the right to bear arms and my latest painting

The oldest two sons have discovered you can modify
Nerf guns to shoot farther and harder. Which kind
of negates the whole "it's only foam" thing, but
then, they are teenagers.



(See the hairy one on the left? He got up early,
went and voted, came home to eat waffles, and then
wanted to borrow my soldering gun to do who-knows-
what-else to said guns, all before scooting off
for a day at college.)

ANYWAY, here they are, preparing for the big dart gun
fight at church Friday night. Yep, at church. Hey,
a buncha teenagers shooting each other with dart guns
at church sure beats what you see them doing on the
evening news . . .



My latest painting! It's the first in a series. This
one is entitled, "The Living Room Ceiling." Next comes
"Wall #1."



And finally, my favorite jeans. Alas, I fear they are
not long for this world. There's just not a whole lot
left holding them together. Which is why you only see
the front view!! ;)

who haunts your house??

Okay, so no one REALLY haunts my house, but the
pictures I used for the gel transfer in this piece
are actual family members. Hmmm. Family members
can, if you think about it, haunt us in even a more
frightening way than any "ghost!"

(*Note the "disturbing" doll arm--see previous post! ;)



Those photo corners--pried them from an old, old
scrapbook. The photo was color copied and transferred
using Omni-Gel over a photocopy of a page from Psalms.



Back left is my Grandma Matt. I miss her! The two
other girls are her sisters, Pearl and Ethel. The
little boys are nephews by her oldest sis Hazel, who
was taking the photo.



This picture does look kind of ghostly, as some old
photos are apt to do, especially since the twin boys
appear headless! These are my great-great grandparents,
the littlest girl is my Great Grandma Elvira, the next
her sister Elnora, and the twins are Ruben and Rupert.

Have Happy Halloween!

my baby made me a brooch!

Isn't this cute? My baby (okay, he's eleven,
but he's still my baby!) made this for me. It's
made of a bit of brown pipe cleaner, those
stacking beads, brown twist ribbon, jute,
and a pin back.

He gave it to me last night, very unceremoniously,
but did include a detailed description
of how he made it.

Don't you love it when your man gives you jewelry??
;)

laundry, Barbies, and hacksaws

Our washing machine is having issues. This is not acceptable, considering we are six,
and we get out and get dirty on a regular basis. The
good news is, we've always kept an extended warranty
on our washing machine, and even though it is now almost
10 years old, said warranty has WAY more than paid for
itself over a fairly short amount of time.

Anyway, we ("we" meaning my husband) were moving some
stuff out of the way for the washing machine man to
have better access upon his much anticipated arrival.

The laundry is right next to the art room.

DH: "You know, this bucket full of old Barbies
and hacksaws is a little disturbing."

Lesson: If you're easily disturbed, stay outta
my art room?

look what I get!

With everything going on, I'd kind of
forgotten about being the happy recipient
of a random act of kindness
from creative Therapy.

Look at that! Doesn't it make you wanna rub it in your
hair and stick it in your pocket? I finally had a chance
to take a look at their online store, and I'm tellin' you,
I was drooling all over the place--the stuff is just rich,
delicious, roll-in-it gorgeous. Go take a look--I like
this particular page of wonderfulness, entitled a Pocket Full Of
Whimsy.

Thank you, Ruby St. Designs, for the wonderful RAK!
I can't wait for it to be in my hot little hands!

talk about a wild ride . . .

Have you ever heard of Brief Psychosis Disorder? Me neither,
until about a week ago. If you'd like to know more about it,
I'll give you the recipe:

Get really stressed out about something. It doesn't
matter over what, but you have to be REALLY stressed.

Add not sleeping for a week or two,

Plus not eating correctly or enough,
(some people like this side effect--
losing 15 pounds in two weeks! I lost
7, and it wasn't even my BPD!)

And it equals=

A seriously messed up body chemistry and whacked out brain!

NOT good times.

Some women experience this after childbirth, which makes
sense, with the whole sleep deprivation thing.

Anyway, I'm thankful it is, indeed, BRIEF, and if you
had never heard of it, well, you can be thankful for
THAT!!

ugh, yikes, and bleah.

Christmas button angels (instead of fairies)

Here's a set of Christmas button angels made
with Altered Pages images.
I had fun adding some beads and embellishments.



Had to dig into my stash of vintage buttons, which is
always a good time. There's something very satisfying
about pawing through a big pile of shiny buttons!
These will make pretty little gifts, interesting ornaments,
or even some really nice gift tags. These two are my
favorites, but daughter likes these:



If you've never made a button fairy, and decide to do so,
be very, very careful--it is extremely addictive! There
are plenty of button fairies out there, but
Nancy has made some of my favorites, adding
flower petals to the wings. So pretty!

Yikes, I need to do the September Spread the
Love. Sorry, I'm definitely behind!!

what do you think about when you're tripping?

So, I was taking a little run (please bear in mind that
when I say "run," it actually means, "barely jogging")
around the Path we've kind of made up around our yard.
It's a pretty big yard, and no one can see me, and
that's a very good thing, especially when I'm out in
pink long john pjs and hiking boots.

Anyway, I tripped on a root, and for the whole maybe
2-3 seconds I was stumbling, arms flailing wildly,
attempting to regain balance, what was going through
my brain?

Was it, "Those rocks are going to break my jaw."

No.

Was it, "No one will miss me until they want food."

No.

It was, in fact,
"OH MY GOSH, I'm making JAZZ HANDS!"



Thanks a lot, Lola, for making me laugh even with the
imminent danger of having
rocks permanently embedded into my face!
(You should probably go visit Lola's post, if you care to
have clue what the heck is so funny . . . but I AM easily
amused! ;)

some more art therapy

The prompt at Creative Therapy last week was to
tell about a painful memory. You would think that in the
midst of mourning a death, that THAT would be it.

But you know, people die. We're all going to. It's what's
supposed to happen. It's when we do things we are NOT
supposed to do that things get ugly.

There's a folk tale, and it goes something like this:
There was a young woman traveling through
the woods, and as she was wading into the
river to swim across, a snake approached
her and asked to ride upon her shoulders
to the other side.

"No way! I know what you are--you will
bite me and I will die!"

"Now why would I do such a thing to you?
You've done me no harm, and if you give
me a ride across the river, you will have
done me a great service, and I will be a
friend to you and your family forever!"

So, despite her initial fears, and the
chittered warnings of the forest animals
around, her, the woman gave the snake a
ride across the river upon her shoulders.

As she reached the other side, the snake
bit her, and as she was dying, she asked
it "Why??"

The snake answered,
"You knew what I was. You knew my nature.
Don't act all surprised now."

The gem in the corner stands for all the good that
came from the bad--like, now I listen when that
little voice inside says "something isn't right,"
when my husband says, "something isn't right, and
when other people say, "something isn't right!"

Also, after you've been through something really
nasty, it should make you truly appreciate
every kindness, no matter how small--every smile,
every nice comment, even basic common courtesy--
wow, I honestly feel them all the way down to the
bottom of my toes! :)

just for fun . . . some silly Halloween atcs

Look, I'll just say it, it's been a really rotten
month. We all deal with things if different ways,
but
when I'm mad, I clean (and pray),
when I'm sad for someone else, I cook for them
(and pray), and
when I'm sad for me, I spend time in the art room
alone (and pray).

The other night I was home alone, albeit briefly,
and just started making silly things. I'd used
all three of these collage images before, but
put them in a different context, and they
make me laugh! They aren't fancy, just funny.



It's okay--YOU don't have to think they're
funny! But in case you do, they actually made
it into a kit at altered pages. The two collage
sheets aren't showing up below the sample
pic yet, but they're Cutie Pies
and Adorable.

Does that little girl not look like she's about
to lose her treats????