A Few of My Oddities & Favorite Things....

I was looking around my house last night and wishing I could haul out some of my tools of the trade and be creative, but realized I had no time to do that since I have tons of plants waiting to be put into planters and garden beds, and tomorrow is grandson day, so I'd just have to clean up anyway... instead I thought I'd take a few pictures of some of my assembled assemblages and other oddities I have around here...my decorating style is a bit eclectic, but I like it!
The first picture are some ideas that float around in my head and I sit them out to see how I like them, and wait for more inspiration before setting them permanently into an assemblage piece... some of my sisters are freaked out by the things I have sitting around, and they'd really be freaked if they went in my basement and saw some of THAT stuff....bwhahaha I think my sister in law, Lisa, would like that scepter thing I have sitting there, so if it's ever missing, I WILL come to see if you have it Queenie!! *L*

This is part of my husband's offering to our decorating... a wild boar head... ugh! We have TWO of these ugly things on our walls... below it is a coat rack with some of my old wooden canes hanging around, and a shoulder blade of a moose made into a canoe paddle (a friend of my husband's made it for him).

This eye is some art that my daughter Kasey made and I asked to have...it sits by a brass lamp I found at Good Will, I want to patina the brass more so it's more green...someday I'll get to that. The signs I found at a crafters mall.

Another contribution to our walls from hubby... I tried to decorate them up a bit... hee hee... dontcha love that sign!! G*

And these are some holders...one for the cell phone (yes, I have an antique cell phone..*L*) is from my friend Deb...the eye glass holder I found at Good Will... cool eh? *S*

So...that's it for now...gotta get my day going...

"Quackery or Miracle Cures?" a.k.a "This Won't Hurt A Bit" - latest assemblage

So here is an assemblage I'll submit for my sister in law's "Step Outside Your Box Saturdays" challenge from a week ago...better late than never, eh?
I think it could have two titles, since I seem to remember from my childhood some doctors telling me "Don't worry, this won't hurt a bit!" when I had to have some procedures for various things... yeah, riiighht!!

The assemblage includes at the top a mini skull crusher (really a nutcracker.*L*), a bed of nails with a wooden foot "walking" on them (ok, ok, it's actually more of a wooden shoe on the nails), some bottles of potions, pills and a bottle of holy water, the background is an advertisement for some bogus miracle cure. I may add more to this at a later date, since I found some things that I may be able to use for this particular topic...we'll see.


Check out my SIL's blog and her latest challenge at A Note From the Queen.

Cheese Box Art Finished....

Last month I decided to try my hand at altering two large round wooden cheeseboxes for an auction that will happen in June to benefit Jazz in the Park and Friends of the Visual & Performing Arts in our community.
So, I am finished... and here are some pictures of the two finished projects.

One is a Hollywood Silver Screen Star Theme:
It includes tissue paper, pictures of starlets, a glass door knob, some beaded trim , 3 small frames (which still need the mirrors inserted into them) and a silver painted metal stand. I also finished it with about 10 coats of polycrylic.


And the other is a Nautical Theme:
It includes brown paper bag material, that I crunched up, then mod podged on the box, it also has two tin shingles with a greenish patina that are some original shingles from the 1800's that were once on our church. (I did some dumpster diving while it was being re-roofed a few years ago).
On one shingle is a brass anchor door knocker and on the other one there is a brass propeller that can actually spin. On the two sides it also has some brass drawer pulls for decorative uses. It has a porthole on the top, which can be opened to insert things inside, it has a mirror instead of a window inserted into the porthole. It has 5 coats of polycrylic and sits on a wooden base.

I can't wait to see all of the boxes which will be on display in various places around the city until the auction on June 7th.

An addition to the pedestal.... HANDS!

I was going to just decoupage the pedestal...but I awoke in the middle of the night, a few nights back, by the idea of adding these hands to it. The hands are a gift from my friend Deb, who found them at Good Will...they at one time had a big bird attached to them, but I got rid of the bird and liked them this way instead. I've been holding on to them for months hoping to find a cool use for them... I think this is really cool! Thanks Deb!

I don't know yet what exactly I am going to do ...paint this?...decoupage tissue paper on it?... the paper bag material is too heavy for the hands and for the details of the hand to come through I think? Gotta think on it some more and then decide...

I should be working on my cheesebox entries anyway... only have about 10 days to finish them! Yikes!

Pedestal remake

I found this pedestal at GoodWill a few weeks ago.. it's not wood, I think it's some kind of fiber board or something and it's pretty tall...over four feet tall. It was painted blue and had some kind of bumpy coating on it, so I sanded it down, and gessoed it in preparation for decoupaging some paper bag material on it. Not sure what I'll use it for yet, but it will be a cool thing to exhibit some of my assemblages on perhaps?
More to come...

Silver Screen Star Cheesebox.... so far...

More of a sneak peak at one of the cheeseboxes in progress.... There are three holes cut out where a fancey framed mirror will be inserted, and on the top will be a silver star out of which will be a glass door knob handle. It will sit on a silver metal stand so it can be used as a table or night stand.

If it looks familiar to you, it's because it is a lot like my Hollywood Glamour Gal Torso...same pictures ... they would look great together as a set... hmmm, maybe I could sell whoever gets the cheesebox, my torso as well...*S*

Time to put another coat of polycrylic on it....

More to come....