Hello Readers!
I've been neglecting the blog. That means there will be a lot of pictures and a bit of chatter from your's truly. It has been better than a month since the last post. Lots of things have occurred.
Better get a cuppa something and settle in for a spell. I'll try not to bore you all to tears.
It is Tuesday, 5:35 a.m. 21 June 2016
Ma turned 84 yesterday.
She and I went on a mini vacation to see my sister Kathy in Abilene for two days back around the 5th of June.
It was hotter than the hubs of hell that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday when we went to Abilene. The cows took full advantage of their recently filled water holes. This is what is called a rainbow herd. There are cows of many breeds in this herd. I think these cows were at the junction of K18 and 181? I could be wrong about those roads...over by Bennington.
I wish I could show you all the video of the really cool dust devil we saw less than 20 miles from home. I can't do that though because I don';t know how to put video here (or anywhere else for that matter.)
I can show you all some of the art along the road to get to Abilene.
This fella sits along K18 in Lincoln County, Kansas. There are several of these metal statues along a stretch of that highway. Look at that gorgeous wheat field in the background! The 500 or so miles we traveled on our trip gave us many views of wheat fields, golden, bursting with wheat kernels, ready to be cut. I'm sure all those fields are cut by the time I'm writing this.
The combines were already on the job not far from the roadside monster.
Those full water holes for the cows were a bit detrimental to some of the wheat fields. Hail flattens wheat and those rain storms that filled the water holes dropped hail and heavy rain. Along with a tornado or two as well. Here the grain hopper is being emptied into a farm truck to go to the elevator.
And there's the combine cutting along.
While in Abilene with Sister Kathy, we were in a hot barn-like building, going through box after box of junk. Mostly just filling boxes, sorting somewhat and readying those boxes to be moved to another location. There were spiders and mud daubers to contend with. I was more supervisor than anything as I can't lift heavy boxes. I did a lot of sitting and exercising my jaws while Ma and Kathy did most of the work. It was a fun two and half day diversion. Was good to see my sis and her clan. That hadn't happened in a few months.
I came home with about three pounds of chocolate from the Russell Stover's plant in Abilene, so all in all it was an excellent trip!
I had a yard sale since I was last here. I deemed it a Make Me An Offer Sale. That worked out well. Folks would bring me a pile of crap they found among the tables and boxes scattered across the front lawn and I would ask them how much it was worth to them. I got some very generous contributions to my cause and I got some miserly contributions but all in all, that too was an excellent trip! I hate having yard sales. They are a lot of work! As I've already stated, I am a terrible worker. A lazy bum! But I'm a great supervisor. Ma and I worked our butts off for a week, out in the burnt house (aka storage shed) going through all my accumulated crap and the boys came along to help set the sale up. I ran it all by myself for the last two days. Youngest son, RW, came along and helped put it all away. This successful sale of mine would not of been possible without their help! Thank you much Ma and RW! I love you both beyond words!
I was sitting in the bright orange dentist chair in the driveway when I took this picture while Ma and RW were hauling things into the burnt house. Ma and I had got most of it boxed back up or thrown in the dumpster by the time RW showed up. That boy was in a FOUL mood when he got here but was smiling by the time he went home. His wife pissed him off earlier in the day.
If you are wondering where the bright orange dentist chair came from, I'm not exactly sure. Brother Sammy dragged it home, along with two other dentist chairs (in pieces), an xray machine and a beat up old cook stove. He said the dentist in Smith Center gave them to him.
I had a few offers on the dentist chair but it wasn't mine to sell. One lady said she'd be back to talk to Sammy but she didn't come back. It's too late now if she's changed her mind. That chair is gone! The bright orange faux leather cover is laying on my livingroom floor waiting for me to cut it into more manageable sizes. I'm thinking Annie's Kitty Book will be covered in bright orange vinyl.
I wrenched my back the day before yesterday and haven't had the energy, or flexibility, to pick the dang thing up and cut it into smaller pieces. A dentist chair has a LOT of space to cover! There's a ton of that vinyl.
I have no pictures of the dentist chair. Brother junked it.
I guess I should get on with what I've accomplished since the last post instead of prattling on like this.
I've been doing a fair amount of crocheting since the last post. This is a little crossbody bag crocheted from crochet cotton with little silver rings crocheted into the design. It's about 6x5x3 inches or so. I didn't really measure it other than to put a water bottle in it to see if it would fit. It did with the closure open. It has a long handle so you can wear it across your body.
I'm still working on the crocheted paper basket. I'm ready to unwind another hank of paper yarn and roll it into a ball so I can add it to this basket. At the moment I'm dealing with some blue rug yarn that is in need of untangling and rolled into balls so this basket is going rather slowly. And paper yarn is not a quick material to crochet up either. This will be a pretty cool basket when it's done. Not sure how tall it will be but it's roughly 9 inches square on the bottom.
My niece Allison asked me to make her a prop to take to a Comic Convention earlier this month.
She gave me four choices of the characters she was interested in. I chose Cactuar because he looked like something I could pull off in 9 days time.
He's made from felt, stuffed with polyester filling and embroidered with crochet cotton and embroidery thread. His antenna are supposed to be black but I couldn't for the life of me locate a black pipe cleaner in this house at the time. A few days after I had already sent him off to Allison, I found a whole bunch of black pipe cleaners! Go figure!
She was pleased with him. He's about 10 inches tall or so.
And yet another crochet project. This one is fuzzy yarn crocheted around yellow poly farm rope. I really like how this bag turned out! The rope is entirely hidden by the yarn and it's a very sturdy bag. It's quite large enough to take to the farmer's market or the beach.
I can't tell you why there's a winter scarf hanging off the back of the rocking chair when the weather outside is decidedly NOT of the winter variety!
I did some drawing a couple of evenings since the middle of May.
All drawings are marker unless otherwise stated.
Blue Cat on drawing paper. 3.5x5.5 inches
Crazy Old Girl
not sure how big this one is...three inches by six or so. This one is done on the back side of a card that came with my electric bill last month.
Solemn Flamingo
3.5x5.5 inches on drawing paper
Funky Bird
3.5x5.5 inches on drawing paper
Gray Cat
3.5x5.5 inches on drawing paper
Snake
2x4 inches or so scrap of drawing paper
yellow lizard
same as the snake
This is a little book I'm working on. Not sure just where it's headed but onward I will plow because it will morph into something eventually. At the moment is it just one signature of a potential book. Painted newspaper on copy paper. It's about ATC size.
My spider friend isn't done yet.
I spent the last three days working on this fella. If you are afraid of spiders, I'm sorry I didn't warn you about this one. He is rather life-like except that he's silver.
His legs will be bulked out some. They're rather thin for such a big spider.
Here's his underside. I think I will cover him in masking tape and paint him black before covering him with glitter in shades of black and brown. His body needs a little bulking out to make him thicker but I think I'm onto something with this critter. Thanks to Mel for sharing Mr. Finch's critters. That's where the inspiration for the spider came from. Though my spider looks nothing like what Mr. Finch creates! Wow! His creatures are fantastical!!! You should take a peek if you haven't seen these delightful pieces of art!
Fish #1
paint and glitter on cereal box chipboard. I covered it with a layer of gel medium so that glitter isn't going anywhere it shouldn't. This one will be headed out in today's mail as a post card.
Fish #2
This one doesn't involve glitter, just paint and a googly eye. This one will also be going off into the postal system on today's mail run.
And still more fishes. The two on the bottom are done. They are made from toilet paper tubes and painted with acrylics. The top fish needs an eye still. He's cereal box chipboard painted black with acrylics. The flowers are fingernail polish and the fins and tail are covered with glitter. It will get a coat of gel medium to tame that glitter before it goes anywhere.
I call this one Cellular Activity. It's done in markers on drawing paper. I was surfing the internet, wasting time and came across a picture of cells. My muse screamed about wanting to draw pink cells so I went with it to avoid a disagreement. I'm not particularly fond of the color pink but I seem to use those pink markers a lot.
Just a simple mug on a piece of sheet music. 3x4 inches or so. I'll give it some color one of these days.
If you look up in the side bar at the top right you'll find a link to Drawing School. I can't for the life of me remember that man's name at this moment but I drew this palm tree and the coffee mug at his direction. I will give this one some color some day too.
I've made a few balls of plastic bag yarn, cut a bunch more bags into rings in preparation of making more balls of plarn and I've got this market bag well on its way to being a market bag that is functional. I have lots of crochet projects in the works so don't expect this one to be done too awfully soon. I did a couple of rounds on it today.
A bunch of tiny fishes in the works. Not sure if these will become little book covers or magnets. They are not done yet. I still need to give them fins and whatnot. You'll see these guys again. Glitter seems to be on the muse's radar this week.
Another crossbody bag. This one crocheted from VHS tape. Six hours of cartoons! You can't really see the silver rings incorporated into the bag, but they are there. This bag will be done as soon as I finish sewing rings along the handle. I'm about a third of the way done right now.
This isn't really art yet. I put tiny screw eyes into these little doodads yesterday with the intention of making a junk necklace, maybe a bracelet. The banana is too big for a bracelet though. Putting tiny screw eyes in is not an easy task! I used my screw drill to start the holes. I need to drag out my tiny vice and I think the hole making would go faster. I got a few new holes in the middle finger of my left hand!
That's about all from me today.
A run to town to the grocery store, Jmart and the post office is the only thing planned for my day!
Thanks for hanging in to the end!
Remember
Be kind to one another!
It matters!
Peace
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