All Hallow's Eve

Halloween, October 31
The word Hallowe'en itself is a contraction of "Hallowed evening". Hallowed is an old English word for "holy" — as in "Hallowed be Thy Name", in the Lord's Prayer.
Why is this evening "hallowed"?
Because is is the eve of the Feast of All Saints — which used to be called All Hallows. Like Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, and the Easter Vigil, the Church's celebration of her greatest feasts begins the evening before. (This follows the ancient Jewish practice of beginning the celebration of the Sabbath at sundown.)





This afternoon was our town's annual trick or treat time. We had all sorts of costumed kids come to our door, and we almost ran out of candy! This was all that was left fron two huge bowls of candy!



It was fun seeing the grandsons too in their costumes.




I set out some of my torsos on the porch as "decorations", had some fun music going too... Monster Mash, Ghostbusters, Flying Purple People Eater and some creaky door sounds... and watched as the kids (and parents) danced to the music as they came and went. *L*

Giving From The Heart ...

It's that time of year again... usually each Fall, the Church Budget Committee meets, and goes about making their first draft of the annual budget for the next year. It's then looked at by the Vestry, prayed about, tweaked here and there, cut in places as well, and there is also the annual STEWARDSHIP drive.

Stewardship isn't just about finances, money, and budgets ... it's a way of life. If we truly believe, (and I do), that all we have has been given to us in some way, shape or form, as a gift from God, then our response to that is what our stewardship is. Our thankfulness should come from the heart, not from the pocketbook, or checkbook, imho...although, the result of that thankfulness is often lived out financially because it's the Church (the body of believers with Jesus as the head) that are the arms and legs to help further the kingdom of God here on earth, to help others when we can, to share the love of Jesus and more...and that does take financial resources, as well as the time and talents of each of us.


So, I had made this assemblage with the Stewardship Drive in mind, part of my offering, my thanks...with hopes that it may bring others closer in seeking Jesus more in their lives too.

This assemblage is hanging in our temporary site space, along with the explantion, that I believe tells what I was thinking, feeling, and hoping would be conveyed from it.



Here is what the sign above it says...

~ GIVING FROM THE HEART ~

"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. The heart is subject not only to gravitation, but also to attraction from on high, the wings express that the heart reaches upward, toward heaven - toward God. The wings also symbolize freedom - of choice. We can choose to love and follow Jesus, or we can choose not to.
"But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. But as for me & my house, we will serve the LORD." Joshua 24:15

The offering plate focuses on giving to God, through the Church, as the Body of Christ. Focusing on the sacred heart of Jesus, we can have Christ's heart and His love for humanity. And we can express our own love for Jesus, the lover of our souls.

One Body, Many (Spare) Parts...

An assemblage artist friend had posted a link to an unusual photo shoot that featured this cool oddities shop in Naples, Italy. I googled the shop, L'Ospedale delle bambole (translated as The Doll Hospital), and found a short video of their shop. Check it out!




And, I also decided to gather some of my odd doll parts and put them into a cabinet, I have a whole lot more than this, wish I had a large windowed cabinet, and space to put it upstairs to hold ALL my spare parts..*G* That would REALLY freak out my sister Chellie... heh heh.

Anyway, I'd love to go to Italy someday and see this shop and others like it!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

PENSIVE JESUS ASSEMBLAGE



While I was putting stuff together, I pulled together a fast assemblage using parts of different items I'd found just recently. A candle holder shaped like a shelter with rock walls and roof, that I set on a stone base that is actually a revolving server (lazy susan), and added a "Pensive Jesus" figure inside the shelter. This one didn't really take much talent from me, it was almost finished before I even started putting the pieces together..*L*

International Viewing ... Awesome!

Wow... this is pretty cool... my blog has had a lot of hits lately from people from ALL over the world... it amazes me to see where people are from who might look at my blog, even if only for a minute or two. THANK YOU to anyone who takes a look, please feel free to comment on some of my art, or posts, even if you don't like it!

Whoa... the gales of November came early .. Hurricane force winds in October...

The news reports for today and tomorrow are calling for hurricane type winds, and sure enough, this morning has seen some big wind gusts...the weatherforcasters say they may be as high as 70 mile per hour winds. We've already lost one umbrella to the wind, time to batten down the hatches and the deck furniture too.

Some of the weathermen were comparing these winds to the same type or worse winds that took down the Edmund Fritzgerald, as related in the song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fritzgerald", by Gordon Lightfoot.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy.

With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go it was bigger than most
With a crew and the Captain well seasoned.

Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ships bell rang
Could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.

The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,
T'was the witch of November come stealing.

Jorden's Here!!

Jorden came for a visit this weekend, and is here until Monday afternoon. I picked her up on Sat. morning and we've had a lot of fun so far exploring outside, going for some early trick or treating, and trying on some cute clothes we found for her too.





It's always nice to have Jorden here, she grows up so fast in just a matter of weeks.

xoxoxoxox

So High, I Almost Touched the Sky...

Well, maybe not the sky, but I did touch the very TOP of the ceiling in our Church Nave. I was able to go up to the top of the scaffolding (3 stories high), to get photos for the newsletter and the viewing screen at the temp. Church site.

It was definitely cool!! Here are some photos I snapped from there... the first one is before all the scaffolding was put in, and shows how high up the ceilings are.






They are working on painting around some of the windows, doing a kind of 3-D thing around some to make it look like a wood frame, then doing decorative painting around other windows.

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!