Christmas 2016

front of the house Christmas Eve 2016

nathan

 

This was one of the most "un-Christmas-y" years i've ever had.  I barely decorated-no tree or ladder.  Did up up lights/greenery around front door~Just never felt like Christmas this yr.  I think a combination of warm weather, parents not here and no real Christmas spirit.  The casino party "circuit" didn't even put me in the mood.  I got sick in Dec-just like last year.  Did good to get christmas gifts done/wrapped etc...
 We weren't all even spending the holiday together.  Nathan and I both drove out to mom and dad's (separately) so they wouldn't be alone in new house for christmas.
First time ever i didn't spend christmas with gary.  At least mom's house was decorated-amazing since she has been taking care of dad and spending a lot of time at hospital when he was there.

dad and mom

dad opening gift from nathan

mom and dad

 This bell was made by my grandmother when i was in the 4th grade. She made one for each grandchild with their school photo from that year.
I said, except for Nathan being there, this was like christmas 1963. (my first)  Mom said they had no money that year. Dad's paycheck went for gas to/from work and their living expenses. grandma gave her green stamps (or the orange kind) and that is what she used to shop.  I got an insulated plate and few other essentials.  The grandparents gave me gifts. :)

my first Christmas 1963

decor on counter-she used fabric ribbon i gave her last year

the stockings were hung...

The rest of the family Christmas Day (at keith's house)

Santa wall hanging.  She made each of us one of these several years ago.

Jefferson Tx

Had a getaway with a friend this weekend.  We left fri and headed to E Texas. 

stopped at The Pink Pistol.  Took our pictures on her throne.

Made our way up to Mineola -good amount of antique stores.  Grabbed a bit of lunch then went on to

Gladewater (antique capitol of texas-or so they say) :)  Due to the time, we knew we wouldn't get to see it all but we hit a few stores.   Arrived in Gilmer around 6.  Gave her the house tour, unpacked the car then had dinner-my mom had roast and the fixings for us. and pie.  can't go wrong with pie.  Visited with them.

Hung out upstairs a bit before turning in.

Sat-after breakfast we headed into Marshall to go to the the Weisman. 

Historic building-former dept store.  It looks like something you would see in a b & w movie. Opened in 1900 and you can just imagine the history. 

We then made our way up to Jefferson.  Antique and gift shops. Just walked around town and went in where we felt like looking.  Grabbed late lunch, hit one more store then headed to the cemetery.

Sunday we visited with my dad-mom was at church.  Said goodbye's when she got home. 

Stopped at Ellis Pottery, michaels and Jucy's for a burger before heading home.  A nice relaxing weekend~

 

Halloween 2016

I just didn't have it in me this year to really do any decorating around the house. I have a few things out-some that stay up all year, but that's about it.  I do have my new bats out though.  We made these at our sept art meeting. They are about 6" tall and adorable.  It's tradition to make a "stuffie" every year now. (designed by Traci Hutton of  Art-T-Dolls  )(She has dolls and fluffy stuffies in her shop.)

Name on the top of the fortune teller box

I DID however design and make a costume for my niece Addison.  I picked her up from school one day and in our conversation, we talked about the kid at school who won the halloween costume contest last year at their trunk or treat.  She wanted to copy his idea.  I said you can't copy what he did, we have to come up with something else.  (he was a claw machine) the box gave me the idea to do a fortune teller box like the old machines. Think "Big" (the movie)  So i showed her some pictures online and we sketched out a plan on paper.  There was a trunk or treat last wkend at her neighbor's church so we gave it a test run.    The box is black w/the white diamonds.  The diamonds don't totally cover the box-wanted it to look old and worn.  I got a $2 purple sheet at the dollar store-used it for the inside-looks better than just painting it.  I attached battery-operated lights around the window. (hard to see in picture-they are orange)   Made a crystal ball out of a plastic christmas ball ornament.  Painted it with neon yellow, lime green and glitter.  Added a glow stick to the inside when it got dark so that it glows.  I made her some fortune cards to hand out too-they were a big hit. 

Addie standing in her box.

   I cut a hole where people could drop her candy into-there is a bag attached inside for it to fall into.  Made a little sign ".25 or candy"   Wanted it to look like the machines where you would put your money in to get your fortune-but don't want people to give money-hence "candy"~  She will be decked out in gypsy-paraphernalia next weekend.  My sister and i may dress as gypsy's too since we're walking with her.  The box has holes cut in sides so that she can pick it up and carry it from car to car.  I'll post more after the weekend.  It's been kind of a secret-she wants to win the costume contest :)

Roben Marie Smith giveaway

Check out Roben Marie's giveaway -She has a new class coming soon and is giving away a great prize pack and 2 spots in the class.

http://giveaways.robenmarie.com/giveaways/paper-to-painting-workshop-bundle-giveaway/?lucky=581

October Inspiration

Half Price Books had their annual dallas clearance sale this wkend-so we went over friday afternoon.
This time nothing was over $2-i guess they made it easier on themselves.  They used to group the books very specifically which i'm sure took forever to set up.  Now it's more 'general' so you have to dig.  The digging is part of the fun.
  I looked at an aisle of "art" then headed back to the vintage table. Well worth the look.  After several hours and looking at all the books we could stand, Gary left with 3.  Me-18.  Like i need more books.  I tell myself when i go to antique malls, estate sales, flea markets-no books.  I don't listen to myself very often.                                                                                                                                                                              

      Here are the 18 that i brought home.  some i wanted for the covers-to use in projects and some for my halloween/children's book collection.

here are my 18 books

        

 On Saturday, we headed out to Canton Tx  for Trade Days.  I haven't been out there in 1 1/2 yrs. The weather was nice-got a little warm at times but mostly pleasant.  We were looking for "parts" to use to make some light fixtures.  Gary wants to try his hand at making some-probably to sell.   Some of the rusty things you see in the picture will go towards those projects.  I picked up a few things for myself too~that's what canton is for :)   In the middle of the picture you can see 2 little rectangles (didn't photograph well)
they are miniature photo's that came from england.  I had never seen any this small before so i had to have them.  They aren't great photo's-very faded but still very cool.

 Walking by a booth i noticed some stacks of books. If you have never been to Canton, this is not unusual to see a pile of books in various booths.  I don't always stop to look but I felt compelled to look here. I looked at a few and as i started to walk away a man told me they were .50 each.  Well, for that price, i HAD to look.  Glad I did.  I found 5 vintage books I figured I could use in art projects-either the covers and/or the pages.  The geography book was just plain cool.  (more on that in a bit)  I took my 5 to the other guy and he said i could have them all for 2.00.  Score!
  Gary and I don't always look at the same pace so sometimes I wander ahead-I found a few things when we weren't together.  He wanted to see what I found.  He doesn't know that you buy during the day~then you show and tell afterwards.  Told him we would look at it all when we got home.   
    When we got home is when i noticed the geography book was printed in St Louis, Mo.  (my second home) so that made it more special to me.  Then i opened it up to see the copyright date.  We figured early 1900's.  Those pages were missing so I looked at one of the maps-1895.  Then i found school papers done by the girl that had the book Zula .  2 other books of my 5 had her name written in them too. (the cover with stripes and the physics book.   That was where i found her last 9th grade report card promoting her to the 10th grade.  another score~ and a letter to her grandmother was in the geography book.

letter dated 1899

These are two of her papers that were in the book.  there were several maps that she had drawn and colored.  (i still remember when my son had to do those)   One of her papers was dated Oct 1st-and we found it on oct 1st...

Current Art

school days vintage photo transfer on cradled wood panel

In the last year I had checked out a book by Sarah Ahearn Bellemare from my library at least twice. I ended up buying a copy for myself.  Meanwhile...a friend had a copy of Somerset Workshop that had an article on Sarah's technique. (she did some art with her own spin on it) which then inspired me to do some too.  I still want to try one that has more the look Sarah gets but in the meantime, i'm having fun.

FISH-
I used a vintage photo of my mom as a little girl. My grandfather loved to fish-pretty sure he took her to land this one.  Blew up my photo and made a transfer.  The background was inspired by something i saw on pinterest by Joan Fullerton who does beautiful work. I went for the drippy look more than texture since I was adding my transfer and not transferring onto my substrate.
This one is done on plywood.






The girl with pink is done on a little canvas board.  She still needed something-a friend suggested she needed to be layered on another piece-so that is what she will get. (this photo is taken on the backside of the FISH (the plywood was an unfisnished project-but the side i never finished looked good with the canvas so i'll make something along those lines color wise.

 Did this piece on a wooden house I got at michael's this summer.
It's about 6" tall.  Transfer image is one i found on pinterest~went with a halloween theme.  (below is picture of the sides/top of the house) painted stripes then gave it a charcoal wash to age it.  Still may do more to the sides (vintage text circles)  or not. 
 So that is what i've been up to when i can fit time in for art~

Fabric Book is Finished

Here are the pictures of my completed fabric book.  I may still go back and add a few more embellishments but for now, I am happy with it.  The pictures are in order as they appear in the book.  After the back inside cover i have added a few close ups of some of the pages.

close up of the cover