Great Weekend - Thankful for our Service men and women & Happy Birthday to Jake, Josh & Jeff too!

We had a busy and fun weekend. Went to a wedding reception on Saturday, and to a birthday picnic after Church on Sunday. Our three grandson's birthdays are within a few weeks of each other, so we celebrated them all on Sunday. Our son and daughter in law have rented a permanent site for the summer and have their camper at Yogi Bear Park, where they have already been spending many weekends. We joined them for a birthday picnic...it was WONDERFUL weather, and a fun time. Here are some photos from the day.




And today, Monday, it's been a relaxing day of doing not too much... I worked on the church newsletter for a few hours, watched old movies with the family and just recovered from the parties..*L*

Kasey and John went up to the cemetary for the Annual Memorial Day Program... here are a few photos she took there. Go to her blog Kasey K Photo to see more! We all thank the many men and women of the armed services who have served and some who have given their lives so that we could have the freedoms that we have. Thank you Lord for them ALL and bless those who continue to fight and are in harms way...keep them safe, I pray... (on all sides of conflicts).

Infiltration Conspiracy - The REAL Story.

Here is the TRUE story the government doesn't want us to find out ...


The infiltration has been going on for over 50 years, most likely 51 years, hence the name of the forbidden AREA 51!

And, if you believe this... I have some swamp land to sell you too! ha!



This is a fun assemblage made from a wood pizza paddle, a light fixture cover with a decorative glass ball on top, a couple of different candle holders - one as the base of the UFO and one as the steps/conveyor belt of the UFO.

The 13 Mickey Mouses were GoodWill finds, that I thought looked like alien clones.
The Area 51 Sign is one I googled, printed off, and glued onto a wooden base I made.



Sooo, now we ALL know the REAL truth....

1 Wooden Pizza Paddle, 1 Light Fixture Cover, 2 Candle holders, 13 Mickey Clones, 1 Decorative Glass Ball & an Area 51 Sign = INFILTRATION CONSPIRACY

Heh, heh... how does this all add up?? My next assemblage is almost finished... check back and see it soon and find out what the government DOESN'T want you to know!!

Bug Sprayer Collateral Damage

I've had this old rusty bug sprayer for awhile, and found the old rusty decoration, that to me, looked like a dandelion gone to seed, but all dried up and dead. I had the "diamond" dragonfly in my jewelry box and thought it would go well in this. For now it sits on top of my TV, but I am hoping to find a base or something for it.. it's sitting on the checkerboard for the photo, but I think the pattern in the checkerboard takes away from the other parts too much. So for now, it's still an idea in the making.

I called it Bug Sprayer Collateral Damage because the plant the dragonfly sits on suffered the destruction from the bug sprayer rather than the intended target... the bug. The title may change too as this assemblage evolves.

He Had His Cake And 8 It 2

Here's an amusing assemblage ... it has an old metal cake container, a rusted fork, some wooden shoe forms painted red and stained to age them more, a half mask with a nose and a Joker-like grin (that kind of freaks me out - ha!), two 8-Balls, some scrabble letters and a dice turned to a number 2.


Incase you can't make out what is spelled on the top, "Had His Cake And 8 It 2".

This could be a fun storage container, or even used for a cake or pie - a unique, one of a kind assemblage.

Cake Baking with the Grandson

Today is Friday, Grandson Day!! My older son brought me a HUGE bag of rhubarb since our plants aren't producing much this year and so I figured Jeff could help me bake.
One of our favorite recipes to use with rhubarb is "John's Mom's Rhubarb Cake". Jeff helped me pour ingredients together, stir things up a little, and then his best part of helping, licking the mixing spoon and cleaning out the bowl!

Here are some of the stages of the cake and the delicious recipe (for these 4 small cakes, I tripled the recipe below and divided it in each pan)

John's Mom's Rhubarb Cake

Put 2 cups (or a little more) chopped fresh rhubarb (or you can use frozen too) on the bottom of a baking dish or pan.


Mix together in a separate bowl:
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons of shortening (Crisco)
1 cup of flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup of milk (add a little more if the batter seems too dry)

Spread the mixture over the top of the rhubarb in the baking dish.

Top the batter and rhubarb with a mixture (mixed in a separate bowl) of:

1 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon cinnamin



Pour carefully over the top of it 1 cup of boiling water. (if it looks like the 1 cup of water is going to overflow a pan then just use enough to not overflow the pan or baking dish - it's a real mess in your oven if it does drip over - use tin foil on the bottom of a baking sheet to prevent spills).



Bake for approx. 45-50 minutes at 375 degrees (a little longer if you double the recipe for a larger baking dish).

The hardest part of all this is waiting for it to cool so we can eat it! The grandson wants it NOW!! haha!

A Photo Story of an Assemblage...

How cool is THIS? I got this free program and this is my first attempt to use it. It's a PhotoStory program that allows you to add text and narration and music, and more (I haven't figured it all out yet), but here is a video on one of my assemblages...I'm sure I'll get better with practice, but so far I am LOVING this program! Can't wait to do it on family photos too!

Don't forget to stop the music on my playlist (top right) before starting the video, which has voice and music with it too.

This assemblage is a work in progress... (like we all are!) .. here is how "Redeemed" is evolving since the video photo story.
I've added a metal beaded branch and a pocketwatch. Not sure if I'll add anything more yet...

Assemblages & Stuff in the works...well, kinda...

I have several projects on my workbench ... and have found some cool new things I hope to make into assemblages in the near future...

Here are some of them... with no explanations right now...just photos, I'm still moving things around, and trying out different ideas with the treasures....


More to come on these soon, I hope...

Goody 2 Shoes Assemblage

I had some old brass coated baby shoes sitting on a windowsill and decided to use them in a glass display case I'd found. I sanded it down and put a coat of oak stain on it to age the case, then I decoupaged cream colored tissue paper, dictionary pages on foot/feet/shoes, various vintage shoe ads, shoe paste photos, feet, a shoe measuring chart and more to the inside back and sides, then whitewashed it and dabbed some stain on to age it.

I used various old letters on the sides to spell out "GOODY" and "SHOES", and glued a number "2" to the front ... hence the title "Goody 2 Shoes". On the top is an old cast iron shoe mold for a child's shoe.


And I have room to move the shoes over and add more if I find some in my treasure hunting ...this is MUCH better than the windowsill where they sat before.

Mother's Day 2009

Today was a great Mother's Day... we started out after the Church Service with the Annual Mother's Day Champagne Pot Luck Brunch & Basket Drawing put on by the men of the Church. Here are some of the guys who helped host the Brunch in honor of all the women of the parish, (Ron, John, Henry, Jerry, Charlie, Mark & Eric), and some of the people enjoying the food made by the men.





Bill and some of the kids helped draw names for the winners of all the wonderful baskets donated by families in the Church.


After the Brunch we headed to my Mom and Dad's to celebrate Mother's Day by planting my mom's planters and gardens for her and Dad.

Kasey (Kasey K Photo) took a lot of great photos of the day .. here are a few...
Grandson Jeff and Josh helped with watering after the planting was done.

Here's my Mom and me, and my Dad.




And the kids having fun in the wonderful weather! And a photo of my Mom (Nana) and Kasey.

It was great having Kasey, Kaine, John, Janel, Jake, Josh & Jeff all come for Mother's Day too - and I received some great gifts from them...but the greatest gift was just having them be there! Thanks for the wonderful Mother's Day!

The Next Move is Ours...

This assemblage has a crucifix from an old home communion kit, an old rusted dustpan from a neighbor's estate sale, old stained red letters, torn pieces of the world from an old globe all mounted on an old checkerboard.

God so loved the world (John 3:16), even in it's (our) brokenness, He sent His Son who gave His life for us, to clean up the mess we've made. God paid the price and gives us the next move...

Pedestal, a work in progress...

My husband and son, John, made me this for Christmas. I will be using it for a pedestal for some of my assemblages. John and his crew made 4 more of these for a customer for a stairway. They were copies of some existing ones in an older home in IL. I had hinted back last year when they were making them, that I would LOVE to have one for Christmas! And they gifted me with one. It has been sitting in the kitchen waiting for warmer weather outside so I could finish it and stain it the way I wanted.

So, this weekend was perfect weather for starting. I spray painted it a cherry red color, knowing I'd be sanding off most of the paint, because then I will stain it a dark walnut color.

I'm hoping it will turn out like the dresser I refinished for my daughter's birthday last August. So, here I am so far in the process... a lot more to do... I need to get my dremel tool out to do some of the sanding in small places too...

MORE TO COME ON THIS ONE.....

Sunday School - A Blessing

Our Church, like many small churches I have heard about, has a dwindling Sunday School and Youth Group. It can be discouraging at times. When I first started teaching Sunday School, back when my daughter was 3 years old (almost 23 years ago), we had 2 girls who participated, one was my daughter. Over the years, our Sunday School and then Youth Group (for 6th - 12th grades) grew ... over 20 in SS and at times over 25 in YG. Over the years, as kids grew up and graduated, and no new families came, our numbers went way down. We stopped Youth Group when only one student came, and it wasn't even every time. It was sad to do, but it's very difficult to ask for help from other adults when you aren't sure that any students will show up for Sunday School or Youth Group.

We have continued Sunday School, the classroom experience is only 2 weeks a month, with another one Sunday a time for adults and youth either during the church service or during the coffee and fellowship time. Some Sundays this year, I've had anywhere between 2 - 8 students. But, for me, it matters for THOSE who DO show up...and it has always been a blessing to me.

The last few classes have had more students coming... (Thank you Lord!), and today we made gifts for the Moms, since next Sunday is Mother's Day.

Anyway... my morning was blessed by my Sunday School Class, and I thank God for each of these precious, dear ones!

Things on my workbench this morning...

Yesterday I did a bit of treasure hunting - most of it close to home too. I went down in my basement where I keep my hoards of found objects and spent about an hour or so exploring my boxes and rearranging some of the stuff into groups, and found some things that cried out to me... "USE ME! USE ME!" So some of them are on the workbench. I also went to a neighbor's Estate Sale and found some cool old items ...I wonder if Carla will recognize some of her stuff once I get it made into an assemblage? *L*

And on my way to and from picking up the Church Newsletter near Milwaukee, I, of COURSE had to stop a a couple of Good Will stores. I didn't find much, but what I did find is on the workbench too, along with my breakfast this morning... a half eaten bag of chocolate covered raisins (a May Day gift in one of the May Baskets I received anonymously yesterday - yum! - I suspect my Aunt Shirley was one of the people who left one...*S*)

...and also on the workbench is a partly eaten apple - which I bit into and suddenly I have this broken tooth - in the back part of a front tooth, at the base - aarrrghhh!! This is NOT good and probably gonna cost me a fortune! Besides the fact that I really don't have a dentist anymore, haven't been to one in about 8 years, way before my current dentist retired... so I'll be yelled at, no doubt for that too! Wonder if dentists are even open on Saturdays for non patients? Not my idea of a fun way to spend a Saturday...ugh!

Hopefully I'll get to the workbench stuff later today...