The Mad Tea Party 2010

Thank you to Vanessa at A Fanciful Twist for hosting this tea party.
This was a delight to put together.  Have fun!

It was time to start setting up for Mad Tea Party.  I fixed a cup of tea to create the right mood.

It tasted fine...  But when I set it down and turned away - this started happening:

Then the cup and saucer took on a strange, otherworldly glow:

I assumed it was the bright sunlight streaming through the windows and took my cup outside to sip
while "planting" Wonderland characters amongst my flowers.

First I'll  need the teapot and books:

Then I'll  need the cast of characters from Wonderland.
The Mad Hatter and Cheshire cat were standing by...

Alice and Pink Flamingo.  Check..

Look!  Here comes the white rabbit.  Right on time.

As I turned around
 I noticed things starting to sparkle and shimmer.  ?!?
I thought to myself, "I really need to get a new pair of glasses!"
Either that or the 70's were REALLY good to me!

The white rabbit DISAPPEARED!  Right before my eyes.

Wowser.  Whatdya suppose the Celestial Seasoning folks

are putting in their tea now-a-days??

A quick look at Monsieur Bunny, and 

I was pretty sure that later this evening

I was going have some 'splaining to do!

What was happening? Was I going mad? (hee, hee, hee)

The ground became unsteady.

I had not had any beer in a Blue Moon.

NO!  That's not what I meant.  What is happening???

The mushroom started to grow, and Alice seemed to be staring at something lurking
just beyond my sight...
(Actually, since I need new glasses pretty much EVERYTHING is just beyond my sight.)

The earth began to move and this time it had nothing 

to do with Carole King!

Holy cards and rabbits, Batman!

Artwork I made a few days ago seemed to dangle before my eyes.

This Alice box made with digital art.

My late night Mad Hatter creation.

My steampunk White Rabbit.
I designed him digitally first.
Later, I created him with paper, glue, bits and bobs.
Was it the glue??  Was it too strong??
Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.
(If you don't know that line than you've
 never seen the movie Airplane)

Again, with the tea.
This time...
What the heck??????????!!!!!
The Cheshire cat was grinning up at me from the teacup.
How strangely, curious it all was.

Quickly, I ran inside the house.  I wanted to escape this madness.
From the kitchen I heard sounds reminiscent of Wild Cherry singing,
"Yeah, they were dancin' and singin' and movin' to the groovin' "

The bird was singing to the Cheshire Cat

The Cheshire cat seemed to have his eyes on French macarons!

Someone had gone crazy with the teacups!

Unbelievable cupcakes!

Even the lonely cupcake I had made was jammin' to the tunes!

"And just when, it hit me, somebody turned and shouted!"

"PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC!"

"PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC RI-IGHT!"

"Play that funky music white boy..."

"Yeah, they was dancin' and singin"

"And groovin' to the movin' "

And just when - it hit me...
...
...
...

I woke up in Purgatory.


Stop.  Wait.  Rewind.

That was the TV show Lost.

Nope, I'm still dancing and singing
 and grooving to the moooovin'.........

Have a great time visiting all of the other parties!!

Click here to hear the music and see the slide show.

Leave me a comment to be entered into a drawing for this pendant.
Become a follower and I'll enter you twice!

I'm Mad, You're Mad, We're ALL Mad Here

Robin Williams said, "You're only given a little spark of madness.  You mustn't lose it."

So, in keeping with that idea, I made this tonight.

No idea what this is?

Well, I took the photo at night.  After a storm.  When it was dark.

It's a lousy picture.

The color is off.

Waaaaaaaaaaaay  off....

hee-hee-hee

How about NOW!

Aaaaaauuuuuuuugggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

It's truly hideous!!!!

A violation of everything that is right and good and holy!

Just kidding.  

It's a Mad Hatter hat you sillies.

I made it out of an old can of lemon flavored iced tea mix.

I don't drink lemon flavored ice tea mix.

I'm not sure when I even bought it.

I'm not even sure why I bought it.

Some people wonder about things like

peace in the Middle East.

I wonder about how stuff like this ends up in my pantry.

Frankly, I don't think I'm always hittin' on all six.

But I like the way this turned out.

Mad Tea Party Giveaway

It will be here before you know it.  Next Saturday, the 26th of June.  All day.  Probably, longer.

I have a give away.

This Alice pendant.

The flip-side is the Mad Hatter.

Strung on hand dyed sari linen ribbon.

I've attached a tiny key and a ceramic bead.

Don't forget!

It's curtains. CURTAINS, I tell you!!

Shakespeare said, "As goes Iowa so goes northern Illinois."  

He didn't say that?  Are you sure?

Well - he should have.  Iowa had nasty storms.  So did we.

Susan calls and says, "Look out your window.  You have a tree down."

I look out my window and see this tree.  Business as usual.

"No!  Step out your back door and look around the blue spruce."

Uh-oh.  

Actually, it looked much worse.  It was laying in Susan's yard over our busted fence. 

Susan helped me drag it back into our yard.  Susan is like that.  

Susan is also about 1/100th the size of this tree.

So my first thought is, "Geez.  Someone's going to have to cut this baby into pieces.'

My second thought was, "Hey!  I can make something with this!"

Like this!  

I have this hanging over the dining room window.  Instead of curtains.

I originally had Christmas things hanging off of it, but I liked it so well

I decided to keep it up year round.

It has all kinds of birds, old postcards, ribbons, etc. etc. etc. hanging from it.

Maybe, I'll chop up that tree and hang it over another window in my house.

Last night in between storms my daughter came over after work.

She works with the public.

Sometimes, the public drives her nuts.

She called me and said,
 "Can I come over? I want to talk with someone normal for a change."

I didn't have the heart to tell her.

Well, would you?

Summer In A Bowl

I found this when I went to the June flea market.

We were getting ready to leave on Sunday.

It was late.

Everyone was closing up.

My friend spotted this.

It was completely out of my budget.

The man selling it was packing up his van.

He let me have it - well, for a song..

The cover art is extraordinary.

There's a few interesting pieces inside, but I bought
it strictly for the cover.

When I was

at

Susan's making

organza flowers

I brought it with me

to  show her.

I  accidentally left it at her house.

She returned it to me later that evening.

With...

cherries that her son had picked

off of a tree where he works.  I added them to the cherries I already had setting out on the counter.

Simplicity.

Summer in a bowl.

Or

summer laying around

on a

wrinkled vintage tea towel.

That doesn't have

the same "ring"

to it, does it?

Ain't It Good To Know That You've Got A Friend

I had the opportunity to see these two

in their Troubadour tour a few weeks

back.

They sang all my favorites!  

It was broadcast on PBS a week ago.

I "taped" it on our DVR and watched it this weekend.

I felt the earth move!

Awesome.

Sunday I did NOT feel the earth move.

Actually, the earth had moved all over my kitchen floor.  

We've had a lot of rain.

I proceeded to clean the floor..

While scrubbing in the pantry 

I spotted my beads.

I haven't played with these 

in 

a 

while.

Soooo....

Next thing I know I'm smack dab in the middle of the floor, doing this:

It surely must be a form of OCD, or Dyslexia, or some form of -

OK.
Fine.
It's pure laziness on my part, but honestly I am so easily distracted!
Besides, the floor -
it's not going anywhere now is it?

Then while folding up a bit of organza my daughter had given me, I got the idea to try to make these:

I called my neighbor Susan to see if she'd be interested in a craft afternoon.  She has an addictive personality when it comes to crafts.  I can sway her to stop anything she might be doing if I offer to share a new craft with her.   I'm glad that I have much, MUCH better self control than she does (she says looking at the kitchen floor.)  I also stole the picture she took.  Her hands are the lovely manicured hands.  My hands are the chubby "earth" hands.

Next thing I know,

we're doing this.

I realize that it looks like

some sort 

of

ritual 

goat sacrifice.

Let me assure you, that no goats were harmed.  In fact, there isn't a goat within at least 1.25  miles of here.
Well, we are out in a rural area.  There ARE goats.  Just not sacrificial goats.
I've strayed off of the blog post again, haven't I?

We made these!!

Lots, and lots of these.

Then,

we looked at 

each other

and 

said,

"What do we DO with 'em?"

Not knowing WHAT to do with them, we did what any self-respecting
crafts person would do.

We made more.

"You've

got

a

friend."

And she probably has

a

boatload

of organza flowers!