Summertime

..and the living is easy.

Fields are floodin'

And the water is high.

Well, you can't tell that here.
The screen was in the way.
And from the looks of this photo
the screen needs to be cleaned.

...moving on...

Today is glorious, though.
No tornado sirens.
No flooding rains.
Just sunshine
and
90 DEGREE HEAT!
Gotta love Chicago.
And when it's 90 degrees
and everyone is complaining,
I'll be remembering
hip deep snow in February!

I made these little guys in the last felting class.
they turned out pretty cute.
I don't think bugs were my favorite thing.

But it was fun.
It's always fun.
I think the reason it's always fun is mostly
because we stop at the local pub first.
Oops.
That's not why it's fun.
It's fun to get together with a large group of women
and stick needles into things.
Sounds like voo-doo
doesn't it?
Voodoo with beer.
Cheers!!

One problem, though.
Their antennas and wings don't want to stay on.
It probably has more to do with the beer
than my felting ability.
But I like to say
 it's my
inexperience.
It sounds much better than saying
"Maybe, I shouldn't have had that last beer."
I'm not much of a drinker.
Two beers can make all the difference in
if my bug's antennas fall off or not.

Speaking of summertime, I made these.
They look like watermelon slices!
Ever wanted to hang watermelons from your ears?

How about ice cream cones?
I love these.
Apparently, being stuck in the house makes
me want to make kitschy things.
Well, it is Memorial Day.
The start of summer.
Go eat some watermelon, ice cream, and
chase it all down with beer
or lemonade.

Don't forget to hang your flag.

And a big THANK YOU to all our service men and women
who made this possible!!!!

Now, ain't that America!?!
(Great video - click here for music.)

Happy Memorial Day!

100,000 Pyramid - With KATHY!

My daughter says that talking to me can be a bit like playing this game show.

Do you remember the $100,000 Pyramid show with Dick Clark?

The game show went like this-

There were categories and you had to guess what the thing was.

The example for this picture might be:

An egg

Your head

A glass window

a bank vault safe

a secret code

An the answer would be:

Something or things that you crack.

So.  I saw this story.

And I thought it was terribly interesting.

BUT -

I couldn't remember what it's called.

So, the conversation goes like this:

It's fuzzy.

It's white but it usually isn't white.

It's a bird.

It kind of looks like a duck.

But it isn't a duck.

It has something to do with shoe polish. (huh?)

It's a baby bird, but there's something unusual about it.

The story was on Yahoo!!

And now, I'm frustrated.

Someone told me that as we get older we forget

ummm...

What's the word?

Not to fear.

This is normal.

The things we forget, the word is,

now I had it on the tip of my tongue.

...

...

...

Things that are things.

Things that are not verbs.

Things that are...

Oh forget it....

But I'm not worried.

And you should read that story.

It's cute!

Whatever the heck it's called.

Rolling In The Deep

Well,

rolling in the deep flowers that is. 

 This video has nothing to do with the post except that I really like it.  

I love the song but I also love the way this video looks. 

 It's great to sing full blast driving down the street.  

It helps if you can sing.  I, my friends, can not sing. 

 I sound like a walrus that is being brutalized.  It's not pretty.

The last two weeks have been strange.

I like to say "Mercury is in retrograde."

I have no idea what that means

or if it even is

but it seems to make sense to me.

So today I decided not worry if Mercury was still in retrograde

and make it a good day.

I did this:

I waved my magic wand and...

What?

You don't have a magic wand?

Well, my, my...

And whose fault is that!?

Anyway, I waved my wand

and tidied up the front porch.

The magic wand stays in the flowers

to deter goblins.

HA!

I just made that up.

Could you tell?

I planted the teapot and gussied up the bird's nest.

The Cheshire cat and the weird little girl cup is back, too.

Nice to see them after such a dismal winter.

I filled the bird's nest with stones.

Hopefully, the birds won't try to dismantle it.

I love this old table that everything is on.

I bought it from some folks

 living in the hills in Arkansas.

Really.  

True story.

Their daughter was talking about the party the night before when

everyone was 

all liquored up on moonshine.

(gin bottle charm I made)

True.

Can't make this stuff up.

When I bought it, the guy who made it said,

"This here'n ..it's a dang good table."

At least I think that's what he said.

He was hard to understand.

It's 25 years old

I guess it really IS a good table!

The bleeding hearts are out.

I love them!

Almost as much as my favorite

Lily of the Valley

I wish you could smell them.

You know who can smell them?

My decorative hippo.

Do you have a decorative hippo?

Well...

Do you?

Forget You!

If you follow this blog, you know I love music.

All kinds of music.

Right now,

I'm running around town

in my bright yellow VW Bug

listening to

Cee Lo

sing

Forget You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKbOpnwhS2A

Here it is if you've never heard it.

This is the Grammy version with Gwyneth Paltrow

and the Muppets.

Be forewarned, however.

If you Google this song

you are liable to hear the original version.

Which is not Forget You.

But-

I don't sing that version

running around town in my

bright yellow VW bug.

I AM tempted to sing the

"not suitable for airplay version"

 whilst

filling up the aforementioned vehicle

with over priced

petrol.

So,

suffice it to say that I'm really NOT

running around town too too much.

Instead,

I'm doing this:

Have you ever seen Wicked?

This was inspired by the show stopping song

Defying Gravity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g4ekwTd6Ig

Speaking of defying gravity,

I made this little butterfly necklace.

And this bracelet.

Well, the bracelet doesn't actually defy gravity.

I know this because I kept dropping it

while I was wiring it together.

The black stone is actually a cobalt blue but 

you can't tell because the sky was rather grey 

when I took the photos outside.

And I turned the Voodoo doll into a festive

wear it always (there when you need it)

necklace.

I might think of using it at the gas station...

So I'm off to do laundry and other defying gravity adventures.

All the while

singing Cee Lo

"I guess the change in my pocket wasn't enough..."

Lists

My daughter writes lists. 

 Good ones. 

Do me a favor and swing by her blog. 

http://wineandwhiskeygirl.blogspot.com/2011/05/25-things-i-learned-in-25-years.html

Read what she's learned in 25 years. 

 It's funny.

It's poignant.

and it's all true.

I love that kid.

Strawberries, Crab Legs, and Voodoo

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day.

We did.  This past weekend was a birthday, 

an anniversary, 

and Mother's Day all in one.

 I decided to make a version of 

Strawberry Shortcake.

I made an angel food cake.

I cut up some beautiful strawberries.

I love strawberries in a white bowl.

Despite the fact I have an outdated mauve countertop,

beads, jewelry components, voodoo dolls, 

and a stained tea towel on the kitchen counter

it makes me feel like Martha.

Just for a minute.

Even though, I've heard from a very good source

that Martha does not have

Voodoo dolls on her counter top.

Let the strawberries sit and macerate

Yes.

That's the word.

You can look it up.

Use it in a sentence.

Amaze your friends!

It means, "soften by soaking in liquid."

Actually all they are doing is soaking up sugar.

They weren't quite as sweet as I had hoped.

See!

Macerating strawberries.

And here they are.

Please pay no attention to all of the 

junk sitting on the table.

We had a great dinner. 

I made everything.

Chicken, steaks, crab legs...

Well, almost not 

crab legs.

I lost them.

For about 20 minutes.

For about 20 minutes 3 adults scoured the kitchen 

looking for frozen crab legs.

You wouldn't really think 

that they would be that easy to lose, 

now would you?

I mean...

wait for it...

They can't just 

WALK AWAY!~!!

Ever notice when you lose something.  I mean, really LOSE something the conversation becomes surreal?

While looking for said crablegs 

we said things like:

Did you check the garbage?  Maybe you threw them away.

Did you look in the basement?  

How about the garage?  Do you think you put them in the garage?

Amanda.  Would you check the pantry?

Do you think you put them in with your beads?

Hey!  Did anyone check the computer room??

How about the bathroom?  Oh, you already looked there?  Good.

We found them

3 adults checked the refrigerator approximately

427 times.

They were in there.

In the cheese drawer.

...never mind...

And the voodoo dolls?

They didn't help one iota.

Not a bit.

You are wondering about these, aren't you?

Well.  Aren't you?

Hope you had a marvelous Mother's Day!

High Flying Flea

The Kane County Flea Market was yesterday.

I didn't buy a lot of things but I found a couple

of unusual items for jewelry making.

This is a ginormous ball chain necklace.  

The balls on this chain are probably 8-9mm

And what would you put on your 

giant ball necklace?

tap,tap,tap

You know...

I can hear you snickering out there.

Keep the giant ball jokes

to yourselves.

I put this!

I found this darling little tiny

micro-machine aeroplane.

I added a pretty blue bead and a

sparkly clear Czech bead.

This plane is about an inch in size

Now tell me.

Who wouldn't want a 

dandy aeroplane

hanging around their neck?!

I also made this bracelet.

I glued this little bee charm

on top of an old

Bakelite button.

I started wiring copper wire 

added a

few

Czech beads (I love those things)

and 

VIOLA!

A bracelet that will have bees swarming

around you all summer.

hmmmm...

That's not exactly a selling feature is it?