sweater before I destroyed it. I incorporated those into the outside of the ball right along with the embroidery I did. The only thing holding it together are embroidery stitches.

And then yesterday, the fourth day in a row, I started another one! This one is made a bit differently. Instead of using wool sweater material for the inside of the ball, I used plastic bags instead. After the plastic bags I wound some macrame cord, then some crochet cotton to hold the macrame cord on and to cover some of the gaps. Then the black sweater material shell was sewn on with embroidery thread.

These are the components of the rattles inside the balls. Each rattle consists of two bottle caps that fit nicely together and some little metal discs and rods to make it all rattle. You tape the bits inside the caps and wrap the caps inside the wool when you start your ball.
The two black balls and the first white one are all roughly the same size. I've no clue how I accomplished that, it just worked out. They are all just a bit larger than a tennis ball.
It looks like balls are solidly on the muse's radar at the moment. You will be seeing the unfinished black ball in the next post. I intend to find a movie to watch and start stitching in it when I'm done here.

The brown crochet basket is still a work in progress. Crocheting that material is very hard on my hands! I will finish this basket though. It has been worked on since the last time you seen it but that work has been minimal.

And this thing is a work in progress as well. It started out being a basket but I do believe it will become something entirely different! It's useless as a basket as it isn't sewn tight enough.  I was playing around with it yesterday and turned it into mushroom cap. I don't know if the muse will run with that idea or not. 
This is not the last you've seen of the quilt batting basket.  Yes, that big white ball of stuff is quilt batting, cut into roughly 3/4 inch strips. The brown yarn used to sew the basket is some kind of nylon string. 

There are still brown paper fishes on the kitchen table waiting for some color.

I finished the brown paper fishes I talked about in the last post. 

Fish Picture 7 (fp7) has become a catch all of sorts. Underneath those fishes and the envelope the fishes go in is a hank of quilling paper that I am experimenting with. FP7 just is not talking to me at the moment! August is coming at a rapid pace and it better start talking to me again soon or it will not be entered in the county fair in mid August.
Mr. Kitty needs prepped for the county fair also. He won't take but an afternoon to revamp and be ready to shine again.


My eldest son gave me a bag of money! We are talking a big bag of money! It us real United States money that has been taken out of circulation and destroyed by shredding it. I was tickled pink to get a bag of shredded money! The boy said he found it at a yard sale for a quarter! I have trained the boy well! He knows art fodder when he sees it! 

That's all from me today.
You all be good to one another!
It matters!
Peace
831

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