Go Fish!

I began this at my desk, several posts ago and kept it secret until I had the chance to get it ready for a trade debut with one of my online groups.  Today I was ready to reveal what I had worked on.

 I have some finished fish laying here and a sketch in the works.  I have enjoyed making several whimsical fish.






The purple fish,  is " A Fish Called Wanda".  LOL  Since that is my name, how could I resist? Can you guess what kind of fish the other one is?  Why she's a "hairing", of course! I have had so much fun with these and so many others.  I painted the above ones in acrylics on fabric and used an old file folder as the base.

Another interesting technique, I added 3-D texture.  Below is how I did it.

I started out with fabric pushed through a cookie rack with a pencil.

I cut away the excess fabric and put a piece of fusible on the underside of the "bubbled" fabric and ironed it right on the cookie rack.

When I pulled away the paper backing of the fusible web, it looked like this.

Before I took it off of the cookie rack,  I cut a fish shape from a file folder and ironed it onto the fish shape.  Then I was able to trim around the fish shape.

The other side should look like this.  Note that I trimmed and left a bubble for an eye.  I also pulled out and flattened  few of the bubbles out toward the back of the tail.

I then painted the face and tail area with craft acrylic paints.  I painted the one bubble black for the pupil of the eye.  I also took apart a pre-wound bobbin and painted it a darker yellow for the eye.

I was able to pull the black pupil in through the bobbin piece and then painted the details for the eye.  I also cut fins, painted and glued on from the back to make one very cool fish!

Well, hope you have enjoyed the many new fish species.  There are many fish in the sea and I have many more fish to fry!

WOYWW/ Lady Luck

ALOHA!!!  I had a request from last week to post the papillon!  So sorry I was too tired to post much last week and I am afraid it was short changed, so made up for it this week and dressed him to the nines! lol  Also forgot to post that the day after that we named him Pip, we decided on another name so we actually have named him Jessie!  At the moment, he's incognito! lol  This past weekend we went to 40 miles of yard sales on Rt. 40 and had lots of fun! Jessie even got this little doggie Hawaiian shirt on the trip.  I crocheted a little straw hat out of raffia (Or "ruff"ia, as Jessie would say)  I couldn't get him to wear sunglasses, so I edited those in Blingee!
   Other purchases I got this past weekend are a toaster oven for my  polymer clay,  lots of purses that were free, so I took several to cut up to use the leather, hardware and zippers to up-cycle in another use.  I even made a quarter since it was left in one purse.  On the left you can see that I have torn out several beige zippers.  I can get as many as 5 from one purse!  The fabric laying under the zippers I have quilted and will make smaller zipper bags with them and sell them at the local festival to benefit The Pet Orphanage.  I think zippers are so expensive that I have started to recycle them from clothing and now purses!  Mostly, they are the sizes I need anyway, so guess this is actually my WOYWW project.

 I also got lots of odd plates and votives so that I can make them into yard art like these! Aren't they gorgeous!

 You can see some more purchased  here.

It's awesome to see the translucent qualities, but the opaque ones are great too!  This is my haul from this past weekend. Most were anywhere from 25 cents to a dollar. I am playing with some color combinations, but obviously I need more to go with others!  lol

Then I got 14 skeins of thread for $3.00 and the wicker basket for 25 cents!

But my most exciting find was this chair for $10.00.  I guess you might say that I got it for the cats! (Herky and Zack) The wine colored throw was $2.00 find.

Actually most of my furnishings in the bedroom are from thrift stores, yard sales or antique stores across the country.  When we lived in England, We got the monk's bench, the barley twist sideboard and the gate leg table.  The chifferobe was in my husband's family.

The shelf came from North Dakota, and the sheep skin was from a yard sale in Las Vegas!  Yep, I guess not every one gambles in Vegas! You would have laughed at me last year, as I stuffed the sheep skin in my suitcase and mailed my clothing back home. LOL The chair is a little ratty looking but it is comfortable so the sheepskin is a nice cover up.  Most everything else I got at yard sales in Ohio including the lamp, clock, pillows and comforters.

I promise to do better checking out the other desks this week at Julia's Stamping Ground.   I was distracted by other events, including the fact that my daughter's husband was in a head on collision.  He has lots of bruising and had 23 stitches in his head, but could have been much worse than it was. All in all, It's been a very lucky week!

MIDAS/ WOYWW

Yippie! Midas is finally finished! The piece is very stunning and designed by my friend Brian. I quilted it all in Superior gold metallic thread. I felt like I was joined at the hip with this quilt by the time I finished. Some very long hours and even some mistakes where I had to unstitch and restitch. Right now I am jumping for joy!

I was able to sneak into my studio and work on a 3 X 5 chunky book piece. The theme is "French inspired" so I did the French corset. Lacing the sides was my chunky embellishment.

I also love the back of the page with the humor that I added.

If you would like to see what is on the desks of others, check out Julia's Stamping Ground! I will be back to view the other desks after a much needed sleep.

Mother's Day Weekend/ WOYWW

Hope you have all had a wonderful Mother's Day! I am just getting my things put away after a wonderful retreat weekend with friends and my SIL. Even our sweet papillon got a chance to go along and helped celebrate my SIL's birthday.

 It was a great way to spend Mother's Day, doing things I love.  I also got a chance to play with some polymer clay. These are the results.

I can see where I need to work on smoothing things better, but for the first time making cane, I can't complain. At the moment, I have them all laying on my desk to admire, wishing that I were going to finish them into projects, but they will just have to sit still for awhile, as I have a big quilt on the machine that I must complete. On Mother's Day, both of my sisters announced that they are going to be grandmas at the end of the year! If only my daughter would follow the act, but no children are in the future for them, sigh! At any rate, I will get a chance to make a couple of baby quilts. Speaking of babies, I am sure you are all wondering what we named our little guy. We liked the name Echo and Radar, but he seems to respond to something as simple as PIP! As it turns out that a radar echo is a Pip! Pip is also a character in a Dickens novel. Even though the name wasn't chosen from the name the dog contest, I am drawing from the participants in the post. And the winner is........ Redanne! Congratulations! Send me your address so I can get your prize out to you! Now for some other wonderful desks, check out Julia's followers at the Stamping Ground!

Wild Weekend

It seemed to be an awesome weekend.   I started taking some photos of our critters.  Some were cute and some were funny.

Some were seriously sweet.

 But mostly taken of new dog of which the cats protested and wanted some claim to fame.

Nova cat claimed the dog house, while Boa claimed the cat nip!

 Ani claimed the back porch.

 And then there was the dog that claimed the cat did it!

It was an awesome day with things beginning to bloom, and I was even proud of how gorgeous my azalea bush was this year. My iris plants were going to be great and so was my hosta and rhubarb plants.

The Wild Turkey Festival was in full swing, so we decided to run to McArthur to walk around and grab something to eat.  It would get the dog use to getting out more in social situations.  I carried the little guy on the crowded streets all the while he sniffed all of the wonderful aroma from the food vendors.  Off the beaten path, he liked being center of attention, especially if there was a smoked turkey leg to eat!

 The clouds had begun to darken so we headed back to Logan and would stop for an ice cream before heading home.  By the time we got into town, it began to rain and it rained and rained.  Earlier, the weatherman hadn't predicted any until the next day.  We got into the house about 9 PM. and the cats were eager to come inside. Within the half hour it just rained all the harder.  It seemed not a good idea to turn on the computer or the quilting machine.  It became a torrential downpour and before we knew it, it was too late to move the cars out of the flooding waters.  I had never seen it so dangerous as this, as the water rose and brought along lots of debris crashing into the bottom of our house.  We live in a double wide and the skirting buckled in and broke away in several places.  The water was within a couple of inches of deciding if the inside of the mountaineer would get wet and the strong overwhelming smell of gas filled the air.  It was too dark to get photographs but you could see reflections of the rippling waters coming in from the back creek and when that seemed to stabilize, then the waters rose from the side creek engulfing the whole yard in a matter of min. Power went out from Nickle Plate Rd and didn't come back on until almost 10 A.M. today.  I began to worry as one of our cats had not shown up as well as worrying about the other outdoor cat.  As the waters began to recede, I heard a wail beyond the creek and knew it had to be Honey cat.  I walked through the muck in the yard with a flash light enticing him to walk just a bit further down so he could cross a fallen tree.  He was never so glad to see me as he jumped into my arms and we crossed the wading waters to the house.  We were both wet and muddy.  He kept rubbing my feet with his face in gratitude.

 I hadn't been in the house long when  In the near distance, I could hear another cat crying.  I knew that this had to be the semi feral cat, Tang.  Finally got her coaxed to the step and grabbed her to come inside for the night.  She cried briefly, but I think she was more relieved that she wasn't stressed out in trying to fight the elements.  By 2 A.M. I was exhausted and fell into bed. 

By morning, I began to walk around accessing the damage.  It was a real mucky mess as I sank into the well soaked yard.

The gravel in the driveway was covered in mud along with lots of missing red rock leaving a gorge where the car use to park. 

My beautiful azaleas had been quite battered and beaten by the fury and debri landing everywhere in the path.

The side yard no longer looked lovely.  The dog house was filled with water, the catnip and the pussy willow disappeared somewhere under the house or down the stream. 

So much for my lovely hosta plants!

 

 You can see where the waterline was on the skirting.  When we had the house put on the property, we purposely had it set up higher since we were in a flood way.  Other homes would have had water on the first floor.  This would have been over my knee here.  It's never been this high and is perhaps considered a 30 year flood according to my husband.  

At the end of the fence, you can see that all of my iris and rubarb plants were flattened and where the debri buckled the fence.

We have some standing water, but now the need to dry out and clean up after mother nature, trying to be beautiful once again. 

For The Love of Dog! / WOYWW

There's nothing really much productive on my desk this week, only stuff that needs to be put away. I know it seems a disappointment but have been busy and gone this past week. I'm sure there are more exciting desks at Julia's Stamping Ground.

 Instead I have something more important laying under my work desk. It will be a work in progress!  For you see, I must be getting crazier in my old age.  I was already a crazy cat lady, but now I had a yearning to own a dog.  We haven't had one in 30 years!  Several years ago, I saw a guy with a papillon and I decided that someday I would have one.  I started doing my research to be sure it was the right dog for me and not just its looks.  It's those butterfly ears that had me so long ago.  I knew it had to be a furever pet so I wanted to be sure!  I also didn't want to go through a puppy phase or a breeder and wanted to do a rescue instead.  I actually started looking for a female, but then this little guy came along and melted my heart.    

 

Isn't he just as cute as the dickens?  In fact it may be his new name... Dickens.  Other names that people have come up with are Radar, Ears and Bones.  SO, tell ya what,  I need to do a "name the dog contest." The winner will get an initialed pendant for themselves in the process.  Throw in your vote or new name and let us know what you think.

You see, my former name is Jack, but since my new mom and dad have a cat named Jack, they said it should be something different.  I really don't care as long as I have this comfy bed!

Cat can't sleep in bed now. Neener, neener, nee.... ner! (sticking tongue out) I think cat should live in tree.  She look good there!

I have lots to learn about being spoiled. So far I have been to Arfy's (Mom says it's Arby's)  They have really good roast beef and then last night my step brother grilled chicken and that was really good too!

I am really shy and am having a dickens of a time.  I didn't have much social contact for the first 7 months of my life.  Then my former mom worked with me for about a year, but I had lots of Papillon friends to play with then. It was time to move on.  Now I have to get out of my shell, what ever that means.  I still don't know what toys are for.  All I know is that I like to lay at my new mom's feet and if she moves into the next room, I have to go find her so she doesn't get lost or the cats gang up and eat me! I'm a good doggie and I don't bark or cause any trouble.  My only problem is that I am scared in social situations and stiffen up.  I am even scared of some people trying to pet me as I think that they might hit me or something so I let them touch me slowly.  I do like to ride in the car and I even won a special prize with my first mom. She says I was Champion!  She was a good first mom, she just knows with all of the doggies she has, that she doesn't have the one on one time to spend with me that I need to have, so was thinking of my best interest and was willing to give me up for free if I had a really good home.  I think I has it!  Just gotta figure out how to chase the other cats up a tree!

Well, there you have it, my new little 9 lb. bundle of joy.  I drove 8 1/2 hours down to Georgia to go get him.  Even with the price of gas, he was worth it.  Shhhh.... don't tell him he's adopted.