It's a Sign

Random things

that never

made it to

the blog.

This is not a Lake

I left the flooded Ohio River Valley to visit family in West Tennessee, near the flooded Mississippi River Valley.  Sometimes it's hard to comprehend all the destruction in the news from tornados and earthquakes around the world.  On a smaller scale, there is flooding in western Kentucky and Tennessee.  I know, because I drove through a lot of it.  This is not a lake. This is farmland.  Farmers should be planting their crops right now.  But they can't.  Water as far as the eye can see in some places.

I didn't realize how much wind damage Tennessee had. I saw lots and lots of huge trees snapped in half from the wind. Other trees just fell over, roots and all, partly from the wind, partly from soggy gound--or maybe from both.

But, as always, the trip had many up sides. Nothing is better for the soul than lots of laughs with family. We had a lot of fun trying to come up with our Royal Wedding Names (I saw it online somewhere--take your grandmother's first name or grandfather's if you are a male, then your first pet's name hyphenated with the street where you grew up. You know, something like "Dixie Pledge-VanHook". We moved a lot and had lots of pets we couldn't remember, so we had lots of options. None sounded very regal though!)

I would show you a picture of the most excellent catfish dinner from this retaurant out in the country--if I had not scarfed it down so fast, that is.
 

I took dozens of pictures of birds on my mom's deck, but rarely got any good ones in focus before the birds flew away.  At one point there were five of these indigo buntings on the deck at once.  They are the sweetest little birds and such a beautiful blue.

So, after driving in horrible rain all day and getting drenched when I stopped for gas, I'm ready to snuggle up in my jammies and take a snooze! 

P.S. - Those of you familiar with Land Between the Lakes?  Lots of "lakes", not much "land" right now!

Bad Egg

I love free tutorials, and when a group of bloggers had several free tutorials at the end of March and early April, I couldn't wait to try them.  Especially Tracie Huskamp's "Painting A Bird's Egg".  I painted several eggs--on different types of fabrics and in a watercolor sketchbook.  After struggling with the technique (which looked so simple and easy when she did it), I realized I just can't draw an egg.  So I think I'll back up and just sketch eggs for awhile, then go back and try the technique. But she has a great tutorial here.  A list of the other tutorials is here.

Love Letters

I should have said Love OF Letters.  I love letters of all kinds.  And have I mentioned how great it is to have a best friend who shares all the cool stuff she finds.  Gaye seems to think these letters are made of lead.  Who am I to argue.  I'm metallurgically challenged.  These are fairly soft and pliable.  We drilled through one easily, and they polish up well too.  They are about one inch tall.  She finds stuff like this all the time. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Window Screen Tape

Not long ago, I bought a roll of window screen repair tape.  Of course I had no intention of using it on an actual window screen.  I've tried it out on a journal spread and kinda like it.  The roll doesn't look like it has a whole lot on it, but it's enough to play with and may last longer than I expect, especially when I cut it in strips like I have here. 

Fidget Goblinglimmer

That is my new name, Fidget Goblinglimmer.  Or, at least that is my fairy name according to the fairy name generator (click here to find yours).

They describe me this way:

She brings riches and wealth.

She lives in rotting woodlands near poisonous toadstools.

She can only be seen when the sun sets on a day of complete harvest.

She wears red with white spots, likes toadstools and has gentle green wings like a butterfly.

Rotting woodlands and poisonous toadstools?  Ewww.
By "complete harvest", does that mean "when the margarita is made"?
Red with white spots?  If I live in rotting woodlands, make that white with red spots, because I'm sure I'd be covered with poison ivy.

Fidget Goblinglimmer. 
That's just silly.



Talk to the Hand

Sometimes I'm embarrassed that there are so many things within a day's drive that I have never seen.  I can mark this one off the list.

Live Like You Mean It

After I made my evidence baggies shown in that last post, I was organizing all the words I have cut from junk mail and magazines.  I was putting them in the baggies, but some of the words seemed to be jumping out at me.  So those ended up on a journal page.  I don't remember where I got the words "Live like you mean it", but it is a really profound statement when you think about it.

What's the point of saving all these words if you don't use them (she said to herself)....

Forensic Artist

She is a Forensic Artist.  She makes her own evidence bags.  She will embarass all those around her by picking up trash interesting items off the street for future use.  She is always searching.

I thought I was so clever, making up a term like forensic artist. But, of course, that term already exisits. When I looked on the internet, that's what they call the people who are sketch artists or make sculptural recreations.

Nevertheless, while I was busy doing other things, I suddenly wanted to try something. That's usually how I get all my ideas. I'll be engrossed in something else completely and the new idea pops into my head like a firecracker, and I cannot rest until I've tried it.
I hadn't used my stencils and spray paints in a while. For some reason, I felt the need to get out some plastic baggies and spray them with black and white spray paint. They turned out pretty well, although the paint did smear when I lifted the stencils.

I have to go collect more evidence now...

Go For It

One of the things I've challenged myself to do this year is to take more pictures.  Too many times, I have thought (too late) that I wish I had taken a picture of something.  So I'm trying to wish less and Do more.

Which is why, when I was in the office at the phone company this afternoon, I took a picture of this phone.

I did ask permission first. It was right there between the Spiderman phone and the multi-handset system. The clerk told me they sold more of the Fuzzy phone than you'd think. I don't want one, but I do want a picture of one.

And then driving home, I then found myself going from the Fuzzy Phone to traipsing through a muddy field. I pass this old barn a lot. I suspect it is being torn down. Every time I pass it, I want a picture of it. I keep telling myself that the next time I drive by, it may be gone completely and I will have lost my chance.

It stands on a hill. Its glory days are over. There's just something about that skeleton of a roof that I find fascinating.

Its red paint has long ago faded.  The hinges and nails are still bright red.

But, in spite of my muddy shoes and the fear that I was going to get in trouble for trespassing, I won't have any regrets now if it's gone the next time I drive by.

So I was working on my taxes...

I really was.  But in that box of stuff where I throw everything, I found my missing file folder of quotations.  So that's where it went.  You know what they say, when you stop looking for something, that's when you find it.  And since I had played earlier with yet another color chart (thumbs down on the mini painting kit), I went ahead and added a quote to the page where I had cleaned off my brush with the different paints.  This is so much more fun than tax forms.....

Adventures and Oddities

I have been out and about getting into trouble.  That last picture with the monkey tree was taken at a little shop that has so many fun and funky things.  How can you pass up a shop with a sign like this?  You SO have to go in.

They also had this and this:

And that shop was next to the cafe with this:

Where inside we sat at a window with these lights:

And as I ate my fried green tomato BLT, my view included things like the teabag pants.

After Gaye treated me to lunch, we strolled down to this art store:

But even before all that, I was treated with, among other things, a wonderful vintage journal, with some of Gaye's awesome collage on the cover.  The journal was made in 1972 1/2... Never saw one with the 1/2 next to the year!

It's almost worth getting old to have that much fun!!

Where Monkeys Come From

They don't just grow on trees, you know.

Happy April....

But first...

Plan:  Go to the grocery store after work.

What happened in reality: 
I notice the open journal on the work table.  I had started a color chart the day before using a small fold-up watercolor box.  I bought the box years ago, always envisioning myself out on hikes, making nature sketches. [Insert laughter here.]  I made a row of color down the left side and a row across the top, but decided I didn't have enough room across the top, so I abandoned the idea.  But on the way to get ready for the trip to the grocery store, I instead sat down and started filling in the rest of the page with other stuff.  I liked it.

Now I can go to the grocery store.  But first, I'll take this leftover acrylic ink that I had used for lettering, and paint a couple of journal pages in my other journal.  Oops, not quite enough to finish, so I poured out some more acrylic ink.  Now I had some left over again.  I decided to use the rest on some fabric.

As I've done in the past, I put some stick-on letters and numbers on the fabric, then used a lot of water and the ink on the fabric.  I liked it.

But the fabric was really wet, so I tried a new thing (for me).  I took a piece of paper (I think it is Lenox, but might be Stonehenge), and pressed it hard onto the wet, painted fabric.  I could not believe how well it picked up the detail of the thread in the fabric.

To the store now?  No, there was still a little ink left, so I painted another piece of fabric.

Off to the store now?  What store?  I think my brain has spring fever.  And I have a nice little pile of stuff for future projects. 

Fashion (Non)Sense

Be aware.  This could happen to you. 

You might buy a big box of old patterns.  You might put it aside and forget about it for months. 

The Pattern People might get bored.  They will mix and mingle.  They will try on each others clothes.  They will steal words and pages from children's books. 

You never know what they will do.

  [Caution:  Silliness alert!]