Channelling Crafting Genious

When I went to a local thrift store the other day I did not expect to channel someone from another blog.  I felt a little guilty because there was a windfall treasury of lovely Christmas items there that my sweet friend, Diane,from Saturday Finds would go crazy for. She would know exactly what to do with all the wonders that I ended up buying myself for my birthday.  The possibilities are endless, but I have to admit that I would have to search Diane's beautiful blog for inspiration before I decide what to do.

Plastic icecubes? that came in a cute wire basket.

A VERY sixties looking candy dish.

If you haven't been over to Diane's blog, you can see her ingenious work with items like this!

Bruised, Beaten, Broken, and Bitten

I just returned from a weekend at the beautiful Bear Lake in Utah.  The water was so blue, it was so much cooler there, and the food tasted better than it does in a hot summer kitchen.  I sat on the shore and just let the waves lap feet and legs.  Friends brought their cute dogs who had me play fetch with them until I worried that I would work them to death.

I have to sleep almost sitting up in my old age, and I thought I had a stroke of genius when I decided to sleep with my sleeping bag on a chaise lounge.  Very bad idea!  My body feels like I slept on nothing but metal bars. Night two, I slept on the traditional blow-up mattress and just stuffed a rolled up comforter under my head.  Much better!
Some of the couples who I camped with had small children.  I was playing with a little boy and girl of about age three.  The little girl said I looked delicious and pretended to eat me.  The boy must have thought so, too, because he bit my hand so hard that I screamed.  He just wanted to eat me, also, but didn't realize we were pretending.  It's been a long time since I've been so amused while being in such pain.

Broken Computer Blues

Loose Sparrow Arts n Crafts has been off the beaten blog trail for over a month because of a computer bug, then complete blowout,  for over a month.   I doubt if I've been missed and guess I'll go eat worms.  When I was finally able to log back on to my beloved blog, my background had mysteriously disappeared.  I guess I missed The Cutest Blog on the Block's warnings.  Let me tell you-redesigning my blog was a royal pain in the you know where!  Especially hard was getting my blog header picture and title centered.  After hours of effort I found out by googling "Centering titles in Blogger" all the headings will  automatically align the left in the Blogger program.  I finally experimented (I felt like Edison-countless failures before the light went on) and discovered that if the title pic measured 100pixels length and 965 pixels width, the picture would fit.  It  looks distorted through: the 100 pound bathing beauties look like they have taken the winter off and gained about 50 pounds, but the gals are still cute and more relevant to how "real women" look (or at least to how I look and I 'm somewhat relevant, I think).  For the time I'm happy with the new set-up, but would have liked better to keep the old.  Maybe I will keep working on it after I catch up with nearly 3 pages of junk email that I also missed.  Excuse please the irrelevant post picture, but all my Corel saved photos, art, etc., flew off to lost computer program heaven.  Enjoy instead a photo of a little angel baby who I have the pleasure of foster grandmothering.

Reversible Fiesta Fun

Fun, reversible  FIESTA banner with 5 penants.  The faux "papel picado" or little blue, red, orange, and yellow banners on the larger fiesta banner, as well as the meshy backing on banner one are made out of mesh placemats (2 for a dollar at Dollar Tree).  The skulls are from a kid's camp craft set of skulls and crossbones(I cut off the bones).  The colorful sugar skull is a common decoration in Mexico, and a  more edgy than maracas and sombreros.  The word "fiesta" is from the same Dollar Tree napkins I used to make my Modpodged patio decorations in a past post.  Brrrrrrryahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!  Ahem....that was my Mexican happy yell.  Now, let's fiesta....(that's  par-tay in Spanish)!

Glue Gun Attacks Rampant

Ok, nobody said I was smart.  Oh, yeah, there was that one Phi Beta Kappa award that the university gave me, but I'm not talking about "book smart" here.  I dropped a glob of hot glue on my lap and without thinking (again?)and I grabbed the glue from said delicate spot with my thumb and forefinger.  The glue obviously burned my fingers, so I pulled the glue off taking ALL of the skin off of my forefinger of my left hand.   I'm not exaggerating.  Nothing was left but a large red hole! I don't think I will ever have a fingerprint there again.  Later, a quarter-sized blister formed on my thumb.  Both burns hurt like h-e-double toothpicks! 

Everybody makes mistakes, I know, but this was the SECOND time I've done this!  This is my new pledge, and if you use hot glue, I need you to repeat after me.

• 
  
  I solemnly swear to never forget that hot glue guns and the glue they spew are lethal.
• 
  
  I will not grab a hgg by the nozzle or at any time let a part of my body touch hot glue for a full minute after it has been spewn (is that a word?).
• 
  
  I will wear protective gear when I use a hgg. (Iron underwear and welding gloves?...or more realistically, garden gloves and only work on top of a table or lap desk)
• 
  
  I will immediately soak my burn under cool water if I am so stupid as to do this again. (That's what the internet said to do.  I had to soak for 2 hours, and it was still burning by the time I let my husband bandage me up).

Please, fellow crafters, be on the lookout for hhgs.  These vicious offenders think nothing of assaulting careless, stupid, and/or unprotected crafters.

Journals: Just add text!

I am back to blogging after a week of trying to recover from shots in my spine that are supposed to help.  That seems to be the key-- "supposed to".  They sometimes take a little while to kick in, so we will see if going through the torture they call modern medicine was worth it.  In the meantime, I have been working on my latest obsession: art journals.  I posted about doing one for a little boy not too long ago, and now I have been doing them for adults too. 

Whatever theme strikes one's fancy, I can do.  I love to find old books and cut out their illustrations, copies of pictures, or photos and add a place for heartfelt thoughts and other ephemera.  The above is a combination of a wedding magazine and a book about Native Americans.  Lately, I've been feeling a bit like her, and have been carrying about my best tomahawk.  Mr. Loosesparrow ought to keep out of my way!

Books about the artist, Mucha, are fun to work with because he does so much for the female form. Note that he can make even a poochie tummy look sexy!  I bought some natural fiber wallpaper to use as the background, along with some plastic-backed burlap to use as contrast.

I couldn't leave out doing one in honor of my heroine, Frida Kahlo.  She makes me want to let my eyebrows and Italian mustache go wild.  You know, in real life, her face wasn't quite so hairy.  I think she had a lot of issues about her looks and about being crippled. She was probably making fun of herself before anyone else could do it!

You will find my journals on my Etsy site as I pump them out.  I have a charm school book from the fifties that I plan to cut up next.  Heaven knows it's useless in this day and age.

Rest in Pieces

(Outside the Frostop)

My poor husband had had it at work (and at home) and decided we should take a long weekend road trip.  We once passed through a town named Ashton in Idaho and had stayed in a cute cabin and so we decided to head that way.  The town on first glimpse looks a little boring, but had hidden treasures. One was the Frostop Drive In that was really the most adorable and delicious diner.

We followed the river road there and saw tons of beautiful wildlife: bald eagles, bluebirds, yellow and orange tanager birds, deer, etc.  It was so lovely, we went two days in a row.  The third day we went into Montana to search for antique stores (great ones in Driggs) and to Virginia City.  What a great old West ghost town turned into a boutique and museum heaven!  In the window of one museum were the items found behind an old wall.  Note the mouse mummy!

We ate at a yummy cafe/antique store where the owner told us about the local hauntings.  She said a lady with "the vision" from NY told her that the strange sound of a bell that they were always hearing was from the ghost of a little girl who rides her little bicycle back and forth inside of her store.  GULP!  Above the town are two Boot Hill Cemetaries.  The first one contains the bodies of 5 outlaws road agents who were hung inside one of the buildings inside the city.  I found miniature cemetary off to the side reserved for mouse outlaw  rodent agents!  Someone shares my cracked sense of humor.

We had a great time, my husband is no longer knocking the hats off passerbys (read Moby Dick for reference) and I would highly recommend traveling into Idaho and Montana for a great time!