A WHOLE LOT of Things on the Workbench

I've been busy with work related stuff, as well as doing a few art things, slowly ... and some of them require drying times, and then just pondering times before proceeding further... so, there they sit on my work bench.

If I had a "work bench" for my 2 paying jobs, I'd need a WHOLE lot of tables/benches for it all.. *L*

But, here are my artistic things on the bench (on my front porch)... glad for warm weather during the day that allows me to continue to work out there ... I'll hate it when winter comes and it's too cold to stain, paint and glue stuff out there.




I can't wait to finish this one in particular ... I love how the opening I cut in the whale turned out, and the "Jonah" that will be inserted, along with the hand, which will be sticking out and have a message attached (I think it will be written in Hebrew, but I still have to do more research to see if that was the language that Jonah would have spoken or not?).



The old piece of barn wood may be attached behind the whale somehow too?... but that is still in the works to figure out how to attach it.

And then there's the pedestal that I am restaining/painting/distressing ... it's been cut (thanks to my husband!), so that it will hang on the wall with an attachment, rather than stand on the floor.




And there are other things there on the work bench... a flamingo, Mary, a Jesus corpus, an EXIT sign, and more... still deciding the direction for those things...

Lord, please give me time and inspiration with all these great things! PTL!

Fun Food - Hot Dogs with Spaghetti - A Food Assemblage Creation

I was surfing that "Next Blog" feature here at blogger, and came across a cool photo showing a neat taste treat sensation..*L*..well, it is cool at least for this time of year if you are looking for fun ideas for a Halloween party, or just something interesting to try out... This first picture is what intriqued me to try this out...

And here are photos I took of how to do it...

The first attempt at it, I just stuck the uncooked noodles into the cut hotdog pieces on the ends ...later I tried it out sticking them all over the hotdog piece, and made the noodles a lot smaller.





Simmering the assemblage food creation....



I found out that you need to slow simmer them, so the noodle parts inside the hotdog pieces cook all the way too.
They look like spiders or jellyfish things while they are cooking, don't they? *L*



And here are some of my finished hot dog / spaghetti assemblages.

This will be a fun project for lunch when the grandsons come here close to Halloween! *S*

(Note to self: The shorter the noodles, the creepier they look..*EG*)

Baby Back-Drop Photo Ideas - All I Need is a Baby!

When I was surfing the net the other day, I found a site where someone had made up some really clever and cute background ideas for photographing their baby, mostly while the baby was sleeping.

My daughter is a photographer, a wonderful one, and does many children and baby photos, so I thought I could search through my stash of treasures and materials that I use for backdrops and tablecloths in my prayer stations, and use them to make some baby back-drop things.

I don't know if Kasey will use them or not, but they sure were fun to do. The baby gets put into the scene in each of these ... for example, on the white cloud, below the "Z-Z-Z-Z"'s in the "Man-in-the-Moon" scene... on the "sand" in the beach scene, and below the glass airbubbles in the "Under-the-Sea" theme. The framed backdrops are 3-D, and the baby can be placed into the quilt covered box, then the frame put over the box frame. I had thought also it would be cute to have the sleeping baby posed on the pedestal inside the frame, as if he/she was standing on one foot or something similar.

Some of the props are things I have down in my basement hoarders bins... the "clouds", "sand", "water", "sky", etc. are material pieces arranged in various ways. It was a fun project to do today! (But what a mess I have now in the living room and dining room from it all.*L*)

Anyway... sure wish I had a small baby to try these out on... *G* And hoping maybe KaseyK Photo will try one or two of them too..although, she has great ideas without mine anyway.

I knew keeping my "treasures" would come in handy for things besides my art assemblages..*S*

Autumn Leaves ....

In autumn when the trees are brown
The little leaves come tumbling down
They do not make the slightest sound
But lie so quietly on the ground
Until the wind comes puffing by
And blows them off towards the sky.


.... or until grandson Jake wants to earn some money for a new PlayStation game or two ... *L*

Our grandson came over after school today, and helped rake and leaf blow leaves, take out garbage, and did a few other chores around the house. He is trying to earn over $300 for the latest electronic game.




He did a great job, and it was fun having him here and working with him.

Lucky for Jake, the leaves continue to fall from the trees and he'll have more work from us, no doubt, next week too!



Thanks Jake...you did a GREAT job!! Good work kiddo!! xoxoxo

Oh What A Tangled Web We Weave....

The Church we are members of, and where I work is continuing the renovations. We had hoped to be back into the building (having been out since May 16th), by Christmas, but that's not going to happen. If we are in by the end of February we'll be lucky... well, blessed, I mean.




Anyway... here are the tons of scaffolding set up in the Nave of the Church (the worship space for Sunday services). It's like a web of metal cobwebs... amazing to see, these photos don't really convey what it's like walking into it...(which, by the way, you can't do, so don't try to come by and see it - I am just lucky to be able to do so because I work there, and go after the workers are out of the way).

Nun Ruler Holder...

I didn't go to Catholic School, I had friends who did, and I have older friends who have related stories to me regarding their Catholic School times.

But, I also have Catholic Nuns who I know and respect and who are wonderfully, fun, Godly people.

However, the jokes, stories and such still exist concerning Nuns and rulers... when I found this Nun plant holder, I just knew it would be ideal to hold my ruler collection too.. *S*

Giving of the Heart ... Freely

The heart symbolizes love from the heart - true, passionate love. "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Matthew 6:21) When we treasure the things of the earth, our heart is drawn to the earth. But the heart is subject not only to gravitation, but to attraction from on high, the heart with wings expresses that the heart reaches upward towards heaven, toward God.

The wings symbolize freedom, freedom of choice - I can choose to honor and follow the lover of my soul - Jesus, or I can choose not to. (Joshua 24:15) "But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve... But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

The offering plate focuses on giving to God, to the Church, (not the institutional church, but the Church as the Body of Christ, with Jesus as the Head). If one ponders on the sacred heart of Jesus, the focus is on Christ's heart, metaphorically on the emotional and moral life of Jesus, and His love for humanity. And also the concept of loving and adoring Jesus. And who can not truly do that (love and adore Jesus) when truly realizing the sacrifrice He gave for us all!

Clean Sweep Jesus - the Standard

Here is the start of a piece I'll use in an installation. I am thinking of adding items, when I display it, that would indicate things that need "cleaning up", things in our lives that may need some clean sweeping. (Maybe newspaper headlines, vials of "sin" stuff, pieces of maps, etc.)

Anyway... I used an old, vintange, wooden Bissell Standard sweeper and added the wooden crucifix to it. It can stand like it's shown, or I am going to make it so it will hang on the wall as well eventually...So far, I like it!!

The ArchAngel has a Perch... (pedestal)

The pedestal project I posted a couple of days ago is in use.

It looks really great with my ArchAngel torso assemblage, so I think I'll keep them together for now.. *S*

It stands about 6 feet tall on the pedestal... a great assemblage for an entryway piece, since the archangel is a protector and all.



Thanks again to my husband, John, for making this for me... I'm lovin it!!

Brrrrrrr...

26 Degrees Fahrenheit at 5:30 a.m. Awakened early by the furnace kicking in...

Time to get out the scarfs and mittens and my windshield scraper...frost on the car windows time.. ugghh.

Blessing of Pets and Sunday School Excursion

Today is the day, at Church, that we honor St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and the environment.







We have a pet blessing during the Church service and lots of people bring all kinds of pets for it. Some of the kids, who can't bring their real pets, even bring their stuffed animals representing their pets, asking for a blessing on their behalf. *L*



After Church, the Sunday School kids and parents (and grandparents) headed to Animal Gardens and the Dancing Horses Show there.




We petted the baby animals, went for a wagon ride, ate lunch, then watched the Dancing Horses and a Bird Show before heading home .....looong, but fun afternoon!






Bet the grandkids sleep good tonite! I know I will!

Grandson Overnight Weekend...

We have all three grandsons (ages 9, 6, and 4) for a fun overnight until Sunday afternoon. They arrived about the middle of the afternoon today and I headed out with them to see if the nature trail nearby had been finished yet.





But NO luck...Still in disrepair. But, we managed to see some interesting things on our hike (like giant dried thistles, and dead mice..ewww). The boys had fun rolling down "Deadman's Hill" many times too! *L*



The boys thought it was spooky that a black sweatshirt had been hung on a pole along the trail, and the sign that was there was broken to bits ... so we decided not to go deep into the woods, just incase it was some kind of warning to "BEWARE". *S*





The boys also had fun at the playground at the top of Deadman's Hill...







After a long walk around town, we headed back home, rested for awhile, then went to see what treasures we could find at GoodWill and at the Dollar Store before coming home for baths, then pizza and fun.

Surprisingly the boys asked to go up to bed before 9 p.m. .. must have been all that fresh air and walking (or rolling down the hill over and over) that tired them out! *L* Either that, or they wanted to check out what they could get into in Kaine's room, since they were sleeping there tonite. But when I checked in on them, they were fast asleep within half an hour... ahhh, peace and quiet and rest time for Gramma!

Tomorrow is more fun!

Pedestal Art... getting it done...

My husband made me a pedestal loooong ago... and gave it to me for Christmas last year. It was actually a project he did for a customer who had these bases as bannisters for a stairway in an old house. He remade some for them, and did a great job!! I loved them so much I asked John to make me one to use as a pedestal... which he surprised me with, and added a top piece to place my art on. I like to distress my pieces, so I had spray painted it a ruby red, then sanded it down, and there is sat, on the back porch for months and months. I finally decided to stain it, and LOVE how it's turning out. I put a second coat of mahoghoney stain on it this morning, and I think I'll add a coat of polycrylic on it in a few days. It's going to look GREAT with some of my art on it, and it will match the old church altar rails I recently dumpster dived for and repainted and stained.







Here are some before and after photos from the project....






And here's the altar rail... It will go GREAT with some installations for shows~!

YES, I DO love this red distressed look!!

Autumn ... LOVE IT!!

My favorite season of the year...FALL, Autumn ... love the colors...love the weather...love the apples (cortland apples are my favorite!). I have such great memories of going to the apple orchard each year as a kid... and still LOVE going to orchards at this time of year.

I love the leaves, the colors they turn... we are suppose to get our first frost this weekend, so the colors will be even BETTER after that!
Here are some leaves that floated onto the back deck, that I stuck in the planter on the picnic table... aren't they gorgeous!

This afternoon, between doing work things, I stained the pedestal my husband made for me last year (I had painted it red, then sanded it to stain, but it has sat on the back porch for months now - finally got to it, I think it's going to match the old church altar rails I rescued from the dumpster a few weeks ago)... I want to put another coat of stain on it tomorrow... will post photos then... so far I LOVE how it's turning out.