Can you feel it.....

cool brisk winds are whipping up... dark sullen skies over head... pirate season is a'coming!.... and I'm stoked. A few weeks ago while hitting some garage sales I bought this beauticians make-up head for a quarter. What a deal huh? At first glance I immediately thought of making it into part of a ring toss game for this years upcoming pirate party. The face had some permanent pen marks on it, but they were in the general area where I would be adding more color so that wasn't a problem. Here is the "before"... Here is the "after".... I pulled out a pirate costume from my large stash of outfits and stitched it to fit the form. I used the black part of the dress to make a skull cap with. I added a scruffy beard with a stencil brush and different color inks...I also dirtied up his face a little by dragging the ink pads directly onto the face and rubbing it in a little bit. The eyes, eyebrows and lips I used regular markers. I need to find a large hoop earring and an eye patch to finish it up. But in the mean time....my grandkids are enjoying playing with it!

Happy New Year!

A heart felt "Happy New Year" to all my bloggin' buddies!
It is my prayer that we all have a year of good health....
And plenty of hours in the day to get all the fun things we want to get done... done.
See you next year...
I always love saying that each year... so fifth grade, I know. *wink*

Wicker Barbie furniture

I purchased some wicker Barbie doll furniture recently.... I'm sure you've seen these before. I plan on putting these in the Barbie house I'm working on. They looked a little to bulky to me...... so I made them over a little bit. I cut off the bulky loops that hung down on the side table, along with some of the decorative supports that were attached to each leg..... giving each piece a sleeker look. Here you can see the table which I've striped down.Once I had the pieces looking how I wanted them, I had to replace the missing "wicker." I wrapped raffia around the legs, attaching it with a tiny bit of hot glue to adhere each starting and ending piece. Here you can see where I've begun painting the wicker chairs with some regular house paint. You really need to give it a thick coat of paint to give the finished pieces a nicer real wicker look. Plus the paint acts as a glue to hold the pieces together.You can see the difference between spray paint and house/wall paint in this photo below. The spray paint just didn't cut it.... I used cardboard to fill in the pieces on the backs of each chair.I then added some pink felt and some fluffy white pipe cleaners as the trim. At a later date this chair will get a pillow and a lap blanket tossed over the back of the chair....probably even a foot stool!I also made some gold framed pictures to hang on the wall. I used some beautiful art work from ads in a magazine which I glued to some heavy chip board. I then pulled from my huge stash of dresden trim to use as the gold frames. Caute! Next I want to make some twin beds using these light switch plates..... can you visualize it?I was lucky to find a fridge, a stove and a bird cage at a thrift store, all this was a couple of bucks.... Barbie just informed me she wants all stainless steel appliances in her kitchen... hmmmm I think I might be able to pull that off! *fingers crossed*

Whiplash....

So yesterday I sitting at a red light watching the cars come off of the free way thinking to myself " Wouldn't it be awful to be in an accident at Christmas time?" When BAM, I was hit from behind...... I couldn't believe it! Even though I was wearing my seat belt (lap belt... its an old car)--- I was twisted in my seat to the point my left leg was practically under the dash board and my right leg was practically in the drivers seat. My foot was forced off the gas pedal and I had to quickly readjust myself in the seat to quickly hit the break as I was traveling into traffic..... I turned off my car and got out and just gasped at the women like "LOOK WHAT YOU DID!" There she was holding onto the steering wheel AND her cell phone. She told me, "I didn't even see you."...... You just know she was TEXTING........ snot nosed little kid.....
Anywho, I'm fine other than extremely sore down my back and my head feels like its going to wobble off my sore neck and who knows why my left knee is hurting me..... but other than that I'm fabulous. Praise God :-)
My beloved '66 Mustang is sitting in some cold, cramped, dingy, tow yard lot.... *sniffle-sniffle*..... its backside all pushed out of shape. She hit me so hard that I wouldn't be a bit surprised if she knocked the car off its chassis...... My husband drove me to my doctor and she saw me immediately and told me I was going to "live" ... whew, it was touch and go until she told me that :-P What they fall to tell you about whiplash is that it effects everything your wanting to do. Try getting out of bed or the bathtub--- and you'll soon find out you use your neck muscles for everything.Snot nosed kid....

Christmas shopping

I bought myself a present for Christmas. Okokok... I always buy myself presents year round--- but lets just call this one a Christmas present for sayin' sake. Here is my loot.... 160 spooooooooooooons! I know right! Happy-happy-joy-joy... I love me some spoooooooooooooons.For those of you less than impressed... I also got a new Olympus 3d camera :-)Now, I just have to read the instruction manual.... always something :-P

Tarnished Crown

I bought this fabulous gold crown a few weeks ago at a yard sale for only $1. It had been broken and reglued rather crudely back together. The gal I purchased it from told me she originally bought it for $70 dollars.... *insert smile here* There was a few small chunks missing on the crown and a lot of glue which had dried in blobs.... Obviously not fixed by a crafty person ;-P I easily filled in the missing areas using paper clay. I used a sharp blade to cut off the glue blobs... In this photo below you can see some of the dried paper clay.I decided to spray paint the crown silver and then tarnish it. My etsy store is "The Tarnished Crown" After the silver spray paint dried, I used a watered wash of black paint to tarnish the crown.I adore it.... right now I have the crown in my throne room--- a.k.a. the bathroom :-)

Christmas cards

I finished making my handmade photo cards that I mail out each year along with my Christmas cards. Whew. I always tell myself I'll start working on them sooner each year--- only to end up making them later and later each year. Funny how that works out~ Here they are in there "exploded" view.....Here they are all folded up nicely awaiting to be given out.I think they turned out super cute--- ok, I'm partial because it features my grandkids--- but they are super cute.... just sayin'