Give Me A Toothache & I Will Give You ART!

Last week I had the 1st part of my laser surgery at the dentist and it went pretty well. But this weekend while I was cleaning my teeth I exposed a root and it really HURTS! Yesterday I went back to the dentist to see if he could help and he did his stuff but it was still hurting. So I stopped off at the library and bought myself a couple of used books ($1-$2 each) to play with.

You see, I have been wanting to make myself a "pretty" book to keep my weekly Bible studies in and I figured today was as good as any to get started on it. I have always been one of those people that likes to be creative (if I can) when I am hurting. It kinda takes my mind off of it and usually I feel much better when I am through. Today I thought I'd show yo what I did with my used library book. . .

 

 The cover has one of my favorite verses - it was a memory verse of mine in Sunday school when I was about 10 years old. It is Psalm 119:11 "I have treasured your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You". I figured this was a great verse for this type of book!

 This is what my book looked like when I started - it was a hardbound cookbook

 I took all of the pages out

 I did my "magic" and added a 3-ring binder mechanism.

 Then I added all of my notes from my studies and my church bulletins (I keep them all in sleeve protectors)

 From start to finish I had my "pretty" book done in 4 hours. Not bad I'd say! And the cost was so minimal too. The used book was $2 and I spent $3 on some nuts & bolts the rest of the supplies just came from my stash.

 This is the back of the book - pretty plain and simple.

 and this is the spine - I added a cross and some charms and even a rusty washer I did some metal stamping on.

 I bought those charms with Jesus on them a couple of years ago while on a shopping trip with my friends Judie and Ann. I didn't know what I was going to do with them when I bought them but they were PERFECT for this project! The cross was left over from a rosary I bought at Goodwill for the beads. I needed the beads for a class but I kept the cross.

 The white binder you see here is what I used to keep my Bible study in and I carried to church with me each week. It is one of the little binders (8.5x5.5) and is really old and beat up (I found it in the garage). It just seemed silly for me to carry such a beat up old binder when God has given me the ability to make books and make art. I can't wait to carry it to church this Sunday!

This book was my inspiration book. It is an Art Journal that I made as a class sample (this class will be taught in Jan - I know some of you have already signed up for it)

 It started off as a used library book (The DaVinci Code) too!

 I'm not gonna show you everything in the art journal but here is the opening page. . .

 and another page. . .

 I guess the creative bug is running wild in our house this week. . .

 Look at these crazy beaded spiders my Mom made on Monday. She has joined a seniors group and is taking all kinds of fun classes (yoga, a book club, line dancing) and now a beading class! This is amazing if you know my Mom - she doesn't usually join "groups" and doesn't believe she is creative at all!

But look at that smile on her face - she is really happy with her spiders!!!

 

Well, I guess I need to get busy I have one more Halloween costume to get made for my Monkey. And sitting here is NOT getting that done!

I hope you all have a GREAT DAY - try creating something for yourself this week - it'll put a smile on your face!

Till we meet again. . .

What's Been Going On. . .

Let's see there has been so much going on around my house the past couple of weeks. I feel like all I have been doing is marking things off of an ever-growing to-do list! I think I am starting to make some progress (finally).

 

Yesterday I taught my Thanksgiving Day Blocks class - this was my 2nd MM Fridays with Marta class. It's a fun group of ladies that has been coming and I am totally enjoying my Fridays at the store! It is the beginning of that nasty cold/flu season and I had a couple of gals that couldn't make it because they weren't feeling well (I hope you are all on the mend today!) in my afternoon class so I actually sat and made a set of blocks! This is the fist time in 6 years of teaching that I have actually sat down and made the project in class. It was kinda fun. To tell you the truth, sometimes I am a little jealous of you ladies in class - you look like you're having so much fun and I want to play too!

 

Last Saturday I taught this Boo Crew canvas - it was a lot of fun and everyone's pumpkins turned out so cute!

 

It was an all day class and as soon as I was done I had to rush home. There was a party going on at my house without me!!!! Thant's right - I had a houseful celebrating my daughter Bryanna's 30th Birthday!!!! How the heck did that happen? I am barely 30 myself!

We have a really big back yard and it kinda slopes (like stadium seating on the lawn) we have always thought it would be so much fun to have a movie night out on the lawn but we have never gotten around to doing it. Well We finally did it last weekend. It was a BLAST!!!! My son-in-law is the computer/techno geek so he got everything wired up - surround sound and everything I made a the movie screen for them (which they didn't end up using - they used my white photography drop instead). Darwin's Mom & niece & nephew were in town to join us and his Mom did all of the cooking! It was great fun to walk into a party at your own house and not have to do anything except have FUN!

 

 I had a little trouble taking photos in the dark - but you get the idea here. It was like the old days of going to the drive in. The kids ran around and played and the parents sat and watched the movie. We also had the fire pit burning and people were getting up and down making s'mores for themselves. We had popcorn in fun red & white striped popcorn boxes and sodas and everything you can imagine. It really was a fun evening!

 

 After a couple of movies and lots of goofing around we did the cake. Just like when Bryanna was a little girl, she got to pick her birthday cake - it was almost always my angel food waldorf cake. And that's what she picked again this year! It is a yummy angel food cake that is filled and frosted with a yummy fresh whipping cream and chocolate filling and it has toasted almond slivers inside an out. YUM!I still can't believe my baby girl is so grown up - I still remember when. . . .

 

 So it's that time of year again - time for my beloved callas to start peeking their heads up out of the soil. They did it - and I get sooooo excited each year when this happens! I have 24 that came up this year. Now I just can't wait for January/February for them to start blooming!

 

 Along with all of the other busy things that are on my to-do list I have been making lots of art. Sadly I have not taken pictures of most of it - but I will eventually and I will share it with you. But I did get some pictures of this SWEET project! This will be next month's MM Friday with Marta class. It is called "Santa's Magic Key" I will only be making 8 kits for this class and I am excited to say that I filled each spot in this class yesterday! But I thought you all might still enjoy taking a peek at it.

It is made on a canvas board and sits in this fun, rustic easel. The key can be taken on and off of the knob so you can put only the key outside on Christmas Eve.

This is a cool key, it hangs from a bronze chain with some really old looking jingle bells and a charm that says Santa on it.

 This is the easel without the canvas - isn't it so cool! It almost looks like it was made in Santa's workshop.

 And there is just something wrong with you if you don't just adore this little girl and her bare fanny hanging up her stockings! In case you are not familiar with the Santa's Magic Key  poem here it is for you. . .

Our stockings hang upon a wall.We have no fireplace at all!

We heard a legend. Is it true? Of magic only Santa can do.

 We'll leave out any plain old key, and mark it "Santa" so he can see.

His magic makes the key fit right, so he can get inside tonight. 
       
Thank you Santa, here's our key. The milk and cookies are on me!

 

So here is another thing I have been rushing around to get done, a little Fall decorating. I have not done this for the past 2 years. Having the girls here full time the decorations seemed to end up everywhere. But this year I decided it was time to get them out. And besides that I made all of those fun fabric pumpkins this year - I needed to display them!

 So, here's 5 of them in the family room over the TV

 Mom bought us this pretty cornucopia (or horn of plenty as she calls it) the 1st Thanksgiving we spent in our new home together. She got it at Cracker Barrel of all places. They sells the neatest things in the gift shop there! The big one is a cookie jar (no cookies in it right now) and the little ones are salt & pepper shakers.

 This is some of my glass & ceramic pumpkins I have collected on our dining room table.

 Can you see him there, peeking out the window? This is our little scarecrow that greets you when you come to our front door.

 My bowl of (fake) pumpkins, leaves & gourdes as you walk in the front door

And lastly, my 2 little scarecrows and more fabric pumpkins sitting on the couch in the music room/living room. We have a full sized harp, several guitars and a piano in this room. Gary wants a set of drums but I had to put my foot down on that!

So that's my little house tour. It's nothing grand but it makes me happy to see the little things sitting around.

Well, the day is slipping by and have many things left on my list to get done before we head out to the annual Fall Festival here. The whole crazy family will be getting together again for this. I hope you all have the BEST weekend ever and get out and enjoy this lovely weather!

Till we meet again. . .